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The Hunting Stories Podcast
Elk. Bear. Hog. Turkey. Deer and More. Hunting Stories that will make you laugh or maybe cry; real life chronicles from the field.
The Hunting Stories Podcast
Ep 147 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Jake Zander
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Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories podcast. I'm your host, michael, and once again, we have a wonderful episode for you today. Today, we are connecting with another listener, actually Jacob Zander. Jacob is out of Montana, has a ton of amazing stories and is a listener of the podcast, so he's another one of those brave souls that went on to. I don't know if it was Instagram or the website or where he found it specifically, but I have a little form you can fill out. If you have some stories you want to share, please go there. Fill out the form. We will be in touch to hear some of your great stories.
Speaker 1:But that being said, guys, I want to thank Jake, of course, for coming on the podcast. I really couldn't have done it without him, and it is a really fun episode. So, jake, thank you. Beyond that, guys, whatever you're listening to, please give us a review, a follow, help us be found by more people by helping out. You know those crazy algorithms everyone talks about, but that's it, guys. Let's, let's kick this thing off. Let's let jake tell you some of his stories. Thank you all. Right, jake? Welcome to the hunting stories podcast, brother. How are you All right, jake? Welcome to the Hunting Stories Podcast. Brother, how are you?
Speaker 1:I'm doing good man, how are you doing? I am doing well, man. I'm happy to have you here. Once again, we have a listener. I think I've got a little bit of a streak here of listeners reaching out to come on the podcast man. So thank you so much for being brave filling out. I don't know if you filled out my form, if you just messaged me on instagram, because I can't recall these things, but thank you for for for reaching out, man.
Speaker 2:I really do appreciate it. Well, thanks for having me, man. No, you got something special going on here, so I'm glad to be part of it I appreciate that, man.
Speaker 1:It's. It's a lot of fun, um. I get to meet a lot of cool people like yourself. Well, let's do this, though why don't we have you introduce yourself, um, in our little pre-chat? I didn't ask anything about you, so I apologize for that. So fill me in, man, who? Who am I hearing some stories from today?
Speaker 2:not a problem man. So, uh, my name is jake zander. Uh, I'm from southwest montana, uh, I work as a damn tender and an irrigation ditch rider.
Speaker 2:Um, I've been hunting pretty much all my life ever since I was a little kid, my old man was, uh, taking us out on hunts. Um, you know, showing us the ropes, really telling us, you know, hey, hunting is about meat, and uh, that that was pretty much what we got from him. And then uh ended up going hunting with him quite a bit and uh, just really learning all the lessons that these old timers uh can teach us, so that's awesome man I didn't have any old timers to teach me, so I'm jealous um.
Speaker 1:It's something I wish I have. It's something that I'm working on building up for the next generation. But we'll get you know what you get, the cards you dealt um so you live in montana your whole life, are you uh?
Speaker 2:so um. So I was born down in Missouri, okay.
Speaker 1:Misery, yeah, yeah, misery.
Speaker 2:But we ended up moving up here when I was about two and lived in Montana for quite a few years, moved back down to Missouri, got into hunting quite a bit in Missouri. Actually, that's where I took my first year at was in southern Missouri. And then we moved back up here and I got dedicated into elk hunting and that really just soaked both feet into Western Big Game and really, just really set myself for what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just mountain chasing for animals is just, I mean, you can't beat it, I mean they're obviously you know people from the midwest are gonna disagree with me, but um dude every, every kind of hunting is amazing in its own right um it's.
Speaker 1:You know, they're all difficult in their own right. I got a buddy who's from north carolina and then my buddy that's here in colorado, and they always argue about which one's harder and I I'm like, yeah, it's hard to hike up a mountain it is, but it's also hard as shit to sit in a blind or a tree stand for eight hours.
Speaker 2:I don't know how you do that. No, my patience does not wear as well as some of these Midwestern folks, so they have better patience for sure. Yeah, and it's a skill, it's a talent, it is a tower, for sure.
Speaker 1:And I'll tell you what I know personally that when I'm sitting there doing nothing and then something comes in on me, that's when I get the jitters, that's when I'm like, oh, I can't stop my bow from shaking. This is going to be awful. But when I'm hiking, and I roll up on something. I'm cool as ice, so I don't know what the difference is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:Credit to all those people you know on the east that hunt the whitetail like that, because yeah, for sure, those guys.
Speaker 2:Scary idea for me. They got such a special you know, they got a special way of doing stuff down there. So I really for sure man, everybody's got their own knack and you know they're yeah, they got us all gonna try it, all, that's what's? That's what's important? Um for sure, let's kick this thing off, man what stories you got for us today uh, so I got a couple that I kind of pointed out.
Speaker 2:Uh, all of them been prior years, not this. Last year, um, actually this spring I just uh, on easter I ended up uh taking a nice black bear, um, but uh, it wasn't really too much of a story, so we're gonna leave it at that, but uh, I've actually never been bear hunting.
Speaker 1:I've had a bear tag, but like it's always been supplemental to my it's, it's, uh, it's on my list. I'm going to get I think next, next season, I might try. Or maybe it's two years out, but I'm going to. I'm going to make it happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a nice like fill in time in the springtime.
Speaker 2:you know you got shed hunting and then that's pretty much a giant blank until hunting season, so having some spring bear is kind of nice to have, so, um. So I guess we'll start off with uh, I was graduating high school, uh, 2017. So, um, I was 26 now. Uh, I had a buddy of mine that I graduated with. He's been my hunting partner, best man for his wedding, and he's hunting partner best man for his wedding, and he's going to be best man for my wedding coming up shortly.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so he ended up drawing a cow tag for an area that is pretty pretty. Yeah, that word. Just there's a lot of cow elk in that area.
Speaker 1:Plenty, we'll say there's plenty of them, plenty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that word. So we ended up getting a plan together and being like, hey, man, I know you've been working all summer doing firefighting and whatever. Just let's get out and hang out. And so I was like, yeah, man, I'd be, I'd love to hang out with you. And he's like, well, I drew this tag and, um, you know, I don't have really anybody else to help me. You know, help me out. You know I don't want to pack a cow elk out myself, I will do it, but that guy, he, he would in a heartbeat. He's a, he's a stone cone kill, stone cold killer for sure. So, yeah, um. So we piled up in the truck and, uh, it was a 12-hour drive and, man, you know it's fun the first hour, you know how that gets. You know, first hour you're like woohoo and then you know as you start getting along.
Speaker 2:You're like man, this drive, this road sucks. So we uh, we end up getting to the, to our camp spot on kind of like a, a flat um above the river that we were hunting at. And the area we're hunting at is, uh, I don't know if you've ever been near the badlands or anything like that, but it's, it's. It's like, uh, just crumbly and and steep and straight up and down, but really rolly all the way down and the elevation holds pretty well down to the river. So we found a flat parking, got camp set up and I had a deer tag um, and I was letting them know. You know, like, hey, I'd like to film my tag while I'm here and not just. You know, help them pack out me. I would help them do that. But like, yeah, I.
Speaker 1:Want to.
Speaker 2:I want to make it worth a while yeah, like I want to make it worth our while yeah, so If you got a shot, you got to take it right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So we get camp set up and we hike to this kind of like knob about half a mile away and we're glassing and looking for elk and, like man, I ain't seeing nothing. And it's like, well, what about over there? And I turned my head to the left and I noticed a group of mule deer, uh, two does and a buck and just a younger buck, but they're in rut. So I was wondering if maybe there was a bigger buck, um, tailing them, but ended up only seeing those three. He's like, oh, those, I mean that that's, there's deer right there. You know, like what do you think about shooting that? He's like, well, that's one of the better bucks I've seen.
Speaker 2:And, um, I'm sitting there and I'm like man, this guy's kind of like a spindly guy. You know he's a young buck. I like, are you sure this is the best buck you've seen? Uh, yeah, man, I, you know I don't really see bucks like that around here. So I'm sitting there, I'm like him and han, and I'm like you know what man like I came here, you know I'm I'm really about the meat aspect of it but, like you know, like, try and taking the, the mature deer, but I'll take what I can get. Yeah, so we're kind of him and han, and they kind of catch a look at us and drop down a cooley and I'm like, ah, man, I'll just I'll do it. You know what tail with it, I'm gonna go shoot it.
Speaker 2:And he kind of he comes up and about 175 ish yards away he's just stops and is looking at us and he stops right where a dead branch is kind of blocking his vitals and like, man, I ain't got a shot. You know, like I could scoot to the left or right but he'd bust, like you could tell he's about ready to take off. And if I rocked to the tip of my toes I could just barely see his vitals. So I'm sitting there and I'm like, oh man, you're not gonna like this one, but you know what, we'll try it. And so I rocked to the tip of my toes, kind of sit on my heels. I got his, his vitals in my head. I'm like, all right, let's give her a shot, roll up to the tip of my toes and pull the trigger. And man, I got knocked on my butt so fast. I mean just just boom right on my ass. And I'm like, oh, like looking over, trying to see what happened and my buddy's like dude, what were you shooting?
Speaker 2:I gotta start with that uh, I was shooting a six, five creed more, but like I was so off balance with that, standing on the toes like not, probably not on flat, stable ground. No, it was it was like kind of on a hillside, so like I was on my toes on a rock and just just barely could get the vitals. So I pull the trigger, boom my ass, oh perfect and uh.
Speaker 2:So I'm sitting there on my ass and I like look around this log and there's that deer just laying down. Like no way, I just like knocked this deer down there you go.
Speaker 1:You did the important part right yeah, so my buddy's sitting there.
Speaker 2:He's like, dude, you got him. I'm like no way. So we get up and we walk down to him and this buck is still alive and I'm like oh no, I spined him and so I, we left everything at camp. When I mean like I just grabbed my, my rifle and like the clip that was it or orange, and that was it.
Speaker 2:So we're sitting there and I'm like, what the hell do I do with this deer? He's still alive. You know, I could shoot it again. He's like, yeah, that'd probably be the best bet. So we put another round in him and, uh, get him quartered out and and he was just like that deer was at an, a perfect bench to where we could drive his truck from camp across, like some off-roading a little bit, load it in the back of the truck and take it back to camp.
Speaker 2:And so yeah, this is super easy. So he did that and uh like boom, first part of the trip success ready to rock and roll. So wake up about four o'clock and we're getting ready to go get his elk. You know deer's hung up. We're not really worried about bear yet because they hadn't made their way across the plains.
Speaker 2:Quite yet this is a couple years ago back before they've started seeing grizzlies kind of move their way across the front. So we just kind of hung it up high enough to keep the coyotes out, and that was pretty much it. So we start the day off hiking, and I mean just hiking and hiking and hiking and up and down coolies in and out of you know, ridges working our way down to the river, because we know that the elk kind of are moving their way to the river and we hit about midday.
Speaker 2:I'm like man, I'm hungry, I'm taking lunch, I don't care what you're doing, he like walks a little bit further, he's like man, are you sure? I'm like, yeah, no, I'm, I'm hungry man. So, yeah, I sit down, I start cracking open lunch, and he started. He comes back and starts cracking open lunch and we're we're eating, and I happen to just see that way.
Speaker 1:It sounds like you're just having beers for lunch. Well, there was a couple of cold lunches, you know. Yeah, yeah, that was that's later snacks, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some some uh Colorado cold snacks. Um so we're sitting there and we're just like, uh eaten. And all of a sudden I look over and I thought I spotted something move, kind of like a dark brown, and I'm like man, that looked kind of like what we're looking for, yeah, so I whipped my head over and, sure enough, there's a herd of about 250 ish elk oh, wow way off in the distance, like probably four miles away.
Speaker 2:okay, so I'm looking at my buddy and I'm like this is obviously kind of the earlier stages of my hunting career and I'm like, oh man, get down. So like I'm thinking these elk can see us, right, this is obviously kind of the earlier stages of my hunting career and I'm like, oh man, get down. So I'm thinking these Alcacias, right. So we're on our stomachs and we back up all the way over to the ridge and they're so far away from us, man, like I don't know what I was thinking.
Speaker 1:I was just like man hit the ground, so we're safe and sorry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. So we're sitting there and we're we're watching them and they start making their way down off of the, the knob that they're on, and they're heading towards the river and we're like, oh man, like there's tons of good cow, elk and and bulls in that group, but we can't shoot bulls, obviously we've got a cat tag. So I'm like let's, let's, let's hustle up and let's get to the next couple of ridges and try and beat them before they get down to the river. And this is like. This is like five, six miles in from camp.
Speaker 1:And it's, it's pretty.
Speaker 2:It's pretty easy, uh, going down the elevation kind of fall in the ridges, but like you don't realize how far away you are until you start looking at Onyx, yeah away, you are until you start looking at onyx. Yeah and uh. So we're just chasing these elk, just practically mirroring them on the opposite hillside, staying out of sight, keeping wind pretty good, and we get almost all the way down to the river. And it's about four o'clock, five o'clock in november and so we're.
Speaker 2:It's getting dark pretty quick and yeah, so we're sitting there we're kind of eyeballing him and he's like man, I think, I think I got him and I'm like all right, man, just just take a shot. You know, make a good shot. And he ended up posting up on this hill and he was in the worst shooting position ever man.
Speaker 1:Just like was he on his tippy toes oh, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:This is like like curled over like a medicine ball at the gym type shooting. Yeah, he's like full on, like over this ridge, and I'm like, man, are you, you feeling good? You know you're shooting. Good. He's like yeah, man, I got this. I'm like all right, perfect.
Speaker 2:And so the elk kind of like hit the last set of mountains before you hit the valley flats in the river and they start cutting back up and I'm like, all right, man, you know that there's a couple cows and I'm just kind of sitting there waiting. I'm sitting there waiting and waiting like man, is this guy ever gonna shoot, you know? So I'm filling with my thumbs, I'm kind of kicking some dirt around. You know, just bide in time and just boom like whoa, all right, just drops a nice size cow, elk and, uh, the rest of the herd scatter head straight down to the river. I'm looking at them and there's a couple nice bulls in there. I can't shoot them, obviously, but like it's nice to see the wildlife, you know so absolutely, yeah, I'm watching these.
Speaker 1:Heard that big. It's so cool to see that many elk at one time yeah, especially all of them running the same way.
Speaker 2:You know, they just all pour over the mountainside. So I'm looking at them and I'm like man, that's a cool looking. You know, those are some cool looking elk, you know. All of a sudden I look back over, I'm like where did it? Oh, there's this cow, and it's just right ledge of one of the coolies that drops like 25 feet into this like v. So we're sitting there and all the elk move off and we get over to where this cow is made a perfect shot. I mean, that guy just smoked him.
Speaker 1:He's like, yeah, just drop in place, or did it drop in place pretty much, yeah, just kind of rolled once and just stopped um.
Speaker 2:So we got over there. He got his picture and uh, we're sitting there and we're like, well, what do we do now? Like it, the angle of this hill is too steep to drag her head uphill and there's nothing below us to really roll her down to a flat. So we're kind of looking around trying to figure it out. He's like man, you know what? The best thing we're gonna do is just roll her down to this drainage. And I was like, oh, I knew you're gonna say that. So this guy and I kick this cow elk down this drainage into this v and it just boom, boom like 25, 30, just head like hoof and head just all the way down the mountain stops at the bottom and the bottom is flat.
Speaker 2:It's like a probably a 10 foot wide bottom.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So enough room to, like, do some work. You know, get get to work. So we start cutting it up and getting it cleaned out and, being young as we are, we're like, oh man, we'll just drag this thing out out. And, being young as we are, we're like, oh man, we'll just drag this thing out. Meanwhile, we're eight miles from the nearest boat launch and 15 miles from camp. Yeah, so we're sitting there and we're like, oh, we'll just drag it down.
Speaker 1:That don't know what the hell we were thinking how far did you actually make it dragging like probably we got, actually we got to about 100 yards and we were we were smoked dude and this you know, I was doing wildland firefighting.
Speaker 2:He was in the gym all the time, so we were in pretty good shape but, we were smoked dude, I would have given up way before 100 yards so we cut her in half and we drag half and half probably 200 yards to a fence and I'm like man, here's the problem. We're going to get to that boat launch and we're gonna have to hike 22 miles back to camp to get the truck. That's not like, that's not a good idea. Why don't you hike back up? You get the truck and meet me at the boat launch and I'll just start cutting her up. He's like all right, that's a great idea. So he goes up and he, he leaves me there with this elk.
Speaker 2:Mind you, I was mentioning coyotes earlier. We were watching probably five or six of them just kind of playing around on the ice, running around. I don't know what they were doing, they were just it was frozen over, so they were crossing the river, and so I'm cutting her up and it gets dark and I'm cutting and cutting and we finally get her broken down enough to start packing her out and I get a hind and a shoulder and I start hiking her out. Well, it gets really dark. So I'm like, oh, I'll grab my headlamp. I forgot my headlamp at home.
Speaker 1:Oh no.
Speaker 2:And the only thing I had was one of those Walmart hat clamps.
Speaker 1:Okay, like lights Better than nothing.
Speaker 2:It's probably 15 yards max. I can see.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So I'm packing, you know, I'm just moving along and I get kind of to the area where those coyotes were and I kind of see a flash and like a kick up of dust and some movement and I'm like, all right, hang on, wait a minute, what's going on here? So I stopped, I'm looking around and I just see this yellowish, greenish tinge, kind of at the peripheral of where I can see like the very big, like probably 30 yards away. I'm like ain't no way these suckers are messing around with me. And I had a pistol with me at the time so I just pulled it out, pointed it right between the eyes, just pulled the trigger.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I hit it, I don't care. I was just trying to scare some. I was trying to get them away from me. I don't care.
Speaker 1:Understandable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm working. They're not a problem until they are yeah exactly, especially when there's more than like two of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we're working on. I'm working my way down the river and I just I keep hearing noises around me. Man, and you know your mind plays tricks on you. But like it doesn't help that this Walmart hat lamp is not keeping your, your vision very well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so cone of silence, exactly so.
Speaker 2:I'm kind of like talking to myself, playing music on my phone, walking down this river, and I just get to a point where I'm like man, I can't go forward, I can't go back without hearing noises. And so I move my way closest towards, like the base of a hill, and I just build a fire. I just build a big old fire and, um, probably two hours, my buddy, I see a set of headlamp walking down and uh, my buddy's like hey man, what are you doing? I don't know, man, I was packing this out and I just kept seeing eyes and hearing sounds and I just sat down. I said I have had enough.
Speaker 2:And he's like right on, man, on man. Well, you know, the truck's probably about four and a half miles away. Let's just, you know you can make it the rest of the way there. I'll go, grab the rest of the pack and I'm like man that might just let's split this pack and we'll make it one trip on the way back. So we'll make it in three trips. So we argued for a bit and he's like all right, man, whatever, we'll just grab the truck.
Speaker 2:The well, we're walking out and we get to the truck, drop off our load, come back and as we're passing that fire that I built, there's just tracks all over the snow, just coyote tracks everywhere. And so I'm like, see man, I told you this time I have one of his spare headlamps on me and I'm like there's just tracks everywhere. They were following me. So we make our way back to the carcass and see some tracks around the carcass, some some like hide tore up. Nothing. Crazy though we were, we were pretty confident that with the two of us it wasn't a big deal. Yeah, so we load up both the packs and, uh, we make our way all the way back to the truck and my buddy he was keeping his Onyx on on the tracking mode and we ended up putting down about 24 miles that day, chasing elk, shooting those elk, getting it packed out. We didn't get to camp until about 3 am 4 am in the morning.
Speaker 1:Damn. I want to say kudos to that guy's phone battery as well. My phone wouldn't make it 24 miles on the tracking mode for on-air.
Speaker 2:Well, what he did is? He ended up putting it on airplane mode, but he's pretty stewardess about packing those portable chargers.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And so he just always, anytime his phone starts dying off, he just slaps that portable charger on and just walks with it. But we ended up getting it packed out and, uh, we ended up leaving that next morning um pretty early.
Speaker 2:We ended up leaving about eight o'clock in the morning this is like young guy energy, you know, just not a care in the world, ragdolled and ready to get home and sleep. So but uh, yeah, he, he is, uh, he was, uh, definitely, definitely kind of like a beacon of hope walking down that river, because I couldn't see anything, man?
Speaker 1:I bet he's never gone out without a headlight since that seems like one of those times where it's like the best lessons are self-taught. That was a self-taught lesson where you were like that sucked. I hated every moment of that.
Speaker 2:I will never not have a good headlamp again yeah, no, I've, I've, uh, I've purchased uh two of them, two of them sit in my pack and one of them's rechargeable.
Speaker 1:So yep, yeah, I have like three or four at any hunting camp I go to like. Two of them are really solid, great, like rechargeable ones the emergency one and like then. The fourth one is just because I know eventually someone else will forget one and I'm like that ain't happening to me yeah, that was, that was me man dude yeah, I believe it.
Speaker 1:Um, I even have like shoelaces. I keep a pair of shoelaces because that's happened to me where I went out and my boot laces just exploded like three miles from camp I'm like this sucks. Fortunately, you know, like boots you have so much lace that even though it split like and I lost a fourth of it if I unlace the whole thing and then relaced it even I still was able to tie it like around the base of my foot, just not like the top of the boot. So I got out of there.
Speaker 2:But yeah, never again. Now there's laces. I bet your ankles were feeling that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that was a.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you I know you listened to the podcast, but it was, like I want to say, three elk seasons ago and I fell. It was when I was walking back with my boot lace, all fucked up, that I fell and I pinched a nerve in my hip and I literally couldn't walk for three months. Oh shoot man. So yeah, I don't remember my foot or ankle being sore because I'd hurt my hip so bad or like the nerve in my hip. It was a brutal year, Brutal year, damn, you know.
Speaker 2:And it always happens when you know you're having fun and then all of a sudden it just like one thing just leads to another thing, to another thing and, man, it just starts piling up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, you know, and now that I've actually talking this out with you, I think that maybe I only pinched my hip because my boot wasn't tight, so I probably was walking funny, and then when I fell then it pinched that nerve who knows, who knows, who knows.
Speaker 2:I know that when I lace my ankle up, I lace my feet and then my ankle, and that ankle helps stability a lot. So I canpping and, and you know, not having that support, just yeah, it was a pretty mild fall.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you that I was pretty disappointed with how hurt I was, for how small the fall was. Um, but I'm not a doctor, I just play one on a podcast.
Speaker 2:So uh, what else you got for us, jake?
Speaker 1:what other? Uh, what are the stories you got, man?
Speaker 2:well, I uh, I got a story about me and my fiance now wife um hunting and getting a bear. Actually, you can see it right here. I'll turn the camera a little bit. This, this black bear here hell, yeah, right here.
Speaker 1:And what? What kind of lizard you're you got in that? Oh, that's, that's my wife's pet project.
Speaker 2:It's a uh sahara sand boa, so it's a little snake yeah, he, he hides in the sand and never, never really shows his head until nighttime.
Speaker 1:So I don't have to worry about it. A chick who likes snakes, you got yourself like Selma Hayek in.
Speaker 2:Dust.
Speaker 1:Kildon, don't you.
Speaker 2:Well, she also hunts too. I don't know what I found, but she's a keeper for sure.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, man Cool, tell us about this fiance black bear story.
Speaker 2:So we were hunting in an area that I had hunted previously. Um, I showed up there probably a week before looking for elk and I'm I'm a, I really love archery, elk hunting. I I've heard you know the podcast enough to know you love archery as as well as I do. Um, and so, anyways, hunting elk, and, uh, I was in an area where it was really prominent. I kept seeing like a couple of black bears in these parks and, and these parks, um, they're just wide open grassland on a steep hillside. Okay, so we're, I'm watching them. I'm like cool, you know, I'll go up there. I know there's elk up there. I've seen them migrate kind of like above that where those bears were, and kind of move their way down. And uh, so I was chasing elk and calling and they were just bugling back and forth and I got to a spot where the hillside was a little steep and it kind of does like a uh it's, it holds the elevation all the way across and then it divots and to like a little coulee where the water can move down. And uh, so I'm sitting there.
Speaker 2:I've been chasing these elk all day. I have a tag for either sex, so I'm looking for whatever. I'm looking for meat and I'm working my way across and I just hear commotion Above me and I mean like Not like elk stampeding, like elk running away from something, and I'm like Kind of odd whatever. So I'm hearing, I'm listening, I'm moving my way towards this ridge and I I park myself pretty much about 20 yards away from this, this little ridge, before it kind of drops off and all of a sudden there's about three or four cow elk that just come bolting down this ridge and I mean running for their lives and I don't know what's chasing them. I'm just like cool elk, you know, like I might be able to fill my tag.
Speaker 2:So yeah but they blow. They blow right past me. I mean just gone. So I'm sitting there, I'm like huh, I wonder what's going on. So I have my bow out and I'm looking up the hill and still just crazy commotion above, and then I see this cow elk sprinting down and a black bear chasing it following, following it like probably five to ten yards behind it, just booking it down.
Speaker 1:The hillside, no way.
Speaker 2:So I'm sitting there and I'm watching this happen and I'm like bow or pistol. So I have my bow out and I'm watching him run down this hillside and the bear stops, just slams on the brakes. So as soon as I see that bear slam on the brakes and she's about 20 to 25 yards from me, I I just I put my bow down and pull my pistol out.
Speaker 2:I'm like man, I ain't playing this game and this bear has this awesome, probably seven to eight inch wide white patch going all the way down the sternum of this, this bear I don't know if it a female boar, I couldn't quite get a good look at it.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But it slams on the brakes and is looking dead at me and I'm like man, come on now, like so.
Speaker 1:I pulled the pistol out, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I pulled the pistol out and I'm aiming it at her and she just bolts, and I mean like bolts across the hillside in front of me all the way, like I dropped my pack off probably about 20 yards behind me. So I was like, oh shit, she's getting into my pack like or something. I don't know what I was thinking, I just knew that that that's the general area she's going. So I track her and I follow her all the way. So I start walking after her to make sure she doesn't mess with my pack and uh, I like what the hell just happened? I just had a herd of elk just run past me. There's a black bear just cut in front of me Not just just a whole shit show of events.
Speaker 2:And uh, so I'm like well, I heard a bull in that group. I might as well give it a, you know, give it a try. And I give a cow call out, and that bull is like 30 yards away from me just ripping through this thick brush. So I'm like no way. So I put the pistol back into the holster, pull my bow back out and I'm looking for this bull and he comes probably 25 yards from me, and just no clear shot facing me, just trees in the way, but I can see his head, his eyes. He's just staring me down. I couldn't do nothing about it, so I'm like oh well, whatever, that was a cool experience.
Speaker 2:So I made a mental note of that area. I'm like this is kind of an area where there's bear and elk that are co-living, basically. So I called my wife my now wife and I was like hey, are you wanting to go hunting? So she's like yeah, absolutely. And so I'm like, cool, you know there's. We should have good weather, it should be a good time. So I pick her up and we head back to kind of a hill stop where we can kind of see that whole area. Mm-hmm, and I see about four black bears just sitting on the hillside in that park just munching away on grass and and whatever the hell they're eating. And I'm like, geez, there's a lot of black, like I have a black bear tag. And I'm like man, there's a lot of black bear. And she's like, yeah, that's cool, I'm really not about it. But whatever, you know, she's like I don't want to mess with them.
Speaker 2:I'm like I don't blame you yeah but if one gets in front of me, you know. So we set up the camp pretty much at the site we were glassing from and that night it stormed. And when I'm in it stormed. It was blowing like 30 mile an hour, winds raining sideways jeez ripped our walmart tent in half pretty much.
Speaker 2:So we were both just soaking wet, miserable. Our dog was in the truck. He was with us that trip. We couldn't find anybody to watch him, which he'll tag on to the story in a bit. So we're sitting there just like well, it's raining all day. The next day it's just downcast downpour. We're like well, let's go to the laundromat downtown. You know it's probably two hours to the nearest town. Let's, let's dry our stuff out. So I get to the laundromat and uh, good move.
Speaker 1:By the way, that's like, uh, that's a moral win, like when you're having a tough hunt. I one time drove two hours. It's actually that same trip that my boot broke and then I fell and and then we're going to town anyways, but I got shoelaces and a boot dryer because my boot was soaked and, good God, having a nice dry pair of boots is just a moral win, man, and it can get you a lot farther over a hill.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, for sure. And it doesn't matter if it's just the small things, man, they matter.
Speaker 1:Dude, they add up, Especially with your wife. Man Kudos to you guys for going back and drying off your clothes. That probably made you hunt twice as hard.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah for sure. And especially gave me kudo points with the wife. Because I mean who? I mean what missus wants to hang around with a guy soaking wet all day? I?
Speaker 1:was going to make some kind of joke about making your wife do laundry.
Speaker 2:Oh, so we get to the laundromat, we get all our stuff dried out and it's just finally, after all day of just downpour, it finally lets out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so we head back up to the spot that we were at and so we get into an area and it's probably about 12, 30 ish, it finally stopped. I'm like, well, let's just hike around and see what we can do. And the elk were bugling still. They weren't as active as when I was there but they were still calling and bugling and raking and all that stuff. So I make my way up the ridge with her and I'm cow calling and up bugling just trying to get some response. And uh, we get a couple responses. But man, they're just so far away and they're across a couple canyons like I'm not gonna drag her through pretty much hell and back just to get a shot.
Speaker 1:That would make it miserable for her yeah, I wanted to come back, no, and that's my.
Speaker 2:My point is, I want to make sure that she comes back, you know. So I'm like, well, let's just, let's just go to this park. That, if you know and this is early october, so it's kind of like it rains and then it is like sunshine and 60 degrees, so it's just beautiful out. So you get to this park and we're just napping in the sun. We got our dog with us. Um, he's, he's, uh, just kind of just been hanging around. He's a pretty decent at hunting anytime. I split off, though, and he's gonna stay. He don't like it. He starts winding, starts making noise, and this, this will tie in. Um, so we're taking a nap and I'm like man, those bears were just in that park that was like right below us, and it was about two o'clock, three o'clock in the afternoon. I'm like I'm going to go and we've been napping for pretty much an hour and a half, just sleeping off the horrible night before. Okay.
Speaker 2:And uh, I'm sitting there. I'm like I'm going to go take a peek down here and I'll come back up and it's steep, it's very steep. Um, it is you could hands and hands and feet still making contact the entire way.
Speaker 1:Just steeper than hell.
Speaker 2:So I'm like I'm going to go down here you know, keep the dog quiet while I go down there and just kind of mosey around. And uh, I started making my way down and I just see this kind of mosey around. And uh, I start making my way down and I just see this, this black shape just bedded on that hillside. I'm like no way. So I look up at her because she's she's kind of keeping tabs on me and holding the dog and I'm like you know, I I make like the the three finger claw mark bear side to her and she kind of is like she doesn't understand, but she knows there's something going on, so she she keeps the dog quiet and stays up there.
Speaker 2:I take my shoes off, um, and I range them. The first time I ranged them was about 130 yards away and even with a steep angle it was probably 150. So I started sneaking my way down and, uh, I took my shoes off, I'm in my socks and I'm just working my way down, just creeping and creeping and creeping, staying out of sight, out of mind, playing the wind, and I get about 70 yards from him and I'm I've been pretty accurate with my bow, um, out to 90 yards so I felt very confident shooting 70, 80 yards, and so I drew back kind of like walking side hill, drew back at a super steep angle and when I ranged it it said 78 yards.
Speaker 2:But my range finder doesn't account for that type of angle at the time.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:So I put it at 72 on my slider.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so I'm creeping sideways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was, that was from previous mistakes, uh, that earlier year of, just you know, shooting at a steep angle and just it just going completely over its back, um, an elk's back. So I'm side hill and side hill and and that bear is just napping away Same thing we were doing, just napping in that park. And I'm holding that draw and I just put it right. And with bears you know how the heart's kind of more centered than like deer and elk.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Their heart's kind of further back. All their vitals are pushed a little further back. So I put it pretty much I aim shoulder and then probably three inches to the left and just let her fly. And I just hear this like I've heard rock skipping.
Speaker 1:I'm like oh, no, like I just missed it?
Speaker 2:well, this bear jumps probably three feet in the air, bites at its side turns around and takes off yeah, so it was a complete pass through when we gutted him out it.
Speaker 2:It severed the top of his heart completely. Um, just complete pass through, no bones, no sound, it just all I heard was rock. So I was like, oh I, I missed him, shit, I missed him. So. But when I saw him turn and bite, I was like man, that's like a telltale sign of any animal, you know they, he got hit and he got hit good. So we're sitting there and I watched him take off down this hill, you know, across the hillside, and disappear into the brush. And uh, my wife was like the first person. I mean, like I've seen her move. I've never seen her move this fast.
Speaker 2:She was just hauling ass down this hill and I was like if you fall you're not stopping, dude, like it's steep. So she's hauling with the dog and we both get to kind of a spot where we can talk. I'm like man, that shot felt good and she was like that seemed like you were in control. Everything looked good. She shoots with me in the backyard all the time. She knows how I shoot, but my dog's just losing his shit.
Speaker 2:I mean just yeah whining and yipping and oh yeah, crazy so I put a leash on him because in montana you can have a dog with you as long as you're not using him to actively hunt animals, you know yeah if you want him to track, you can hook up a leash to him and then, as long as they have like I believe it's 50 feet of lead, you're, you're legal.
Speaker 2:Um, he was kind of on a shot caller slash lead the entire time. We were up so, um, but anyways, uh, so we give it about half an hour, an hour, and I dropped down and I have the dog with me and she stayed up there. She's like I don't want no part of if that bear's still alive.
Speaker 1:I don't want any part of it I'm like understandable man.
Speaker 2:But come on, like you know, you're supposed to be my ride or die and she's like not, not with the bear, she's like well, fair enough.
Speaker 1:She's like let's work on the ride, not the die part. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:So I'm sitting there. I'm like, oh, cool. And uh, me and the dog walked down there and I, I mean immediately, you just see blood everywhere. And so I was like, all right, buddy, you know, this is his first time tracking something with blood. Um, he's a shed dog, so he, he, he uses his nose. Um, I didn't know how well he'd use it, but I wanted to give him a shot. So we were walking across the hillside. He darts straight downhill like no, no, no, he kept running side hill, buddy. Well, he came up and he kept pulling me back to that spot and I couldn't find him on that side hill. I'm like I should probably trust the dog, he probably knows what's going on. And, um, I dropped down and probably 30 yards down down that hill, uh, he was piled up in a huge timber of sagebrush and and uh, uh, uh, deadfall.
Speaker 1:So just was right. Yeah, yeah so the bear just basically shot side hill until out of sight and then basically you turned it 30 yards down.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So he ran about 15 yards, leaned against a tree, bled everywhere and just died and just fell downhill.
Speaker 1:Okay, fell downhill.
Speaker 2:That makes more sense, okay, yeah so we went downhill and we got our pictures and the wife was super happy, super excited.
Speaker 1:She's, she's a little weird, she likes, uh, um, helping me, gut, and skin animals, so like kudos to her, but uh, that doesn't surprise me yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:So she, she helped me out and, uh, we got it packed out, ended up being a pretty, pretty good size bear. He's six foot, uh, nose to tail nice man yeah, just a solid size bear. I made him a nice rug. He takes up half my wall yeah, good looking bear.
Speaker 1:I mean, I can only see what looks like his ass half. But yeah, here I'll turn him around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he takes up yeah, that's huge quite a bit, but yeah he was. Uh, it's cool he was uh first bear I've ever shot with and first bear I ever shot with a bow, and uh, it was. It was an experience and I I cherish it all the time now I'm a spring bear hunter. I'm a fall bear hunter.
Speaker 1:I love it. Yeah, he ended up only a fall bear. I really want, I really wish they still had spring bear, but they got rid of that years ago, before I even started hunting. But oh man, what about? Who knows there's a lot of bears in colorado. Maybe they'll bring it back. Probably not. Maybe because they hate hunting in colorado.
Speaker 2:But I know it's such a shame always be positive, always be positive. But yeah he uh, he uh ended up being like 12 years old. Um, yeah, we at first. Um, I'll show you the the skull after we're done, but he doesn't have any teeth left. Okay, he has like four teeth, um, on the upper half and like two teeth on the bottom it's just crazy split crack canines.
Speaker 1:Just he was not gonna make it another year, so shitty way to go, like that's what like people are gonna just let him die of old age and be happy, and I'm like, well, if you imagine your teeth rotting out and falling out and you can't even eat anymore, that's that's the best way out according to you. Like that ain't I'd rather. I'd rather take an arrow to the heart any day yeah, for sure a year of jaw pain and just misery.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and starving like especially that is the biggest old age problem I have. When people are like, well, why do you kill when they'll die of old age, I'm like you realize that last like couple of months of their life they don't eat anything. They just put food in their mouth and it drops out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they don't die of old age. They starve to death because their teeth died of old age.
Speaker 2:For sure, and that was a huge thing, uh, but anyways, yeah, so he turned out to be uh terrible eating, um yeah, it was yeah, it was. It was pretty bad eating um. I ate as much as I could um what do you think like?
Speaker 1:was it just because he was old and gnarly had he got? I think something, because I know that bears taste a lot like a diet.
Speaker 2:I wasn't the only hunter up there, so I'm thinking there's like Karen he was chewing on just like rotting flesh that would like melt in his mouth so he didn't have to chew on it.
Speaker 1:That would do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so he had no fat on him eating Karen.
Speaker 1:It was just not a pleasant bear to eat, so but I want to get one of them big old fat bears that, like, has found a berry patch. Oh yeah, their meat's like purple and they taste like blueberries. That's the kind of bear I want to hunt.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, you can go to Alaska.
Speaker 1:Inland Alaska. Those coastal ones are just smell and taste like salmon.
Speaker 2:I've heard yeah for sure. Actually a couple podcasts. Some other guy I was listening to, he led a buddy of his smoke brown bear and he's like I don't know if you smoke salmon in this thing, but I can't cook anything in this smoker anymore. So yeah it just.
Speaker 1:I think I heard that too on like the. I think it must have been dan staten or something like elk shape. Yeah, I think it was elk shape yeah, I think it was elk shape, where he says that like he goes to the smoker to smoke and he's like dude, do you, how much salmon do you smoke in there? He's like yeah, yeah any salmon in that smoker. I've only smoked black bears and yeah or not. Black bears could be brown bears, coastal brown bears, which is so crazy, but that's not.
Speaker 2:This sounds gross yeah, what else you got, man, what else you got, yeah? Well, I uh, you wouldn't catch me eating no salmon. Bears, man that no, that's rough um, I got one more story, I guess, and then, um, if you want to have me back on some other time, I got a couple, a couple more fun stories that are are interesting and potentially life-threatening.
Speaker 1:Perfect, let's do the last one you got. That's good timing Then. I'll dive off and watch some Colorado sports and hopefully they all can live to play another day.
Speaker 2:Alright, let's go Avalanche.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Nuggets this story is this guy. I know you can see it, listen't see it, but this guy this guy right here um does he have a little kicker on that left?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, he does. He's got a little palmatian kind of. I know that light is kind of blocking it, but he's got a little kicker in between that's cool his uh whale time and uh g5 and that's a.
Speaker 1:I'm going to call that a. Six by seven. That's a good bull.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's he. I call it as well, cause it's uh what I remember you saying. If it's longer than it is wide, it counts as a point.
Speaker 1:So I've heard that with white tail.
Speaker 2:I don't know about elk, but I think Living in Montana you get some good elk populations running through here, the migration coming from Yellowstone and just everywhere. There's a lot of elk up here. But don't put that in the podcast, it's too late.
Speaker 1:It's already in, too late, it's already in. Everybody knows where there's elk.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:If you don't know, if they haven't Googled it already, you're not sharing anything. I'm helping new hunters is what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:I'm throwing them a bone. So I'm bow hunting near Yellowstone, pretty close to the border, probably 35, 40 miles away from the border, and huge grizz country, huge wolf country, but also some good bull country and good elk country. I found a spot. My uncle turned me up to a spot. He he's been up before. He said you know they're, they're always up there, elk are always up in this area.
Speaker 2:Go, go check it out, and so I was like all right, you know I'm I'm like 20 at the time broke his shit, have no money, a shitty truck. That barely gets me pointed to point B. I'm like to hell with it. You know I ain't got nothing else to lose. So I took two weeks off through every cent I had in gas and just headed straight from Northwest Montana down to Southwest or Southern Montana and uh, so I get there and I immediately just I'm ready for about three or four days.
Speaker 2:just some solid, steep, horrible, whatever life throws at me yeah so I'm going up, hiking up, hiking up, hiking up, and it just starts getting windy, and I mean just windier than windy gets. It's the worst and uh, so I'm sitting there. I'm like, man, this really sucks. And I'm in this thick timber patch. I'm like, is there a storm blowing in? And I get to this knob and there's just like this black wall that's coming towards me.
Speaker 2:I'm like cool, all right, I got about an hour and a half to get to my camp, get it set up and then just like start sleeping. And or just like get to camp and just set there yeah I ended up making it um and just setting camp up in the blizzard, uh, but it was. It was, uh, not fun. It was pretty, pretty rough winds just ripping all the all your, your ties and and your your tarps, just ripping it all in half.
Speaker 1:And you're just like man, this sucks yeah, how, uh, how much did it snow? It was a full-on blizzard it snowed about six inches uh, up there, and then just collapsed. Some tents man yeah yeah, for sure it.
Speaker 2:I mean you don't think until it starts melting. You know, you never would guess that it does it. Well, I was also sleeping in a hammock so I had a. I had a hammock and then a tarp, and then the tarp was draped over a line and it kind of keeps the snow off me, but still it kind of kind of sucked yeah, I don't want a hammock when it's busy now, but all right so slept that night and got up and I mean, elk sign was everywhere, like they were.
Speaker 2:They were in that area, um, not when I was there, though they I mean just they were tearing up wallows and the snow melted with probably about three o'clock the next day. Um, it ended up being like 60 degrees the next day.
Speaker 1:So you know, montana.
Speaker 2:If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes, it'll change. And uh. So I ended up walking down some ridges, not really seeing much other than just lots of sign, and um, I happened to look back where my camp was and I saw a grizzly bear started making his way back towards my camp and I'm like, oh, no way this sucker's gonna come into my camp and trash it and I had all my food on me, so he just must have smelt me walking or something, and so I turned around and I just booked it straight back to camp.
Speaker 2:I was like this guy is not going to tear my camp up, he's not going to be a jerk, he's a younger bear. So I wasn't really too worried about him and I cut his tracks before I got to camp so I knew he didn't mess with my camp. But I knew he was around the area and I was like there ain't gonna be any elk in this area because of that. So that night I was sleeping eat, you know, I ate food. Put you know, do the whole food thing with your. Uh, you pack it away probably 100 yards from camp and then hoist it in a tree and, uh, I'm sitting there eating. I just keep hearing noises around me. I'm like, yeah, this is freaking fun, you know, seeing a grizzly bear.
Speaker 1:And hearing noises those damn coyotes again. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I was like these damn coyotes are after me, man.
Speaker 2:They have a blood pact with me or something. They're just hating me. So jump in the hammock and I'm, you know, sleeping through the night, actually pretty soundly. The wind was pretty heavy so I couldn't hear any noises, so I just kind of was like well well, it's not going to eat me at the moment, it's going to be fine.
Speaker 2:I kept that 44 in my hand on my chest the entire night but, uh, I just I kept hearing some like sticks breaking in between wind gusts and I was like that's wrong. Sit up and click on my light. It's something glinting, probably 300 yards away, and I'm like, nope, I'm not dealing with that, clicked it back off and went back to sleep. I said nope. I said nope, I could have. I was like, nope, I'm not gonna worry about that. If it gets me, it gets me. I don't care, I need to sleep, I'm tired. I've been hiking all day. So woke up probably about four o'clock in the morning when the sun was first right like barely you could even see light, and just didn't even, didn't even care. I packed up camp and left that night after that and, uh, as I was walking down towards my truck, I noticed that there was a shit ton of elk in this valley bottom, and in this valley bottom there's just agriculture fields everywhere, just alfalfa and hay fields all over the place, and all those elk were just hanging out in those fields and I'm like, well, no kidding, they're not going to be up here. You know they're out rutting, they're out getting some ladies, they're out eating the fat food while they got a chance. You know I don't blame them, but like I'm in the wrong spot, yeah, so I dropped down and dropped down all the way to my truck and get into some, some flats. That uh has a bunch of state land and a bunch of uh just areas where you can access national forests. And I'm in the flats and I noticed an elk herd, kind of on a plateau. They couldn't drop towards the riverside because it was just a cliff face. It was a straight 30 foot drop. But on the far side there's an alfalfa field and in between there's some state land and so I was like, oh sweet, you know I could actually cut them off before they could get to this, this alfalfa field. So I'd jump in the truck, drive that shitty old yoda just as fast as that thing would go, just making putting sounds the entire way, yeah, about ready to blow up. And I get around and get in front of them a ways I could. I could see them. They're still probably three quarters of a mile out, and so I jump out of my truck, I grab my binosos, my range finder, my bow, and I just start sprinting across cross and this plateau has a it's kind of a double sided plateau. One side is only like a 10 foot drop with like a bunch of uh, alley routes for those elk to cross down and get into this alfalfa field. Okay, and so I'm hauling ass crosses, cause I know where they're going. They're going to the spot where they don't have to drop this cliff. You know they don't want to drop that cliff, they want a nice easy roll into this alfalfa field.
Speaker 2:As I'm running, I bump into a hunter who's hiding in a bush, just like chill there. And I'm like you know, okay, he's doing the same thing I'm doing, except for I'm trying to beat him to it. So I bump into him hey man, how's it going? He's like oh good, what are you doing here? I'm like there's like a herd of like 60 elk coming your way. I'm like I'm gonna move down further past so I don't ruin your hunt. But I wanted, if you shoot something, you come back and let me know. I'll help you pack it out. But I'd like the same in return. You know, I, I wouldn't mind if I shot something, you come help me.
Speaker 2:You know, just a friendly. You know like a quick, very quick, because they were on the move. I was like I got to go, but, like you know, if you shoot one, let me know If I shoot one.
Speaker 1:I'll let you know. Enjoy your bush sir. Enjoy your bush sir.
Speaker 2:And I'm gone. You know, I'm just running cliff band and it kind of rolls into these rolling hills and then there's this one mound with a rock, that kind of blocks um a silhouette out there, okay.
Speaker 2:And so I work my way up to this rock and I'm sitting there and I'm waiting and I see a couple cows walk. I'm like, oh, no way they're coming right through this, this draw. And I arranged one of the cows in 82 yards and I've been practicing. Like I said, man, I regularly practice 70, 80, 90, 100 yard shots, just because I know how it is. You know western montana, either you're in tight timber or you're in the wide open flats.
Speaker 1:So you have to be prepared for whatever.
Speaker 2:So 82 yards, I arranged her and I'm like, cool, all right, they're gonna come right here, put the range finder away, the sun's at my back, there's no wind. I'm like I feel pretty confident and this bull right here comes, just sniffing his way through bugling, chasing this cow down, and I'm like, oh man, this is my time. I drew back. Everything felt solid and I'm watching him and he just keeps moving. He doesn't stop. I'm like no, no, stop. I'm like make it sounds, he doesn't stop. So I let off. I'm like crap, man, I missed my opportunity. Well, he drops down the left, kind of like.
Speaker 2:So if you're looking at it, I was on the right where the elk were coming down he ended up banking left and around a knob and I knew he's coming back because there was another cow that was kind of held up. I think she either saw me move, I don't know what, but she was held up and he was not having it. So he drops down, comes around and starts pushing that cow out. Well, him and another one of his buddies, a younger, five by five was kind of cruising side by side with them. I'm like man, I want this big one, but I'll take this young one. I do not care Whatever I'll, I just need to get one of these guys. So you know, this trip is worth it, cause.
Speaker 2:I'm missing work. I'm not getting paid for this, I'm I've got no money in my account. I have enough, maybe, to get get home. This is just like all or nothing boils all down to this moment. And uh, so I draw and I make it like a chirp noise and that first bowl stops, but that second bowl keeps walking.
Speaker 2:This guy here keeps walking that seven by six and I'm like no way and so I make a loud, like meow sound just to get him to stop. And he so the first one stopped, the second one finally stopped just a ways away and I was like man, 80 yards, you know broadside sun's on my back. He doesn't know I'm here. He just heard the sound and stopped and I just let that fly. Oh same thing, man, I just hear this like cl, like the sound of just rock and metal hitting, and I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe I just messed that up. Yeah Well, all the elk run off and that elk turns the same way. He started pushing that cow and once he got about pretty much perpendicular with me, it looked like somebody was taking red paint and just sloshing it all over the ground.
Speaker 1:He was just that's awesome pouring blood out that's great. What broadhead do you use?
Speaker 2:I gotta ask now that we're just getting completely silent pass-throughs dude, I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's passing without like hitting ribs or what, not whether it's but I'm shooting montex actually okay g5s, huh, and I never, I've never everybody I talked to they just they're great rod heads but they never leave a blood trail. Well, the past two kills I've had with these guys no sound other than rocks and just blood everywhere. So that's crazy. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I've never had a blood trail like everything I, everything I've shot, has died within like 100 yards. Just like lungs and heart just immediately dead, but never found any blood. Like just crazy, just stumbled on the animal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's crazy. It is crazy. What do you shoot then?
Speaker 1:A mixture of things. My elk I shot with an iron will Not a drop of blood. Not a drop of blood, not a drop of blood, but a complete pass through. Uh, my axis deer right here, this guy all right, which way am I trying to point that way? Um, I shot him with a sever and that was not a pass through, but he was courting away and I put it right in his pump station and I'm positive it just hit the back shoulder blade, but he ran. I saw the arrow sticking out of him, he jumped and it flew out. Uh, but no blood. But they're known for not bleeding, so I wasn't too upset with that one. Um shot another axis deer with an iron will no blood, uh my moose with a god.
Speaker 1:What did I use? Um, I'll have to get back to you on my moose, but I went to a three blade being like okay, those tanto points aren't doing it for me, I need something with a little more, open up a bigger wound, um, and the moose. It had no blood as well, but it was quartering two and I shot you know right where the shoulder blade goes down, or the, the, yeah, the shoulder blade, then the kind of I guess called the forward kneecap.
Speaker 1:Then it comes back for sure I hit right in that triangle and it went out the back and actually pulled the guts out the back hole, jesus so that three blade worked, but like no blood or nothing, huh no blood, but I mean the back hole was clogged.
Speaker 1:Um, she ran a big old loop I couldn't even tell you how far, I would say maybe 100 yards um, she passed away like 80 yards away from where I was standing. So I saw her lay down as the sun was going down and was like, well, I think she laid down there. But then we waited an hour, look for blood. And we, we found one drop of blood.
Speaker 1:Really, and then we were like you know what? It's too dark. We hear some. If you know moose country, it's kind of swampy a little bit yeah, for sure Like hello. Yeah, we heard somebody they called it a squanch or something, but the and. So we're like oh, is she getting up to move? Let's just get out of here. So we just got out, came back the next day and I put a pin where I thought she would be and she was within five feet of that pin.
Speaker 2:It was so, so, so awesome that she was right there. Uh, yeah, no blood man, not a drop. That's weird. Well, yeah, it's. It's pretty weird that, uh, you know, certain broadheads, they, they either, and also I, I don't know if it's I mean, obviously you killed them, but like I don't know if it's I mean obviously you killed him, but like I don't know if it's placement where the blood really flows, out or what but, um, both my animals that have shot uh Montech G5s, and they just they bled like like somebody stuck them with a knife and they just ran off you just bled everywhere.
Speaker 2:So my antelope.
Speaker 1:I shot with a sever as well and but he, I, he, I was full draw on him and he looked at me and I went oh shit, I just hit the trigger, slapped it no shot process and it hit him. And then I think it hit him and then he moved and so it caused some carnage inside, but that arrow was out on each side, so it was a pass-through, but it was in his body on each side. I don't know why it didn't finish the trip. I think it's because he was moving so much and he bled like crazy. But he also inflated in an hour no, in half an hour that it took us to get him in the truck and then back to camp. He was like double in size, like I don't know what. I hit inside him.
Speaker 2:That like caused the gas bomb to go off, but he was huge yeah, I've noticed with that with antelope, uh, I drew a uh archery antelope and uh, I didn't shoot one, but I mean, it seems like that's. It's so hot out, uh, when I I went out I don't know how hot it was for you, but now it was like a blow usually yes, but I shot it.
Speaker 1:So the season opened it's like in august to october is the season and I killed my moose. I stole the tag. I was like, let's go, I have a couple more days to hunt. So it was like at 9,000 feet in Colorado. Oh man At this spot where it's nice and flat, big rolling hills, sagebrush, and there's a shit ton of antelope, and I shot him at last light and it was probably 40 degrees when I shot him.
Speaker 2:Oh man.
Speaker 1:Well, what a treat that was, because I bet he tasted pretty good after that. Ah, you know, I, I the ground that I've had has been great. His back straps are inedible, I'm thinking. So let me get this skull for you. Hold on, no one else can see this. Oh, you're good so if you look, his prong got snapped off right there oh, shoot okay so I think that he got in a fight and was all jacked full of testosterone, and that's why his back straps are just completely inedible.
Speaker 2:Man that's a dandy antelope. Man that's a great-looking antelope.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like a Harry Potter wand on one side. Yeah, as smelly as this one, yeah, right.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that's. I mean it goes back to like taking care of your meat. I mean it goes back to like taking care of your meat. No, that's how the best meat tastes is when, however, you take care of it, or if the animals jacked up on testosterone and adrenaline. I mean, I just think he was.
Speaker 1:I think he had just lost that fight and was just like and that's why I even got him like archery antelope, I don't want to do it again. That was too hard. I found one that was exhausted and it was just like tired and didn't want to run anymore, and I got him oh, hey, that's good, I did your story. Where are we? You shot them. You shot him. The arrow went right through. I asked about broadheads and we went down a deep rabbit hole. So where are we back in your story?
Speaker 2:so, uh, he was spilling buckets I mean just five gallon buckets out his side um and he ran probably 80 yards and then tipped over and did his death kicks um and man, I was just ecstatic. I was so ecstatic I I've never killed anything at that time with my bow yeah um, I've been practicing every day.
Speaker 2:I was shooting 110 yards every day, you know I'd walk it out from 20 to 110, shooting 15, 10 arrows a day and really just I mean it was. It was a bunch of work all accumulated into one point and I was just ecstatic that's all I got to watch him, thanks I got to watch him kick over and that was that was the biggest.
Speaker 2:Uh, I think the biggest point for me was when he tipped over and just was kicking. I was like, oh my gosh, that's cool like this elk is huge, his body's huge. I just I was ecstatic so I ended up, uh, I I'm one to take. Uh, I'm a very excited individual. I really enjoy you know a lot and uh maybe, maybe more like a healer, you know, just really excited about everything and uh so I started doing, you know, I started making dirt angels and and I was, I was like I laid my boat out.
Speaker 2:I was doing dirt angels. Well, I should have paid attention where I was laying, because I ended up doing it on top of two or three cactus patches. Oh no, oh yeah. So, oh no, jake, I didn't, but I didn't feel it. You know, I was so hyped up on adrenaline. I was just rolling in the dirt kicking and, yeah, squeal I was having, I was hooping and I was like, oh shit, that guy behind me, oh, that guy behind me shut up really quick still in his bush yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I shut up really quickly and and I worked my way back to him just trying to. I wanted to help him get that other bull because that 5x5 was still hanging around in that alfalfa flat. So I cut behind a bunch of hills and started working my way back to him and he was sitting there. He's like hey man. I was like hey, dude, I just shot a bull, there's another bull over here, if you want to shoot it. And he goes just like color drained in his face, everything in his life just came crashing down. And he just looks at me, goes really like yeah, dude, I just killed this nice bull. Like there's another bull over here. It's like oh man, I'll just, I'll sit here I was like what all right, yeah, so that's what I said.
Speaker 2:I was like what all right, man, whatever. So I worked my way back quietly in case he wanted to go chase him, and those elk ended up moving off very slowly. Actually he could have definitely gotten onto him. But um, I walked out and uh, was you know trying to situate this, this bull elk, by myself to make pictures really quick? You know the grip and grin. I don't like doing it, but that one I felt deserved it. Um, memories.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, I've got a. I'll probably send you that picture. Um, but uh, this guy, he just he ended up just like I don't know what he was doing. He just ended up staying in that bush. I don't know what he thought, but, um, he ended up staying in that bush. I don't know what he thought, but, um, he ended up. I was, as, I'm like, getting this bull situated and after the elk left, I look over and I just see this car and I noticed the guy had there was only one car there and it was my truck in his car and he just drove off. I mean just didn't look at me, didn't stop and say what's up, he just got in his car and drove off. I'm like cool.
Speaker 1:He must have thought that was his elk and was too pissed, or something. That's what I was thinking too.
Speaker 2:I was like well, I mean, I would have been ecstatic either way. I just wanted to see these awesome beasts in person, up close. I was excited, but he ended up just thinking it wasn't. His opportunity got ruined by some stupid 20-year-old.
Speaker 1:When you bumped into him and you were like hey, Mr Bush, did he know the elk were coming, or was he just sitting there and waiting for some.
Speaker 2:He was just sitting there.
Speaker 1:He was just waiting for elks to show up.
Speaker 2:He knew that they there was a bunch of paths, obvious paths that they were walking down and then, his bush was like right next to one, and it was like, man, they're not going to be here, they're going to be probably further past. But like you know, you do, you, man, I'm not telling you to you know, do whatever. Just you, man, I'm not telling you to you know, do whatever, just you know, I'd noticed that they were pushed a lot further than where he wanted to come down at, so I just I just moved past him.
Speaker 2:I was like I'm not, you know, I didn't want to waste time and I also didn't want to argue with somebody trying to tell him where elk were. So yeah, yeah, I tried to help him out yeah, I tried to help him out and he just obviously he was pretty upset that I moved past him and and capitalized on an opportunity.
Speaker 1:So um, that's right. If you hear his story it's not nearly as interesting as yours, but I bet he tells it all the time.
Speaker 2:Oh, I bet, I bet. That damn 20 year old came sneaking up on me stole my that seven by six.
Speaker 1:I had scouted for six months. Oh, I scouted for six months. Oh, probably.
Speaker 2:Damn bastard. But that was just, you know, luck of the draw movement and just a lot of practice.
Speaker 1:It is what it is, finally coming together. Just be happy for anyone who gets one down. It's a lot easier, absolutely yeah, it's not easy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a lot easier to be happy for somebody than be kind of an asshole and grumpy with them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, also, that you were there did not mean that you, he didn't get one, like you weren't there. It's not saying that he would have gotten one. It probably the exact same thing would have happened, except they would have just walked on and he never would have. Sure for sure.
Speaker 2:And I think it was because they didn't want to drop down this like 10 foot ravine yeah I mean it's hot out, I wouldn't. I mean if I was an elk I wouldn't want to drop down a 10 foot ravine. So anyways.
Speaker 1:Uh, I was getting it corded up. I'm not an elephant. I don't want to go down a 10-foot ravine.
Speaker 2:No, I don't either. So I was getting it cut up and it was getting late. It was probably by the time that everything was said and done. I got the picture taken at about 7.30. Dark came around 8, and I was cutting up by myself, and so to pack it to my truck was probably about three quarters to a mile away. So it wasn't terrible, but I was by myself, man.
Speaker 1:And that's I mean a couple of trips.
Speaker 2:I don't care who you are, man Packing an elk out by yourself sucks.
Speaker 1:You know you don't have that fun commodity bullshitting on the way to the truck, it's just quiet.
Speaker 2:You're sweating.
Speaker 1:It sucks Dude when I shot my first bull, pat Latrell, who's been on the podcast. He's a world outcalling champ. He had a lighter pack than me, so he ran ahead, dropped his pack off and then came back for the last 100 yards and played. He must have had it downloaded on his phone because we didn't have reception.
Speaker 2:But he played the. He must have had to download it on his phone because we didn't have reception, but he played the like the rocky theme song. Oh, no way coming back to the truck.
Speaker 1:So that's a, that's a homeboy. I was like, yeah, let's go.
Speaker 2:And then we dropped off that giant pack and ran back and got one even heavier heck yeah, man, dude, that's a homeboy right there, that's a, that's a hunting partner for life. It's a good memory man, it's a goodboy right there, that's a hunting partner for life, man. That's awesome, it's a good memory, man.
Speaker 1:It's a good way to take like a two and a half three mile shitty hike and like make a big smile at the end and it's not just about the truck.
Speaker 2:Absolutely man, and that's huge yeah absolutely, but sorry, I keep interrupting.
Speaker 1:No, you're good man, no.
Speaker 2:I love, love hearing this. Uh, that's what stories are about, but anyways, so I'm working my way. Uh, I get two trips in. I did a back leg and, uh, front shoulder, and then I was tired so I did spare me and back leg and then shoulder and some other stuff and then head as I'm coming out with the third load.
Speaker 2:Uh, I just man, I don't know what it is with kayotes to me, man, but I just see eyes at the far end of this field and I'm like no way, you know, I'm in an area where I would expect bears, wolves, coyotes, but still just seeing one. I'm just pissed off, you know, I'm just like why are you here every time?
Speaker 2:so I'm too far away to even hit this thing, to do anything. But I pull out that 44 and I unload like three shells at the eyes, just like I'm just I don't even care, I know, nobody's back there, I like there's a hillside. Even if I don't hit anything, it's fine. But just seeing those eyes, man, just pissed me off. I was by myself, I didn't have help, and so I just click and it's a single action or it's a double action, but I I like using the single action, just the lever and then pull the trigger yeah, and so I'm just like I have a gun that's exact same 357, mag same thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, just john wayne, it's fun, man, it's fun it is fun and uh.
Speaker 2:So I just end up just john wayne and just pulling the, holding the trigger open and just slamming that hammer. Action, just that thing took off so fast. Oh, it just didn't even not, didn't stop, didn't look back, just took off and ran so so uh ended up getting the uh elk in the truck, and the story doesn't end there, thank god.
Speaker 1:Um, it gets pretty good, uh at this point, so I don't know where it's gonna go now, but oh, it's fun, uh.
Speaker 2:So I'm on my way back and I'm running out of gas and I'm like, oh, cool man, you know like I'll just stop the gas station, throw some ice in the cooler. And you know, I've been trying to go pro the whole. I didn't get the gopro footage on the elk. I was busy, you know.
Speaker 1:I left it in the truck thinking yeah it, just it didn't happen I didn't feel my mind that people have the mental fortitude to like like. I need to record this I know just crazy. I have nothing else going on. I it's me and the animal, and there's no way I'm turning on my phone or gopro. Just just blows my mind.
Speaker 2:But yeah it, people are just really good at it, yeah yeah, and especially, like you know, those people that do the uh um all-ins or the uh phone scopes.
Speaker 2:You know those guys are just they film it, they kill the animal and it's still on there like crazy yeah, so anyways, I uh, I loaded the elk up in the back of this toyota t5 pickup and I'm driving out and I hit this town and I'm out of gas. I'm like, okay, I'll pull in, I'll get some gas and I'll head home and I check everywhere my wallet is gone oh no, my wallet and I only do cash gone I have no money in any account, and this is like two o'clock in the morning, and so I pull up to this gas station and this lady, this lovely lady I can't remember her name.
Speaker 2:I wish I only hope the best for her I'm covered in blood and just like I'm like miss, you know I do you have any free ice? I can have to keep this out, cool, so I don't ruin this meat. And she's like I want you to pull the truck up around back and take as much ice as you want.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's awesome I take this elk and just douse it and like I have a tarp underneath it and I just put, probably I don't know, 10 gallons, 6, 16 gallons of ice on top of this elk, and for free. And this lady is just just kind of soul.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:So I'm sitting there and I'm like, well, you know, I was telling her my story about killing it, about losing my wallet. And she goes I have a son about your age. Uh, I'm gonna throw 20 bucks in your pump so you can get to Bozeman.
Speaker 2:And uh, hell yeah and uh, hell yeah, I was like no way. Yeah, you know, oh, dude, just I I hope. I mean, I don't know if this will ever reach her. If this does reach you, man, bless your heart, you're so kind. So she gave me 20 bucks to get me to bozeman and I ended up pawning my gopro in bozeman and, uh, that got me, that got me home so no way yeah that that lady just saved my bacon, saved my life.
Speaker 2:man, I didn't have to call any relatives begging for money, she was just. If she hears this, man, you're amazing. I thank you to this day.
Speaker 1:That's a pretty awesome little way to end that. I mean, I'm sorry, your GoPro's gone.
Speaker 2:No, it's all good man, oh, but Jake man, that's a great story.
Speaker 1:All of your stories today were really fun. I really like your storytelling. I think, that you have a good knack for details and it was fun and you could tell that you were living these moments over again, which is really what I'm aiming for here. It's like I just want to live these moments with the people that are telling them to me. So thank you, man, I really do appreciate it for sure, Michael.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me, man.
Speaker 1:Thanks for everybody listening man.
Speaker 2:That's the half of it. Is the people listening? So?
Speaker 1:yeah, and we'll have you back, but for now, where can the people find you, or do you want them to find you? Do you want to just get lost or ice donations? What do you want to share?
Speaker 2:well, um, I do have an instagram. I don't post very often on instagram. I got into that instagram reel uh, basically trap for a while. And then I was like man, I can't, can't, do this. And then uh heard your podcast, man, I downloaded again. So damn you for making me download again no, you're good, but uh, yeah, you can find me at montana guy jz 22 all lowercase on instagram, and then I really post on tiktok because my wife's on it all the time and I like letting her see it and that's at.
Speaker 1:MontanaGuy22. Give me a follow there too. I don't post much because they always take my shit down and they threaten to take my account away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to hell with them. Yeah, cool man Well thanks again.
Speaker 1:I do appreciate it. Guys, give jake a follow if you want or don't. Either way, thank you very much, sir. I appreciate you. This was a lot of fun and we'll definitely have you back in the future, man all right, man.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me of course, brother.
Speaker 1:All right, guys, that's it. Another couple stories in the books. Again, I want to thank Jake for coming on the podcast Couldn't have done it without him. I had a ton of fun. We actually chatted for a while afterwards just talking shit to each other, so I think we're going to be buddies for a while. So, jake, thank you man. I appreciate you. Listeners, if you guys have a great story, please do reach out. I love just having people reach out and telling me they have great stories and not having to spend time finding great stories, um, cause y'all got them. Everybody's got a great hunting story. Uh, beyond that, guys, make sure you give us a review, a like, a share, make sure you everyone you know knows about your favorite podcast, assuming this is one of your favorite podcasts and that's it, guys. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day Now get out there and make some stories of your.
