Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Dillon Deitz
138 Plays2 years ago
After a decade of trying, Dillon Deitz finally killed his first elk. This journey is one you won’t want to miss.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Theme
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.
00:00:31
Speaker
All right.
Meet Dylan Deets
00:00:32
Speaker
I am super, super excited to get the exclusive on this one. I have the man, the myth, the worst hunter in the world, Dylan Deets on the Tricer podcast. What's going on, Drew? What's going on, everybody? It's true. I might be one of, if not the worst hunter in the world, so fitting introduction.
00:00:55
Speaker
It is, and I'm very excited because I have so much faith in you that I actually told you, Dylan, when you kill a bull, I want to be the first podcast you go on to because I want to hear this story because the story is worth telling. So I've had faith in you since the beginning that you were going to kill it. I wasn't rooting against you. I think a lot of people are rooting against you getting it, but you got it.
00:01:13
Speaker
I did it, man. Thanks for believing in me. A few people have believed in me. And dude, we got it done. Yeah, my feet still haven't touched the ground. I still can't believe it. I've been trying to kill an elk for 10 years and dreaming of killing a bull for longer than that. But I've been actually hunting elk for a decade. This was my 10th year and finally got
Dylan's Hunting Journey
00:01:33
Speaker
it done. So pretty cool, man.
00:01:34
Speaker
That's crazy. So tell me, tell me about you. So we met through Cody Rich. Cody told me, he's like, Hey man, you got to go with my friend Dylan. He's super funny and he's not a good hunter, but he's really funny and he can like make some great content and she gets to know Dylan.
00:01:52
Speaker
You've just been awesome to work with, you had fun to work with and to somebody who I enjoy bouncing ideas off of and to somebody in the industry who's just like a breath of fresh air. It's been so nice to work with you on a few different projects and just get to know you and see what you're doing. Honestly, see you grow. I think when we started talking, you might've had like 1,500 followers and you've tripled that now or something.
00:02:12
Speaker
You're really growing as a brand and you're really genuine, right? You're not this phony dude out there. You put everything out there, which I appreciate, right? I like guys who are like, hey, I shot a fork. Get over it, right? Not like every animal you shoot is a giant animal. Everything you do is like this majestic pack out scene. It's just everything was perfect and every hunt went great. It's like the raw emotions of Dylan Deets and I appreciate that and I appreciate the
00:02:40
Speaker
the genuineness of you as a person, as a hunter, as a father, as a husband, as a Christian. And that's one of the reasons why I really like working with you and why I continue working with you. Oh, dude, I appreciate that so much. And yeah, giant shout out to Cody Rich, man. That dude from my first couple of videos just kind of took me under his wing. He's helped me so much on the business aspect of what I'm doing now and introduced me to great people. You were my first sponsor ever.
00:03:08
Speaker
I still am a nobody, but even back then, I had accomplished virtually nothing. My Instagram is not full of a bunch of dead animals and stuff. For most hunting companies, it's like we want to show that our product leads to dead animals. You were so gracious and kind to just bring me on the pro staff and hook me up with... I've been looking at Tricer products for years and just haven't shelled the money out on it. You sent me a bunch of stuff and fell in love with the company.
00:03:37
Speaker
Yeah, dude, you've been awesome. And big shout out to Cody for introducing us. But yeah, forever, you look at Instagram or YouTube, and you think like, man, I want to be one of those badass hunters.
Tricer's Mission and Gear
00:03:51
Speaker
And I was trying to be that for a long time.
00:03:53
Speaker
And then finally, last year, it's just like, dude, that's not me. I'm a goofball. Hunting is one of the most important. It's church, family, God, family, and hunting for me. But yeah, once I started, it was like, I'm just going to be myself. Let's make a video about how I'm just making fun of how bad of a hunter I am. Because I think the vast majority of hunters feel like me, not the Cameron Haynes.
00:04:20
Speaker
drew miles of the world. We don't all feel like these big badass hunters, but I was trying to be that. And this was like, why am I doing this dude? This is not me. And just started making fun of myself. And yeah, we're almost at 3 million views now on my Instagram reels and thousands of followers in this year and sponsorships and money and a little bit of money.
00:04:40
Speaker
But this is the craziest thing that's ever happened to me. I didn't set out to be a successful YouTube or Instagram hunter guy. The door has just naturally been opened, and yeah, so many cool experiences are happening. So after a year of all this craziness happening to finally kill my first bull is very surreal. Yeah. I think as a company, for what I'm not a badass hunter at all by any means. I'm not killing giant animals. I think you are.
Hunting and Family Balance
00:05:10
Speaker
I like the normal dudes, right? I recognize that. I do recognize that guys like Ryan Mappers are using my stuff and Brady Miller is using my stuff and that's to the moon. Amazing, right? And Brian Call is using my stuff and then Cody Nelson, Cody Rich, all these guys are using our stuff, which is awesome. But at the same time, those guys, while they're incredible and I love those relationships, what's really driving our company is the normal dudes who are using my stuff.
00:05:37
Speaker
Right? And the guys who get to go out and hunt, you know, a couple of weekends a month and their wife's pissed off about it because they've got, they're already working 40 to 50 hours a week. And then they, you know, they got the kids little league game and they're still trying to get out and hunt on the weekend, right? Those are the guys who really kind of appeal to me, right? That's why you appeal to me. It's like the normal dude, the average hunter, right? The guy who's like, yeah, I didn't shoot 180 ish meal there. I shot a three by three buck and I'm happy about it.
00:06:04
Speaker
I'm pumped. Yeah, dude. I'm pumped. I'm pumped. My kid just went and shot a little old fork and wanted to be a 3x3 in Utah. He is ecstatic, but I'm so worried that if I posted it on the end of the door, it was going to hammer me. Yeah, and that's the one that... No, dude. Who cares, man? Isn't that the hunt he went by himself or with his friends?
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah, it
Transition to Bow Hunting
00:06:23
Speaker
was one of my friends, but yeah. Yeah, but that's awesome, man. It's like your boy going out and getting it done. I dream of that kind of stuff. I can't wait for my kids to not want to hunt with dad. Dad, we're doing a seven day elk hunt with me and my friends. I can't wait for that, dude. That's so cool. Who cares about it? Three by three, a spike. That's awesome.
00:06:45
Speaker
I just came home from work and my kitchen, there is a skinned out mule deer with the skin still all over my kitchen. His mom's not home yet. The skull's in a giant pot and I'm like, dude, your mom is gonna kill you. Like, what are you doing? But he's doing it himself, dude. Hurry it up, brother. You better hurry it up. Yeah, and honestly, he needs to be looking outside. And if you've ever boiled a skull, they smell. Like, you don't wanna do that in the house. And I'm pretty sure he didn't remove the brain. Oh, dude, sir. I will pay... He didn't remove the brain yet?
00:07:13
Speaker
I don't know if you're really brave. I gotta find out if he did. So he's just cooking the brain in the water? I hope he isn't. I won't be. I'm thinking about it right now. I have a brain removal tool my friend made for me. It's a piece of quarter inch copper. It's like a hook and you shove it in the skull and put a hose on it and it blasts the brain out in like a second for the pressure. It's really cool. And I'm hoping that he grabs it. Yo, you need to connect me with one of those. That's sweet.
00:07:37
Speaker
I'll send you a picture. I talked to Cody about making them and he's like, dude, it's such a redneck tool, don't make that. It's literally just a quarter inch copper and you just put it onto a hose and it blasts the brains out. It's pretty cool, like a brain removal tool. I should put a video up on Instagram about it and give my buddy the shout out for it. I didn't make it. My buddy made it for me. It's just a cool tool.
00:07:57
Speaker
Um, but yeah, it is cool having him do that. But my point is, though, is like the average dude isn't shooting giant deer. The average dude isn't out there for 14 days at a time, right? Hunting, right? The average dude, honestly, isn't doing, you know, these exotic, crazy hunts. Like he's hunting in his backyard when he can, and he's trying to get it done, right? And that's who I really want to appeal to most, right? And the average dude does look up to the guys I mentioned earlier, for sure. I get that, right? The average dude does see me using stuff, and he likes that, right? Yeah.
00:08:26
Speaker
But what's really going to sell him is like seeing his, his average friend using it and finding control. If I can make the average guy a little bit better, like that's what I want to do. I want to make you successful, right? Like I was out this weekend with my kid and I'm using my tripod and my panda and I'm telling my kid like, dude, I would pay double
Learning and Perseverance
00:08:43
Speaker
what I, what I sell these things for for this thing. Cause it's such an enjoyable experience. I love that the average guy's using my tripod now. And he's like, I know they're fine. People are finding more animals by using my stuff. Cause it's just that good. And that's something that I really get off on. I love doing right. I love it.
00:08:56
Speaker
Dude, 100% and I hunt with some people that are way better hunters than me and a couple of them used tripods and really got into using a tripod for black bear hunting because it's so glass intensive. I was like, do you really need that? And they're like, try it. And I put my binos on their tripod. I was like, oh, this is what real hunters do.
00:09:19
Speaker
Since then, I just bought a little $15 Amazon special tripod and slapped whatever Amazon special tripod head was on there. Just the change that made in my hunting was astronomical. Then to start working with you and to use that LP pan head on a tripod that
00:09:40
Speaker
is lighter than the Amazon Special and 100 times as sturdy. Dude, it's completely changed the way I hunt. So I still get DMs like whenever I post something about Tricer, they're like, I'll get DMs like, how necessary is using a tripod to glass? And I'm like, dude, I know where your thought process is going, but it's something, especially for rifle season, I never leave the truck without this thing. It makes that much of a difference.
00:10:06
Speaker
Yeah, and we are really in like the people using tripods for 20 years, right, especially down here, like Arizona, like the desert or people were doing it for a long time, Nevada, but we really are still in like the beginning stages of this industry and where it's going with the tripods. It's really neat to kind of be innovative things and bring it in.
00:10:25
Speaker
Did you see the new BP panhead? Did you see the new panhead? I've seen clips on your Instagram. Yeah, it's freaking sweet. You've got 15 pounds on it at a 90 degree angle and it's just holding there. What kind of witchcraft are you? I thought you were a Christian, dude. Yeah, 15 pounds and it weighs 11 and a half ounces. I love when I designed something and I'm like, I want it to weigh less than 16 ounces. That's crazy.
00:10:46
Speaker
And it comes in at 11 and a half and I'm just like, and it's, and it's just working incredible. So it's, it's neat, but that's the stuff that's going to make it so much, so much better. I think people are going to find more deer like, like this weekend, like I'm my favorite thing more than hunting. I get it's all hunting.
00:11:01
Speaker
Like more than killing, hands down is glassing. Like I will glass, if you ever go hunting with me, get a chance to hunt with me, I will glass all day long. Like we hunt, live in San Diego, we have like the worst deer population in the world. I glass all day Saturday and find the glasses from deer at like three in the afternoon. Most guys are like back at the truck and left at their camp and I will glass all day because I know that if I sit in that glass long enough, eventually there's going to be a deer standing in those binoculars.
00:11:26
Speaker
Right. And they do that for me. So the tripod and glass, it's just, there's nothing better. Like I can do anything better than glassing, like going to know my kid and just sitting there and glad and just talking about God and talking about girls and life and just talking to my son and just camping with them and, and glassing is like, that is like the quintessential, the best thing I could do. I would above everything, but everything I
Sponsorship and Authenticity
00:11:49
Speaker
do, I love glassing.
00:11:49
Speaker
So it's cool to make it have a company that creates these products that they feel better at that and make the average guy find more animals and kill things. And now we're getting into stabilizing. We're shooting off our tripods and stuff. And it's just like, I want to make the average guy more successful. And that's really me. So enough about me. I love it. Hey, go ahead. So enough about me, man. Tell me about. Oh, I was going to say you, you've made me better. Sorry. We got a delay in the audio here. Sorry about that. You can edit this out.
00:12:14
Speaker
Okay. I was going to say you've made me a better hunter. Okay. A hundred percent. So tell me about you. How did you start into hunting? How did you get into hunting? Have you always lived in, you live in Montana. Have you always lived in Montana your whole life? You grew up a hunting family. So tell me about you. Yeah. So grew up in a small little town in North Idaho, like at the, almost by Canada, you know, last town in Idaho before Canada and big hunting scene there, obviously. And the thing that really got me into hunting was
00:12:43
Speaker
I was born in 1990 and I forget when my dad killed this buck, but I think it was 1994 or 1995. He killed like close to 160 inch four point white tail, like perfectly symmetrical 13 or 14 inch G2s, just an all American perfect big four by four buck. And I've been staring at that buck on the wall.
00:13:08
Speaker
It's
00:13:26
Speaker
I don't want your money. I don't want the house. The only thing I want is that set of antlers on the wall. And so yeah, my dad would go hunting and would talk about, you know, someday I'm going to take you with me and me and I have a twin brother and we just couldn't wait to do that. And it started with him buying us these little youth 20 gauge single shot
Controversy and Criticism
00:13:46
Speaker
shotguns. I think when we were like 10, nine or 10 and started going grass hunting with my dad.
00:13:51
Speaker
We all had those 20 gauges from big five. It was like a rut was a rozzy a rozzy single shot. I think what it was Yeah, did it have the yeah, it could be the brand did it have like the little like you cocked it back like a single action Did you shoot it?
00:14:07
Speaker
Yeah, same gun. I feel like in the 90s, we all had that shotgun. Oh, yeah, dude. Yeah, we went to Black Sheep in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and I remember it was $99 for these shotguns. My dad went to buy it, me and my twin are all excited, and then he hands his driver's license over. His driver's license was expired, so we had to go spend hours in the DMV, and every dad, whenever something like this happens, they're all frustrated or whatever.
00:14:31
Speaker
Yeah, so we get these shotguns and then we're terrified of them, never really handled a gun other than a BB gun, scared of the recoil, all this stuff, and felt some trap with it, and then went grouse hunting with them for the first time.
Innovation in Hunting Gear
00:14:44
Speaker
And I just remember having so much fun with my dad, and it's game over from there.
00:14:50
Speaker
all you want to do is go hunting, all this stuff. So on my 12th birthday, I got a Ruger M77 in .30-06 and that was my first rifle. I still have it actually. And yeah, so then we started deer hunting and it took me five years to kill my first deer. I probably missed 50 deer. I just could not get myself calmed down. I wanted to impress my dad and just disappointment.
00:15:16
Speaker
over and over and over again. Until 17, we go out to this property. We had permission to hunt beneath a 10-acre patch that my parents had bought. We go down there. I climbed up into this tree stand that someone had set there. No harness, no seatbelt, the most dangerous thing ever. I climbed up there and I just remember thinking,
00:15:37
Speaker
I'm going to kill my first deer today. I've been trying since I was 12. It has to happen. And this little four by five basket rack buck came out and I shot him and killed him. And getting that thing out of there, my dad was on the phone with the guy whose land we were hunting. And I'll never forget what he said.
00:15:56
Speaker
My dad is the type that he's not really going to tell you he's proud of you, but he'll try his best to show it. I'll never forget being in the car, my dad calling this guy on the phone and just saying, I'm so proud of my son. I was like, that's it. We're hunting forever. It's game over from there.
00:16:14
Speaker
hunted deer and had friends that hunted elk, but we were just not, we all killed a deer every year, got smokies made and that was kind of it. And then once I started hunting by myself is when this all turned into an obsession. So I got, I feel like I, yeah, I grew up hunting deer with my dad, but that was like, shoot the first doe you see, shoot the first little buck you see. But it was when I started hunting elk by myself and really trying to figure out that learning curve that this all became a massive obsession.
00:16:44
Speaker
Did that start in Idaho or in Montana? I never had a bow in Idaho. I was working for churches and we all know churches don't pay a whole lot of money. I didn't have money to go buy new weapons and stuff. I had the old 30-06. I'd kill my deer every year and that was about it. I always thought about, man, what if I started bow hunting elk? Wouldn't that be cool?
00:17:06
Speaker
Moved to Montana in 2015
Reflecting on Growth and Future Plans
00:17:10
Speaker
and then couldn't even hunt all of 2016 because I wasn't a resident yet. So 2017, I had a buddy who's a really accomplished bow hunter and I was like, what's a good bow? I was looking on Craigslist and stuff and he gave me some great advice, which I still use to this day. Just go to Instagram and DM your favorite hunter. They're all sponsored. They've got a garage full of bows. Ask them if you could buy a bow off of them.
00:17:35
Speaker
And I started doing that and that's how I got my first bow. It was Sean Look-Tell from Heartland Bow Hunter. I love the Heartland Bow Hunter stuff. I think they tell great stories. And DM Tim, I was like, do you have an extra bow I could buy off you? He gave me a great deal at the time. It was like the top of the line bow from the year before. And that's how I got my first bow. So I started bow hunting really in Montana close to a decade ago.
00:17:59
Speaker
I gotta say, I went out a couple seasons toward the end of Idaho with rifle, trying to kill an elk, but really fell in love with bow hunting in like 2017. So in Idaho, I mean, 10 years, like I have a hard time, like I don't make sure I'm a good hunter, but like, I tend to think like if you hunt or not, you're gonna kill something. So you just like stumble, how do you not kill an elk for years, hike into the woods in Idaho? Like, I feel like when I'm going to hunt, I'm like, I'm gonna have an opportunity to kill something. Like, when I say I'm not gonna hunt,
00:18:28
Speaker
I tend to kill something whenever we go hunting. We have an opportunity to kill something, we miss, my kids will miss, whatever. I don't kill giant animals every time I go, but I have a heart like 10 years, dude. That's crazy to me. What were you doing wrong? You're walking out with a rifle during rifle season. Are you just no clue what you're doing? Why are you not seeing elk? Are you missing elk at this time? What's going on?
00:18:49
Speaker
Yeah, so I started getting into elk consistently when I started bow hunting. So this is when I got an onyx membership. I was diving into YouTube trying to shorten the learning curve, learning how to call. In Idaho, I had no clue what I was doing. I was walking in my deer spots hoping to run into an elk, right? But very rarely going to happen like that. In Idaho, I had no idea where to...
00:19:12
Speaker
where to go because me and my family just did not hunt elk. But in Montana, so my first year bow hunting elk, I shot a bull right behind the shoulder over a wallow, never found him, looked for weeks, never found him. And I've had that exact same story five times. So when I say I've never killed an elk, I have had bulls within range or gotten a shot or missed or hit one and have no idea what happened to it five different times.
00:19:39
Speaker
So I'm either the world's unluckiest hunter, but especially now, like the last couple of years, like dude, I, I'm, I've got bulls within range. I had eight bulls within range this year and either no shot opportunity. I missed one. And then I, I hit that one and we never found him and I looked for weeks and just heartbreaking. So.
00:19:58
Speaker
Yeah, I've like had the opportunity. It's just, I don't know if I was cursed or what, and that's why I started talking about like, elk don't exist. This is all dumb. Elk hunting is stupid. Bow hunting sucks. I've just had my heart broken so many times and, and yeah, I've had the opportunities and I'm starting to figure stuff out. Never on any like big bulls. I think the biggest bull I've called in, it's like maybe 320. And then just, yeah, making stupid rookie mistakes, like calling while he's looking at me. You know, stupid.
00:20:46
Speaker
I've had the broadhead break off at the arrow so you get no penetration even though you hit perfect where you wanted to. Last year's bull, or this year in archery, the bull I shot was courted away pretty hard and I just didn't give him enough time. I bumped him from a bed, just like really awful rookie mistake thing. So that bull is probably dead but three miles from where I bumped him out of his bed and I'll never find him, you know, stuff like that.
00:20:50
Speaker
stupid things like that.
00:21:10
Speaker
But even on a rifle, dude, I have pretty bad trigger panic I'm trying to get over. On this elk hunt, I just went on where I killed my bull. Two days before I left for that hunt, I put a four and a half inch group at 500 yards, feeling super confident. And then when the film comes out, you'll see me miss the bull I ended up killing three times before I finally calmed down and made a good shot, for sure.
00:21:34
Speaker
I wonder if there's like, my son, I feel like it's kind of got over it. Like my 17 year old, I tell people all the time, like, my first, your first kid, you want to rush him into stuff, you're like, shoot this 20 gauge, don't be a wuss, shoot this 12 gauge, don't be a wuss, shoot this 243, don't be a wuss. And then like, I gave him like the worst, like, we've had some pretty bad, he's killed pretty much every animal that he's shot at, right? But we had to overcome some pretty major buck fever with him.
00:21:59
Speaker
And he's gotten over now. Now he's just a killer, but like, I mean, his first, his first year, he shot the leg off of it. He was 12 years old. And I mean, he, it was, he shot the leg off it. And then I was trying to, I should have just shot the deer for him. I had a tag too, but it's like, no, don't shoot my deer. Don't shoot my deer. And he, his doe, he shot a doe was his, his first year he actually killed. He, we didn't find that buck that he shot the leg off of his first doe he killed. He missed her twice or three times and then hit her, knocked her down.
00:22:26
Speaker
He had a couple of experiences like that where it's like he killed him, but it was like, man, you know, the first two deer. But now, since then, like the deer he killed last year, one shot dead, the elk he killed in Utah, two shots dead, both of them were kill shots, but he's just dead dead on its feet, right? Shot it again, hammered it. Nice.
00:22:44
Speaker
He shot an antelope, one shot dead, and then he shot this buck he shot last week, one shot dead. And like, he's very methodical though, like he's very stoic. So I don't know what it took to get over it, but now it's like, he's like almost too much, but he took him and he's like, I've never hunted with somebody so stoic and so calm. Like I'm yelling at him to put another round in the deer. He looks at me and he's like, why is it going to fall over? And then the deer falls over, right? Like he's, he's gotten to a point now where he's just like,
00:23:09
Speaker
At first he was kind of rushing maybe and I don't know what was causing the panic and now he's like almost too slow and waiting to get the perfect shot and he's making good shots but he's also missing some opportunities with some pretty good animals. He had an opportunity like a 160-170 buck over in Utah and he didn't pull the trigger because he just couldn't get stable enough, which is good, right? On the other hand, I have a 15-year-old, which is good for him to do. I have a 15-year-old who just missed a geo this weekend and he's like, I wasn't stable. It's like, why'd you pull the trigger, dude? You know, like you don't pull the trigger if you're not stable. Yeah.
00:23:39
Speaker
But it's a real thing, man. Even my 15-year-old, who I consider a really good shot, if he's killed 400 yards, one shot kills, and we're in Utah, he's going to pull the trigger. He killed the animal, but it's like, you hear him, he's like,
00:23:55
Speaker
He kills it and I'm like, man, you were panicking. He's like, no, he's like, he's like, no, I was totally calm. Like there's no way you're totally calm. I can hear you from, you know, with my earplugs and from four foot away, you know, you're, you're hyperventilating on the trigger. You know, it's a, it's a real thing. And I think
00:24:11
Speaker
Maybe, maybe I'm speaking for you. I think when you've had like, there's a guy with some sort of pressure on you that's been relieved now, but like there's a little pressure there, like you've missed animals or you've injured animals. There's something that kind of gets in your head where it's like, don't do that again. I don't want it, like it messes with you, right? Like almost, I don't want to.
00:24:28
Speaker
I don't want a Monday morning quarterback to bowl that you injured this year or didn't find but like you had an opportunity to kill that bowl and you hesitated right unless I missed you hesitated and waited and I was like why why don't you the release and you waited till then you wait till it was a worst shot and is that just because like you were just like I don't want to mess this up
00:24:47
Speaker
Like what do you think that's part of that specifically? So with that one specifically, Mike, the guy filming who, which so cool. His name's Riley. He works for Montana knife company, great friend. And so he was the one behind the phone camera on that bull earlier in September. And so he was, he was like 15 yards to the left of me. So where the bull first stops and it's like, why aren't you shooting? He was behind a tree right there for me.
00:25:13
Speaker
I had to wait for him to clear that tree and that's where a cow called him and stopped him. I did make a good shot. I hit like two inches further back than I wanted to. All I had to do on that bull was go to the truck for five hours. We saw first blood. It was a river. I'm like, oh, he's going to be dead up here.
00:25:33
Speaker
stupid mistake, but you're a hundred percent right. Like 10 years of trying to kill a bull. There was a ton of pressure. Like I have to get this done. I've had so many opportunities and that definitely does get into your head. And it's just stupid pressure to put on yourself. You know, like why, why was I feeling that pressure to kill an elk? It's like, cause I want to look like a bad ass again. I want to prove myself. No, man. Like I didn't need to put that pressure on me at all, but it definitely, definitely got in my head for sure.
00:26:00
Speaker
So with that bull, how long did you wait before you bumped him? Like an hour, which I knew the shot was back and I knew, but I knew in the back of my mind, like that shot was further back than you thought. Like, and it's, it always starts with like, let's go look for the arrow. And then you find blood and you're like, let's find this bull right now. And I knew in the back of my mind, that was a stupid decision and I just could not stop myself. Like I had to find this thing. And when the blood was that good, it's hard not to, you know, but it was a very tough lesson to learn.
00:26:30
Speaker
Yeah. Did you ever see him bump up or you just assume you bumped him? Like was there a... No, we found two beds. He was in. You found the bed, three is laying down and bleeding. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. And always after that first or second bed, like they're going to stop bleeding as a heartbreak.
00:26:45
Speaker
I once shot a javelina and went to grab my arrow. I didn't realize it was right there. It almost killed me and I bumped him and it was, I have let me, it's a stupid animal, but I tracked that thing the next day for so long. And I found where it bedded down and there was blood everywhere. And I think a lion picked him up and took him off.
00:27:03
Speaker
So it was like, this thing was dead right here. You can see where his body was and there was so much blood. I think something picked him up and I was like, oh man, never again. I didn't give him an hour. I mean, an hour to me seems pretty reasonable and I'm glad you're saying that. So is that a normal thing to give him like more than an hour for a bowl with an arrow? So I have some good buddies of mine and stuck in the rut if you've ever watched their videos. I grew up with those guys. We're from the same town.
00:27:25
Speaker
I was talking to him and he's like, we wait an hour no matter what, unless you see it go down. He's like, if we don't find blood in 150 yards, we give them four or five hours, no matter what, even if it was a good shot or whatever. Just playing on the safe side. I've bumped a couple elk now in my elk hunting journey. From here on out, dude, if I see the bull go down, I'm sitting down for two hours.
00:27:51
Speaker
It's a good call. All right, so you've got into it. So what else? You've gotten to this point. So you've chased elk, you haven't gotten elk, you injured the elk this year, and now, next thing I know, now you're like the sponsored hunter, and you went on this hunt. How did this hunt come about that you just went on?
00:28:09
Speaker
Yeah, so this is a 7,000 some acre ranch that a friend of mine grew up on. So I've been trying to get access to this place for the last three years. And so how I kind of pitched it, because I just got a camo sponsor. I love to joke around with people like
00:28:26
Speaker
I might be the only hunter who has never killed an elk to get companies to give me money and product. I don't know how. Just by making people laugh and being bad at what I love, it's very funny and I don't quite understand it all, but that's where we're at.
00:28:47
Speaker
Yeah, Vail. V-E-I-L. They make camo patterns, so they're like a mossy oak. They make camo patterns. They have a couple of their own products and stuff. It's more for the whitetail hunter, like in the South maybe, or Midwest. But they partner with other companies that are making more Western gear.
00:29:06
Speaker
So say there's a new camo, like a peril company, but they don't want to make their own camo pattern or they'd rather have Vail do it. Then they hire Vail to create a one of a kind camo pattern for what this other company is trying to do. So Vail is who my sponsor is through. They do, they got stuff on Tikka rifles, Crocs, all the shields gear, all the Sportsman's warehouse gear. I mean, they've done patterns for a million different companies.
00:29:32
Speaker
So they reached out to me and said, we've been following you since your first video. We love what you're about and love what you're doing. Yeah, we want to pay you to wear our stuff. And so that was a long conversation and a lot of thought into that because I was wearing Cuyu for a long time and put a ton of money into the Cuyu stuff and really good gear. Sitka is really good gear, first light. There's a lot of great camo companies.
00:29:56
Speaker
But people are weird on the internet when you switch products. So I was like, the gear has to be really good for me to take this on. And it's got to make sense for me. And so I got samples of 2.0. T-U-O is the actual apparel company that I'm wearing in a veil camo pattern. And I got the samples. And I'm like, man, this stuff feels really good. And it's performed really well too. So I'm super happy. But yeah, so I'm wearing 2.0 but in a veil pattern. So my sponsorship is through veil camo.
00:30:26
Speaker
Gotcha. On the whole Camo company point and like the different brands, I intentionally try and be Switzerland for that reason, right? And I actually intentionally try and wear solids. I really like Cu-U stuff, but I'm like so like, I don't like to be with like the different, different things I like from different companies, right? So like, I love like the Stone Glacier.
00:30:48
Speaker
I love the merino wool from first light and I love some of the kuyu jackets that I have and I have like a stone glacier hoodie that I really like so I kind of like try me Switzerland because I don't want to like be married to one brand and have like hurt people's feelings.
00:31:03
Speaker
I mean, I tell people all the time, like if you, like you say a thing with like freaking freeze dried few meals, right? I have like four or 500 freeze dried meals I eat. Like I don't try and be like, I'm only using this or like, I'm only using like, like I love mountain ops stuff, but I don't only use mountain ops, you know? Like I don't want to do that. Cause I don't want to be married to one cause as a company, I want to be out there. But yeah, people can be really weird about stuff like that. People can be, the hunting industry is like a very cutthroat industry and I can see how you can get some slack for changing over, right?
00:31:31
Speaker
Which is so funny and people are so stupid like I saw people giving you crap for hunting on a private ranch. It's so silly dude. And it's like like like that guy wouldn't take it. Who cares? Yeah. Like I like nine out of ten dudes. Nine out of ten dudes if you call them. Who's gonna say no to a private land?
00:31:48
Speaker
Yeah, they're not. They're not gonna say no. Yeah. And the thing is like this property, man, it goes from the river bottom all the way up to 7000 foot mountains. It's surrounded by state and BLM. There was six other hunters that we were competing with who also had access to this property.
00:32:03
Speaker
fixed people on 7,000 acres isn't a big piece of property. And I've been trying to hunt here for three years and yeah, they finally let me come on. So then I pitched it. I have a sponsor, like sponsors now, so I pitched it to Bail. It's like, hey, can you pay my friend to come film me trying to kill my first elk?
00:32:21
Speaker
And there's way more elk on the east side of montana than there is where i'm out that's i have no problem saying i'm from calispell because no one travels across the state to come hunt here but it's very difficult elk hunting and so i wanted a place where there's actually elk and where i'm gonna have a good chance at killing one and.
00:32:40
Speaker
I don't know what the big deal is about that. I had a guy unfollow me recently because I stopped wearing Cuyu. I'm like, I love Cuyu. I still run their pack. I have some of their gloves still. I still have a whole kit of Cuyu stuff that my friends are going to wear now or maybe I'll sell it. I don't know. It's nothing personal, but it's like if a company whose product I like wants to pay me to hunt in it with not a lot of real demands on me as far as delivering content and stuff, they just believe in what I'm doing.
00:33:10
Speaker
Why in the world would no one would say no to that? And if you would, then why are you loyal to a company that doesn't even know who you are? People get really upset about what camp they're in, camel eyes, and my favorite thing to say if they get mad at me for...
00:33:26
Speaker
You know I was wearing a bass pro hat in a video and that my son got me for my birthday and he was giving me there's like making jokes and there's just being like rude. He was being really rude about this hat and I said what's worse wearing a hat my son got me for my birthday or caring about what another man puts on his body.
00:33:43
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, the internet's full of trolls, right? Who cares, dude? 100%. But anyway, so I finally got permission after three years of asking my friend, can I hunt your family ranch? And there's a wait list for it, and she couldn't get me on, or cook it on, but I had to get bumped. And it just all worked out to where I got permission this year. And man, absolutely stunning piece of property.
00:34:06
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. So we, we leave at one in the morning from Kalispell. We show up at the ranch around seven 38 o'clock. And then we just go for a hike to start glassing. And I would say once we got to the top, we're glass around and it's just one of those areas like there's elk in there's elk here for sure. Like you just know it. And it wasn't long after that we glassed up this bachelor group of four bulls about a mile and a half away.
00:34:31
Speaker
and you know it's just big rolling open cubbies and hills and we're trying to like plan a route to stock them like put a stock on them and get in range and doesn't really look possible but i'm like this is my hunt boys we're gonna try you know is it is this guided or no no guide
00:34:48
Speaker
No, not that guy. I took a friend of mine who also had tags and then Riley, my video guy. I was like, this is my hunt. We got to try. There's bulls right there. We put on this mile and some change stock, 400 yards of belly crawling at the end of it.
00:35:05
Speaker
get into range and there's this bull, this really nice five point bull bedded. He probably scored like 280 as a five point, like really awesome bull, especially for a first bull, 560 yards. And we have a 10 mile an hour wind going left to right. And I didn't take that into account because I'm stupid.
00:35:22
Speaker
And I was set up on two packs, prone on the bipod. I feel like I was shooting off of a lead sled and squeezed one off and missed it, right. I think I might actually hit it through the quad muscle. And it stood up, I racked one again, sent it. And in the video, I missed him by like three inches on that second shot. And he goes into the timber and we watched him for like an hour and not even limping, like 100% fine.
00:35:46
Speaker
And so I'm feeling like the biggest loser on earth. Like here I have this access to this ranch and I still freaking suck. And I had this prime opportunity to kill this great bull on camera. And now my failures are on camera. Like this sucks.
00:36:02
Speaker
And it was a long, long hike out of there. I actually got within 50 yards of him. I got back up because we didn't think they left the timber. And when I saw him, he saw me and he took off running again and I gave it a quick running shot, missed him again. So now I'm feeling like
00:36:38
Speaker
Before you go into that, can you describe, cause like I've had this feeling, right? The feeling, the feeling where you miss, especially after, like I guess day one is not so bad, but like, especially after like four or five days, it's like when you miss, when you want to just quit and go home. And also the feeling of like the feeling of injuring animal, I think it's worse for me. That's what really makes me sick. If I injure something, I can't find it. That's, it's going to happen. If you do it long enough, you're going to eventually hit something and not find it. Or your kids, I've had it with my kids, right? Like that one where you shove a leg off that deer in San Diego.
00:36:46
Speaker
I don't think I ever will kill an elk.
00:37:08
Speaker
So I felt horrific for it. My buddy found the deer. It was like, buddy's deer. We actually drove an hour to get there. If I could choose to leg off this, my buddy's deer. I felt just horrible, right? It's just you feel there's a sick feeling. Can you describe that? Like, what's it like not being able to sleep? Can you sleep at night that night? Or what does that feel like?
00:37:25
Speaker
No, I couldn't sleep. It was better on this one because we watched it for an hour. It wasn't even limping. I literally grazed his hindquarter. That's easier to stomach, but especially after losing that bull this year in September, I was honestly feeling like I'm going to stop hunting out. My heart can't take it anymore.
00:37:46
Speaker
I put it all this time in preparation and then to wound an animal. Even if he's fine, it still sucks. You drew a little bit of blood on an elk. You didn't make his life easier. I was like, maybe we just hunt deer on this trip and we don't keep going after elk. No, I definitely thought about quitting several times. I don't know. You've felt it before. I'm sure you've lost an animal. Every hunter has. If you don't feel sick about it, I think something's wrong with you.
00:38:16
Speaker
Yeah, so I felt very low. My friends did a good job of trying to pick my spirits up. And so the next day it was like, we've got deer tags, there's tons of deer on this property. Let's just hunt deer all day. And we were exhausted from sleeping like two hours in the truck on the way to this hunt and then putting in close to 10 miles that first day.
00:38:36
Speaker
Yeah, saw a ton of good bucks, passed a ton of good bucks, ended up shooting a really decent whitetail the next night. The day after I missed that bull, shot a really nice whitetail for my standards anyways. I'm the king of 120-inch deer. I can never say no to a 120-inch deer.
00:38:56
Speaker
really cool four by four. Saw like 30 plus bucks that day, which is just amazing. So then boom, my confidence is back, my spirits are lifted, and then so the next day, Thursday now, so I killed that buck Wednesday. Thursday was like, all right, we're back after elk and I'm not leaving the mountain without an elk down.
00:39:13
Speaker
So we hike all the way to the top again. Once we get up to this big saddle, we look like two drainages. It's like a mile and a half away. Boom, there's a herd of elk. A bull that we think is legal in it, but it's very marginal. So it's like, okay, they're bedded there. Let's leave them and go look for more elk. So we go to the top again, glassing.
00:39:32
Speaker
It's snowing sideways. It's a blizzard. The temperature has dropped like 40 degrees, mule deer everywhere. Then we start picking our way through the saddle. We get on some more elk tracks. It's like, all right, let's follow these for a little bit. We follow that, get up on a ridge and realize like, well, we're only 900 yards from that group of elk we saw this morning. They're still there. I think that bull in it might be legal.
00:39:54
Speaker
Me and my cameraman went to make a push on them and get in range, and my other buddy took off after these other elk. So we ended up getting to 414 yards. That bed is just bedded there. What is a legal bowl, Montana? I'm curious. Yeah. So no spikes. It has to be branch antlered and have brow tines that are four inches. Okay.
00:40:16
Speaker
So we get a closer look at him at 400 yards. I'm like, bro, that's a five by five. That's illegal all day. You know, just this little rag horn bull get set up on him, waited like 30 minutes for him to stand up and he was severely corded away. And so I put it back and hit him on that first shot and I asked it.
00:40:33
Speaker
actually ended up getting the lung on the other side on that first shot. But we couldn't tell, you know, with like all the commotion, you can't really tell where you're hitting. And I'm like, I'm pretty sure I hit him on that first one. And then I shot again, pretty sure I missed shot again, pretty sure I missed. And then he bedded down behind a tree that we couldn't shoot through. Obviously, I'm like, he's acting hurt. But like, what the heck is going on? Is my gun off?
00:40:56
Speaker
Am I off, which is the more like logical conclusion is like I suck and can't make a good shot. And so my scope only goes in half MOA clicks. So it'll go like four, 4.5, five, right? It's not quarter inch MOA clicks. And so when I have a range finder that tells me the range and then what MOA to dial after I input it all my ballistics and stuff.
00:41:19
Speaker
So the MOA to dial was like 4.2 and I had it on 4.5. So I was holding a little bit low to try to make up that difference. And so looking in the video after the fact, I was shooting right under him every time and didn't realize it. So he stands back up after another 30 minutes of betting down. I shot again out of ammo at this point.
00:41:39
Speaker
reload and that's where he, if you saw the video, he comes out from behind that tree and he's just standing there. I put two more shells in. I thought I was hitting high, I was hitting low. I dialed just down to four and just held it right on him and dumped him. So there was a lot of the sense of relief I felt like watching that elk just go down. I never felt anything like that at
00:42:00
Speaker
I've shot some really good deer. I've killed some trophy book bears. I have never felt that sense of relief, accomplishment, whatever you want to call it. I've never felt that hunting in my entire life. I was tearing up. I was crying. My cameraman who was filming me shoot that bull in September and that heartbreak with him to get that redemption with him. Dude, it was
00:42:23
Speaker
I don't know. My feet still haven't touched the ground. I've been telling people it's a little dink five by five, but it might as well have been a 400-inch bull to me. That's how I felt. Just unbelievable to finally get it done and to be known as the guy that can't kill an elk, and that's the running joke on my Instagram page, and it's given me a career or a start of a career, which is hilarious.
00:42:48
Speaker
People ask me all the time, what's going to happen when you finally kill an elk? You're going to kill your brand, I'm going to unfollow you, all these jokes. I've told every single one, I don't care. I want to kill an elk and if I kill my brand in the process, so be it. Since I killed that elk, I've gotten almost a thousand new followers, so I don't think my brand is dying. I've told people too, I was like, wait till you see the film with me missing five times. I'm not a good hunter now just because I got an elk on the ground.
00:43:18
Speaker
But yeah, man, just amazing just to show myself like it can be done. And who cares if it was on private land or not, dude, like that was a five mile pack out down 1000 feet of elevation up without like I worked for it. So I don't care what people say about that. But yeah, dude, just speechless about the whole thing. It was awesome.
00:43:37
Speaker
That's awesome. So what is your plan for that bull? Are you going to shoulder knot that thing? You do your amount. What are you going to do? Where's it going? Over your bed? Just a euro. And all my trophies have been in the garage. I since moved them to the office on my day job so I can actually look at them every day. But my wife said, as motivate, my wife's the best human being on planet Earth. And she said, for motivation.
00:44:00
Speaker
You kill a bull, you hang it in the house. So it's going, I got a piano over there, over there. That bull's going right here in the house, baby. Nice. That's awesome. Just dropped it off to the taxidermist yesterday. Have you got to eat it yet? Not yet. I butchered it two nights ago, and I'm just waiting for the perfect date night with Caitlin, my wife, to bust out the tenderloins, if you know what I mean.
00:44:26
Speaker
You can cut that if you need to. When you walked in the house, was she like, wow, that guy is sexier now? Because for the longest time, you couldn't provide for her. Now you're able to provide the meat and feed the family. The children aren't starving anymore. They're not going to be malnourished this season. Oh, man. I got home from that elk hunt. She was all over me. I'm like, let's put the kids to bed first. You're freaking them out.
00:44:55
Speaker
No, nothing quite like that, but my wife has been so supportive. I hunted 21 days of 30 days this September and man, there was days I didn't want to go and she was kicking me out the door like, go do this. She does not care about hunting. It's not her passion, but she knows what it means to me and I asked her one day,
00:45:17
Speaker
A lot of my friends, their wives don't let them hunt, and I hate even saying it in those terms, don't let them. Ugh, terrible. Why do you have such an easy time letting me go? She's like, it's not easy to let you go whenever you want, but I like who you are when you come home. That's my wife saying, she knows what this does for my soul and my spirit keeps me humble and keeps me joyful.
00:45:41
Speaker
You know, and yeah, she's just freaking awesome. So I FaceTimed her when I killed that bull and she's in the middle of a meeting. She takes the call. She's fist pumping with me. So pumped. Yeah, it was pretty cool, man. Awesome. Yeah. My wife is kind of giving up. I mean, both my boys. And then now I have a hunting company, so I kind of have to hunt, right? So she gets that right.
00:46:02
Speaker
Smart. I mean, I have to field test, I have to prototype, I have to go out and do it. But yeah, she knows it's what's important to me, right? And I know I have to make up for it big time and she's pretty great. It's a give and take, right? It's a give and take. It's like she knows at the end of September, I'm paying hundreds of dollars for her to go to get the best massage she's ever had.
00:46:23
Speaker
Or there's been times when she's like, yo, the kids, I'm going to throw them in the garbage if you don't come home. So I will leave the mountain and gladly go home to help. You know, it's a give and take or whatever. But yeah, it's got to be nice to once the kids go with you all the time. So at least she has like some quiet time to herself, you know.
00:46:40
Speaker
Yeah, and you kind of play it, right? Like I kind of play it like, well, the kids really want me to take them. You got, I got to mentor them and I have them in the car. Yeah. I got in the car for eight hours and then I got him in a tent with me and then I got him in the morning. Right. Yeah. But there's also a balance or two. Like I've got my four little door and I'm trying to break in right now and disrupt this whole thing.
00:47:00
Speaker
I'm also neglecting all of them too, right? Like I got a daughter who doesn't hunt, right? So I'm trying to balance that too. So like this week we like did a bunch of baking together. Like we made a bunch of chocolate stuff and we watched a baking show. I'm trying to balance that out, right? And then I got the 10 year old too. I bring the 10 year old out this weekend with me.
00:47:19
Speaker
Cause I really want to kill deer locally this year and I'm just like, I'm breaking him down. I know like bringing your kids really most of the time, like now my kids are old, like my 15th and 17th were capable of their finding animals. Like they're actually, I could probably drop them off now and be like, go hunting, right?
00:47:34
Speaker
But bringing a 10-year-old with you is a burden. It is not easy. It's a burden. But it's important, and I bring him out, and it's hard for her to say no to that. I'm going to bring my son out and teach him how to be a man. I'm going to show him how to endure sucky things, to get through hard things, to find animals. I'm going to get his hands bloody. He's probably going to get you cut up this weekend. It's going to make him give him some grit.
00:47:59
Speaker
She supports that and she loves that, right? My wife's a saint, like you said. I mean, I just have a great wife and she lets me do it too. And it'll get to a point, like she'll tell me sometimes like, you can't go. And I'm like, okay, all right. It makes it easier. Like when they say like, I need you. It's like, you've let me get away with so much stuff. Like I am more than happy to stay home, you know? But yeah, it's...
00:48:23
Speaker
But I know what you're saying about bringing the 10-year-old. I go shed hunting and grouse hunting with my boys. They're seven and three. My three-year-old is more prone to stay out longer than my seven-year-old, so I got to keep him entertained. I got to let him play with sticks. There's a whole balance of like, I want to teach you something, but also if I don't make this fun, you're going to hate this and you're not going to do it when you get older. You talked about this on your podcast with Cody, Cody Rich.
00:48:51
Speaker
That was a great if anyone's listening to this who's a parent like trying to get their kids into the outdoors Listen to Drew's podcast with Cody rich because there was a lot of helpful stuff in there Yeah, thank you. Appreciate that. So now you are by all means you're you're a successful elk hunter on the face of the earth
00:49:11
Speaker
You are now an accomplished elk hunter. You've killed bulls. You can't say anymore. What's next? Are you going off a doll sheep? Are you going to Alaska? What's the next thing that you're going to chase? Yeah, I don't know. I just this year started applying for tags in other states, and I hate that. I'm 33 now, and I feel like I'm so far behind the curve of building points for stuff, but
00:49:35
Speaker
I just kind of have this revelation in the last couple of years. I always waited to like, oh, wait to have more money because why would I apply for an out of state tag if I can't afford to go there? But that was backwards thinking because like anything you care about in life, you find a way to financially support it, right? That's what's said at my church all the time. You give toward what you care about. If I drew a dull sheep tag tomorrow, you bet your tail I'm figuring out a way to pay for it.
00:50:00
Speaker
So I just now started applying for tags in other states and I'm going to keep doing that. But the big thing for me is like for a long time of trying to be the badass hunter, hunting wasn't that fun anymore. And so my big thing is like this is that we do this at the end of the day because it's really, really fun.
00:50:18
Speaker
All I want to do is keep making people laugh, keep making fun of myself, keep poking fun at the industry a little bit, and that's it. You know, if I only hunt over-the-counter Montana tags my whole life, I'm going to be really satisfied as long as it's still, like, fun for me. That's my whole thing, is just keep hunting fun.
00:50:35
Speaker
That's awesome, dude. I am stoked to have you on. I'm stoked to put this out there for everyone to hear about your story, hear your journey. It's been inspiring to see you continue to go on. Most guys would have quit, so good job. Maybe I'm bad and stupid. Bad and stupid. That's a good way to put it. But you got it done, dude. I'm so proud of you. I'm so stoked for you. Thanks, man. You want to give a plug to, like, you know, I guess you're working with Seek Outside. You're working with Vail Camo. Who else are you working with? Yeah, working.
00:51:03
Speaker
The main sponsors are Tricer and Vail. Yeah, I'm working with Tricer, the greatest glassing platform ever made. Glass better with Tricer. And I'm working with Vail Camo. And there's some other stuff in the works that I can't talk about yet, but I'm very excited about it. That's awesome, man. That's really cool that you're going to be sponsored by Bass Pro Shops.
00:51:23
Speaker
I should just to make the haters mad, man. Gunworks is going to send you a rifle and be like, dude, I saw that video. You got to use a rifle. Yeah. You suck, dude. Here, let us help you. I don't think a Gunworks rifle could help me shoot any better. That's stuff I've got to do, for sure. All right, dude, and then go find you on Instagram. Dylan Deets, right? Is just Dylan Deets on Instagram?
00:51:44
Speaker
Dylan Dietz on Instagram, D-I-L-L-O-N-D-E-I-T-Z. And I'm gonna be starting my YouTube channel this year as well. So follow me on YouTube. And thanks for having me on, Drew. I think the world of you, man, and this is gonna be the best year for Tricer yet, dude. And I'm gonna help you sell products as much as I can. That's awesome. Thanks, bro. My pleasure.
00:52:07
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Tricer Podcast. Do us a favor, or like and subscribe on whatever platform you're listening on. Give us a follow on Instagram and Facebook at tricerusa. And go check out all of our innovative gear at www.tricerusa.com. Until next time, shoot straight, have fun, and always put God first.