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Rocky Dettamanti
135 Plays2 years ago
This week Drew is joined by Rocky Dettamanti. Rocky is a Utah native that has been chasing big game his entire life. Rocky is a great story teller you will enjoy this podcast.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Purpose
00:00:06
Speaker
You are listening to the Tricer Podcast, where we talk all things hunting, gear, and the great outdoors.
Opening Prayer and Blessings
00:00:12
Speaker
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.
00:00:31
Speaker
All right.
Meet Rocky Detimonti
00:00:32
Speaker
Today, I am joined by Rocky Detimonti, Utah boy who kills a bunch of stuff and wants to tell some stories about hunting. So, Rocky, tell me about yourself. Well, I don't know about kills a bunch of stuff. I kill some stuff, but I'm not much of a killer if you ask me. But yeah, I'm Rocky Detimonti, as he said. I grew up in southern Utah, big mule deer and big elk country. Yeah, and I've been just hunting my whole life. I got started when I was just a little kid, my dad.
00:01:01
Speaker
always used to take us when we were young and not as much as
Balancing Family and Hunting
00:01:04
Speaker
we wanted. He had a really good balance of taking us just enough for us to love it, but not so much that we got enough. So it really created that desire to want to go all the time. He'd leave us home sometimes too, so he could actually go on. And that really bothered me that he'd leave us home sometimes. So I guess I got real sick for it because of that.
00:01:27
Speaker
But yeah. Yeah. I have five kids. So I'm always like trying to balance
Antelope Hunting Plans and Family Considerations
00:01:32
Speaker
that out too, right? I feel like almost all my tags are kids tags, not my tags. And it's like, I'm going, I try and go like one year without the kids. Cause even when I, like we're going over to see you guys here in a few weeks in Utah and we have a bunch of Cal tags, but I'm going to be worried about getting them and my father on the all account, not myself. Right. And so it's like always, it's nice to have a tag where the kids aren't there so you can really focus on yourself.
00:01:57
Speaker
Right. So I understand where your dad was coming from. That's for sure. Right. Well, and I even, I got a muzzleloader antelope tag here in Utah this year. And that starts, that starts Wednesday actually. And like I was really, I wanted to get the muzzleloader tag instead of the archery so I could take my daughter.
The Nature of Antelope Hunting
00:02:14
Speaker
We just had a little girl who's, she's nine months old now. I really wanted to take her along and stuff, but as we get closer, I'm like, man, I don't know if I want to bring her. That's a lot of extra chores. Like that's a lot of extra.
00:02:24
Speaker
to do and yeah it's just an antelope hunt and I'll probably just shoot the first one I see I'm not I'm not thinking about antelope but uh yeah it turns into just babysitting instead of actually hunting it seems like when you bring kids along all the time but yeah how old did you say she was she's nine months so I mean she's not gonna remember it anyway so I won't put nine months now yeah but yeah leave her at home yeah I've taken her like scouting a few times it's fun I
00:02:54
Speaker
I think we got a bit of a delay. So like we're kind of talking over each other, but yeah, it's, it's fun to take her along. Like when I go scout and I go get cameras and things like that. And I just, mostly I thought it'd make a good video for my brother's YouTube, but just being able to take her along y'all would just add to the video. But I don't know that I really want to put forth that kind of effort, especially on just like, just like an antelope hunt. They're meant to be easy anyway. Might as well just go out and drink Cokes and I'll take my dad along and my brother instead.
First Hunt Stories and Personal Growth
00:03:24
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I have never hunted Antelope. I put in for it every year. I really just seem to go to Wyoming and go hunt one, but I mean, putting it in Arizona and California, it's like almost impossible to draw that tag. I know you can go to Wyoming and New Mexico and kill one, but yeah, my kid went out and killed one in New Mexico last year, and it was literally just to drive up and find the one you wanted, and they got out and they killed some giant Antelope. It seems like a really... It kind of seems like the dove hunting of the big game world.
00:03:51
Speaker
It really is. It's just like, but it's my favorite. It's so relaxed. There's so many times where we get these big bull tags or get a good deer tag and it just feels like work sometimes. Even my brother has a muzzleloader deer tag starting on Wednesday and I go into the spot that he's hunting in. I've spent 15 plus days out there now. We're chasing a pretty decent deer out there and it's just
00:04:19
Speaker
It's just one of those spots where it's not super high deer density, so you don't see a lot of deer. It feels like work, man. I'm not even excited for his hunt out there. He's chasing a big deer, so it should be fun, but this antelope hunt, man, I'm pumped for it. Just like you're saying, you drive out there, you see him, you shoot him. It's just so much more relaxed and so much lower pressure.
00:04:40
Speaker
Yeah, that's how I feel about this cow hunt we have. We have five tags in our camp right now for this cow hunt. And it's just like, there's no pressure. It's just like, I know we're going to kill some cows. I know we're going to have some fun. And it's not like I'm chasing, you know, a giant bull. And you can't really feel bad about shooting a cow. I mean, you shoot a, you know, you shoot a rag horn bull. And like, I wish I would hold out for a six, but a cow is a cow, you know? Right.
00:05:04
Speaker
They're all kind of, I understand the no pressure thing. It is nice to do that sometimes. Yeah. We'll see. They all taste the same. Yeah. Yeah. Antelope. It's like, Oh, they're all two points. Like let's just, let's just go find one we like and dump it. I like that. They're all two points. That's a great way to put it. Yeah. Well, my buddy, Ben Sandle, he's a,
Memorable First Deer Hunt
00:05:28
Speaker
he's a big Antelope guy in Arizona. Like he, he, I think.
00:05:32
Speaker
He helped kill the world record muzzleloader a couple of years ago and has found, I mean, just a ton of giant antelope and is always guiding giant antelope in Arizona. And every time I see him post a giant antelope, I'm always reminded him like, yeah, it's just a couple inches big. It's only a couple inches from the world record, you know, like eight inches taller and a little bit more math and it's a world record, you know.
00:05:58
Speaker
He's like, oh, whatever. They're all way different. Like not between any of them. But yeah, go ahead. What's your first animal? How old were you when you killed your first animal? When can you hunt in Utah? 10 or 12? So it's 12 now. It was 14 when I started hunting. So I didn't kill my first year. So I think I was 15 before I killed my first year.
00:06:25
Speaker
So I always had this weird goal that I didn't want to shoot a two point for no real reason, right? It was just a personal thing of mine that I didn't want to kill baby deer because I felt like I should be better than that. But I really wasn't. I was not better than that. I should have just shot as many deer as I could. But my first deer, so in Utah, if you get a tag and you're under 18, you can hunt.
00:06:52
Speaker
all three seasons, right? So you can hunt archery muzzleloader and rifle here in Utah. So I hunted the archery. I just had a junky bow that I'd go fling arrows at deer with and never ended up killing anything with. But then it came to the muzzleloader and we were hunting in this spot that my dad and my brother-in-law and my brother were hunting a giant deer and it was really like a
00:07:16
Speaker
I never saw it personally, but from all accounts and a couple other people were chasing it too. It was like a 30 inch wide, just tall, big, deep forked, giant, typical deer. And so he was in these few canyons, but there was a lot of other deer in them. And so my brother-in-law just stuck me in this old rickety tree stand. Like it was, it was seriously like a bench hammered into the top of a Jennifer, like swayed in the wind way bad. It was scary getting into it, but it was, it was solid once you were out there.
00:07:46
Speaker
And, uh, and so he stuck me up there opening morning, the muzzleloader hunt. And I think I had even like forgotten my gun at home. We had to like turn around and go home just cause I was so unused to like being the one hunting. I was just so used to going with everybody else. But so he came and picked me up. He told me, he told me you'll probably have some bucks walk by. They never did. So he came and picked me up later that morning. And we just walked over to meet my dad and my brother. And we were watching, they were watching a few deer go up the hill in front of them when I showed up and there, there was.
00:08:16
Speaker
It was a bachelor heard a buck and it was just like baby buck. It was like 2.2 point walking up this hill and they're like 70, 75 yards away from us and I had an open sight traditions muzzleloader. I mean just like terrible trigger on the thing. Like I just barely sold it a couple of years ago
Persistence in Hunting
00:08:35
Speaker
but I held onto it forever. But just like this old junky muzzleloader and finally this one deer steps out at
00:08:42
Speaker
like that 70 yards, like I'm saying, my dad's like, Oh, I can see the one side the four point boom. And I shot about that fast. As soon as I heard that it wasn't a two point. And, and I hit this deer, like, I mean, just perfect. Like it was mostly luck to do it with that open sight muzzleloader the way I did, but hit him perfect. And he tumbled over backwards. And I remember just like yelling and screaming all loud because I was so excited.
00:09:08
Speaker
And then my dad's like, shut up, that bigger buck might still be in here. And he got, oh, sorry. And so I got, I got humbled pretty quick there. I was like, well, if that bigger deer's here, why are you having me shoot this one? But we walked over to, it was good, like little three by four that, that I was just so pumped to have. Just cause like, you build it up so much in your head, right? Like just watching everybody else hunt. You think it's going to be this big grand thing. And I was just.
00:09:35
Speaker
And, and it was to me at that point, you know, like just, just the coolest thing I'd ever done. And, and it was as good of a deer as like any of my friends had killed up to that point. And so like, it was, it was a way cool, way cool experience. And I just remember, I remember taking him home and eating him and, and he had a, and he had a messed up hoof that, so everybody just gave me crap that I didn't actually hit him, that he just tripped over his hoof and died. But it was just a,
00:10:05
Speaker
It was just a way fun memory. I still have like his rack. I think everybody keeps their first one. I don't know if most people are like me. I end up selling a lot of this stuff. I kill off the Antler buyers before too long, but that one I think I'll always hold on to. That's awesome, man. My first year
00:10:25
Speaker
was in 2016. I was like, I'm like a late bloomer to the big game. No, I had no family to honey. I kind of, yeah, I'll do that's what it is. I'll do it on set. Yeah. And man, I hunted for 12 days and I killed that bucket like two in the afternoon.
00:10:43
Speaker
And I swear, I shot him three times. Every shot was a kill shot. But I was just, when I shot him, I was by myself and I was yelling and hooting and all of it. And just, I couldn't believe it. I was so jacked when I killed that deer. It was awesome. Well, it's, people underestimate it, man. Like, oh, I was just saying, like, there's something in our DNA about killing, like, big game. Like, I've been duck hunting, I've been bird hunting, and it's all super fun to me. I think that's just, like, just
00:11:11
Speaker
relaxing and way fun to go do. But man, when you get something like substantial on the ground, I swear there's something in our DNA that's just like, oh, this is something, you know, like this is something that I can live off of for a while. And it just gets you that much more jazz and pumps up the adrenaline that much more.
00:11:28
Speaker
Yeah, and it really is the chess match, too, right? I mean, like, I duck hunt. I love it. I bird hunt. But, you know, when you're hunting a big game, there's so much that goes into killing that animal. It's not like you just sit in a blind and you blow your call. And then, you know, I guess it is like that in Texas and some other places. But, you know, when you're on a Western big game,
00:11:49
Speaker
It can be five, six days in, and you finally have a buck step out, or you've been chasing the same buck for three or four days, and every day you're trying to figure it out, and he keeps dodging you, and you finally kill that deer. I mean, there's something about that that's just magical. It's incredible. It's such a good feeling. Nothing replaces it, and there's nothing like it. Nothing. Nothing like it at all. And you're 100%, right? Like I had said, I had gone the whole year beforehand, and I had missed a couple of deer.
00:12:19
Speaker
When I was, so when I was 14, I'd missed a couple of deer with like a muzzleloader and I think I'd missed one with the rifle. Then I had hunted that whole bow season. So going into that first deer, you know, like I had already had a full season and well, a full year and then another full season, a heartbreak, you know? So like when you finally get that last one, that get that tag punch, like did always feel super good. And, uh, and that reminds me of, of another story, like probably, probably the best day of hunting that I've ever had.
00:12:47
Speaker
And this is a long story. So prepare yourself listeners. This one could take the whole rest of the podcast. Is this your before you, before you, so before you go into that, I kind of want to hear you said you sell some of your antlers to shed buyers. Yeah. I know nothing of shed hunting. So what do you mean by that? Oh, so like, uh, so you, you, you kill, you kill a bull, you'll kill a bull and this solves all the antlers off and sell it off, huh?
00:13:17
Speaker
I've only done it a couple of times. I think I still have, I have my, I've only killed two bulls. So there I still both have both of them. Um, I think I've only sold like two of my deer. Just, just like deer that were just like not that big, like maybe just didn't have that much of a story. Like I just don't have that much of an attachment to them. And so yeah, I've just got them off and sold them. Like in, cause to me, like.
00:13:42
Speaker
As far as trophy hunting goes, I wouldn't consider myself much of a trophy hunter. I like eating them, and I've killed some okay stuff in my day. I'm sure what other people would consider trophies, but some higher class animals. To me, they're just bigger wall decorations. Once you kill an animal and eat it, to me, I like remembering the hunt. I like remembering those things.
00:14:09
Speaker
it's food at that point and then just their horns just take up so much space. Like I'm looking at like my bull I killed on the manti two years ago like in Utah and I got a buck I killed on the muzzleloader last year in front of me and it's just like I like having those those two there because they're both like kind of they're both memorable hunts but other than that they just sit in a storage unit you know and just kind of take up space so yeah I've done that a couple times but
00:14:34
Speaker
but I don't. I'll keep a few. So do you also shed hunt then? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I'm actually was talking to my antler buyer today and I've got a whole pile of horns to send to
Emotional Hunting and Family Legacy
00:14:47
Speaker
him. So what does that look like? So you go out, you find sheds, and then once a year you sell them to an antler buyer a couple times a year? Just kind of depending on the year. I don't find that many. So yeah, just like once a year, I'll just take my whole file and go sell them all off to them.
00:15:03
Speaker
I sell to a guy named Jared Steele who's a world class dude. He's a great base in Antler Buyers, his Instagram. He's an awesome follow. He's always posting big horns and he's a way cool dude. I'll just go take my pile of antlers to him and you just get a certain amount per pound, right? If it's a brown elk antler, you get like, I think it's at like 16 bucks a pound right now.
00:15:30
Speaker
So like a big brown set of elk horns is worth, you know, 300 plus dollars. And then you get like seven bucks for wide or 10 bucks for hard white. And then like you're really chalky old stuff. You just get, you just get a couple bucks per pound or even less for that stuff. But it all adds up, you know, you go find, you go find a few good elk antlers that are chalky and you don't get a couple hundred bucks for them. So, so yeah, like.
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah, you don't say So Are you able to like pay for your like hunting season with your help your shed hunting like your tags and stuff?
00:16:13
Speaker
No, not not really. Like it might it might reimburse me for a little bit of gas is is what really what I'm hoping for, you know, like if it because it's like if I go clear to Nevada to go shed on a few of our spots out there, like, you know, I'm 200 bucks in gas round trip. And and so if I find a few big outlet pantlers, then yeah, I paid for that trip. But like, mostly it's just we we like going and doing it. And then we get a little bit of cash back to to kind of cover some costs. It's not
00:16:41
Speaker
Not super lucrative. Gotcha. All right. So now, let's hear this long story. I'm ready. This long story, this multi-year story about killing a deer. Well, so the same spot that my brother is hunting currently that we're chasing another big deer in, I've probably spent the last five years, just 90% of my deer hunting time, like scouting and things like that have been spent in this one spot over the last five years.
00:17:10
Speaker
It all started because I was just out driving around one day and found a water just crossing the road. I was just looking for somewhere to put cameras and saw this water cross the road. I said, Oh, what the heck, whatever. So I went through a camera on this one water hole and lo and behold, I go and check it like two months later and there's a big, wide, heavy deer on it. Oh, sweet. Like that's cool. Like, uh, I didn't even think there was deer in this spot. Like, so that's, that's awesome.
00:17:35
Speaker
And so I went out there a few times. I had a dedicated hunter tag here in Utah, which basically gives you deer tags for three years, and you're allowed to kill two deer out of those three years. And just get a tag each year, and then you're allowed to kill two of those years. And you're allowed to hunt all the seasons. So I had gone out there a couple of times and tried looking for this deer, tried tracking them off this water, just like with not a whole ton of success.
00:18:03
Speaker
And like I was saying, it's a super low deer density area. So just like you'd go out there and just not see a deer like for a couple of days. And so first year of trying to find that deer, just like no dice. Second year, I think went the same way. Uh, just, just nothing. Just could never turn them up. Could never turn up any of the other dearies with, I'd get them on my camera on that water like once.
00:18:26
Speaker
So then the next year we started getting real serious, put out a bunch more cameras, started spending a bunch more time out there to try to figure out like, okay, where are these deer going? What's going on? And, uh, and finally we start getting these deer on camera consistently for whatever year. It was a, for whatever reason that year was real droughty. So this water hole that we had this camera on really like was pulling in a lot of bucks and, uh, and pulling them in consistently. And so this one deer, um, I ended up calling him the inline. He's just a, if.
00:18:55
Speaker
The deer I had on camera that first year, just a big, wide, heavy deer, I think. Him and it was like seven other deer had been coming in, and including two other pretty nice deer. So during the archery, I spent 15 days, or it was 15 days of the archery sitting in this blind, and it was 100 plus degrees in that blind. It was so bad that there was
00:19:23
Speaker
I was shooting a carbon bow, and the way they build those carbon bows is your riser carbon, then it ties into an aluminum block before it goes into your limb. And the epoxy that attached the aluminum to the carbon had started to separate. So my bow was falling apart from just the heat in this blind. And just the epoxy was breaking down.
00:19:47
Speaker
Um, but day 15, these deer finally came in like first time I'd ever even like seen them in person. And, uh, and they came in right at last light and I hit this one deer that we call the boxy deer. And he's a stud deer ended up being like one 73 or something like that, but just, he had really crappy frunks, but just like a big frame deer. And, uh, so I ended up shooting him with my bow. And so then it was just down to the inline buck.
00:20:14
Speaker
And that's what we started calling that big white, heavy deer. Cause he just had one little in line on his right side. And my brother started hunting him. So real quick, I had dedicated, go ahead. You said you were driving down the road and you saw water. So I feel like there's this misconception that you have to go like 10 miles deep right now to kill animals. You were driving down the road and you saw water across the road and that's where you felt. So you're not hunting 10 miles in the backcountry right now.
00:20:41
Speaker
I'll tell you, am I blind when I shot that deer was 100 yards off the road? Okay. Perfect. Just to further talk on that, that's something I have an opinion on is like, I feel like your back country is almost just as crowded as your front country right now. And where I've had success in the back country a lot in recent years,
00:21:04
Speaker
But I've also had plenty of success just finding pockets that people are missing, like right off the road. Just like this one, it's right off the road where we've been killing a lot of our best deer over the past couple of years. So anyway, there's that hot tip for anybody who cares. So anyway, we're chasing this inline deer and Ben ends up chasing him. I think he spent 30 days on this deer between all the hunts.
00:21:32
Speaker
And this whole story is on his YouTube too, so you guys will have to go check that out. But he ends up watching this deer get shot. He was on the point, finally finds the deer, finally sees him in person for the first time in 30 days of hunting him. And this sees a kid running up towards him. Kid flops down, flops out his bipod and shoots that deer faster than my brother could get on it, which that's a pretty abbreviated version of that day. But I mean, 30 days of
00:22:01
Speaker
time on this deer to have somebody just shoot it like while you're sitting there. He could see the other deer that were with the buck and he just couldn't see the big buck and so he would just kind of relax and then until he sees this kid come running up he switches angles and then sees the big deer and the kid just beat him to the punch. Which I mean kudos to that kid because Ben is not slow on the trigger.
00:22:25
Speaker
But so that tore him up pretty good, honestly, because we just spent so much time on that deer. He ended up being like 197, I think he was 32 inches wide, just a stomper, just a big deer. And so we may or may not have cried over that deer getting killed, just because it was two years before that that I was trying to find him, and then we finally did a decent chance at him, and somebody else kills him.
00:22:55
Speaker
So then you fast forward to the next year and we're back in this same spot again, even though like we have PTSD and we like, it was two days before the archery hunt started or three days before the archery hunt started. And I had a good limited entry, big out tag here in Utah. And so I wanted to go scout for elk, but we, we ran out and just tried it one day for gear and lo and behold, we turn up another good gear day.
00:23:22
Speaker
that we had seen the year before and he had just grown and had just blown up. So we're like, oh great, now we're spending the rest of our time out here again this year. It's almost just like, it almost was a, what's the word? It was almost disheartening to find another big deer out there, as weird as that may seem, but we're just like, oh great. So we start hunting this deer and again, just like same thing through the archery. I think Ben was within a hundred yards of him,
00:23:51
Speaker
seven times on the archery and just never could like seal the deal and so we get all the way through the archery and then my big bull tag was a muzzleloader tag so I went and killed my bull and then with like the day after we killed my bull we didn't even like stop to celebrate like we're back down on this unit chasing the steer again on the muzzleloader and uh and finally after all that Ben gets one good chance at him with his muzzleloader and and miss and so
00:24:18
Speaker
And we thought that deer was going to bail out of there. We'd never see him again. But we ended up going out for a couple more days, couldn't locate him, and then ended up finally finding him again. And he was fine. We were sure that it was a clear, clean mist. And then we went out the next morning again. And our dad had called us the night before and told us that our grandpa was actually in pretty bad shape.
00:24:43
Speaker
we were kind of debating like, even if we were going to go back out there, just like knowing that and we could, but then we kind of realized that if we had, we, uh, if our grandpa had ever found out that we didn't go hunting on his account, he would come back to haunt us. He was a, he was a super serious hunter and, and just every, everything came second to the deer hunt. You know, like that was, that was whole holy time. So we figured there was nothing we could really do for him or anything. So we.
00:25:11
Speaker
We decided to go hunting that next morning while we were glassing. Our dad called us and told us that he had passed away that early that morning. And obviously we were solving on the glassing point and we were just, you know, a little bit of a wreck. But he had been sick for a long time and so we'd kind of known it was coming. But as soon as we could get our eyes dried up enough, we looked back through our binos and there's our buck coming down the flat.
00:25:40
Speaker
And we just couldn't believe it, like in a good position to go cut them off. And, uh, so Ben boogies off our glass and point goes and gets in position and shoots and hits this deer, like kind of forward and low, like down in his leg. And so the steers on, um, three legs, essentially, and just boog in through the cedars and that, and it's just like after all these years and all this time and watching that deer get shot out. Now we've got an injured buck running. Like it was just like doomsday for us for about 30 minutes there.
00:26:11
Speaker
And so I run over onto a different point and I'm looking down in the cedars, looking, looking, looking. I finally find the deer. And so I get Ben on the radio. I was like, Hey, he's right here. And Ben was on his tracks. And so we ended up getting Ben below him and he walked down on this side hill. And, uh, and I remember just like telling him through the radio, we had a bug in his ear and I was just, or we might've been on the phone. I can't remember, but, uh,
00:26:37
Speaker
I just remember telling him like he's going to pop out on that side hill and that's where you're going to kill him. And I remember seeing the bullet just like hit the dirt behind the deer and watching the deer drop before I ever even heard the shock because he was a few hundred yards away. And we just both just dropped and started sobbing. And it was just like a really crazy moment that like our grandpa passed away just that morning and then we ended up killing our target buck that day. And I remember my brother calling my dad
00:27:06
Speaker
my dad asked and was like, did you see an old man out there helping you track that deer? And we just kind of felt like that. We felt like, I remember, I think even, I think even Ben said it as soon as like, as soon as we saw that deer that morning, like, we're gonna, he's gonna die today and it's gonna be for grandpa. And, and it just, it felt like we had his help and he was a killer man, our grandpa was even up till like his last year, he killed a stud deer down here on the Zion unit in southern Utah and
00:27:36
Speaker
And so we knew we were going to get it done that day. And yeah, that was probably the greatest day of hunting I've ever experienced. I don't know if I'll ever top that one, but yeah, that's my, that's my crazy long story. Five years leading up to it.
00:27:49
Speaker
That is an awesome story, man. I had a guy on last week, very similar. He said he never met his grandpa, but his grandma gave him his grandpa's rifle with 10 rounds of 287 robbers that he loaded for him. And he was in Colorado. He was 15 years old. And he's like, same thing. The bucks kept eluding him. And he's like, grandpa, help me out.
00:28:11
Speaker
He ended up shooting that buck with his grandpa's rifle and getting his first buck and he still has nine of the 10 rounds of the empty casing on that buck. Hunting does something, man, with family and being together. I'm going on this hunt right now. Two each from now, it's going to be my two boys.
00:28:30
Speaker
myself, my father-in-law. There's just three generations in a wall tent chasing animals. There's something beautiful about it and incredible about it in this stuff. You definitely know your grandpa was proud. At that point, he wanted you out hunting and you guys went out and that buck showed up and that's just incredible, man. That's such a cool story. Good for you guys. Yeah. What you're saying about family and hunting,
00:28:59
Speaker
Like I was saying, trying to take my daughter on that antelope hunt, that's something I really want to do. I think I'll make sure and include that further on in the future, just because I'm so excited to get that part started. She's only nine months. She's not going to remember it. It's just going to be a pain, but that's something I'm so eager to get started. Like I said, I don't think I'll do it this year.
00:29:24
Speaker
But moving forward, for sure, we're going to incorporate that. And I just, like I was saying earlier, I feel like we get so, well, I was saying that about antelope hunting. I can't remember if we were recording or not yet, but we get so involved in these hunts sometimes, as far as putting pressure on ourselves to find and kill a mature animal that we kind of forget. That's not everything. We've got generations to teach and carry on this
00:29:52
Speaker
this passion for this thing in the future. And that that can be just as important as getting it done on a mature animal. And granted, you want to achieve your goals and you want to you want to you want to take advantage of those tags when you can get them. But sometimes man just going and having like a wall tent elk camp that you're not like backpack cleared in clear in sometimes that's just as much fun as
00:30:13
Speaker
is going back there and getting into a ton of animals, you know? Yeah, exactly. And, you know, I'm never going to regret having my kids in a wall with my father-in-law. You know, those are memories and you can't get back. And there's a time and a place for the backpack hunts and there's a time and a place for going in deep. And there's no time and a place for sitting around a fire and telling stories like this and just being with grandpa.
00:30:37
Speaker
you know, cooking eggs and baking on the griddle in the morning and just, you know, laughing and the misses and the successes. And there's just something special about that that just really bonds us together as a family. I think it's missing, but it's in society today, but people who get to experience, they really know what I'm saying. It's an incredible experience. No, absolutely. Absolutely. And it is something that's missing, you know, like, like they used to have, yeah, you used to have multiple generations living in same households and things like that.
00:31:07
Speaker
But now we just get so involved in our own little lives, in our own little world, like, like human connection is really like the thing that makes all this worth it. That makes it all fun. Gotcha. So, uh, great story,
LP Gear in Hunting
00:31:20
Speaker
dude. Can you give me a little plug on the LP? I know you're wearing the LP. You liking it? The LP? Dude, it's the shit. Oh, excuse me. I always talked about that thing. I never cut some podcasts. Dude, it's what's up. So yeah, I've been running that LP and, uh,
00:31:36
Speaker
I've been, I've been guiding off it and stuff this year. We killed a couple of big bulls while I've been videoing on it and, and they're spotting off and stuff. And it's, it's great. Like, uh, I've been holding a big, heavy, like video head around for the past couple of years. And, and being able to cut that weight off that even just my tripod head and then able to also go to a smaller tripod legs because of it. That's been, that's been killer.
00:32:04
Speaker
Because as much as I do love those front country hunts as we would call them, man, I get the bug for back country bad. And I'm trying to think of some real clear examples where that head has been the difference. I think even this year, I've been using it a ton to just take pictures. I just have an adapter for my phone. And it's so nice to be able to take that lighter weight tripod when I know I'm going to be hauling meat.
00:32:34
Speaker
And so I know I'm going to have to be hauling a ton of weight out, but it's like, it's nothing to take that little tripod along with your guys's head because like I'm, I'm trying to eliminate weight as much as I can when I know I'm going to have an else hind and front on my back. Well, when I can just take that little tripod in it and it makes the pictures that much better, you know, like it, cause I can put up where I want when I have a tripod. I'm not looking for a branch or something. And the other great thing about it is like I video for Ben on his YouTube and
00:33:03
Speaker
and do some video and for a lot of stuff and just how buttery that head is. Man, it just makes all the difference. When my footage goes from just being like jumpy and shaky on other lightweight heads to that one being buttery, it makes all the difference in the world. Oh, but I know what I can tell you about. So I'll just send you some videos, Drew. But I actually set my AR up on it.
00:33:25
Speaker
I was dead set, I was going to go backpack and kill coyotes and mountain lions this year. They just delisted. Well, not delisted, but just made mountain lions open season in Utah. So I thought I was going to go backpack in and kill and kill a mountain lion. I was going to call one in, but I ended up getting very bored and ended up getting to camp way late. So I was way tired when I got up the next morning. So I started shooting rock chucks using that pan head and with my AR and it was.
00:33:53
Speaker
It was so awesome. I was plugging rock chucks like 250 yards away and just seated, like not even having to lay down, just seated with your guy's head on it. And just being able to adjust that tension to where it could, I could just put my gun where I wanted it and it would stay there. Like that was awesome. It eliminated a lot of movement and I'm going to use that thing. I'm going to put it on a little bit heavier duty tripod and I'm going to use it to kill dogs this winter. That's awesome.
00:34:21
Speaker
Yeah, that panhead is the little engine that could.
Closing and Social Media Engagement
00:34:25
Speaker
All right, dude, tell me where we can find you. I guess plug your brother's YouTube channel, I guess, right? You're filming a video for Ben, and where can we find you? Yeah, so the best place you're going to find most of my stuff is on Ben's YouTube, at Shed Crazy.
00:34:40
Speaker
Um, but my Instagram is red beard underscore Rocky. I might have to change that at some point though. It's a little bit corny. I've changed it a couple of times over the years, but I think I might just have to go to my first and last name, but yeah, I've red beard underscore Rocky right now. Um, and that's, that's, uh, I'm decent about posting on there. So you'll see most of what I'm doing on there. Nice.
00:35:04
Speaker
Well, thanks for coming on, man. Let's do it again. I'm excited to hear some more stories. You bet, dude. Let's link up after the hunt or something. Yeah, for sure.
00:35:18
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.