#058 - Michael T. Merrill | 12 Day Buck Chase - Learn to Hunt Angry

On this episode of The Hunt Stealth Podcast, Ryan Uffens sits down with Mike Merrill, aka "Big T" an entrepreneur, family man, and seasoned bowhunter with a gritty mindset and a deep love for the outdoors. The conversation weaves through Mike’s personal hunting evolution, from growing up without a mentor to becoming a relentless and calculated hunter. He shares how he built multiple successful businesses, including a mobile time-clock software company, and transitioned to a life more focused on purpose-driven hunting and physical readiness.

Mike details a 12-day archery mule deer hunt in Utah that tested every ounce of his grit and patience. From early mornings and busted stalks to holding full draw for over two minutes, the story culminates with a perfectly executed shot and a buck that represents years of lessons learned. The episode also dives into discipline, cold plunges, training for life, and learning to "hunt angry" with purpose, drive, and zero wasted energy.

Key Takeaways:

Hunt With Intent: Don’t stack too many tags and bounce between hunts, commit fully to the ones you choose. Focus and time in the field lead to success.

Get Reps Early: New hunters should take legal, ethical shots to gain real-world experience in stalking, shooting, field dressing, and packing out.

Hunt Angry... With Control: Channel emotion into determination and grit. Don't lash out, but use inner fire to push through physical and mental limits.

Adapt & Evolve: Whether in business or bowhunting, success comes from trial, failure, and learning. Mike applied lessons from decades of entrepreneurship to the way he approaches the mountains.

Train for Life: Fitness, mental toughness, and discomfort like cold plunges or weighted hikes—build a resilient foundation not just for hunting, but for life’s challenges.

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Transcript

Ryan Uffens (00:00)
You're listening to the Hunt Stealth Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Uffens. Enjoy the show.

Ryan Uffens (00:07)
It's been crazy to see how this thing's kind of just started to pop off. and, ⁓ yeah, it's been fun. So I appreciate you, Mike, taking the time to come on the podcast. So I've been looking, you've got like quite the background aside from, ⁓ like your frozen baths you take every stinkin morning.

Mike Merrill - Big T (00:10)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've done. mean, I'm 51, so been around a hot minute. Yeah, yeah. And. Well, so far, so I mean, you know, some days you don't feel like it as much, but yeah, generally, I'm probably doing pretty good. I can chase the grandkids around and wear them out, so that's good. I've got three and one will be born in about a month or less even. Yeah, yes.

Ryan Uffens (00:34)
Year 51? No way. Time's been good to you.

⁓

How many you got?

⁓ dude, congrats man,

that's a ton of fun. I've got two, I got two little granddaughters myself. And it's like the best. I'm 46. I mean, I started young, but yeah. I just, my wife's always told me like, why are you so immature? And I'm like, it keeps, it keeps me young. It keeps me young.

Mike Merrill - Big T (00:57)
Thank you. Yeah, one grandson and two granddaughters. Nice. Well, you look young, too, so you're you're doing something right.

Okay, yeah. Well, that's okay. Cool.

I always say you

knew who it was when you picked me up. Although I picked her up, but whatever. Yeah, same diff, right?

Ryan Uffens (01:24)
Yeah.

Yeah, but she says she's like, yeah, but I didn't know better back then.

Mike Merrill - Big T (01:28)
So.

Right. Yeah. Yeah, I got married. was 21 also. So I mean, you know, it's fairly young by today's standards. But yeah, my wife was 20 when we got married. So. Yeah, but. Nice. OK, there you go. Yeah, the I mean. The whole thing is like, mean, different than you. I didn't.

Ryan Uffens (01:39)
Yes. ⁓

I beat you by two years, we were 19.

Mike Merrill - Big T (01:59)
I didn't grow up in a hunting family like my dad would go on a deer hunt, you know, on the weekend. And I've told the story a ton of times on other podcasts, but it's like it was I think I was probably. 18 when I realized that the hunting season lasted longer than Saturday on the opener, like for deer, like I had no idea. Oh, I make it still hunt because we never went after that. It was like Friday night camp over, get up, you know.

My dad had sent us up the hill, you know, go kick him out for me. I'll wait here at the bottom. I know he's down there taking a nap or whatever, but he just did it because my mom's brothers did. My grandpa did. But I just didn't really, you know, have a, you know, he died when I was actually just 13. So pretty young. was 45 of a heart attack. So, yeah, pretty kind of crazy. And I just never I never had anyone to mentor me in that way. But I just.

Ryan Uffens (02:37)
Yeah.

I'm sorry.

Mike Merrill - Big T (02:55)
That's all I wanted to do. I loved it so much. When I turned eight, that's all I want to do is go. In fact, I asked for my birthday. I turned eight October 28th. And my dad would, you know, we couldn't go out on the hunt until we were, you know, old enough supposedly. But I said for my birthday, I want to go on the deer hunt. That's all I want. You know, it was like all I wanted to do. anyway, so that's always been in my bones, but yeah.

Ryan Uffens (03:19)
That's awesome.

And so, so, but it's been more recently that you've like gotten really into it.

Mike Merrill - Big T (03:26)
Yeah, I mean, I so I've always been pretty into it. mean, I fell in love with archery in probably 2014, 2015 time period. That was, you know, I had been even bow hunting for a few years, but it was more I was in a dedicated hunter program here in Utah where we did, you know, they there's a lot of states that let you do it, but Utah never did. You'd had to pick. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was going to come up and record with you guys, but but

Ryan Uffens (03:49)
Wait, you're in Utah? Whereabouts are you?

Mike Merrill - Big T (03:57)
your guy, what's his name? It's D something, green, Dustin. Dustin was saying that you're working on the studio or something. so I said, that's cool. But.

Ryan Uffens (03:59)
Dustin. Dustin.

Yeah.

Yeah. So we're, we're here. ⁓ I've got a space here with black flag and, ⁓ Kay's Ville. Yep. Yep. Exactly. And we're building out a studio. Well, once we get it done, we'll have to have you come up. ⁓ I'm going to start doing some cohosting with Brian call. And so once that studio is done, dude, let's have you come up and we'll sit down and we can hammer out a couple of them, but,

Mike Merrill - Big T (04:12)
Okay, nice. You're in Kaysville then probably, right? Yeah, okay. Yeah, I'm just an hour south of you. ⁓

That'd be fun. I love Brian.

Yeah, it'd be fun.

We could talk about all kinds of different things, yeah, sometimes in an hour or so, it's hard to cover much.

Ryan Uffens (04:42)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's the thing that we've done. feel like where we've had some success is like I, when I'm like, if I'm going to do this, I'm like, okay, who's the most successful guy on the planet at podcasting? And I'm like, it's Joe Rogan. Right? Yeah. Gritty's really good. He's really good. But, but, but I'm not an expert. And so I bring on people that are experts or have a passion for it and a love and just like a great story to tell.

Mike Merrill - Big T (04:55)
Gritty, that's true. Yeah, Gritty's pretty good at it too though. But yeah. Yeah.

Yeah,

Ryan Uffens (05:12)
And I'm like,

Mike Merrill - Big T (05:12)
sure.

Ryan Uffens (05:13)
tell me and we inevitably there. I always end up learning so much that, you know, like I feel like this year I've said this on multiple podcasts over the past probably two months. Like I feel like my knowledge level just talking about it multiple times a week with people like my skill level, my knowledge level has grown. I'm like, ⁓ all these little things that I had recalled happening the past four years that's led to unsuccessful. I'm like,

Mike Merrill - Big T (05:30)
yeah, Second nature for you.

Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (05:42)
⁓ like this is how this thing is supposed to work. So tell me about some of your businesses that you're, I mean, you're an entrepreneur, husband, father, ⁓ hunting, just badass. for the folks that maybe don't know, by the way, I think I've been recording. We'll go back.

Mike Merrill - Big T (05:45)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I'm just gonna think I'm gonna record now.

I see you're recording, but I don't know what, you know, like, I don't know when it starts and stops. But yeah, okay.

Ryan Uffens (06:08)
Yeah, I'll go back and figure out some place to start it. but yeah, anyway,

tell tell tell the folks a little bit about just like your background. And and I mean, we've talked a little bit about the hunting side. But tell me about some of the businesses that you're involved in.

Mike Merrill - Big T (06:21)
Yeah, so as a as a young adult, mean, basically, ⁓ when I was 18 years old, my my girlfriend's father, her dad kept trying to get me to come work on his construction framing crew. And I was working at a baseball card shop, like part time, hitting the gym every day, just, you know, living the living the bachelor life ⁓ as a teenager. You know, I just need enough money to take my my girlfriend out on dates and, you know. ⁓

You know, loved I was really, really into baseball. And so again, just wasn't loved hunting and the outdoors and all that, you know, my whole life. But ⁓ but I, you know, I finally decided, yeah, I'll go I'll go try it. I'll go try framing for a while. So I went and worked for him for a few months and eventually I went on an LDS mission, went to Thailand for two years. And so I went and did that. And then I and I just loved the construction. I was kind of excited to get back to it. So

I got home on like a, gosh, I think it was a Thursday night and I had told my girlfriend's father at the time, who's now my father-in-law, because we ended up getting married. But I had told him, well, I need a couple of weeks to kind of settle in and I'm going to go to school in the fall. So I to get all that going. And anyway, give me a couple of weeks and then I'll come and help you. And like the next Monday morning, I was already working for him and that was it. Like I just never look back. So.

Ryan Uffens (07:42)
you

Mike Merrill - Big T (07:47)
So I got really into the construction thing. Excuse me. I was a construction and a business management major at Utah Valley University. think it was UVSC at the time, it a state college. And I did that for actually, didn't quite get my degree. I went for about three and a half years. And by the time I was about done with school, I had quit working for my father-in-law because he got slow and I went to work for another builder. And finally I thought, man, I can do this. you know, I can do it better than these guys are doing it.

A lot of my bosses didn't love talking to people or working with the people. It was kind of funny. were onry about people and didn't want to deal with people. And I'm like, this is a people business, you know? So and I love people. So so I kind of approached business from that standpoint and then ⁓ just try to learn everything I could. So I started a construction company and I did that for almost a decade, built a lot of homes, a lot of framing and and ⁓ and then eventually the.

The economy got rough and, you know, really, really tough times and got lean in the construction side of things. So I transitioned. This was this was actually when mine first really when it started to a little tough is actually 9-11. We started sending plywood and materials over to Halliburton in Iraq, and our prices went up like 800 percent in three months on my plywood. I mean, it was it was bad.

Ryan Uffens (08:52)
Like is that an wait

Well...

Mike Merrill - Big T (09:14)
And so, you know, I had a lot of, yeah. So rough, rough, mean.

Ryan Uffens (09:15)
I remember I remember that time. You used to be able to go in by

like, ply by like a four by eight sheet of plywood, and it was like four bucks. And then it seemed like overnight, it went to like 14.

Mike Merrill - Big T (09:23)
Yeah.

Yeah, yep.

Yeah, so it even got worse than that. mean, I was buying probably, there was five, six bucks a sheet at the time and it went up to $32 in three months. anyway, I had 36 homes going at the time and I had to provide lumber on all of it. It was a rough time. And so just decided to shut that down and transition into, I was doing real estate and development stuff and so I got into that.

Ryan Uffens (09:39)
Hmm.

Mike Merrill - Big T (09:56)
I ended up getting a real estate license. And at that same time, one of my best friends, used to work from my construction company. And he had one going to, had this idea to invent or write software on Palm Pilots to let the guys clock in and out on the job sites. So we really invented a mobile time clock. There was nothing anywhere. We never heard of one. Nobody invented it yet.

We just came out with it and started, you know, partner with a couple of software guys. And we built that business for about 20 years actually. And so we actually sold it a couple of years ago and I was with them until the end of last year and just transitioned out. so, so I, I sold two construction for that whole time. Yeah. Thank you. And we, you know, had millions of users all over the world, even. I mean, I went to Australia and Canada and all kinds of places. had customers everywhere. But, you know, it was a fun.

Ryan Uffens (10:39)
for you man, congrats.

Mike Merrill - Big T (10:53)
We went through the technology boom. We were on Palm pilots that were disconnected. Bluetooth wasn't invented. There was no such thing as Wi-Fi. And so we were really early. Then BlackBerry came out, and that just changed the game, the connectivity, and mobile communication. And of course, iPhone and Android came, and that just really was a really green field for us. So we just focused on construction because that's what we knew.

So I've been chasing back. I got a text about five minutes ago from one of my customers down in the Dallas area, like a 1,200 employee concrete company. He's like, hey, I need to get another demo of WorkMax. That was our company product. It was called WorkMax. And so I just texted the sales guy there. How's it going? Haven't talked to you in a while. But just kind of a past life. But how that parlays into now is like every

blue collar guy out there, which a lot of I'm still pretty blue collar myself, but just in a different way now. I had to really make opportunities to get out on hunts. so I had a phenomenal, my best year ever last year, but it was also the first year that I really didn't have other obligations that were keeping me from finishing out my hunts. And you kind of figure you're a little newer to it. And I've heard

I heard you talking with Brian Barney, a good friend of mine also. It was a great episode. Guys like Brian, he's just such a, it's just all second nature to him. Like he's just a freaking hard drive of Intel and information. He's as good as it gets at being stealthy and out there with his bow only. And so when you have to go back, because you've got

Ryan Uffens (12:19)
Thank you.

Mike Merrill - Big T (12:41)
trade shows or a demo or you got meetings and you can't stay those extra couple days. Like you just spent a week and you figured it all out and you kind of have things dialed in and you kind of know what to do. And then if you have to leave before you can seal the deal and get it done, not only do you miss that opportunity and that experience and that fulfillment and the reward and everything else, but it's like.

you got to start over because the next hunt, if it's next season or if it's different unit or if it's different species, you're starting over. And so that day's in the field. But days in the field in a condensed period of time, that's how you're going to find consistent success over time. And you're going to find shortcuts and things that not shortcuts like lazy, but like more efficient ways of doing things that will help you, the e-scouting and pre-season scouting. ⁓

the reading tracks, learning about sign, studying on Google Maps or OnX and Go Hunt, all these Gaia, all these online maps. Mark Levisey teaches amazing courses on that. And I've taken a bunch of them. And it all just kind of helps. But at the end of the day, you've got to be out there. you have to. Brian Barney said, you want to kill an elk, you got to find where the elk are. And so it's really hard to do in

Ryan Uffens (14:02)
Yeah.

Mike Merrill - Big T (14:04)
long weekends or bonsai trips. And even last year, which, you know, I'm fairly successful generally, you know, knowing a lot of this stuff I've doing a while, but I had a really good deer tag and a really good hook tag in Utah. And I was like, you know, and in the past, I'd be like hopscotching back and forth. I'm looking for the, oh, I see these. I'm going to chase them. Oh, dang, that didn't work out. Blew them out. Oh, now I got to find the deer again. And so I just decided I'm not.

going anywhere, I'm not doing anything until I kill this buck that I want to kill. And so it took me 12 days. And the deer that I killed, we saw the afternoon before the opener in a perfect spot. And I ended up killing him about 400 yards up the hill from where he was 12 days later. But every single day when we tried to go find him and had to help other guys, we

we couldn't find that buck. And so I was hunting other deer, getting reps in with other deer, trying to stalk in on other deer while we're waiting for this buck to show. And I found a pretty good one that I decided I was going to shoot. And ⁓ just a really cool buck, double cheaters. We call them Cheeto because he had like a five inch cheater just straight out one side and it was all velveted up. And it looked like a giant Cheeto hanging outside of his rack. And he had another cheater on this side, really cool deer. But he was a mainframe three by four.

So wasn't like exactly what I was hoping for, but he had so much character and he was still, it was the biggest tear I'd seen at that point, other than this buck I killed, but we couldn't turn him back up. So we just kept grinding and grinding and grinding and grinding. mean, I'm, you know, whatever it took. ⁓ And finally, ⁓ the buck that I had been trying, I had three stocks in on this Cheeto buck. I got 42 yards from him, totally had him.

He didn't know I was there. I was there for like 10 minutes. And he was behind this brush. And I hunt with Grim Reaper, Carnivores. And I usually will have one fixed blade, which is a really good tip for guys, one fixed blade ⁓ arrow in there also with broadhead. So if I got to shoot through Sage brush or something, if for some reason I feel like this is going to probably work out, I feel good about this. ⁓

You know, I may have to go through some some weeds or something to get to this buck, but I didn't happen to have my fixed blade in the quiver at the time. So with those expandables, I just not shooting through that brush. I'm not going to wound that deer. I don't want to blow him out here. So anyway, finally, the wind switches, you know, as happens a lot. And, you know, they took off. And that was my third stock in on him. And the other ones got messed up by a coyote one time, got messed up by some other deer. They got kicked up from.

basins over by somebody else. Just crazy stuff where you do all the work, you do it all right, and these external circumstances really just jack you up on your hunt. So I'm like, okay, well, I'm just going to keep after it. And so after that buck blew out, he went into an area where there was kind of some private, you know, in the middle of this public, and he was kind of pulling up in there. And so we're like, all right, we're going to go find our number one buck and

And so we just, we call them stickers because he's got a couple of cheaters on both sides. Anyway, we drove 26 miles of dirt road. I went in a side by side and my brother and a guy that was helping us. have a nephew that's an outfitter, Lone Tree Outfitters, and he had one of his guys out there helping me. And so they went all the way around up one base and I went all the way around up the other. And I did a hike.

⁓ in the dark and I hiked about 2,000 feet of gain about a mile and a half in like I think it about 45 minutes. This was in September. This was on September, September 2nd, I think, or 1st. It's like, yeah, I think 1st. Yeah. So it's hot, but the, you know, the bucks were just starting to strip their velvet. The bulls are all, you know, lot of more stripped off. But anyway, this deer.

Ryan Uffens (17:57)
And what time of year was this?

Okay.

Okay. Okay.

Mike Merrill - Big T (18:17)
We go up where we thought he was up and over the ridge from where we had seen him the last time. And we thought, bet he's just rolled over that hill. So we decided to just go. So we got up like four in the morning, drove clear around. I hiked up like it took me. I was like 45 minutes. I was huffing at full pack. Just it was so freaking steep. And I just, you know, went as fast as I could trying to get up there before first light so that I could start glassing those basins on the other side from where we'd been hunting.

Ryan Uffens (18:46)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Merrill - Big T (18:46)
We hadn't

been there all season on this other side. Well. ⁓ Finally, my and I'm radioing and I can't get anybody and finally I get a text that actually comes through and they said we found him. ⁓ But he rolled over the other side, so back to where he'd been before and where he'd been hunting the whole time, he rolled up and over this giant mountain and I'm just like, ⁓ I'm so gassed.

But they're like, get back to the buggy and get around. We'll meet you there. so I'm almost I'm literally like 100 yards from the peak and just like, Frick, OK, you know, I've been going. Yeah, yeah.

Ryan Uffens (19:24)
And this is where a lot of like the mindset stuff, right, Mike, that like

we talked about, mean, all the guys that are super successful. It's like that mindset and, just from following you, like you're a total like positive dude, like you just like you put good vibes out into the universe. And so, but, but I, but with that being said, I guarantee you, like you, I saw it like in your face, you're like, Hey, he rolled back over the other side. And you're like, Oh, I just like,

Mike Merrill - Big T (19:52)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (19:54)
hike 45 minutes up here.

Mike Merrill - Big T (19:54)
It's kind of defeat for a moment. Yeah. And it was, I was hauling. I was hauling, but yeah. So I was just gas.

Ryan Uffens (20:00)
You're moving so

it wasn't just like a stroll up the side like you were going up there with intent. Yeah.

Mike Merrill - Big T (20:04)
No, lollygagging. No, it was with ⁓

intent and aggression. was hiking. was, was, I was, ⁓ yeah, well, my friend of my, one of my other friends, Wayne Endicott owns a boat rack up in Oregon, just such an amazing man, just a great friend. Wayne always talks about how it's

Ryan Uffens (20:13)
Hiking to Kill.

You drop

him like he's like just like nobody. I mean you're talking about Wayne and a cop man. Anyway. Yeah.

Mike Merrill - Big T (20:28)
I don't know. Well, yeah, that's right. Yeah, the herd bull. Yeah. I mean, most most people know him. Yeah. But Wayne is

always he'll he he talks about hunting angry. And it means you're just a little a little chippy. You're kind of you're a little pissed. Like I'm I'm after I'm going to kill this buck. I'm going to get him. And that's that's what that's how I was hiking because I'm like, I'm going to find that.

Ryan Uffens (20:50)
That's.

that's

so interesting. And I think and I apologize for interrupting you, Mike, but I think that that is great advice. And it's interesting because we had talked a little bit about me coaching baseball, right. And I would tell my kids sometimes, I'd be like, Hey, like, swing angry, like, go up there and try and hurt that ball. And and that's like, I'm surprised I haven't had that realization myself to like hunt angry, right?

Mike Merrill - Big T (21:03)
Yeah.

yeah, yep, yep.

Yeah,

yeah.

Ryan Uffens (21:21)
Like because you do when when when I teach my kids, mean I grew up playing ball in that too. Like I would swing angry. Sometimes you just like close your eyes, clench the cheeks and just turn on it. See what happens. But but but anyway, yeah, so anyway I I apologize but so so you get up there and and you're you're hunting angry and you're going up with this intent and this stinking buck decides like he's like watch this. I'm gonna go back over where I was. What was your mindset? I mean again the frustration.

Mike Merrill - Big T (21:32)
same. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (21:51)
And you're probably going to get to it. But anyway, I went on a tangent and interrupted you, so I'll just let you pick back up where you are.

Mike Merrill - Big T (21:54)
That's okay.

Yeah, no, no. So again, which, you know, we've all been, I'm not talking road rage angry, right? I'm not talking like really just, you know, ineffective wasted energy, right? That's even maybe ludicrous and stupid. Cause you make mistakes when you're being an idiot, you know, when you're, when you're mad, I'm so mad at you. Like, you know, it's not what it is. It's intent and purpose and determination.

Ryan Uffens (22:06)
Right.

It's

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I don't think that's what it's

like. Jordan Peterson talks about like have a monster. You have to want to have a monster inside of you, but you got to be able to control him. And so sometimes like when you let that monster loose, like you do things that your body might not think is possible, but you don't want to just go like complete rage. Right? I get it. I get it.

Mike Merrill - Big T (22:27)
⁓ absolutely. Yep, that's exactly right. Yeah.

Right. ⁓ for sure. Yeah.

Yeah, it's

adrenaline. It's grit. It's it's the and I don't. A lot of guys will know what we're talking about. I think probably everybody does for one reason or another, but. But when I'm hunting like that's, you know, like I love the camaraderie, I love the people I love all. You know, I just came back from rivets. I was at a bear camp and I love the social. I love the guys that I was with, the two of my friends, and then I helped recommend they come. We all joined in this camp together. It was amazing. But.

I have a bear tag in my pocket. I want go kill a bear. So I don't I don't want to I didn't want to go sit and just shoot arrows. You know, like I could do that at home. I do that at home. I don't need I'm not I didn't go to Alberta, Canada to shoot my bow. I went to kill a bear. And last year I went and got a bear, a good bear. This year was a little bit better even. But my son went with me last year's first bow kill. He killed a giant seven foot four color phase. It was amazing. Such a great experience. But

Ryan Uffens (23:29)
Yeah, right.

Mike Merrill - Big T (23:43)
It was the same thing then. There were other guys that, you know, they were, they went walleye fishing because the walleye fishing open, like, you know, they went earlier in the day, the bear hunting. wouldn't go out till late afternoon. And I'm just like, I just, I love fishing. I love walleye fishing. I love, but I'm hunting bear. I don't, I don't care about walleye. Like I'm, I don't, my brain doesn't even want to think about fish at all. I don't want to pollute my mind with anything but delivering a perfectly, you know, know, executed arrow.

Ryan Uffens (24:13)
So you get hyper focused on the job at task, whereas a guy like me who has ADHD would be like, hey, maybe let's go try the walleye fishing for a minute. But you do their...

Mike Merrill - Big T (24:13)
on a great board.

Right. Yeah, I think I have some of that too, but I yeah,

I channel it right. I channeled to the thing.

Ryan Uffens (24:25)
Yeah. Well,

yeah, that's, that's where that, that's where the Adderall kicks in for me. It like once, once that, once I take that, that puts me in like locked in mode and then I can't think about anything else. ⁓ and I hate that that that's something about me that I have to deal with, but, I think sometimes for me, like when I've gotten up on the mountain, like I didn't grow, I mean, I grew up in the outdoors, like going to the lake, skiing, I mean, played baseball. I mean, we didn't really camp.

Mike Merrill - Big T (24:29)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (24:55)
But I get out there and I look at the beauty of it. And I think for the first little bit, like I was just happy to be out there. If I stumbled across something great. But now it's like, now I'm like, I definitely have a different mindset. I mean, even the preparation that I put into preparing for this year is entirely different than it has been previously.

Mike Merrill - Big T (25:03)
Bonus, yeah.

Yeah, it's just progression. You're ready

for more. You went from kindergarten. Now you're ready. And, you know, when you get to junior high, you're looking to high school. You don't want to go back. So it's like you just got to keep. You're just just in preschool right now. So that was exciting time. mean, if you know, not the I'm grateful for what I had, but if someone's going to find it now and, know, in their 40s or whatever, like that, I call it adult onset type two fun.

Ryan Uffens (25:24)
I'm not even that far, I'm just getting the training wheels taken off right now.

Yeah.

Mike Merrill - Big T (25:44)
where you really find this now. You've got all the tools in the world that none of us that have been doing it for 30, 40 years ever even had, or, you know, it just didn't didn't have it. There's no YouTube. There's no technology. It's like if your uncle would tell you a couple of secrets, like you feel like you cashed in and like you're going to just kill everything this next year because you now learn this thing, you know, that he took 30 years to learn himself. so it's a little different time. But back to go ahead.

Ryan Uffens (25:46)
Man.

Yeah.

It was like... Yeah.

So.

You know, that's what I was gonna say. I like I said, with my ADHD, I go off on tangents and I apologize to other people. But back to the mountain, you got radioed in bucks rolled back over to the other side. You're like, you got to be kidding me. They're saying get back down and I'll take it from there.

Mike Merrill - Big T (26:31)
So I ran down the mountain. ran, ran, ran, didn't roll. I'm pretty good. I trail run a lot. I, I love my wife gets so mad when I take her trail running. And sometimes cause the trail that I go on is it's nasty. I mean, it's so bad. It's, hard to get a four wheeler up at around it gets, you know, I can't run the whole thing. I have to pipe fast, you know, and then run when I can until I just can't. And then I hike and then I pick it up and run again. And but

It's just so rocky and uneven. so this, you know, I'm running down the steep mountain with my pack on and my and I have my bow in my hand. I mean, I'm doing the whole thing and I just ran, ran, ran as fast as I could. I get to my side by side and I'm booking it. I mean, I'm going I'm topping it out at 60 plus on these dirt roads. mean, just, you know, it took me 24 minutes to get all the way back around. And it was probably as the you know, as a crow flies, it was probably only

two miles away from where I'd hiked to where I was going, but it was like 26 miles of road, of dirt road. So they beat me by like 10 minutes by the time I get to the spot where we'd been glassing him before, they had just picked him up. They barely picked him up like a minute before I got there, right before he bedded down. it would have been tough to pick him out had they not been.

there when they were there. And so it's like, man. So we found him and he's at the top of this thing. And I've hunted deer there a couple of other years. And I know this mountain. I know some of the trees they like to bed in. I knew where to go and how to get up there. And so anyway, we made a plan. And once they bedded in their first bed, I said, well, it's going to take me an hour and a half to get up there. So I'm just going to start going. We left my brother with the radio and then the other guy, Heston, was

Ryan Uffens (28:00)
Hmm.

Mike Merrill - Big T (28:26)
⁓ hiking up with me, we end up splitting up eventually and just trying to turn up these bucks. Well, he ended up being in a group with four other bucks and then there was a doe with them. And so while I'm three-fourths the way up to the vantage point to the top, ⁓ kind of where it looked like they might be heading, the four deer, the four or the four other bucks and the doe go rolling up the hill from where they had been bedded.

And my brother couldn't, he never saw this biggest buck that was kind of the lead, but he never saw him leave, but he was just in a place where he just couldn't see him. It's like, oh, he had to have gone with him. Had to have slipped out with him. So, and it was, were in a spot where he just didn't have the vantage to see into it. You know, he'd see him if they went out, but he couldn't see right where they were at at the time. So we spent...

⁓ By this time it was probably, I think it was 930 in the morning and we started at, four. It's nine thirty in the morning. We've already done all this and now we're now we've got them turned up and I'm hiking up in on them. So we end up going up this thing. We get clear up to the top. Very, very top. There's like this cliff ledge and I'm literally like creeping up over the cliff. I don't even want to skyline my head, but I like to stick my eyes over in my glass and I'm trying to trying to pick these deer up. Finally, I find.

And the other guy did. And, you know, my brother ended up seeing him. So we all have these deer pinned and we can see where they're at. We start looking through and finding embedded and finding each one. Well, we don't see this biggest buck. We're just like, where did that sucker go? Did he stay back? Did he leave out early? We just didn't know. So again, ⁓ there was there was a pretty good, really, really nice mainframe for that I kind of passed up a few days earlier, a young deer.

probably only four, but probably like 180 inch buck, like a very, very awesome jeans, but a little thinner horn, just not, you a young face. Great deer, but I was really looking to kill something a little older and, you know, a little more, a little more unique if I could. And so I wasn't going to go after him again. And so I thought, well.

We just got to turn this other buck up. So we sat there and baked in the sun. I'm out of no coverage. I mean, I had a little cliff ledge that I kind of, you know, hid in while the sun was beating on us for a little bit. But generally, I'm just baking in the sun. And it wasn't till about 430 p.m. Finally, this other group of deer gets up and kind of starts milsy and up the basin and up towards where we had been the day before going back up or the morning earlier, just back up over where they.

had rolled over from and still couldn't turn this big buck up. Well, when we had seen him before, he was in full velvet. And some of these other deer were still in velvet. They hadn't rubbed Some of had. So it's like, know, I really wanted to kill a velvet buck. But, you know, if he doesn't have velvet, then I'm just, you know, going to shoot what he is. Right. So so we ended up just glassing, glassing, glassing, watching, watching, watching about 6 30 p.m. I I.

Ryan Uffens (31:39)
Hmm.

Mike Merrill - Big T (31:47)
I can see a deer's body down in this cut. And the craziest part about it was that deer was only 400 yards away from me. And he'd been there the whole time that I was there. And so had I gotten lax, gotten lazy, gotten talky, gotten chatty, got hanging out, if I exposed myself, if I'd made noise, if I wasn't creeping and really, really being as stealthy as I could.

I'm probably going blow that deer out, or at least he's going to know I'm there and, you know, it's going to change things up. So. So I ⁓ I can't see his antlers yet, you know, and also when I see the deer get up and he's kind of moving down and that's a steep cut, it's probably like six or seven feet deep. It's just a place where runoff has just cut into the mountain and he's down at the bottom of this thing. So he's very he's covered in shade and, you know, I'm lucky to even see him moving through there. So.

Finally, he comes back up a little higher and he ends up bedding again. And I pick my glass up and I'm trying to pick something out. And I see silhouetted on either side of this sagebrush these red antlers. So he literally had just barely, he was like bloody scraped just that morning. ⁓ And so what we figure is he got up ahead of those deer to go.

Ryan Uffens (33:05)
just pulled the velvet off.

Mike Merrill - Big T (33:10)
to go ⁓ shed his velvet, you know, because they get real agitated. I don't know if you've watched that much or it's really fun to watch and film and to see, but they just get, you know, it's like if you get something that's just itching really bad, you just can't scratch it enough. And that's how they act. They're just they just get feverish about getting that velvet off. And so we figure he must have gotten up to rub his velvet off and then just moseyed up ahead. And so he just wasn't with the other group.

Ryan Uffens (33:29)
Yeah.

Mike Merrill - Big T (33:40)
So this became a great blessing because the other deer got up and where he was bedded, he couldn't even see him, wouldn't hurt him. He was kind of sheltered in this little cut. They got up and went up and over the ridge. So now they're out of the game. And I don't have to worry about, you know, 10 or 12 eyes and ears and nose, you know, six noses. And so now I've got my buck and he's only 400 yards away. So anyway, we end up deciding on the radio is like, OK, I'm just going to sit here and wait.

Ryan Uffens (33:59)
Hmm.

Mike Merrill - Big T (34:10)
there's a high chance he's going to go up the cut. And I was probably 100 yards laterally away from the ridge line and maybe another 200 yards this way. And I'd be right where he's going to right go to the pinch point. He's probably going to go up and over if he goes that way. And I figured I could probably be within like three minutes. I could be there with my bow and ready to go from where I was sitting. So I'm like, OK, I got time to figure out what he's really doing. So. ⁓

And I thought he might just go straight back downhill and feed to where we saw him the day before the opener too. That's where he was bedded the last time. So we waited, waited, waited. Well, about maybe seven o'clock, he gets up, starts feeding around. He's going up the hill. And so we're trying to decide, got time. I'm not going to rush anything. I'm not going to go commit to this other area and then have to go turn back around.

I just waited, waited, waited. And finally, after maybe 20 yards of going up the hill, all of a sudden he kind of turns sideways towards me. And I got a great view of him. And we got eyes on him. And he doesn't know we're there. And all of a sudden he starts turning back around and going downhill. So the guy, Heston, was helping me, he hiked clear back around to meet where I was watching from. He's on the other side of the basin, maybe 300, 400 yards away, looking the opposite way.

I had him come down around the backside and get in the spot where I was at a great vantage point. And I said, I'm going to run down this other side. It was a very steep. So where I was looking up and over very steep. So I could go down here, maybe 20 yards and make any noise I wanted. And he's never going to hear me down here either. So I could be a little more, you know, a little more rushed and not have to try and be so sneaky. So, you know, I went appropriately down quickly, you know.

just fast stepped it all the way back down. And I basically said, you know, let's pick a couple of cedar trees. I marked them on onyx. thought, OK, if I get to this, he's probably going to come through there. Maybe I get a little higher. So we kind of picked two or three trees. I pinned those. And I just ran down the backside of that mountain until I got ahead of him. And then I just snuck up slowly to try and meet him and cut him off where he was coming in. And eventually it worked out. I mean, he

He was, I moved trees like three times because I just kept saying, look, I'm not, he could take forever to get down here. You know, he may, who even knows? I'm not going to waste the opportunity. So as long as he knows I'm not or doesn't know that I'm here, I'm just going to keep sneaking a little bit closer and just make sure I don't expose myself. So I did finally got up to the last year tree that I had any cover on and.

where I thought he was headed and my buddy radios me and says, hey, he's all right, he's coming. And so, and I still couldn't see him yet, still couldn't see him yet. And all of a sudden I see his back and his head's kind of swaying, he's eating as he's feeding. And I arranged it and the tree was 51 yards that he just came out from behind. Basically he was about 51 yards away when he exposed himself.

I almost got up to draw and I'm just down on one knee. I don't really have I'm in front of the bush, not behind. That's another mistake I've made so many times. Don't hide behind a bush and wait for them to come around and not see you and whack them. You hide in front of the bush. That's why you have camo on. That's why you try and play the wind. That's why you're going to sit still and wait for the right moment. And so I went I was in front of the bush and nothing was blocking me. And eventually he came and, you know,

kind of looked up and I thought, ⁓ man, you he's going to see me. He kind of looked my way. Took like two minutes to really feel like he was actually going to keep coming. So finally he puts his head back down and takes a couple more steps. So I, I radioed my guy and said, Hey, I'm okay. I'm going to draw on him and I'm just going to smoke him. And so, so I'm on one knee, I draw back and he's coming. And then he stops with this, with like

full frontal, like he's not broadside. He's not where I want to. I don't want to shoot him, you know, frontal at 51 yards or 50 yards by then. And so. ⁓ This is actually really funny, so a couple of years ago we did ⁓ Elkshape has this December Chubb challenge or whatever, and he did this where you draw and then let down and, you know, shoot a target for like three feet away, like five times and.

Ryan Uffens (38:50)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Merrill - Big T (38:55)
had just these series of reps and it's like, that's a good, you know, that's cool. Okay. So I've kind of practiced that. And then another thing I added to my practice is sometimes I'll just sit and see how long I can hold and then let off like a shot that I feel good about now, you know, and, know, I'm shooting 80, it's twisted up. It's like 84 pounds. Like it's, you know, it's pretty much all you can shoot. have a 31 and a half inch draw length. So pretty long arrows, you know, smoking, but

Ryan Uffens (39:08)
Hmm.

Mike Merrill - Big T (39:23)
you know, these new Hoyts, I mean, I had an RX-8 then, I have an RX-9 now, which is even better. But, you know, they're pretty forgiving for the power that they have. So I just sat there and I think it was two and a half to three minutes, I figured. I was holding a full draw and aiming and just on him. And but maybe a minute into this, I'm like, oh my gosh. And I thought, well, this is why I practice it. So I literally said.

in a whisper to myself, I can do this all day, buddy. Just come when you're ready. That's what I said. And you know, two and a half or so minutes in, he took a couple more steps. He turned just a little bit this way, starts kind of quartering too and then almost broadside enough. And I'm like, smoked him. ⁓ He went.

Ryan Uffens (40:12)
opened up.

Mike Merrill - Big T (40:21)
He went about 50 yards total, but he died 35 yards away from where I shot him out. He kind of went around and died right now below me. One arrow. ⁓ I actually I've never heard this before, but I literally heard his lung deflate and then his back leg as he was going to run off like he couldn't use it was like frozen. And what had happened is I got him in the lungs and the little bit of the angle caught a little bit of the back, you know, back quarter.

And it just, you know, paralyze that he just couldn't use it. And anyway, died in less than 10 seconds, was just deader than dead. And so I went up to go look for my arrow. I waited for a few minutes and just I'm like. Oh, yeah, I forgot this. So when he goes, when he quarters down and he's only 35 yards away, I already had a range, I'd arrange those bushes and, you know, there's kind of a little little runoff crick.

that was in the bottom there and he ended up stopping and I'm like, I had another arrow on him. I could have smoked him and I just getting ready to let go. And then all of a sudden he starts kind of teetering a little bit. And then he just fell over sideways and like almost feet up, kind of dead, dead, dead, dead. And that's him. That's the buck.

Ryan Uffens (41:37)
Feel the death wobble.

Is this him?

Yeah, it's a good looking buck man. That's wild. A lot of work.

Mike Merrill - Big T (41:46)
That's the book. Thank you. Yeah, he's cool.

Yeah, and it was just it was just so fun to I mean, just, you know, the journey of that and then realizing again for, you know, just not many times. Now, I haven't always had the the luxury, you know, job wise of keeping, you know, taking extra days. I mean, that's my brother there and so I'm there with the backstraps and camp and.

Yeah, just really, Yeah, yeah. Yeah, just ⁓ such a great memory. But when I look back through their testing that was helping us ⁓ and there's the shot carnivore. Instagram didn't like that one for a while. They jacked me on that post for a while, but I didn't take it down. I just left it and it's still there now. So that's good. But but yeah, you know, you think back to all those things and it's like.

Ryan Uffens (42:15)
yeah, that's your brother.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Dang.

Yeah.

Mike Merrill - Big T (42:43)
you know, the other buck that I could have shot almost and just didn't never quite worked out. And after every one of those moments where it's like. I don't know why it didn't work out like I really I put so much effort in. I really I tried to care for the right reasons. I wasn't hunting inches or, you know, trophy that way. Just what what really gets me excited and revved up and what would be a great way to end this hunt? And this was the buck. And, you know, 12 days of.

chase another deer and glassing and, you know, early, early mornings and late nights and all the miles. And it was like, you know, 100 degrees and hot and dusty and all the other crap. This is the high mountain desert in Utah. And I loved all of it. Like I had joy on the journey. I was happy while I was doing it. I was never miserable because I know like this is what I this is what I want. I want it to be hard. I don't.

I don't want it to be harder than has to be, but the heart's good. It's good to struggle and to earn it and work for it because it's so much more rewarding when you do. And this kind of symbolizes, again, just the 50 other hunts I've been on that didn't work out that way, or that you end up shooting something different than you hoped, or you never really got a chance, or you left early. Or last year, I had two tags I never hunted on. So that's the other thing that I wanted to share is.

I'm learning it more and more. It's getting it's hard to learn. But like, you know, I put in for all these states and all. And then last year I drew all this stuff and I was like, my gosh, I'm like bouncing here and going from here and going to there. And, know, I'm three days in Idaho and then I'm going over to Colorado and then I'm hitting, you know, I had a North Dakota antelope hunt, which was so fun. And it was amazing archery only. I didn't end up getting a buck. I, you know, got in on two amazing bucks the last day before we were leaving and.

Just didn't work out, but I sit and look at the miles and the time and the effort. And I thought, I would have been way better served to focus a little harder on four or five hunts than eight. And get one done, and then don't stack it so deep that you just can't commit the time and the effort and the energy, and that you're just hoping on some extra luck or to cash in on something that

You know, you just happen to have fall in your lap once in a while it happens, but I just would rather not plan on that and be all in on what I'm in on now and not leave before I can get it done. It's just, you know, it's it's heartache and headache and it's expensive and you're just kind of chasing your tail. So I'm really trying to focus more on hunting, you know, the best units I can get in hunting on really good tags when I can.

I do DIY stuff too, when I'm over the counter, when I don't have a tag here in Utah that I draw or can get my hands on. I do all that too. ⁓ So it's really about being committed to the experience you want and then doing everything to make sure that you allow that to happen. And in the past, you talk about the ADD stuff.

You know, it's like I'm hoarding tags, you know, like the tags not that's not that's not what you're after. Like I want to notch that and I want to have a great animal to hang it on. And I want to love and enjoy that Traeger smoked meat and share it with my family and, you know, just enjoy everything about and have beautiful taxidermy to sit and look at in my basement. You know, and so I think just being more intentional. And so when I'm hunting angry, it's like, I could do something about it.

Ryan Uffens (46:28)
Hmm.

Mike Merrill - Big T (46:35)
You can be angry and then never get anything because and then you're angry because you didn't get anything. But I want to be angry at like, I'm going to get this buck. I'm going to figure out how to, you know, wait for him to slip up and I'm going to be here when he does. But if you're running around, you know, hunting 18 different things, like it's just it's just really it's like the walleye fishing during a bear hunt. Like I just it's I'm never going to do that if I have a tag still like ever, you know.

Ryan Uffens (46:49)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's, I mean, it's nice. I think you look at a lot of the guys that are able to go out and like, mean, hunt year round. I mean, it's what they do for a living. They create their films, they create their content. And I think that's awesome. And it's something to be great to aspire to. ⁓ When the time's right. I mean, if if if you're at an age and you're younger, and that's what you want to do, like get after it, go see what you can build for yourself. But there's also like, I mean, I've got a full time job. ⁓

Mike Merrill - Big T (47:12)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm.

Ryan Uffens (47:31)
You know, I, this hunting podcast is something I do out of passion and it's been a ton of fun. And like you said, like I love people getting to meet them and hear their stories and what makes them tick and what's led them to success. You know, them themselves, both professionally, you know, and in the field. But there comes a point where, I mean, yes, you can apply for tags, but if you can't make things work,

Mike Merrill - Big T (47:33)
Sure.

Ryan Uffens (48:00)
⁓ the tag is nice, but if you can't go out and hunt it, it's like, what's, what's, what's the point? mean, you could potentially, I'm not knocking you or anybody else, but if you don't use it, you could potentially be taking it away from somebody else. ⁓ depending on if it's like a limited dry area or something like that, but, but it's like, I, you know, we were, we were going to try and go up with Tai U bank and couple of us were going to go do a bear hunt this summer, but.

Mike Merrill - Big T (48:03)
Yeah.

That's true. ⁓

.

Ryan Uffens (48:29)
It was like a bit of a stretch to try it was spring summer. Feels like summer. It's so bloody hot here lately, but but yeah, we were going to go do a spring spring bear hunt up up in Idaho, but it just. It just didn't feel like it felt like it was going to be forced and I'm like I want to be able to go up there with the people that I want to go with and like just enjoy ourselves and be able to do that. Because it would have been the first time I've ever been a bear hunt and you know, feel.

Mike Merrill - Big T (48:33)
Yeah, yeah, springs are hot.

Ryan Uffens (48:57)
he felt very confident that he would help us, you know, fill the tag that we were able to go get. And I mean, anybody can go get that tag. It's not like, you know, it's hard. But the time commitment, you want to be able to go and enjoy it and not have the distraction like, crap, like I got to get back to work. Like we've got, you know, you know, that when we were going to go, it just, there's too many moving pieces and it's like, don't force it.

Mike Merrill - Big T (49:05)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (49:23)
You know, and you should do it for you. Like if you want to go by yourself and do a solo hunt, like go do it. But you know what we were talking about doing, we wanted to go up there and kind of have that experience of like camp and be with people and be able to go out and do some of those other things. And it's like with Dustin and Quinn, you know, and Jackson and I, ⁓ Quinn put in for one unit, said he had like a 99 % draw odd and we kind of built our hunts around.

Mike Merrill - Big T (49:33)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Uffens (49:51)
hey, we're gonna go help him harvest this bowl, right? And he didn't dry out. Like, it's like, yeah, great. But, but as a backup plan in that same area, I'm like, well, hey, I'm gonna put in for a buck. Because if we go down and we stumble across something like, I'll take a buck down there. Well, I did dry out both my son and I dropped for that same unit that he was wanting to get for a buck. we're gonna, you know, we're gonna go down there and

Mike Merrill - Big T (49:55)
Yeah.

Sifting.

Ryan Uffens (50:20)
do some scouting and get ready and we're gonna look for buck but I think there's gonna be some, still looking at it as an opportunity to learn and beg, okay, where are the elk down here? While we're down there kind of do a two-ferred because it's likely the next year he should be able to get it. So I don't know, but just hunt with intention, hunt with a purpose.

Mike Merrill - Big T (50:40)
Yeah. Well, yeah.

And you talk about learning and that's another thing too. I learn every year, like totally new things. I see things I haven't seen. I experience something a little differently. I learn the hard way a lot of times. Sometimes I have to relearn things, which that's when it sucks. When you're like, gosh dang it, I totally know better than that. Why did I do that again? Or whatever it is. But ⁓ part of I think that

that fulfillment and like really deciding what you want out of this hunt and what like what your real goal is. And early on, you know, and I wasn't really good at this as a younger bow hunter. Like I passed up a lot of animals like 20, 30 yards away that didn't know I'm there. But it's like, well, I don't want to shoot that little three point or, you know, I should have shot a few of those early and, you know, got like.

figured it out, like if they're going to jump the string or like you can get experiences while you're doing it. And, you know, it's almost like. I think people sometimes get the tendency to. ⁓ Like they're giving themselves street cred or like a pat on the back because, yeah, I'd like had three chances, but I passed them up and like they feel good about that and like that's an accomplishment and it is to a degree. But if you don't have some reps under your belt where you've.

done that. then you quartered the deer or the elk out and you had to cut it up and you had to pack it out. And if it if you go years without filling tags like you're going to forget how to do some of those things and you're going to learn the hard way and then you're going to, know, just it's it's it's just best to get those reps early. mean, I know, you know, I was listening to the podcast yet with Brian Barney and he was talking about, you know, shooting does down in the in the hay fields and, you know, just getting reps, you know.

shooting an animal with an arrow and executing that shot and getting those experiences so that when you have the buck or bull of your dreams or when you have a giant bear, you're not learning on that first huge opportunity where it's like, this is a buck or bull of a lifetime and I just missed it or I cracked a stick or I've learned that when I'm archery hunting and anywhere I'm stocking in like.

I'll pick up stuff off the ground. I'll move it around. I'll get rid of the sticks. I'll try and make it quieter anywhere I'm going to be and just avoid those things from happening that can happen to draw attention to you when you're not ready to. So just things that you would only learn by doing and experiencing firsthand versus never learning any of it until now it's go time. And this is like your first.

time really going all the way through the process, right?

Ryan Uffens (53:37)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's what that's I mean, that's what I've said like this year. If it's legal, I'm going to drop it. I mean, I don't even I tell myself I tell my and I've always kind of had that like mindset going into it. But but yeah, if if it's illegal buck or bowl or dough or cow. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Mike Merrill - Big T (53:46)
⁓ Cool. Yeah.

If it's brown, it's down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ryan Uffens (54:06)
Like

as long as what I'm shooting at is legal and I'm not going to lose my license and get fined and impounded, like I'm going to drop it. Because I just want to have that experience like you had talked about of just being able to like pack it up, quarter it, pack it up, haul it out, you know, and be able to go back and throw the stuff on the Traeger and try your own different recipes. I mean, it's great. People have been good about like, hey, let me get you, I want to get you some meat. And I'm like, thanks. And I appreciate it. I do.

Mike Merrill - Big T (54:16)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Uffens (54:35)
But like there is something to you being able to provide that for yourself and for your family. And, you know, it helps you to be able to grow as an individual and it allows you to adapt your different techniques. And it just, changes. I think it changes who we are. I mean, just as a society, like we talked about just, you know, the, the ADHD, right? We're constantly being pulled different directions, trying to do different things. And it's, ⁓ it.

Mike Merrill - Big T (54:37)
Your own. Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (55:05)
It can wear on you and being able to get out there in the outdoors, you get that reset. And then if you're... And I've been very grateful for the opportunities that I've had out in the field, even though I've been unsuccessful. Because

Mike Merrill - Big T (55:19)
Mm-hmm, yeah.

Ryan Uffens (55:21)
it's just been like a mental cleansing period I've been able to go through. But I can't imagine what it's gonna be like when you come back with some meat thrown in the freezer. You know what I mean?

Mike Merrill - Big T (55:30)
Yeah,

Ryan Uffens (55:31)
Like

Mike Merrill - Big T (55:31)
and you know, it's not

Ryan Uffens (55:32)
it makes you feel kind of like that primal like, urgh.

Mike Merrill - Big T (55:35)
That's it, baby.

Yeah. And it isn't really, you know, and you said, you know, haven't been successful. And I know it's real, you know, ⁓ fashionable to say, ⁓ no, no, you were successful because you got out there. And, you know, there are degrees of of those progression steps that everybody has to go through. Like you, you there's no shortcut. Like you have to do it. And me memorizing, you know, the Alknut, Paul Modell's all of his different

Ryan Uffens (55:55)
Sure.

Mike Merrill - Big T (56:04)
outcalling scenarios and like, it's not a pop quiz in high school. Like, knowing the answer is, that's just the first part of it. Like, you got to be able to execute on it and know when. And the only way you do that is by getting those experiences. And we didn't all have dads that were able to really take us or teach us, right? I mean, was, I had to be self-taught. And I try and teach, have taught my children, none of them are really

Ryan Uffens (56:19)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Mike Merrill - Big T (56:34)
into hunting that. I mean, you my son went on that bear hunt with me last year, had the time of his life. It was amazing. Killed a way bigger bear than me and anyone else in our camp. And it was really, really cool and awesome. And he'd probably love to do it again. But he's not dreaming about it at night. He's not like when I, know, this is why we started our primal performance supplements is fitness and health and being ready, right? The mountain ready. Like there is no off season. We train year round.

We're not training for just hunting. That's what I want to spend my energy on when I have free time for me. But like we're training for life. we're, yeah, people always, you, what are you training for? Marathons? Always like I'm training for life. It's not, it's not about this event or that event. The hunt gives me an excuse to, for me to formulate in my brain why. And it is true. That's what I'm pursuing to, you know, back to, like you said, this like our

Primal Pursuits podcast, it's about getting back to being primal. Like, what is the core of your essence? Like, what are you really after? What are you trying to accomplish? And how are you going to go about that? And you get all the garbage removed from the conversation. You really get down to that nucleus, that core of what you want to represent, what you hope to achieve. It's back to these main things. Like, be determined. Be decisive. Be on purpose. ⁓

And the more you do that and you practice doing it, just like hunting, the more you more you kill animals, the better you get killing animals. You know, the more you shoot your bow, the better you are at shooting your bow. And so finding out what those things are that you're passionate about and that you're interested in and that you really care about and then pursuing those as far as you can and learning all you can to be the best you can at those things. That's where all of a sudden life is happening and you're having these.

growth moments and you find opportunities to apply what I learned in archery to life and to those problems. Or, you we talked about the cold plunging, like I've just never had a bad day after a cold plunge because it's not that I haven't had some tough things happen during the day, but it's like there's not very much. mean, yeah, if I got in like a car accident or something, it'd be horrible. Like, that's not that's not better. But like, generally speaking, day to day life.

Most of what I'm going to do is not going to be harder than sitting in that 39, 40 degree water for 10 minutes and just get over it, right? Just grin and bear it.

Ryan Uffens (59:10)
Yeah,

as you just, you're exactly right. In life, generally speaking, if you force yourself to do things that are hard, not that like the ice baths, right? Like I've heard them talk about that. Like if you like doing the ice baths, it's not building that inner... ⁓

Mike Merrill - Big T (59:31)
Hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (59:33)
drive or that ability to be able to cope. it's something that everyone else thinks is miserable but you like it, it doesn't build that muscle that gives you the resiliency to cope with difficult things. But as you do those things, I hate them. I hate them. I don't like them. ⁓ I do them occasionally. I'll do like a cold shower. The cold showers don't even really work anymore. It's getting so hot that even like just the cold shower water is not that cold.

Mike Merrill - Big T (59:39)
Yeah.

Yep, yep, yep.

Ryan Uffens (1:00:00)
But you do those things and when life happens to you, you're able to deal with it better because your body doesn't, it's fight or flight. It learns to deal with what's happening in the moment without kind of pushing you over the edge and you can just roll with the things that life throws your way.

Mike Merrill - Big T (1:00:21)
Yeah, well, not even the just this just the process of and it's what it's it's wisdom, right? Wisdom is is basically the proper or best application of the knowledge that you have, knowing something and then doing something about it and applying it correctly. That's two different, totally different things. And it's the application of that knowledge at the right time and in the right way. That's that that person's why is like they they get it. And I think

you evolve to a place where in life, none of us are perfect. We all are complete idiots sometimes. Like one day to the next, you can do something just so stupid that just doesn't even, like, why'd I even do that? what, you know, what, it doesn't make sense to me right now because now I'm thinking about it in retrospect. It's like, I was stupid, you know? But generally, I think you can avoid those foot traps that are, you know, people out in society

Ryan Uffens (1:01:15)
Hmm.

Mike Merrill - Big T (1:01:20)
might have a real problem avoiding because they're not challenging themselves. They're not learning. I'm in charge. I'm in control. And even if I can't control everything around me, I can make better choices to put myself in a position where more good things can happen and less bad can happen. And then all of a sudden, you know, it's the old phrase of, know, the harder I work, the luckier I get. And eventually, you know, and then when you have a struggle,

You're like, that's how it goes sometimes. And you meet it head on, and you're able to overcome it without all the drama of, another favorite quote, life is 10 % experiences and 90 % how we react to them. And I believe that's definitely the case.

Ryan Uffens (1:01:52)
Dude.

Hmm.

Yeah. Well, Mike, hey, I think it's great wisdom that you shared and I mean, it's just some great hunting advice as well. As we wrap up here, ⁓ any last words of wisdom you'd want to share with the folks that are listening?

Mike Merrill - Big T (1:02:23)
Yeah, I mean, think back to, you know, took cold plunging or an ice bath is one example. You know, put a a backpack on your back when you mow your lawn and get a workout in while you're pushing the mower around or, you know, throw throw a weighted vest on or, you know, hike up a hill. Do something that pushes you to be a little bit more resilient.

something that's not comfortable, something that when somebody says, why are you doing that? That's crazy. That should be a giant flag, a giant green flag for you, unless it's just downright crazy. But like that should be the go time. Like that's perfect. If someone thinks it's crazy or why would I do something like that?

you might be onto something. Maybe you're doing something that's actually really good because if you want to be better, if you want to be the top 1%, you got to do the things that everybody else isn't doing. And so what can I do to put myself in a difficult situation and then value stack, just like putting a pack on when you're mulling on. If I got to mull on anyway, I might as well get a workout in while I'm doing it. If I'm going to do this thing.

What can I do to make it just a little bit harder? What can I do to make it little more difficult? And pretty soon you'll find your comfort zone will continue to move. And as long as you, you know, I talked about Dan Staten with out shape before I did a couple of his out shape camps a couple of years ago and he kept telling me he's like, you know, you're fit, you're this, you're driven, you're, but he's like,

I don't care about what you love doing or what you're good at doing. Like I will find your weakness. Like that's what I like to do with people when I'm training. I like to help find their weakness because we all love doing stuff that we're good at and that we feel confident in and that we feel good about. But why don't you focus on something you suck at so you don't suck anymore, right? Like, so that's the thing. It's like find something where you feel deficient or like you wish you were better at and put some time into it. It doesn't have to be physical. It doesn't, you know, it be anything. Something that

is scary to you, like lean into it, try and figure out how to have confidence in it and get better at it. And then you'll learn, wow, this worked with that. It could work with something else too. And just keep finding those little mountains to conquer so that your life is elevated and you can live a more fulfilling existence. That's what most people out there are looking for. And a lot of them aren't ever going to find it because they are too comfortable.

Ryan Uffens (1:05:02)
Got to step outside your comfort zone. It makes you resilient in a lot more ways in different aspects of just your entire life, which is what your whole point of what you've been talking about. So I think that's great advice, Mike. Really appreciate it. Hey, guys, as we wrap up, make sure go give Mike a follow. It's on Instagram. It's Mike T. Merrill. Is that correct?

Mike Merrill - Big T (1:05:24)
Yeah, Michael,

Team Herald, but yeah, same thing. They'll find me. Yeah, it's all good.

Ryan Uffens (1:05:26)
Michael T. Merrill. Sorry, Michael T. Merrill. Yeah,

Michael T. Merrill. yeah, check out their Primal Pursuits podcast. Give that a listen and follow. again, guys, really appreciate the support that we have on our podcasts. ⁓ It's great to see the growth that we're having. We are the fastest growing hunting podcasts in the nation right now. Still don't know if that's true or not, but I'm going to say it until it becomes so. guess I...

Mike Merrill - Big T (1:05:51)
I was gonna say it sounds pretty good to me.

Ryan Uffens (1:05:55)
I guess, yeah, what do you put out into the universe becomes reality, right? So thank you for listening. Give him a follow. If you guys learned anything from this that you think can help somebody make it help someone become a better hunter or just like better in all aspects of their life, please share it. Send them text them the podcast link. Share it with them on Instagram, whatever it is. But really appreciate everyone's support. And Mike, thanks for joining us and everyone stay safe and God bless.

Mike Merrill - Big T (1:06:24)
Thank you. primal.