00:00:05 Speaker 1: Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves. From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living, I want you to stay a while as I share my experiences and life lessons. This Country Life is presented by Case Knives from the Store More Studio on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcasts the airways have to offer. All right, friends. Grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some stories to share. Welcome to a different kind of version, kind of, if you're watching an episode of This Country Life. It's going to be a video. We're doing it. You can see it live or as we recorded it live on YouTube. You can watch it there and see who I'm talking to and some of the things that we're going to be talking about. But this is This Country Life Podcast, and I'm joined by my good friend, David McDaniels. David just recently returned from out west where he drew a tag in an undisclosed location in an undisclosed state where he killed a, well, let me put it this way. He went on an elk hunt and has a pretty good story to tell. And I have I think this is day six or seven since you pulled the trigger, David. And I have yet to hear this story because I've just been, I had an idea when you went up there, I thought, now his chances of killing the elk are slim and none. And then a few days into it, he says, he sends me a message and we'll get into that in a minute. But anyway, obviously, good things have happened or he wouldn't be here right now. But my friend David McDaniels from East Texas, who I met through the interwebs of all things, like several years ago now, and we've gotten to be good friends. And David, I gave him a short introduction. David does some work for First Light, and he does some work for Meat Eater. He actually does some stuff with Jordan Sellers. I think David is the prime suspect in most of the unsolved murders that Jordan talks about. No, not really. He's a cameraman by what? Not by trade, but by choice, I guess. 00:02:35 Speaker 2: Yeah, by passion, for sure. 00:02:36 Speaker 1: By passion, for sure. David, what's your regular job? How do you put food on the table that you buy at the grocery store? How about that? 00:02:46 Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm sure you can tell I look like I work in private equity. No, I'm a mergers and acquisitions manager by trade for a large fire protection company. I've been an entrepreneur most of my life, and the last business I owned was a fire company, and I sold it to the company that I work for now. And I basically help them find other business owners like I used to. 00:03:12 Speaker 2: Be to help them sell their company to the one. 00:03:14 Speaker 1: I work for. 00:03:15 Speaker 3: Okay. 00:03:16 Speaker 1: All right. So, and you're located in East Texas out there and, you know, you and I met, you started doing some work for, for me and Reva on some, some background stuff for the new YouTube stuff, which translated into working some for Jordan. And now you're doing some stuff for First Light. We've got that covered. How did you come about getting, how did you wind up elk hunting and, out West, which is kind of a, it's got like three steps into the story, how you wound up where you are. 00:03:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty wild. 00:03:53 Speaker 3: I mean, so I've been hunting for, this is my seventh deer season, never elk hunted before. And I wouldn't say that I've never had any interest in elk hunting, but, uh, I'm actually really passionate about bears, which I think you know that, um, we've been on a bear hunt together in Canada and, uh, we did that with our you know, basically adopted family at this point, the McCarthy's at North Mountain Adventures. You also just had a very awesome YouTube hunt that went for your moose hunt, you know, with Greg up there in Manitoba. So I was actually headed up there to do some filming for them this spring. And, you know, I love Canada. Somebody's got to be the second best hockey team in the world. So, I don't think that they love that I felt that way. So they decided not to let me in for the first time this spring. So not here to dissect that. Not even mad about it at this point. But in the moment, it was really disappointing. I was really excited to see Craig Amell. I had just bought a new. 00:04:54 Speaker 1: Just to clarify, because some folks are familiar with why people would not get let in. It was nothing to do with a criminal record or anything like that. 00:05:03 Speaker 2: No, that's fair. 00:05:04 Speaker 1: It was permits. It was filming permits that weren't exactly aligned the way they should have been. So let's just go from there. 00:05:11 Speaker 2: Yeah, fair. So I was actually headed up there. I was going to do some work for First Light. 00:05:17 Speaker 3: I had just bought a new Sony FX6, was really excited to kind of spend some time behind the camera, which was part of the reason for the trip. Because I didn't get in, I had to reach out to Michael Redfelt, our good friend at First Light, and let him know. And he said, hey, man, if you've got the time, you should just come to Idaho and bear hunt. He's like, you can borrow anything you need. 00:05:36 Speaker 2: I've got everything. 00:05:37 Speaker 3: I know it's a long drive, but why not? And I honestly was not going to do that. But thankfully, I married a really incredible woman. 00:05:45 Speaker 2: And my wife, Crystal, was like, hey, you should just go. 00:05:47 Speaker 1: Why not? 00:05:48 Speaker 2: So after driving 20 hours to the border, not. 00:05:51 Speaker 3: Getting into Canada, drove 17 hours to Idaho, did not kill a bear, but got a chance to meet Michael in person, had a really great trip, told him I would come back this fall and try to punch my bear attack. And he said, man, if you're coming back, you should apply for our elk and mule deer draw. 00:06:10 Speaker 2: You know, like, why not? 00:06:12 Speaker 3: And it's like $ 19 per. 00:06:14 Speaker 2: You know, opportunity to draw. And I said, sure. I mean, why not? You know, if I'm coming back, maybe I could do like a both and or whatever. And didn't really even think a whole lot of it. Uh, I vividly. 00:06:27 Speaker 1: Is that a, that's a low odds draw. I would assume. 00:06:30 Speaker 2: It is, yeah. 00:06:31 Speaker 3: I mean, Idaho does have even odds, so there's no weighting, there's no point system, nothing like that. 00:06:36 Speaker 2: So I guess in theory. 00:06:37 Speaker 3: That could make it better, but it's still a low odds, you know, very low percentage draw. 00:06:44 Speaker 1: Right. That $ 20 would be what my grandpa would say, you stuck in a hog's butt and hollered suey because it was gone forever. 00:06:54 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I honestly thought so flippantly of it, like, I applied and I don't even know when they announced the draw. 00:07:02 Speaker 2: Like, I don't know when you were supposed to know. I didn't get an email. 00:07:05 Speaker 3: I was texting Michael a couple of months later about some stuff for first light. And he was like, Hey, did you pull a tag? 00:07:12 Speaker 2: I'm like, Oh, I should check. 00:07:15 Speaker 3: So I get on the internet, like while I'm on the phone with him. And sure enough, I actually pulled a second rifle bull elk tag for the first time in. 00:07:22 Speaker 2: My life on my first time. So yeah, You know, that was really wild. 00:07:29 Speaker 3: And I was not even really fully prepared to go on that hunt at the time. 00:07:33 Speaker 2: But here we are. 00:07:34 Speaker 1: All right. So you've gone to Canada. You got denied at the border. We still got the gold medal. And then you drove to Idaho. Did you see a bear? 00:07:45 Speaker 2: Didn't even thought I saw a bear. 00:07:46 Speaker 1: Okay. Didn't even have a chance. 00:07:48 Speaker 2: You know what's funny that I just realized? The only thing I saw on that trip was an elk. 00:07:53 Speaker 1: Is that right? 00:07:54 Speaker 3: I literally was sitting there glassing for bears and all of a sudden I just had a solo, I have video of it. 00:07:59 Speaker 2: It's a solo elk just walked across. 00:08:01 Speaker 1: And you would have, at that moment, you would have traded that elk for a bear, a medium sized bear. 00:08:06 Speaker 2: A hundred percent. 00:08:07 Speaker 1: Yes. All right. So then you drive all the way back home to East Texas and you put in for this tag and then you're talking to Michael on the phone and he reminds you, you need to check and then you got the tag. So what, you're three months away from the hunt now when you draw it. Is that right? 00:08:25 Speaker 2: That sounds right. 00:08:26 Speaker 3: Yes. 00:08:26 Speaker 2: I think I found out in sometime in late June. 00:08:29 Speaker 1: Okay. So whenever the draw is, then you think, uh, I need to get ready and start training. 00:08:35 Speaker 2: Yes, sir. 00:08:35 Speaker 3: So, um, you know, I actually do a decent job of kind of trying to stay in mountain shape all the time. I do Western hunt some, you know, historically only for bears and, or, you know, I've, I filmed a little bit like I filmed Craig and Mel in the mountains for mule deer last year. So, um, it's something I try to stay mostly ready for, but from what I could tell elk was going to be a much more intense opportunity than anything I had done up to that point. Um, so I started training, uh, in the, in the midst of training, uh, I actually, uh, tore my quad. So in July, I did it after training. I actually did it playing baseball with my son after a hard training session. But the doctor said, you know, I should think about surgery, decided to opt to not do that and just rehab it and just, you know, see how it went. And thankfully, that ended up not becoming a limiting factor over time. 00:09:31 Speaker 1: So perfect. All right. So you got you got the tag, you got injured, you got healed again. and you're taking off, are you going by yourself on this thing blind, or are you doing some e-scouting from tips from folks with Onyx, or what's going on? 00:09:48 Speaker 3: Yeah, so as far as going alone, thankfully, one of my good friends had a son. 00:09:57 Speaker 2: My friend's older. His son is in his 30s. He's got an jalen holland who. 00:10:01 Speaker 3: Just really wanted to go on a mountain hunt uh he'd been on i think two previously total uh so not like an experienced mountain hunter but you know he'd been an outdoorsman since he was younger you know really solid kid and uh Jalen and I met and he. 00:10:17 Speaker 2: Was like, Hey man, I'd like to go to the mountains with you. And I was like, well, good. I need somebody to help me pack out an elk if I should. So that sounds perfect. 00:10:24 Speaker 3: And Jalen, you know, as I tell the story, it comes really clear that he was just the right guy to go with me and super thankful for that. 00:10:30 Speaker 2: But, uh, he was not an elk hunter. 00:10:32 Speaker 3: So, uh, thankfully again, you know, Michael Redfelt, you know, played a really essential part of this story. Uh, he connected me with a guy locally that helped give me some advice, um, and he kind of gave me some general ideas of where and how to look, uh, throughout the area. And so, um, didn't have an incredible amount of like really specific direction, but definitely enough to help me kind of get an idea of how to scout areas to scout. Um, you know, the guy that I talked to whose name is escaping me. Uh, but he, uh, he also just told me to make sure that I didn't fall in love with any version of the hunt. 00:11:08 Speaker 2: You know, he was like, the biggest thing is meaning, meaning what? 00:11:11 Speaker 3: Yeah. So, uh, His line of questions, which, again, I'm super thankful for the guidance from these guys, was he was just like, hey, do you have to backpack? Like, is this something where you want to do it that way? And I said, no, that's not. I mean, I would like to and I can. He said, man, the biggest thing is just to be willing to be diverse. You know, like if you need to backpack, be prepared to backpack. If you need to be mobile, you know, punch in, punch out, move around. He's like the biggest thing is finding where the elk are to start. So, um, that was a lot of the general guidance that I had going in and just, you know, knowing that the elk are also most likely going to be up high, um, unless the weather pushes them down. 00:11:50 Speaker 1: Okay. Now, when you say up high, to me, high is the top of the barn, the top of the house or the top of a gum tree. What's high for what he's talking about out there? 00:12:04 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's probably fair for me to assert that I'm also new. 00:12:08 Speaker 2: So if I relate any of these ideas poorly, that's possible. 00:12:11 Speaker 1: But, you know. 00:12:14 Speaker 3: He basically said, though, that they're most likely going to be top of the barn, up really high, in really secluded areas, far away from people, and potentially literally like top of the mountain. Which out there, you know, mountain peaks range from in the high 8,000 feet up to over 10,000 feet. 00:12:30 Speaker 2: Okay, so on up there. 00:12:33 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:12:34 Speaker 2: And the base of most of those mountains. 00:12:36 Speaker 3: Comes in at around 6,200 feet or so. So potential to have an elevation gain on your hike of. 00:12:43 Speaker 2: 3,000 to 4,000 feet. 00:12:45 Speaker 1: I never think about that. I don't think about my first bow hunt for elk or my first elk hunt period in Colorado. And I was with a guy that had been an experienced cameraman up there for years. And when we got at the base of the mountain there where we were taking off, fixing to go up, I was looking up there and I could see the Aspens up there and it was beautiful. And he said, what do you think? And I said, man, it's, it's the prettiest set of woods I ever seen. He said, don't let them pretty words. Don't let them pretty woods fool you, bub. They ain't no air up there, which I was about to find out he was telling the truth. 00:13:23 Speaker 2: Yes, sir. 00:13:24 Speaker 1: So anyway, I never think about that, that it, I don't go back to that place because I had not spent three months prepping myself to get up there. So you get there, y'all are taking off you and Jalen and you're, let's go from there, man. Y'all in the truck and y'all are, y'all are after them. 00:13:45 Speaker 2: Yeah. So, uh, you know, one of the, again, Jalen was just the right guy to go with. 00:13:50 Speaker 3: He actually is a horse dentist. And he teaches at a dental school in Idaho, like not too far from like the general area that we hunted. So, um, he knew the best routes to take, how to avoid traffic, what time to leave, what hotels to stay at, what areas, like the whole thing. 00:14:09 Speaker 1: And we're just not going to just skip over the horse thing. 00:14:14 Speaker 3: I did not know that was a thing. Um, you know, but that's absolutely what he does for a living here in East Texas. And he travels and does it. Uh, he's, He grew up in rodeo. He's actually, he's a team roper. Okay. 00:14:25 Speaker 2: Moved horses all around the country. 00:14:27 Speaker 3: He's been passionate about, you know, kind of, I guess, equine and equine dentistry now. Yeah. 00:14:32 Speaker 1: Oh, that's pretty cool. Okay. So you and the horse dentist, y'all are on the road and you're finding, I'm still, that's, I've got to talk. I got to meet Jalen. I got to meet him, but let's get this. Let's find this elk. Tell me why. What's going on? Did y'all pick a place that he suggested? Are you doing this off of Onyx? How did you come by the place that y'all wound up hunting? 00:15:02 Speaker 2: So we did have some general direction. 00:15:04 Speaker 3: Michael was very gracious to kind of give me some general areas where he had seen elk in the past. 00:15:10 Speaker 2: Kind of thing. So he kind of gave us general direction. 00:15:14 Speaker 3: And then from there, it was just me and Jalen did a lot of e-scouting. We left to East Texas at 3 AM on a Saturday. It was a second rifle hunt. So the hunt started October 15th. We left on the 10th. So we were at a couple of days of travel and then we wanted to be able to scout at least three full days before the hunt started. And then we got to Idaho on Sunday evening. And one of the things that changed literally in real time was leading up to the hunt, the weather looked like it was going to be perfect. So we were actually anticipating like highs in the low fifties, lows in the upper thirties, kind of right there in the sweet spot, like cold and crisp, but not crazy. And then last minute, I don't know what all caused the change, um, as the weather does, but, uh, as we arrived in Idaho, snow and sleet and, you know, cold temps were settling in. Um, and it was actually extremely foggy. So, uh, I mean, it was, it was extremely thick and really difficult to see. So, We got there, we drove around some, just trying to start to get a lay of the land, and we actually found elk. Very ironically, we found some elk right across from the Road Hunters Suck sign in the area. 00:16:32 Speaker 1: You had a sign there that said Road Hunters Suck? 00:16:35 Speaker 3: You turn on this road and there's this ranch there that obviously is some private land, and there's just a sign that says Road Hunters Suck. And if you stood at that sign... And looked across the road. That was the first elk that we saw on the trip. 00:16:48 Speaker 1: Oh, man. 00:16:49 Speaker 2: Including a nice bull. 00:16:51 Speaker 1: Maybe the elk put that up there. 00:16:53 Speaker 2: Maybe so. 00:16:55 Speaker 3: But yeah, so we found some elk that evening, but the weather was really miserable and it was supposed to get worse. 00:17:01 Speaker 2: So expecting snow and extreme temps. 00:17:04 Speaker 3: And, you know, again, this is the thing where just because I like to tell stories and like to do hard things, like if it was just me, I actually probably would have pitched camp that night on the mountain just to say that I did. 00:17:15 Speaker 2: Jalen was like, hey, man, there's no benefit. 00:17:18 Speaker 3: You're going to wake up to snow and fog, and we should just go get a good night's sleep before we start the trip. 00:17:23 Speaker 1: I like Jalen even more. 00:17:25 Speaker 3: Yeah, so he talked me into it. We actually went back to town, crashed at a hotel. Ironically, I will tell on myself, we were grabbing all of our gear to take it in the hotel to prep, and I literally left my front door open all night in the snow. 00:17:40 Speaker 1: On your truck? 00:17:41 Speaker 2: On my truck. So. 00:17:44 Speaker 3: We started the trip by getting a good night's sleep and then waking up to snow in my truck. There are no photos of this. I'm telling them myself just because I feel like I should. 00:17:54 Speaker 1: Okay, good. I won't mention it again. I doubt that. 00:17:58 Speaker 3: Yeah, just like all the other things you don't ever mention. 00:18:00 Speaker 1: Right. 00:18:01 Speaker 3: But yeah, so we woke up Monday morning. The weather was supposed to improve like midday Monday and by improve just be a little less worse. Um, so we actually, we did some more driving around the mountains Monday to try to get a lay of the land. And, you know, one idea that Jalen specifically was more dedicated to than me was just finding a drainage that didn't have people in it. And I public land hunted enough that I just told him, Hey man, it's just not going to happen. Yeah. 00:18:27 Speaker 2: Like every, yeah. Everywhere we turned, it seemed like there was more than one person. And then at one point we turned the corner and I don't know if it was an. 00:18:34 Speaker 3: Outfitter set up or what, but there's horses and like the whole thing. And I'm just like, bro, like, there's no way we're going to find a drainage that like, that there's not people until we did like, and I, it felt like magic. Like we just, we kept checking, we drive up these trail heads and, and there would almost always be a. 00:18:52 Speaker 2: Campsite and we'd turn around. 00:18:54 Speaker 3: Cause you know, you don't, as much as you can, you also don't want to jump in the middle of someone else's hunt. Right. 00:18:58 Speaker 1: Oh, for sure. First come first serve. That's, that's public land. 00:19:02 Speaker 3: Right. So, um, you know, we were trying to navigate that and then we just, we found an empty drainage and, uh, hiked up, pitched camp, um, did some glassing Monday afternoon, but it was still really thick and foggy. So, uh, we did see a couple of mule deer like in the timber on the way up, but didn't see anything glass in that evening. Um, got back, started a fire. It snowed and sleeted some more that night. And, uh, you know, it was, uh, it was a cold night, but got up the next morning. We hiked back up to the ridge that we had glassed the day before the fog was clearing. So we thought we'd have a really good shot at, you know, at seeing something. And we were hybrid bear hunting slash elk scouting. 00:19:41 Speaker 1: Right. 00:19:41 Speaker 2: So we both had bear tags in our pockets, but. 00:19:45 Speaker 1: So you're going out there looking for an elk, but you both got bear tags correct yes sir okay so and you're in bear country obviously uh or you wouldn't be there to begin with. 00:19:59 Speaker 3: Yeah i've seen estimates of you know idaho's bear population being 20 to 30 000 like it's really incredible so Actually, it's late in the season, but because there was such scarce, it was a really dry year, scarce food situation. I thought there was a chance we actually could get on a bear too. 00:20:15 Speaker 1: How many bears did you see on this bear hunt slash elk hunt? 00:20:21 Speaker 2: Zero. Absolutely zero. 00:20:23 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:20:25 Speaker 3: In fact, so that midday on Tuesday, Jalen was obviously only had a bear tag. And so he really liked the area that he you know, was glassing that we had found kind of in that, in that drainage, but I really wanted to go up higher. Uh, I felt like, you know, kind of the corner, kind of the bowl of the drainage and. 00:20:45 Speaker 2: Some of the ridges that you could see, even on the, if you. 00:20:48 Speaker 3: Got up high enough beyond the drainage we were in would be more ideal for elk. So, um, Jalen said more power to you, man. So, uh, we split up, he continued to glass for bears kind of a little bit lower. And then I hiked up to a couple thousand feet, you know, up to, you know, the area I thought would be more ideal for elk. Filmed a little bit of, you know, took some pictures and filmed some stuff for first sight, but did a lot of glassing that afternoon and evening. Did not see anything other than some more mule deer. 00:21:16 Speaker 2: We did, we did see a lot of mule deer that day. 00:21:18 Speaker 3: The population there seems very, very strong, but I hiked down that night and because we just hadn't had any luck for bear or elk, felt like it was time to move around. That was kind of the general idea that was relayed to us. So Uh, packed up camp the next morning. We shot some completely opposite part of the unit just to see if we liked the terrain, like to lay the land, maybe there was less people, but the other area that we looked at actually looked like there was just a lot more motorized vehicle use. It seemed like there were a lot more side-by-sides and four wheelers and stuff like that. So we came all the way back to the area that was near where we left and basically hopped kind of one drainage over. to do some glassing that evening. Um, so we hiked up to a little glassing knob, a few hundred feet up off the road and set up for the evening. And this would have been Wednesday, which was the day before the hunt. Yeah. 00:22:11 Speaker 1: Hunt starts on Thursday. 00:22:13 Speaker 3: And we were, uh, you know, taking some pictures, you know, filming a little bit just to kind of give an update. And I clicked, turned off record on the camera after doing the update, you know, for social media. 00:22:25 Speaker 2: And then I looked up and I go, Jalen, there they are. And he's like, what? 00:22:30 Speaker 3: And all of a sudden there was just elk pouring out of the timber feeding at the very top of the ridge. And it literally was the ridge that I had hiked up. 00:22:40 Speaker 2: To the day before. Really? Yeah. Which just felt like you made it up. 00:22:45 Speaker 3: It was just like, I was literally sitting right there and the elk are right there. 00:22:50 Speaker 1: So you've got, for the next day, you've got, you, you went, you walked up to that. So you know how to get in there. 00:22:56 Speaker 2: A hundred percent. 00:22:57 Speaker 3: It was almost like, well, the plan is already in place. Like I've seen the terrain, I've done the hike. We know the drainage. We just spent two days in there. Um, we watched the elk till dark. They, they really seemed like they weren't in a hurry to move around a whole lot. So we anticipated, which I guess I, I hear that elk move around a lot. Again, I don't want to pretend like I'm well-versed, but we were hoping and thinking we'd find them in that same general. 00:23:22 Speaker 2: Area the next day. 00:23:23 Speaker 1: Okay. 00:23:24 Speaker 2: So, um, got back to camp. 00:23:26 Speaker 3: Yeah, we got back to camp, lightened up our packs, just basically down to kill kit and rifle. 00:23:33 Speaker 2: Got up at 4.30 the next morning. 00:23:36 Speaker 3: And between that time, I sent you a text message, which I'm going to just call a customary text message at this point. I sent you a text with a little video of the elk, the bull elk that we saw crest the mountain that night. It was really cool, a really powerful moment, really. And I said, man, tonight's the first night I'll ever go to bed dreaming that I think I'll shoot an elk tomorrow. 00:23:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, and when I read that, I thought, I'm glad that you're dreaming that because that's probably what you're doing is dreaming. 00:24:05 Speaker 2: You're a jerk like that. 00:24:07 Speaker 1: Lo and behold. 00:24:08 Speaker 3: Yeah, so which was also, again, it felt a little full circle because the first bear I shot in the mountains in Montana the night before was, spotted a big bear in the bowl and I text you and said, Hey man, I think I'm about to shoot a big bear tomorrow. 00:24:24 Speaker 1: And you did. And I did. 00:24:25 Speaker 2: It was a big bear. 00:24:27 Speaker 1: It was a big brown, big brown color phase bear. 00:24:31 Speaker 3: Big chocolate colored bear. So, um, so yeah, so went to bed, got up at four 30. The temperature was dropping still in the morning and we woke up, it was 27. By the time we actually got to the base of the mountain, it was 17 degrees. Um, You know, super cold. And we had about a two and a half to three mile hike, you know, in front of us. One of the issues we were facing, though, is like the wind was supposed to switch midday, but it was actually not great for our stock that time of the morning. So the plan was we were going to punch out early, try to beat people to the area, which we did. Again, it was crazy that there was just no people in this drainage. It was the same when we just left. We hiked up about a mile and a half and the goal was to get to where we thought we might could see them until the wind swapped and then maybe see what it did. You know, if we had to wait till afternoon or whatever, but at least wanted to get close. Just by a miracle while we were sitting there, the wind just switched early in our favor. Like we were, we were hiking south to north basically. and the wind was originally coming out of kind of like the southeast, so we felt like we could be safe and not push them if we didn't go too far. 00:25:41 Speaker 1: Right. 00:25:41 Speaker 3: And all of a sudden, it just swapped out of the northwest, like literally perfectly. And in the mornings, our thermals were going to pull them down. 00:25:48 Speaker 2: That never happened. 00:25:50 Speaker 3: I mean, I literally looked at it right before I went to bed and that morning. 00:25:54 Speaker 2: The wind was not supposed to swap until like midday. 00:25:57 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:25:57 Speaker 2: And it swapped it before daylight. 00:25:59 Speaker 1: The only forecast that I remember– from a elk hunt that i was filming a buddy of mine in idaho was uh my buddy says it's going to be sunny and 70 for highs and we got up to elevation and it was 40 and snowing and so that that was my my faith in the weatherman and weather forecast in the mountains was after that. 00:26:26 Speaker 3: Well i have hunted in the mountains enough to just know to expect volatility right i mean like to know that like whatever they're saying is a guess. 00:26:33 Speaker 2: And that guess is not coming from the top of the mountain. It's coming from wherever they're at. 00:26:37 Speaker 3: So, um, so yeah. So, I mean, again, this story starts to feel like make-believe. I mean, it's just like, everything is led up to this moment. Like we're all of a sudden the wind's perfect. We hike up the rest of the ridge right at daybreak. And as soon as we cracked the ridge top, at about 350 yards on the opposite. You know, we're approaching it from kind of like the crest of the mountain. And you can see kind of like the offshoots of the avalanche shoots, you know, kind of go, they go east-west. 00:27:11 Speaker 2: And there's just cow elk feeding right there on the opposite ridge. 00:27:15 Speaker 1: Oh, you can see them already. 00:27:16 Speaker 2: Immediately. Yeah, like right as soon as we top the hill. 00:27:20 Speaker 1: Oh, that's got to be a jolt of adrenaline. 00:27:24 Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, like I was freaking out immediately. I was like, it's go time. 00:27:28 Speaker 3: You know, me, like I, I'm, we've hunted together enough and it's been time together. I tend to be a little overly aggressive, a little bit excitable at times maybe. 00:27:39 Speaker 2: Um, but you know, I, it's, I live and have a lot of fun and, you know, very passionate about. 00:27:44 Speaker 1: Anything I'm doing. 00:27:45 Speaker 3: And so, yeah, I definitely got excited and, uh, we, we stripped down to just rifle, you know, and, and bino hat and Jalen had his range finding binos. Um, and buy no harness and we just were just it was time to go so um and thankfully i mean jaylen paced me a lot like i definitely could have blown that stock multiple times but we had we had two rows of trees um so the cow that we saw initially like started to work into the first row of trees and then there was like some open area and then another row of trees and as soon as we started moving we heard our first bugle like it's like which again it just felt like magic like it's the sun's coming up, there's elk on the hill, the elk are bugling in the background, the wind's perfect. We get up to the first row of trees and we didn't see anything. We kind of break in the middle and all of a sudden Jalen's like, hey, let's sit here for a second, just chill out. And I'm thankful we did because there were actually some cow elk that we couldn't see down below us. 00:28:52 Speaker 1: And all of a. 00:28:52 Speaker 3: Sudden they start, you know, calling. And then the the bugling is continuing. So we sat there for a little while to see if maybe, you know, the cow elk making noise would bring in the bulls. We, I decided early on, I was not going to do any calling. Like I just know enough to know that I was not going to become a pro and you can screw up way more trying to do any of that type of stuff than not. 00:29:15 Speaker 2: So our goal was just to kind of get up there and get in the mix. 00:29:19 Speaker 3: You know, I'd practice shooting out to a few hundred yards, always going to try to get close, but I was not going to try to call one in or anything like that. So We actually let those cows work through the next set of trees, which allowed us to move through that area and then right up to a knoll of just like really thick brush. So we've, we've cleared a couple hundred yards at this point, maybe probably a little more than that. And we're set up in an area where we can see the next Ridge, where there were some more cows and it was about 400 yards away. We're sitting at the top of kind of the Ridge that we're on. which is south of there, but we can't see anything between us and those cows. Right. 00:30:02 Speaker 2: So all we know is we're hearing bugling. 00:30:05 Speaker 3: And in fact, it is like we heard a bugle not long after we got up kind of into that little brushy area in that knoll, but it sounded like it was further down the mountain. 00:30:14 Speaker 2: And I don't have great ears. 00:30:15 Speaker 3: I've got some tinnitus from firing guns without proper head gear and stuff. So I don't ever claim to hear perfectly, but they didn't sound as close as I guess they were. So we're sitting there. Jalen's like, all right, man, it's time to get set up. We're going to sit here for a while. And all of a sudden, those elk just start running down the hill. 00:30:38 Speaker 1: The ones that are across from you, you start seeing them? 00:30:42 Speaker 3: Yeah. We have no idea what's going on. Didn't hear anything crazy. But those cow elk that we were watching, which we could only see, I think there was four cows and a calf. And all of a sudden, all of them just kind of like bombed down the hill. And Jalen's like, I think they're about to run right at us. 00:30:58 Speaker 1: And I'm like, what? 00:30:59 Speaker 2: Why do you think that? Like, we don't know where they went. And they just, all of a sudden, we just can't see them. 00:31:04 Speaker 3: And I mean, it seemed like split second, all of a sudden, there's just a group of cow elk at like seven, eight yards. 00:31:12 Speaker 2: Just like right there. Right on top of us. And I'm like, oh, that's crazy. 00:31:17 Speaker 3: And then they just, they stop and they're looking at us and like, not to stop and plug First Light right here, but like the walnut colored navigator hoodie that I had on. Like it looks the same color as a mule deer. And it's also the same color as like all of my surrounding like brush in that area, like the sage and stuff. Like I felt like there was nothing that could see me and they just stood there for, I don't even know how long it felt like in eternity. But all of a sudden they push forward a little bit because there's all of a sudden more elk. 00:31:46 Speaker 2: And then it's like, there's a spike that sprints by and then another spike. And I'm like, wait a minute, how many elk are coming? And Jalen's like, get ready, get ready, get ready. And I'm filming. Like I've grabbed my phone. I'm like, this is amazing. He's like trying to tell me, he's like pushing me back. I'm like almost standing up. He's like, you could scare him off. 00:32:02 Speaker 1: And I'm like, what do you mean? 00:32:03 Speaker 2: This is awesome. And I mean, candidly, I didn't know what was behind them. I didn't know if we were actually going to see anything cool. I just was enjoying the moment. 00:32:12 Speaker 1: Right. 00:32:13 Speaker 2: So elk's coming, elk's coming. And then all of a sudden there's. 00:32:16 Speaker 3: A huge group of elk, like 40 elk right behind us. Like we're in like a, maybe a 30 by 30 spread of like kind of thick brush, little deadfall, a couple of trees. And so like, we just got kind of like this little group of brush carved out on the mountain and the elk are just all of a sudden funneling around us. And so, so there's elk behind us. And then Jalen's like, get ready, get ready. Another spike. And then like a four point comes up. 00:32:44 Speaker 1: Let me ask you this. What you got a spike in a four point. Those I'm, I believe are legal to shoot out there. Did you have a standard that you were looking after or? Was it just you overcome with what's going on that you just wanted to film it instead of shoot a nail? 00:33:02 Speaker 3: Well, we talked earlier about how, I mean, like I love being outside. 00:33:07 Speaker 1: I love to hunt. 00:33:07 Speaker 3: I also love to run a camera. It's, I mean, it almost seemed like my instinct is kind of split there because I want to document the moment, but I'm also going to, you know, to shoot something. But, uh, you know, my standard was that I wanted some kind of like branched antler bull, you know, something more than like a spike. Um, and at this point I hadn't seen anything like that. You know, I, I didn't go up there to make sure I kill, you know, I shoot for the skillet as much as I do for antlers or anything like that. It's just, you know, kind of my nature. Maybe I'm mature past that. I've only been hunting for a few years, but right now it's like, I'm here, I'm there for the experience and the meat. And if it has big antlers, that's really cool. 00:33:45 Speaker 1: Gotcha. 00:33:45 Speaker 2: So, um, but I did want more than a spike, I guess. So take that for what it's worth. 00:33:49 Speaker 3: So we, We were watching all these elk now, and now we're like basically surrounded by elk, big bugle in the background. All of a sudden I'm like, oh, they're pushing these things. 00:34:01 Speaker 2: Like there's big ones there. 00:34:03 Speaker 3: But then the, this, you know, eight or so point, like the biggest antlers I had seen top the hill. 00:34:11 Speaker 2: And Jalen's like, shoot that one. He's like begging me to get ready behind the gun. 00:34:15 Speaker 3: So I finally set my phone down and, and that, that bull was, what it literally just stopped. It parked right at a tree with his vitals just right there. And I had seen its antlers and he just stopped and stared right at us at like 40 yards. 00:34:32 Speaker 1: Oh my God. 00:34:33 Speaker 2: Just dead broadside, nothing behind it, nothing in front of it. 00:34:37 Speaker 3: Like, you know, I could see, you know, my shot path clearly I wasn't going to risk anything crazy. And it's funny because like so many hunts like lead up to like almost like a high pressure, uh, like control your breathing, like moment of a shot, right? Either with your bow or your rifle or whatever, especially if it's further out. And I was just so enjoying the moment. And obviously it's like a really casual shot, honestly. It just seemed like a formality to even pull the trigger. It was like, okay, we're shooting suppressed. I put it right on the vitals, pull the trigger. He literally falls down immediately and then kind of stumbles and goes out of sight, you know, down the hill. I was really confident he was dead, but immediately I picked my phone back up. I'm like, okay, there's still elk everywhere. And so like, there's still cows around. There's still elk right behind us. Maybe, maybe 10 seconds after I shot that bull, the two biggest bulls on the mountain showed up. 00:35:40 Speaker 1: Now, have you seen them beforehand? Or are these the ones that you've heard bugling? 00:35:46 Speaker 3: So at this point that morning, I had not seen. 00:35:50 Speaker 2: I shot the biggest bull I had seen so far out of all these elk that are everywhere running around. 00:35:55 Speaker 1: Right. 00:35:57 Speaker 2: Which I'm still think was the right decision. 00:35:59 Speaker 3: Cause you just never, you know, if you've got the opportunity that you looking for in that moment, you take it. Now my humanity immediately, I had to battle some disappointment when the two elk that were much bigger and like herd bull quality showed up immediately. But then it's even crazier because they locked antlers and started fighting and right in front of us at like 50 yards. 00:36:24 Speaker 2: For five minutes. 00:36:25 Speaker 1: They just duking it out. 00:36:28 Speaker 2: I mean, it was unlike anything I've ever seen. 00:36:33 Speaker 3: I guess the lesser of the two, it looked like he started to kind of try to chase after a cow, and the herd bull was like, no, sir. And I mean, he literally pushed him. At one point, I thought they were going to end up in my lap. Like, they literally were going at it in just brute force. And it was almost like a movie, man. Like, it was such a surreal thing to witness. And then the big bull pushes the other bull, like, out of sight down the hill. And then it just stops. And it's like the whole mountains are dead silent. 00:37:09 Speaker 2: And then the big champion bull that just whooped that other bull just tops the hill. 00:37:15 Speaker 3: Looks right at me. I have video of all of this. And then he just trots with his head up like, who's the man? All the way up the mountain. And up and over the mountain. 00:37:25 Speaker 2: To the cows. 00:37:27 Speaker 1: What a finish to an absolute epic story. I don't know how that would have been any better. 00:37:37 Speaker 2: I don't think it could have been, man. I mean, like, it was unbelievable. Unbelievable. 00:37:44 Speaker 3: I mean, that was my first morning elk hunting of my life. Like that experience. 00:37:51 Speaker 1: We're recording this like, was it five or six days since you killed it? 00:37:58 Speaker 2: I shot it last Thursday morning. It's Tuesday. 00:38:00 Speaker 1: Okay. How many times a day since then does your mind wander back to that? And let me ask you this. What is the thing that you remember most about it? What's the first thing that comes to your mind when somebody, Hey, did you have any luck? What's the first thing that comes to your mind? 00:38:21 Speaker 3: So as a storyteller and someone who tries to capture stuff on camera as best you can, um, I immediately just go, man, I can't do the story justice. 00:38:36 Speaker 2: It was such a just visceral. 00:38:40 Speaker 3: In the moment, incredible experience. 00:38:43 Speaker 2: It was more than I could have dreamed. Um, I literally couldn't. 00:38:47 Speaker 3: Have made that up, but, but, you know, turning around and watching two bull elk fight in my lap, basically, it just, it was incredible to witness, especially after it was just like, everything played out like a, like a story. You know, like a story tale. It's like a story I couldn't have wrote if I wanted to. Where we saw him, the fact that we had just come off of that ridge. 00:39:18 Speaker 2: Coming all the way back from getting kicked, you know, not getting. 00:39:21 Speaker 3: Across the border of Canada, hurting my leg and wondering if I was going to make the trip, having to sort through surgery to all of that leading up to this perfect stalk. where we just end up with elk in our lap and then the bull that was exactly you know kind of my target bull to to sprint come to a dead stop broadside at 40 yards shoot him and then still get to turn around and and just have this like magical experience watching these elk I mean We went down the mountain a couple of days after, you know, we packed out and stuff and talked to some hunters that, you know, were from the area. One of them said that he basically grew up chewing on a rifle in the mountains with his dad. 00:40:00 Speaker 2: Like he's my age. 00:40:01 Speaker 3: And he said he'd never seen anything like that in his life in that close quarters. So I've seen elk fight one time at 500 yards my whole life. 00:40:08 Speaker 1: Wow. 00:40:09 Speaker 3: And it's just like, I mean, I'm just grateful, you know, um, it's an experience of a lifetime and it's something that will, that I'll carry with me forever. 00:40:19 Speaker 1: Well, you know, there's something so tangible about being somewhere and witnessing something like that because you don't only see them kicking up dust and you don't hear, just hear the antlers clacking. You hear the wind blowing through the leaves while that's happening. And you smell the smell of the mountains while all that's happening. And that's what's so hard. to capture on film or in the written word about everything that goes on when you're out there. And the best way to experience it is just to get out there and go. And plus you had so much invested in that, in time and effort of working out and getting in shape to do that. And hard work pays off, you know, in one fashion or another. Had you not killed an elk, And you saw that. That's still a big win, man. 00:41:19 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, everybody who's hunted with me in the mountains heard me say, like, there's no pride to be found on the mountain. Right. You know, like, I think anytime you have an experience like that, I mean, it was humbling more than anything. 00:41:34 Speaker 2: I mean, I'm very blessed. 00:41:35 Speaker 3: I mean, like, obviously, I did do my part, right? Like, worked out, tried to do it justice. 00:41:40 Speaker 2: Prepared for it. 00:41:42 Speaker 3: I prepared for a multi hundred yard shot and got a bow shot, but yeah. 00:41:48 Speaker 2: Which is ironic. 00:41:49 Speaker 3: Biggest whitetail I've shot was on the ground at 20 yards with a gun to square that round hole. But, um, but yeah, man, I just, I'm, I'm just, I'm humbled and grateful. And, uh, you know, I don't know if I'll ever have an experience like that again, but I'm thankful I had that one for sure. 00:42:06 Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate you telling me about that story. You know, when you sent me that, that, You pitch your gripping grin. I was like, stop. Don't tell me nothing. Because when that happened, when I saw that, I thought, this is a story. I know this is going to be a great story because I know the storyteller. And I felt like watching this thing from the beginning, once you called me and said, man, I just drew this tag, I was infested in it from that beginning, even just a little small part. But I couldn't wait. And then when you sent me that picture of that elk and I'm like, holy cow. Yeah, this is an episode right here. And it's a testament to being prepared and getting out there and hustling because you can't do this on the couch, you know. But I was living vicariously through you on my couch, which is the best way to hunt the mountains as far as I'm concerned. And yet every time I turn around, I'm climbing the mountain somewhere. Bears tried to kill me in Arkansas this year, but that's a different story for another day. But man, it's just great. And I'm so proud of you. And I'm just thankful that you was here to tell the story. Tell folks where they can find you, David. Where's your social stuff at? 00:43:24 Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok as East Texas Camo. And I've started a YouTube channel and getting ready to start doing some stuff on YouTube as well. 00:43:35 Speaker 1: Okay. Reva's going to put some Links in the show description, whether you listen to us on iTunes or Spotify or wherever. Or if you're watching this on the YouTube channel, you're going to be able to see some of the pictures and some of the video that David's talking about on here. But anyway, I appreciate you telling it, buddy. I'm ready for you to get back up here. Waylon's ready to go coon hunting. It's finally less than 100 degrees. And it's about time to get going. 00:44:04 Speaker 2: But. 00:44:05 Speaker 1: I want to thank everybody for listening this week on this special episode of This Country Life. And Lake and Clay and all of us, we appreciate you listening every week. But until next week, this is Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all be careful.

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