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What Is A Good Hunting Partner – Kellen Vawter
239 Plays3 months ago
This week Drew has Kellen Vawter on the Tricer Podcast. Drew and Kellen have been hunting together for years and they know what it takes to find a good hunting partner. Today they talk about some of the attributes to look for when you are finding people to hunt with. Do they understand the hunt style, are they dedicated to the hunt, are they willing to help you at all costs. These are a few of the things you may want to consider.
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Transcript
Introduction: Spiritual Tone & Outdoor Focus
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to the Tricer Podcast, where we talk all things hunting, gear, and the great outdoors. Before we begin, let's start things out right and put God first. Lord Jesus, I thank you for Tricer, and I ask that you can use this podcast as a way to bring joy to all of our listeners. We lay Tricer and this podcast at your feet. Amen. All right, we're recording.
Meet Kellen: The Trusted Hunting Partner
00:00:24
Speaker
All right, we got a live in studio podcast with my buddy, Kellen.
00:00:29
Speaker
um Kellen is one someone I consider a hunting partner, somebody who I have a ton of respect for and someone who I consider probably one of the best hunters I know. He's just very methodical and just yeah guys finds a way to always get it done. He always gets it done right too. He's just a really good hunter. Someone I have a lot of respect for and you know I don't hunt with a lot of people, but I'll definitely hunt with Kellen any day of the week.
Choosing the Right Hunting Partner
00:00:53
Speaker
um If Kellen called me and needed help I would go and help Kellen and I know Kellen do the same for me and we've proven that a few times over now um and Due to some like local SoCal drama we've had lately with hunting partners I want to talk about picking the right hunting partner and what what a hunting partner looks like for you and kind of just go into that. I don't know where we're going to go with it. We're going to see where it goes. We're going to talk about hunting partners and when the importance of a good hunting partner versus a bad hunting partner. So Kellen, how are you doing, dude? I'm good, man. And thanks for the kind words. Uh, I'm not, you know, it's not cause I'm smart. It's just cause I'm stubborn dude, come to give up. Um, but yeah.
00:01:36
Speaker
hunting partners can definitely get burned for sure. But we've had some good hunts. Drew and I went to Idaho back in 2020 and had an amazing hunt together. And, uh, we don't get to hunt together very often just because of work and family life and business and all that stuff. But, um, when we do, we always have a good time.
00:01:58
Speaker
Yeah, we hunt locally a few times a year together. And I think we're always trying to find a way to hunt together um every year. we're kind of tall I think we pretty much every spring we're kind of like, hey, what tags do you have? What are you trying to do? um Then Kellen had to go and have a baby, yeah kind of threw everything out. the you know So he's been he's been getting those baby points in right now. um But he still gets out and hunts a lot though. His wife's pretty incredible to let him do that and just helping him out with that stuff. he She knows it's important to him. um But I don't know, my hunting partner, like my favorite hunting partner, I would say is my son and my father-in-law, probably you and Daryl. Like there's like a very small list of people who are my hunting partners. And I ah i do that for a reason.
00:02:54
Speaker
There's just so much goes into it to picking
Key Qualities in a Hunting Partner
00:02:56
Speaker
the right guy. Um, I mean, off the top of my head, one, um, physical ability to mental, I think mental toughness is probably the biggest one. I didn't write this down before. I think mental toughness is probably the biggest one. Uh, I think perspective is another one. Um, I think positive attitude is another one. Um, man, there's just so much that that goes into it. Uh, abilities, right? Mental toughness is for sure the the biggest one. Um,
00:03:24
Speaker
I have a background of like running around in the mountains and um like climbing and backpacking and for whatever, like 30 years and um basically like my dad and my uncle, like taught me that it was cool to do like hard stuff in the mountains, right? So um I don't mind being uncomfortable for long periods of time to get at whatever the goal is for whatever the trip is, right? um And I think that that's something that's like, number one, because if you have somebody that's like day two, and they they're complaining about
00:04:07
Speaker
the heat or whatever, their backpack load or whatever, and you know you're on a week long trip with that person and on day two they're already complaining, you know it's gonna be a rough week, right?
00:04:24
Speaker
Yeah, there is something we said about grit, right? I tell people all the time that I feel like my boys have more grit than the most men. Because you probably taught them that it's neat to do stuff like that. Yeah, they've been in the duck blinds. They've been cold. Their feet have been wet in duck blinds since they were three or four years old, dragging through the mountains and doing stuff. Last year, my kid hunted seven days for Kujir, then we went straight over to an elk hunt and he missed opening day and then we hunted the full hunt. I think it was like an eight day hunt. So we were in the hills for like 16 days and his knee was torn at the time because he had torn it on another elk hunt. We were almost hypothermic one time. I mean, it was miserable and we weren't getting on elk.
00:05:07
Speaker
And dude, that kid would just be like, thank you. We we always say thank you. When we're hiking out and like it's miserable, we'll to say thank you. like when When it's nine o'clock at night, literally, we were having a hike three hours out at night. We were getting back to the truck or the camp at 10, 11 o'clock at night every night, and then getting up at four in the morning, you know sleeping in the middle of the day. He's got that grit.
00:05:28
Speaker
and That's probably the most important part of hunting. right I joke around. I was on a hunt with um in Colorado. My filmer always says, if you're not having if you're having fun, you're not hunting Drew Miles. and like I told him, like that's not true, like not necessarily. like I don't look to not have fun. I enjoy i am having like, anyone who wants me knows I'm very positive. like my
Maintaining Positivity & Grit
00:05:52
Speaker
I'm always like, hey, we got it. One more hill, we got this. We're going to find them. I have the same confidence on day one as I do on day 10 or backwards, right? Day 10, day one. like I just know that any day can happen and you have to stay positive out there. and and When you're around somebody who just like wants to quit, wants to go home, or like you said, even just complaining like day two, like, oh, my back hurts. Oh, my feet hurt. oh like
00:06:14
Speaker
Everyone's back hurts. Everyone's feet hurts. Know that. like Everyone else is wet. Everyone else is miserable. Everyone else is hungry. right We're all sleeping on the ground. like You just have to learn how to so select to shut that part of your brain off. and That's where a mental toughness comes from. right and I think you can prepare for that. like I guess we're kind of going to go off that burner thing. but Like for me personally, I know that I go to the gym five or six days a week. I don't miss conditioning day. When we do conditioning day, we run hills. I throw a 70 pound bag on my back and run the hills, right? Or when I do, I'll go ride, do 10 mile bike rides all the time. Or I go do rucks. I get up early in the morning to do that. And like, there's a way to like prepare for
The Role of Physical Fitness & Mental Resilience
00:06:55
Speaker
it. If you just show up, you know, you haven't worked out all year and you just show up to the mountains in October, like probably gonna have a hard time.
00:07:03
Speaker
A hundred percent. And like physical ability, I think is important, but I'll still go back to, I would rather have somebody that's a little bit out of shape that says yes to everything than, you know, somebody that's in the gym seven days a week, that's all muscly and is complaining, you know, on day one or day two. yeah So, I mean, that's exactly the hunt that I just went on. Like my partner is probably like not in the greatest.
00:07:31
Speaker
shape ever, but he doesn't say no to anything. He the never complains. like So that to me is is way more valuable.
00:07:42
Speaker
Yeah, man. And I've gotten older, right? I'm pushing 40 now. Are you 40 almost? I'll be 40 in a month. 40 in a month. I've slowed down. Like 10 years ago, I was running ridges. Like I was like, I just wanted to bust hills. And now at this point, I'm kind of like, I know I'll make it there. And I go slower. So I do think there's something to say about that. You don't have to be in the like greatest shape in the world. Like you don't have your camera hands to go hunting with me. Not at all. But you have to be willing not to quit and willing to just keep going. like there's like One of my favorite parts of it, and then maybe it's just me. like This is how I know who my hunting partners are, right? Not everyone's like me. A lot of guys want to go and have a freaking big elk wall tent and cook steaks in the morning, come back to the camp at nine o'clock. That's not me. So that's why you got to try and weed these guys out. like i I enjoy going to a place that you don't think is possible with my mental. mental like like When Kellen killed a bull in Frank Church, this this is like my the worst pack of my life, best pack of my life. Kellen killed a bull eight miles from the airstrip.
00:08:40
Speaker
And we got back to camp. We killed a bull like, I don't you know, 8 a.m. in the morning. We got back to camp at like one or two in the morning. in my body will never be the same. But I remember like coming after that, like I remember like at one point passing out next to the trail and waking up when we were next to it. Remember that? Like, falling asleep. yeah We laid down for like, it was probably realistically only like five minutes, but we were just like dead and we were like, all right, let's lay down for a minute. And then like we pretty much instantly got cold. Kept walking. Yeah. But um yeah, that was that was that was ah an awesome experience though.
00:09:17
Speaker
Yeah. It's awesome experience. And I learned something about myself. Like I learned at that point, like this, there's my body can do way more than my, than I think I can. Right. You can walk forever. That's something I tell people all the time. Like if I'm starting to get ah a sense that they're like, you know, losing it or something, it's just like, dude, there's just one foot in front of the other. Just keep walking. Like you'll be fine. You know, like you're not going to fall down dead from walking. Yeah.
00:09:44
Speaker
And I guess there's hunting abilities as well, right? Like you definitely want to find someone What do you see abilities? Like if I'm gonna go hunting with you you better damn be freaking glassing the same time I'm glassing. I don't want to look over and have you napping
Communication & Setting Expectations
00:10:02
Speaker
napping all the time. I'm going to take a nap during the day. I'm going to take a couple naps. Yeah, at one o'clock in the afternoon. But you better be in the glass glassing, right and you better be like contributing to this hunt because like I'm not there to guide you.
00:10:16
Speaker
yeah And I had that issue. like I'm not here to guide you on this hunt. like i by Dude, I bust my kid's balls so hard on this. like They're just now... i mean Obviously, they're when they're real little, looking at the binos backwards you know and doing all that stuff, which is fine. But now they're at a point where like they are in the glass, they're finding animals, which is really cool. Because like I'm not your guide. No, man. I've had that exact experience on an out-of-state hunt where like we paid you know You know, it's nothing insane, but like you paid a lot for the tag and like all the, you know, travel and food money to go over there. And then you look over at 7 AM prime time and like they have their eyes closed and you're just like, I'm not helping you. Like if you're going to sleep at this time, like you're on your own, you know?
00:11:07
Speaker
Yeah, you just have to be, and again, like there's people who want to hunt like that, right? like right would That not might not be the guy for me. And you really need to like, I think it's very important to kind of really lay out what your hunt's going to be like beforehand, right? I just put some of this more on one of our local forums. like This all could be prevented if you guys would have laid this out before you got to the trailhead. Before you get to the trailhead, this is what's going to happen, right? Before you get to the trailhead, you could say, you know I think a big one is whoever finds it first kills it.
00:11:36
Speaker
Right. Or are we taking turns or are we, you know what I mean? Yeah. Well, or whatever it is, like you, yeah I always try to have conversations like that. Um, especially if, so for a lot of hunts, absolutely. Absolutely. It's like.
00:11:55
Speaker
Whoever finds it basically has like first right of refusal, right? So, but a lot of times I'll be like, I don't want to shoot any deer. So, um, um I'm, I'm going to be real honest with them.
00:12:10
Speaker
if it's somebody that's not as experienced that like, if I find a big deer, I'm going to want to go after it. And if I find something else, I'm absolutely going to help you get it, you know. yeah um But I think whatever like kind of your thinking is, um you have to be like really clear about that. Yeah, I think you need to be very upfront beforehand. Also, I got the style of how you're going to go on like this is what's going to happen.
00:12:34
Speaker
um And you kind of know, like I know I'm going to Utah tomorrow and the next day. I'm going to Utah for my kid for ah seven day seven days or eight days, something like that to go hunt and yield deer. And I know that hunt, we're going to be very mobile in the truck, but we're also going to be backpacking in.
00:12:52
Speaker
four to five miles and camping out in the hills every day. I know it's going to be physically demanding. um And going into it, like if I had someone else, I'd need to tell them, this is how we're going to hunt. like If you're expecting us to just be staying in a travel trailer and driving around side by sides, we're probably not going to hunt well together. yeah right yeah um Which is fine. like I don't mind like if you want to be that guy, but then don't be upset when I'm leaving you to go do my style thing too. right we just like you have to I think it's very easy. its The best way to handle this stuff is to talk beforehand. right like What about meat?
Teamwork in Hunting
00:13:24
Speaker
On a lot of elk hunts, I'll tell people I'll split the meat with you because pretty much when you shoot an elk, you're probably going to ruin my hunt. If you're on a five-day hunt- There's a decent chance if you don't kill the first one on day one or two that you're not going to get two of them. Yeah, you're not going to get two of them. right and I'm fine with that. like Hey, you kill a bull on day three,
00:13:42
Speaker
I'm going to do that, and that's what we should talk about too. I expect you, no matter what, to help me pack my animal out, right? like I expect you, and that's just a deer or something like that, but like if we're all hunting together, and like we're four miles from can or the truck, like and I kill a bull, and you're like, well, I only one more day to hunt, like that's not going to do it for me, right? Or I also, I shouldn't expect this, but from my hunting partners, if I go and I wound a deer,
00:14:12
Speaker
I expect them to kind of help me try and find that deer and look for it. right At least for a day. At least at least look for that deer, right? Until I'm saying like, hey, no. But if you're like, oh man, sucks, you hit that deer. I'm out of here. I got to go kill my deer. Probably what I want to hunt with because I'm going to also do the same for you and understand that. like If me and Kellen are hunting together and Kellen goes and puts them a little far back,
00:14:34
Speaker
You know, I might say, I might call him down, but I could give it two hours, right? Talk him through it, but I'm also going to then give him as much time as Kellen needs to feel comfortable before I, you know, move on to go do my hunt. I've had people on Buckley group hunts where there was more than, um, just me and that one person, or there was like three or four people just pull like total selfish, like, well, um, I'm going to just.
00:15:04
Speaker
go on on this hill today or whatever because like they think they have a better chance or I don't know, I'm not explaining it well, but like just not reciprocating um when like um you know kindnesses were granted to them and then not kind of like throwing that same attitude back towards the group when it's their turn, which is like a good way to not get invited back.
00:15:31
Speaker
Yeah, for sure, man. It just depends too. I'm not real bloodless. I want to kill an animal while I go hunting, but I also want to see animals be successful too. Sometimes you hunt people and all they care about is killing something. Nothing else matters but them killing something and that's it. Probably not somebody I want to hunt with. I want somebody who's going to be contributing to the group, not just thinking about themselves the whole time.
00:15:56
Speaker
um you know what about ah man, picking a hunting partner for myself, hunting, like I'm definitely not Ryan Lampers, but I definitely try and hunt in that style of hunting, right? Like that, like I like the, you know, everything on my back, backpack, hunting, um, bringing a new guy into that probably of the best idea every time.
00:16:19
Speaker
No, you weed people out as time goes on, right? So like you go on these hunts, you learn your lessons, you take your knocks and like you don't invite those people back in the future. And eventually like you have your little core group of guys that you know you can count on and hopefully, you know, somebody's schedule lines up, right? um Yeah, that's a hard thing is schedules.
00:16:46
Speaker
Scheduling stuff. Yeah, and then points like um You know you want to hunt this state and was like oh, well this one person drew a tag there two years ago They don't have the points another person has like whatever four more points than is needed They don't want to burn their points on that tag. So it's like that can be kind of rough um So, I mean definitely solo hunting is always for me is always an option It's really and you know on It's nice to hunt with other people, um, especially on those backpack hunts that can be pretty like grueling and and miserable by yourself. But, um,
00:17:26
Speaker
and depending on the area, I mean, I was hunting, uh, SoCal mountain unit, uh, last year by myself. Um, and I didn't kill an animal, you know, but.
00:17:44
Speaker
I don't want to not go, because nobody wants to come with me, right? Dude, do you know Derek Denham? He's a T8 outdoorsman. he's guy He's in a wheelchair. He's awesome. Derek listen, this is awesome. Uh, he just killed an, a cow elk with his bow in Utah public land. Um, he texted me yesterday. He's like, Hey dude, uh, he's in a wheelchair, like cannot walk. He's like, Hey dude, I got this tag in Arizona from these dates. I had no one to go with
Inspiring Story of Independence
00:18:12
Speaker
me. The guy backed out. Do you want to go with me? It's okay if you can't, I'm going by myself.
00:18:16
Speaker
awesome dude and I'm like, now it sucks. And it's like lines up right when I go, I have to go to some like political conference deal, my church and then I got to go to New Mexico. So it's like right in the middle of that. And I'm like, dude, there's no way I'm gonna yeah peoplell do this. And he's like, oh, it's fine. I'm gonna go with myself. Like, dude, the guy's going like in a wheelchair.
00:18:34
Speaker
over to Arizona to go and freaking kill an elk on his own. I'm trying to find someone for him to go out, go he out with him. Cause he's just like the coolest dude um who's just like so positive and wants to do it. Like I actually want to home with him at some point. I'm going to have to find a way to go home with Derek, but dude, that was something I heard. I was like, man, like I am such a pussy.
00:18:53
Speaker
That's awesome. And that kind of like ties back the whole like being willing to solo hunt kind of ties back to your overall mental state. You know, like earlier you were talking about like people that can't maintain their motivation or or whatever. And it's like, or whatever, complaining about the weather or something like that. And it all comes back to like, why do you want to be there? And this kind of ties in with the like local drama that we were talking about earlier. It's like, what is your motivation for being there? Like, do you love being outside and like,
00:19:35
Speaker
observing animals and like trying to participate in nature right like that's basically what hunting is right like you're just participating in the food chain and um like are you driven by like wanting to like go out and be there and like see all that stuff because that's like I would argue that's a huge part of why a lot of people hunt is like they just enjoy being outside, like watching animals. Most of hunting is just watching animals until you find the one that you like, you want to kill. Right.
True Motivation for Hunting
00:20:08
Speaker
um And if you don't want to be there for that reason, there's a lot of this right now in hunting, um especially with social media. Like if you don't actually enjoy doing that, like you're not going to last because if you don't have that
00:20:23
Speaker
kind of passion driving you. If you're only there for the, like the Instagram shots, you, that's the, there's like no longevity in that because you like hunting is so hard, right? Right. All the time over like hunting is hard. If you go on social media and all you look at is like these trophy animals, you're like, Oh God, these things are everywhere. You know, but it's like, that is not the case for the,
00:20:51
Speaker
Basically all hunters unless you're just paying to hunt public or private ranches all the time 100% yeah, like yeah it is so difficult. You're not gonna get animals like that all the time like You have to adjust your expectations. I think it's fine to only want like big animals if that's what you want to hunt like that's fine, but you better be prepared to like not kill them every year and Yeah, dude. That's one of the things that's hard on social media and like people will hammer, you go shoot a small buck and they're talking crap to you. It's like my buddy Johnny, um he's a local guy. He's a killer and he just had an elk tag in some state. And I thought for sure he's going to get it done. And he didn't. And he freaking hunted the entire season.
00:21:38
Speaker
was in bowls, full draw multiple times, bushes in the way, whatever, didn't get it done. And he posts about it and just how much it kind of tore him up. And I was just like, all our pod was, hunting's hard. It's so hard. Hunting's so freaking hard, dude. Anyone who thinks hunting's not hard like has never hunted me. know like I just went to... And I like the hard part. like I just went to Wyoming last week And I killed day one antelope. I mean, day one, I was done. It was kind of like, well, that was kind of uneventful. Like I was honestly, I think it's my first time ever opening day killing an animal. Yeah. I really do. Like I, somehow I have a tendency to like, and like, I always had that dramatic, like last day buck thing. I just find a way to just, I don't know, hunt just for a guy like that for me. Um, it was kind of like, man, and I was telling my wife this morning, we're going to Utah or whatever. I'm going to Utah with my kid next week. And that's where I am. And, uh,
00:22:29
Speaker
And she's like, I hope you get done quick. And I'm like, I don't really want to get done quick. I don't want to get done day one. Now, granted, we want, on this hunt, we want to kill a good representation of a mule deer. You know what I mean? He wants to kill a four point or a really big three. And it's like, if day one shows up and that buck is in the glass, and we're going to go over three days early in glass and find him. Like yeah that buck's in the glass. He's going to get shot day one. Those days count towards your hunt though. Like, yeah.
00:22:53
Speaker
If you're there in the days immediately prior to your season, you're hunting. You're hunting. Yeah. Um, so I mean, like, that's a way to extend your hunt. And, but I mean, i I totally get what you mean. Um, I think you have to be realistic about, again, just like be honest with yourself about what you want. So like, if, if it's a hunt, um,
00:23:22
Speaker
Like the unit that you guys are going to has a potential for big bucks, right?
Discussing Expectations in Advance
00:23:28
Speaker
You're not going to pass that, you know, whatever class it is. Like you're not going to pass that up on, like you said, on day one, if you find that animal. But on the other hand, like you might go to like we hunt a cozier unit in Arizona, or we, we haven't for the last couple of years, but we, we did for many years in a row before that. And.
00:23:52
Speaker
It was the kind of unit where like, if you really, you probably could shoot something on day one if you wanted to, but there was also like the potential for good deer in there. So, and it was always pretty much like, no, we want to hunt for the whole week. We're not like trying three guys tag out on day one and leave. Like we want to go camping and like go hunting and, and spend time and like, sure. If a big, really big buck comes along, like you're not going to pass that up, but the intent is not to be done on day one.
00:24:23
Speaker
Um, off topic, Wyoming does a thing called one shot and I'm friends with the guys that may have been up there and had breakfast last week. And, uh, Maven holds the one shot is something happening. Like it was like a competition between the guy in Wyoming and a guy in like new Mexico, like.
00:24:39
Speaker
to be like rich dude, just like back in the fifties. And it was like, who could kill an antelope with one shot? And like mediator guys were part of this at some point. Probably. Yeah, I'm sure they were. So the owner of, me so the goal is to kill whoever killed the antelope fastest with one shot. yeah And Maven, it's a three man team. I mean, the governor does it. Like I was there in the governor's buck is in this guy's office. Like, uh, three guys in Maven.
00:25:03
Speaker
16 minutes between all three of them that killed three bucks in one shot. They have the they have the state record from one shot now. That's Wyoming though. Yeah, different different totally off top. i mean the The whole goal was that, right? like They hunt hard too, but like their goal, they're like they had a buck before gray light like in the sights as soon as it was like, okay, shooting light within one minute, it was buck was on the ground and another one. and they're But they're also not going for age class. They're just going for like kill three bucks, right? And to get it done. yeah So different, different thing, different time. I think it's a port with a honey partner too, that they're happy for you. Like I can generally tell you, like if I go hunting with Kallen and Kallen kills a buck, I'm stoked for Kallen. Like I'm pumped for Kallen, I'm happy for Kallen. I'm not jealous of Kallen. And that can be something that can happen too. People can be like, well, I want a deer. Why not me? And like, you want to find someone who's like going to be amped for you
00:26:00
Speaker
for your hunt and want to see, like, Kellen's hunting success is my hunting success. And that's something I think is very important and you need to find somebody who's willing to have that, who's not selfish. Yeah. Pretty much at any point. If, uh, like a lot of times I'll go, I'll have like more tags than some of my hunting buddies usually. And if I've already got a deer, like, like this year, I i got a deer last week.
00:26:29
Speaker
Um, going into the next hunt, depending on what it is, like, if it's just a local hunt, I might just be like, it's your turn.
Prioritizing Partner's Success
00:26:38
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like you, you, whatever it is, unless it's like a giant that I spot, you know, yeah a giant giant giant, if you saw a 120 buck in San Diego,
00:26:50
Speaker
it's It's the coozier of mule deer that we have here. If you shoot a 120, you're going to be shared on like every page in San Diego. It's a giant, like that's no joke. Our hybrid black tail is the coozier of the west coast. here Yeah. out there Basically, coozier numbers are are equivalent to like a giant coozier in inches is equivalent to a giant deer here in Southern California. so anyway um so yeah like Um,
00:27:23
Speaker
you, you know, you would, uh, you would like to have a partner that would do the same for you, right? Like, um, I already got a buck, like, so you're up, you know, and I'm here for you.
00:27:37
Speaker
Yep. yeah And I think it's good to weigh expectations too beforehand. Like you talked about some of these coups since you go on. um Like I'm going to New Mexico, my partner Paul on a muzzleloader hunt. So that right there is already going to limit us a little bit. ah Paul's never killed a buck, right? And pretty much for me, I'm pretty sure Paul want to kill a buck. yeah So if we find a small three point, Paul's willing to shoot it, I'm going to do it. I can't get Paul that buck.
00:28:02
Speaker
Right? I don't want to shoot a larger age-class animal on that hunt. I'm going to go over a few days and really try and find him. So I want to help Paul get that done. And I know his expectation isn't going to be like, I want you to 180. Yeah. Like when we go to Mexico this year, here's a good example. Like I'm bringing down or taking down the guys from all in, some mountain off guys, bend down a monster, like crazy, my partners, my father-in-law.
00:28:32
Speaker
And we're filming, right? I have a film with me and I actually went and I'm hiring for my partner, my two partners. I'm hiring a guide and I'm hiring a guide for my father-in-law because I already told them, like, I just want you to know, like my goal for this hunt is to kill a a buck that's over 110. I'll come home empty handed. I don't want you to small buck unless this is like a freak, freak buck. Um, I'm not going to be hunting with you.
00:28:59
Speaker
And I, I took very, like, very clearly, like this is an expensive tag for me. I want to kill a, you know, a very mature buck on this hunt and I'm going to get you a guide and you guys will hunt with them. And that's how it's going to be. And if I hunt for eight days and go home empty handed, I'm fine with it. Yeah.
00:29:15
Speaker
I leave it out beforehand, like very clearly before I go, so that when we go down there, they're all like, dude, it can't be, if you're ditching me and you're going to kill all these, you know what I mean? Like, no, it's is just how we're doing it. Like I don't know, I'm not going to sit on my phone all day, the blind all day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And kind of what you're describing there in New Mexico is like exactly what I was saying. It's like, and you, and you will make that, I'm sure clear with that partner that, um, like,
00:29:42
Speaker
Hey, unless I see a deer of this class, you're going first, right? you know And usually people that are like open to shooting any buck get that, and they realize that like it's unlikely that that's going to happen. It's most likely they're going to have the first crack at it. you know so But now, what if that guy misses, you're up, right? You get that guy on a buck, he misses. kind of like I think it depends on like what you really want to shoot. um If that deer gets spooked off, are you saying like the deer is still standing there? and no No, not the same deer. Hey, I'm going to get you a buck. We're going to get your deer at least each time. like Yeah, but if you're still looking for that age class, then like right you're just hunting until you find that age class and like every other deer between
00:30:33
Speaker
then and now, because like there's a decent chance you don't even see that age class on a hunt, right? Depending on the unit, obviously. But if you're going for a 180 buck, there's lots of hunts where you're never even going to see that deer. Yeah. So yeah so what about like having a partner that you're willing to respect, like willing to hear hear him out? like Drew, you're making the wrong decision right now. We we should be over here glassing. like This is what I would do. like I think it's important to have somebody you could talk to who isn't necessarily, like who's wanting to go along with you, because sometimes it's your hunt. right like Sometimes Kellen's up, it's his deal, we're going to do whatever Kellen wants to do. I might give him a little input, but I'm not going to be like, you're an idiot. right but like It's important to have that respect. I remember when you killed your bull,
00:31:21
Speaker
um And in I know you're like, hey, it's already this way. I'm like, no, tell trust me, we're going to go up a little bit higher. It's going to rim over when you go over there. And we looked at it and we're like, oh, you're right. And we got up there. And then sure enough, that bull is there. You killed the bull. I'm not saying I killed that bull, but we're able to talk things through a little bit and like look at it rather than like, hey, I'm just going to do this or me saying you're dumb. Don't do that. like It's like we kind of talked through some things and we got it done.
00:31:46
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, you have to have some sort of, it depends on the situation, but yes, like collaboration is great. And um I'll say sometimes I get into like, whatever you want to call it, kill mode. And I'm kind of, I'll be like, I can be kind of instinctual about things and like, I'll just be,
00:32:14
Speaker
um I'm not trying to contradict what you're saying. I do you think it's like really important to have teamwork and stuff, but sometimes I'm just like, nope, this is all right what I'm doing. You know what I mean? so We're going to pivot. We talked about picking hunter partners. Now let's talk about new hunters and what it takes to get to go hunting with somebody. um I just took my buddy Joey out with me.
00:32:37
Speaker
love him to death, had a great time with him, definitely was probably not the perfect guy to bring him on for his first hunt. I think it was a little bit of a shock for him. I kind of threw him to the wolves, but it was a good way to kind of bring him out there and do it.
00:32:52
Speaker
I probably, hindsight, probably, I'm going home with them mc again in January. We're going to go hunt over the counter archery in Arizona, which would be a much more mellow hunter. Probably tell my trailer over, have a side-by-side, Arizona's born in the States, you really don't have to backpack hunt. Probably been a better way to kind of get them out there doing that stuff, but um took them out with me.
00:33:11
Speaker
I can say that I took Joey out because Joey's somebody who I have a lot of respect for, somebody who I shoot archery with all the time, who's always been willing to help me with my archery stuff, and I just like him. um And he's not a mooch. I can say that I have had people in my church get very upset with me because they say, hey, I want to go hunting with you, and I tell them no. And what do you mean no? Well, no. Like, why would I take you hunting?
00:33:38
Speaker
I you have nothing to contribute to this. All you want me to do is take out to my spot to kill you a deer. um and that's not That's not what I want to do. like I don't want to just take you hunting to kill something. A lot of guys just want to kill something and not learn something. Who I will take out is somebody who wants to learn, right? Learn how to hunt. um and It's very rare that those guys exist. There's lot i got a lot of guys who want to hunt like I do. actually's very few guys who want how as much as I do. But I have one kid in my church, he's not even a kid, he's freaking 35 years old, David. He's probably in his podcast, David Matranga. He was my apprentice when I saw my Bible study 20 years ago, very hardworking kid. He wanted to, at that time, not a kid, he's a man, he's a groom, he's a peer of mine.
00:34:23
Speaker
um He wanted to get into hunting. I found a way to get him a bow. We put some money together, got him a bow. Gave him some spots. He went out. you know he killed He ended up killing a deer with his bow, archery. And he's going out all the time. He's actually hunting, putting time into it. So I was like, hey, David, I have some points. I'll roll you into this hunt. I have more than enough points to go on this cow hunt in the state. I'll roll you into this hunt with me. You want to go? Took him on this hunt, got him his first elk.
00:34:51
Speaker
Right? Like, yeah but the reason why I wanted to do that with David is David is somebody who's willing to put the work in the hunt. And a lot of guys aren't willing to do that. They just want to go and have you get them something killed. This goes exactly back to like what I was saying about like, what are your motivations for being out there? Like, what do you want to learn? Like, do you want to, like so much of your first years of hunting are just like,
00:35:17
Speaker
making mistakes and hopefully learning from them and like observing like how things work out there and like figuring it out. you know i mean um
00:35:32
Speaker
when i So I hunted a fair bit when I was a kid, and then like as a teenager in early kind of college years, I was like, busy doing other stuff. There's a lot of young men. are yeah Um, and, um, and I got back into it and Southern California hunting is like really, really hard, right? Like our, our average success rate in most of the Southern California zones down here is like 10% or less. Yeah. I think it's been six Oscar beers in San Diego.
00:36:03
Speaker
so Anyway, those first like a couple of years when I got back into it, you know I was like walking around with my rifle as a lot of like new hunters do. and um you know It took me a couple years and I think on year to on year three, i I got a buck. And like that was pretty fairly quick for like a Southern California new hunter. Right. But it's because I was like going out there by myself every day that I was off. And my motivation was like to figure out how to do it, not just to like
00:36:45
Speaker
take a picture with a dead deer.
Finding Eager & Hardworking Partners
00:36:47
Speaker
Yep. And so finding that person that like wants to learn and isn't just like, Oh, take me to this spot or take me to that spot. They're just like, I don't care. I'll be at the coffee shop at 4am. Like I'll meet you there. You know, um,
00:37:02
Speaker
whatever whatever you say I'm going to do, right um finding that person that's willing to just like throw themselves at something and and do it until they become successful. I'll hunt with that person every day. you know Yeah, man. I'm much more apt to take you out if you're already going out. Yeah.
00:37:25
Speaker
like cause you're showing you Like if you're if you're, if they're showing me their pains and I'm looking at it like, dude, like you are like, you're lost you're one mile off of where you need to be. Like you're not like, especially San Diego, like I've got this place pretty, like I know we're deer on pretty much every part of this county now. Um, but if they were willing to put the work in, if they're going out and they're scouting, putting time in, then yes, I'm going to take them out.
00:37:49
Speaker
Destroying your truck truck, just driving around. yeah backs Just like beating your truck to death. being a dad That's the guy who I'm like, yeah, I'll take you out and I'll show you around. yeah right um then like One way I've come, like even like when I started hanging with Daryl, I actually was like, man, like there's this leftover tag thing in Arizona. This is back when you actually could draw it. I was like, hey, do you want to go on this home with me?
00:38:16
Speaker
Right. And I orchestrated it to make it happen, to get to home with Daryl. And Daryl is probably one of the most prolific killers in San Diego. And now he's become a really good friend of mine. We talk on the phone, probably more than my wife's talk. We talked last night for an hour. He's a really good dude. And he killed a really big deer in Southern California. Yeah. Yeah. And a bunch of other really respectable ones. Yeah.
00:38:37
Speaker
He's just a killer. But I orchestrated that and put it together and I went hunting with him. You want to, as a new hunter, kind of bring something to the table, other than get me a deer. I want to kill a deer. Let's go. Especially with this whole new... I had a girl with my Fosh Miss last night at this thing and she's like, oh, I've been watching all this stuff alone and all this stuff. I really want to get into hunting. I'm just like,
00:39:02
Speaker
Oh, well we'll take Hunter's egg class. You know, it's just like, there's this whole, there's, there's this thing right now, like, especially what time we're in or now after COVID, like everyone wants to like be self-sufficient and have meat in their fridge and like go and do it. But reality is you probably just go pay for a hunt because like the reality of getting animal like that is really hard. And a lot of guys don't have what it takes to do that hard part of it. Yeah. No, a hundred percent. And.
00:39:31
Speaker
Yeah, we're in this like age where you're constantly being fed imagery you know of whatever the you know algorithms see that like they think you're going to want to see. And it's really, you know you can buy products now. I mean, even think about 30 years ago in the 90s, none of these big hunting companies existed. I hate hunting companies.
00:40:02
Speaker
No, no, I mean it's it's not it's not that it's just like What i'm saying is it's easy It's really easy To see these pictures of whoever, you know pick your whatever hunting celebrity In a magazine or on instagram and just be like well I can buy that product and that product and that product and I can I can be that person, right? and and then the reality is like hunt Like you said earlier, like hunting is so hard. You go out there and the animals are moving for like maybe an hour in the morning. And then it's a really long like seven or eight hours until the evening. Until that last hour when they're moving again. Yeah. That eloquence went on. It was like 85 degrees and it was like that, dude. It was like sunburn. It couldn't find shade. It's brutal. It's brutal. I was laying on, I was on a ridge line a week ago or maybe not even.
00:40:58
Speaker
a week ago, just full sun, even at 10,000 feet. It was so hot. It was so hot. And it was just like the longest day waiting for four o'clock to come around when the shadows started to get long again. dude It was brutal. I was stoked that we hunted this burn, right? Colorado. And it was awesome. But then like one thing about a burn is there's no shade.
00:41:20
Speaker
So like I was like having to like prop my backpack up and I didn't bring my tarp, uh, use it, use it for my tent. So like, I was like, pop my backpack up against trees to like try and get shade. And I'm just like huddled down behind the scene, trying to get shade to get rest. and Yeah, it's a law. It's a grind. I had my like.
00:41:35
Speaker
sun hoodie on and I was like tucking my hands into the sleeves because there was nowhere to shade my hands. You're good at wearing those sun things and I should wear them more. I always just give it up with a farmer's tan. I'm going to end up with skin cancer in my arms because I always wear t-shirts.
00:41:49
Speaker
um so On that with ah new hunters, like recommendation for new hunters too, um I think we're not really going too far off the original topic. like I always tell people, like you want to get into hunting.
00:42:01
Speaker
um big game hunting. Like you can go bird hunting, like I'll take you dove hunting, whatever, just let me take people to my spots. Like I don't really care about that. The difference, the biggest between like taking you dove hunting, taking you a duck blind and taking you deer hunting. If you want to get into hunting, I recommend in like California, paying for a pig hunt, going on a guided hunt.
00:42:24
Speaker
learning You're gonna learn so much on those guided hunts. You're gonna get with a guide like my buddy Robert Clark. um He's a guide over in Utah. That guy hunts 100 days a year and he's gonna kill 20 elk this year. Like you go spend whatever it is, five grand or eight grand to go hunt with that guy. I know it sounds expensive. You're gonna learn so much in that one week span, just being around those guys, like how to gut an animal, how to find animals, how to, you know, it's so worth it.
00:42:54
Speaker
100%. Um, I never have done a, well, that's not true. My sheep hunt was, who was guided because it has to be by law. Um, but before that, everything I did was DIY except for that. My uncle wanted to go on, um, a quail hunt in Arizona. This was before I had my dogs and, um,
00:43:21
Speaker
We went to Southern Arizona and did a couple of days with this guy on Mearns Quail. And it was so valuable. I learned so much in those two days of hunting with that guy. And like we killed a few birds, you know, for whatever we paid him like $300 per piece, per person, per day.
00:43:45
Speaker
Which is so cheap though now. He's looking back. But I mean, for $1,200 for yeah the two of us for two days, like we probably killed eight birds total or something like
Learning from Guided Hunts
00:43:55
Speaker
that. which is And it's it's not about that. i'm not That's not what I'm getting at. But what I'm saying is like where the real value in that was was like,
00:44:03
Speaker
all the questions I asked that he was like perfectly willing to, and I ended up going back to that place, that region with my dogs. I didn't hunt his canyons, you know? Like I learned so much from him was like, okay, these birds are everywhere. Like you just have to know like what ah things to look for and guides in my experience are totally happy to like answer questions, especially if you're asking intelligent questions.
00:44:31
Speaker
about, you know, about the animals and stuff, not just like, are they here? Are they there? You know what I mean? So, um, I think it can be a hard pill for someone to swallow to kind of like give up control of the hunt and like pay someone maybe be like You know, mentally, like takes, take some of the pride out of it or something, I think. But as it but as a new hunter, yeah it's going to cost you so much more time, time and money and gas. Yeah. Like, like if you went out hunting, like, like I know this helped me enjoy when I was, it was tough on Joey.
00:45:15
Speaker
I'm not trying to pretend I'm a great hunter, but I found out every single day. Joey got a crash course. and but It was his first time classing of an animal. He got a crash course in finding animals and backpacking and all that stuff but because he's willing to go out with me. I'm not a guy. I didn't even pay me to go on this hunt. but You could get that from a guy from going along with some of these hunts. and like Another thing I'll recommend too is you can only big game. Most guys can get one tag a year.
00:45:38
Speaker
right um you can coyote hunt year-round.
Coyote Hunting for Skill Improvement
00:45:43
Speaker
I know you're not a big coyote hunter, but like I almost got very good at hunting through coyote hunting, but coyote hunting helped me find spots yeah and it helped me learn how to play the wind. like i had no Dude, I had no idea of wind breaking up my background, any of that stuff. If I ever started hunting just like you, I'm just walking around, like literally the buck I killed I jumped him and I shot him. It was like, it was, you know, and I was glass at the point I was trying to glass and that stuff. But like, dude, like I remember my first time, I went to have Alina in Arizona and I literally just walked around with a rifle dude for like seven days pounding ridges. I mean, just pounding ridges. We bumped a couple of half linear here and there, bumped some deer, but like, I didn't own a tripod. I had like
00:46:28
Speaker
a pair of binos, like a cheap pair of Redfield binos on my chest, and that was it. like I had no idea what I was doing. No, I 100% support um basically all predator hunting. i just it For me, it's ah totally a matter of how I choose to take time away from my family and what I want to use it on. yeah so and I don't do it enough at all either. i've done it I don't think I've done it this year. yeah um but no i mean Yes, go do those like OTC year round, whatever type hunts.
00:47:03
Speaker
um Go shoot, get a twoooth bolt 223 and go shoot Jackrabbits. That's cross fantastic practice. um And it's like it's relevant you know to big game hunting.
00:47:21
Speaker
Um, go do those, you know, if you live in California and you have access to any land or your family has land and you can shoot pigs, you know, you can do that year round or you can pay to do that. It's gotten quite a bit more expensive, but overall, I mean, it's still, you know, relatively, um,
00:47:43
Speaker
inexpensive to get like a big game animal. Um, I think a lot of them are like 1200 bucks now. yep Um, so, you know, that's, that's not nothing, but to get the experience and to shoot an animal and to put that meat in your freezer, like you're probably going to end up spending more than that. Um, on a lot of, on a lot of other hunts, unless you're just buying like a local deer tag or something. Yeah. A hundred percent. And you're never going to.
00:48:13
Speaker
There's no place for killing things. The only way to really learn how to kill things is to kill things. It slows down. Everything starts to slow down for you. At this point now, I understand, I'm never going to be Brian Barney, I'm never going to be Brian Lampers. Those guys are so much better than me hunting. They're just naturally really, really good hunters.
00:48:34
Speaker
But it slowed down for me. like I know for a fact that we're going to get on bucks next week. Or if you were talking 10 years ago, I would have just prayed to see a buck, yeah see a deer. I'd see a deer and I'd be so excited. It's all dough today. You know what I mean? um like I know for a fact that we're probably going to find bucks every single day. We're just going to try and find the right one and we should have an opportunity to get it done.
00:48:55
Speaker
like yeah and on on a deer. um Depends on how picky my kid wants to be with this hunt. I'm hoping he's a little more picky. If he gets excited, I'm probably going to, you know, I'm not turning him loose on anything small, but you know, but it slows down. This is my I want to kill the deer above you. okay He's a killer. So we just got to go and
00:49:19
Speaker
you just got to do it. And the more you do it, the more animals you kill, like, like Kellen said, dude, like crosshairs. That's why I like doing the coyotes crossers on the shoulders, shooting that thing, killing cats, learning where to hit them, hitting them on the run, learning how to acquire. I mean, one of the biggest things I run into people, new hunters is like,
00:49:34
Speaker
I can't find it in the scope. It's like, dude, like. Oh, new hunters. Do not go out and buy a four to 24 power scope. Please, please buy like a three to nine or a three to 12 or a three to 15 is what most of us shoot. um You know, on on big game animals, that's all you need. More magnification will do nothing but screw you up.
00:50:01
Speaker
Yeah, I put a three to 10 on my kids. Yeah. 308. He shoots that thing 400 yards all day long, dude. And it's so easy
Avoiding Common Mistakes: Scope Magnification
00:50:09
Speaker
to find animals. Yeah. It's so easy to find animals with that scope. You crank that scope up to 20 plus power. Good luck finding an animal under 200 yards or 300 even. like It's just way too much magnification. And as soon as that um rifle kicks, like you're going to be totally lost. So don um don't even bother with that.
00:50:32
Speaker
So that's a pretty good pod, dude. We talked about picking a hunting partner. We talked about new hunters, what it takes to go hunting with someone. um We typically always end with a hunting story, dude. I know you've been on some epic ones. um I'd love to hear about your sheep from until that story, because you killed a farmer sheep in a year that you weren't supposed to, and you got it done. And you you paid the money that you know I kind of thought you were crazy at the time, and you did it. and Now that was cheap. Now that was cheap. Man, it's it's wild how things have gone. um Yeah, 2020,
00:51:09
Speaker
but's see twenty twenty I think my grandmother died. I got like, I had some money, a little money saved that I was kind of like thinking I would use for like a special hunt at some point.
00:51:25
Speaker
Then my grandma died and I got a modest amount of money. like It was basically the same amount that I already had and combined, it was like just barely enough to go on a dollar sheep hunt um with like more one of the like lower end of the price range outfitters.
00:51:47
Speaker
But I got in touch with this outfitter. um He seemed like a really good guy. He had a good list of references of guys um that I respect. And ah I called several of them. I got good um reports. They were very honest about um like the area.
00:52:09
Speaker
that I'd be hunting and just saying like, you're not, you know, going to see a lot of sheep, but there's like good sheep in there. and There wasn't a flying hunt, right? There's not a flying hunt. I literally drove, um, we'll get to, we'll get to, we'll get to the vehicle at some point. But, um, anyway, so like, I did all this research. I called the guy, he was like, at the time it was like during COVID, he was like, I usually save a hunt to sell at the SCI show, but the SCI show is closed.
00:52:39
Speaker
this year because of COVID and he was like, it's yours if you want it. And I called some references and I got my courage up and I sent him a big fat check. You called me, you're like, he was like you would call me and he'd be like, what should I do? And I would tell him, you should spend the money. Yeah. And then that's like what most people including, I used to go to Alaska when I was, um when I was a kid, my, my parents had, or my mom went to college with somebody and Her and her husband lived in Alaska and they were marine biologists and I used to go up there in the summer and basically like they used me to clean the crab tanks in the lab and then I'd be like set free for the rest of the day and I would just run around and in a sewer for a month in the summertime just getting in trouble and fishing every day and stuff like that. and so
00:53:32
Speaker
I always respected their opinion and they they they encouraged me to go. and So anyway, I booked the hunt. By the way, this outfitter was um Steve Johnson, a really good guy. He actually died last year or earlier this year, I think. And that's really unfortunate. He was like a pillar of the sheep hunting community. It was a big loss. So um that's really sad.
00:53:59
Speaker
But I'm glad I got to go with his his outfit while he was ah while he was still around. And he left left behind a beautiful family as well. Anyway, um so the hunt was for 2021. It was...
00:54:20
Speaker
It was a hunt in the Chugach and basically, um, he, he teamed me, teamed me up with a guy named Tanner, a really cool guy. He lives in Colorado.
00:54:34
Speaker
And, uh, he does a lot of hunting for himself. He drew a sheep tag last year and killed a killer Ram in Colorado. And, um, anyway, I fly in and, um, you know, I text my guide and he's like, okay, we'll we'll be there in like 10 minutes. And, um, he's like, we're in a blue Mercury. And I'm thinking like,
00:54:56
Speaker
a Mercury Mountaineer or something like you know the little old like explorer type SUVs and nope they literally roll up in a 1993 Mercury Marquis which is ah Basically like the mercury version of an old like cop car kind of. oh yeah and You know what I mean? um So big big body sedan with like really, you know, loose suspension. It's all rested to hell for me in Alaska for 20 years. It's like a boat, you know? yeah With a trunk that you could fit like four human bodies in.
00:55:37
Speaker
Um, so anyway, like they pick me up. Um, we go back to the warehouse or whatever and like I get dialed in and we drive out to the area, sleep at the trailhead and hike in the next day. And it's like grew a pretty grueling hike to get into this area. It's walking only, um, no planes, no, uh, ATVs, no stock animals at all for sheep season. and Um, so, but it was rad. Like that first night, um, I spotted a Ram, you know, like probably like a five year old Ram or something on this rock face, like a mile away, but it was
Sheep Hunt Begins: Spotting the Ram
00:56:23
Speaker
cool. It was like, we're already on sheep. And I dunno, I won't do like a full day by day, but like we, we, we went in on the seventh season opens on the 10th.
00:56:36
Speaker
So basically it's like a day and a half to get into like real sheep country. Really? Yeah. Like that first camp, like I spotted a sheep and he was like, usually we don't see anything, but like maybe some use here. Um, and the next day that was the eighth and we were, I think it started raining and we were 10 bound for like a day and a half or something.
00:57:06
Speaker
um We were kind of like putzing around on the edge of um on the edge of like kind of ram country in there, ah waiting to see what the weather would do, basically to decide like which direction we were going to go. um Because he was like, if the ceiling stays really low in here, we're going to like go through this one canyon versus like going up and over this pass, which is going to like put us up in the nasty stuff.
00:57:35
Speaker
So we were stuck in our tents in the rain reading books for a while. I got to watch this grizzly across the ah canyon that we were in just like digging up um I don't know, like gophers or something, some sort of ground rodent. And it was hilarious. like this This grizzly would be like digging as hard as it could. just You could see dirt clods flying and stuff. And then the animal, you could tell, had some sort of like tunnel that it was using. and Because all of a sudden, the bear would like look up and go over here, and it would run over there.
00:58:10
Speaker
like the Like the critter had like popped its head up and he'd run over there and he'd start digging again. And then eventually like you'd see him come up and like toss this thing up in the air and like catch it and swallow it. Such a waste of energy for the small cows. But I mean, that's what they do. But he she he seemed to be having fun. It was not not a huge bear. It was a mid-sized bear, but it was still cool to watch.
00:58:37
Speaker
And saw like a moose run through the valley. Saw saw some black bears, I think. Just kind of kind of cool. Just stuff to keep our interest going. On opening day, we went over to this one Cirque where um
00:58:55
Speaker
Tanner, my guide, had known somebody that was in there on the junior
Challenges of Setting Up Camp
00:58:59
Speaker
hunt, the junior hunts like before the main opener, and they had gotten a good ram, and he had some intel that there was another good ram over there. So we went over there and kind of looked, poked around for the day, and didn't really didn't see any sheep. Saw the gut pile for the previous ram, which ah was interesting. It was totally untouched.
00:59:20
Speaker
um And then after that, we decided to go up and ah up and over the pass. So like the weather cleared enough that Tanner felt like we could get over into this next drainage.
00:59:35
Speaker
and But the the caveat it was that we had to spend the night in this saddle. So like you're climbing up these like horrendous rock kind of shoots, and um there's like nowhere flat anywhere and then you get into this saddle between like these two mountain ridges right which anyone that's done it any like amount of backpacking or like um hunting in the mountains, like saddles are a magnet for wind. So from like a just strategic standpoint for camping, it's like a horrible place to camp. But for hunting, like we had elevation. There was not anywhere else to sleep other than like the bottom of either side. Right. So okay this is rock. You've got to find a place lawyers and stuff everywhere. And finally, at the top, it's still rocks, but it's at least shale. And you can kind of like
01:00:31
Speaker
get a semi-flat spot. And so we spent the night there, and there was no sleeping going on all night. um The wind was just like, I had brought like kind of a lightweight backpacking tent, and it was getting completely flattened. The tent was hitting me in the face. And eventually, one of the little poles was one of those tents where there's like kind of a Y like there's a single pole like a ridge like a spine and then it hits a little circle and it splits to the two feet there and so where are those two poles connected like basically right above where your head is at the highest point of the tent um that broke I was able to
01:01:17
Speaker
kind of fix it, and then I like used a trekking pole to create like a post underneath that that ring, and that like held the tent upright for the rest of the night. um Anyways, it was like not a huge deal other than just like there wasn't any sleep happening.
01:01:33
Speaker
um And then that morning we were beat, but we like took camp down and, uh, we gained a couple hundred feet of elevation on this kind of ridge above us on the saddle and look down into this next drainage that we're going into.
Spotting Exciting Rams
01:01:51
Speaker
And fairly quickly, we saw two Rams that were kind of like walking pretty much straight towards us, but they were still maybe like a mile out.
01:02:01
Speaker
And one of them was like for sure young, but the other one we could tell had some mass and needed a better look. We originally thought that they might come straight up the saddle that we were in because they were walking like right towards us, but they ended up not doing that. We eventually relocated them in like the drainage below us, and then we felt safe to like move our camp down.
01:02:25
Speaker
down um below the saddle. So we got down to like little mountain kind of tarn, which is like a pond kind of, and set set our camp up and then kind of like snuck over to look at the Rams that night. And Tanner didn't feel like we could get close to them without spooking them. So he felt pretty confident that they were just going to go up um go up on the mountain, basically they go up on the cliffs and sleep and then they all will come back down and and feed again. And so sure enough, like we got up at, I don't know, we got up at like 4 AM and we sneak over there.
01:03:06
Speaker
and the rams were already like back down feeding again so we're just like we're under this like massive glacier there's like huge cliffs all around i spotted another another illegal ram up above like way up on the cliffs above us um there's like these glacial runoff streams like pouring down like out of the rocks and like it's it's like fairy tale and um Yeah. Anyway, so basically, uh, it's the 13th. I don't know if I did the sequence of days there, right or not, but basically there was a bunch of days spent in the tent. And then, um, a day where we went up to the saddle and then like on the 12th, we came down the other side. And then on the 13th, we were like on the Rams in the morning.
01:03:59
Speaker
And it was tough because there's a ah bigger river down below this area that we're in and, um, the fog comes into that river valley like every evening. And it just kind of creeps up these side drainages into the country where we are in. And it was just like flirting with the elevation where we were at. So they would like come and go kind of, and like.
01:04:26
Speaker
We tried one, we kind of like half attempted this one stock and like Tanner didn't feel good about it. So we backed up and got back on the ridge. And then we got to a point where like the Rams were feeding left to right. We get set up when we first set up there at like 300 yards, Tanner's on the spotting scope. I'm on the gun, just waiting for him to give me the green light. And, uh, uh, it took.
01:04:54
Speaker
It seemed like it took forever. i don't I don't actually know how long it was going on, but like he couldn't get the right um angle, basically. like The rings on my ram were mostly pretty good, except for the seventh ring was like really light, and he could not see it well.
01:05:13
Speaker
and so He needed to get the full curl look, I think, to call it legal because he wasn't, he wasn't ready to like call it on rings with that, that one ring being so light. And so basically the fog finally like receded enough and he got the Ram turn, the Ram has to like turn its head the right way for them to really be able to like get that full curl look and.
01:05:41
Speaker
They're really careful about stuff like that. like they will not If he doesn't get the look, he's not going to just like guess. you know He ends up being good both ways, right? He's legal both ways. yeah He was full curl and he was eight, so he's legal both ways. um But you know as that guide, like you're not goingnna you never going to call that without absolutely knowing.
01:06:03
Speaker
And so he was like very good about that. And yeah, but once he gave me the green light, like just flip the safety off and I didn't wait long. I got
Emotional Victory: Shooting the Ram
01:06:12
Speaker
another range. He had moved out to like 380, I think, but yeah, he was in a, they were totally unaware that we were there and just.
01:06:19
Speaker
Yeah, dumped him high high shoulder just like dropped in his tracks didn't take a single step like all over They're not the sturdiest animals sheep if you watch any like sheep hunting videos or anything Like you can kind of like give them a bad look and they'll they'll fall over dead, you know um So um I don't think they're nearly as hard to kill as like i a big mule deer or an elk or something like that But um yeah, it was awesome. I was very you know emotional, really cool. Uh, even though we're three days into the season, we're on like day seven of our trip, I think of our ah backpacking already. So it was a solid trip in. I'm, I'm the kind of person that like, I wouldn't mind shooting it on the very last day. Um, but I was far enough into the hunt where it was like, I would, didn't want to turn anything down just cause it's like, this was a real stretch for somebody like me to go on a hunt like this. And.
01:07:18
Speaker
Um, yeah, to be honest, like I wanted, I definitely want to take a Ram home and they had advised me, the Outfitter and my guide had advised me, like, you don't like, there are big sheep in here, but like, you should shoot a legal Ram. Like this is not a place where you're going to have like a lot of opportunities. So like, we're going to find your Ram.
Seizing Opportunities with Guides
01:07:38
Speaker
You're going to have an opportunity, but like, if you turn it down, you know, that's, that's on you. So, um, I took that advice and, you know,
01:07:48
Speaker
It's a, it's a nice Ram. It's a, you know, he called it like a bread and butter Chugach Ram. So it's, it's not a, uh, you know, it's not a 40 inch Ram. I think he was like 36.
01:08:02
Speaker
Um, with like 13 inch bases, I think when he was wet. So he probably shrunk some. Um, but I don't really care, you know? Yeah. It's phenomenal. doll sheep Yeah. Yeah. It's a doll sheep. So that's one of those things where it's like, for me, like it's the experience or the animal 10 times a hundred percent. Yeah. There was no way I was going to like not shoot, shoot that Ram.
01:08:25
Speaker
Um, and yeah, just an incredible experience. I highly encourage anyone that has an interest to do hunting like that, to just put some money away. Like it doesn't matter what it is. Like I do a monthly couple hundred bucks into a index fund and just let it sit and just keep putting money in there. And eventually you're going to have, you, it doesn't take that long few years. You're going to have like a significant amount of money and.
01:08:55
Speaker
That's just going to allow you to be able to do a special hunt when you have the ability to do that. So I definitely encourage like a little bit of long-term thinking for something special. Like keep doing your annual deer and elk and like whatever you normally do, but put that money away for something that whatever it is, like you want to go on a sheep hunt or you want to go on a goat hunt or you want to do like a, you know, like a cool drop camp hunt in Colorado for like elk and mule deer where they like hi eating and earth take you on horses out to ah out to a wall tent camp or something. Any of those things would be rad. so yeah Pinch your pennies and and go do something cool like that.
Saving for Special Hunting Experiences
01:09:39
Speaker
It's worth it. Yeah, dude. I know that you want to go back. I do. I've been saving. so
01:09:46
Speaker
I would have loved to go back with Steve's outfit, but that's no longer. so I don't know. Sheep prices have gotten insane. I don't know if I'll be able to do it. Where are they running now? Are they more than 30? I think they're up there in like the between that 25, 30 range for for Alaska. Canada is like unreal. That's like 75 grand for a freaking stone sheep. For sheep, yeah. But even for a doll in Canada, it's up in that 40, 50 range, I think.
01:10:10
Speaker
So, and then Alaska's flirting with 30. So, you know, it's, it's, it's getting to be where like, I don't, I don't know that I'll be able to do it again. but They do all these like ads right now, like we're in politics season, these, all these like gas prices, they should do sheeps, sheep hunts instead. Like that'd be way more appealing to me. Like eggs were this much like, yeah, doll sheep was 17 grand 2020. Now it's 30. Yeah.
01:10:35
Speaker
And if you pay attention, like the Alaska hunting community at all, like if you listen to Tyler Friel's podcast, a Tundra talk or anything, like those guys know what's going on up there. And like, they talk all the time about just like a lot of outfitters selling sheep hunts that like, they know they're not even going to like fill the tags. really Yeah, which is really frustrating. So you need to do your homework on like your outfitter and, um, it may be worth it to spend a little more to have peace of mind that you're gonna.
01:11:03
Speaker
have somebody that's not just like selling you an empty promise. you know I'm not saying that that's like prevalent. i don't I don't know. I'm not talking about any specific outfitters or anything like that. and All I'm saying is like be careful.
01:11:16
Speaker
And if the guy has a blue Mercury, ride him a check, ride him a check. The 93 Mercury Marquee is is the sheep hunting vehicle of choice. alaka I have pictures of that um that Ram head in the trunk, with the spare tire and our backpacks and everything in the trunk of the Mercury Marquee. That was amazing. That's awesome, dude. That was a good part, bro. I appreciate you. No worries, man. Any time.
01:11:45
Speaker
so next time ah to killen boter he's a killer thank you for listening to the trir podcast do us a favor and like and subscribe on whatever platform you're listening on give us a follow on instagram and facebook atd tri or usa Till next time, that's it. Kellen Botter, he's a killer.