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Jake Schutte’s last day bull
223 Plays2 years ago
On this episode Drew talks with Jake Schutte about the ups and downs of hunting. Jake goes into detail about the years it took to finally get his first buck. Then tells a story of sailing 7 rounds over the back of a 340” all because he made a simple mistake. Jake is a great story teller and this one has a happy ending.
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Transcript
Introduction and Opening Prayer
00:00:07
Speaker
You are listening to the Tricer Podcast, where we talk all things hunting, gear, and the great outdoors. Before we begin, let's start things out right and put God first. Lord Jesus, I thank you for Tricer, and I ask that you can use this podcast as a way to bring joy to all of our listeners. We lay Tricer and this podcast at your feet. Amen.
Meet Jake Schuette
00:00:31
Speaker
All right, Jake Schuette. What's up, man?
00:00:34
Speaker
How's it going, Drew? This is an honor and a pleasure to be on here. Oh, it's going good, man. You get to be, like, guest number two on the Tricer podcast. So I went to the top first for you, I guess. Yeah, hey, you know what? I'm glad I'm in the beginning. So all these great stories that are going to come after, like, you know, I don't have to, like, try to stand up against them.
00:00:57
Speaker
Oh, your story is smoke, man. You kill a lot of stuff, dude. So bottom line, Jake's a good friend of mine, a hunting buddy of mine. He's somebody I have a lot of respect for in the church. He's a big giver. And we got it connected through a hunting forum. And it turns out we have a lot in common in ministry or ministry lives, et cetera. And he's just been somebody who I've just, you know, since the beginning of Tricer, I'm just really respected and enjoyed hanging out with.
00:01:25
Speaker
And he's definitely on top of my list for guys who I want to call to jump on this podcast with me and talk about themselves.
Jake's Background and Interests
00:01:33
Speaker
So Jake, who are you? What do you do? Yeah, that's a fun question. I feel like I do everything. So I'm a husband to an amazing woman.
00:01:43
Speaker
I have three kids, two, five, and seven years old. My day job, quote unquote day job, is an aerospace engineer here in San Diego, designing aircraft parts and full aircraft design. I'm also a lay pastor at Awaken Church in the El Cajon campus.
00:02:03
Speaker
Um, you know, and I've just, I've seen God move in my life in many ways, like you said, through giving. And so like, you know, that's one of the things I love to do is to inspire, encourage people to get vision, to grow their vision, to, to test God and say, Hey, are you real? Let's see if you'll move. And then I just know when you move, you do that, God shows up. But, um, and then, you know, all my spare time kind of goes into hunting.
00:02:32
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You've got two kids, right? Three. Three kids. That's right. I'm sorry. I should know that. Yeah. I know that I'm trying to get you to go hunting on Saturday and you couldn't go because you decided to have all three kids in September? Yep. Yeah. Apparently I made some bad choices over the years and I just kept on compounding him. So all three kids are born in a three week period from the beginning of September through mid September. And then my wife's birthday is actually at the end of September.
00:02:59
Speaker
So that means like Christmas time is like the pregnancy season for your house. That's when you're just not connecting. Yeah, Thanksgiving to Christmas, I guess. Apparently you get some turkey in you and you start making babies. There's something about those Christmas lights, I guess.
00:03:13
Speaker
Yeah, maybe.
Caribou Hunt Cancellation
00:03:15
Speaker
So yeah, I'd be stoked to come on here and talk about our caribou hunt that we were supposed to go on two years ago, but that didn't happen. You want to fill us in on that? Why that didn't happen? Yeah, that was definitely a bummer, but the numbers just weren't there. And so the federal government, actually, not the state of Alaska, but the federal government stepped in and closed the season. The state of Alaska was wanting to keep it open.
00:03:37
Speaker
But I think it was the Bureau of Indian Affairs came in and said, hey, the numbers are too low. The hunting is too difficult for the natives. We're shutting down the season. And so at that point, you could only hunt within the high watermark of rivers. And that just wasn't what we had signed up for. And so it wasn't worth going out there and just trying to hunt in a riverbank when you would see caribou probably everywhere. And it'd also be too tempting.
00:04:05
Speaker
Yeah, so thanks, Biden. Um, so yeah, we lost our, we, we actually put our deposits in for this hunt and they kept our deposits, didn't give it back to us. So we're all out. There's four of us all out, two grand a piece for our deposit for this flying hunt because, uh, they declared it an act of God, which I still don't know if I agree with that or not, but, uh,
00:04:25
Speaker
We're perpetually going on a caribou hunt every single fall now until it opens back up again if it ever does So they have our deposits and we're basically just out of luck and if it opens up We go on a hunt which kind of stinks for our tag process in other states because now we don't know You know what to apply for if we're going hunting because they don't tell you it's like April if that's gonna happen or not So, uh, I don't know. It's a good problem to have I guess in some part we're gonna go go to Alaska We're gonna fly in and we're gonna hunt caribou for like seven or
Journey into Hunting
00:04:54
Speaker
eight days. It's gonna be a good time
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah, it'll be amazing. It'll be amazing, Tim. Yeah. All right, dude. So kind of simple format. I just want to know, like, how you got into hunting. We'll start with that. And I want to know, like, the process of getting your first deer.
00:05:12
Speaker
Yeah, I'll definitely start with that. So I grew up always like I loved spot and game, but I never hunted. So my dad grew up in Pennsylvania and he would tell me hunting stories as a kid shooting white tails. And so it was always something I wanted to do. But I was playing sports my whole life, you know, I basically was playing sports 24 seven.
00:05:35
Speaker
And then right when I graduated high school, my dad got cancer. And it was one of those moments where it was like, oh man, we've talked about hunting my whole life. I'm 19 years old. I've never even, I've only gone out shooting a dozen times and I've never hunted. Let's make this happen.
00:05:57
Speaker
Unfortunately, my dad getting cancer was the kickstart, but it also was a great kickstart. That was back in 2008. 2007 actually is when I got my hunter's permit, and then my first hunting season I believe was in 2008. I had no clue what I was doing. My dad's only experience was hunting when he was a kid.
00:06:16
Speaker
white tails and so we would go up to Big Bear and we would hunt those mule deer like white tails and would just be so unsuccessful. I mean, we would basically, we would go up there in jeans and a sweatshirt with an orange hat when it was, you know, 20 degrees. We'd freeze our butts off all morning, not see a single thing. You know, we'd find tracks everywhere. You'd find scat. You know they're around, but you just have no clue how to find them. And I remember just getting so frustrated. I'm just like, okay, like,
00:06:46
Speaker
I see these guys hunting deer on TV. It looks like there's deer everywhere. Like, what am I doing wrong? And I kind of got a little obsessed of like, I got to figure this out. Like, I hate losing. I hate losing like this. Isn't it funny, too? Like, when you first start hunting, how excited you get when you see some deer food?
00:07:04
Speaker
Oh, you see some side you see some tracks and then like you realize I was like the longer you do it They're not where the tracks are You gotta find them but it's all I see what you signed but that doesn't mean they're there It is good to see side but man, it's one thing to see poop another thing to see a deer
00:07:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And then it's like, and then you start finding, being able to find does. And then it's a couple of years of finding does and not really finding anything legal. And you just like, okay, now I'm good at finding does, but where are the bucks? And it's just a, it's a process. It took me about six years. I think it was, I think it was 2014 when I got my first, first buck and it was probably the smallest fork you could get.
00:07:47
Speaker
up in d14 i remember um i'll go into the story now but like i remember just not having any good year like i had these cheatin icon binoculars i had um just a rifle that i couldn't shoot well
00:08:03
Speaker
Like the whole thing and I hadn't missed actually a deer the year before and I was so frustrated I went on about a tika a tika t3 308 I was like, alright, I'm gonna get something I can shoot accurately and so I started putting the time effort into I could like shooting sub MOA because I think with my previous rifle I was shooting probably for MOA and
00:08:25
Speaker
And so, um, it just was a mess. And that, yeah, I can say too that I think that, I think that Tika, that Tika T3 with 308 is probably like the, like the best entry level rifle you can get. Like it's a couple hundred bucks more than like somebody savages and stuff.
00:08:45
Speaker
But man, like that Tikka, those T3Xs, they just shoot so good. I think .308 is such a great caliber. Both my boys shoot .308. One of them shoots a Tikka. I have a Tikka that's been built into a bigger rifle now, but by the way, shoots a Browning, but I think a .308 caliber rifle, you know, with like a three to nine scope on it is a perfect rifle for any situation, honestly. I think it's a great caliber. I don't really get into hunting, I get a .308.
00:09:11
Speaker
Right, and especially if you can afford a couple more bucks to get the teacup, it's gonna freakin' cycle every single time. You have no issues, and it's gonna freakin' kill stuff. I killed probably 15 animals with a teacup. And it's just a great rifle.
00:09:23
Speaker
Yeah, I killed all my first animal, my first big game with that Tika. And then, um, but I remember I finally like spent the money to get like a rifle that I could shoot a shot. It was a Tika. No, I could shoot MOA all day with that thing. It was great. And I remember, um, this place we go up in D14, I would always see this giant hill.
00:09:44
Speaker
And I would always hunt this valley beneath the hill, this sage. When I've seen tracks, I've seen doe. And I was like, I'm going to hike up to the top of this thing. And so we like, me and my dad get there. He's going to hunt the bottom and I'm going to hike up to the top. We parked the truck and we start going. And I remember like hiking all the way up and there was, I don't know, 800 feet elevation gain and about 8,000 feet kicked my butt at the time.
00:10:08
Speaker
And I get all the way to the top when I start just looking around, glassing. And then I actually, I spotted this buck with a doe and like down at the bottom, like literally where I just like hiked all the way from. And so I'm like, saw that and I kind of like texted my dad. He didn't see him and I'm like, I look at around and then I was like,
00:10:30
Speaker
I'm going to go after it. And so sure enough, go up and get in the situation. I got like, I found this rock. I got about 400 yards away. Um, you know, we've got as stable as I could get. And I just was sat there. I was like, I hadn't shot this far already with this rifle. I mean, and you know, end up putting a great shot through the shoulder. Took one step went down. I mean, and it's funny because you're using like a CDS style.
00:10:56
Speaker
It was a it was a Nikon Bushman not a bush master. It was a something one of their hunters. It had the MOA lines on it. Oh, just a line so you just you just sent it. I was I was so immature. Like I look back now. It's like oh man.
00:11:17
Speaker
I would never do those things again. I've learned way too much. I had my phone on me because it was just standing there, just eating. I was looking at it. I ranged it. I had the phone app. Nikon had an app. You can look up exactly what power and what distance. I had it all lined up on my phone and I just held. It was probably about two inches lower than I was aiming.
00:11:42
Speaker
But I was stoked. I mean, went through the shoulder. It was a great shot. Went down and probably took, like I said, like two or three steps and just plopped. And then I had to hike all the way down through all the sage, get to it. And I was going to, like I was in my head, I was planning on packing it out. But when I got to it, I realized it was literally like a quarter mile to the truck.
00:12:06
Speaker
And I was like, well, I'm gonna, and it was, you know, it was, I think it was like probably 110 pound deer. Like this thing was, you know, this thing was barely past Bambi. And so I was just like, whatever. So I drug it to the, you know, gutted it and drug it to the truck. And then, which was great. Cause I'd never processed the deer before. And so I was able to do it like with my truck. I was able to bring it home. I threw it, I like went and stopped a bag of ice, put it in the cavity, did the whole thing myself. And actually I had a buddy,
00:12:35
Speaker
from Hawaii. He swore. He's like, dude, you got to put a bunch of ice in it and soak it in ice water, add a bunch of salt. And I was like, no clue what I was doing. I was like, okay. So I did that. I just remember how salty that meat tasted. And just like, I ruined that meat because I soaked it in ice, salt ice water for a couple of days. And I just was so frustrated. I ate every ounce of it, but I did not enjoy it.
00:13:03
Speaker
When you shot this buck, were you flipping out? Were you just hysterical, flipping out, yelling, cheering? I didn't yell. I definitely had tears. I'm not going to lie. I had tears because it was like this six years of just hard work, a lot of unsuccessful, a lot of bad luck, things happening.
00:13:27
Speaker
And at first I was like, it's actually down. Like everything came together. It's down. I had tears. I remember I just immediately texted my dad. I was like, you know, deer down. And like, obviously he like, he heard the shot and stuff. And, um, but yeah, I went, went down and I got it. And then I was able to drag it and meet him. And it was, um, it was definitely a special moment, you know, give him big hug and.
00:13:53
Speaker
just kind of like finally after all these years and then at that point like when I gutted it and I started like even taking it apart I was like this is my life like this is this is I'm gonna do this until I can't like I am going I am going to hunt until I physically can't and um it just fueled fueled a passion and um but I would say that like for me like I always wanted to hunt but like my favorite hunting is elk
00:14:22
Speaker
I love elk, and these local deer are fun, but man, elk is my addiction. You have an elk story? Let me do my middle, this is how good I am you guys. Hey, we sell game bags.
00:14:41
Speaker
go uh go buy some tricer game bags for 55 bucks or 60 bucks we have elk bags and deer bags so if you were like jake instead of shoving ice in the cavity a bunch of salt you could have cut your deer up put it in some blaze orange game bags hike that sucker in the truck and be good to go and we make him blaze orange that way when guys like jake are out there for the first six years to know what they're doing they're not shooting you
00:15:01
Speaker
They see you out there, and they go, there's a game bag. That rack has a game bag. It's an orange head bag and four corner bags. So go buy some Tricer game bags. That's my little pitch right there. Jake, tell us about your elk.
00:15:14
Speaker
Well, first, I'm going to say I got to use one of those game bags this spring on my bear hunt. And so they're great game bags. Definitely recommend them. Awesome. And also for this elk hunt, I want to shout out to your gear. I had been trying to look for good solutions for a long time about shooting elevated. And when you made the Tricer, the GTP, like the RS legs,
00:15:38
Speaker
I was like, I fell in love with those RS legs. I was putting my trekking poles on as a bipod and I was shooting once a week and I could get good. I got good.
00:15:50
Speaker
If anyone doesn't know what they are, they take a Spartan rifle bipod and they thread onto the bipod and now you have a leg that's adjustable from 6 to 9 inches and you can pop the legs out and then stick your trekking poles in there, your trekking poles in the legs. Then you can shoot basically prone to standing with your trekking poles on your Spartan bipod.
00:16:10
Speaker
Um, so yeah, it's a, it's a cool set up. Definitely an awesome set up and people love them. We killed a pig on them this year. And I ended up selling like three guys, the RS legs from that trip. Cause they just were so stoked on doing this pig like 220 yards off of sticks across the candy. And he just came home and bought them and then his friends bought them and it was pretty cool. Yeah. It's a sweet product. Yeah. I think I've killed.
00:16:32
Speaker
two of my bulls with him. Okay. Really? Yeah. Two of my three bulls, two of the three bulls I've taken were taken with those RS legs. If you're in like thick oak, like those steep hills with that thick oak brush and like you have to be able to get that, the rifle up, you know,
00:16:51
Speaker
Elevated and that's it's for me the best way like I know everyone's going to tripods now a tripod mounts and I'm gonna mess with that more this year, but I really like those those the GTP RS with it my I use my backpack as the rear stabilizer and I'm confident to five six hundred yards with that thing and and so I mean it's It's it's it's fun. So um
00:17:19
Speaker
But this story, one of my favorite hunt, I know you kind of talked about the first hunt.
Overcoming Hunting Challenges
00:17:25
Speaker
And before you even get to this, anyone out there who's been hunting Southern California and has just been frustrating, don't worry. That's just part of the process. And you're going to look back and remember how hard it was and laugh and
00:17:39
Speaker
kind of like brings joy. They're just like how much you had to overcome to get to where you're at. And once you start killing them, it kind of just like starts coming more naturally. Like once you start killing, it really starts clicking, you know, and like, there's something about it. It just, you know, I mean, because you come down a little bit, you come on more patient, you start to see things. I mean, honestly, think about what you did when you killed your deer. You got elevation.
00:18:05
Speaker
Yeah. When, and now as a hunter, where would you not get elevation? You'd always get elevation to look for deer, right? Like you're, so you did something right and you ended up killing a deer cause you got elevation, right? Sometimes it worked out. Sometimes you hike up and you didn't have an hike back down, but elevation is key to killing animals.
00:18:22
Speaker
Yeah, I hiked up at the time I had a trekking pole and I just set my binoculars on the trekking pole. Man, I love the stability systems we have now. Yeah, tripods are awesome. Yeah, tripods, panheads makes a huge difference. But yeah, just setting that on the trekking pole is able to spot it. I don't remember how far it was when I first bought it. It was like maybe seven, seven to 800 yards with my little 10 by 42s that I had at the time. Nice.
00:18:50
Speaker
Yeah, and actually I had found a spike shed really close to where I got him down to. I still have that spike shed. I was like, I always wonder, I was like, hey, maybe this is the same one from the year before, but maybe he was one versus two, or a half versus one and a half. In California, it means that it could be a spark, so a spike by fork. It has to have a fork on one side, a branch at the rear, on one side, two-thirds of the way up.
00:19:17
Speaker
So down here they give out so many tags, and if it's legal, it's pretty much getting shot. So if you don't shoot it, so what else is going to shoot on the next Ridge Rover? It's pretty crazy down here.
00:19:29
Speaker
Definitely it's it is the Wild West I've had I've had multiple occasions down here ducking cuz guys I had no clue that there should be like right there shooting right next to me like I've hit this back probably three times But bullets whizzing by and you're just like oh man Okay, we were we were orange and
00:19:50
Speaker
in San Diego, we were orange. We were orange on us, we were orange in Arizona, too. We were orange on all of our rifle hunts now. It's just not worth it to me. We have orange on our backpacks. I have orange game bags. I have orange hats on. I mean, people are just too stupid. I mean, you see guys walking around with AR-10s, you know, busting bushes, and it's just not, to me, it's just, I wear orange no matter what. You do what you wear orange, too, I think, right? Yeah, yeah. A few times, you wear orange.
00:20:16
Speaker
It's just not worth it to me. The deer is not going to, I'd rather have orange on and have a deer spot me sometime than not have orange on and get shot by some guy, especially when you're packing out animals. Well, the deer don't see orange, right? No, they actually see blues more than orange. Okay. To a deer, I believe that a blue, if you were wearing blue jeans or a blue shirt, it would stand out more like how we see something orange at a distance.
00:20:46
Speaker
Really? It shows you I know about Orange. I just want to make sure my kids aren't getting shot. That's a great way to ruin a lot of people's day. So, your favorite hut. Tell me about it.
00:21:00
Speaker
Yeah, my favorite hunt. So, actually I had, this particular hunt, I booked with an outfitter, Travis Crockenberg. So TKO Outfitters. I hadn't really done outfitted hunts before I had done one. And mostly done, I've done a lot, I had killed a lot of cow elk solo before this. But I wanted to go with this outfitter for the bull and I wanted to bring my dad with me.
00:21:27
Speaker
because my dad hadn't really had any success with a bull hunt. And I was like, this is a great opportunity for us to go together. And it started off like a great hunt. We go up, it was like in Colorado in this cool little piece of BLM in National Forest. And we're up there and we're on this perch and we're looking. And I remember day one, I had this nice five by six, about 550 yards.
00:21:54
Speaker
Um, walk and kind of just stop broadside 550 yards. And, um, and I had dropped my pack and I had the RS legs. And so, um, and I was, I brought my cannon. So what I've been using the last few years is a three 38 rum. I shoot a 260 grain hammer hunters. And, um, that thing is accurate. Love that. It's a bad medicine. Yeah. When it hits an elk, it just flips the switch.
00:22:24
Speaker
And so I basically had that set up, it was shouldered, and I was like watching it, and I just didn't feel peace about taking the shot. It was like opening morning, it was like the first 30 minutes of shooting light, and I was like, do I really want to hammer one down right now? And the year before, I had actually shot an elk.
00:22:44
Speaker
on opening day two and i was like a bull and i just remember being like kind of wishing i spent more time hunting on the trip and not just like taking that first opportunity so i was i was kind of being a little risky here because like this is a you know open like unit like public land like you might not get more than one opportunity but i passed it
00:23:06
Speaker
And then I remember kind of like, you know, those thoughts and the regrets and everything kind of going through your head when you pass a legal game. And I was just like, okay, and sure enough, I saw nothing else the rest of the day and I kind of all the opportunities left. And then that night went over all down on some private and try to get my dad set up where it's all some bull elk on private land.
00:23:27
Speaker
And my dad took a shot. He hit it, but we didn't find it. So we're going to go back in the morning to go look for it. And we go back the next morning, and we're looking, we're looking. And we think we see it, and it ends up not being it. Then we finally see another one. It runs off. It didn't look injured at all. My dad ended up not filling his tag on this trip. But there was definitely, like,
00:23:57
Speaker
It's frustrating, so after all that happened that next day, day one I passed down this bull, my dad had an opportunity shot, didn't make a great shot, just flesh wound, the elk was absolutely fine. It was a nice six by six.
00:24:12
Speaker
And then after all this, I was talking to the outfitter and he was like, hey with your .338, how comfortable are you shooting? I was like, well, I really don't want to shoot at game past like five, six, maybe 600 yards if I have to. But I was like, I would shoot a rock at a thousand yards. And he was like, oh, I'm curious. Like, OK, so we got we went to some place and found a rock at a thousand yards is about like a one MOA rock.
00:24:34
Speaker
got down, we got on video and we were just kind of messing around around lunchtime when the elk weren't moving and I shot this rock at a thousand yards and you know I drilled it and everyone's like okay okay he can shoot you're like you know I know what I'm doing and I had done a ton of practice ton of reloading up to this point
00:24:52
Speaker
Well, the game plan for the next day was there's this drop-off point, it's about 11,000 feet altitude, and to drop down into this other bowl, this other basin, where we had seen some elk glassing from a couple miles away. And so it got all set up. We hiked in the next morning. It was about, where we got dropped off, it was about a three and a half mile hike in, and then it's like a five mile hike out.
00:25:16
Speaker
And so we get all the way set up and we get a hike in and I found this perch and I'm sitting on BLM land and I'm like glassing all this private land below and there's elk everywhere. I'm seeing huge six by sixes. I'm seeing like a couple bulls at well over 330 cows everywhere and they're all starting to migrate their way towards me up the public land up the hill.
00:25:40
Speaker
And I'm sitting there and I'm just like, this is a dream out of like everything I've ever dreamed. This is a dream come true hunt. Like I've dreamed about hunting this bull my whole life. And here he comes like this huge six by six. I, we estimated probably about 340 inch bull working his way. We spotted him about two miles off, slowly working his way to us. And um,
00:26:02
Speaker
I'm like, this is perfect. Nothing could go wrong. Everything is going right. I was hitting that target at 1,000 yards yesterday. This bull's coming right at me. I'm going to get a close shot. He works his way to about 400 yards for me. I had the GTP RS legs. I had set up, got comfortable, and I was like, let the guys around me know, hey, I'm going to fire. We're going to take this bull. This is the bull that I won. And turn the safety off.
00:26:32
Speaker
And there was zero reaction from the bull. And I was like, I've hit elk with this rifle before. I missed. That was a clean miss. Put another round in. Miss. And then in my head, I'm starting to freak out. I'm like, how am I missing? Do I have? Yeah, all right. And so I'm sitting there. I'm basically in this scrub oak on this hillside. And this elk, two shots missed. And he's still walking right towards me like nothing happened.
00:27:02
Speaker
And so I was like, okay, I don't understand why I missed. I was like, maybe I bumped my scope. Maybe I didn't adjust my turrets correctly. So I go through, rearrange, readjust my turret to make sure it was like, okay, it was like, I believe it was like six MOA or whatever it was. And I did the adjustment.
00:27:19
Speaker
get back on. He had come to about 370 yards. I'm on the, you know, the, like the RS legs have my, my backpack as my rear pack. I am steady. I'm holding this crosshairs as still as I can hold a crosshair on this elk shoulder. I'm like, okay, I'll send this one and then fire completely miss again. And by this time I had three misses and I'm just like bewildered. I'm just like, like how? Like, I like,
00:27:45
Speaker
I literally hit a rock a thousand yards the day before and I'm missing at 370 yards and I'm just like, my mind is melting at this point. Like this is like when you hit quicksand, everything turns to mush. So I rack another round in, just fire, miss. Rack another round, fire, miss. I'm down five shots.
00:28:08
Speaker
And I look and I only brought seven rounds with me because I was honestly, I was so confident. I was like, I don't even need to bring seven rounds. I only need to bring two, maybe three. But I brought seven just because things happen. And so I was down to my two final rounds here.
00:28:23
Speaker
And I'm just like, oh man. So I just watched it and it came up, came closer, came closer. 280 yards broadside. This 340 inch beautiful six by six bull staying there feeding. Line up crosshairs.
00:28:39
Speaker
miss again. And I'm like, and then he's just standing there. I'm like, how, like, he looks up, he takes another couple steps towards me. And I just, I was like, I can't miss at this distance. I put my final round in the chamber. Just like, I'm just like, this is gonna hit him. Like, there's no way I'm missing a seventh time. Complete miss.
00:29:00
Speaker
I'm not even kidding. When this bull, he was so confident that I couldn't hit him. He walked to about 160, 165 yards and stood there, ate grass in front of us. I could have thrown a rock because it was pretty steep. I could have thrown a rock and hit him. I'm sitting there out of ammo and I'm three and a half, four miles from the truck.
00:29:22
Speaker
Actually, for this point, we're actually closer to five miles from the truck because we got dropped off and they moved the truck to a different spot. And so we're five miles from the truck and I'm just sitting here, no ammo on this mountain. There's elk everywhere. And I'm just like, I'm having the biggest mental beat up of my life. I'm like, you had this dream of this bull. Like this is literally the bull you've dreamed of. You've watched it for an hour, coming from a mile and a half to you, maybe even further.
00:29:51
Speaker
and you can't make this shot and then my buddy like literally looks at me he's like did you ever turn your turrets back to zero after shooting at a thousand yards yesterday and i look at my scope and i started going and i was like oh yeah of course i did and then all of a sudden i realized i didn't go all the way back i went to zero not all the way back around to zero
00:30:14
Speaker
And so then I sat there and I turned my turret all the way around, like one and a half revolutions to zero. And I just sat there, I'm just like, are you kidding me? That's like the biggest rookie mistake on my dream bowl and this hunt that I've been dreaming about for the last 20 years. Like how in the world did this happen? To say that was like- So you were 16, 16 MOA?
00:30:41
Speaker
No, it was It was more than that. I believe I think it was it I think it was a toy It was 20 MO a revolution and then I would then I was six over so I was 26 MO a and so I was 20 Yeah, yeah, I was shooting way over
00:31:01
Speaker
I was sitting so far behind him that he I think that's why he kept walking towards me because I was hitting behind them You scared him towards you. I did. I scared him towards me. Oh Man, that's brutal and I'm just like sitting there and being like I just remember being like well That's my hunt like this was this was Day three of like I think of a five-day hunt and I had the golden opportunity You know, we hiked all the way in here. We got all this
00:31:29
Speaker
Anyways, we had to do that brutal five-mile hike out and I just remember and by that time if we got back it was like I think I like 11 or noon and so it's snow on the ground but by 11 noon I got warm enough that all the trails turn into thick mush right so slick probably four to six inches of mud everywhere and you just like it's just that hike was just terrible like no one was talking because it was just like one of those things that
00:32:00
Speaker
It just the way it worked. It was just it was it was like cuz I we had split up And like they might the one thing other guys he was like I don't know like a ridge over and he heard all the shooting and and He actually had an opportunity at the same the elk, but he didn't feel comfortable at his shot It was like 500 or 450 yards and he didn't feel comfortable taking it. He didn't take it and
00:32:24
Speaker
And it was just that walkout was just not fun. I remember that night just being like, I'm going to bed early. I don't want to stay up and talk. You've completely accessed the pity train at this point, right? Oh, yeah. Self-pity, the sorrow is just come over you. The self-loathing is just like, why do I even hunt? I should just go home, sell my gear, pick up golf.
00:32:51
Speaker
you know just like i'm only laughing because i know the feeling so well right yeah and you're just like i like this is the like this is dumb and then also i'm like great i'm gonna have to tell my wife like i spent all this time this money this effort like perfecting my skills doing everything and they make this kind of mistake and not bring any meat home it was just like what all these things going through my head and then um that night a storm came in
00:33:21
Speaker
We got about another six inches of snow. So the next morning I got up, I kind of just a pity party. I was like, I'm not hiking way back there again. Like I wanted, I'm just going to go hike in like two miles and just glass to this like cliff and not like go into the bowl. I was basically the top of glass and we glassed in the morning and I think it was, I don't know, five, six degrees, windy, just like that brutal cold that just goes through everything where you can't get your toes warm.
00:33:50
Speaker
Yeah, and I was I we left early like I think we were out to like 9 10 a.m And after 10 a.m. We're just like we're done We're in that night. We just kind of drove around glass glass the mountains and glass the hills and It was just like and then I was you know, talk about buddy I was like, well like we know where the bulls are at They're like it's where we like where I shot and missed like that's my best opportunity for a bull So i'm gonna go back there
00:34:19
Speaker
on the last day of the season. And out of this, in my mind, my season was already over. Like I was just, but I was like, I'm still gonna hunt. Like I'm not gonna give up. Like I'm still gonna grind it out. But I had like already in my mind was like checked out. I was just like, man, already thinking of everything. And that night, then that night I fell asleep. The fourth day of the hunt fell asleep. And I remember waking up at,
00:34:48
Speaker
3.30 in the morning. I had this dream.
00:34:52
Speaker
And in my dream, I remember this the year before when I shot my bull. Yeah, it is. Sorry. How I was like, I literally said, man, I was like, keep going. Yeah. So there was there's that there's the cold snow on the ground, freezing cold morning, like five degrees out. Can't get warm. There is not anything moving. I mean, we saw probably like a hundred head of elk on private in the valley and they weren't moving.
00:35:20
Speaker
And so we're just kind of sitting there watching this huge herd of elk. Obviously bulls and this and that, but they weren't going to go anywhere. They're just happy as can be sitting on that private land with the snow everywhere.
00:35:32
Speaker
We watched them for a couple hours, and we called it early morning. And we're just like, we want to go get warm. We want to go get some soup, just get comfortable because we're all miserable. And still, the self-loathing is there, right? And then that night, we didn't hunt hard. We ended up taking our trucks down a dirt road and glassing up some other areas and didn't see anything and found some tracks. But it was just kind of like a,
00:36:01
Speaker
Kind of more of like a wasted night, you know, it was just kind of more of a recuperation night after just the couple days before and So I go to bed I go to bed You know, I forget it was like I think it's a four-day hunt or a five-day hunt I think maybe it's a five-day hunt. It was like the night before. Yeah, it was five-day hunt. So four days of hunting and
00:36:25
Speaker
go to bed, it was like tomorrow's the last day, I'm gonna hike back into the exact same spot I shot and missed my bull, I know there's a bunch of bulls up there, and if I can get back there, you know, I can make it happen. But I was just like, we'll see, you know, I'm not very confident at this point. And fall asleep, fall asleep early, and all of a sudden I had this dream in the middle of the night, like I had this dream where I actually remembered
00:36:53
Speaker
that the year before I shot my bull on opening day, and I was actually kind of like, yo, it's incredible. You have an opportunity on a bull opening day. You take it. But I also was like, I remember actually having this feeling and this thought. I'd be like, Lord, if I get an opportunity on a bull again, I kind of want to struggle first. I want to have a close miss. I want it to suck, and I want to get one the very last day. I want to be a hero at the last moment.
00:37:19
Speaker
And then I immediately woke up at 3.30 in the morning with this like overcoming feeling. I was like, this is exactly what I prayed for. Like this day, like the suck from the couple of days before was exactly what I wanted for this last day to be super sweet. And so I woke up at 3.30. I got dressed. I was ready to go. Everyone else was kind of slow getting up. I'm like, guys, we're killing bulls today.
00:37:44
Speaker
We're getting bowls on the ground. This is the day. And I remember we parked like five, it was like five miles from like this, this gate that was close to like this public land road. And so we parked at the gate. We hike in, you know, it's a five mile hike in and we started early and we're moving.
00:38:02
Speaker
And about two and a half, three miles in, I come across this cougar, a fresh cougar track. And I'm like, man, this is the day. And I remember seeing this fresh cougar track and then looking up and seeing a nice six by six bull standing on the other side of this basin, just cresting the top as like just the first rays of sunlight were coming down.
00:38:23
Speaker
and i'm just like man this is the day and so i was just a motor and i probably hiked my fastest that day i just felt re-energized you know hike through hike up this steep incline and it's just like there's a there was a trail through some of it and then you get to like this
00:38:43
Speaker
you know these it's really just a hellhole of oak on these hillsides it's just thick everything gets caught up gets stuck and we're working our way through and all of a sudden as we get to this top to like about two or three hundred yards above where i was the day before i missed
00:38:59
Speaker
I can start hearing elk everywhere. There's bugles going on, there's cow mews, and they're surrounded me. I was probably surrounded by 300, 400 head of elk in this mountain, but I can't see a single one because of how thick it is. And my dad was actually down in the valley.
00:39:18
Speaker
Then he was glassing and he could see me and he was like, dude, there's elk everywhere. You're going to get one. And I just like knew I was like, this is this is my day, right? I can hear the muse. I can hear this. And I'm trying to find places to get set up. And then you really because it's so thick, you need a really steep incline so that you can like shoot like you're trying to find like a plateau, but really something really steep above that. So that way you can get good shot angles.
00:39:47
Speaker
or moving around, running around, trying to find something, hearing bugles, moving this and that. And so again, I move over. And so actually, I should note that this was the first rifle in Colorado. And so this is just after the ruts, but the bulls still act a little runny. They're still following cows. They're very on the tail end of the rut, but they're still bulls that are running.
00:40:17
Speaker
And so I'm still kind of trying to find cows, seeing if there's a bull around there. And I go up, and all of a sudden, I hear the mews coming. And I'm like, oh, they're coming in close, like 300 yards beneath me. So I get the RS legs set up, get my backpack underneath, set up over this opening down below that was 300 yards. And then it was like the first cow starts coming. And all of a sudden, all the cows start feeding in 300 yards beneath me.
00:40:47
Speaker
I'm sitting there and there's about 20 or 30 cal, like just right there. And it's just like, man, this is amazing. They're mewing, you know, sub 300 yards. I can see them all. This is like absolutely amazing experience. And then I'm just waiting. I was like, where's the bull? He's got to be in here somewhere. And then I see some antlers, you know, going through the scrub, like this Oak and like the scrub Oak is probably nine feet tall.
00:41:15
Speaker
in a lot of these places. So it's not like they could elk and disappear in it. But I see the antlers, and he steps out. And he steps out to an opening. And I put my crosshairs on him. I have a round chambered. And I'm just sitting there, and a cow is standing right behind him. So I can't take this shot.
00:41:35
Speaker
And so here's a 300 yard shot. Like I know my, my tour is set. It's my opportunity. It's not a huge bull, but it's like, it was, you know, it's an, it's a nice, like it was, I saw the five on the one side. So it's a nice five point bull on one side and I'm sitting there and I have my crosshairs on them and I'm just like, cow, I need you to move cow. And I'm like watching this bull and I'm like, how I need you to move. And by this point, the wind swirled. So all the cows started getting antsy, right?
00:42:03
Speaker
And so all the cows start moving off. And I'm just sitting here crosshairs on this bull, and I'm just like, I need that cow to move. And I'm just sitting there waiting. I'm just like, if that cow doesn't move, my season's over. And then the cow takes two steps, and the bull immediately starts to turn. And as that bull is turning, I was like, it's a clear shot behind him. There's nothing behind him. Safety off. Slowly squeeze that trigger.
00:42:31
Speaker
You hear that smack, that clear, that clap. It was the hit. In my head, I'm still like, I didn't hit a cow, right? It's like the way this trip has gone, I didn't hit a cow, right? I don't see antlers. I had a muzzle flash, the clap, and then there was no antlers and cows just flurried off. I never saw anything that antlers go.
00:42:59
Speaker
And I'm like, I'm pretty sure he's down. I'm pretty sure I dropped him.
00:43:03
Speaker
And, um, but, you know, I'm going to give it a couple seconds, have my rifle chamber another round, looking down there, making sure nothing's happening. And after I gave it like a minute, all the cows are gone. There is no movement. I was like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to head down there. So I started heading down there, working through all this thick stuff, excited, moving through, and then I get to where I thought he was. And there's absolutely nothing there. And I'm just like, Oh man, what did I do?
00:43:30
Speaker
I was like, he was right here. This is exactly where I thought he was. And then I was like, well, I'll just start small circles and start circling, getting bigger. And it didn't take long. It took maybe about 10 steps. And there he was. He was just stone cold dead, fell into the scrub oaks and got caught up. And I just sat there. I just remember just this huge relief.
00:43:59
Speaker
of like the hunt. It's still a good hunt, even when you're not successful, but there's always a sense of relief when you are successful. Maybe I put so much pressure on myself, but also just the way the whole hunt went. I just remember sitting there looking at them and just being so grateful for this amazing animal. Took a couple photos, started butchering it up.
00:44:29
Speaker
And at this point, I called the guide that was with my dad, who radioed in, and we were like, hey, can you bring horses out? Because I really like it. I was like, by this point, it's 11 AM on the last day of the season. My legs are toast.
00:44:48
Speaker
You know, but I was like, you know, if we have to hike out, we'll hike it out. But we were fortunate enough to get mules back there. And so he got, he brought in some mules and so, you know, butchered them up in game bags, laid down, took a little nap, said a couple of prayers, just thanking Jesus. I was like, thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for showing up. Like, this is
00:45:11
Speaker
like overwhelming emotions this is it kind of it's funny exactly what i prayed for even though i didn't like i also said i'm never going to pray that prayer again and um we yeah we got there we got the mules we loaded up the mules and i got to ride out like that five mile that um would have been a hike but i got to ride out five miles on a horse with the like with um
00:45:39
Speaker
All the elk packed up. I remember taking some videos just going up in this crazy terrain with these incredible horses. Those guys, those horsemen who train the mules and the horses that go in this terrain, they're incredible what they can do. I've seen them go up 50, 60 degree ledges that are slippery that I can barely walk up. And they're going up with loads. And you're just like, man, that's impressive.
00:46:08
Speaker
Um, but well, I just remember ripping on that horseback looking over like this valley beneath us.
00:46:14
Speaker
where all the private land, where all these things happen, and just this overwhelming gratitude, and just like, God, your ways are better than mine. I couldn't have wrote a story this good with the emotional ups and downs and it's like between passing on elk and then my dad getting one, then losing that one, and then hitting a rock at 1,000 yards to missing a layup shot of the biggest bull I've ever seen in my life.
00:46:42
Speaker
to almost giving up to then hiking all the way in and getting one on the last day in the last few hours. And it was by far my favorite trip. And I've experienced a lot of great things. I've been charged by bears. I've shot way bigger bulls than that bull. It's actually my smallest bull. But it's always going to be a special bull for me. So yeah, that's my most memorable hunt right there.
00:47:14
Speaker
And then being able to also get back and share that with my dad too is pretty special. But yeah, man, your GTP RS legs, they saved the day being able, and that thick oak brush, like, they, they really helped me get those crosshairs lined up. That's awesome, man. Sorry, I cut out there again in the end right there. Um, yeah, dude, there's like many things to go with that. Like one,
00:47:41
Speaker
like you can't quit right like it's yeah the same like you might not see an elk for six days that doesn't mean the seventh day you're not going to see one and that's one of the hardest things with a hunting partner right it's why they come with you is like finding someone that on the seventh day has their energy as the first day right everyone the first day is like yeah yeah yeah but how do you go four or five days and have these like
00:48:05
Speaker
you know, days of rain, snow, and fog, and misses, and just all the stuff that you don't see in the YouTube videos that happen, right? Like, these just... Yeah. All the real hunting issues that happen in the field, where we all have had these problems where, you know, whatever, we didn't turn a turret, or we did something stupid, you know, let an arrow go too soon, or pull the trigger too soon, you know, or rush a shot, and... Yeah. It's just, you know, we could have waited and we took a shot, you know, we should have taken, but...
00:48:33
Speaker
When you actually get it done, man, there's no better feeling. And another thing to note, elk only die in hellholes.
Future Hunting Plans
00:48:42
Speaker
Yeah. They have a way of finding a way to die in the worst possible spots, that's for sure. Yeah, yep. I know the bull I shot last year. I was on the top of a, like top of like a ridge, like basically he was like 10 feet below the top of a ridge. I actually put a couple of bull, I put a couple of bullets into him and he just refused to die and then dove off.
00:49:05
Speaker
And then it proceeded to go about a half mile down to this hell hole where like I broke a trekking pole, climb out of that. Cause it was just too steep and you're just like, really?
00:49:17
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like it's their last little payback. Like, you know what? You're going to shoot me. I'm going to roll down this hole and get stuck on this tree with my antlers. You get under the scrub boat, or you can't get me out because I weigh 300 pounds. That looks awesome, man. I have a love-hate relationship with them. I love-hate relationship with them. I love to hunt them. I hate to hunt them. I love to pack them when it's all over. I hate to pack them when I'm doing it.
00:49:41
Speaker
It's just, they are cool. So, good stories, dude. What do you got planned for the season? You got some hunts coming up? Yep, yep. I got a local D16. I'll be heading to Utah for a deer hunt with somebody that you know very well. Yep, taking my 17-year-old. Yep.
00:50:02
Speaker
Yep, so we'll be out there chasing chasing some big mules And I I think we're gonna we're gonna come across some it's a good buck out there. I know at least one if not two I hope then And then i'll be going back to colorado for elk again. Um, I went over thanksgiving last year because I had done a lot of hunting and the first week of october
00:50:26
Speaker
And I liked the later season elk. I've done a lot of late season cow elk hunts, and I like that style. And then I think, hopefully, I'll be able to get my dad on one. If I can get some private land access, I'm really hoping to get my dad a bull. That'd be awesome. Yeah, it's like a dream of mine to help him get his first bull, you know? Yeah, that'd be awesome to get him on an elk and get him money's bill. A few months now, I know that. So it'd be great to get him a bull. Yeah.
00:50:55
Speaker
Yeah. Awesome. Exactly. Well, dude, I was gonna say, yeah, and I got my first bear this spring. Oh yeah, you got your first bear. Yeah, I got my first bear on the spring. That was one of those things that it was like where you're spending a couple days not seeing anything, not seeing anything, and you're just like glassing across a canyon and someone's like, bear.
00:51:17
Speaker
And you're like, wait, what? And then there's this beautiful cinema bear, 300 yards cross canyon. And you just don't think, you drop down, you get behind it, get the cross hairs on it, you're looking.
00:51:32
Speaker
than just pull the oscillator squeeze that trigger and that bear just instantly died those I really like those hammer bullets I know not everyone's a big fan of copper but those hammer bullets man they've they've done a number on some of these animals I've taken yeah I I'm shooting them now and a few my god I'm actually we should have my 280 accurate this year for elk as well shooting those 140s and my 280 actually
00:51:54
Speaker
I shoot them in my 260. I don't know. I mean, they're very accurate. They load really well. They're probably easily overloaded for my guns. I still don't know that I'm convinced that they kill better than like my Barnes bullets. Only because I've killed a lot of stuff with Barnes and Barnes just works, you know? But I mean, they are. They do love. Man, I put three of those into a grapefruit a thousand yards in my 260. I put the rifle away after I was done.
00:52:18
Speaker
Unbelievable, I got pictures. I thought I was there watching too. So it wasn't just me. So it's a very incredible bullets man So yeah, dude, I'm excited. I'm excited for a little dirty go over there with you. He'll be shooting a 308 168 grain TTS X is in it. So You can drop the hammer. Yeah Try not off the hammer. Yeah pack some Nice me those are bigger mule deer too. Yeah, and he's a little bit more a little bit more weight. I
00:52:43
Speaker
he's a power lifter though so you know he's all muscle and the kids are freaking thoroughbred so you'll be uh it's making him carry everything he's playing he'll carry your uh your binoculars for you and put the gear on his back and so he's got young he's got young knees dude he'll pack it out for you oh man that's why i started that gym and um
00:53:01
Speaker
2022. Yeah, starting to get in shape. I was like, I need to start squatting. I need to start doing lunges. So I got that gym membership. And it's amazing how much strength you can add in a year.
00:53:14
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm still convinced that there's no amount of training you can do for an elk, though. There's no amount of training that equates to that dead weight on your back coming out of a canyon over rocks and deadfall and tripping. Your body's never the same when you're done with an elk.
00:53:34
Speaker
No, but I do. I'm in the gym too. The slipping, the tripping, the heavy weight. I mean, it's just, and we have good backs, right? I wrote a big XO. It's just, I have a good back. It's just, I don't care. Once you put over a hundred pounds on your back, it's just, it's fun stuff too, but that's what we do it for.
00:53:52
Speaker
I'm stoked you got that bull in there. That's a good story. I got to hear the whole story like that before, so it's good to hear it. And hopefully you and Drew go and just shoot a freaking toad of a buck or two over there, and you tell them to get you back on. Both of you guys on here to tell them the story about that one. And I love to come home with a couple 160s.
00:54:10
Speaker
That'd be great. I'd be great for him. And yeah, I already told you that you know, don't make him be too picky You know, you need to make sure you get a good buck. But uh, oh man, you're glad to be out there Yeah, he's a good honey partner. He's gonna be good. They're glass now. They're doing well. He's fully capable He'll be eight to be 17 here a couple weeks. So he's capable of it over with you helping you so Definitely do appreciate it. Thanks guys and for everyone else don't give up hunt to the last minute
00:54:43
Speaker
I'm pretty secret. I don't post anything. All right, don't don't follow Jake but I am gonna post a video of him packing this look out on the horses with this so you'll see that so All right. Okay. Yeah, you do it the video I want a photo probably video photo. I don't give me some stuff video be good Alright, thanks guys. Thank you. Listen, dr. All right
00:55:13
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Tricer Podcast. Do us a favor and like and subscribe on whatever platform you are listening on. Give us a follow on Instagram and Facebook at TricerUSA and go and check out all of our innovative gear at www.tricerusa.com. Until next time, shoot straight, have fun, and always put God first.