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00:00:01
Shane Smith
161 Plays1 year ago
Shane is a salt of the earth hunter who calls Colorado home. He has the Coues bug bad and has been traveling to Sonora for years to scratch that itch. This was a fun one.
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Transcript
Introduction and Prayer
00:00:07
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, now the Tricer Podcast.
Meet Shane Smith
00:00:33
Speaker
Today I am joined by Shane Smith,
00:00:36
Speaker
Shane is not a famous YouTuber or a famous Instagram guy. Shane is just like Salt of the Earth. He's got an excavation company, runs tractors, runs some cattle, got some horses, and he hunts Sonora every year. And Shane messaged me on Instagram, he's, hey, check out this buck that I shot off of your tripod. And it was a freak buck. And I said, I want to hear about that buck. Because it was a coozed year that he shot in Sonora. And I love coozed year. I love Sonora. And welcome to the podcast, Shane.
00:01:06
Speaker
Hey, man, thanks for having me. It's an honor. So I feel like most dudes in the world are like you just out there hunting every year, working hard. And honestly, a lot of the guys more like you are probably
Hunting Preferences
00:01:20
Speaker
killing the bigger bucks. You just don't hear about it because you're not out there pounding your chest. So tell me about you. Tell me about Shane. I'm just a normal guy, man. Husband, dad, brother. I own an excavation company. I work for myself.
00:01:34
Speaker
I started doing that to try to hunt more. Never tells you when you work for yourself, you end up working more than hunting, I think. But yeah, just a normal guy. I love chasing elk and mule deer and kind of got the coos bug and it's been downhill ever since. Yeah, man. I tell people all the time that if I had to pick one, it would be coos.
00:01:56
Speaker
It'll be coos for sure. Like I'm putting in my draws for, and I don't even want to say a state. I put my draws in for a state right now. It's not Arizona. And you could build, you'll be able to figure this out. You and if you put two and two together, but my first draw is going to be for coosier, not mule deer in that state. Cause I'd rather draw a coos tag than a mule deer tag. So.
00:02:12
Speaker
I want to try and hunt mule deer or coozier in Arizona, but in New Mexico and in the end of Mexico. By this time the podcast comes out, the draw will be over, so too late, you guys can't steal my coozier tag out of New Mexico. The draw is on the 20th. This thing's going to come out in middle of April. Yeah, I love those little boogers, man.
Guiding in Arizona and Mexico
00:02:30
Speaker
So you do excavation, we got the horses, but you also guide a little bit in Arizona too. Do you guide in Colorado as well? Yeah, I've done some guiding in Colorado. I'm going to do some more this year. It's hard trying to sneak in your own hunts and guide as well. It's love-hate kind of deal. But yeah, I've got it a little bit in Arizona last year. We're going to go down this year as well and then move into Mexico. I think I'm going to take a couple of my own hunters down to Mexico and see if we can't
00:03:00
Speaker
Dig up some big bucks and then come back for the springtime and hopefully the snow's gone and start digging in the dirt again. What are you guiding in Arizona? Elk. Elk, who are you guiding with? Gunner Goodman. He's with Triple G Outfitters. Triple Jeffer to that. Yep. Are they northern Arizona, 9 and 10? No, he does mostly 23. 23. Okay, that's a hard tag to draw right there.
00:03:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We were on some big bulls last year.
Hunting Conditions and Weather Impact
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah. I missed a shot on a bull that.
00:03:36
Speaker
It was a giant, hopefully still lived and we can go chase them again. Man, if they're getting any kind of water, like we are over here, we're in San Diego and it hasn't stopped raining all this whole, since October. I just feel like it's just raining every week. It's raining today. It's raining yesterday. I have to imagine Arizona is getting some of that too. So hope it's a real wet year and they just get some just huge antlers. We'll see. Yeah. Yeah. I think they've, I know that they were getting some snow when Colorado wasn't so
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah, I hope they're getting some good weather. I know a couple of guys that have drawn some 23 tags, so I'm pretty excited. Yeah. Yeah. And really with those things too, what really sets them off in the end is getting those summer monsoons too, right? They get all the water in the world, but if they get a couple of good storms right then, right in the end right there and June, July, August, it'll really push them over the top and blow them up. Yeah, I think so. I think their monsoon season really takes care of the elk and the deer down there.
Benefits of Hunting in Mexico
00:04:34
Speaker
Yeah. Something I was really surprised with was I thought because it was so wet up here in such a banner year, last year up here in the States that Mexico would be the same way and it didn't transcend. Yeah. I was disappointed myself. I thought with all the weather down there that there was just going to be 130 inch giants running everywhere. And we didn't see that as much as I thought we were. We saw some really nice deer, but I was hoping for a lot.
00:05:03
Speaker
a lot better antler growth. It's funny because when you go to Mexico, do you have any sense about you? You're passing bucks that you would never pass in Arizona, right? If you have some sort of self-control, you're passing bucks that are phenomenal bucks, right? And that 100-anturn and five-inch buck, you're passing them to look for a bigger buck. But in Arizona, you'd be shooting that thing all day long and doing backflips. It's really special down there. The attraction to me in Mexico is
00:05:31
Speaker
And I think you've talked about it a little bit on one of your other podcasts is you are hunting per se public land deer, but you also get to shut the gate behind you and you can let that, you can let that deer walk. And even if he's a deer you're on the fence with, you can come back second to last day and dig him back up and go ahead and harvest him if he's the best deer you find, or if that ends up being the deer you want. Whereas in.
00:06:01
Speaker
when you hunt the public land stuff, at least in Colorado, if you pass on something that's legal, it's almost like somebody, somebody's already waiting in line to, uh, to harvest that animals. We don't get to see, and I think the deer in Arizona is the same way. Like they don't get the chance to mature as easy. I tell all the guys that want to go down there and hunt. I said, it's the culture special.
00:06:26
Speaker
But it's nice to lock the gate and not have to worry that if you, if you see a buck and it doesn't end up, you run out of daylight or whatever, you can always come back. Like nobody's racing you to the spot or so. Yeah. You don't gotta be the first guy at the knob, get up there an hour earlier. Cause the guy's trying to get you there. Yeah. You know, you can drink coffee and just get up there and enjoy your hunt. It's not super.
00:06:51
Speaker
hard pressed, like you said, to race up the knob and build up a sweat and leave at three in the morning. So I enjoy it.
Hunting Gear Talk
00:07:00
Speaker
I swear, man, even the deer acted like Mexicans down there, man. It's because the culture of Mexico is very laid back, right? And the deer didn't even start moving until nine o'clock, man. They were just like, got up to cruise like every day, like nine. Like it was just, like you said, very peaceful, right? That's one thing I enjoy about going to Mexico. I've spent a lot of time doing missions work down there. Is they're very foreign family focused.
00:07:19
Speaker
effort to the pace is slower, right? They things are slower and they'll take they have they still have frequency s does, you know, so it's just what I really enjoyed about Sonora is like I've done in some really cool places and but you still have jets flying over and you still have, you know, plane prop planes flying over or you still have horse guys on horses getting out there with guides in Sonora. I didn't see an airplane. It was just it's the Wild West. We were four hours off the border and it was
00:07:49
Speaker
We didn't see another soul. And it's, you don't hear ATVs driving by unless it's somebody in your hunting group. You, it's, I tell people that's half of my love with Sonora is yeah, you get to go hunt, you get to hunt opportunities that you don't get in the United States. But like you said, it's just, especially if you're from like the Western heritage, like it's.
00:08:16
Speaker
They're still moving cows on horses. They're, you get to see how they do things. And a lot of things they do, we do with equipment or have some fancy tool to do it and they just do it the way that makes sense. That's easy. That's, and I think that, like you said, the deer were really laid back this year. We'd get up there before daylight, just hang out, watch the sunrise, get set up and
00:08:46
Speaker
you'd start picking deer laying down and they'd lay down till 8.30, 9 o'clock before they ever got up. I'd never seen it before. I was like, they don't even start, they're just relaxing. I guess they're not getting pressured. I know like in the States, you're going to get up in the morning, that first hour and a half is golden time. Then they're going to try and get back down and get back to their bed and area.
00:09:10
Speaker
get out of sight, but down there, no, aside from a lot of lines and jaguars and nothing's really getting them. There's no humans down there chasing them. There's not a lot of even people hiking around or anything. It's just you're out there. Yeah. I, I hunt out of a Toyota. I don't take a side by side down there. And I see a lot of deer out of the pickup, like guys will go in and I'll just take it real slow, easing up and easing down. And it's amazing how many deer that you can just see out of the pickup.
00:09:39
Speaker
that don't really care that you're there. I tell people from... I'm an elk hunter and I tell people that I'd rather hunt a coozed deer now and they think I'm crazy, but it's pretty special. I'll tell you what, they're a lot better on your body. Yeah.
00:10:02
Speaker
I feel like everything about, they do live in, I had them in Arizona, they do live, everything bites where they live, the plants. But man, I feel like even if you don't shoot one, you're just getting worked over. They live in the steepest, nastiest, deepest stuff. And cause you're just fun, man. They're enjoyable. And plus it's just, it's so rewarding to actually, especially when you're working at it and you finally, you can gloss for two hours and finally you
Strategies for Coos Deer
00:10:26
Speaker
see a buck. It's just like, there you are. Gotcha. And there's just, it's like this cat and mouse game that
00:10:31
Speaker
It's really relaxing and it's, you're playing chess with these deer, right? And you're like, if you stay in the glass lawn, if you're eventually going to see one stand up and you just got to keep after them until you finally, when you see him, you're like, gotcha. You know, that, and I believe that it's also helped my glassing game for, for mule deer and elk. And obviously spotting an elk's way easier if they're standing up, but yeah, just.
00:11:01
Speaker
gaining the more and more patience and telling yourself like, okay, I'm, my eyes burn, they're itchy, but I can do another 15 minutes or I can do another 30 minutes or just what you're looking for. Everything's so minute with the coosdeer that when you amplify it with a mule deer or an elk and you're training your eyes to look for those small movements at that small glint of an antler. Like it, it's helped my glassing game and in Colorado and Arizona.
00:11:30
Speaker
tremendously. Yeah, man. I tell people all the time, slow down. You can't go slow enough. And then with cruise gear, it's amplified. That's why I have this new tripod. I guess I'm promoting my company, but I have this new tripod coming out where you can actually pan with a knob and just creep that thing. Because I swear to you, I've had those deer 50 yards in front of me in a bush, and I knew they were in the bush.
00:11:57
Speaker
And I've waited two hours and then finally blown them out of the bush. I thought they went and disappeared somehow. Cause you just, they just can, they call them the great goes for a reason. They disappear. They can just sit down and grass and you won't see them. And they're right in front of you. It's cool. One, I'm upset with you with that new pan head because I waited and waited and waited. I thought we were going to have it for Mexico this year. So the first four are there by the time this podcast comes out, they'll be for sale.
00:12:25
Speaker
It should be for sale. I'm thinking the end of next week. I have them in stock now. I'm trying to get him into my vendor's hands first. I sent a few out some people, but it is, it's the real deal. If you're especially, if you're using large optics, the LP is a phenomenal panhead for you're running 65s, 85s, binos. That's a head I'm going to run. Man, you put a BTX on this new panhead and it's just wow. It's a, it's the real deal. I told the guy, I hunt with it Mexico. I said.
00:12:51
Speaker
man, Drew's coming out with something special. Like when I waited and waited and I was like, I just got to go to the, I ran the BC and the LP head on a mountain goat hunt. And I took my 95 with me and I, it handled it just handle it. Yep. Yep. Yep. There were some cases like I had to really tighten it down, but
00:13:14
Speaker
It did it phenomenal. Yeah, it's a little engine that could I tell people all the time as long as you know that it wasn't created for that 95, but it'll do it.
00:13:23
Speaker
Like it'll do it. It's like you can kill an elk with the 6.5 cream more, but actually I'm not going to compare a cream more to my panhead. I don't want to do that too. You shoot an elk with a 25.6, but you'd be better off using a .33 wind mag. On this new panhead it's a .300 wind mag. It's made for the, it's made for Roger Glass. It's made for those .95s. It's incredible. And it's like, I tell people all the time, it's you don't have one gun.
00:13:45
Speaker
You need two panheads, you need two, like it's just different panheads for different things, different optics for different hunts. I'm sure like on some of my backpack hunts this year, I'll definitely run into BC and an LP because it only weighs 32 ounces. But like all my coosier hunts, when I'm going to be close to the truck, because I typically, I'm not backpacking on those hunts. I'm going a couple of miles. I'll be running the JC and the PTX. I'll be with the weights in there. I'll be carrying an eight pound tripod. It all depends on what you're doing. Oh, a hundred percent. Like I said, it went on the goat hunt. It did awesome. Like I said, you'd have to
00:14:16
Speaker
cinch it down a little tighter, but it handled it just fine. And for the alternative to be that strong versus the weight you got to carry, it's a little brainer for me. And you're probably like me, you're probably running your Bino's more anyways, right? So you're putting the spotter on a check. Are you running the spotter exclusively or you're running the Bino's mostly? No, my 15s mostly. 15. Yeah. That thing is made for the 15s. That's my Bino of choice. If I had to pick one Bino the rest of my life, it would be the SLC 15s.
00:14:44
Speaker
I don't know if you're on the SLCs, but that's what I run and I'd run them on that LP all day long. Phenomenal. 100%. And you just, I like it because when I sit down, I only have to pull the bottom legs out and it's almost perfect. So then, and then I have the AD and when I sit in my stool and I pull my bottom legs out, it's perfect. So it's not a whole lot of.
00:15:07
Speaker
jostling around crap, you know? Yeah. I tell people all the time, what they don't understand is it's the experience you get with our tripods. You get behind it and it's an enjoyable glassing experience. And I say that not because I created it, but because I glass a lot. If you ever go hunting with me, you'll be like, wow, that guy doesn't stop glassing. And when you're behind,
00:15:28
Speaker
a crappy panhead that's falling over on you or the tripod legs are flexing. It's just everything about it. Like I can move a little bit and easily adjust the knowledge right at the top of the head and move it around and I can easily keep glassing and staying in the glass. I'm not having to go and just fiddle with it all the time. And that's, you know, that's part of the reason why it's probably the best selling panhead and tripod in the country right now is because it's just, it's comfortable. It's ergonomic and it just works man. It's cool. Yeah. I started with, uh, with a slick and a man's Frodo and it worked.
00:15:58
Speaker
And I started hunting in Mexico. There were some guys using some better stuff, some outdoorsman's. And as soon as I was around those, I was like, man, those, that set up smoother and slicker and faster than mine. And I went over and I bought or got the outdoorsman set up. And then I went up on a limb to, to, for some of my mountain stuff, I didn't want to pack that big thing. And I tried the BC and took me a little bit to get used to, to
00:16:28
Speaker
your locks are a little backwards and stuff. But after that, it's my mind tripod of choice. It's smooth, it's quiet, and I can adjust the legs just a little bit, and I can still stay in my glass. Yep, exactly. That's exactly what Buddha's made for. And it's all right. I'm going to reach down and get underneath it. It's just right there. You hit the nail on the head.
00:16:52
Speaker
So I think we're going off of Mexico back. I want to hear about your goat, but I want to go back to Mexico. I don't know if I want to hear about your goat. I don't want to go to Mexico. We'll go back to Mexico and then maybe we'll go back to the goat later on. If we get a chance in the end, one of my favorite things about Mexico as well is the experience. I talked about the stars. It's, there's no planes. Um, you're staying in an old ranch house. It's probably a hundred years old. Typically, uh, you got a chef to some Mexican lady who,
00:17:18
Speaker
speak a lick English, but she's making tortillas by hand, and she's making authentic Mexican food, not like Taco Bell, like authentic Mexican food that you couldn't even get at a restaurant up here. You couldn't pay a five-star chef in America to make you some of the simple meals down there that are just homemade tortillas, burritos for lunch.
00:17:45
Speaker
It's amazing. And the sunsets in Sonora, I think are probably some of the best I've ever witnessed. Yeah. Tortillas with everything. By the time you're done with your hunt and you're typically down there eight to 10 days, you're going to eat a lot of tortillas. Oh yeah. Yeah. A lot of tortillas. Yeah. You don't get on the scale when you come back from Mexico, just go straight back to working out and then give yourself a month. So yeah.
Predator Control Plans in Mexico
00:18:10
Speaker
Something to point out too. I like what you said about being able to go behind a locked gate, but you're still on public land.
00:18:15
Speaker
I booked a ranch this year. I got a ranch. I'm going down with the owner of Olin Nate. I followed all my partners and a couple other people from the industry. When you book a ranch, you essentially own that ranch from September through February. No one else is hunting it. It's not like when you go to a ranch in Colorado or Utah and there's going to be hunters just cycling through that ranch, going through the gates. When you book a ranch in Mexico, typically,
00:18:41
Speaker
That's your ranch and no one else is going to be hunting it, disturbing those deer, chasing those deer. So we're not going to go down in September. I'm going to wait until the end of January to go down after the rut and pushing all your hunts in during the rut. And we will be the first ones to be putting crosshairs on those deer in at least a year, if not more, depends on when the ranchers hunt in the last. Yeah. And the nice thing is too, is if you go to, I think seeing a lot of different ranches are awesome.
00:19:11
Speaker
You get to see a lot of different cowboys and cooks and terrain. But when you go to the same ranch every year, you one, develop a relationship with that place. And two, you start seeing the same deer again. And you start saying, you know, I think like your buck, they knew who that deer was like. Oh, they have him since he was two, which I'm at eight years old. I mean, you have pictures of this thing as a little scrawny fork all the way up until, you know.
00:19:40
Speaker
And I think that, you know, if guys went together and got a ranch and stay stuck with it, that they can harvest their deer just like they had a lease in Texas or back East and really do some phenomenal things with the deer and help them out and shoot some big bucks. And one thing we're doing this year is I'm going to go down in July and do a predator hunt. Go down for a week, check out some deer, set some cameras and
00:20:10
Speaker
spend three, four or five days shooting coyotes and get getting rid of some of the predators. And the Mexican ranchers love it. They love it. It helps their deer. It helps their cattle. And we all know that those deer down there just get pounded by predators. So hopefully four or five, six years, you're starting to see if you can continue hunting predators for a week and doing your due diligence. Hopefully in six years, you get to see, see some rewards out of that is what I'm hoping.
00:20:39
Speaker
Yeah. And if you're hunting a ranch that doesn't get hunted for predators, man, you're going to just knock the snot out of the dogs. You're going to have a blast and the bobcats. It's just going to be, you're going to be putting down eight to 10 animals a day, probably. And does every stand have them come in? You can, what's cool about Mexico too, is you can sit there during the day
00:21:04
Speaker
And shoot coyotes are just walking around. It's not like, it's not like you got to get out there at daybreak to shoot them. I mean, you can shoot them at two o'clock in the afternoon. Yeah, they are middle of the day trip. And we run some lions and some cats here in Colorado. And I can count on one hand how many I've seen not chasing them with dogs or in pursuit with hounds.
00:21:27
Speaker
And in Mexico, you can gloss them up. They're just walking around everywhere. So it's a pretty neat, neat experience when you can be glassing for deer and you get the giddies because there's a lion walking by. Yeah, I had a lion on my kids hunt this year in a basin that I love. I always find bucks in.
00:21:46
Speaker
And I had a lion come in and I didn't have a tag and I was just kicking myself. And he came in and laid, did all the cat stuff, laid on his back and played and I watched him and I saw these deer going over the hill and I knew where the deer were. And he gets up and goes over the hill and all you hear is just chaos and deer screaming. And then the other line didn't come back out and some deer came running up, but I know he got it by, I got it.
00:22:12
Speaker
Got a tear down there, killed one. They, those things are, they are the apex predator, man. Especially in those coups here, cause they're like a German shepherd, a hundred pounds. They're pretty big. The buck I shot is probably 120 pounds easy, way bigger than the deer in Arizona where it are. But still you're talking average coups here in Arizona is probably in that a hundred, 110 range for a buck. It's not a big deer. So those lions just hammer. Yeah. They, I mean, if they can get one claw at them, I think it's.
00:22:39
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's not like having to pull an elk down. Oh, they are hunting kill. That's one thing. Yeah. I actually, when I was glassing for this buck, I glassed him up, I think the third morning and I just saw him real quick and I was waiting for him. Maybe if he'd come back out and here comes a bobcat with a jackrabbit walking, I'm probably a hundred yards where he was standing and I was doing the, should I know what bobcat or deer, this is deer. I just, but.
00:23:09
Speaker
Yeah, I'm hoping, like I said, if a guy can stay with the same ranch and do a little predator hunting in the summer, that hopefully in four or five, six years that you can help the deer population and definitely get some more age on some bollocks. Yeah, that's a good point on the bobcat thing, just to point this out. As a general rule, I will not shoot
00:23:34
Speaker
a coyote or a bobcat if I have a tag in my pocket or something else. So I'm going after a deer. I will not shoot it, even though it's day five, because you never know when you're going to pull that trigger and all of a sudden you're going to stand a buck up and you just blew it, right? So I just don't do it. I mean, someone told me that when I was younger, am I a little bit different? But I just had someone tell me that one time it stuck with me. Just don't do it. And then once you kill it, then you can go shoot all the bobcats and coyotes you want, but just focus on the deer. I even, I have a hard time like buying a
00:24:03
Speaker
I'm going to go to Colorado this year. I'm debating on if I'm going to do, I have seven points for mule deer and elk and I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do. But if I get a mule deer, this mule deer tag, if I want to get a bear tag too.
00:24:15
Speaker
I don't want to get a bear tag because I want to focus on the mule deer because you can find yourself, you have both in your pocket and you see a bear. Now your attention has gone from the deer to focus on this bear for a couple of days and you shoot the bear, then you're packing them out. I like picking one. You make a bad shot, then you waste a day tracking. Yeah. You didn't get that buck. You can go kill a black bear.
00:24:35
Speaker
I don't know. It's just at the same time and you don't get the tag and then there's a black bear stand there every day. And you're like, why not buy that damn tag? So it's just, I don't know. Murphy's law with that stuff, you know? A hundred percent. I try when I get a tag, like an elk tag or a deer tag, I'd like to try to take three predators for every animal I shoot.
00:24:59
Speaker
It's just my rule. Yep. Yep. And just, but yeah, if you have a black bear tag, you won't see one. If you.
00:25:07
Speaker
don't have one, you'll see 10. So that's how it goes. Exactly. Murphy's law. All right. So I guess we should talk
Emotional Hunt Story
00:25:14
Speaker
about this giant buck. I'll hold him up real quick. Let's see this thing. If you are listening, it has on its right side, what it's got like this, the eye, the eye guards like curving all in what one, two, three, four, seven on one side, seven on his right.
00:25:29
Speaker
7-7 and he broke one off right here. 7 and he broke one off and the right side or the left side's got what? Just the three with the kicker. Three with the kicker and then you know so if you were to call him so you got seven plus four eleven you'd be a 13 point buck if you're calling him a white tail. He's a 13 point buck and just got like crazy massive almost looks like a double main beam buck. It's just a freak of a buck almost got a crown on it's on his G2. I don't even know if you can call it a G2. I guess it's a G2 with the stickers everywhere.
00:25:59
Speaker
It's crazy. He went into two main beams and this is a G2 G3 with the kicker and then like a G2 G3 with the kicker. But yeah, it was the bad thing is I didn't know how big he was when I shot him. I knew he was a big buck, but I'd only, I'd saw, I'd hunted him for four days and I'd see him every morning and every evening, but it was like for five seconds at a time. I never could.
00:26:27
Speaker
I just, I started seeing more stuff every time I'd see him. And then, yeah, he, it was, I guess I could just tell the story. Yeah, tell the story. Cause it's, yeah, I want to hear the whole story. And one thing I like about that buck I like about Koo's year is not necessarily always the biggest buck. It's the coolest buck. And that buck just looks cool. Like they just, something about those years, they just look cool. So yeah, tell the story. So like I said, I told you earlier,
00:26:53
Speaker
I usually hunt with another group of guys. We didn't get hooked up this year just because of some scheduling stuff. And so I went with another group. I went with two guys I had hunted with before and a guy I hunt with in Mexico every year. Went with another group of guys. We go to a new ranch. It's just the whole new thing. And everybody kind of splits up, goes their direction and we just go up the hill and we come up opening morning.
00:27:21
Speaker
And we see a couple of good bucks that right at Hunter, something like that. And nothing that we wanted to check the ranch out and see what it had to offer. And we come up over the hill to get ready to glass. And I see this deer and we get out and I, my buddy's name is Todd. And I said, I put my 15s up real quick. And I said, Todd, I think you ought to get your, I think you ought to get your gun out. I think we should shoot this buck real quick.
00:27:46
Speaker
And he's, are you sure? We left the ranch like hour ago and I was like, I'm pretty sure we should shoot this buck, but he's a thousand yards away. And I'm just free handed my 15s at this point. Uh, so we decide we move up to the hill and he disappears. He's just moving. So let's get up here and get set up. We set up and I start looking for him and looking for him. And I pick up a little buck chasing a doe.
00:28:17
Speaker
And I looked down the hill and I see him and he's standing out in the wide open and then he bails down it. He's just cruising coming down the hill. And I said, Todd, get your gun. And he says, I'm not shooting that deer. He had shot a really nice buck last year. So he's, I want you to shoot this deer. And I was like, no, like I'm on him. We've got to have to kill him. So we're arguing back and forth. And I pick him up again and he's at 678 yards.
00:28:45
Speaker
And I pick his three side up and I know he's a good deer and he turns a little bit and I see his kicker and then he's in the brush again. So we're getting stuff set up and I'm trying to get my gun out and keep an eye on the deer, get taught on the deer. And you know how it is. It's just a rodeo sometimes. Yeah. We don't see him. So we calm down and we go back to glassing and
00:29:12
Speaker
We go back to glassing and I look over and pretty soon I see a buck again and he's coming back to where he came from. But he had just poked his head out around a mesquite tree. And I see, I said, I've got another buck. And I look, he turns his head and I said, I think he's got split G2s and split G3s. Like we should shoot this buck. So we're getting ready to set up. And he walks in, gets behind his, gets behind trees again. I don't see him the rest of the day.
00:29:42
Speaker
So in all this, there's guys are figuring out the ranch and driving up and they're like, oh crap, we didn't know you were here. And I'm like, that's all right. Long story long, we go back to camp, everybody's swapping stories. And I said, I found a deer that I'm going to, I'm going to camp on and I'm going to shoot. I don't know how big he is. I just barely got a glimpse of him, but he's got split G's twos and G threes. And I'm going to stay on this deer or I'm going to go home without him.
00:30:09
Speaker
The next morning we go back up and there woods are silent. We see two, two little bucks, two little four keys or three points. And we look over and he's on a different, I see him and he's on a different Ridge and I just see a deer and it goes. And I didn't know it was him at the time. And we sit there all dang day and just zero deer and
00:30:39
Speaker
The wind's blowing hard. It sucked. Like just earning it. And right before daylight, he pops out right where that deer was to my right on this Ridge. And he stands there for a second. I'm like, Oh, I got a buck. And I'm like, that's him. That's him. So like, we're trying to get set up and get, and he just, he walks left to right. And then he just goes over the backside of the Ridge. He's so bummed about it.
00:31:08
Speaker
come back the next day and start glassing that morning. And he pops up in this same spot, but he pops up for five seconds and dumps over the hill again. And we're like crap. So we sit there. Oh, maybe he'll come back. Maybe he'll circle around. Maybe he's looking, you know, searching for does, you know, all the stuff. And we sit there all dang day again, nothing. And right before daylight, he comes out again, same footsteps and dumps over the hill.
00:31:39
Speaker
So in all these little glimpses of him, I'm going, he's got a kicker on the right. Todd's going, no, he's got a kicker on the left. And I'm like, are you sure? I'm pretty sure we're going back and forth.
00:31:54
Speaker
Every night we're going back to camp and we're telling the guys and they're like, did you get him? No. How big is he? I was like, I don't know. He's a good deer, but I don't want to put. So finally I told one of the guys, I said, I think he's like a 110 to 115 inch deer. Like he's a real mature, respectable animal. So the next day we sit there. We don't see him in the morning, but in the evening, he comes right back out and I'm ready for him. Like my gun is almost pointed where he's going to stand.
00:32:24
Speaker
He comes out right before dark and he quarters away from me really hard. It's like 535. I was real confident in the shot and I shoot and I miss him and I'm heartbroken. So Todd, the guy is with, he's, you missed him clean to the left. And I'm like, are you sure? And I didn't want to walk over there and walk in his bedroom and Todd's for sure, a hundred percent miss. I'm like, all right. So I can't sleep that night.
00:32:52
Speaker
I'm just like I got I finally got my opportunity and I blew it like you've practiced and you've shot and you blew it You just blew it. Yeah, so We go back the same the next morning and we sit in the same spot and I don't even look at any of the other deer. I'm in my 15 just laser focused right where he's at and we sit there and it's probably
00:33:17
Speaker
I don't know, 9.30.10. And I haven't seen a deer move right there. And I'm just pounding it. Nothing. And I come out of my 15s. I bend down. I grab my coffee cup. I take a drink. I set my coffee cup down. I look at my 15s and he's standing in my glass. And I'm like, what the... I'm like, God, there he is. And Todd thinks I'm joking. I like get down on my gun.
00:33:42
Speaker
And I'm right. And he's, I don't think it's him. And I'm like, what? And he's, I don't think it's him. So I don't shoot. And I'm like, so then Todd and I are, we're, we're best friends, but I'm like, it's Todd. What do you mean? It's gotta be him. It's standing in, it's standing in the same spot. And he's, I don't know. And he starts second guessing himself. And he's, I just, I didn't think it was him, Shane. So we sit there and I get frustrated. And I said, I said, he's been walking over this hill.
00:34:11
Speaker
for the last four days in a row. I said, to hell with it. So I throw my backpack on. I put all my glass in there. And I said, I'm going to walk. I'm going to go hike to him and get to him. So I walk like a mile and a half north, like a mile and a half east, get on the other side of the next ridge over, and then a mile and a half back down to where he is. And I sneak over the ridge and I get out there and no deer standing in the wide open.
00:34:40
Speaker
And Todd comes with me and we start glassing. And I say, he's not out in the wide open. We're just going to have to sit down and start pounding some country. And we're sons in our face. It's blazing hot. The wind's blowing. And I had brought some beer in my backpack and I said, Todd, I said, do you want a beer? And he says, it's hot, man. I'd take one. So I hand him a Takati out of my backpack and I take one.
00:35:08
Speaker
and we open our beers and we're sitting down and we're glassing. And about two minutes later, I hear a deer blow like five yards to my right. And I heard it. I knew what it was. I knew what I was hearing, but I looked at Todd and I said, is that what I think it is? And he blows again. And he blows again and I grabbed my gun and I stand up and that buck had taken off running down the ridge.
00:35:37
Speaker
And Todd goes, it's not him. It's not him. And I stand up and look and the deer I shot, I've been hunting for four days is standing like three yards away from me. Just, yeah. And I'm just as surprised to see him as he is me. And then it's just chaos. He runs off the hill right behind the other buck. And Todd, that wasn't him. And I was like, yeah, but the second one was the smaller buck and he was still a nice buck, probably 105, 107 inch deer.
00:36:08
Speaker
he runs down, crosses the draw and goes right out on the wide open point and just is standing there and he's just blowing, just blowing, blowing. And I see this deer and he runs down to my right and starts like coming back up the hill. And I said, I get ready. And I said, man, Todd, if he crosses that wide open hill, hopefully he stops. I can get a shot at him and nothing. So we stand there and this,
00:36:37
Speaker
The smaller deer still down there blowing and I said, maybe he cut down the draw. I said, I'm going to grab my 15s. I said, keep an eye on that deer. And I go to walk away and I said, I'm going to shoot that deer. And my buddy's going, no. And I said, Todd, that's a nice deer. Like I said, I'm, I just, by this point, I'm having a pity party. I said, we, I missed him yesterday. I just blew him out at three yards. Like he is gone.
00:37:05
Speaker
that's a nice deer and Todd's like you're not shooting that deer we're arguing now and this deer is still standing down there blowing. So I said fine I'm gonna go down there on the point and I'm gonna see if he crosses lower below us. I make it like 25 30 yards from Todd or I told Todd I said keep an eye on that deer and I make it like 25 yards down the hill from Todd and I hear a second deer blow and Todd yells at me he says Shane here he comes. So my 15
00:37:36
Speaker
are on my big tripod on the AD and I'm packing them in my hand. I pretty much pitched those into the trees, sprint up the hill and the buck I shot come walking up and turn broadside. It was just facing downhill standing there. He's 180 yards. So I pulled my rifle up and by this point I couldn't have hit anything and I'm shaking. I'm trying to calm myself down and I yell at Todd. I said, give me your tripod.
00:38:04
Speaker
So he runs up the hill or gets up the hill, brings me his, his, uh, BC and I slide the legs out real quick and the deer is still just standing there and I'm shooting a chassis rifle. So I just slide it in the tripod and tightened it down and took a deep breath and I shoot and I hear it hit him, but I don't, I lose my sight picture.
00:38:29
Speaker
So I take off running down, he's going down the hill again. So I take off running. So now I got my rifle with the tripod attached to it. And I'm just clear and brush going downhill. And I get to the, I get to the point and I'm shaking. I'm nervous. And I'm like, what the, and I'm looking for him. I'm like, I'm going to see him. I'm going to see his flag somewhere. If, if he crosses right here, I've got to see him. And I just see something out of the corner of my eye and I pull my rifle up and look at it and it's him.
00:38:59
Speaker
He had already tipped over and I could see just a big exit wound on him and I just hit my knees and man, I just, it was, I yelled at Todd up the hill. I said, he's down. When Todd came down the hill and it was, that was, I was shaking. I was nervous. I was crying. I was just, I thanked the Lord. And then I looked at Todd and I said, I hope I shot the right deer. And Todd goes, what? And I said,
00:39:28
Speaker
It was starting to get a little, little racy there, but yeah, ended up, had to go and pick up my yard sale, had lost a leg to one of them or to my bipod. Just, I had a bullet wallet or bullet sleeve scattered. I had to go pick my 15s up and just, it was a rodeo by the end of it, but yeah, it worked out. That is bitchin'. See, that's why I like, like I'm not knocking hunt films.
00:39:54
Speaker
But this story to me is what probably most kills are like. Yeah. At least mine, right? Like, it's not like slow motion and this is all, it's just like, it just doesn't work that way. Most times it doesn't work that way. This is how it is. I like having guys like you on here to talk about this. Cause that's me, man. And you shoot it and I'm just, people, I know you're not supposed to hoot and haul, but I'm just like high fiving and hooting and hauling and give them, you know, shaking my kid. Like, yeah, good job buddy. You know, cause that's cool, man. That's just bitching.
00:40:21
Speaker
What rifle you shouldn't, MDT? Chassis? An XLR chassis. My buddy in Colorado is an XLR dealer and he's also a custom gun builder. His name's Jamie, he makes some sweet rifles. Yeah, it worked out like I said. I slid the tripod and
00:40:46
Speaker
It was probably the only thing that calmed me down enough to be confident to shoot because I pulled up on him and was shaking. Just after everything, I had buck fever. That's good. I hope that never goes away for you. Yeah. I hope it never goes away. I'm more confident shooting animals like that where I lay down and I go out and shoot with Jaden and stuff.
00:41:15
Speaker
If I have time to think about it, I'm almost, we're shot than I am. If I could just pull up and shoot on instinct, but, but yeah, it's, it all calms down and Todd walks up and he says, I guess you want your victory beer finally. Yeah. So it was a great hunt. And Todd, he looks at me and he says, that was a whole lot better than shooting him yesterday at dark. So we walked down there and I kinda, and at this point I still didn't know what he was. I knew, I knew he had split G2s and split G3s.
00:41:45
Speaker
I knew he had the kicker off his solid three side and Todd swore up and down that he had a kicker off the other side. Yeah, little did you know he had both. Yeah, he had both. And a little more and a crazy freaking G1. And yeah, so we got to walk down there and just kind of see what he was, finally get a touch the deer that we've been seeing.
00:42:14
Speaker
We, and we just hung out with him. We just sat there for hour and a half, just hanging out and just talking and just appreciating him. And then finally we packed him up to the where we could get a truck to went and picked him up. Everybody sees him on the way down. And, and I tell Todd, I said, now we got to go out tonight and kill a bigger one. We come out nothing that night by the time we got him to the ranch and stuff.
00:42:44
Speaker
We come out the next morning and right where this buck was standing, the first time I saw him, I start glassing and I see a buck again. And I said, Todd, I've got a buck. I got a big buck. Like get your gun. And he's, and I said, no, we need to shoot this buck. I'll get, we need to shoot this buck for sure. Oh yeah. This is a big. And.
00:43:08
Speaker
I think he probably would outscored my buck if you were worried about numbers, but come together, his main beams had touched. Cross, isn't that cool? That's such a cool feature on these bucks. And that was the deer I was looking for. That's what I want is one that crosses or touches. And that's what I wanted, or I was looking for myself going to Mexico this year. And when I saw this one, I changed my mind.
00:43:37
Speaker
We shot at that deer four times and we couldn't hit him. An easy 600 yard shot, a far shot, but nothing that Todd is not capable of. And I kept telling him he's shooting high and his gun ends up being, I think like one and a half MOA off. So, yep. So we missed another big deer, but he got a good buck, but we got another big one to go and look for in 2025.
00:44:04
Speaker
That's awesome. You're shooting some range, got some good rifles. What caliber, what bullets are you guys shooting? Todd is shooting a 6.5 PRC. I can't remember what builder he uses. I'm shooting a West Elk Precision in a 7 PRC. 7 PRC. I love the 7s. I shoot 280 Ackley, very similar ballistics. I almost had Jaden build me an Ackley and I ended up going, I'm going to go with the PRC for factory loads was the only reason that I went with the
00:44:34
Speaker
the seven over the Ackley. The only reason I went Ackley is sometimes when you're loading like the magnum, especially the short magnums, you got a little bit more, it's a little bit harder to get them in. And I just feel like that 30-06 case, man, it just always feeds. That just, that standard action, it just, they just always feeds. That's why I went with the Ackley. I had real good luck with 175 grain burger in that gun. What bolt are you shooting? I'm just shooting the Hornady matches, the 180. 180 matches.
00:45:02
Speaker
ELDMs, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I just bought the 178 ELDXs and I'm going to try and load those out for it and try them. I don't know that Burger is my favorite hunting round, so I don't know. I'm all over the place with that gun, but this year, I don't know if you heard or not, I'm talking about a lot.
Future Hunting Plans
00:45:20
Speaker
I'm getting a Woodstock .30-06. My goal is to hunt everything I kill with a stock .30-06. That's my plan for this year.
00:45:30
Speaker
I finally broke, I'm a 270 guy. That was my gun. Yep. That was my gun growing up. So I finally, I went into the, to the sevens, but have like, we killed, I think four or five elk with that, that rifle last year with the, with the ELDMs. And I was pretty happy with them. I actually did right there. Right. I mean, they do a burger, right? And they go in and they don't come out.
00:45:58
Speaker
Yep. And when I hit that Coos deer, it came out and you could slide probably a pop can in the exit hole, but it had a second exit and came out his chest too. So it went, it exited through him and came out his chest. So it, he was, he made it maybe 15 yards, 20 yards. You didn't know he was dead. He was just dead. Yeah, it hammered in pretty hard. So I was,
00:46:25
Speaker
real impressed with them. They did really well on some elk this year. And I've seen some deer down there. People don't underestimate how tough a coozed deer really is. Elk are tough, but coozed deer got the will to live. They will go. I'll tell you, the toughest animal I've ever hunted would have to be odd-ad. And all the reason I say that is
00:46:51
Speaker
I had a buddy gut shoot. I shot one and then he gut shot one. The seven mag.
00:47:00
Speaker
And it blew his guts out. It was running with his guts out its side. I tracked that thing for two miles before it stood up. It was raining. It was like, I'm not trying to do snow up to school, up the hill in the snow, but that's what it was like. All my hands and knees, finding blood every 30 yards. And he already finally found it. That thing stood up and he killed it. But that thing went, I can't believe it had the will to live that much. And I guess you live in lion country over there in the Middle East. You just used to it. There's tough animals.
00:47:30
Speaker
just living in the desert. Like every, I don't know if it's, like you said, everything bites you, pokes you, stings you, cuts you or the lions or they just got the will to live and they're tough. I've seen elk take some, take a thump in and just keep going. You can pair an elk and a coozed deer their size. Like I can understand how an elk would keep going, but a coozed deer, they're just, they're dog tough.
00:47:56
Speaker
Yeah, they are. What I love about them too is how cagey they are. They're just very, you've never seen animal chump a string like a coozier. Everything's trying to kill them all the time and they're just very alert. It's really cool. Man, that was an awesome podcast, Shane. That was fun. I got all kinds of good clips out of that thing. You're a good storyteller. That was awesome. You're going back again, I think you're going back to Mexico in 2025? Yep. Going to go back in 2025. I'll probably hunt with the same group.
00:48:25
Speaker
I'll hunt with Todd for sure. And then I'm probably going to take a couple of different groups of guys myself. I've got a couple of ranches booked up to take some other guys down. So hopefully we can send you some more pictures of some big ones. I hope so, man. Let's let's do it again. Let's get back together next February or March and hear about all these bucks you killed. Tell some stories. Well, hopefully there's at least a couple, not all of them. But no, man, I appreciate having me on and keep killing it. Thanks, bro.
00:48:54
Speaker
Your stuff's good. We're liking it. Thank you. It means a lot coming from guys like you. Let's do it again, bro.
00:49:05
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Tricer Podcast. Do us a favor and like and subscribe on whatever platform you're listening on. Give us a follow on Instagram and Facebook at TricerUSA and go and check out all of our innovative gear at www.tricerusa.com. Until next time, shoot straight, have fun, and always put God first.