62: Proving The Woods Are Open To Everyone With Shannon Kortman (Michigan)

Shannon Kortman has been in a wheelchair since he was two years old, paralyzed from the waist down due to spina bifida. He was adopted by a family who refused to let a diagnosis define what their son could do, and that mindset stuck. Shannon did not grow up in a hunting family, but when a man named Doug, another wheelchair-bound hunter, reached out and said he wanted to take him on a deer hunt in Michigan, something lit up that has never gone out. That first eight point buck at a high fence ranch in 2010 was just the beginning.

Since then Shannon has turkey hunted his way onto Michigan Out of Doors television, shot bears in Michigan and Canada, and built a content platform called Anyone Can Outdoors to show other people with disabilities that the woods are still open to them. His Canada bear hunt last spring ended with a bear so large it broke the arm of the excavator trying to weigh it, somewhere north of 400 pounds and now heading toward a full body mount.

Shannon is also a certified counselor, a Sunday school teacher, a public speaker, and one of the most naturally gifted storytellers to sit down with A Hunter's Legacy. This episode is about deer hunting, turkey hunting, bear hunting in Michigan and Canada, and the kind of faith and grit that keeps a man in the woods no matter what life puts in front of him.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

He'd come running back. And he had a look on his face that I could see even from 80 yards away. He'd like, he'd come up to me running. He was blind. He's like, Shannon, you just shot the biggest bear I've ever seen. Now, my buddy Scott, he likes to tease me a little bit. So I'm thinking, you know, he's trying to amp me up. He's he's trying to be a stinker. I said, yeah, okay. He's like, No, look at my face. And I looked up and I'm like, you're serious. He's like, I am dead serious. You just shot the biggest bear I have ever seen. So I'm like, okay, well, what are we gonna do? He's like, we're gonna get uh a tarp out, we're gonna put it in the sled, we'll put you in the sled, and then us guys will just drag you in the sled out to the bear. Because he, like I said, he ran about 100 yards before he piled up. And we get to this bear. And every deer, every bear, every turkey, whatever, has a little bit of ground strength. They always look bigger when you shoot them than when they're actually on the ground. This was not the case. I got up to this bear and my jaw dropped.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Grab your gear, find your stand and listen as we share another journey.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Welcome back to another episode of a hunter's legacy, the only hunting podcast that ditches the pros for the average Joes. If you are interested or know of anybody that would be a good fit for the podcast, or an open mic for all hunters that have a good legacy and want to share their story. This week we have Shannon from Michigan. What's going on, man? Not a whole lot. How you doing? Glad to have you on here. Sounds like you've had a eventful day.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

I'll tell you what, man, life life never goes the way you plan it. You can sit and make plans, but something always goes off the rails. Somebody stops by, it's always something.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Tell us a little bit about yourself. You're you're from Michigan, right? Yep, I'm from Michigan. I'm 35 years old.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

I just turned 35 this month. I've got spina bifida, so I'm paralyzed from the waist down, been in a chair since I was two years old. And anytime I talk about myself, tell you know my life story. The first piece of advice I always give anybody, if you have little kids for everything that is good in this world, do not put them in a chair. I found out at two years old I can run over feet, I can go very, very fast, I can do donuts. I was a menace. Don't put a little kid in a wheelchair. It doesn't end well.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

But certainly as I've gotten older, I've gotten better. What are some other options? Or are you just trying to be funny? There's more of me to try to be funny. You didn't cause any trouble, did you? No, I was a perfect little angel. No different than any other kid. Right, exactly. Yeah, I'm sorry that you have had to go through that. It's one of those things where you can complain about life all you want, but the more you think about it, there's always going to be somebody that has it worse than you.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

And that's exactly the way I look at it. Like I have been for someone in my situation, because I I may have, you know, what what doctors classify as the worst case of spina bifida, it's not really that bad because I can still move, I can still get up out of bed, I work every day, I go hunting, I go fishing, you know, I I got my family, you know, sort of thing. I still live an active life, a normal life, by God's grace. There are so many other people that, you know, have it worse than me that are just lying in bed that can't do anything. So, you know, I really have nothing to complain about. I'm overall very healthy, you know. I get the colds and fluids of the season like everybody else, but life has been very good to me. I know there are a lot of other people that have spina bifida. In fact, one of my very good friends who just passed away a couple of years ago, he had spina bifida just like I did, just like I do. And he he was active, he did get out and go hunting quite a bit, but he did spend quite a bit of time, you know, in bed. He was able to do enough in a short amount of time. You know, his his endurance because of different things that he had going on that I don't, you know, he could go hunting for a time or two and then he'd be down in bed for a few days, or you know, he'd be good for a week and then he'd be down in bed, you know, where whereas me, I don't have that. You know, I I stay out of bed, I'll sit on the pouch and watch TV. But beyond that, you know, I'll I'll try to stay very active. But yeah, you know, I've got him, I've got other people that through other disabilities, they might not be able to, you know, get out of bed. They might have to rely on someone to get them out of bed, into their chair, feed them, dress them, whatever. My my point with that was just, you know, I'm a lot better off than other people in my situation.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

So we talked about your disability and stuff like that, and you talked about working, getting out and hunting. So I kind of want to talk about like the the mental aspect of that because I'm sure that's you're very well spoken. So I I'm not that familiar with with what you have going on, so I'd like to know a little bit more about it, how you handle the mental struggles, and then maybe how hunting is a little bit of an escape for you. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

I'm glad to talk about that. And I mean, for me, the one of the things that I tell people, if you have questions, ask them. Like I am open, I try to be very honest because most people just want to learn. They just want to understand. Well, how do people learn? By asking questions. So, you know, that there are some people out there that aren't comfortable with it, and that that's fine. You know, not everybody is comfortable talking about what they've got going on in their life for many different reasons, and that's fine. But I've always said, hey, I'd rather you ask. And if it's something that's too personal, I'll tell you, hey, you know, at this time I'd rather not answer that, maybe later on. But no, get getting back to what you asked. The the mental, so for me, and I will start out by saying, I know not everybody has the mindset that I do, in the sense of I was raised by two very godly parents. I was raised in the church. You know, God has always been a very, very big part of my life. The outdoor page that I have on Facebook and YouTube that I've been working on the last few years, I've got uh Philippians 4, 13 as as like the main Bible verse, which states that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And that for me is, you know, in and of myself, I'm I'm just a broken human. You know, I I can't, in of myself, I don't I wouldn't have the strength to get up, go on whatever else. In and of myself, I would have just the the mental status of, well, look at me. Like, I I can't do this. I'm just gonna sit around and do nothing. You know, but God has always put it in my heart and in my mind to say, hey, you know, this is not the wheelchair doesn't define you. The wheelchair is just a tool that I'm using to advance you, to use you, to minister to other people, to give advice to other people. You know, and I look at it that other people, they see me, you know, how how do you do this? How do you do that? And then I can talk to them. Be like, hey, look, this is what works for me. You know, this might not work for you, but here's my advice. Take that, learn from it, use it, do whatever you will with it. You know, so for me, God has always been there for me and giving me a very mental, very positive mental attitude. And so, yeah, without that, without the positive mental attitude, you you get stuck, you know, and I would get stuck if I didn't have that. So that's you know, that is so, so important to me.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yeah, God started going to church at a young age, and you think that made a pretty big difference, huh?

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

What kind of church do you go to?

SPEAKER_02 7:58

I go to a United Reformed church, so but you know, kind of Dutch. I mean, that's probably the best way to say it, you know, the kind of the old Dutch people go to it. I grew up kind of in the old school, you know, singing hymns out of the old hymn book, stuff like that. So that that's just kind of what I'm used to. And and from that, you know, I'm I'm a Sunday school teacher. I help out in the in the nursery, and just try to instill in the little kids too, as they're growing up, going through school, going through different challenges that, hey, you know, God'll get you through. That now, when I say that, that a lot of people misunderstand, and and maybe that's me saying it wrong, but a lot of people misunderstand that does not mean that life is going to be easy. That doesn't mean that I haven't had challenges. I've still had my fair share of challenges. I've had hospital stays, I've been in the hospital for three weeks, a few months at a time. I've, you know, gotten infections and actually almost died. I have had issues with my chair, you know, I've had tires pop, I've had parts break away, I got squeaks and quakes and whatever else, but you know, I still am able to look at the positive that it could always be worse. You know, and even in my hospital stays, you know, people saw that and you know, they were able to, you know, gain a little bit better outlook and on their own situation, you know, and so yeah, just because I say, yeah, God's been good to me, and he has. But, you know, I don't want anybody listening to misunderstand me to say that I've had a perfect life. That ain't been perfect. You know, being in a wheelchair, it I always say it's not for the paint. It's not for the paint of art. It's not easy. I make it look easy, but it's not easy.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Yeah, life is what you make, it's all about perspective, isn't it? Exactly. Exactly. So tell us a little bit about how you got started hunting. So you've been in a wheelchair since three year parents hunt?

SPEAKER_02 9:57

And the funny thing, I I love telling my hunting story because my hunting story is vastly different than you might think, because I did not grow up in a hunting family. My my dad's I grew up in a hunting family, sort of, I should say it that way. Because like my dad's siblings, the his brothers, they would hunt. My dad tried going rabbit hunting one time, and he he told me the story when I was a kid. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. The weather was bad, the rabbits were too fast. Well, yeah, they're the rabbits, they're fast. You know, you you name it, my dad had, you know, so short of, you know, something going wrong with the gun. Like, that's the only thing that did not go wrong. But everything else went wrong. It's always that he decided that was not his thing. He was gonna stick to fishing. But I actually got into hunting. I I I grew up with watching it on TV, O'Neal outdoors, you know, dance fishing, but who Jeff Shocky, all those guys. So I grew up watching it. And it was something that always interested me, interested me. But getting into it, I didn't actually start doing it myself until I was fresh out of high school. I graduated high school in 9, 2009, and I had met and it's all about people, you know, it's something that I've always said, God puts certain people in your lives at certain times for certain reasons. And there is always a reason for somebody in your life. It might be permanent, it might be just for a season, but everybody in your life serves a purpose in your life. And I met through one of my my high school friends at the time had invited me to the open house, graduation open house, and I met this lady that, oh yeah, I volunteer at this community event. This gentleman puts it on at his house. He lives on however many acres he lives on, I don't remember anymore. Um, but he's also on a wheelchair. His name is Doug, and I said, okay. You know, I'd be interested in meeting him. So, long story short, skip ahead a couple years, Doug and I met, and he was actually involved in a car accident when he was 16, drawn from his vehicle, paralyzed instantly. And he grew up hunting, fishing, farming, all that. And through different people in the community, they were able to get him back. He then created um an organization called Fulfilling Life Ministries, which he doesn't do much with that anymore. But it's all about getting people with different disabilities out in the in in the world, whether it's hunting, fishing, you know, learning about farm equipment on his property, because his his thing was the world gave back to me. People gave back to me. So I want to do the same. They helped me, so I want to give back. And so he took that and I met him, and he reached out to me, you know, after about a year after we met, said, Hey, have you ever thought about going hunting? Because there is, now this is this is taboo for some people, I understand, but there is a place where I'm from in in Michigan, about an hour and a half north of where I live. And it's uh it's a high fence, and I know some of these hunters, some of these guys, high fence property is a swear word to some of these guys. I understand. So there might be a few listeners out there that are like pulling up their noses and giving me dirty looks, and that's fine. But he's like, there's this place, it's called Legends Ranch, it's a high fence farm, and at that point I didn't know what high fence ranch was, but he's like, it's it's we're allowed to take, I'm allowed to take a hunter out there, and you know, you're guaranteed to get a deal, kind of a thing. And I said, Yeah, I'd I'd love to do that. And so skip ahead. I now have this is 2010. This is yes, 2010. Um was supposed to be the one to take me. He ended up having an accident with his tractor, he busted his arm. So he calls me like two weeks before we're supposed to go. He's like, I can't make it, I'm gonna end up needing surgery. I've got my buddy Dan. He said he'd love to take you if you're still interested. So, you know, we're we're at Legends now, a couple weeks later, the last night of the hunt, I actually get my very first buck. And let me tell you, y'all, the the the the the fuse was lit at that point. I I, from watching it on TV to now experiencing it myself, I was hooked. Like that is something that I wanted to continue for the rest of my life. How old were you at this point? I was I had just turned 18 because I had I was right at their the the way they run it. It's a youth organization. They do it for special needs youth and then uh wounded warriors, purple heart veterans. And I was just at the age gap. I was just at that gap. 18 was the cutoff that I had just turned 18 that previous summer, a few months prior. So they said, well, you know, technically, but because you just turned 18, we're gonna, you know, extend it. You're you're allowed to come, whatever, blah, blah, blah. They're like, this is the only year you'll be able to do it, you know, but we'll we're gonna honor it for you. So I said, Great, you know, so Doug pulled the strings that he needed to pull, whatever else, and so then we got there and 218 pound eight-point buck. And at that point, that was, I mean, the biggest buck in in my life, that was like the biggest buck I'd ever seen, let alone was able to shoot. And since then, now that's been, like I said, 2010, so that's been 16 years ago. Since then, I've gotten two more eight points. I've got a ninth point on the wall, I've been on TV for turkey hunting, and I'll I'll tell more stories later. Can I slow you down? Yes, you can.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Please slow me down because otherwise I will keep going. So this first buck, first off, the high fence, you know, do I dodge it a little bit? Yes, for your situation? Absolutely not. So you had an opportunity, if it wasn't for the high fence ranch, you might not be hunting to this day. How often do you think about the details of the hunt, like replay it in your head and all that stuff? So often. So often. And I Then why don't you want to share it with us? All you said was you kill you shot your first eight point, man. I didn't know how detailed y'all I didn't know how detailed you wanted me to get. We wanna we wanna live the moment with you, man. We wanna live it. So I will give you a play-by-play. Okay. Let's do play by play.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

You ask for this. Remember this. Okay. So here we are. Friday morning, everybody gets up. If you want something to eat, grab you a bagel or a muffin, a you know, a cup of orange juice, whatever, coffee if you drink it. And then we're gonna be loading everybody up about 4 30 in the morning to drop everybody off at the spots, the blinds, and by daylight, you know, you're gonna have so everybody had a guide, and then they were allowed to take whoever came with them. If it was mom, if it was dad, me, it was my my buddy Dan, who I call glimpses, and I'll talk about him a little bit more a little later on, why I call him glimps. So it's the hunter, the guide, and then whoever came with the hunter. And so you're you're out until about I think if we didn't shoot a deer, we were bad. We were packing up the blinds by about 10 30 in the morning. Earlier, if you shot a deer. And you were allowed no, this is okay, you were allowed two. You could do two bucks, you could do two dough, you could do a bucket of dough, you could do two dough, you know, whatever. Um I just opted for the one. I think actually nope, I have to revise that. I think it was if you shoot two, it had to be one buck, one dough. I don't think you could shoot two bucks, which I think later got changed down the roads, but regardless. So the first day we're out and we saw, and again, because it's high fence, you're you're almost guaranteed to see deer. Like you're you're not gonna go more than a couple hours at most without seeing something. And so I was all excited, you know, 10 minutes after daylight, you're seeing deer, you're seeing movement, like it's it's cool stuff. And I'm taking pictures, and I'm that this is so cool. I'm thinking this is normal. Wrong. Nobody told me that the next year, when I went hunting, you know, on private property that was not high-panged, that I wouldn't see Jack. Nobody warns me about that. So, you know, I always when I when I tell this story, I always preface it and say as much fun as it was, and it was probably one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Because like I said, it's 16 years, and I can still remember exactly what I was wearing the night that I shot my deer. I remember exactly what time I can remember which way the deer was facing when I shot that deer. But that is the worst possible way to introduce someone into hunting. Because then they go that next season thinking it's gonna be the same thing, even without it being high-fanced. Like, I'm thinking I'm gonna go on my grandparents' property and see ten deer a day, you know, and and shoot the biggest one. No, no. They have gone, there have been several years now since then where I don't see a single deer, you know. So just saying this this is not the best way to start out a hunting career, if you will. But that being said, again, if it hadn't been for that, I probably would not have gotten my first year, right? So Friday, like I said, getting back to the story, we are out, we're seeing a bunch of deer, you know, splashing them all, me and the guy are looking at the same ones, making sure, well, okay, is this one nope, this one's too big. And with it being high fence, with it being geared for special needs, youth, and then wounded warriors, there's a criteria. You can't shoot, you know, little Bambi. Obviously, you don't want to shoot Bambi anyway, but you can't shoot little Bambi, and you can't shoot, you know, great granddaddy 20-point buck either, which I really, really wanted to, because there was one one deer that had like 15 plus points. And just everywhere. Just everywhere, everywhere you look, there was little kickers, there was little knobs, and he walked 20 yards right out in front of my blind, and I had my gun on him, and I looked at the guy and I'm like, Can I? And he's like, No, no. I know you want to, but no. I'm like, well, he's like, well, I tell you what, if you have, because you know you can pay to go out there too. He's like, if you have X amount of money, whatever the dollar amount was back then, he's like, if you have X amount of money, you can shoot that that deer. I never put my gun down so fast. I'm like, okay, this this this deer is just gonna walk away. Like, I really want to, but I can't. Don't have the money. So maybe next time. Maybe next time. Right. I still have not been able to get a deer like that. But you know what? I've gotten some really good deer. I'll talk about those a little later on as we go on, but plus and I have more stories. So Friday, morning comes, it ends, no deer. We've seen a few, thought, okay, there's a couple of that would have been good shooters, but my guide reminded me, he's like, hey, we have tonight yet, we have all of tomorrow morning, we have all of tomorrow night. And it's like, if you don't get anything by tomorrow night, we'll go out Sunday before, you know, the church service and everybody goes home. I said, Okay, so I have time. He's like, Don't don't feel disappointed. Because there were a few people that had gotten some nice deer right away that first morning. So I was getting a little bummed, and he's like, You have time, you will get a deer, I promise you. I said, Okay. So Friday night, same thing. We've seen a couple nice ones. I had my gun out one that I he's like, you can if you want to. But I know there's bigger out there that, you know, will come across. And I said, okay. So Friday night, same thing. Packed up. First it's too big, then it's too small. Too small. Exactly. I'm I'm fussy. No, I'm just kidding. They were the fussy one. They were the first one. I would have been happy with, you know, at a six-point at that point for my first year. But so there's one story. Saturday comes, Saturday morning. It is kind of foggy Saturday, as I remember. And so I I sing a few, but nothing super clear enough to feel comfortable to take a shot on. So I'm like, I'm just, I'm not comfortable with it. Then my guide, Paul, was his name, he's like, that's fine. Like, I don't want you to do it if you're not comfortable. Like, okay. So we ended up packing up, you know, about 10, 10.30. Went back, had a breakfast, went fishing, because they've got a big old lake on the property, and so they got pontoon boats, wheelchair accessible. And they said, yep, we're gonna take everybody fishing for the afternoon, and then we'll, you know, pack back up and go out, go back out 4:30 and on Saturday again, you know. So go fishing for the afternoon, catch and release, you know, whatever. That that's just as much fun for me. Catching and release, I love catching and keeping, but catching and release, just to have something to do, just to be outside, I love doing that too. I've got a pond near where I live now, and I go fishing every day if I can, either before work or when I get home from work. So went fishing for the afternoon and said, all right, time to do back in the blind. So you throw your hunting clothes on, get back out. And it is about 6.30 now, and you're all in the field, and they've been in the field already, but all of a sudden this eight-point comes in. And I'm I'm glassing him, the guide is glassing him. Are you on this one? Yep, yep. Does he look like this? Yep. All right, cool. We're looking at the same one. He's like, that is that is a good buck. That's a shooter. He's like, You're allowed, you can shoot that one if you want. So I get the gun up and I'm following him and waiting for him to stop. And all of a sudden, something, I didn't hear anything, I didn't see anything, but something happened. Because all of a sudden, every single deer in that field, and there was probably 15, 16 of them, every single one of those deer scattered. And I dropped my gun down and I'm just like, what happened? He's like, Don't, don't hit the skirts, because you could tell the look on my face, I was bummed. He's like, Don't get bummed out, don't get discouraged. He's like, they'll they'll hide for a little bit. But if they if nothing comes out, if they can't figure out what spooked them, it might have just been that something fell. He's like, if they don't figure out what spooked them, they'll work their way back in. Sure enough, about 15 minutes later, quarter to seven, so about so now it's about seven o'clock. They come back into the field. They're working their way, and a few minutes after that, that eight point come back. And I got my eyes on him, and we started lashing him. At the same one, yep, okay. Get the gun up on him, and he positioned himself in between two trees. And the clear shot, all the other deer were all around it, but nowhere within gun range. So I waited to make sure they were all clear of my sight. He gave me the green light, one shot, that buck never slinched. He dropped like a sack of rock right there. And a sigh of relief, I breathed like you wouldn't believe. I was so excited, I was ecstatic. First phone call I made. Still to this day, as a 35-year-old man, it's still the first phone call I made. Anytime I get a deer or a turkey, my mother. And me and my daddy before he passed away, my parents have always been my biggest supporters. And I didn't grow up in a hunting family. I did not grow up in a hunting family. And my parents were not against it by any means, because they have always been the kind of parents to say, we want you to try it once. You don't know if you like it, you don't know if you can do it unless you try it. And, you know, you're not always gonna have us, and you need to be able to do this, this, and that's on your own. And, you know, so they encouraged me to live life normally. And so, you know, when I brought this whole idea up to them about going to Legend, they said, you know, this would be a new thing for us. But yes, we want you to try it. If this is something that you want to do, do it. And, you know, you have our support. And so, you know, that Saturday is about quarter after seven, that buck is on the ground, you know. I'm thanking the Lord, I'm thanking my buddy Dan and the guy to Paul for, you know, doing this with me. And they're like, all right, we're gonna go get the deer, we'll we'll drag him to you, you know, and then we'll we'll get you out there next to him. I said, okay. So while they're doing that, they're going to get the deer. I'm on the phone with my mom and my dad, and I said, You're not gonna believe this. I got one, you know, he's this big, he's this, that, and the other thing. And I'm giving them all the details. And I said, You'll you'll see him Sunday when you guys come up to get me, because then the other family members of the hunters that did not get selected to go along, they're allowed to come off, get pictures with the hunters and the deer, and you know, be part of the church service that that we that they put on in the morning and whatever else, and then a quick little lunch, and then everybody packs up and we're all on the road again by like two o'clock Sunday afternoon. It was yeah, it's about two o'clock. So my mom and dad, like, congratulations, we can't wait to see it. And you know, Sunday comes, they drive up after our church service in the morning, they said we're gonna go to church, and then we'll head right up, we'll see you about noon. And I said, Alright, cool. And I'll never forget my dad saw that deer, and I always bet I always get a little choked up talking about this because my dad, when I was growing up, my dad and I were best butts. I mean, you know, if you have a dad in real life that is your is your buddy, yes, he was my dad. Yes, I had a healthy respect for him, and I never purposely did anything to cross him or hurt him, but my dad and I did a lot together. And so the look on his face, oh that's my son, that's my boy, he did that, like that to this day was probably the coolest part of that whole thing. And of course, getting a you know, a D-head on the wall doesn't hurt either, you know. But that, you know, seeing how proud my dad was of me, you know, because even growing up, we didn't know what God had in stores for me. We didn't know what I would and would not be able to do. Because so a little backstory away from the hunt thing, when I was born, I was born two broken two broken legs, I was born with extra cerebral fluid around my brain, so they had to do surgery on my head, my knot was not formed right, or my my spine was not formed right. It was it formed in a knot at the base of my spine. And so they had to do my back was open when I was born, so I they had to do back surgery on me, they had to do head surgery on me. This is all within the first like 12 hours of my life. Uh my I'm I'm adopted. My birth mom, as soon as she got the okay, she checked herself out of the hospital. And she said, Well, the doctors, the medical staff had said, Well, you know, your baby probably isn't gonna survive, you know, but you're free to go. Like, right, right. So you're good to go, but you know, your baby might not survive. So, you know, but you don't want to stay and be blind. Oh, nope, she checked, she checked herself out of the hospital and said, Okay, this is, you know, this is where I'm at with it. Like, okay. So, you know, then there was a nurse that caused the doctor to do all these surgeries because the doctors didn't want to touch me. They said, Well, there's no point in trying to save this baby because this baby cannot be saved. They labeled, they labeled me back then as a throwaway baby, which means just put him in a little bassinet and within 12 hours he'll be dead. We're not gonna waste the manpower and the hours on it. Like, there's nothing that can be done. But this this nurse, I always say God sent an angel in the form of this nurse because he pushed the doctors, he said, Hey, no, you're going to at least try to save this baby. Like, if if it doesn't work, you or well, you can at least say you tried. You know, but you're not just gonna you know leave this baby aside and not do anything. So, like I said, first 12 hours of my life, I'm getting head surgery, back surgery, casts on my legs to take my legs out, you know, to pick my broken legs, to do what they could. And again, 35 years ago, medicine, it wasn't awful, but it wasn't what it is now. You know, so bad then. I mean, it was what can they do? They they do what they can, and that's it, which is you know, but they they did the surgeries, I was in recovery, and I stayed in the hospital for five weeks. He did not come back to claim me. And so they said, okay, this baby is now a ward of the state. He he he is gonna be up for you know foster care because birth mom checked out and hasn't come back. So they called my parents, who were the only, one of the only licensed couples in the area to do foster care for medically fragile babies and children. So my parents, medically fragile, my parents dealt with wheelchairs, they dealt with feeding tubes, they dealt with kids, babies that were on oxygen 24-7, they dealt with mentally, severely mentally handicapped, so nonverbal, total care, non functioning, kind of. They were they were alive, but that was it, like bare minimum. So that was what my parents did. And so the hospital then, or the the hospital reached out to the foster care agency, who then reached out to my parents and said, Hey, you know, we've got this baby uh for foster care. Are you interested? Well, my my mother takes the babies like a deer hunter takes to a new guy. So, you know, she said she heard baby, and she's like, Yes, yes, we we want to, you know, until they said, Well, okay, this is what you need to know. You know, this baby is gonna be addicted to, you know, it's got drugs in his system because birth mom was a was a drug addict, so baby's gonna have, you know, dependency on that, baby's gonna have this, baby's gonna do this, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Like a whole list of things that were wrong with me as a baby. And my mom said to those people, like, look, don't label him. Don't say he's gonna be this or he's not gonna be that. Like, let us take care of him. We will love him, we'll do what we can for him, and that's it. And they said, Okay, you know, oh, one other thing you need to know about this baby, he's black. Is that gonna bother you? And my mom's like, as long as the kid ain't blue, I don't care. Why why are you telling me he's black? What is what does skin color have to do with it? Now, to preface this, because my adoptive parents are Caucasian. So, you know, that that's why the hospital staff, the foster care staff, well, can need to let my parents know, you know, your new foster baby is black. Okay, we'll be thrilled. My parents are not racist. Like my mother said, as long as the kid ain't blue because of lack of oxygen, like, who cares? As long as he ain't blue, as long as he ain't purple, you know, my mother's got a sense of humor. So she's throwing all these different colors. As long as he's not this, this, and this, we'll take him, you know. And so they said, okay, you know, come get him, whatever else. And so my mom, my dad, and one of my older sisters came to the hospital, and the nurse, nursing staff, so I was in the hospital bed, I'm on my stomach, and my mother still, when she tells the story, says, I look like a chocolate snowman because I was in a white onesie and diaper, white socks, you know, the little baby booties, and the white collective cast on my legs. And I had not taken anybody. I pretty much had been left alone by the hospital staff, other than for their routine, you know, whatever, checkups and and whatever else. And so she asked, you know, can I pick up the baby up? And I said, Yeah. She turned me over, you know, picked me up, turned me over, and I smiled at her from ear to ear. The very first time I had smiled, by God's grace, was that my mother. And she looked at the the hospital staff and she said, Yeah, we want this baby. If I had two years, my birth mother had gotten in contact with my parents. She had been to visit a few times, but after two years, she said, you know what? He is healthy. You guys have helped him, y'all have done this, this, and this. I will really and clearly relinquish all rights, only if you adopt him, because you can take care of him better than I ever would be able to. So she's like, I will sign it all away right now if you agree to take it. They said, Yes, we they've been waiting for that. And so she she did probably the only decent thing, you know, she did for me at that point was gave me up so my family could have me. And, you know, 35 years later, I've got the best mother in the world, my father has since passed away, but had the best dad in the world, you know, my my best friend, my mom is my other best friend, I say, and we do so much together. And and that's the other piece to a positive mindset, is if you have people around you, whether it's friends, whether it's family, but especially family, if you got great parents, that's where it starts. Because having loving, supporting parents, that is what has kept me, you know, besides my love for the Lord, that is what has kept me going all these years and got me hunting, supported that I wanted to try it. And since then, you know, I've said, hey, mom, I've got invited to go on this hunt. I got invited, you know, last year, May 2025, my buddy Scott called me. He's like, hey, I got a bear hunt lined up for us in Canada. Are you interested? And I went to my mom and I said, Look, the only problem with this hunt is it's gonna, I'm gonna be gone over your birthday. She's like, go with my blessing. We will celebrate my birthday when you get back. But you have a chance of a lifetime. And, you know, and I look at that, and the number one question I get asked is, Do I wish I was not in the wheelchair? No, I don't. Because if it weren't for the wheelchair, I truly believe this with everything in my heart. If it weren't for the wheelchair, I don't believe I would be where I am today. I don't believe for a minute that I would have some of the adventures that I've gotten to have. I've been called a local, and and I say this carefully not to brag. I've been called a celebrity myself because of some of the celebrities that I've gotten to meet and get pictures with and go fishing with or whatever the case, go hunting with. So it's like I would not want my life any different. You know, I tell people the only thing I would change, my dad would still be here. Because he died just as I was getting into my hunting stuff. So he saw my first buck, he saw my first turkey, but he didn't get to see my first bear, my second bear, you know, all the other things I've gotten to do. That is the only thing I would change. But beyond that, my life is good.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

That's you know, it's what your birth mom did was unforgivable. But like the courage it took for her to like come back and visit you after doing that. That takes some balls. It does. It does, you know.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

And I and I do commend her for because I I truly believe I I said, you know, the only decent thing she did for me was give me up, yes. But at the same time, I do believe there was a part of her because she did that, he was showing that she did care. You know, because she he did come back for a visit, you know, once in a while as I was growing up, you know, baby, my infancy, you know, a couple years, and then, you know, finally said admitted, like, look, even if he's free and clear to come back to me, I'm not gonna be able to take care of him the way that y'all did. So he would be better off staying with y'all. And so for her to be able to own up to that, that that does take guts. Um and I'm thankful that she did that. Because like I said, I don't think that would be so today, you know, or I wouldn't have the quality of life that I do, you know, if I had ended up back with her.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

I do I know that for sure? No, I don't. You didn't end up in a wheelchair. She I mean, it sounds bad, but it's probably good. She probably would have taken you home and you would have been in the same lifestyle she would have been in.

SPEAKER_02 39:01

Exactly. More than likely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

It all works happens for a reason. Absolutely. Yep, I've believed that my whole life long. Everything happens for a reason. So your dad got to witness a couple other hunts. Let's w go through those as well.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

Yeah, so the next big one that I got to do, so 2010 was my dear hunt. 2012 was it it was a weird year because one of my sisters, I'm the youngest of five total, four older sisters. And my one sister had passed away after a surgery that had gone horribly wrong and just she was never able to recover. But anyway, that same month that she passed away, actually. So May 2012, hunting season here in Michigan, my buddy Dan had called me. He's like, Hey, I hope you got your turkey tag. I'm gonna take you hunting. I've got it all lined up. We're gonna be hunting on so-and-so's property this date in the night in the evening, and then this date in the morning, if we don't get anything in the evening. And I said, Okay, he's like, There's more. And this is another one of those stories where all all of my hunting stories, I can remember exactly where I was. I could remember like right down to the t-shirt that I was wearing because this phone call happened. I was in the living room, and my dad was still alive. This is my sister, I think, had just passed away, but my dad passed away a couple years later, so my dad's still alive for this story. And all I'm in the living room, I had just been watching TV with my mom and dad. And my buddy Dan calls and he tells me all this. He's like, There's a special guest that's gonna be hunting with us. And I said, Okay, what what what are you cooking up? Who's gonna be hunting with us? And he said, Jimmy Gurtinger from Michigan Out of Doors. And for anybody that's not in Michigan, Michigan Out of Doors is a local hunting, fishing, outdoors TV show. It it covers all of Michigan. And it it's it's mainly hunting and fishing, but it's not only hunting and fishing. And I said, You said who? He's like, You heard me, right? Jimmy Gletzinger is gonna be hunting with us. And he's gonna take all of his camel gear with him. And he's like, if you get a turkey, he's gonna film the whole hunt. And he's like, if you get a turkey, you're gonna be put on TV. I down near dropped my phone. And I'm sitting there, mouth just wide open. I I was speechless for about 15 seconds. And my mom and dad at this point, they're seeing me and they're like, Are you okay? And my dad, he's like, Tannan, Dannan, are you there? Dann. And I it's kind of like I just I like blanked out for a second. And I came back to it. I'm like, You said who? He's like, no, you heard that right. I already said it twice. Yeah, and I'm like, I'm gonna be, he's like, yep, there's a possibility that you and I are gonna be on TV. And he's like, get this, get that, and you know, be ready because this this was like the next week. He's like, get all your stuff ready, you know, because we're we're gonna make this happen next week, or whenever it was, a week, two weeks later, whatever. And I said, Okay, cool. And I hung up the phone, and the mom's like, What did he tell you? What's wrong? I said, Um, your son might be on TV. And then they said, Wait, what? So I told them, you know, everything that Dan had just told me, and they said, Go for it. Like, that would be so cool. So now the other story that I love telling, my turkey hunting story. Like I said, I have a million stories. You're gonna have to cut me off at some point because I will go through 16 years worth of hunting stories. But Turkey, May 2012. Friday afternoon, we'd gotten out, and we had seen a couple of hens, no, no gobblers. There was a Jake, and he was like 100 yards out, way, obviously, way further than a shotgun contain. And it's a Jake. I didn't want to shoot a Jake anyway, especially if I'm gonna be on TV. So, okay, Friday, whatever else, Saturday. Saturday, we get up, and of course, again, early morning. I am getting used to early mornings now at this point. I've done it for a couple years now, and still thinking, you know, 4, 4.30 in the morning is too early. But for the opportunity to be on TV, I'll take it. So Dan comes to get me. He picked me up. I I was not driving yet. I didn't start driving until years later. But so he's like, be ready at about 4 o'clock. I'm gonna come get you. We're gonna meet Jimmy at the spot, at the landowner's house or whatever. He's like, the only problem with hunting Saturday is Jimmy has got to be at, I think he had to go down to the southern part of the state to film whatever other half of the show. He's like, so we only have until about 9 30, 10 o'clock Saturday morning. You know, if if we're gonna make this happen on TV. And I said, Oh, okay, you know, I'm nothing like putting a little pressure on me here. So we get out, you know, it's it's before dinner. Daylight, we get everything all set up, and we sit, I was staying told daylight, and we break up the cult, we start doing a little bit of calling here, and they're dead silent. The woods were, I mean, as still and as peaceful as you could imagine, which was nice, but at the same time, I didn't want peaceful. I wanted to hear a goblet coming up behind us. Like I wanted something. It was still, it was peaceful. We had been calling at 7:30. We we called off and on. We'd we'd sat and listened for a while, and then we'd call again. We probably sat and called almost two hours. And it's getting to be about 9:30, almost 10 o'clock. Like it's it's pushing time to where Jimmy's got to pack up and go. And he's like, you know, you guys can still hunt, but I'm gonna have to pack up to you in a little bit. Like, you know, okay. So I said, well, let's let's just call it. We've got the rest of the season between me and Dan. You know, it was nice meeting you, whatever else. So Jimmy stands up, he folds his little, you know, three-prong hunting chair that he's sitting on, he closes the his camera. He had just shut his camera off, and he had just about packed away his stool, and he happened to look outside the blind, he leans back and he caught some movement. And he leaned back, looked out the window, unpacks his chair, sits down, like, Longbeard. I'm like, what? He's like, Don't move. Don't say anything. There is a turkey, and he's about 20 yards from us to the right. Like he is coming in. So he quick sits down, he turned his camera back on. My gun, of course, like a newbie knucklehead, my gun is nowhere near me. I've got my gun laying up against the wall of the blind. So I'm like, damn, he's like, yep, yep, I'm I'm getting it. So he handed it to me. He's like, I'm gonna start calling. I'm gonna get his attention. So he starts, you know, doing a couple of hand clocks, you know, and that bird puffed up, he studied, he started walking to us. Well, then all of a sudden, we hear some more hand clocks. And I looked at Dan and I'm like, I whispered that, I'm like, Are you doing this? He's like, That's not me. And Jimmy kind of turned ever so slowly and quietly, he turned and looked out the blind window behind us. He's like, We've got a hen behind us. So now this cobbler, he's fanned out, he's threaded out, and he's going back and forth. He'll take about 10 steps out of view to that hen behind us. And then my Dan hits the call and he'll turn it on and he'll take 10 steps to us. And this went on for about five minutes, the longest five minutes of my life. Oh my word. It was probably not any longer than five minutes, but it felt like a lot longer. I'm sitting there saying, I got my gun up. I'm ready now. All he's gotta do is stick his head in front of my window. But I got my gun up, and Dan called one more time, and that bird did a 180, and he came all the way out in front of us. He stopped at the decoys, puff, and he started up. I put that bead right on his head, and he flopped it. I pulled the trigger, he flopped right over. And Jimmy looked at me, he's like, I got the whole thing on video. He's like, You're gonna be on TV. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I was so excited. I same thing as I did with Legends, they went to get the bird, I made a phone call. I'm like, Mom, Dad, I'm gonna be on TV. I just got a bird, da-da-da, blah, blah, blah. And so naturally, then the next question is, what do you want to do with this bird? Well, I want to get it mounted. So I have a full strut mount in my sunroom. And that that one, I had originally just planned on doing a tail fan. Because I've got, you know, a few tail fans in my room and stuff like that. But with it being a special Miskin Out of Doors TV bird, I'm like, nope, I I need to do something, but I need to get that one mounted. So mom and dad are like, absolutely, like we will we'll help you, we'll pay for that. Um, because I was there was in-between jobs at that point. And so they're like, nope, this one you want to get mounted, we will pay for it. Like, this is special. So Jimmy's like, you know, give me a few weeks, and you know, we'll edit it and whatever else, because I've already got a few segments lined up, so you know, we'll we'll get it towards the end of the month, we'll get it up on the show. He aired it that next, it was a Saturday, so then a week and a half later, so that following Thursday, he aired it. And I'm like, wait, and it the timing of it was very bittersweet because the Thursday that that episode aired was also the Thursday that we did my sister's visitation the next day we had her funeral. And so, you know, I had a lot of people say, you know, condolences and whatever else, but then they said, as soon as we leave here, we're gonna go home and we're gonna watch your your episode. And so, you know, for the longest time, people anywhere I'd go to I'd go to the store, I'd go to a restaurant, hey, I saw you on Miss Canadou, that was a really cool bird, you know, and so there again, something that I don't believe would have happened if my life wasn't the way it was. But I mean, how many other people can say that they've been on TV, they've been in a magazine, several magazines, you know, all that kind of stuff. So, but yeah, I to be able to be on TV and and just me, your ordinary guy, like, you know, that just doesn't happen, you know. But it was it was a really cool experience for me.

SPEAKER_01 49:50

Do you stay in touch with him to this day at all?

SPEAKER_02 49:53

Yeah. Yeah, I text not not nearly as much as I should, probably, but I mean, he is also, I mean, he's a full-time TV host, he's a dad of two. So I mean, Jimmy and I, we we connect with each other over the holidays. Hey, hope your Christmas went well, you know, XYZ, hope your heart and season's going good. I'll send him pictures if I get a deer or a turkey. When I shot my bear in Canada, I sent him that picture. So, you know, we we probably reach out to each other a couple a couple times a month, you know. It's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 50:24

Oh yeah. We got one time for one more story.

SPEAKER_02 50:28

So So last year, May, 2025, my buddy well, this it really goes back to like early 2025. My buddy Scott and I had been talking. I had mentioned one of my bucket list hunts was a black bear hunt in Canada. I would love to get out and either get a color phase black bear or just a you know a giant cruisure of a you know, regularly black bear, whatever. Just being able to go out in Canada because that's like that's every hunter's dream. I don't care who you are, I don't care where you're from, at some point, every hunter is drawn to either Alaska or Canada for bear and or moose. Like that's just it's gonna happen. And I told him that. I'm like, that is something that I would love to do. Well, a few months later, he's like, hey, remember how you were talking about wanting to go to Canada? Like, yeah, he's like, I found as an outfitter that'll do it. That can accommodate your chair, that can do this, that they've given you a discounted price, like they discounted it a couple thousand dollars, actually, because my half of it was half literally half of what his was. So he's like, they're giving you a heck of a discount, and this, that, and the other thing. And I said, Okay, what do I need to do? How much time do I need to take off? So we leave Friday morning early, get there Sunday at mid, mid-morning, early afternoon. It was like noonish when we get there. And they're like, okay, we're gonna you guys settle in, get unpacked, we'll have lunch ready for you, we'll get Scott shooting his bow. Shannon, you're gonna get your gun. I I chose my gun. I'm shooting a 450 Bushmaster. That gun got me my very first bear here in Michigan. That got me my eight-point buck two years ago. Like I'm I love my 450. And I said, All right, let's go get that shot. Got that sighted in, ready to go. And so the plan, we were gonna hunt Sunday afternoon till dark, and then if we didn't get anything, we had that whole week to go hunting. And we both went in to the hunt with a criteria. Because Scott had been bear hunting several times. He was looking for something very specific, and because I've already got a bear here in Michigan, I was also looking for something specific. Like I wanted something that was 300 pounds or bigger, or it had to be, you know, a color phase, brown or blonde, or you know, something, something unique. And so we had both decided we were not, no matter what we saw, we were not gonna shoot that first day. Keep that in mind as I tell this story. Okay, so neither one of us were gonna shoot. As hard as it was, we were just gonna, whatever came in, we were gonna let it walk because if it came in the first day, more than likely it would come back again later on in the week. We would have several chances at Color Phase or at Big Bear or whatever. So we're shoot shooting the guns, we were riding in side by sides. And so he went, they took him one way, they took me another way. And so we're obviously we're safe distance, we're nowhere near each other, we're like 45 minutes away from each other in distance. So basically opposite ends of the hunting property. We got me in a pop-up blind, he's in a tree stand, and the guide Dale is his name. He's going through the camera for the the uh the trail cam. He's pulled the the chip out, he's got it in his his phone or whatever. So we're looking through it. We're like, that would be a very good bear. He's like, that is a monster bear. You know what I mean? The the gut is just about dragging on the ground. Like this is easily 400-pound bear, if not bigger. And he's like, that one was here this night, that night, and the other night. So there's right around 5:30. He's like, there's a very good chance that that bear will come in. So, cool, all right. So we get set up, got my gun loaded, ready to go. Because in Canada, you can't you can't travel with a loaded gun. You know, so once you're in, you're all set up, then you load your gun. Or load your your crossbow if you're on crossbow, knock your arrow if you got a regular bow, whatever. You have to be safe, is what I'm saying. So we get the gun loaded, okay, ready to go. It gets to be 527, if I remember correctly. He and I are going over shot placement. They had talked shot placement with me a little bit back at the lodge, but not in extent. We're like, let's talk shot placement. He's like, if this is, you know, the bear, this is the top of the bear, this is the bottom of the barrel, you want to go middle of the bear, and you want to be like middle of the middle. And I'll never forget the way he said that you want to be middle of the middle. So you start, you put your sight on the top of his back, and you go by the middle, and then you go to where like his nose is and you go back, and you want to be like middle of the middle. And the way he said that, I'm like, okay, that makes sense. And he's like, you know, wait for a good broadside shot, or you know, slightly quartering. You know, you want to make sure the vitals are exposed, and he's he's going over it with me in minute detail. Like, he really wanted to make sure I was I was good, I felt good about the shot that I was about to take, if I was able to take a shot. And as he's talking, now for anybody listening that has never been bear hunting, the first thing I will tell you is the first thing that they told me. The bear, you when it comes in, you will not hear a bear walking unless that bear wants you to. I don't care if it is winning the pool at 50 pounds a tub, or it or if it is yogi at 500 pounds, that bear is not going to make a sound coming into the ward. And they told me that, and I started laughing. I'm like, yeah, right, right. And ask him that. I said, well, okay, what if this bear is like over 400 pounds? You're telling me that much weight isn't gonna make a sound? He's like, that bear will not make a sound unless he wants you to know he's there. So skip ahead. Now it's a couple minutes later, so 530, and he's telling me, like I said, all the different things, what to know about how to shoot, whatever else. And he grabs my arm. He's like, Don't move. And I'm like, what? He's like, see that big black dot? I'm looking and I see a big black dot. And oh my word, I see a big black dot moving. And all of a sudden I saw I could just see like his paw at first. And then all of a sudden I saw his head. That wasn't even a head, that was a melon. That thing was the biggest skull I've ever seen. And I'm sitting there and I've been hunting 16 years, like I said, I get buck fever to where you get shaken. I've had that. I have never had buck fever. I have never had buck fever so bad. I have never sat in a blind and shook so bad. I was calm, cool, and collected. And as soon as I saw that bear walk in, I was shaken like I had just downed a year's worth of caffeine. Like it was so bad. I was shaking so bad he could hear my chair shaking. That's how bad I was shaking. He's like, Channel, channel, channel. You got to take a breath. Otherwise, you're not gonna make a good shot. He's like, I will not let you shoot. This this bear, this, this bear, if you can't calm down. And I took a couple of good deep breaths and I settled myself down. I was still shaking a little bit, but not near as bad. I was actually able to hold the gun steady. But this bear, it had my nerves just strangled. Because he came in a lot closer than what we thought he was gonna come in. He came in at about 40, 50 yards. We thought he was gonna come down lane about 70, 80 yards, because that's where the bait barrel was. And so he came in and he's you know, he's kind of cautious. He's sniffing around, doesn't notice anything, so I'm thinking, okay. He doesn't smell us, he doesn't hear us, we're we're good. And I looked at Dale, my guide standing sitting next to me. I said, I never heard him. I never heard him. He's like, I told you. I said, they don't they will not make a sound unless they wind you didn't know. And I said, With a bear that size? He's like, it don't matter. I said, I never heard him. He's like, I told you. He's like, get ready. He's gonna give you a shot. So he wandered down to the bait barrel and he's you know, he's milling around, he's eating stuff, he's playing with the bait barrel a little bit, whatever else, and he goes to stand up, branched himself on a tree. This bear stood over seven foot tall on his hind leg. And I'm sitting there, I am just in pure shock. Like this this bear, he he was shocked too. He's like, this bear is big. He's like, that's the big bear that was on the camera. That's the bear that I just showed you, because he's got his his phone back up now. I've got my phone, I'm taking pictures and videos. He's got his phone off, and he's got the the chill pin pictures pulled up, and we're comparing. Like, there's there's okay, yeah, that's that's him. He's like, that's that big bear. So between the two of us, we had already decided, yes, if he gives me a shot, I'm gonna shoot. He's like, You sure you want to shoot him? And it's only the first night. I said, I'm not letting up I looked at him, I said, Is that a bear that you would shoot? He's like, Shannon, that is one of the biggest bear I've ever seen. I said, Then I'm shooting him. He's like, Go for it. If he gives you a shot, I want you to take him. Well, amongst all this, Scott had had also shot a bear. And so our lodge owner, Arlie is his name, he had texted Dale, my guide, and said, We're going to get Scott, he just shot one. We're gonna go help him recover it. And I started laughing quietly, of course, but I started laughing myself. And Dale said, What are you laughing at? I said, Scott said he wasn't gonna shoot. We both on the way out here said we were not gonna shoot opening day. And he just shot one. And here, if this bear gives me a shot, I'm not letting him get away. He's like, That's your choice. I said, Scott shot a color face. He's like, Do you think so? I said, that is the only reason he would shoot on the first night, because of how many bears he's got under his belt already. I said, if he's shooting one, it is either a monster figure to this one, or it's a colored face. He's like, Well, I guess we'll see if you're right. I texted Scott and he's like, Yep, I shot one. I said, What is it? He's like, Nope, you focus on your hunt. Because I had just texted him like half an hour before saying that, you know, there's a bear in the field, I'm about ready to shoot. So I had asked him, I said, What did you shoot? He's like, Nope, you focus on your bear, we'll talk about mine afterwards. This is for you. You can't do that to me because now I'm I'm nosy, I'm serious. And he's like, Don't see soon enough. Well, the guys are here, they're going, we're going to get mine, you get yours. I said, Okay. So, you know, I quit texting him, put my phone away, and that bear decided he was just gonna politely walk out of view after feeding by the bait barrel for 45 minutes. And I I timed it. There's like 45 minutes on my GoPro footage. And so he had gone out of my line of sight, and so I'm thinking he's gone. I'm thinking I just missed a chance at shooting the biggest bear I will probably ever see. Well, what I did not know is that that bear only took a few steps out of my view and went and laid down. He never left. I just couldn't see him because Dale sitting next to me telling the whole thing. He told me that a couple days later. He's like, oh, by the way, that bear never left. He just left your sight. But I wasn't gonna tell you that. I said, well, why don't you tell me the minute that you saw him laying there? And he's like, would you have been able to shoot him? If you knew that he was there, would that not have made you all nervous again? I said, yeah, I probably would have. He's like, okay, the other piece, if I told you that he was still there and he got up and kept walking away and never came back, would you have been disappointed? I said, I would have been very disappointed. He's like, that's why I didn't tell you. I said, that's fair. He's like, I did not want you to be disappointed. I mean, offset that that bear never gave you a shot. And I said, okay, back to back to the hut. So we're laying, we're we're sitting there, that bear's laying there about half an hour. It's now 5.30. The bear came in, Scott's shot here, so now it's say about 7.30. That bear stands up, he's like, get ready. He's coming back. I walk and he walks back into my view, and I got him. And he's like, you know, let him come until you can get a shot. You know, let him, you know, get get some camera footage. I looked at him, I said, Dale, I've already got enough footage. He he gives me a shot. I'm shooting him. Okay. He's like, that's the one, that's the same one. You're you're good. You you're clear to shoot him if you if you can. So he takes a step, he puts, he opened up his vitals, I drilled one right in the long stage. He did fail, he started, he kind of did a little Yui, because he went that way, and then he popped a Yui and went to my right, and just like, you you got him, you hit him, this and that. But that bear ran over a hundred yards before he piled up. And we didn't hear a death moan, we didn't hear a growl, we didn't hear anything. Not every bear. You'll see you'll see it happen on on these hot and shows. The bears will give out a a death groan. Not every bear does the death groan. My Michigan bear did not, and my Canada bear did not. And so I, you know, we didn't know, but we knew I'd hit him. He went back and watched the the camera footage because he had his camera out. He went back and watched, he's like, You hit him, but I know you hit him. And this, that, and the other. And I went back and my GoPro didn't pick up the shot very well, so I couldn't, well, hmm. My GoPro. My GoPro picked up everything until the shot because I had accidentally turned my camera off to save battery, because I forgot to take the other battery with me. And then when the bail came back into view from laying down, I was so amped up I forgot to hit record again. So my GoPro was on, it just wasn't recorded. I didn't have any footage of the actual shot, which I still kicked myself for that one. But I called, you know, he he called Arlie. He's like, Can I just shot one? Come help us when you get Scott's bear. I quit, of course, called my mother. I said, Mama, you're not gonna believe this. She's like, You got one. I said, Yeah, I did. She's like, I knew it. The minute I saw your name come up on the phone, he's like, I knew you were calling to tell me you got one. How big is it? I said, I don't know, but I think it's a massive, massive bear. And she's like, Well, you know, get pictures when you can, and called me back. I said, Okay. So I hung up and I quit, called Scott, and I said, I got one. I said, That one that I told you. That was in view a couple hours ago. He's like, Yeah. I said, he's on the ground. I think. He's like, what do you mean you think? I said, I shot him, but you know, Dale's out there a little bit trying to find some blood. He hadn't found anything. He's like, well, okay, if you shot him, if you hit him good, we've got my bear loaded up. We're on our way to you. We'll be there in about 45 minutes. Because again, opposite end of the property. We'll be there in about 45 minutes, and I will help these guys back. And if you if you shot him, if you hit him good, we will find him. So Scott and the guys all got together. They started looking. Half of them went one way, the other half went the other way. And all of a sudden I hear, Yeah! I'm like, they got him. They found him. I'm standing there, I'm I'm I'm nervous. Because at this point, this is they've been tracking maybe five, ten minutes. No blood, no hair, no nothing. And what I what I didn't know at the time, Scott told me later, he found a little, it was almost like throw-up. But the bear didn't throw off. It was just like gray, like almost stomach matter. And it was like, okay. So he tracked that, and then, you know, a little bit here, a little bit there, and then he found some drops of blood. And then he tracked that to, you know, finding the bear. And they all let out a yahoo, and he'd come running back, and he had a look on his face that I could see even from 80 yards away. He'd like, he'd come up to me running. He was blind. He's like, Shannon, you just shot the biggest bear I've ever seen. Now, my buddy Scott, he likes to tease me a little bit. So I'm thinking, you know, he's trying to amp me up. He's he's trying to be instinctive. I said, Yeah, okay. He's like, No, look at my face. And I looked up from my phone because I'm texting a couple people that I had just shot one. And I look up at his face and I'm like, You're serious. He's like, I am dead serious. You just shot the biggest bear I have ever seen. This thing is at least 350, maybe more. He's like, it's probably more, like 400, maybe bigger. And I'm like, God, he's like, I'm not kidding. I promise him. He's like, you'll see. We're gonna get you out there and you'll see for yourself. He's like, this is the biggest bear. He's like, this is bigger than any bear I've ever shot. Huh? He's like, yeah. So I'm like, okay, well, what are we gonna do? He's like, we're gonna get uh a turp out, we're gonna put it in the sled, we'll put you in the sled, and then us guys will just drag you in the sled out to the bear. Because he, like I said, he ran about a hundred yards before he piled up. And we get to this bear. And every deer, every bear, every turkey, whatever has a little bit of ground strong. They always look bigger when you shoot them than when they're actually on the ground. This was not the case. I got up to this bear and took a video of it. My jaw dropped. I think I dropped my phone in the cart that I was in, the sled that I was in, and I'm sitting there just mouth wide open. I'm dumbfounded. I'm like, what's that? They're like, yeah, that's the bear that you just shot. I'm like, that, that, that, that thing. He's like, I told you, that is the biggest bear I've ever seen. He's like, I was not lying to you when I said that. And I grabbed that paw. I couldn't even lift that paw. It was so big. Like, I grabbed that paw and just that that paw like took over my entire face. And I just I sat there and just in awe. And we got pictures and some videos, and you know, I I played a pair of thanks, and you know, I took pictures of the wiser, right? Took a few pictures, I texted my mom, I called her, I'm like, Did you get the pictures? She's like, How big is that bear? That's like, he's over 300 pounds. He's probably pushing four. So we get it back to the lodge, and they got the little the this excavator, the small excavator, with a scale attached and everything else, and they are trying to wench this thing with a scale up in the air to weigh him. It got huge 367 pounds, and it broke the arm of the excavator. And the head and the shoulders were still on the ground. So we figured this bear is 450,500 pounds, is what we established. Yeah. Yeah. And so I called my mom one more time, I think, and I said, Mom, this bear is probably over 400 pounds. She's like, You're getting this thing mounted, right? I said, I was gonna ask you if I could. She's like, Shannon, this is a once-in-a-lifetime bear. You need to get this thing mounted. Like, we need to do a full, but my my now, okay. Going back to my parents did not when that in the hunting, you know, thing when before I got into it, my mother does flowers and she does, because she's from the Netherlands, so she does blue delt and all the Dutch knick-knacks and everything else. That was the decorations of our house when I was growing up. All the Dutch little knick-knacks. We went from that to we now have deerheads on the wall, and we have fairs, and we have this, and we have that. And so for my mother to tell me that I need to get this thing mounted, that is that was a miracle to me. I'm like, Mom, did you? She's like, Yes, I just said that. Yes, I know what I'm saying. She's like, that is a big bear. You need to get this thing mounted. So I am currently waiting on my taxidermist to give me a call and say that my 7'2, 500-pound black bear full-body mount is ready to be picked up. If you would ask me 20 years ago, did I ever think I'd be able to go to Canada and go on a bear hunt? No, I did not think that. Like, I've always believed I can do anything with God's help. But telling me that I could go to Canada, I didn't think that was ever gonna be a thing. So it's yeah, and I you might just have to have me back on again someday because I've got so many more stories I could tell. But those those two are some of my favorite ones.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:06

Sounds like some pr pretty good stories, man. Oh yes. Have you listened to any episode yet? I think I've listened to a part of one. I never got time to finish it. But yes, I've I've listened to bits and pieces. So we usually wrap up with a couple different parts. One, I'll ask a few rapid fire questions. Don't need to go into too much detail, just quick answer, and then we'll finish with some embarrassing stories.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:30

Sad thing is I got a couple in mind already.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:32

The five rapid fire questions. First one, best hunting gear purchase you've ever made.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:37

My 450 Bushmaster. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:40

Is an AR bolt action.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:41

That is a bolt action.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:42

I love my bolt action rifles. Most gimmicky hunting purchase you've made.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:47

I just put it away too. One of the um the dough bleat uh cans. Really? Nah. They don't. I've not had any success with them.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:59

Hunting luck versus skill percentage of each one.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:03

You know yeah, I I would say it's probably 50-50. I I mean I've never really believed in luck, but a lot of it is just, you know, it's you gotta be at the right place at the right time.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:16

Very good. Most controversial hunting hot take. Like I said at the beginning of it, the high fence thing. And most underrated hunting tactic.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:26

Most underrated, I think, uh, most underrated hunting tactic is hunting with hounds. Because, and I won't go into great detail for sake of time, but my Michigan bear that I got to do, that was with a family that has hounds that hunted overbait with hounds or whatever. And that does not get talked about enough. That is such a cool thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:50

Appreciate you sharing those. Let's wrap this up with a couple embarrassing stories.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:55

One involves my dad, because of course it did. Me and my dad did everything together. We were coming home, he had just picked me up. I was working with him, take a kid to work day, kind of a thing. And so we we were done with work for the day, we were heading home, had to get the car washed. Well, the car we had back then, this is 20, 25 years ago, the car we had back then had a sunroof. Now, don't I know what you're thinking, don't beat me to the funny part yet now, because we had gone up to the car wash, we'd like, all right, check all the windows, make sure they're all closed. Yep, check the windows, and I had double checked the sunroof, and it was closed. But what I did not know is there were two different ways to open up a sunroof. You could open it all the way, or you could just open it, you know, just that little bit where that lip would come up. That was open, and I didn't realize it. So, though the windows are good, and we shut the sunroof part on the inside, the fabric part, and we're going through the car wash. And all of a sudden, you know, I look up and I can see the ceiling is a little like it's damp. And no sooner do I say that my dad and I got an unexpected shower. And I thought you closed, I can still hear him. I thought you closed, well, come to find out, that little part was still open just enough to like completely stoke me, my dad, and the whole front seat of the car. And I we got home, but my dad was not one to get mad easy. My dad was not happy. We get home, and we, my mother still to this day, describes us as coming home looking like two drowned rats, is what him and I looked like. We came in the house and she looked at us, she's prepared, she's getting dinner on the table, he looked at us, and she about hit the floor laughing. And she's like, What happened to you two? And we went to the car wash, is all my dad said. And I didn't know whether to laugh or not. You know, because I mean, we're okay, we're wet, we're cold, you know, and we smell like tar wash soap, but we're okay. You know, but so that that that was embarrassing, but but funny at the same time. The other one happened probably right around that same time frame, actually. So being in Holland, it's Dutch community. We've got what we call Dutch Village, Windmill Island, you know, you learn all about the Dutch heritage, all that kind of stuff. Well, we have, you know, Dutch Village, downtown Holland, and it's it's a tourist trap. You can learn all kinds of things, you can watch them make wooden shoes, you know, get the Dutch candies, all this kind of stuff. Well, my sister, my middle of the four sister, she wanted to take me and her two kids, because we're my niece and nephew and I are all about the same age. But for context, I am a lot younger than my siblings. There is about a 20 plus year age gap between my oldest sister and myself. So, just to clarify that. So my middle sister and her two kids, they said, Yep, we're gonna take Sheen for the afternoon, we're gonna go to Dutch Village, have fun, whatever. So, well, at the end of the trip, you know, getting ready before we load up in the car, she's like, Well, you guys get, you know, by the birdbath, you know, and I want to get pictures of the three of you. Okay. So I get out of my chair and I'm sitting, you know, on the edge of this fountain between my niece and nephew and my sister goes to take a picture. And all of a sudden, you know, I I try to reposition myself. And the one thing with being paralyzed from the waist down, balance. There is no balance. You have no sense of balance. If if you are sitting on the edge of something, you better be hanging on. Because if you try to just free sit, you're gonna lose your balance. You're either gonna fall forward or you're gonna fall backwards. In this case, I fell backwards. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I fell in the water, which had already been visited by hundreds of ducks and geese and whatever else. So it smelled like you would not believe. I, before getting in my sister's car, had to buy a whole new change of clothes because I smelled awful and immediately had to jump in the shower as soon as I got home. My sister, my niece, and my nephew, as soon as they knew I was okay, hit the ground laughing. I was so mad I could have spatnailed. They were sitting there laughing, and again, got home, she dropped me off. Mom and dad were like, What happened to you? I said, I don't want to talk about it. And my my sister's laughing. He fell backwards, you know, this, that, and the other thing. He's okay, but this, that, and the other. And I'm just like, you can go home. Thanks for the fun day, but you can go home. And every time we get together, my niece, hey, Janet, you remember? Yes, I remember. I try not to, but yes, I remember. Don't talk about it. So that was that was kind of my embarrassing moment of my childhood.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:07

You got any embarrassing hunting related stories?

SPEAKER_02 1:19:11

Oh, those. Okay, okay. Let's see. So the the short version of this story, we used to we we know a guy down in Illinois that used to let us hunt his property for turkeys. And so March we would go down to Mississippi, April we would go to Illinois, and then May we would hunt here in Michigan. And so me and Dan, who so Dan, again, I call him Gramps. He's uh in his 80s, and he took me, him and his wife both kind of took me under their wings as like an adopted grandson. And so, you know, I I asked him at one time if I could call him Gramps. He'd like, I would love that. And so for the last like 10, 12 years, his nickname had been Gramps, because he reminds me of how my mom describes what her dad would have been like. So we're down in Illinois and hotting turkeys, we'd been hunting all morning, kind of like with Michigan. Didn't see anything, didn't hear anything. It's 10:30. We're both tired and hungry, like, okay, I'm gonna go get the truck, I'm gonna leave you the shotgun, but I'm gonna go get the truck and I'll come back and pick you up. So he goes, he leaves me the shotgun. A couple seconds uh well, a couple minutes later, he comes barreling back, and he dives. He had left the blind zipper open a little bit, and he dives into the blind, like literally just full skill, does a Superman dive into the blind, zips the the blind back up. And I said, What happened? He's like, You remember that ravine that we passed? I said, Yeah, like there are six birds, there are six turkeys, they look like longbeards they're either Jake's or longbeards. He said, He said, There's six birds in that gully, in that ravine, and they're they're coming this way. They almost saw me. I had to crawl on my belly all the way back here. And I said, Gotcha. Okay, so I grabbed my gun. I'm gonna start calling. He calls and one by one, they all gobble, they all answer, and they're getting closer. So every few seconds he hits the call, they answer. The last time he hits the call, all sex gobble at once. And that sent every hair on the back of my neck up on edge because they were all less than five yards from us. They'd come up behind us, and he's like, don't move. They are right here. And after looking, I didn't move, I had my gun ready, and I looked, I just slightly turned my head to where I could see out the window. And I could see three of them on my left, and out the other window, three of them on my right, and they were close enough, I could have grabbed one around the neck and just squeezed. They were that close. They get out in front, I go to grab the gun, you know, I go to get the gun out, and this is the embarrassing part. I went to shoot, I flat missed. There are six birds. I had picked one. The other ones, of course, were a safe distance away, and I flat missed. They were less than 20 yards away. And I'm like, and of course, then they all they all scatter and we don't see him again. I looked at him and he looked at me like, what happened? I said, I felt good about it. He said, Where did you aim? I said, right where you told me. He said, What happened? I said, I don't know, but I missed him. I I immediately traded that gun in. There was a single shot, 20 gauge. I I like my 20 gauges because because of surgery that I've had on my shoulder and stuff like that. A 12 gauge, it just kicks a little too much for me. Like I can handle it, but my shoulder is definitely feeling it afterwards. You need a 410, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:47

Or a 410. I've been looking at getting one of those. For turkey hunting? Yeah, I've heard 410s are good for turkey hunting. You just gotta make sure you use a TSS. Yeah, that's exactly what I've considered. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:58

I've been thinking about switching the TSS anyway to the ammo I've been using, I'm not impressed with lately. So yeah, that's my embarrassing hunting story. One of them anyway.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:08

You definitely had some good stories. Glad I pried that first story out of you to get you open up a little bit. I I'm glad you did too.