#061 - Nathan Cox | Blue Ridge Mountains Born and Raised

In this episode of The Hunt Stealth Podcast, Ryan sits down with 7th-generation mountain man, lifelong hunter, and North Carolina game warden Nathan Cox. From chasing rabbits with his grandpa’s beagles in the Blue Ridge Mountains to busting poachers by night using aircraft and decoys, Nathan brings a wealth of hard-earned wisdom and gritty backwoods experience.

Nathan shares what it means to grow up immersed in hunting culture, how his law enforcement background led him to become a game warden, and why intent matters when it comes to enforcement. He delivers gold for new hunters especially around tagging mistakes, how to properly validate your kill, and why "middle of the middle" is the shot you want on a black bear.

They dive into:

• Aircraft raids on spotlighting poachers
• Saskatchewan whitetails and the power of patience
• Bear hunting in North Carolina (yes, where the 800 lb giants roam)
• Bowhunting ethics and lessons from blown shots
• Why staying humble and finding mentors makes all the difference

Whether you're a seasoned hunter or just picked up a tag, this episode delivers unforgettable stories, practical advice, and a clear reminder: hunt hard, hunt smart, and respect the process.

🔑 Key Takeaways

Intent Matters More Than Mistakes - As a game warden, Nathan emphasizes that not all violations are equal. Honest mistakes—like not notching a tag properly—can often be handled with education, not punishment. Intent is what separates a poacher from a new hunter who just needs guidance.

Know Your Tagging System - Nathan sees tons of violations simply due to confusion around tagging and reporting. He urges hunters to study their state’s regulations (especially terminology) and use available tools like mobile apps to validate harvests at the site of the kill. Ignoring the rules can cost you a year of hunting privileges.

Don’t Judge Whitetail by Body Size Alone - In places like Saskatchewan, the body size of whitetails can throw you off. A 160” buck might look like a 120” if you’re used to mountain deer. Nathan spent four days glassing before tagging a monster, proving patience and pre-hunt scouting are critical.

Black Bear Shot Placement: Aim 'Middle of the Middle' - Black bear vitals sit farther back than a whitetail’s. Nathan advises aiming 3–4 inches behind the front shoulder (middle of the middle). Even big calibers like a .300 Win Mag can fail if shot placement is off. A well-placed .270 dropped his bear in 20 yards.

Stay Humble & Find a Hunting Mentor - Nathan’s top advice to new hunters: stay humble and surround yourself with people more experienced than you. Every hunter has something to offer—whether it’s woodsmanship, tech skills, or calling knowledge. Respect earns mentorship.

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Transcript

Ryan Uffens (00:21)
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Hunt Stealth Podcast. Excited to have Nathan Cox on the show today. ⁓ Nathan is a seventh generation mountain man who grew up in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. He's a game warden. He's been hunting his entire life and we're excited to have him on the show today. Nathan, thanks for joining me,

Nathan Cox (00:42)
Yeah, thank you so much, Ryan. It's definitely an honor and a privilege to be featured here today.

Ryan Uffens (00:48)
So Nathan, tell me, I'm excited to talk to you and get to know a little bit about your background. Like I mentioned, you're your seventh generation, um, North Carolina, I guess, is that what you'd call it? Mountain man out there.

Nathan Cox (01:01)
Yeah, yeah, yeah,

or, you know, North Carolinian, you know, I guess that's what they call us, something like that.

Ryan Uffens (01:11)
Yeah. Either way you've grown up in some beautiful mountain ranges out there. ⁓ But tell me, know, I know we've talked a little bit about it, but tell me about some of your first memories that you had out hunting.

Nathan Cox (01:27)
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I grew up in a farming family and, you know, farming and hunting on the East Coast. It kind of goes hand in hand. So my first experience is, you know, hunting as a child where small game hunting, you know, my grandpa, ⁓ he had a pack of beagles and, you know, he loved rabbit hunting and small game hunting. And, ⁓ you know, we would at the time, you know, we were

Growing Christmas trees so where I'm from it's pretty much the Christmas tree capital of the world So, you know had a lot of members going out with my grandpa with his beagles and you know my first My first little gun was you know a Stevenson single shot, you know 20 gauge and you know, it was kind of one and done wham-bam Thank you, ma'am. So, you know, that's a that was all I had So started out small game hunting

I just kind of progressed a little bit, you know, once my dad saw I was a little more comparable and you know, wouldn't shoot myself. He started taking me, you know, dove hunting and just kind of grew from there. Started, rather than hunting, went to dove hunting and then, you know, as it got a little bit older, we just progressed to big game hunting and whitetail hunting. And it wasn't probably until I'd say I was a teenager until, you know, I really got serious about big game hunting.

You know here in North Carolina our big game animals are you know deer, bear and whitetail. So that's when I got serious about big game hunting. You know some of my fondest memories, you know my first deer I ever shot, know I was like 13 or 14 and I was like sitting on a bucket you know behind the field you know I didn't really know what I was doing and you know my first deer I shot was like a little spike four pointer it looked like that deer Elliot.

off of the kids movie man and tickled to death to kill it man.

Ryan Uffens (03:21)
Well...

that's fun. Yeah, it's it's, ⁓ you know, I'd mentioned to you, like I didn't grow up hunting and this is kind of new. So it's fun that you've been able to have those memories growing up with your family, going out hunting, you know, starting with like the small game and working your way up. What now? You're also a game warden, correct?

Nathan Cox (03:45)
Yes, sir. That's correct. Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (03:47)
what what led you like what drove the desire to become a game warden?

Nathan Cox (03:52)
So growing up, my father was in law enforcement. He was a trooper. I was around law enforcement all my life. And I came to the realization that I didn't want to ride around in a patrol car all day and ride speeding tickets. That just wasn't for me. I still enjoy the law enforcement aspect, but I also wanted to incorporate the hunting side of it, because hunting is a passion of mine. ⁓

know growing up my father always had different officers coming over to his house and you know they're working all kinds of cool details and things like that and you know my My father had a really cool guy come over. ⁓ his name was ryan blanky ship And this guy was a game warden man solid hunter to this day man I mean freaking got his world slam turkeys. I mean freaking awesome awesome hunter so he kind of took me under his wing and ⁓

you know, just started showing me the craft, you know, of like things that, you know, would help me to be a big, help me to be a game warden and to be proficient at it. And I just, fell in love with the idea.

Ryan Uffens (05:01)
Yeah. What's like, know, I think of the game wardens and, ⁓ I've watched some of the shows like on prime video and Netflix and stuff like that. would have to be a little unnerving because you're out with people that are hunting and when they see somebody coming, what do they use for their binos? Binos they use their scope. you oftentimes have rifles pointed to you. Does that mean

It's got to be a nerving a little bit.

Nathan Cox (05:33)
Yeah, well, you know, absolutely. And you know, that's always in the back of your mind. But, you know, I tell people, you know, when a game warden approaches you, you know, we're kind of like the kind of like the abominable snowman, you know, a lot of people have claimed to see us. But, you know, every now and then, you know, we'll just pop out of the bushes. So a lot of times, you know, a lot of times when a game warden, you know, approaches you,

the majority of the time we've already observed you, know, we've made a game plan and established a way to safely make contact with you. But, you know, there's always that chance, you know, we don't see everything, you know. So, and fortunately, Ryan, you know, I'm very proud to say that being a North Carolina game warden, you know, it is one of the hardest training programs.

Ryan Uffens (06:25)
Thank

Nathan Cox (06:28)
as far as being a game warden in the country. ⁓ We get some of the best training as far as our state law enforcement goes, and that's something that I'm very, very proud of that North Carolina has done. ⁓ Being a game warden and being a trooper in North Carolina are some of the best trained law enforcement programs, and I'm very, very proud of that.

Ryan Uffens (06:49)
I think for, mean, we again, this podcast is targeted to people that are new hunting. And I guess maybe just a friendly reminder that if you see somebody approaching you, don't be lazy. If you're hunting with the rifle, put your gun down and grab your binos and use your binoculars to look and see what's coming, not your scope, because you guys have families and you know,

Nathan Cox (07:13)
.

Ryan Uffens (07:16)
I think for the most part, nobody's going to be pointing the gun with the intent to pull the trigger and shoot you. But I mean, accidents happen, right? So if you think you see somebody approaching you and you're hunting with the rifle, put it down, grab your binoculars to look and see what's coming. I guess that's our little public service announcement for the day on the Hunt Stealth Podcast.

Nathan Cox (07:39)
Yeah, sounds great to me man

Ryan Uffens (07:42)
So, well, so tell me, maybe, like, for people that are new to hunting, like big game hunting, like what's some of like the most common mistakes that you see people making from like a new hunter perspective that like maybe, hey, think about this and it's going to make you a little bit better and keep you out of trouble.

Nathan Cox (08:05)
So ⁓ one thing that I see, you know, a lot of hunters ⁓ are making mistakes of is like tagging requirements. Okay. So, you know, like when you pull out a regulation, but man, I don't care what state you go to, whether, you know, you guys in Utah or here in North Carolina, you know, if you're not familiar with some of the terminology,

that are in our regulations digest, it could be completely foreign to you. So one of the mistakes that I see is people not exactly sure how to validate their tags or to report their harvest here in North Carolina. And I think that's an important job that us game boarders, have to consider because at the end of the day, when I look at violations, ⁓

you know, I look, I look, don't necessarily look at violations as they're black and white. You know, to me, I look at violations as what is the intent? You know, is this person actively trying to break the law or is this just a simple mistake? And one thing that I'm very glad of, and I can say that, you know, the wildlife commission who I work for does a really good job of letting us officers have that discretion.

so that when we truly feel like somebody has just messed up, that they're not generally trying to break the law, that we can take this moment and we can educate them so that it would prevent them from having future violations. To me, I'm all about gaining compliance, whether that means giving a verbal warning, a rent warning, or a hard citation. If I can...

Ryan Uffens (09:46)
you

Nathan Cox (09:51)
Most of the time, if I can gain compliance with just a verbal warning, ⁓ that's the route that I choose to take. Because at the end of the day, to me, a good game warden can distinguish between somebody whose intent was truly to break the law and then versus somebody who just made a mistake. We're all human.

Ryan Uffens (10:10)
So they kind of give you some agency to decide like, hey, like, I'm gonna give this guy, you know, like a pass, right? So to speak.

Nathan Cox (10:23)
Sure, within reason. We still have laws, depending on severity. We have situations that, regardless of whether they truly didn't know or not, our hands are tied. It would equivalent to a law enforcement officer checking somebody for like a DWI. When it comes to that point, it's out of our hands and we have a job to do.

Ryan Uffens (10:25)
Right.

Thank

Right.

Right. But if it's like they, like, like you said, like they're putting, they tag their animal, right. And they didn't notch it correctly. And it's like, you say, you can see it's like, well, this guy's just an idiot. did. He, he wasn't intent. Well, I, I, maybe I'm, when I say idiot, I'm saying like, I could see me doing something like this. Cause I get out there, know, I I've yet to, I've yet to like take a big animal. It's like, I haven't like that stresses me out. As a matter of fact, I just got.

Nathan Cox (10:58)
Mm-hmm. Correct, yeah.

Hmph.

Ryan Uffens (11:24)
My tag today just showed up in the mail.

Nathan Cox (11:29)
There you go.

Ryan Uffens (11:31)
So

I'm like, okay. I start looking at all the little things I'm supposed to notch and it stresses me out. I'm going like, man, anyway, fortunately I'm going to be with some good guys that know what they're doing. But like you said, like take the manual with your read it. It kind of gives you the instructions, but it still stresses me out. Like I said, new to hunting. I don't know, but that was something where hopefully a game warden, but that's the thing. It's like, this is my first time. They're going to look at a guy like me and be like, come on, man, this is not your first time. I'm like, no, like I swear.

Nathan Cox (12:01)
Yeah, yeah.

Ryan Uffens (12:02)
But the other thing too that I've heard of people doing, like when it comes to like reporting the harvest, like in Utah now, if you don't report and you're supposed to, like you'll skip a year, you'll lose a year of eligibility the following year to be able to put in for a tag. Is that similar in North Carolina or?

Nathan Cox (12:20)
No, So, ⁓ you know, as far as tagging our big game animals, so like the requirement for our big game, you know, which is deer, bear and turkey. So, ⁓ you know, before that animal is moved from the side of kill, which, you know, as soon as that animal drops, okay, that's the side of kill. So as soon as you walk up to that animal and you drag that animal from where it died, okay, by our law, you have to

Validate we when we send out tags we have what's called a big game report card, okay? And it's got your tags on so ⁓ you have to validate that card So if you have the app simple click on the animal that you just harvested Boop, but your button and you're completely done. Okay, so if you don't have that app

Ryan Uffens (13:08)
Why do we not have that in Utah? Holy cow.

Nathan Cox (13:11)
Well, hey man,

Ryan, don't feel bad. know, we just got it a couple of years ago. you know, we're not that tech savvy, but we're getting there. We're trying. We're taking baby steps in North Carolina. So.

Ryan Uffens (13:23)
That's

that's that's pretty slick. mean, I'd imagine like to it would be like geo marked with their cell phone like at the at the place of the kill. I don't know. I mean, I'm guessing but

Nathan Cox (13:32)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, that's a good thing about it. So that's an office day for me, you know, if somebody's claiming to kill something where they didn't, know, that's when I sit in my pajamas and, you know, look at the cord. They say, no, no, no, they really didn't kill it there. But no, so if you have the app, you know, you can punch it and it records everything for you. If you do it the old school way with the paper tags, you know, you actually have to

Ryan Uffens (13:47)
You

Nathan Cox (14:02)
There's numbers, there's the date you killed at the month, you know, have to notch it or circle it. And then at that point you have until noon of the following day in North Carolina to call that animal in ⁓ unless that animal is ⁓ dismembered or skinned to where an officer could walk up to it and couldn't distinguish what the sex of that animal is.

Ryan Uffens (14:27)
Okay. Yeah. Well, and I know, and maybe I misspoke, but like, yeah, like we're, you're supposed to tag the animal where it drops. mean, it's the same in Utah. think it's, that's pretty much like standard across the country, but, but the, harvest report, like at the end of the season, they send out a link that says like, did you harvest an animal or did you not?

Nathan Cox (14:40)
Sure, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Uffens (14:49)
And if you don't fill out, if you don't click on that link and go and report, I mean, it's like just a couple of questions. mean, it's not, it's not super, but if you don't do that, you lose eligibility to enter for a hunt the following year.

Nathan Cox (14:56)
Run.

Okay, I see. see what you're saying. Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (15:07)
So yeah, mean like the harvest. I mean, yeah, you know, it's your tag, all that fun stuff. But that's one thing that I've talked to some people that are newer to hunting that they're they go in there like, it's not letting me enter for anything. ⁓ And when I say I know some people like I know some people and I know one person really well, it was me because it was like, I'm like what I'm like I didn't I didn't.

Nathan Cox (15:27)
Hahaha!

Ryan Uffens (15:35)
I disregarded the email. I'm like, I didn't kill anything. Harvest report. In my mind, I'm like, I didn't kill anything. I don't need to fill it out. And then come to find out, I go in the following year and I'm like, you're not eligible to enter for a draw until 2023, whatever it was. Anyway.

Nathan Cox (15:55)
man.

Ryan Uffens (15:58)
But yeah, what's so so okay, shifting gears off that like, you've probably seen some crazy stuff as a game. How long have you been a game warden now?

Nathan Cox (16:07)
So I have been a game ward for about 10 years now. ⁓ I came through. Yeah, long enough. No, it's a great.

Ryan Uffens (16:11)
So a good decade.

Like what

what's what's some of the wildest like things that you've seen?

Nathan Cox (16:21)
my gosh, so like, you know, man, I've seen some pretty wild stuff. So like, for me, one of the, without giving a lot of it away in our tactics, know, so like, my favorite thing, yeah, yeah. So my favorite thing to do is we work what's called aircraft details, okay.

Ryan Uffens (16:39)
We're in Utah, no one in North Carolina is gonna be listening to this.

Nathan Cox (16:50)
So spotlighting, which, know, just, you know, if you're a new hunter and you're not used to the terminology, pretty much spot what spotlighting is, is, you know, people will ride around the old school ways and they pick a field that, you know, there's a bunch of deer traditionally have been known in that field and they'll take a spotlight, Q-beam, shine the eyes, it'll, the eyes will hit it, stun it, and then, you know, people take a pop shot at it. So our bread and butter is, you know, deer in hunting season work in, ⁓

Ryan Uffens (17:14)
Yeah.

Nathan Cox (17:19)
working that night deer hunting. So one instance in particular, had an aircraft detail, which we've got a pilot and we've got an officer in the plane and we're flying around and keep in mind, at the time, the plane that we had is a super cup, okay? It's a two-seater. I mean, pack of Hubba Bubba bubble gum is bigger than this aircraft has been. So we're flying around and...

Ryan Uffens (17:41)
Yeah.

Nathan Cox (17:46)
I'm on the ground with another officer and we're staged and we're blackout. We've got things that are covering our vehicle so people can't see them. All of sudden you see a QB come across the field and we're like, we got him. And the airplane, they relay in and hey, you got somebody shining. we're actually on a game land. And so we're running blackout on a game land. By our policy, we can do that because it's not a main road.

And you know, we've got night vision, you know, we don't have a cool night vision So I've got like a my one night one night vision and I'm freaking Baja and through the game lands and and we we stopped this guy and You know, we heard a shot stop him. He actually had shot a deer and He claimed that he had shot he had shot the deer with a boat. Okay, I will you know, me back to the side of kill. Let's see. Let's see it. Let's

Ryan Uffens (18:15)
Right.

Nathan Cox (18:44)
So he takes us back to it and man, yeah.

Ryan Uffens (18:45)
So so so real quick if you shoot

it with a bow at night that makes it okay

Nathan Cox (18:51)
No, absolutely not. No, no, no, no, No, no.

Ryan Uffens (18:53)
Okay, I just

I didn't know if there was like a loophole or something like hey man shot it with a bow. ⁓ well then go ahead. Well, we'll let you go

Nathan Cox (18:58)
Yeah.

No, no this guy was a this guy was an idiot. I mean he was yeah, he just no no no He this was the guy that that we were after okay? He needed a ticket so Anyway walk up to it and anybody that's ever hunted you know can tell you know what what a broadhead would do a Bolt or an arrow would do is it passes through I mean it's a big gaping hole you know we walk up to it, and there's just the prettiest bullet hole

Ryan Uffens (19:12)
Yeah.

Nathan Cox (19:31)
that you've ever seen in that carcass. we heard the gunshot. mean, wicked freaking the legs. mean, Rigamore just hadn't even set in. I'm sitting there flopping the leg. I'm like, man, how long did you shoot this deer? And he's like, oh man, it's been several hours. I'm sitting there flopping it and playing with its head. And then he finally broke. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the.

Ryan Uffens (19:51)
It's like, are you sure about that?

Nathan Cox (19:59)
That's the cool thing about it. you know, one of my other favorite things to do is, is working, you know, the deer decoy. So, you know, people think that it gets shot all the time and it's not necessarily the case. mean, it's hours and hours of work for, you know, two or three minutes of fun. But you know, when, they pull up and blow that thing down, man, it's, probably the funniest, but coolest thing, you know, you'll ever see.

Ryan Uffens (20:28)
Yeah, I remember watching one of like the series and they had set up that night thing and they had this elk that was like a dummy and but like the eyes still like lit up like when you hit the hit it with the spotlight and it's it's amazing sometimes like the lengths people will go to to try and be like, ⁓ yeah, no, that's not what happened. It's like, okay, well, we have a camera there. A camera there, a camera there.

And we watched you. We heard the gunshot. And the guy the guy was the guy was and it was I think it was a spike and it was a spike and it was even like a like he had like only bold tag or something. It may have even been like like a bowl only unit. This was it was in Montana, I'm pretty sure. And anyway, finally, like, I mean, he folded pretty quick. He was like, I know I

Nathan Cox (21:18)
Sure. Yeah.

Thank

Ryan Uffens (21:26)
He's like, yeah,

man, I screwed up. He was there with it. He had his, I think he had his daughter and that. And, and he's like, I just wanted to put some meat in the fridge and I thought I could get away with it. And then as soon as he went down that route, like I felt like they were pretty like lenient with him. I felt like they could have like really like throwing the book at him, but he was like, yeah, no. And then you saw him for like 30 seconds and he's just finally was like,

Nathan Cox (21:29)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (21:55)
Yeah, man, I screwed up. Like, I feel like when you're in in that situation, like in in your busted, it's like you shoot at an animal. And it doesn't move. That's the other thing. It's like, like, at what at what point do you think? ⁓ yeah, I'm toast. And then and then the warden show up. Like, just own you made a mistake, man.

Nathan Cox (22:09)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (22:23)
You know, I mean, that's one of the things that I've that I've done. Out here is like I've got, I've got a couple of buddies that, that work really closely and that know some of the wardens in Utah and they're,

Nathan Cox (22:32)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (22:34)
they've all been super cool. I like ping them and I'm like, Hey, like in this situation, what would I do? And they're like, ⁓ just stay away from that. Right? Like it's, it's not like you're like right on the cusp and they're like, just stay away from it. But I feel like too, like a lot of times like

You get people that will like self report too.

Nathan Cox (22:55)
Yeah, and you know the way I treat that is like I will always work with that person and be lenient to that person if they're man enough to do that. Okay, because I'm a firm believer that you know, you hear cops all the time say, well, you know, you better tell me the truth. So you've got to give somebody an incentive to tell the truth.

Because like, maybe if I go to another state and I know that even if I tell the truth, it's not gonna help me. And that officer is gonna write me over the colds. I'm gonna lie like crap. I mean, you have to, as officers, have to give the general public an incentive to tell the truth. And you give them that chance and that opportunity.

Ryan Uffens (23:19)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think generally speaking, like, don't know. I haven't heard of really bad poaching happening in Utah. and I hope it stays that way, but, ⁓

I mean, everybody, the hunters in Utah, man, like everyone united to like we had with that ⁓ the big, beautiful bill and that land grab that Senator Mike Lee was going after. That guy may have just removed himself from the Senate. He pissed off a lot of like conservative hunters out in this area. And the thing, the thing not to completely, I mean, I'm going totally down like a separate rabbit hole, but.

Nathan Cox (24:08)
Yep. yeah.

Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (24:27)
Well, I'm gonna leave that. not gonna go that... I'm gonna do a whole other episode on that. anyway, people came together from like from like all sorts of walks, you know, because there was a lot of that Western land that they were going to try and sell. ⁓

but but back to what we were what we were talking about. It's like, that's what I've told myself. It's like if I screw up, man, like

you just call it in. Do do yourself a favor. I mean, you can roll the dice and be like, well, maybe I won't get caught. I just know my luck. I'd be like, they'll never find out. And about the time like I got everything packed up, warden would roll up and be like, so what happened? But

Nathan Cox (25:06)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely.

Ryan Uffens (25:18)
but it's is it better? Like

And this is just something like I've never experienced. So maybe it's a dumb question. Maybe it's not, but like if you screw up, like call it in like from the scene, right?

Nathan Cox (25:32)
Yeah, you know as best you can because you know whether your intention was to you know, even though you called it in Was to you know, try to move it or whatever Sometimes it could give that all certain impression that you know, even though you called it in that you were trying to hide the fact So, you know, yeah, of course, you know sooner the better

you know, and as far as North Carolina goes, I can speak for the majority of our officers, you know, that they'll try to work with you within reason.

So I'm.

Ryan Uffens (26:07)
There's

certain laws I'm sure you can't just be like, hey, don't worry about it, bud. But there's other things, like you said, you can teach it as a learning experience. And I think that's what grows and helps individuals and hunters, especially new hunters, kind of develop a good relationship with the wardens. But yeah, I have, I've heard from multiple people, it's like find out who the warden is for the unit that you're hunting and talk to them.

Nathan Cox (26:13)
Yeah

Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Uffens (26:36)
You know, and then not say not to say that you're going in there with the intent to do something wrong. But if you do screw up, then it's like, just call it in on it. And then, you know, they're going to you guys will be more likely to try and work with somebody who you guys feel is trying to be honest and not conceal like the truth of what really happened.

Nathan Cox (26:57)
Yeah, that's a hundred percent correct

Ryan Uffens (27:00)
So, well cool. Well, hey, shifting gears. ⁓ I want to talk like what's like, what's been like your favorite big game hunt that you've been on.

Nathan Cox (27:11)
wow, so my favorite was probably went to Canada. man, I had the opportunity to chase some just monster whitetails in Saskatchewan. And man, know, growing up, you you watch the old VHS, know, Buck Hunter, know, all game hunter, you know, Canada in the rough, you know, and you're, man, that's my bucket list. And then finally, you know, this has been a...

Ryan Uffens (27:32)
Yeah.

Nathan Cox (27:38)
I think it was 2021 before I had kids. you know, life changes, but had the opportunity to go to Saskatchewan and a little small town in Goodsville. And I actually got to harvest a really nice whitetail. was, it's funny, man, you know, I mean, you know, I sound like I crawled out from under a rock, you know, so like I freaking roll into Calgary.

⁓ You know and freaking as the plane lands, you know people start hearing banjo music, you know when I open my mouth So but I'll manage it ⁓

Ryan Uffens (28:11)
I love it man,

I wish I had an accent.

Nathan Cox (28:15)
Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. but man, the coolest thing to me about, you know, Saskatchewan was, you know, here in the East Coast, know, whitetail is king. You know, that's our bread and butter. You know, we don't have any mulee's. So, know, know, whitetail is king. But rolling in there and then just seeing how massive, you know, a 300 pound whitetail is. You know, I remember sitting there the...

the first morning and man it was like negative 10 and you know I'm from the mountains here so you know we're used to cold weather but you know ⁓ negative 10 that's cold anywhere you go brother so you know and I remember sitting in that blind like you know dumb and dumber you know in there just freaking ⁓ freezing man just yeah yeah just about to die and then I remember the first doe I saw white tail doe and I mean she was massive and

Ryan Uffens (28:56)
Yeah, yeah.

You ever had one?

Nathan Cox (29:14)
was like, ⁓ my gosh. I was like, this is the craziest thing ever. And you know, they still had a foot of snow on the ground. And I remember seeing, you know, ⁓ bucks trickling in. Of course, you know, if anybody's, you know, ever been up to Canada, you know, you know, the bait piles they have is alfalfa and oats. You know, that's what they like up there. And I remember just walking in and seeing just the beautiful, beautiful chocolate racks on these whitetails and just the max.

that they had. And, you know, I sat there for four days, you know, before I finally pulled the trigger on one. you know, that was just watching those just massive whitetails, you know, from something that I was a kid, you know, used to watch on a VHS tape, you know, finally being there was, you know, to me, yeah, the coolest thing ever.

Ryan Uffens (30:01)
That's awesome.

Yeah, so so tell so tell me how did your hunt go down?

Nathan Cox (30:10)
So it's the craziest thing. for me, if you have the opportunity to go, you want to bring something home that, here in North Carolina, where I'm from in the mountains, our whitetails, since we're in the mountains, a good trophy whitetail, you're hunting about 130 class. That's the average. That's a big whitetail from where I'm at.

It's apples to oranges compared to the Midwest in Canada. So ⁓ for me, you know, I was so scared that I was going to mess up and shoot a small rack buck because man, yeah, and I had these guys with me, man, for months, months, I was watching, researching, know, trail cam videos of, you know, Canadian whitetails because

the body size are so huge on these massive whitetails that you can't go by the bodies because you'll have 150 inch whitetail in front of you and you think, that's a hundred and that's a scrub bug, man. That's 120 inch deer. So, you you really have to, you really have to, you know, focus and, you know, count the times as best you can. So I'm sitting there on the fourth day, you know, and I told myself, you know,

I was going to shoot a good respectable whitetail for me, or I was going to come home with nothing because the last thing that I wanted to do was shoot a scrub buck knowing that that deer had potential to be a bigger deer and you you've got an outfitter up there. That's how they make their living. Okay. So you don't want to shoot a smaller deer that, you know, could potentially take money out of that outfitter's pocket. Okay. So.

Ryan Uffens (31:51)
Right.

Nathan Cox (32:01)
I had that going and I sat there for four days and on the fourth... Well, you know, mean, you know, it's like, ⁓ I mean...

Ryan Uffens (32:04)
you're being super generous to man

It's a

good mind. It's a good mindset to have. I mean, you kind of had your plan before you go in, but also like, I'm sure it wasn't cheap for you to get up there.

Nathan Cox (32:14)
It will,

Well, you know, and that's the mentality that I think sometimes us as hunters need to break, that mentality of, you know, I wasn't gonna come home with nothing because man, it's a gamble no matter where you go, no matter what speech, it's a gamble. So, fourth morning, I was sitting there, I was watching a really good eight, walks in, and he was probably low, 140, 142, and I'm like,

Ryan Uffens (32:22)
Hmm.

Yeah. Right.

Nathan Cox (32:48)
Yeah, this is respectable. Okay, and I look up and all I see is just trash sticking everywhere I mean he freaking looks like Bullwinkle man, and I'm like, you know me being from North Carolina from the mountains chasing 130 inch whitetails look up and I see you know a freaking 160 inch donkey looking at me, you know, I was like, oh my god, you know What is this? So and of course, know, I'm shooting

you know, a seven mag, 150 grand nozzle or ballistic tip. you know, I've got the firepower to bring him down. But still, you know, want to make sure good, clean, ethical shot. You you're about 70, 80 yards, walks in and he starts sparring with the eight. That was the coolest thing I've ever seen. know, massive big white tails like that sparring, walks in just freaking.

just plows him, they start sparring right in front of me and I'm just like, what am I watching? ⁓ my God. And finally, know, this 12th, he pushes off and stands up, broadside, beautiful shot, one shot, know, double lung, ran 20 yards and walked over to him and it didn't really sink in what I had just done until, you know, I laid hands on him. And, you know, the funniest thing was, you know, the...

You know Canadians, man, I got some really good Canadian friends, really good people. The guide walks up and you ⁓ know, I think I have an accent and I make fun of them because I know they have an accent. From Canada, he walks up and he's like, ⁓ my gosh, that's a nice bucky, you know? ⁓

Ryan Uffens (34:27)
Yeah.

⁓ that's awesome. That's a ton of fun, man. ⁓ yeah, I, you know, I've said this where I'm at in my, my hunting career is I'm looking at it and I'm going at this point, I'm like, is it legal? I just like, I want to get an animal down. And if it's legal, I get it. Like you get to a certain point where it's like, Hey, like I want to let an animal mature and develop a little bit, but I'm also like,

Nathan Cox (34:46)
Right, right.

Ryan Uffens (35:00)
I kinda might kill something this year.

Nathan Cox (35:02)
Yeah, and

you know there there's nothing wrong with that and I think there's also a place for that That's what that's what I want new hunters and not to get hung up on you know chasing you know You know, but because I will tell you this to become a better hunter The more stuff you're gonna have to you're gonna have to to kill more game. I mean, that's what makes you a better hunter

Ryan Uffens (35:14)
Sure.

It's done.

Nathan Cox (35:27)
and fine-tunes your craft. It doesn't matter if you shoot a boon and Crockett or a pope and young. ⁓ The more animals that you successfully harvest or don't harvest along the way is going to fine-tune your craft of being a hunter.

Ryan Uffens (35:27)
Right.

Right. Yeah. And I mean, we've talked at length with people on here, like don't hunt for the Instagram photo. Now, if you're at a stage in your hunting profession, if you will, that where you're like, Hey, like there's one year we had on that it's like, like they've been doing it their entire lives. It's like every year they want to get some, and get something bigger. Right. Great. Like go for it. If that's what you want to do.

Nathan Cox (36:08)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Ryan Uffens (36:14)
But also if you're new to your point, ⁓ you gotta learn to kill. ⁓ And especially like shooting archery because it's an entirely different animal. I mean, you have, you have to close the distance. You have to be able to, to, you know, go back to full draw, hold it, wait for them to get in the position to where you're like, Hey, I know I've got a clean shot on vitals. And, ⁓ I mean, that was.

Nathan Cox (36:19)
this run.

Yeah.

You

Ryan Uffens (36:43)
Probably one of the hardest things that it was my very first hunt. I had a massive bull elk broadside. was shooting, he came in from behind me, but I didn't have a clean shot on vitals. And I had told myself, you know, I've watched a lot, like a lot of Donnie Vinson's videos and stuff like that, his films that he's done. And I just

always liked that he was like, Hey, like, I want to have like a clean kill. And there's a ton of other guys that, that, you know, talk about that too.

And so when I went out and like about to have a clean shot on vitals, like I'm not gonna let it go. And ⁓ anyway, didn't have a clean shot on vials winded me blew out. But man having like a massive bowl at 30 yards was unreal. I mean, it hooked me it totally hooked me. So

Nathan Cox (37:26)
Absolutely.

Yeah, and you know, to me, you know, bow hunting, to me, that is the ultimate high for me, you whenever I've harvested, you know, a shot deer with a bow. mean, and I mean, you're just so much more up close and personal, you know, you have to worry about the wind so much more than than sitting in a box house, you know, tree placement, watching your thermals is your stand set up right. Speaking on the East Coast with whitetails.

Ryan Uffens (37:58)
Right.

Nathan Cox (37:59)
You know, it's ⁓ to me, it's probably one of the most rewarding things that you can do.

Ryan Uffens (38:07)
Yeah, ⁓ it's a lot of fun. mean, like I said, I've yet to arrow anything. I've yet to even let an arrow fly. So I guess I haven't missed anything, but I haven't shot at anything to miss either. So looking forward to that day coming. So tell me, have you had, did you have an experience like when you were out like black doing some black bear hunting out there?

Nathan Cox (38:34)
Yeah, so ⁓ Here in North Carolina ⁓ Not many people know this but the world record black bear came from North Carolina County Calgary called Craven in North Carolina Okay, so that bear was over 800 pounds ⁓ Not a lot of people know that we have massive black bears in North Carolina we do but you know I'll tell you if Jim Shockey is coming to North Carolina to hunt black bears There's a reason ⁓

you know, that he's coming to North Carolina. So I'm in the mountains, the Blue Ridge Mountains. Okay. So our bears traditionally an average size boar, which is a male bear for you viewers is about a 250 pound. That's a good black bear for the mountains. Okay. The coastal bears, you know, go anywhere from 600 to 800 pounds. Okay. They're, monsters. All right. Absolute monsters. So

Our bear population, Ryan, is exploding everywhere across North Carolina, but predominantly the coast and then the mountains where I'm at as well. So that's something that I have recently gotten into the last couple of years is black bear hunting because of the population. To me, man, they just have so much more characteristics versus like a whitetail. They're just cool. I mean, I could sit there and...

watch a bear come in and just, could watch him all day. You know, I've been hunting and in North Carolina, you you can't harvest a sow with cups, but you know, to me, the coolest thing is watching these bears come in and just play and jump. And yeah, that's that monster right there. I mean, over 800, I think it was 1998.

Ryan Uffens (40:19)
That thing is in it's well, this is I think this is a new one. This one was 22.

Nathan Cox (40:25)
Okay,

that was Haywood County. That was like 698 pounds, I think. that was, yeah. Okay, yeah, 688. So monster bear, monster bear. So, ⁓ you know, where I am at, the most appropriate method to hunt is, you know, is steel hunting. Down at the coast, they still actually have these big tracts of land where they most

Ryan Uffens (40:31)
Oh yeah, 688. Yep.

Nathan Cox (40:53)
Predominantly are hunted by hounds. So where I'm at, it's all steel hunting. So I've had the pleasure of taking two black bears. I probably just started black bear hunting about five years ago, but I helped with another foundation, getting some guys on some bears and we've had some good luck with that. But man, just black bears to me are some of the coolest big game animals in North America to me personally.

Ryan Uffens (41:18)
Yeah, we were gonna, so the hunt stealth crew, we were gonna try and get out up to Idaho and go do ⁓ some black bear hunting this spring, but we weren't able to do that. So it's definitely something that we're gonna do. A lot of people have told me like, if you're into archery and you wanna take down a big game animal, the best thing to go after is a black bear. But...

Nathan Cox (41:24)
Mm-hmm.

Absolutely. Yeah, but.

Ryan Uffens (41:48)
Go ahead. I was just gonna say, think I finally found the 900 pound black bear. Is that it?

Nathan Cox (41:49)
no, no, go ahead, go ahead.

There you go.

Yeah. Well, that would be, yeah, that's definitely 800, 800 pound plus, but I believe it was like 1998. And I think the hunter harvested with a shotgun and it was overhounds. But, let's see. No, no, it came out of Craven County, North Carolina, which is, you know, down near the coast, I believe. And like I said, that was 1998.

Ryan Uffens (42:12)
So that wasn't it.

Nathan Cox (42:26)
So.

Ryan Uffens (42:28)
1998 you said Craven County? Okay let's see. Let's see. My mouse died on me so I'm having to... Which one?

Nathan Cox (42:30)
Yes, sir.

yeah, top right there. Yeah. Yeah.

Go back to ⁓ go back to the last page there. Right there. Yep. The Blackberry recorded in the world right there. The image where it says AI overview right there.

Ryan Uffens (42:53)
Yeah,

it's not letting me click on that.

Nathan Cox (42:56)
Okay, I don't know if there's actual pictures ⁓

Ryan Uffens (42:58)
but there it goes.

Nathan Cox (43:04)
So yeah, that that more No, yeah, that looks more of a western style picture, but I don't know if they have a picture of it online but but like I said, you know, that's a and ⁓ Yeah

Ryan Uffens (43:05)
I don't know if that's it or not, but...

I'm gonna find it now.

But, ⁓

but that's cool that so, so that you've gotten into it and, ⁓ are you, are you doing rifle or archery? What are you thinking of? And maybe you said that I apologize. I was trying to find, ⁓ that bear when you were talking a little bit about that.

Nathan Cox (43:36)
So the first two I took with a rifle and the next one I plan to take with a bow, but I'll give you some advice as a bear hunter. So everyone has a shot placement on a bear. Everybody's been trained right behind the shoulder. Okay. Don't aim right behind the shoulder on a black bear. Go up about three, four inches. I caught the middle of the middle. Okay. Because a bear's vitals is going to be slightly further back than a whitetail. I watched a freaking, you know, 300 pound bore.

get shot with a .300 wind mag and that bear, the shot placement on that bear was right behind the shoulder and that dude shot up with a .300 wind mag and the bear ran for miles. Okay, like I tracked that bear literally for miles and the only way I found it was with the use of a dog and man it was a dog-offless gully that you could ever imagine. I mean that's how tough you are versus one of the bears that I shot was with a .270, 130 grain bullet.

Ryan Uffens (44:25)
Yeah.

Nathan Cox (44:36)
and it ran 20 yards because the shot placement was rotten. So if you hit a bear where you're supposed to, man, 50 yards is a long run for a bear, you know, bow or rifle shot. ⁓ And then I also tell, you know, new bear hunters, especially when you're bear hunting, not so much with a rifle, but a lot of times, you know, I've heard, you know, when you shoot it, you know, listen to that death moan because that's a clear indication that that bear is dying. You know, it's kind of sad.

but it's just part of it as being a hunter, knowing that, I mean, if you hear that moan, then you know you've made a good shot. But at the end, when that bear's laying there dying, a lot of times you'll hear, and that's how you 100 % know that that bear's dead.

Ryan Uffens (45:21)
Hmm, yeah, that's good advice. So aim for the middle of the middle.

Nathan Cox (45:26)
Yep, middle of the middle. Yep.

Ryan Uffens (45:28)
Awesome.

Nathan, man, it's been fun hearing these stories as we kind of wrap up. Is there ⁓ any advice you would want to share with somebody that's maybe new to hunting or maybe just a good reminder? Any tips from things you've been able to experience?

Nathan Cox (45:46)
You know, I always say this, just stay humble ⁓ and surround yourself with people that are more knowledgeable than you. You know, if you can find somebody that's willing to mentor you and you keep that humble mentality, chances are, you know, that person is going to take the time to show you their knowledge and what they know about hunting. You know, to me, even as long as I've been hunting, you know, I don't know anything. You know, I don't.

I don't know everything about hunting. And I try to surround myself with other people that have been hunting for decades longer than I have. So if you're a new hunter, no matter what type of game or what type of ⁓ weapon choice, as long as it's legal that you want to use, keep that humble mindset, surround yourself with a good core group, and help each other out. Because everybody, no matter what your skill set is,

has something to contribute. Okay, don't ever feel like that because you're new to hunting that you that you can't contribute something that when you meet a core group of people that that can help it out. I mean, you know, even guys that are new into hunting that don't have any woodmanship skills, you know, man, they're great with technology. And you know, you know how to navigate on X all these other apps, ⁓ man, I mean, you know, don't be intimidated just because

you're new to hunting. mean, there's a place for everyone.

Ryan Uffens (47:19)
Yeah, no, I think that's great advice. I think too often people kind of get intimidated to go up and approach someone and what I've discovered is that, you know, if you treat them with respect and and try and be courteous with their time, they'll give you quite a bit of information and share a lot of time with you. You know, to help make you better because I think that they want to have like a better all around hunting experience, not just for themselves, but for the hunting group as a core as well.

yeah.

Nathan Cox (47:48)
absolutely

and You know right I know you mentioned my Instagram tag So if any of you guys, you know, me a private message ⁓ If I can help any of you young hunters or new hunters with my knowledge man anything I can do to help ⁓ You know, and there's something you know, you could teach me, you know, I'm just a dumb hillbilly man, you know, so

just anything that I can do for new hunters, because there's nothing more. Everybody says, oh, do you want this person to be better than you? Yeah, absolutely. I would love nothing more to mentor someone into hunting. And they turn out to be three times the hunter that I ever was. And that way I'd be like, hey man, I'll get your coffee in the morning. Can you sign my autograph? Man, I'm good with that.

Ryan Uffens (48:35)
Yeah, that's a great mindset. Well, you guys hate Nathan really appreciate your time. Again, on Instagram, it's blue Ridge underscore sportsman. And we'll put links in the show notes for anybody that's wanting to to go follow him. Be sure and go do that. Give him a follow. And if you have questions, reach out to him, shoot him a DM. Nathan's been great and super responsive with us. I'm glad we were able to finally get

our technological differences worked out if it wasn't me it was you and we went back and forth but again you guys thank you so much for listening to the hunt stealth podcast we are the fastest growing hunting podcast in the nation go give us a follow on YouTube follow us on Instagram tick tock all the socials wherever you listen to your podcasts and again stay safe and God bless