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Battling the Elements: An Epic Alaska Blacktail Hunt – Drew Miles and Brad Hunt
253 Plays5 days ago
In this episode of the Tricer Podcast, Drew and Brad Hunt dive into their epic Alaskan blacktail deer hunt, a true test of grit and determination. Battling relentless rain, low visibility, and tough meat care conditions, the group still managed to notch a successful trip, including a last-day buck to beat the timer. Along the way, they share stories of camaraderie, lessons learned, and the gear they’ll be upgrading for the next adventure, like a big canvas tent and extra rain protection. Affordable, challenging, and unforgettable, this hunt proved why Alaska blacktail should be on every hunter’s list.
BRAD HUNT - GUEST HOST
https://www.instagram.com/brad_whunt/
TRICER USA
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Transcript
Introduction to Tricer Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to the Tricer podcast, where we talk all things hunting, gear, and the great outdoors. Before we begin, let's start things out right and put God first. Lord Jesus, I thank you for Tricer, and I ask that you can use this podcast as a way to bring joy to all of our listeners.
00:00:17
Speaker
We lay Tricer and this podcast at your feet. Amen. Hello, one, two. Check the check, we're hot. We're recording. We're moving.
Live from Elk Camp, September 2025
00:00:28
Speaker
We are live from elk camp, September 2025. wouldn't say live.
00:00:35
Speaker
We're not live. We're elk camp 2025.
Hunting Challenges and Preferences
00:00:39
Speaker
My kid has a statewide Utah bull tag with a rifle in all the general units um during the rut. It goes from the 13th to 23rd.
00:00:52
Speaker
Rut really isn't going yet. It's starting to get a little better. we got How close do we get last night to getting that bull killed? We were under 100, like we needed one or two minutes and just luck, you need a little bit of luck and the wind just, when the bull screamed and he was like, we had one little ridge that came to a finger in front of us and he was just barely on the other side like.
00:01:13
Speaker
ah You could feel the scream. Yeah, he was like, all he had to do was work around that corner and he was dead. We had good shooting lanes, everything in this thick timber and one to two minutes, like his last bugle was right there.
00:01:25
Speaker
and the wind just yeah the other way. Wind shifted on us and he just disappeared. ye So we'll get it done. We got like, I think seven more days to get it done. We are not hunting right now because it's my kid's tag and he asked to homeschool. He does a zoom class. He does like this, I don't know what he's doing right now.
00:01:45
Speaker
some government class go or something yeah I don't know she's doing that no the economics but yeah I can all make some like that I don't know and so he's doing that class so we took the morning off slept in it's kind of nice day four here ticket a break or get out this afternoon honestly it's been better in the afternoon anyways Yeah, i don't I don't know. I've never been a morning hunt guy. Like, I'll get up and get out where I want to be, but morning hunts are always hard because you're up against the wind.
00:02:10
Speaker
um You're up against the clock, so you only got one to two hours maybe, and then the wind switches. and so I don't know, afternoon and evening hunts are, I think, better, you better more success.
Introducing Brad Hunt and Past Adventures
00:02:22
Speaker
So I guess I should introduce who I'm sitting with today. I'm sitting with Brad Hunt. He's become, like, my number one hunting partner now. We've been, so Brad lives in Idaho. i live in San Diego. We've been to Hawaii together.
00:02:33
Speaker
We've been to Montana together. We've been to Alaska. Now Utah. got in Idaho a couple times. Utah. I mean, it's just... We've hung out a lot in the last year and definitely someone who I can hunt with a lot. So Brad's out here filming for us on this hunt, calling, hunting with us. And just honestly, it's just fun to hang out with someone who consider a good friend and be out here with
Epic Alaska Adventure Recap
00:02:52
Speaker
them.
00:02:52
Speaker
So we figured since we had time this morning, we'd jump on and we'd do an Alaska recap podcast from our Alaska hunt went on last month. Yeah, that was fun.
00:03:04
Speaker
That was cool. It was freaking awesome. It everything you'd ask for in a hunt. Yeah. It was a grind just because not necessarily how hard the hunt was, but had four full days of one and a half plus inches of rain every day.
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah. Like it was nonstop. And when i say no joke, nonstop rain, like it did not stop for four days. So I've never experienced something like that before, but let's, let's kind of get into what, how that hunt attack came about, what happened, who was there what kind of do, let's kind of recap on the hunt. Cause I know a lot people want to go to Alaska.
Preparation and Gear for Alaska
00:03:34
Speaker
Dude, honestly, you can go Alaska for pretty cheap and do this hunt. I mean, you can probably do it for less than three grand and go do sick to black tails. Yeah. um So I don't want to spot burn, but dude, like if you want to go to Alaska, you can get this hunt done and go have an epic adventure. For sure.
00:03:47
Speaker
It costs a lot more in gear. You need the gear. We'll talk about our gear list as well in this podcast. So anyways, I was down in Mexico with my ben ah buddy Ben Denimani. Shed crazy. You guys know Ben. Another one the guys I like to hunt with a lot. um And ah Ben was talking about, i was on this 30-06 kick last year. I used 30-06 for everything.
00:04:06
Speaker
And Ben was like, dude, I want to do lever action deer slam in 2025. And I was like, that's right my alley. Because like I like the whole like kind of going backwards a little bit from these like high end, six seven PRCs and stuff like that. you know like I was like, this is kind of cool.
00:04:23
Speaker
Open set lever action for deer. And I was like, thinking about it and I got home and I was like, dude, let's go get sick of blacktails. Let's go to Alaska, let's do it. And i started doing some research, man, and within like a week, I was able to book this hunt, get this hunt done and booked.
00:04:40
Speaker
And really cheap, man. like So we had to fly up. your Your most expensive cost is for sure your flights because yeah yeah you have the flight from your location to destination, but then you also have the charter flight.
00:04:52
Speaker
in and out of location where you're gonna hunt from. I think you could probably do some DIY drive to a couple places, but don't think it'd be as expensive. you had boat, you could do some cool Yeah, for sure. you can do some really cool stuff up there. So you have a lot of options. We obviously chose the, you chose the fly-in option.
00:05:09
Speaker
So that's probably by far the most expensive part of the trip. It was like 1800 bucks per flight and we had to do it. We ended up having to three flights where we got to meet out. But so anyways, I'd book it and I was like, it was just me and Ben. was like, let's do me and you, dude. I'll film you. We'll get this, you know, get it done. And then I was thinking about it and I was like, man, like,
00:05:28
Speaker
let's bring Brad along, get Brad to have Brad film a little bit. And then since we brought Brad, we had an extra seat. So then we brought Eric. So then Eric Chester from Hushing came along and it just turned into like a super cool group of dudes going to Alaska, hanging out and just having like ah miserably epic adventure is what I would say. And like like, you couldn't have done it with four better guys. And like, it was miserable and was, it was wet. So,
00:05:59
Speaker
We get up there, you know, should we go over what we decided to bring for gear? How do we want how do we to go into this,
Alaska Trip Challenges and Solutions
00:06:04
Speaker
like what we did? like Yeah, I mean, I think a gear prep is a good thing. And then I would say some like some tips or whatever would be obviously different fires, like your fire blocks.
00:06:16
Speaker
I definitely think, I think we failed on the shelter. You probably don't think we failed. I mean, yes, like, only thing I would do different is I would have brought a bigger shelter that is just more of a hangout spot, like a big canvas tent where you could still have a stove in there whatever and still have a hangout spot.
00:06:33
Speaker
As far as sleeping-wise, like, the only thing I would have changed is i I'd have brought some different fire blocks. Yeah. Because even, like, that first day, like, if we'd have had that, we'd have kept gear way more dry, um having the stove and because that's the only way to dry gear out is with the but the stove.
00:06:48
Speaker
So let's break it down. So... We go up there, we decided to go floorless tents. And I think that was a mistake. I think I should run my Hilleberg and a floor had floor tent to hang out in. Cause it literally was four inches of water in our floor this tent. And that's why i recommended bring a cot because of that reason. So, so anyway, we set up camp, we put a bear fence up, like a 30 by 30 bear fence.
00:07:11
Speaker
Eric brought like a little mini, like, i don't know what it was. like are you Like a little Nemo. Nemo or so or big Agnes and like a Nemo. And so he was dry. So that was cool. So he was dry in that thing, but it was small. But he was drying out his stuff when we did have the fire in our tent.
00:07:25
Speaker
Brad, or Brad, ah Ben brought, he didn't bring a cot, but Ben brought a, ah He brought the Argali. Argali, like a four-man it looked like. yeah But he had like the half nest, which is sweet.
00:07:38
Speaker
So then he was dry in there, right? I had a full nest. We just didn't put it up because we had the stove. Like had the nest with me. We could have it on there. that they did Because that nest, it was like a prototype nest. So, because okay, we were in the Peaks Dyneema, which is a sick tent. Yep.
00:07:52
Speaker
Like of all the teepers I've ever been in, best teeper I've ever been in, hands down, was that Peaks Dyneema because it just never bent on Yeah, and Dyneema is really nice when really wet or where you have really high fluctuations of temperatures where Sil Nylon or or some of the other tents, and obviously Peaks makes the Sil Nylon as well.
00:08:09
Speaker
um But you're always fighting the center pole. So when it's hot, it shrinks, you'll come in and you'll have a center pole that's really bent. The Dyneema is a set it, forget it. Once you put it stakes in it, set the height, the tension, it doesn't move. Doesn't leak, doesn't move. you Yeah, I got to get one of those peaks Dyneemas from those guys. but like And it also has trackers up top that kind of spread it out.
00:08:28
Speaker
The only reason say I say it favorite teepee is like it just never, like, being as much rain, we'll get how much rain we got. It is never sacked. Like, you didn't get the sagging. Like, where you get that in, you're constantly doing, unlike some my other silnylon tests, I'm constantly having to pull the tension cords, right? Whatever you call Tension cords, adjusting your center pull, taller, shorter, all the time. The whole nine. And you do the same thing with the silnylon of the Peaks. You have to do that. It's just the fabric, the material, where Dyneema doesn't stretch, doesn't move.
00:08:56
Speaker
Sit it, forget it. Well, it's buy once, cry once. I think it's like a $1,000 teepee, right? $1,300. $1,300. That's expensive. That stuff is... That Cuban fiber whatma is so expensive, man. It's just it's just yeah bottom line. Just trying to go try and buy a yard of it and it's you're going to be like, oh, that's why the TPs are so much. ye So we got that. I set up my... ah
00:09:16
Speaker
put it in my Kephar Super Tarp as well with a tarp inside to keep all my gear in. yeah You had a kill bag, which was money. I love that kill bag. We all we brought four kill bags. Brad's the only one that brought his into the campsite. Yep. His 60, 60 inch. And he kept all his gear dry in it. And this is important because nothing was dry on this hunt. We'll get into that in minute.
00:09:37
Speaker
No clothes, like everything, just you're soaking wet and just gets so saturated. like Even if it's not raining, it's so wet that your pants are getting soaked through your rain gear because there's just so much water everywhere.
00:09:48
Speaker
Yeah, and thank goodness Brad did tell me to get a cot. Because if I didn't have a cot, would have probably been sleeping with Ben in his tent. Because we were in, like by time it was over, I think we had probably, the cots forged off the ground, we probably had three inches of water in the
Fire and Shelter Solutions in Alaska
00:10:02
Speaker
tent with us. It's like not water, it's like almost like sawdust, like all the marsh was in there. It was just wet. So I did pick up one of those Nemo cots, expensive, 200 bucks.
00:10:10
Speaker
But my goodness, best $200 I spent this year. Because it was You the Helinox. Oh, the Helodox, not Neal. I'm sorry, the Helodox. That thing, it saved my butt. Like, it would have been, i would have been laying in inches of water if I had that. So, or and I really have been mad about the floor this time.
00:10:27
Speaker
I really would have been mad. Yeah. I mean, certain areas like other areas I've been in Alaska, um you still get the wet like that, but you can at least find ah dry sandbar or something to throw a tent on. We literally had our shelters in the best place, like and everywhere, even up on the little hill, like it was just a marshy wet.
00:10:47
Speaker
ground like even when we got there before the rain had started i mean there was no place to set up that's actually dry do the problem and like we were like oh we part there was one sandbar like we probably should have stood up here a bit better yeah peninsula by it was a peninsula was like it looks so good and dude by the third day they came up like two feet it was underwater in my experience like i will never set up in Alaska anyway, um those on a peninsula or whatever that's a sandbar or rock bar because of that reason. Like we've seen those lakes just come up so much, especially when it rains. They just fill up and then... It's wild because it's like it's almost like a tiered system. So imagine like lakes up high, high, they and they kind of all go the ocean. So they fill up and they drain within like a day. but like they So like you just see waterfalls up because all the lakes will just fill to max capacity, yep then overflow down and overflow down then out into the ocean. Yep.
00:11:39
Speaker
um One thing that was money, so we we ended up flying with this guy to Sitka, and his dad, or his grandpa, not his dad, his grandpa, I kept calling him his dad, right? He was like, hey, so know it's my grandpa.
00:11:50
Speaker
His grandpa was like, you gotta get blue tarps. And that saved our butts. We ended up going to buy four, like 12 by 12 or 10 by 10 blue tarps. And that made it a lot nicer for us because we were able to build, we called China man hut. Yeah. And, and where we like, I've been, you know, like some experience up there where I messed up is we should have flown in. Like i said, a big, you do like a big canvas tent or something.
00:12:14
Speaker
And that way you put the tarp over top of it and then you have a really nice dry shelter to go in and out of. We didn't have that. So we had the tarp set up our China man hut, you know? ah ah Yeah, well, the i the tarp was nice. I mean, no matter what, I'm definitely going to buy four tarps every time I go next year. Yeah. Because we we mess up on fit on on meat as well.
00:12:30
Speaker
We'll talk about that well. for sure. We'll get to that point later on in the podcast and where we messed up why my meat got sour. um But a blue tarp is something I'm always going to bring. Now, the shelter, let me tell you, because I'm going get next year, and let me tell you what I'm going to bring.
00:12:45
Speaker
Like, this is i' I'm convinced of it. I will bring next year eight-man teepee I'll bring the six man peaks get one of those. Or I'll get like an eight man from Argolly. call Bragging and an eight man Argolly. Just a hangout shelter. Seek outside. I'll call one. I'll i'll buy a tar TV from a big one. A big hangout one with the stove. Because the problem was it rained so much that even under Chinaman tarp, which is kind of like this easy up, rain just came in. It was blowing sideways. I've never seen, like we didn't see the sun for...
00:13:19
Speaker
say Four and a half days. and half days. It is just rained. So I'll bring a big teepee, and then I will bring my Hilleberg tent, which I was going to bring on this hunt. It has a big, it has jeet. I love Hilleberg, and i I bought this for Alaska, and I let Brad talk me out of it. and I've stayed in them a lot. I used to have an MSR.
00:13:37
Speaker
Same thing. I hate them. you You're stuck laying down in there. you get The Hilleberg I have, the three person, you can sit up in it. You can kind of sit up. We're not really, like we weren't standing up in our tent anyways. The thing is is like to dry out gear, you have to be sitting in that teepee, feeding it with fire to dry gear out. Yeah, yeah. And so like that's where the cop for me comes in. Like, I don't know, i just like.
00:13:58
Speaker
So Brad will sleep in the eight-man teepee. I'll sleep in my regular dynamo. He'll be doing the fire, and I'll be dry. And I'm just going to say, hey, guys, if you want to dry your gear out, you have to be in here. So my gear will be dry. Yeah. My issue was with the floorless was, and I've done a lot of floorless. I don't mind. I slept floorless probably 30 days this year just in my, because love my super, my fire super truck. Everyone knows I talk about a lot the podcast.
00:14:25
Speaker
But it just, the water was in there. And so like if anything, like if your sleeping bag went off the edge of the teepee, it would soak up water. Like everything, like anything on the ground was wet. It's just so wet.
00:14:36
Speaker
It was so wet. So I will always bring a floor tent to Alaska from now on to sleep in. Just because it would be nice. And then I'll have a big shelter
Food and Cooking Strategies in the Wild
00:14:46
Speaker
to hang out in.
00:14:47
Speaker
Because just like you need a hangout spot if it's going to rain that much. and like it's The funny thing is we'll go back next year cause because we already we already booked the same hunt. And it'll probably be sunny for the whole week. yeah We got there and it had been sunny for like 10 days straight. And we got what they said was the worst summer storm of the year Yeah, in, I don't know, a lot of years. Like 10 or 15 years was the highest amount of precipitation they've gotten. But yeah I've been...
00:15:09
Speaker
That was my eighth trip to Alaska. I've never been to the same place twice. And that by far was the most wet hunt we've ever been on. To the point where the pilot said, hey man, are you sure you want to go?
00:15:21
Speaker
I'm like, yes. He's like, okay, well, I can't come back until Tuesday. Yeah. Like, I cannot fly in this until Tuesday. Are you sure you want to go? yeah like, we're good. We're good. We're good. We'll make it. We got food. We got, obviously, tons of water. And We had the stove and I don't know if you want to get into some of that gear stuff. Let's get into the stove. only thing I would do is different up there because that that wood is so hard. It's like a hard cedar or something. And wet.
00:15:46
Speaker
It's so wet and it's so hard that it takes so long for it to get burning. So, I mean, I would throw in like the only way to get it going is i would have to throw in two or three of my fire starters at one time just to get it to burn hot enough to actually- With the air pump going. Yeah, with my little FlexTail air pump kind of like blowing that flame really hot.
00:16:07
Speaker
um The one thing I would bring different, you can buy those little, they're like five or 10 bucks a piece. No, dude, they have, so I bought, after our trip, I went and figured it out. You can buy a box of them. The fire starters, they're like, basically like the fire logs you buy. They're compacted logs. And you get like wax compact logs, and for like 10 bucks, you get like,
00:16:24
Speaker
20 of them. And dude, if we had one of those just to burn for like 30 minutes, that would have been So much nice just to get the wood burning and get your coals once you get your coals It's fine. I was throwing in huge logs in that in that
Weather Impact on Hunting Logistics
00:16:40
Speaker
stove and and it was great And it was actually you could burn it so hot, but we're burning hot to dry all the gear Yep ah But that's definitely what I would change is bringing in those little fire blocks just to get the fire That would have made world of difference because like we would just let our gear like
00:16:55
Speaker
It got to a point, you guys, where we were wet the entire time. It just didn't matter. were putting wet boots on. like yeah We're running the best gear. I was running, and this is not a knock at KU. you I love KU. you I feel like my gear was probably the best rain gear up there.
00:17:07
Speaker
Hey, what's up, guys? We're coming over. Pause this thing. All right. I'll just start off like,
00:17:15
Speaker
Alright, so we're talking about fire blocks. Two guys just rolled So it's one part the problem with the tricer truck is like people stop by and say hi. So have some guys come by and say hi. Get some updates on their elk hunt. Awesome dudes who are listening to this podcast. Nice meeting you guys. That was fun. Yep. So the next thing, we were talking about misses, right?
00:17:32
Speaker
ah i would bring a shovel. Yeah, and the funny thing is I literally had my little breakdown shovel and I left I was like, we don't need it. So I left it with the pilot and they flew like gear that didn't need. Just of those military ones? Just a little one folds Yeah, the little military. It comes in like a little six by five case and it folds up and would have been perfect. Because we were trenching. Mm-hmm around like Ben had a trench around his tent because it was so bad you have to trench to kind of like get like the water out of your similar to like honestly the only time I've ever done that is like in Africa when I built like mud huts You trench their houses like that to run the water off. Yeah, so you just trench around your tent to kind of run the water out of your Tent yeah, I think Ben put a trench in the middle of his teepee and now I think it went down the middle a lot of water. That's we're gonna make it we end making sticks to do that You know what would have been really nice up there, too?
00:18:22
Speaker
Would have been like one of those little Milwaukee chainsaws. Yes. Yep. Something just to zip through some wood that, because that wood is so hard. Like I had the little hand saw.
00:18:33
Speaker
You're taking turns. I forgot to bring my big 16 inch one. So we just had the little eight inch saw. Two of them. Died two of them. And that wood is so hard that it just takes forever to burn through. Like normally in 30 minutes you can have this giant, like if you're in Montana, Idaho, wherever, you can have this giant pile of wood in 30 minutes by yourself up there.
00:18:52
Speaker
of wood so hard that it's not the case. takes forever to just cut. So, so I mean, i know we talk about hunt too, but dude, another thing, like we all have like those heel knock chairs, everyone has these chairs.
00:19:03
Speaker
Dude, like I found a chair at REI that has a bottom on it. Like, they the hill and all the chairs just sink and you'd fall down. Like, if they get stuck in the mud. You need, like, a flat base for your chair.
00:19:15
Speaker
Like, they make, like, a mesh thing that goes on to them. don't know Healox has one. I want look into that. i want one of those before go next year, too. Because that something like, it was funny because we were, like, trying to place wood because everyone would just fall down. Yeah.
00:19:26
Speaker
I mean, on my chair, I think I have one of the feet left of four because they just sucked in the mud and disappeared. Yep. I would say, food-wise, I was definitely the only one that i was prepared.
00:19:37
Speaker
And these three clowns, like, i don't know what they thought, they were backpacking or what. We had an airplane drop us off. Yeah. I was having to share snacks with these guys the whole time. were smart. We knew Drew brought snacks. They were like, oh, we're going to bring organic nuts and some cheeses.
00:19:51
Speaker
And then, like, dude, like, they're in my Snickers bars. They're in all my good stuff, my Pop-Tarts. Like, so definitely, you're getting flown in, bring some snacks. I would bring some more, I think, next year, like,
00:20:02
Speaker
some like more like maybe like fresh stuff maybe some eggs and stuff too be nice yeah i think so because you can fly in like a little soft cooler or something just because yeah you're getting flown in you you we were well underweight going in and stuff and you're gonna eat all that food so yeah i mean bacon to eggs uh mean yeah i'd even throw in some burger whatever just yeah why not huh We did, we did, ah I did buy like one of the little like Coleman, not even a Coleman stove. It was stove that goes on top of a Coleman bottle. yeah It was like a bigger than like a Jeff oil for sure.
00:20:34
Speaker
And we bought like a, just a frying pan. And that was nice. Cause we did like, I don't know what we want to call it, but I was taking like my, I bought like the dried salami. I bring a bunch of those. We were cutting those up into like, like little like round. had summer sausage, Ben had summer sausage. You had the salami, which was way better. Salami was way better.
00:20:53
Speaker
And then we would cook that with some butter. Mm-hmm. And then we would put, like, know the baby bell cheese? We cut those up, put that top of it and melt. And, dude, like, it was like eating, good like...
00:21:04
Speaker
I don't want to gourmet, gourmet's what I'm looking for, like gourmet cooking. Get out of here, birds. We have some birds that in camp with us just eating on our food here, but they're cool. the We got four of these gray birds just loving hanging out us. So that was, I mean, that's probably our hits and misses. The the weather was like 65 degrees the whole time.
00:21:23
Speaker
Maybe something like that. Yeah, about 55. 55, so maybe it was 55 57 the whole time. That's what it was. It never changed. um So when you're at sea level, the weather doesn't change. So I brought a 30 degree stone glacier quilt.
00:21:35
Speaker
um I was warm the whole time. You didn't need too many layers. it was super easy on that front. The biggest thing is like you can get in some big trouble if you get wet and don't understand how to regulate the wet to get warm. Because you can, if we didn't have the sleeping bags in the shelter and stuff like that, like you could run into some major problems because you're so wet.
00:21:55
Speaker
Like hypothermic and stuff. On the hunt, I can see guys pushing the button. Like if we weren't, we brought, like one of the past shows, you guys got lot gear that's good. Like you can't
Day-to-Day Alaska Hunting Experiences
00:22:04
Speaker
bring enough gear for this hunt. Like we brought, we didn't bring enough and we had gear there. And don't even there's things we brought we didn't need.
00:22:11
Speaker
Yeah. the Let's get into the hunt. Let's get into the first day one, day two, how it went. um really had We had two days we saw the sun.
00:22:22
Speaker
Day one. And the day we flew out. And the day we flew out. Yep. Right? And deer got killed both those days. um But, okay, so day one, the plan was Brad's filming Ben.
00:22:34
Speaker
I'm filming Eric, Eric's filming me. We kind of did our stuff not as good as Brad's, but we filmed each other, right? So we take off, we go one way. We had gotten recommendations from Ryan Lampers to bring crampons, or not crampons, micro spikes. Well, was me Well, Lampers told you. No. Okay, whatever. I've had micro spikes for seven years. Okay, whatever. I thought you told me that you asked Ryan to bring his micro spikes. No, no, no no i would i would like he He told us to bring a canvas tent. We didn't bring that.
00:23:03
Speaker
um But yeah, i definitely like make sure you bring your crampons because that grass is so slick. We all bought them. ah Me and Eric didn't use them. So we're like, okay, we don't need them. This place is like walking on a... Imagine a sponge texture, but it's really slippery. And like every sticky step on you slide, every rocky step on you slide.
00:23:22
Speaker
We were falling down so much. So we hike out ah kind of behind our camp, get up there, not seeing too many deer, get up on this ridge, and Glass-baked forge. We're going to find him what we call the wide buck. It was the widest buck on the trip, this big, giant forky.
00:23:38
Speaker
ah Everything up there, by the way, which put this if you see this film, oh, you guys all shot Dinks. Our outfitter that dropped us off, set or the pilot that dropped us off, said he's only seen one 4x3 in 20 years. He shot it by accident. He didn't know it was 4x3. So biggest thing you're going up there really is three i Most of them are going to be four is Just genetically, that's what it is on these islands, right? We have two tags each.
00:23:57
Speaker
We find this big... ah the wide fork, and we're oh, we'll cross over to them. Nothing is that easy in Alaska. So we have to now drop down off this mountain, and we are falling everywhere. I ended up falling on these rocks, and my camera punched me in the face, and i busted my lip, lips bleeding.
00:24:16
Speaker
And we're trying to make this like, what looks like a $800 yard move into a two mile move in this nasty country. And finally I'm like, I'm putting these crampons on or the microspikes on. Microspikes, yeah. Cthulhu microspikes. Cthulhu microspikes.
00:24:30
Speaker
Don't mess with the actracks. Don't mess with any others. They go over your feet. over your boots, over yeah any boots you have. And dude, it was like putting on four wheel drive. Like I thought trekking poles were cool. It changed my life.
00:24:42
Speaker
And Eric, of course, like, oh, need those. Oh, I'm good. Dude, at one point, Eric is like sliding down the hill like a Ninja Turtle on his back. Because he falls down. He's just rolling down. Like, he's like 15 feet sliding around. Falling about trying get over there.
00:24:54
Speaker
We end up... ah having to go all the way back down the lake where we were camping and then go back up. And it was, this is one of those times where you're like, wow, we shouldn't have done this. yeah We end up scaling, we're scaling rocks, like climbing, like like free soloing rocks get up to these things, to these deer.
00:25:13
Speaker
Super sketchy. Like, like the point where you're like, your palm is sweating, you're trying to climb up there. And we ended up getting up to these deer right at, dark and the fog comes in cannot find this bug. we get, end up getting cliffed out.
00:25:27
Speaker
Luckily found our way down. Like very, like that was probably of everything I did on the trip. The dumbest thing we did. Yeah. Like that was, you can definitely get in some trouble up there, especially in the dark, like trying to navigate that country in the dark is not good because you get cliffed out and it's hard to go back up some of those cliffs that you end up coming down into.
00:25:47
Speaker
Um, so you can get in big, big trouble. To the point we didn't go back after that buck. Yeah. Because it was like, okay, he's just in a spot where like you could die. Like we we we got we kind of like, it's one of those days where everyone listening this podcast has done it, where you start going and then like you're already there, you might well keep going. you know And like the whole time we're jokingly, this is for a Forky.
00:26:07
Speaker
Like we're going to die for a Forky. Like we're crawling, like hand over, like crawling a mountain of rocks up there and we'd have not get in the buck because fog came in, didn't get him down. So we're getting back to camp at dark and Ben and Brad are there and they've got a buck. Yep. Ben got his first buck with the 30-30. It's pretty sweet. We snuck up on him. He was just kind of popped up. He was like 160 yards. I mean like right away. Like it was like within the first 30 minutes, hour.
00:26:35
Speaker
Yeah, we'd landed. um and obviously you have to check like regulations and stuff in different parts of Alaska. Sometimes you can't hunt until 24 hours later. But where we were at, you could hunt right away first Kadir.
00:26:47
Speaker
And yeah, within the first hour and a half, like he was already tagged out. had it cut up back to camp and we were watching these guys headlamps scale that face we're like dang man that is not a good place to be in the dark but yeah we we got that one pretty quick just a smaller buck but like ben wasn't going to be too picky with the 30 30 had two tags and so it was kind of like a great meat buck you know for camp which i can say one of the reasons why i love hunting with ben and me and ben are very similar like
00:27:18
Speaker
We're not trophy hunters. like We love shoot a giant buck, obviously, but like especially in the 30-30s, we're going shoot the first buck we get a chance at because open-side 30-30, we just want to get it done to kind of meet this goal we have as a team to get these 30-30 bucks down.
00:27:31
Speaker
So yeah, dude, you got a buck down, got him back to camp. yeah It ended up being the smallest buck of the of the trip, for sure. yeah it was basically a spike with like too little had two little nubs coming off. It wasn't very big buck at all, but...
00:27:44
Speaker
Yeah, we got that one. i mean, we had, what, seven tags for the five days of hunting. We knew the next yeah four days were going to be garbage weather. That was the thing is we were kind of in a panic because was kind of like, we've got to get it done.
00:27:56
Speaker
We've got to get it done. I mean, like hunting in the rain and stuff is one thing. wasn't a big deal. Like, we're fine to go hunt in the rain. The problem is is where were we were at, you're in the middle of the clouds and the fog and the rain.
00:28:08
Speaker
The visibility is less than 50 to 75 yards. And so it's like it's almost pointless to go out because you're just walking around blind. Only an idiot would do that. And we'll talk about that idiot doing that. We did it, though. We got it. It's better than sitting at camp at the same time.
00:28:24
Speaker
ah But, yeah, you you kind of you are stuck at the it the camp because you you just can't see. i mean, you're kind of just blowing deer around. um and when you do pop up on them you know it's a really quick you might get a shot you might not because some of those bucks like a lot of the deer will stand and look at you but a lot of the but the bigger bucks are like they don't wait around they they know they kind of just get up out of there um but some of them will stick around like ah back the buck that that ben shot that first day stood up looked at us 160 yards and
00:28:55
Speaker
He shot it. but yeah I can say, like if you had sunny weather, you can knock this thing out in a couple days. Oh, yeah. it's it's like yeah i mean If you had sunny weather, like it is fun to bring alternative weapons. I'd love to bring a bow.
00:29:06
Speaker
I love bringing the open side 30-30. If you were laying down, like and we'll talk about my last buck where I just poked him, with Brad's gun, ah like you could reach out and catch some bucks in this place. It's fun. If you want to go kill some animals, this is a this is and ah fun hunt.
00:29:21
Speaker
A fun hunt. It's not like going to like Texas where you're going to slaughter animals, but like there's so many deer. You're not worried if you make a
Achievements and Reflections from Alaska
00:29:27
Speaker
mistake, and it's just it is a good time. Yeah, exactly. And as long as you're looking for a giant buck, and you just want to go have a good time with your buddies, like probably one of the fun hunts I've ever been on, for fun-wise, even though miserable. Next year I do want to do a little more of the backpacking. Get up into some of those basins. Yeah, 100%. And where we're going next year. We're going to the other spot. like We will backpack. We we hunted.
00:29:48
Speaker
All our bucks were killed less than three-fourths of a mile from the base camp. No. ah as as the crow As the crow flies. my out As the crow flies, they were all under three-fourths of a mile. But as far as like hiking in there and stuff, yeah you know obviously took some time. But yeah, they were all close to camp.
00:30:06
Speaker
All real close. Yeah. ah Yeah, Eric's probably the farthest one. So, day two. so day two Day two, same groups, we head out, we get together where there was a forky that I didn't want shoot, kind right by camp, and we were talking about it, I'm like, you guys going that way.
00:30:23
Speaker
ended up, what do you guys call the kill basin, what do you guys call your spot? Yeah, i just call the kill box. Kill box. Perfect spot. So they're going back to the kill box where Ben shot his giant the day before, and I'm going to go to an area that...
00:30:36
Speaker
ah that I thought looked good and we flew in. And everyone was like, no, it's not good over there. But I'm like, once we out there, we realized it was actually a really good area. we ended up, and I tell Eric, like, you know, we're probably gonna just jump a buck up have to shoot it. It's kind of like how this is gonna work with this.30-30. Like, it's gonna be, unless we can find a better buck, we're gonna be close quarters combat, you know? So me and Eric are hiking up this ridge, and dude, Eric's like, there's a buck, there's a buck! And I don't even know what it is. He's in front of me like 10 feet. I jump down, throw out. I have the RP on there, which is cool. Throw the RP out, lay down, and miss this buck 100 yards. It takes off. I'm shooting core locks, dude. I rack again like full on at Leverdo.
00:31:18
Speaker
And then at this point, I'm more settled down now. Take my time and just hammer him. Both shoulders, probably 125 yards. Buck goes down within 30 yards. Done. I got my buck. And it was...
00:31:31
Speaker
maybe five inches bigger than Ben's buck. It had an eye guard. It had an eye guard. He had an eye guard, where Ben's didn't have an eye guard. It had an eye guard. they I mean, we're talking to maybe a 40-inch deer.
00:31:42
Speaker
But still, stoked. I mean, beyond belief stoked that me and Ben have like set out and met. We're in Mexico together. Now we're Alaska together with this goal of using 30-30 open sites. yeah And we got it done. right We get over there, we find the buck.
00:31:55
Speaker
We're cleaning our buck, and I hear, boom! Yeah, the old 300 weather, but he decided to eat. Because Ben had a suppressor on his 3030, so it was pretty quiet. You could just hear a little pop. But yeah, we went to our kill basin, and I really like finding just, don't know whether it's mule deer or coos deer or blacktail, I like finding these areas that we always call them kill boxes. I can get to a really high glassing spot and within four or 500 yards, I've got all this area that I can shoot and see and glass. So really like that because it gives you a better chance of actually like taking a good shot and finding good bucks, you know, if the right areas.
00:32:34
Speaker
We get back to our kill box and just, mean, it's foggy. So a storm at this time has already started to roll It's starting to come in. When I'm clearing my deer, we're putting rain gear on. Yeah, it's raining, but we got fog rolling in and out the clouds.
00:32:46
Speaker
And so the fog, even though Ben's buck was like 75 yards, you can barely see it through the lens of the camera because the fog is rolled in. But we just happened to pop up on the on the top of that, what we call the kill box. And Ben looks down and there's a buck bedded right there. I don't i think it was bedded. And he gets up and Ben gets set up and ready to shoot and the buck finally walks give him a good shot He shoots it hits it and the buck kind of turns and just because he shot it again And I looked down as as we're kind of talking to the camera and I looked down and I'm like there's another buck right there And he's not a giant by any means, but he's a cool buck and this you know
00:33:24
Speaker
doubling with ben was awesome and i was like well heck i'll just shoot it with this with ben's 30 30 because he's like 75 yards and so i lay down with the 30 30 but then this wall of fog just comes in and we can't see 10 feet in front of you and so we wait for a minute and about probably Three or four minutes later, the fog kind of lifts again. I'm trying to find the buck. We can't see it.
00:33:44
Speaker
And Ben just happens to look in a little clear spot through the clouds up on the hillside. And he's like, hey, he's walking up the hillside. And he was like 260 yards. So I just swapped out Ben's rifle for my rifle and hurried and died real quick. And the buck stopped and was facing us. And I just put it right in his chest at 265 yards. and And so we got to double. And we pulled the bucks down. And I will say, I think they are the most epic pics of the trip of Ben and I sitting up there like it is cool you know we got this the clouds kind of raised ah lifted wasn't really raining much and we just we're sitting on top and you got this huge valley behind us like it was it was a pretty epic moment for Ben and I because that's the first time we've hunted together we've hung out a lot but the first time we've hunted together and so it was pretty cool to experience that get a double with Ben and he was tagged out for the trip and and I was too because only bought one tag yeah yeah we we' figured like our Brasby film let's get Brad one tag let's get you know
00:34:39
Speaker
And we probably, well um honestly, one tag probably all would been able to fill at this point. For sure. And obviously that was the priority was getting the film. Like filling my tag was not a priority i don't think we would have been able to get it. Because like we ended up filling, Eric ended filling only one, which is getting two right now. Yep. So now we're putting rain gear on.
00:34:55
Speaker
and And I'll tell you right now, I have like the best Kuyu rain gear, think is some of the best rain gear in the world. like that They're heavy duty do one for this trip. So I have on like... It's like their medium jacket and then their heavy-duty pants can't remember what those pants are called for life right now But anyways, no matter what rain gear you wore it soaked through So it's put it that way like it was raining so hard that they're QU's best that like that was no rain gear I was soaking through when it started raining. Yeah, not day one No. Not day one, but like day two, day three. i would definitely suggest taking two to three pair of rain gear. Oh, 100%. I would have been, known is the rain gear was soaking through.
00:35:29
Speaker
Like it was like, I've never experienced it where rain gear soaks through. That's how much rain there was. It was so wet. So anyways, we get my buck cleaned up and I'm like, Eric, let's keep hunting. Let's just hang my buck from this tree. we We clean him up, put him into a ah ah game bag, hit him in the tree, and then we take off over this ridge like 200 yards to go on top to where we our original destination was.
00:35:51
Speaker
we put a tarp up. We're making ramen up there, eating ramen together, chilling. And it's so cloudy. We're basically, we're in like a three hour fog window. We finally get a break and Eric's like, I got a dough.
00:36:04
Speaker
And I'm like, so i'm like, dough, cool. I started looking to the right. And and i'm like, oh, I got a buck. And this is a good buck. i'm like In the video, i'm like, mega buck. And honestly, on the trip, it was the mega buck of the trip. yeah I think the biggest buck we saw might have been the flag buck up above that buck, which would have been one of those things where you might have died trying to kill it. yeah um if we ask some If we had a good sunny day, we probably could have that but But he would have been gnarly to get up to him.
00:36:27
Speaker
So anyways, we find the buck and he's probably 800 yards away, but we can move another 500 yards to get on him. But 500 yards in Alaska is an hour. So you make a move, probably an hour to get up on this ridge, get all these rocks. We're 300 yards from this buck. Eric lays down.
00:36:42
Speaker
um we we wait on this buck for like 20 minutes. Finally, um gets a shot on the buck. getting a little bit low, gets in the leg. Buck's taking off. And now you're in panic mode, right? Because it's like, we've got to get this buck killed because you're never going find this buck you don't get him killed. yeah And we get like, he's broadside, like, 400 yards. I'm like, Eric, shoot Eric, can't find him. And the you get video on panics. It's like, it yeah I sound like, I listen to video, I'm like, oh I felt so such a dork. i was like panicking because I'm like, i know that we're never going to find this buck again if you don't get him shot.
00:37:10
Speaker
And I'm like, you've got shoot him now, dude. And he gets him just going away, pushing right through the rear hip. And ah drops a buck. It kind of goes long ways the body. Buck ends up dying there. um 20 feet down. And we had to hike all way over that buck.
00:37:24
Speaker
And ah it was a hike to get to him. And when get back there, it being a good 3x2 buck. The biggest buck of the trip. ah Well beyond the ears. Wide buck. Good buck. I mean, for what it was, I think, like the 4K, I shoot the last day, Ben's buck. I would call those good bucks up there now. Yeah.
00:37:40
Speaker
I think you get a three chance at 3x, you're shooting every single time. Ended getting the buck down. At this point, the rain is coming. If you look at the pictures of Eric online, like you can see the rain in the pictures. it doesn't it The rain has started, and it's not going to stop. It didn't stop.
00:37:54
Speaker
Me and Eric had to hike out. um And I do think from where he was his buck was, is probably our hiking-wise, probably a mile half. Maybe the crow flies three-quarters mile, but mile and half hike for us. For sure.
Learning from the Alaska Hunt
00:38:05
Speaker
It was the longest time we had the trip with... um With an animal. And we're hiking them out. going to leave It's raining so hard we have to now leave my buck up on top for the next day. Which is kind of nice to force us out of the tents the next day. Yep, exactly. we get back to camp. We're like, well, let's go out. They're tagged out now. me and Eric have a tag each left.
00:38:24
Speaker
Let's hike up to where my buck was set up our tarps. Get up there, get my buck, set up the tarps, and it's just, fuck. And we sat up there, ramen, ate ramen,
00:38:35
Speaker
fog and it was like this is like the precursor to like what the ship's gonna be like and we ended up seeing like one buck that day i ended up glassing up we call him flag buck there's like a flag and it was a really good buck but it was like there's no way we're killing this buck because it's just you couldn't see where he was at and then also you just couldn't see was if we had sunshine that buck have been dead and this is when mine and brad's still hunting in the rain started where we just basically walked around soaking wet. We didn't really want to sit in the tent and it's like you're getting wet might as well maybe we can jump a buck we might get a hundred yard visibility. yeah He's got the 30-30 open sight so it's not like you're fighting a wet scope or anything.
00:39:15
Speaker
Let's go hike around. yeah The 30-30 I will say we ended up leaving the 30-30 on the mountain all night the night before. it was it lasts it was fine. It was totally fine. yeah So we yeah we take off It's day three.
00:39:27
Speaker
And dude, within like, and what whole plan is we're going to walk real slow, still hunt, because you have no visibility, and just keep this slowly walking. that We probably did a couple miles on that hike. And it was just really slow. And you just look.
00:39:39
Speaker
And you know, you do 10 steps, look. And within like, probably a mile, I have a buck. Mm-hmm. 150 yards, and I'm on, ready to shoot him, but Brad's like, you want to get the big lens out? I'm like, yeah, because my first kill like wasn't really, it was like Eric behind me with like a small like Sony camera. like yeah It wasn't like an epic film shot right for this film.
00:39:58
Speaker
like, yeah, get it out. and So he's like, as Brad drops his pack, this buck just takes off, and I'm like, ugh. And little did I know that was my last chance at a buck for four more days. That really was a chance. We ended up getting really close, hiking almost down, ah like halfway down this canyon.
00:40:12
Speaker
We got within 50 yards of probably six does on that afternoon. Got real close. bucks. No bucks. And we're like, we knew eventually we're going to a buck. Doesn't happen. um The next day, did we take the next day off?
00:40:26
Speaker
We took the next day off. We just chilled in the shelters, just pouring rain. We had thought that was to be the worst day of rain, and it wasn't. It wasn't. It wasn't. The worst day rain was like the next two days after that. like That's Saturday. Saturday we take off.
00:40:38
Speaker
ah We just hang out camp. We had Starlink. So you guys who were updating everybody through Starlink. I mean, dude, the influencers were stoked on the Starlink. Eric was just like, dude, I'd leave the thing on all day for him. He's up there.
00:40:50
Speaker
tell you this Let tell something about Eric Chester right now. Eric Chesser, for one, I consider him a good friend of mine now. We've hung out with a few times this year. And Eric is the hardest working person ever met when it comes to content. ye I am so impressed with Eric Chesser. Anyone want to say something bad about Eric, you have no idea how hard that guy works, how much that guy is constantly filming, constantly getting content, constantly supplying his followers. Like, you wonder why he's got half followers?
00:41:15
Speaker
Because he is working for them. yeah And dude, you have a problem with Eric, I've got a problem with you. I mean Eric's the most genuine. What you see is what you get. like was genuine dude? He's the most genuine person. I've known Eric 2018, 2019 now. twenty nineteen 2019. And yeah, he's the most genuine person on the face of the planet.
00:41:34
Speaker
like and I've known Eric for a couple of years. I only started hanging out with him this year. been with him at his house a couple times this year. And we went to Western Hunt. And now I got to hunt together. And I'm like, dude, like... That guy, I've never seen someone who's constantly talking to the camera, yeah constantly getting content from people. I'm like busting his hump. So dude, Eric Chester, shout out to you, dude. You're awesome.
00:41:54
Speaker
So we spent that day together hanging out at camp. That's when we discovered the, we had some back straps that day, I think. Yep. Back straps for breakfast. Yeah, I Ben and I, we cooked some back straps the night, the first night he killed his buck.
00:42:06
Speaker
We cooked a back strap. But yeah, we got to eat some deer meat.
Final Thoughts and Future Plans
00:42:09
Speaker
We discovered the sausage and cheese thing in the pan. Mm-hmm. And we get through that day, we watched a ton of movies. like There's one thing i can tell you right now. I downloaded like 20 movies, all stupid comedies, like Night the Roxbury, Tommy Boy, both Wayne's World.
00:42:25
Speaker
Movies are clutch. Download movies, it was fun. Nowadays, like with solar panels, backpacking solar panels and stuff, like we always have so many movies and podcasts and stuff downloaded. Because you never know when you get caught in the teepee. Late season hunts, you have a lot of dark time where you're in the teepee when it's dark.
00:42:42
Speaker
And so I watch, yeah, tons of movies. I like a lot of the, like, I always watch the James Reese series, like Terminalist from Jack Carr. The new one's out right now. So I always watch those.
00:42:53
Speaker
Last Dance is always a good one. Michael Jordan. The Last Dance a one. And then funny movies are always good. I just downloaded all dumb movies. Nobody was the only movies. They were stuck with my movies. We couple of actual movies. had downloaded movies, but...
00:43:04
Speaker
You guys i want to watch it I had Dance with Wolves, Man from s Snowy River. Those are the good ones I always have. Yeah, and I always had dumb movies like Wayne's World. It was worth it. I think with a group we had, we kind of needed dumb movies. was kind of fun. And it was like you had to get into We can still like talk and do some you know exactly streaming and stuff. Real lighthearted stuff.
00:43:20
Speaker
so That day was fun. The next day, ah I'm like, I'm going hunting. We went and traipsed around more. Traipsed around more. and i At this point, I'm wearing just rain pants and no pants underneath because everything's getting wet.
00:43:32
Speaker
And we're, at this point now, boots are wet. Nothing can do it. I'm wearing Kana Trek boots that are like the best boots you can buy, soaked through. I mean like it had two pair of boots, so that day I got into my second pair of boots. So that first day I had dry boots of rain that we went out after we sat in the teepee.
00:43:49
Speaker
But then after that day, they're soaked, you know. I'd always recommend bringing hunts like that. Any flying hunt, always bring two pair of boots and then a pair of camp boots, like a pair of muck boots or something like that. Dude, I would say on the boot, we get into that. Like, I think I was, I had the win on the boots for that trip. I brought the tall, like the muck boots, the ones that were insulated.
00:44:07
Speaker
Yep. Everyone else bought like the low boots. And I would say definitely like the tall insulated boots are money for walking around camp because like you're trafing through water and stuff and it's just like they they keep you dry. can walk out into the river a little bit. it's So I would say definitely I think everyone's goingnna next year bring like the taller, like, you know, like the calf high muck boots to Alaska as second pair boots have in camp. And honestly, I could have hunted in them, but I probably got blisters because just you're you're sticking too much. No way. You're sticking too much in them. It's just, yeah.
00:44:34
Speaker
Steep enough. Yeah, it's deep and nasty, this place. i mean, you're grabbing branches and climbing everywhere. So we go out. ah We actually got on a buck right away, but he just up and gone, like did not give us a chance. Got a few more deer, didn't get it done, came back to camp probably late afternoon.
00:44:51
Speaker
That day's done. the next day was, ended being the worst rain day. Yeah. That was Monday. We're flying out Tuesday and we didn't hunt that day either because we couldn't. It was like, it poured. no visibility whatsoever. None. We're taught, no visibility whatsoever. And that was the biggest thing is it wasn't really the rain.
00:45:08
Speaker
the visibility for me like you couldn't see yeah hunting in the rain is fine it's whatever but it was the it was the just no visibility like you can't see more than 30 yards you know 50 yards in front of you and it's just you're blowing game out at that point and with no chance of getting them because you're right on top of them so but i killed that do we actually ended up glassing up wide buck and kicked around going to kill him but it was like it was just too wet um and that brings us to the last day yep We're supposed to fly out at 10 a.m. We're supposed to out at 10 a.m.
00:45:41
Speaker
And I call the pilot off, which Ben and Eric don't know I do this because I try to message them. Because we get out and we have sun. It's like, oh my gosh, we have sun. I can kill a deer. And at this point, I'm going to use, don't think I brought my rifle. No, we just took my rifle.
00:45:55
Speaker
I'm like, I'm going to get out. I was going to try and get done by 10 a.m. m I left at 6 a.m. m Like, going get out go kill buck. and I'm gonna use Brad's weather beam to kill buck. I'm gonna find a deer and get it killed. And I'm pretty confident I can get it done.
00:46:07
Speaker
and And like 10 a.m. I call a pal, I'm like, hey man, give me until one. yeah And Eric and Ben don't know this, they're all packed up, like what the heck. And i get up on top of the kill box,
00:46:20
Speaker
And I end up, we're glassing, don't see anything. We're looking in the kill box, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. And about an hour and a half goes by, and I glass up a doe on a rock, well good almost like a sheep, like just on a rock. it was funny. yeah And then I'm like, then once I see a doe, I'm like, so we're looking.
00:46:34
Speaker
Sure enough, there's a wide fork. And I'm like, there's a buck. And he's 625 yards away. Yep. And I grabbed Brad's. Is it 300 Weatherby or 300 Winmax? I got 300 Weatherby.
00:46:44
Speaker
300 Weatherby. Yep. So 300 Weatherby. That new Weatherby CT. The only downside is a really long rifle, but it has the BSF barrel, that carbon barrel. but gosh dude like i've never oh i've had custom rifles like that rifle is the best shooting rifle i've ever had shooting my favorite bullet one of my favorite bullets i like barnes i like hammers shooting the 195 hammer i love copper bullets everyone knows that in california and it's not only that i shoot them all but shooting them copper bullets here right now in Utah for my kids dog I love copper bullets 195 hammer man so i'm like give me the rp
00:47:19
Speaker
i I've shot in thousands rounds this year long range. Like that's by far, I've never shot an animal past 430. But this is the last morning I've got like, I've got to get this buck killed and back down. yeah I've shot this rifle out to like 1400 a lot.
00:47:32
Speaker
It's pretty dialed. I've never shot this rifle. So that's thing that's kind of weird. So I lay down and I'm on the buck. I've got fully stable RP out. I'm on a flat rock. I've got a vinyl harness in the rear and I'm just sitting there dry firing click, which I'm glad did because the trigger was heavy. It's probably like it three and pounds at the time. Yeah, I hadn't adjusted at that time. So I'm like, I'm glad i dry fired. One thing I recommend you guys, had my kid do it yesterday. You were wearing on that. I'm like, dry fire, dry fire, dry fire.
00:47:55
Speaker
Like just practice dry fire on rocks, whatever. Just give yourself like, you have time, like don't rush it. so I'm dry firing this deer. I'm like, oh your trigger is a little bit heavy. Okay. Now I understand the trigger. I understand where it's going break on me. And then ah Buck's facing us. He turns and he's going ah right to left, walking and left.
00:48:13
Speaker
flip that, flip it off. I'm like, hey, here we go. Yep. Kaboom. And I watched that vapor trail go right into the buck. And I, the cool thing is, it was a muzzle brake and like just shooting so much now, you just watch, I was watch your bullet hit the animal. Yeah.
00:48:27
Speaker
And all you guys, he you guys shoot a six millimeter to do this. You're so full of it. did You guys are so gay. Yeah. Like shoot a big gun. Be a man. um So like, shooting through our weather. I watched that bullet go through the deer. I go, you hear the video? i'm like, he's done.
00:48:40
Speaker
Yep. Like I knew for a fact, I mean, it ended up being about, probably, i don't know three inches right of where I wanted to be. But it got liver, it got long, and the buck was done. he went, you know, 50 yards and up to eye him off the frame.
00:48:52
Speaker
And, yeah, man, freaking last morning, the pilot's been called off. We have, like, two hours now to get this buck. Yeah. And get off. And it was a nightmare getting 600 yards. Yeah, it was, like, clipped out. Clipped out like other. There's, like, 15...
00:49:12
Speaker
Little ravines in between. And the ravines are super steep with like bushes and you're crawling through on your, we had the hands and knees. don't the hike was, it gets you three quarters of a mile, probably maybe more. I don't know.
00:49:22
Speaker
But it was just up, straight up and down and we're in a panic. yeah it we're literally crawling our hands against this buck. And then we get up there, even though we took videos, it took us, 45 minutes to find this deer. Yeah, it looked so different. Then finally, I was like, I sat down and I just started looking through the camera and i was like, okay.
00:49:38
Speaker
And this is what's nice about filming hunts is you can always look back at the shot and you can look back at the terrain, you know, because it all looked the same. I thought we were on the right spot. We were we were like 152. There was like three tiers of rocks and we were like the highest tier and it was actually two tiers below us. Yeah, yep. And so I got to looking and like, okay, this is here, this is what you didn't see from the angle of where we shot the buck from.
00:50:01
Speaker
was just a different view like the way the hillside comes it only looks like you have one tier up there but once we actually really got to looking at it there's three different step downs in that mountain and so i got to look at him like he's got to be right down here and then as soon as i dropped down i found some blood yeah i was like okay i know he's right here because i know he ran around these rocks and i i could see where he died from where we were standing got to the point where i was getting that sickening feeling like oh my gosh we're not gonna find this deer. And I felt terrible. Like the last thing I wanna do is kill an animal and not find it.
00:50:28
Speaker
The last day, I was rushing and like, it was just like, I'm just like, what an idiot. I can't believe did this. And sure enough, dude, we fuck up, find the buck. I wish I'd describe these bucks. So if you know anything about coos deer,
00:50:39
Speaker
Imagine a coos deer sized buck, but a hundred pounds heavier. Yeah. The fattest, like little like potbelly pig deer. I mean, they're they're almost like you get big mature bucks and they're the size of a mule deer.
00:50:52
Speaker
Like you'll get bucks that are weight wise. Weight wise. Yeah, no, they're real short and blocking. An inch of fat on their back. I mean, like I've never seen so much fat on their back, which makes sense because these deer literally live.
00:51:04
Speaker
In the rain. They don't like, it's not like, you know, our drill bed down. Like these deer just feed in the rain. Like it's like we're used to it. It rains 300 days a year. It probably rains every day that i bet you. ah At some point whens every single day. Probably.
00:51:14
Speaker
I doubt it never doesn't rain there. No, yeah. Right. ah So yeah, we get them cleaned up. We got to go down. i fall down probably 10 more times coming out there. Yeah, we cut that sucker up pretty fast. Got him up really quick. Got him on there.
00:51:27
Speaker
We, by the time we we are walking into camp, the plane is landing. Yeah. Yep. And I can tell you this, our pilot, super cool. Awesome. And he's like, dude, don't worry about it. I'll take these guys out. need three trips anyways. You have six deer start packing up your stuff.
00:51:42
Speaker
He fly, I think he flew Chester out. Eric flew out first. Yep. And then ah we got our stuff packed up because Bat grabs Ben and the meat. And the meat.
00:51:53
Speaker
And then comes back because Bat grabs me and Brad and we're done. um So here's the one thing that we messed up on was our meat. And like ah some of the meat got sour, right? Which I was able to salvage most of mine.
00:52:06
Speaker
We hung it from trees, but it was just raining so much it got wet. It couldn't dry out. I think the reason, like, mine was okay, at it because all my meat I put separate. Each quarter was in its own bag. All the backstrap was in its own bag.
00:52:18
Speaker
And so I had i had seven seven game bags for my buck just because... I wanted to spread them all out to get them to kind of dry or whatever. I put my whole bucket in one bag. You all yours in one bag. was like, I'm going to pack them out one time. I should have just separated at camp and I didn't. And that's on me too. Like I know better in really wet situations. Like I usually will build a ah Tarp to keep the water off and then you get a little bit of a crust because it's cool It's not you're not worried about the meat getting warm. It's cool enough It's 55 degrees and you got the airflow around it. The meat gets down to 40 some degrees easily The problem is is if you have that water consistently running on the meat it doesn't get a chance to crust at all and so then it will cause it to to go go bad and that fat you have to get but like of all the deer
00:53:04
Speaker
the black tail fat will turn rancid. It's like a bear. That fat will turn rancid if you don't get it off, and that will that can turn the meat really fast, too. So what we will do next year yeah is either build an A-frame, or we'll take two trees and put a pole across, and then what we'll do is we'll A-frame a tarp over it, and we'll have a kill shelter for our meat to go in, and that 100% would have saved our meat. The meat was all fine, you guys. I mean, Ben's got a little...
00:53:31
Speaker
We tried Ben's. We tried sinking in the lake and it got wet. That was a little bit rough. The problem was that one was still a little bit warm, I think. The bag got sealed up and put in the lake. When it was sealed up, it didn't give it a chance. There was no way it would dry. The whole sinking in the lake thing, I'm not convinced of that anymore. I've done it we've done it a lot with bears done it lot with maybe I'll cool me it off and I'm gonna hang I'm gonna leave it in the lake the time like we got beds in there for a few days was like bad no should have just put it in there cooled it off and then got it out and got it out so that's what I would do but I would do that was the one of my biggest misses was the meat
00:54:04
Speaker
And my meat's fine. i ended up turning both deer into sausage, into jerky sticks. And it's totally fine. I did i know i was like, what seasoning? I'm like, just all the seasoning. It has little smell to it. like And they ended up doing mine. Yeah, mine was good. It was maple, jalapeno cheddar. It's like, it's bomb. I love it.
00:54:19
Speaker
I got... ah like 60 pounds of beef sticks out of itt for this. And I'm gonna need them. We're using it every day. I've eaten about a half pound of it on this trip. I'm gonna be in the field for another 100 days this year. I'll eat jerky. I'm like, cool. And I've got enough deer in the fridge.
00:54:31
Speaker
So definitely next time I'll build a kill shelter of some short sort with a tarp or lean tube. You gotta be smart about it too. Like you gotta be able to see where you're hanging meat. Cause there are potential for brown bears up there.
00:54:43
Speaker
Like where we were and the time of year and there was such a record run of salmon. All those bears were down about a mile to two miles from where we were.
00:54:54
Speaker
um we didn't even see any old sign of bears up there, but they are around and you gotta be cautious around bears. um Spent a lot of time around grizzlies in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and a lot of bears in Alaska, inland and coastal.
00:55:07
Speaker
I would say to me, the safest bears, to an extent are the coastal bears because they're full. there they They're around people often, but they're also full on salmon usually.
00:55:20
Speaker
and So yeah i don't really worry about bears in that area that much. Now they can be more aggressive because bears are like people. But I'm more worried about Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, bears than I am any last ever. We did not see single bear the entire trip. Everyone was strapped. Everyone had a gun. Always be cautious, yeah. And didn't realize how close we were to the ocean until we flew out. We were probably a mile from those bears. They had tripled the salmon catch this year already.
00:55:48
Speaker
There were so many salmon in the sockeye. So the bears were down low, and they never came up to us. No, they no reason come up. We probably got close to them. A couple times, I didn't realize that we were going down going that one canyon, still hunting. We probably getting a little bit closer than did. Probably. wanted to without knowing yeah Yeah. But we didn't see a bear, which was kind of cool.
00:56:06
Speaker
We were ready. were strapped, ready to go. But, dude... Alaska was awesome, bro. c Incredible hunt. I'm excited to do it again. appreciate all the time we get to spend with each other
Eager Anticipation for Future Hunts
00:56:16
Speaker
now. and These hunts are awesome. Even like this, you know like I'm more excited, I think, for this hunt this year than even any of my own hunts. Just because ah love... As my boys got in the water, I love...
00:56:28
Speaker
watching the youth get their turn at taking animals and stuff. And, like, we're hunting screaming elk. We got into them yesterday. Dude, I'm excited for Isaac to get one knocked down. And I can tell you, like, Isaac, we'll see. the time this comes out, probably bull killed, I hope.
00:56:42
Speaker
And we asked Isaac before, but because he didn't kill him. He's like, is it a big four point? I've never seen a big four point bull. Is it a big four point? so I don't think he understands quite yeah the like genetics of elk or anything yet, but we're probably going to let it ride on any elk that comes in up here. We're in these general units. General units, it's really thick. You don't get to see a lot of elk. um and The rut's a little different sometimes every year, you know? It's like, I think the rain last night definitely got them fired up. Like, they were bugling last night pretty good. Better. yeah
00:57:14
Speaker
The only thing we've heard up to this point was just little location bugles or bedded bugles. Nothing aggressive. Just like a here I am. Last night, that bull was pretty fired up. i mean, he was. We're going get it done, dude. I hope we done because if we're not, I'm a liar on this podcast. But as time this podcast comes out, the power some pictures of me and my kid with a bull. We've got seven days to get it done. And I feel like we always find a way to get it done, dude.
00:57:34
Speaker
So.
Encouragement and Sign-Off
00:57:35
Speaker
Yep. That's it man, go to Alaska, go hunt sick of blacktail. I think it's the perfect first hunt for Alaska. You can do it cheap. If you got questions, DM me or email me or talk to my team and they'll get you a hold of me and I'll help you out with that.
00:57:48
Speaker
Because it was a hunt that I'm going to again lot. Yeah, send me a DM on IG or something. yeah We'll give you some info on how to do it. So awesome, till next time.
00:58:00
Speaker
Later. 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 Tricer USA and go and check out all of our innovative gear at www.tricerusa.com.
00:58:16
Speaker
Until next time, shoot straight, have fun, and always put God first.