In this special bonus episode, Reid and Dan dive in on their most recent hunt,
which will go down as the most legendary buck Dan has ever harvested. From the weather to the proximity of the hunt, several factors were against Dan in the field, but he recaps all of it in this episode. Listen as they discuss the unique challenges and triumphs faced, including close-quarters Milo hunting and how Reid thought he was dying in an adrenaline-pumping storm. This episode blends hunting, a little country music, and Dan's extraordinary ability to tell this story over, and over, and over.
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Like little though, dude, little, I bet that's it.
No, I know that's it because I have perfect pitch. But I did the first I mean I'd have done the same thing.
We're in the basement.
I don't even have anywhere to go because of all these chords. We're in the basement and hold this mic the whole time. There's a chance that kids may come in here. You might hear them screaming where cars drive by or dogs barking.
But hey, you're here for the intimacy. Some smithers and some snotty noses. Yeah, we were trying to kick that for a while. It's a time of a year though. Man, it's cold outside. It's the first cold outside. Do you hear that? Yeah, you're gonna be able to hear it, that's all right, I don't care. Yeah, all right. We've had a kind of wacky fall already. I don't even know if it was really fall. It kind of felt like summer. There's one.
Yeah, yeah, right, Yeah, that's a fake cry too, though.
That's not like a hurt cry, nothing like uh.
Yeah, she's like talking now. We were supposed to do this this bonus episode, what like two weeks ago, we're pretty dialed.
Dude. Did you say two weeks ago or did you just say weeks ago? I said two weeks ago? What did you say two weeks ago? Yeah, I said two weeks ago.
We were the dums, dude, But we went to Florida and played some shows down there and also had a family of vak We also played in Utah, can we went to Kansas. Dan't killed the big deer, which we're going to talk about.
That is the point of this podcast. There's been a lot a lot of people asking about There's been a tons of guys online, Den, and it's about the deer. Yeah, thanks for and it's it's time to set the story straight. So that's what Literally, that's what this podcast is, a just interrupted coming off the entire time. Yep, like regular podcasts we do.
Yeah because I'm holding up my mic with my phone in my hand and.
Not me, you know, I'm not doing that because I got a system, the systematic guy. It's crazy to be how small these deer in here looking now that I've killed a giant. When you were like the guy you know, and had like we come in here and be like teasi or huge, and now it's like, man, would I shoot that? You know? I mean, it's crazy. Yes, you would shoot any of these deer hand up in here, But is it? I mean I thought the times were like nine or ten inches, But now that I've killed one with fourteen and a half inch times are definitely tenants that might be eight, you know, they're.
Definitely Yeah, holler at me when you kill one hundred fe five hundred and sixty inch dear Mississippi down.
Also, I don't know if I would now though, that's when.
I was gonna say I won sixty five in the Midwest. But that's what I'm saying. Man, that's it's the thing we're gonna get.
But also, I know what you're saying, though it's happening. I'm interested.
Also, let's like, is it like the big one, the one big deer, or like, are we like adding all total Antlernce just killed.
But it's probably the one big deer. No, I think it's probably total. I'm sure you do.
All right, Let's just you've killed one big deer.
I've killed like twelve big deer. It's just this one was really big. All right. Really, let's just let's just start. Let's just start so Kansas man land.
Of the awesome. The just I didn't know one, I didn't know how you didn't I didn't. I mean I knew. I knew that it was like sleeper giant white tail state, which.
Is really night. I don't think it was ever sleeper. No, it was. It was sleeper. I mean back in the day.
We're ten years, ten years ago, right, Pike County was all that.
That's what I was saying. Ten years ago.
It was Pike County, southeast Iowa and in northern Missouri, like Illinois, Missouri, Iowa. That was the mecca and it still is.
That's by the way, if you're here from music, there will be no music. Just go ahead and hit the.
Yeah no music today, go back and listen to where music out does my mic? Sund Okay, does this good? Sounds great?
Maybe? Was he said? Phones?
But yeah, I mean I knew it was a big and I knew it was a giant deer state, but I didn't know how. I didn't know it was like a top tier duck state.
No, I did not.
I didn't know that you could kill sant hill cranes like crazy there. I didn't know the Turkey hunt was so good. I didn't know they had elk in the state. I didn't know the milder population was at where it's at. I didn't know. Well, I'm just saying, I know they have it.
They have it all. They have it all. Yeah, and I don't I'm sorry people from Kansas. Uh, I'm not. We don't mean to put your state on blast so that everybody moves there, but it is. It's pretty much outdoor wor old Mecca over there.
Yeah, it's awesome, and we've just recently started diving into it the past couple of years.
A few years. Yeah, we were lucky enough to uh to uh go on the hunt with our buddy Connor from Fire Creek Outdoors Nickel Well the Connor Hicckle Crisis, and and he's been so cool to us, and we got to obtain a lease up there and obtain some ground up there and wearing you're wearing a sweatshirt, right, wearing a sweatshirt. And he's been real great about making sure that cameras have batteries and food, plastic planet and he's he's the man, dude. He's awesome, And none of this really would be happening at all. Without him and shout out here. Yeah, he's lived there his whole life.
Stanley runs of farming operations on a bunch of ground up there.
And let's be honest, dude, if you're hunting anywhere outside of three hours from your house, you got to have like a local guy, dude, just to kind of you don't have to, but it definitely helps speed the process up. Yeah, man, you don't have to, just you know, because you keep just jumping a jet and go fourteen hours and change batteries in there. No, did you hear those kids crying upstairs? There are no time for nothing, no time for nothing. So are we supposed to jump on that call at nine fifteen today? Is that Friday? What? I don't even know what today is? Dude. No, we're podcasting, keep going so so uh yeah, So we decide that we're gonna the only time, the only window we really have is the first weekend of Muzzleloader.
Which in Kansas that is the first week of season first.
Week of season two. You drew attack last year, and we've talked about that shot a good deer and what would look like a definite fatal shot.
Center punch, center punch them.
Yeah, center punch and actually that applies into the story eventually. So anyways, read shoot that deer here's still alive, got pictures of it. So we put in for muzzle letter. This is my first tag to draw in Kansas outside of turkeys, And so we plan it. We're like, we're going the first week, that's what we're doing. That's the only time we have. Stuff gets really busy after that as far as riots and other hunts and just it's pretty busy in the middle of that too. But hey, man, kids are insane, dude, I don't know if y'all have them. Kids are cool, man, kids are crazy. Love them, love them. So, uh, we decide we're going up there. We get up there and there are deer on camera that we've been seeing. Good deal on camera.
Yeah, yeah, they're good dear on camera. They're still in that they're they're trying to get out of that summer transition pattern.
Like we're talking about three weeks ago, right, we're not talking about right now, No, no, no, we're talking about three weeks ago, and they're trying to get out of that pattern.
But they're still kind of on a pattern. But that week it was and the thing is is like we with our lives and with our schedules, it's hard to look at a calendar and go, okay, man, for these five days, it's going to be a north wind, it's going to feel it's gonna be down in the sixties. We need to go this time because it's best for the farms and the stand setups and all that. We don't have the privilege of doing that right now because of our schedule and how crazy everything is and how busy we are. So we had to plan this out ways and months in advance and say, hey, this is the week we're going. Letting don't book anything in this week. And unfortunately, but I guess not unfortunately, it was eighty like high eighties sometimes in the nineties during.
That week, during the day it was nineties.
Sitting in a blind was like sitting like me working out in hot works.
Down here, Like it was literally just sweating like cray it was so hot.
And but there were still moving, I mean were there were still kind of they were they were right on that like you might. Yeah, they were right on the edge, man.
Yeah. I think I would say the majority of our shooters were showing up thirty minutes after dark. Yeah, and throughout the night. I mean it wasn't tight, but it was all night long.
Yeah, they were, they were on camera. They were on the cameras a big time that week.
So so we go, we're up there and uh for three or four days. It's it's what Read's describing. It's so hot. We're really not hunting mornings we would do it. Connor does these milo hunts right that he's been telling us about forever. And he also runs a full blown outfitting operation up there, and so he had clients in and we were staying off off campus. I guess you would say we were probably fifteen minutes from from his lodge and his clients just kind of giving him some space and autonomy and thank you. We would occasionally like go hang out and need dinner with them or whatever, just kind of pop and pop out. So we uh as that's going down. There was an afternoon where a client of his killed a one eighty John Dear and I was leaving the stand and he was going to assist one of his guides in helping load the deer because I don't know if you know it, but dude, big deer right there. Like three hundred pounds or more. I mean, I'm not talking about these ain't no little throw them on the back of a four wheler deer. Man, they're not. It's different. It's different, man, it's different.
They're really big, so he says, so so big sometimes that you can mistakenly think a deer if you're just going by antler size looking at a picture a trail camera. Yeah, you can look at a deer and think, like you compare them to the trail peck pictures you've been seeing in the South, and you're like, oh, that deer might go one forty false, that deer could be one sixty ish because his body, Like the way his body is so big, it makes the deer's rack look small, if that makes sense.
And bro, I'm gonna be honest with you. I thought that you and are have hunted long enough to understand like the difference. But I'm telling you, man, it ain't got nothing to do with how long you've been hunting whitetail or what you're seeing. I mean, if you're used to a Southern deer and you go out there and you're seeing these Midwestern deal it'll fool you. Yeah. Me, I was fooled all the way long. Yeah, I mean I was looking at trail cameras going one thirty and he's like, no, dude, that's way bigger than that. I'm like, what are you talking about in comparison size? Racked the body and he's like, you're looking at a three hundred and twenty pound deer man, right, that's one hundred and fifteen pounds. I mean no, a lot of our deer know here aren't even two hundred. I mean you're talking maybe one hundred and fifty pounds heavier than the deer where some cases for sure and have grown up sin So anyway, it's a it's been a bit of a learning cover. And actually that night, the same night that this that this happened with his client killing this giant, I saw a deer that undoubtedly three point fifteen on the hoof, wait wise, and he was a ten point and I could tell he was mega mature. Oh hunting that night? Yeah, never that deer, Yeah, big deer man. I mean he looked like a horse standing out there and he was a ten point and he just had kind of like stubby times and I just couldn't, you know, and you and I were hunting with the with the idea that if we didn't tag, maybe there's a December hunt coming right God pray, which, by the way, how's that? How's that look on that? Looking for you?
You got to figure a couple of things out. But I think we're you already booked. They got stuff a book, yeah, but it's it's stuff I can move, And it's more like figuring out kids because Jordan's got a work trip doing that thing.
So yeah. So but I think we're gonna be able to figure it out. Okay, cool? Uh, I mean, so we're gonna figure it out. Reed's going back, that's what we're talking about. He's going back in December probably hopefully. So that night Connor calls and he's like, hey, man, a client of mine killed a one to eighty uh and you're going to pass right by me assisting loading that deer up if you want to. And I'm like, hell yeah, I want to see it one eighty in the back of the truck. And I guess we can explain how they do this. I don't think he'd mind. So there there are these giants. If you're from the Midwest, you're like, dude, we already know how this works. But if you're from the South, we have no concept to what this is. So there are these giant When I say giant, I'm talking one hundred and fifty acres do someone could be six hundred acres. I mean, I mean mega fields as far as you can see. Sometimes I ain't talking about no acre and a half clover plot in the backyard. I mean these things are massive. And so what they do is they lease this ground and they scout the ground, and if they find a deer in there, then they'll, you know, kind of like creep up try to try to glass the deer with a client, and then if they get him, they'll kind of make a move in on him, kind of stalk through the milo, trying to be as quiet and as slippery as they can.
It's kind of it's it's kind of Connors for guiding Forte. A lot of people French already, A lot of people go, not a lot of people to hunt this way one because it's it's kind of tough and it takes some whik so it takes some time and like like like boots on the ground work, it also takes terrain to go figure it out. And to go find the deer in the Milo. So a lot of people like, there was a guy from South Dakota or North Dakota.
Where's Josh from. I don't know. That guy's awesome.
South or North Dakota. But he drove all the way down Josh Miller, Dude, he's got labradors.
He's awesome it to hunt.
He drove all the way down like eighteen hour or something, fourteen hours something to hunt with Connor and like and have this Milo experience because nobody else offers it. And it's it's spotting stock man, it's it's put the wind in your face and uh. And this Milo out there is is kind of the perfect height for when a when a buck stands up, you're just gonna see his chin, like maybe a little bit of his throat patch hopefully, and then up his head up. So when he's standing there looking he can't really see anything in the Milo. He's kind of looking her right, like looking at the the silhouette like behind off the Milo, kind of looking at the tops of him. So when he looks away or turns, that's when you're moving on deer. And and Connor has been doing it for man a really long time, and the guys he works with or works with him have been doing it for a really long time, and and that's how they that's it is such an adrenaline rush to try to get within.
You know, did you ever get tired on me? I mean.
I got tight enough. Yeah, yeah, I saw some stuff. I saw some hunts go down that, but I mean Josh's hunt was pretty crazy. Yeah, Josh was Josh. Josh got he got to nine yards on his deer, and that's what he told me. He was like, hey, man, if we're going to do this, I want to do this and get as close as we possibly can.
I remember you saying that. He was telling you that they were getting in closer and closer, and the guy was like.
Okay, man, yeah, they're at twenty yards, were at a hundred yard. Yeah, He's like, Noah, let's keep going. So he's like, all right, man, forty yards He's like, no, twenty yards. He's like, bro, let's get a little bit closer. And they got They got to nine yards and shot one hundred and fifty inch deerh nine yards with most letter.
Yes.
So it's a cool experience and that's what offered that's what Connor offers, and that's how they hunt. And you if you ask Connor, i mean, did you're talking about Kansas? And if you ask Connor what his favorite time and the most big deer they kill in the year, when when it is, he's gonna tell you. He's not gonna tell you the rut. He's not going to tell you, you know, late season feeding. He is going to tell you the first week of muzzloader killing him in the millo because that's where they're at. But they don't bet. I mean, they'll bed in cornfields. But if there's a milo field close to that deer, that's where he's going to be.
It's the perfect setup. I mean, it's so thick and you're they're so hidden, and there's food there and there's water there.
And explain to them listening how they can live in that and not have to move.
Well, I mean the way he explained it to us was like a big buck will make a bed in there and he'll just basically eat all day and just hang out in that milo and then closer to dark because it's so hot, they don't want to move during the day. Anyway, there's nothing, there's nothing going on. They're not rutting, you know, they're not looking for dose.
Yeah, and they can chew. They can chew on those leaves and get the water out of them and hydrate.
And I don't know about you, but there's also a lot of like irrigation dishes and stuff running through there that's just holding water anyway. So water's a huge deal out there as far as like I mean, around here, there's creeks and streams and ponds everywhere you look. But there it's like kind of a you know, like they got to go find it and so and ultimately it even brings some of these deer out into foreshadowing. But anyway, so that's that's kind of why the deer liveing the milow and how they hunt them. A lot of the times the deer won't move all day until what the last twenty minutes of daylight, and so what they try to do is spot these deer, move in, hang tight. Hopefully the deer stands, like you were talking about, twenty minutes till daylight, I mean until dark and they get up and you can put a shot. So all that to say, that's what happened with his client read and I had been hunting, we'd been still hunting. Sweating behig, I mean sweat and son been hot like hot boxing, hot boxing, bro for real. You can't open on a hunt, couldn't open on windows because if you did, deer got your scent. It was just and it was what south wind.
Oh, it was hair dryer blowing in your face.
That's what it felt like. Seriously. So I go and I meet Connor and his clients at the back of this truck and there lays a one hundred and eighty three inch just I mean, that's a that's a mega giant dude. I mean he had triple brow times on both sides.
Yeah, to that point, to that point in time, I guess Duncan's deer was the biggest. That's the biggest deer we've ever laid out I've ever seen was du split twos, look like a mule deer. Giant Illinois buck, I.
Mean dream bukah, yeah, lifetime buck. And so we come up and I'm talking to this guy and he's like, yeah, man, it took me four years, you know, drawing this tag to get to get something this this big. And he's like, man, it's just been a grind, and you know, he was so happy about it, and I had I was happy for him by far, like body wise, because I don't remember Duncan's body on his deer being real sure, I'm sure, but this deer's body was nuts.
Looking at it, because it's the first time I've ever seen a dear over one forty and it was hands.
So so I leave that night and I'm going back to where our little cabin in the middody these filds, and I am in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea where I'm going. I literally just have a pin dropped and I'm just driving to the pen right and on the right side of the road past what time is it? Probably nine o'clock. By nine o'clock night, pitch black dart in the ditch, running parallel to the truck. I see this. I see the deer like and it looks like he has a hula hoop over the front of his head, top of his head, and there are just these massive white times circling that hulu hoop, and he is just bounding next to the vehicle. I'm not talking about like bound bound see you later. I'm talking about he literally runs parallel to the truck, or probably twenty yards enough time that I could get a really, really really good look at this deer. So I pick up the phone and call Connor and I'm like, dude, I just saw the biggest deer I've ever seen on the hoof. He's like what And I said, man, I know this sounds crazy, but he is. He literally is running parallel to my vehicle and he's huge. I'm telling you, I know, big deer. I've seen this, I've seen big deer. This is the biggest thing I've ever seen. I've ever seen stone white kind of rack and just just breathtaking. And he goes, drop me a pin and I was like, okay for what I was kind of just telling him, you know, and he was like, drop me a pin, and so I did. I dropped a pin. And the next morning, did you go out with him? Next morning?
So he came and yeah, we went my little hunting the next morning.
Huh. And we were at this point He's like, guys, y'all, aren't there ain't even no point in hunting in the mornings in the box because they're not moving. Just go with me. Let's try to go find him. Let's go try to find him all the bove.
Yeah, and let's back up a little bit. When I got Dan got to the little cabin before I did that night. And when I got to the cabin, he met me at the door coming in and I was putting my my stuff off on the porch and he opened the door and was and I look on his face. He's like, dude, I just saw I just saw the biggest deer I've ever seen in my life. I was like, well, I mean, like, what do you mean, Like how big he was? Like nineties? You said you were like you said nineties.
Well, dude, I had five to seven seconds to analyze this day as I was driving beside him, Like it was almost.
Like he was just stared at a one eighty for oh yeah, twenty minutes.
Oh, I mean probably longer than that, probably thirty minutes. Yeah, I mean I knew when I saw that deer, I was like, that's that's a lifetimor. Yeah. Now, I did not, even in my wildest imagination, ever make the connection that like we could possibly be hunting that deer while we're up there. Yeah, I just knew I saw it. Yeah, just just excited to see something like that. My goodness.
So the next morning we going up malow hunt.
I do not go on mylow hunt because the millow is kicking me. Bro. I can't even if I step in it. My eyes start itching, my nose starts running. It was there's because there's also all that pig weed in it.
Yeah, I was on a couple of allergy pills while I was off in it.
But say we were drying.
We were hunting Milo close to that area, probably five minutes away from that area. Dan saw that deer and Connor was like, Hey, let's run by here and just I just want to check out where Dan saw that deer and just see what it looks like. He's I guarantee you there's a Milo field right there close And this part of the story is crazy. He's like, that's where that that's where that deer is. So we we drive over there.
Do you think he's like he has already analyzed, like who owns the property from the pen as.
Far, I'm sure he's looked at it. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure he's he's done all that research. So we drive by.
He's like, yep, he's like, look at this Malo fields.
He was like the road that dam was driving north on where the deer was jumping, there was a bean field on the other side of that deer, just a gigantic bean field. And then on the opposite side of the road, the west side of the road, there was a giant milo fields. He was like, bro, he's bedding in that, he's coming across. He's eating beans at night, and he's just going back. He was like, he's like, if we could just find yep, there it is like what you're looking for. He's like, see that clump of trees in the back. He was like, in that pipe sticking out, He's like, that's a that's a water filtration thing or whatever. He was like, I guarantee you he's watering there. He's bedding close to that, he's walking across the road. He's he's like, this is where he's living right here. I know it is God, it's nuts. So we were just so yeah, so yeah, we're driving real slow on the and all the roads out there, if you get off, there's one road, you know, one highway that's that's paved. Everything else and everything's in a like a grid system, so everything square miles. Roads are so they're straight square, and they're all like this, that's I mean, it's like sand, almost dust bowls sand.
So he's he just.
Starts driving real slow and roads in his window and just starts looking out of the window. And I was like, what are you doing. He's like, I'm looking for like buck track, like a big buck track. And sure enough we roll up there and he, I mean he sees where that deer is coming out and coming back in, and it is crossing the road and it was real close to where you saw him running nuts nuts.
So we had two knights left to hunt that. All right, let me just make you're lining it up. So I see the deer. This is Wednesday night, roughly Thursday morning, y'all. Milo hunt, he finds the tracks, he comes back, drops you off. Yeah, he goes back to the property. I'm assuming, yep.
And when he finds Thursday, middle of the day, it's ten o'clockish, That's what I'm saying. Yeah, so Friday is the last day we got. We're leaving Saturday morning.
That's right. Yeah, sorry, Stuffy, So he mhm killed the kid fall downstairs. So uh, he finds the U. I guess Onyx, the owner and where the owner lives. Drives to the owner's house and goes up and knocks on the door, trying to get permission to hunt this ground. And when he does, I guess the owner had like a ring camera set up. Yeah. That's steps, isn't it. Yeah, they're about to come to the door. Keep talking. I don't know if I'll be able to pay attention. So she knocking on the door, so they uh he and nobody comes to the door and he gets like a text I think right his phone right, And one of his good buddies from high school says.
Hey, man, hedn't talk to him in a minute.
Are you on my porch? And he's like, nah, bro, one of my guys saw a giant. I'm trying to get permission on this old lady's property that I looked up on the ONYX. And his buddy's like, dude, I bought that two years ago.
Sitting in a dentist chair, He's like, I'll.
Call you back when I get out of the Dennis will work something out. So he gets permission. This is Thursday, right, Well, we had been seeing deer, deer we get as the week went on. Deer, we're getting closer and closer and closer to showing up in daylight on the least property that that we were hunting. So we tried. We were like, let's just try it one more night. So we go and we sit at nothing, sweat like crazy. The next morning is our technically last day. Connor was tied up with clients, so we didn't hunt that morning. That afternoon, we're getting ready to go and Connor calls me. He's like, hey, dude, I think we should give that buck a shot. And I was like, okay, man, I'm not seeing anything anywhere else, like why not? So Reid's going south to hunt the least property. Can I interject you? Sure? As I'm going south, I'm almost there. Let me get the two minutes, I'll pass it back, okay, go for So Connor picks me up and we drive to the alleged field that he thinks the deer is living in, and while we're sitting there, there's a I guess I need to explain. So there's this giant, mega, giant mile field I don't know how many acres, humomous. We pull up to an old rig thing yeah, and there's like a platform about eight foot high, which is extremely convenient, and so Connor climbs that and starts glassing. I'm in the back of the trucks. As I'm sitting there, I'm looking south and I'm like, jeez, dude, that is a hell of a storm, like coming exactly from where Reid was headed, and it was just screaming at us. I mean like midwest twister storm storm. Yeah. So now I'm passing in the same time, so.
I'm thinking the same thing. I'm driving in that direction kind of like parallel to the storm. It's still southwest of.
Me, parallel to the storm.
And uh, there's your music for you. And so as I'm driving, I'm like, man that I was like that, that looks like it.
Sucks over there.
I'm looking at my GPS and I'm like, dangt all that it's taken me four miles south and then I like scrolled up to see or scroll down to see the next turn.
Then it says, sorry, just burped.
It says seven miles, like take a right and take seven miles west. And I was like, man, that looks exactly where that storm is. So sure enough, dude, I drive four miles south, turn right, go west, and bro when I'm talking about like, I mean, I'm driving right into it, but I've got to because my the lease is right down there, and I've got to give the stands perfect time. I gotta get the stand So I was just like, you know, I gotta I gotta do it. Yeah, And I'm looking at the radar and it says it's like there is like storm warning, thunder severe thunderstorm warning, but there's not like tornado, you know that thing thing. But when when I'm driving and like there's wheat fields, cornfields on both sides of me, nothing like it. I can see the rain, I can see the light in front of me, but I like when I'm looking at these fields, they're not moving. Wind's not they're not wind blown. They're just chilling. And I'm talking about bro, when I hit this storm, it was like those corn stalks went from standing straight up to when I got in that storm, they were almost touching the ground, blowing so hard into me, not with me, into me. So I start, you know, I mean, this wind's going crazy. Literally, there's trees falling in the road, there's hell, it's like ray. It was top three scariest moments of my life. I was I prayed. I stopped in the middle of the road, put the car in park and just started praying because I was I couldn't control it, obviously, and I was freaking out. I called Dan and I was like, hey, Bro, I was like, I'm in the middle if. I was like, if I don't make it out. But I was like, now, I'm in the middle of this storm that you're that's southwest, y'all right now. I was like, and it's headed right for you, bro, And it is a bruiser. It's a bruiser, and it's coming for you.
So I'm seeing this thing. I'm seeing this thing come and I'm like, man, we're finna. It hammered like to the point where I'm like, i mean, yeah, this is my last night to hunt. But I'm like, I don't know.
There ain't no hunt in that No, there wasn't no hunting in that storm. So luckily it passed pretty quick.
We get back in the truck and Connor's like, hey, man, let's drive west of this storm. I got permission on the field over here, Let's go check it. So we go check three or four more fields kind of in this area, and nothing didn't even see a deer, honestly, and this is my first like real afternoon like Milow hunt, and I'm just kind of I mean, honestly do Like for me, it's like a Southern hunter, like, I don't really believe in it. Even though I even though I've seen deer get killed that way, it's still hard for my brain to accept that this is how these deer get killed, because I'm like, giant deer are real smart, and I don't I just don't know, you know what I mean. I'm still kind of skeptical, even though the proof is in the pudding. I'm still just kind of like, all right, man, you know. So we drive around in the meantime between time. One of his clients kills a deer in the milett close to where we were, So he's like, well, let's drive them here and see if they need help loading him whatever. Now it's getting to be five o'clock probably, and there's only you know, hour and a half left or whatever, and so we drive over there and as the storm's kind of blowing through right and they've killed it here, but it's way out in the field and we can't help them really drag it anyway. He's like, man, this is Dan's last night. We're going to try to try to find one for him or whatever. So he's like, Dude, I really think we should ease back to that field now that the storm is blown through. It might get these deer on their feet a little earlier. I was like, all right, man, Like whatever you think, dude, whatever you think. So we slide back to the same field that we originally start, the same huge Milo field that we had started. And when we pulled in this time, instead of pulling to the left of the old rig, he pulls to the right of it, so we're tucked inside. I'm gonna do my best to describe this. Basically, we're on the edge of this giant Milo field. Now to the right, just in your brain, to the right is two hundred acres of Milo. To your left is probably a one hundred acres of flat parking lot dirt. I mean so flat it is. It's almost like they just an unplanted field. Yeah, or they just cut something mega like mega low. It was. It was flat. So c he climbed, Connor clins back up on his on his perch, and I get in the back of the truck and I'm sitting on the cab of the truck and I'm glass and he's glass and pretty cool. Now that the storm's gone through, it's kind of cooled off a little bit, and we're looking and not honestly not really expecting a whole lot. And I hear like like snapping, and I turned and I see Connor. I I can't really think of any other way to explain it except by saying he totally losing, like there's a giant, Get your gun, Get your He's like whisper, screaming, squatting, snapping, trying to slide down this ladder as fast and quietly as he possibly can. I kick into like Jason Bourne mode and do a backflip off the back of the truck into the ground. Opened the back door. What did you say, it's a backflip? I was like, it was the most efficient way.
Like the movie back from where it's extended in the arms and the legs of total rotation is so athletic.
And hit the dirt and went to the immediate squat position. Guy opened the back door, grabbed my muzzleloader. I didn't even have a cap in my mussloader because you know, man, you're not like the way this things work, you're not really expecting to just go kill mode instantly. Like usually you spot the deer, you got some time, you kind of adjust blowlah. So I reached into one of my reloads, which, by the way, if you're ever doing this, make sure you have three or four of those in your pocket. I grab a reload because it's the quickest way for me to get to a cap. Drop the breach out of my CVA, put the cap on, lock that thing in, and I slide around. I don't even think. I shut the door, the back door. And when I slide around, Connor is on his knees motioning me like he's right here, he's right here here. So I he has ten yards in front of the truck. So I slide up and get in position, and he's like, he's right there, he's right there. And I'm like, I don't even know. I know nothing. I know nothing except he's seen a deer that he thinks is a shooter. I don't know how big he is. I don't know you're you're going bass like solely because I had to move. I did that backflip so fast that I didn't even get to I wouldn't like turn up saying it did a backfoot off. I wasn't trying to turn in like glass him because I knew I had to move, dude, it was to go time. So I'm completely relying upon what he's saying. I throw the gun up and I'm keyed on the edge of the Milo because from the way he's saying he's described it in his snappy, screaming whisper voice, is that the deer is moving right to left, is going to come out of the Milo into this flat area. So I look over my scope and when I do, I see the Mega G two. That's all I can see is like probably the top three quarters of this deer G two, and it's bleach.
White at that point where you like, that's him.
Yes, I knew immediately.
I'm just from seeing just six inches of a Fortunes.
It's more like nine inches. I mean, I saw three quarters of the I couldn't see the deer's right, but I could see the tip of his ears, his twos and threes. But I remember specifically keying in on that gtail deer and going, hey, Connor, that's him. That's him. I'm telling you that's him, and he goes. He's like, he's coming in the mile. He's gona step out the mile. He's gonna step out of the mall. And sorry, we're getting updated on that call. There was a call. We're supposed to be him. Yeah, but we're good. It's now it's tomorrow morning, so we can't do hunting either. I'll take it from the tree. Same. So the deer's coming right to left. He steps into the flat dirt spot and when he did, when he does, I'm crosshairs on him. He's sixty yards. This deer is just just been dropped from heaven sixty yards in front of our truck. We had already been there once. Did not expoot him and come across right to left, and now he is. I can see this deer's ankles. Bro like, I can see the entire profile of the deer. It's I'm like, that's a big deer. I know that's a big deer.
Do we want to talk about do we want to do? We want to before you get into the do we want to talk about the conversation we had earlier that day.
That's to be the time to do it. Yeah, So that same day.
We were talking about that one eighty that that guy had killed in that big deer Dan scene.
Draw it up, I can't remember.
And we were just the middle of the day up there. It's bro it's pointless to be in a stand, especially in the rut. We're in the stand all day. But at this point it's ninety something degrees. We're sitting up there, and we're having a conversation about just like like what deer hunting has become for us, and and yes, we love to chase big deer, Yes we love to go out there and hunt.
But like.
Dan had it at this point, had never killed, had never killed. The biggest dede you ever killed is one hundred and twenty nine thirty forever.
But David Duncanoe is won twenty nine and now the whole world knows this one.
And pretty much the conversation was, even though he's like and damns like, I've been hunting the Midwest for fifteen years, and even though I've never killed a big Midwest deer, like, it still doesn't take the joy away from me from coming and chasing them, sure, from coming and hunting them.
Well, I just don't want it. I didn't I still don't want it, you know, like to be the guy that like, if I don't kill then I haven't, then I've wasted quote, I'm disappointed my time, right because man, if you're if you're planning on that being what brings you joy out of hunting, dude, you're gonna be disappointed. You're in the wrong. You're in the wrong thing. Yeah, And I just I really felt that, you know, especially after a long week of like not seeing much, I still couldn't wait to get back out there in December. Yeah, truth be told. And so I said, yeah, I'm not gonna let I'm not gonna let not kill you a big deer, especially like and bro, like kudos to you, Like you've killed some big deer on these trips. Man, it just hadn't hasn't fallen, And it's I honestly haven't even had the opportunity to really kill a big deer. I've sat weeks and weeks and weeks, and I've never had a larger deer, any bigger than one. For there was that one time in Illinois when I drew back on probably one hundred and fifty inch deer and hit that limb, hit that limb, that I didn't see him anyway. That's basically the only time I had a fifteen years.
And then you fell over that lock. We did the following lock when we were walking out. Remember I walked up in there and you showed me the limb, and then you were frustrated and we got in a little argument, and you fell over that log. Of the argument, you like, your little legs couldn't get over the log and felling at the frozen ground.
That was funny.
But literally same day that that the mile of things going down. That afternoon, we have this conversation about being okay with not not killing Big Deer. Yeah, all the time. We love the chase. It brings us joy. It doesn't have to be about killing, and it's it's all about, you know, doing it with your brother and your best friends and your family and your dad.
There's something just being out there, being in a different state or different being in a different place that kind of puts this like a little allure on it too. It's kind of nice and to me that that feeling is almost as I did this killing Big Deer.
Yeah it's not the same way, but it's almost. Yeah, I feel the same.
You know. And how many times. Remember, like in this the last time we did this episode is just me and you.
We were talking about could you rather kill a two hundred or yeah? So God works my mysterious ways.
People. So the steps out into the flat dirt, and I and on him, crosshairs on his brisket as he steps in, and he immediately starts to trot.
Is he quartering away?
Is he facing absolutely bide Broadside steps out and then starts trotting away, not necessarily away, but just kind of. I mean, brother, he's probably a six year old deer. He's not gonna just hang out in a flat dirt field in the daylight. So as soon as he hits the dirt, he begins this like not spooked, okay, very calm, not running from y'all. But I'm gonna get over there. Yeah, I'm not just gonna hang out. It wasn't a it was like a right trot lope across this dirt. I say to Connor stop him. And Connor, I mean, look, it was Connor's emotions were going nuts because he had seen the deer. I was calm, calm, daddy, because I hadn't even I didn't even eight eyes on the deer, so my adrenaline literally didn't have time to like drop and surge. Meanwhile, this cat is losing it. He knows how this, so he goes. I said, hey, Connor, stop the deer, and he goes, I'm telling you. I was next to him, like from me to this mic and I went like this. I literally looked at him like, bro, I barely heard that. This year's six yours running away for us. And he went, I said, stop him Connor stopping He went, Man, I mean, dude, it was such a moment, like, I mean, I totally understand what was going on. Sure, had I been surging, I probably would have done the same thing. And he didn't want to mess it up. He didn't want to spook the deer. Our truck is literally right there. And I went, really, and he'll tell you that. He told the story and I heard him tell that, so he didn't mind me saying it. It's not like I knew what I was doing. I was just like, we I that got to that's my lifetime deer. Yeah, I gotta stop that. Even if it's supoosh to me, he starts running, right, I gotta try. Yeah, And when I did, dude, he pulled the e brak and just went and like stopped and then turned back. And I mean, I may be making this up, but I felt when he turned back he might have seen the truck. Yeah, And it was just kind of doing the what's that thing like, not like oh, there's giant truck there, because we were tucked into the milo this time. Had we been out in that field, I don't know if he'd ever moved. I don't even know if he'd come out. You had shown me a graph that day of a deer, of an outfitter that had a picture of a deer, a picture of a deer broadside, and he put red pins that were killed shots, green pins that shot and couldn't find, shot no, shot and found and blew. No.
There was three different colors pens, red pins, okay, whatever, say whatever. The color red pins were where harvest pins like where they killed the deer. The green pins were where the deer was shot but they didn't recover the deer.
Okay. Blue was where they shot and recovered the deer. There was two three colors.
Well, no, that's if you shot and recover the deal.
That's a kill. That's a kill. Shot. It was it was required a second shot. Yeah that was white. That was white, all right, right, So the.
Majority the red red was kill shots.
We have been brought up shoulder shooting deer, our entire lives, our entire lives, shooting in the shoulder. You'll go down and shooting the shoulder. And that's all we've ever done. And when I looked at that, that was that day. Yeah, it's that same conversation we were having. And when I looked at that, at that thing, the middle of that deer had the majority of red pins.
Man, almost every one of the pins were red in the middle of the center mass.
And look where we had shot deer in the shoulders and stuff forever. There were red pins too, but there were more greens and blues right like. And for some reason, when that deer stopped and turned, that image was in my brain. And I'm telling you, I was locked onto his front shoulder and I literally made the decision Nope, came back. I'm moving to the center mass of this deer and putting it right in where all that red stuff was. And I had been shooting my musloader for weeks before this man just trying to get I mean, mega doll and so I did. I pulled the trigger the deer. I see the deer take it like I thought he kicked, Connor says he did in milk kick. I see him take it, turn and go right back the way he came. And Connor is going, you drilled him. I saw the bullet. He's like, I saw the bullet breaking the sound barrier or whatever it does. And in you know the he said, I could see the loft of the coar and it fall into his ribcage and just destroy He's like, you just destroyed that deer. There turns he's run through the milo. Connor has four fingers out like this, and he's going watch him, watch him watching this. Tear's seventy sixty seventy yards in front of fifty maybe coming cutting through the milo, and we see him just start slowing down, starting slowing down, stop and fall and bro I mean, I don't even know how to describe that feeling. It was total you for it. And Connor kicks into like you know, Connor mode, and he's like, reload, reload. Really He's like, damn, I'm telling you just you just killed a child. But reload, reload relo and so I, uh, quick, looking at your phone, does I feel like jumps Texas? So she'll come down here she is. So I I put two uh pellets and powder pellets, and I put my bullet in and most of the time I have to like get it in pack pack pack, pack pack, and it's in, and dude, my adrenalin was going someunus. I just went watch and just slammed it all the way the bridge. Throw another cap in. We walked out there deer's land stone called dead fifty yards and there's lung blood, just ball, I mean it just it just ate him up. I mean that most of that fifty cow bullet ate him up. Yeah, and he's a giant and I that's how the story went down. And we took him back to camp and we celebrated, and.
I had deer all around me.
Yeah, it was time to read that's the infamous picture you see from that, Yeah, that's uh.
And when he when he facetimed me, I had deer all over the place and got the face time.
I'm sitting in a box. Uh.
And by the time we hung up that phone on FaceTime, there were no deer around me. The box was shaken.
I was shaking. Man. It was. It's pretty cool. It's pretty special. I said to Connor, Dude, I after we got him up, we're looking at him and said, man, I just killed a one eighty and he went, nah, man, he said, I've been doing this a long time. That deer is a lot bigger than one eighty. And so we took him back to camp and it was nuts and they put the tape, just total rough tape to him.
And I'll say this too, talking about how big that deer is. I got to camp late, stared at that deer for twenty thirty minutes, put my hands all over him, and I was like, I want to see that one eighty three in the cooler. And so they brought the one eighty three out and I'd been staring at Dan's deer, and listen, if you've ever seen one hundred and eighty three inch deer, it is a freaking giant.
Bro. It was the biggest deer I had ever, like nearly ever seen.
And they brought it out of the cooler. And I'm not taking anything away from that one hundred and eighty three in is deer, bro I'm not taking anything away from it. But when they brought it out of the cooler. I looked at damn, and I said, bro, if that's one hundred and eighty three inches, which is huge, I was like, yours, You've got a chance, man, your yours has a chance to break the break the barrier.
The guy that killed the one eighty three, yeah, was saying the entire time. He's like, dude, that your deer has at least twenty to thirty inches more than my dear does. Yeah. He was saying it. And I was just like, man, and you know, man, we don't really get mega wrapped up in score like it was. It is by far the biggest deer I'll ever killed in my life. But you know, there was people out there going, man, let's put the tape to it. I was like, man, it's dead now, Like right, do it? You know if you want to, I don't care. And Connor, who's really good at that stuff and has done that forever, I mean, he had him at two ten and seven eighths two ten and seven eighths, and I mean essentially I was right when I said. I don't mean I was right, but I was accurate when I said I'm just killed on one eighty because he literally had thirty three inches of extras. Yeah, he had it.
It was like as a it's a one hundred and eighty inch frame nine point typical nine nine just mass twenty seven inch main beams two yeah, and it's one hundred and eighty frame eighty inch deer frame with thirty I mean he had six brow times that were all nine inches like seven plus yeah, seven plus yeah. Just I mean just a specimen man, just trash going everywhere.
Man, I'm I can't believe it happened to me.
Just an incredible dear.
I think about it every day, multiple, multiple times a day. I'm very thankful. I recognize how wild that story is. And a couple of replicas come in. There's a couple of replaces in the future. Yeah, and so he'll he'll be around. I think I'm gonna get the rack back maybe Sunday and so for real, for real, and so when I do, maybe maybe he'll make an appearance many yeah, man, some video. Yeah, thanks for riding with us and listening to my story. That's the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
And uh, that's here's the meeting for you. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
So I'll never kill a deer bigger than that, and that's perfectly fine with me. I don't care, dear. The pursuit of a big deer kind of changes for me now. It won't stop me, obviously, from from hunting where I'm gonna get him officially scored. Uh. I've already talked to a Boone and Crockett guy here. I talked to him yesterday, and so we'll have a more accurate but I mean, welcome to the club man, the Witch club, the club you're not in or the Big Deer Club, the Boon and Crodit Club. Oh are you in it? Yeah? What is it?
One six h Yeah, it's a one seventy, there's it one sixty five.
Let's make sure I think there's different because there's Poping Young, right, I always get them mixed up.
Now, Poping Young's bo I'm definitely in that one.
You know, I'm saying, I get the I get the.
Come on man, be one sixty five. I think I thought I thought it was like because that deer right there, that Oklahoma deer is above sixty five, it was like sixty might have been on the nose.
One sixty typical one eighty five non typical, one sixty typical. Yes, welcome to the club. Dude. I don't know, man, I don't know he's typical.
Yeah, I would consider that deer typical. I mean he's very you know, we should you should get him scored. He's got When I take mine, you should take you that guy. I mean, they're gonna deduct like he's not.
Like they're gonna they're gonna. But there's two ways you can go. The guy told me you can turn him in as a typical or you can turn him in as non typical, and you essentially just do whichever score is bigger.
Right, he ain't won eighty though non typical, he's one sixty typical. Okay, true truth without deductions, without deductions.
Truthfully does that? What does that deer look like? Now? And I don't mean like I haven't seen my deer, but I'm saying having seen the deer that we saw that week because Connor killed a giant and that one was a giant, there was a bunch of other really big deer that came in that week.
Yeah, I mean, honestly, how does your perception change on that? I mean, you could fit that rack in yours, Like, but I mean.
It doesn't.
I mean, that's a huge deer and that's huge. Yeah, I mean, but like, what do we have him? He's one, Like he's like right at sixty five and above. Man, it doesn't like it doesn't take anything away from it at all, but it does. I mean, it's like you just see it differently. And it's weird, man, because.
I'm doing it with videos online.
When we talked about this too, like you just can't comprehend if you haven't seen up close and touched put your hands on a two hundred inch rack up close and personal and see him laying beside one hundred and sixty inch deer or one hundred or bring a one eighty out and put it next to him.
And just see them.
There's a massive I know it's only twenty inches, but there's it's just a different.
It's just a different levels. It's for some reason now I know.
It's just it's almost uncomprehendable.
And you can't really tell by the pictures if you want to know the truth, like, well, there's nothing to compare it. There's no, there's not one hundred and sixty inches beside it.
So you have nothing to compare it to, but just in like in contrast with you know, I mean, dude, that's one hundred and sixty five inch deer that's hanging on my wall. You killed a deer that's forty five inches bigger than that in mass and length and extra times, and it just makes it's I mean, it's just math. It's crazy, and it's like, I mean, yeah, yeah, it's it's in math.
I mean, I'm saying the math there is is there like and you can just tell it's it's it's not like a it's not like a little significant change like that, like a twenty inches forty five inches this, and my brain keeps trying to like go giantly to make it smaller. My brain keeps going like, man, he overscored that, or man, everybody's just trying to be cool to you. You know, the songwriter brain kicks in. It's like this didn't really hap it's not as big as you thing right, Yeah, but man, I saw it, taste it it is, and I saw the comparison.
It is an absolute giant.
Anyway, I'm real blessed, I'm real thankful. We gotta go, But what time is it it's time. Okay, we'll talk about this forever, but that's the story and I'm sticking to the Thanks for sticking with us. You listen. Yes, it's good treat. We often appreciate you so