The Hunting Stories Podcast
The Hunting Stories Podcast
Ep 107 The Hunting Stories Podcast:Wesley Verhamme
Ever wondered about the intricacies of moose hunting? Wesley takes us through a suspenseful last-day hunt with his father, revealing their unique strategies and the high-stakes moments that come with estimating a moose’s antler spread. He shares tales of navigating tough hunting regulations, the thrill of a successful shot, and even the unexpected outcomes that sometimes come with hunting in the wild. From a prank gone wrong during an elk hunt to the hilarious and chaotic moments of a wild marsh adventure, Wesley’s stories are filled with raw emotions, valuable lessons, and the unpredictability of the hunt.
Throughout the episode, Wesley reflects on the profound connections to nature and family that hunting fosters. He shares personal reflections on how his late grandfather influenced his hunting passion, despite never having hunted together. You'll hear about Wesley’s bold attempts at archery hunting and his memorable Kansas hunting trips. Each story underscores the camaraderie, the importance of preparation, and the shared experiences that make hunting more than just a pastime. So tune in, laugh, and get inspired by the unforgettable moments that Wesley Verhamme brings to life, reminding us all of the wild beauty and tough lessons that hunting adventures offer.
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Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories podcast. I'm your host, michael, and we got another great one for you today. Today we actually connect with Wesley Verham out of Alaska and Kansas. He's actually a listener that reached out and said man, I got some crazy stories and I'd love to tell them on your podcast, and so I want to thank Wesley, of course, for having the bravery to just reach out and then, of course, spend some time with me on the podcast To listeners. It's a great episode. I hope you guys really enjoy it.
Speaker 1:I will say that we had a little bit of technical difficulties, turns out, if a computer falls asleep while recording, we can still talk to each other, but it doesn't record the audio. So I did lose a little bit of this episode. I cleaned it up and I apologize for that. We do lose the end of a goat story and a funny bear story, but the good news is we'll have Wesley back on again to tell both of those stories again and plenty more that he has for us. So thanks again, wesley. Thank you guys for tuning in. Now let's go ahead and kick this thing off and let Wesley tell you some of his stories. All right, wesley, welcome to the hunting stories podcast. Brother, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great man pleasure to be on here. Dude, I'm brother, how are you? I'm doing great man Pleasure to be on here.
Speaker 1:Dude, I'm so happy to have you. I know it's our third time here trying to get this thing started because we're having some internet issues, but I've said it to you before. But you fall into the category of my favorite type of guest, which is a listener who goes man, I've got a story I want to tell you. So thank you very much, wes, for reaching out to me and asking to be on the podcast, because that's really what I want from this whole thing is to just hear stories from people around the world. So thank you, man, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course I encourage more people to do it. Love hearing these, absolutely, man.
Speaker 1:So let's kick this thing off, how we always do. Why don't you introduce yourself to the folks that are going to be hearing your stories today, so they know who they're hearing some stuff from today?
Speaker 2:You got it. So I was born in Las Vegas, nevada. When I was about four years old, my family said you know what? We hate the city.
Speaker 1:So we're gone.
Speaker 2:And we moved to Haines, alaska, a small southeast Alaska town. My grandma had some property up there, had a big dream. None of it worked out but we stayed there. Um yeah, so I guess I guess my real first hunting story. I just vague memory, didn't go on it or anything. But I was like four years old and my dad left for like three days and he just brings back sacks of meat just in gallon Ziploc bags and we had a bunch of neighbors come over and cooking and everything.
Speaker 2:So this is a four-year-old me. I'm just like I have no idea what. I just know that I'm getting tacos right now from Big. Walk. So that was like my first introduction. It's like food. This is great.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that he just showed up with Ziploc bags full of meat, I mean just in a cooler yeah, that full of meat was just I mean just in a cooler success.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome man. So yeah, that that really like sparked it. I was like I want to know where it goes from being a living animal eating corn off of some farmer's field to in our freezer. Yeah, and I really didn't get to see that until I was like seven or eight years old, when I went on my first like real hunt with my dad, which was a duck hunt, and uh, we, we, just it's mosquito, uh lake, it's mosquito lake.
Speaker 1:And oh, it's that name for a reason. Uh, it's just like it's not even a lake.
Speaker 2:I mean there's a deep section, but most of it's like two, three foot deep, great duck hunting so well.
Speaker 1:That's terrible.
Speaker 2:It's redeemable there and in duck season there's typically no mosquitoes, right if you get it's cold enough oh no, I mean early, I mean like our duck season starts, uh, august 15th, so I mean that's just mosquito just everywhere. I mean they'll pick you up and take you away if you're not careful.
Speaker 2:So yeah I remember being seven years old and I mean like I'm in some maybe garage sale waiters because we've only lived in alaska for about years now, three years, so just handy down stuff that we just picked up along the way, um, and I'm just chugging behind my dad trying to keep up and like the marsh and just nasty mud, and my dad goes all right, here you go, and it's just a single shot, shot, uh, four, 10. And he was like the main.
Speaker 2:The main mission was just to get me away from him so he can go jump like jump up some ducks. I don't know if I would ever do that with my kid, Cause we're in the middle of bear country there, but he's like you, just stay right here. Here's a gun, Don't move.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so sometimes the best parenting lessons are what not to do, right, yeah, exactly so um me being a seven-year-old kid, I was like I'm not going to stay, stay here.
Speaker 2:I know where the ducks are and I start army crawling in the opposite direction and little to me like. There's like these bear trails and just like trails going through this muskegon that gets beaten down and it's just like six, eight inches of water on top of this, like floating marsh kind of deal. And I was crawling in one of those and I had a mallard jump up in front of me and and I just point and shot because I thought it was something scary and it dropped and I heard my dad yelling and that just sparked this lust for hunting.
Speaker 2:Was it like a Yahoo?
Speaker 1:yell, or was it like a holy shit? What was that yell?
Speaker 2:No, my dad said don't shoot unless you see a bear.
Speaker 1:So it was more of a like.
Speaker 2:I'm coming. Where are you? And it's not like my dad left me. I mean he was going around a bend or around the side just to jump shoot these ducks, and he didn't want a loud seven-year-old screaming they're right there.
Speaker 1:So he just left me behind and he started running back so he thought you were dealing with a bear. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:He was like it was a duck. And he was like no, it wasn't. And I was like I'm telling you I shot a duck. And he's like no, you didn't. And sure enough, my dad comes up and we're following that slew and here here splashing, and I winged this mallard. So this mallard is then now running away from us and he finally puts the finishing shot in it. And I just remember holding that duck in my hand, being like I'm hooked, I'm addicted. Now, like all my money in my adult life is gone and I don't even know that yet. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this is my personality now, come on, dad, buy me everything, camo.
Speaker 2:Yep, exactly. So that was like seven. I was seven years old and you know I went on a couple hunts, but it's Alaska, so it's hard for just kids to go hunting. And the next real moment like, like, like, big hunt that I remember I was in fifth grade and we went to Huna, alaska. We jumped on a on the ferry, loaded up the truck, the camper had this big, huge plan to go down and shoot some deer off of federal land because I don't know if you know in alaska you.
Speaker 2:Tags are free for residents.
Speaker 1:I knew residents had a a lot of tags every year, if they chose to use them let me, let me stop you real quick. I want to go back just a little. So you guys moved from nebraska, no, no, nevada, nevada las vegas nevada nevada to alaska. I'm assuming your father did hunt before and that's kind of why you guys chose Alaska, not just Grandma's Land. Or did he hunt before?
Speaker 2:Yes and no. He had guns as a kid. That's how they ate most of the time he said. He said that if they were hungry they hunted and they were kind of like. I mean it sounded not legal.
Speaker 1:He never said that, but you do what you gotta do. He's good now, yep.
Speaker 2:Yep, that was, that was 20 odd years ago. But he he just grew up kind of around it and he had friends who did it, and it's hard to hunt in Vegas, you gotta you gotta drive a good section away and get to some farm land and he was hunting off of like depredation tags. I think that's what they're called.
Speaker 2:I'm just shooting some does and whatnot and really the main reason we moved to Alaska is because my grandma had property out there. My dad was a carpenter and he got a good job. I don't know if you know Parker Schnabel and the Gold Rush and everything.
Speaker 1:That's a quality name, but I've never heard it before.
Speaker 2:So, parker Schnabel, it's that Alaska Gold Rush TV show and my dad actually worked for his father for a while for Alaska Southeast Road Builders.
Speaker 1:Schnabel Sr okay.
Speaker 2:Yep. So he had a good job up there. Everything lined up and we were able to make the move. So that's really why we ended up in Alaskaaska, just tired of the city got it good opportunities there to just start something, and I'm sure my dad had the hunting in mind too, but that's never what he told me, or my mom imagine, like being someone from vegas and then like I'm just gonna go up and go up to alaska, like rural alaska, because those are so different.
Speaker 2:But good on him, man. I was young so it was an easy transition for me. But my older sister and my older brothers they hated it, I bet, but now most of them moved back because they love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a 100-degree temperature swing for one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Never mind the culture difference Obviously massive differences there. But yeah, definitely I took you out of your story there. I was just curious kind of, uh, what spurred it. But yeah, keep going yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So uh, huna, alaska, fifth grade, we had this great, great plan, great setup. We were like we're gonna, we're just gonna go down there. My dad had this old f-350 v10 with that trident in it. You touch the gas, there goes 30 bucks um on gas money, but we're like we're going to load it all up, and one of my older friends, cade Clay, great hunting buddy of mine, um, uh, he had a 30, ought six.
Speaker 2:My dad didn't trust me still, so I had a 22, uh long rifle and I was on squirrel and rabbit duty, um up until my uncle, mike, and I uh, he went on that trip as well and he handed me a gun and we were just going through the woods and next thing I know, he just tells me to sit down which I guess I had loud feet or something, cause that happened a lot as a kid and he takes off and just starts going and I hear a gunshot and I'm like what the heck is going on? Another gunshot, gunshot, and then that's three shots. I hear pause and I hear three more gunshots and I see bambi just run out right in front of me and I'm like what? And I just see the snow is now just red behind it and it finally drops and he's like about 10 minutes later I see him walking back.
Speaker 2:He's like did you see the blood? And I was like it's right here. I was like I don't know how you can't see this Forgot he had red-green colorblind first of all.
Speaker 1:So I don't know how he hunts too well. You know, I've heard of a lot of hunters that have that exact problem and it blows my mind that they're out there.
Speaker 2:Like if you don't get to shoot, and this deer is still kicking a little bit and I mean like it's double shotted in the lungs, it's probably hit gut, shot high back, and I'm like why is this 70 pound not even 60 pound doe, like basically Bambi, still kicking? And my, my uncle goes like I see, you're 22. And I was like let me do it. And I was like my first time, like realizing, all right, this is going to be start to finish. We're harvesting. This is like I want to do this because I want to be involved and that was my first time skinning a deer.
Speaker 2:And like all of my hunting has always revolved around meat. Like I'm a big-time meat hunter, I love helping out just harvesting. Like my friends like oh, it's an open phone call, call me, I need to track something, I'll help, I'll gut, I'll do anything. So that's like another big time funny story. But it really set in my mind where it's like this is what I'm here for. I'm not here for big racks, I'm here for meat. And like doing it all myself yeah, absolutely man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like living in what. How old then? Seven I was, I was in fifth grade, so I was like 10, 11.
Speaker 2:I've always been a little bit younger for my grade, but so we went on a couple more kind of deer hunting trips like that that trip in particular. You're allowed four resident tags for deer and then if you hunt federal land you get an additional two.
Speaker 1:But these aren't like your white-tailed deers.
Speaker 2:I mean these are dogs. They're like 50, 60 pounds.
Speaker 1:You might get lucky to shoot 120 big buck in some areas 130 but these are basically like smaller labrador retriever dogs, like the deer they're not big at all, so we make out of there like a bunch of what species? This is alaska, so are you hunting mule, black tail, sitka, okay, okay, they are little, okay, gotcha, little guys yeah.
Speaker 2:So my dad realizes. You know what. I grew up in a household of seven kids and three adults, so my dad's like these deer aren't really cutting it. And that's when we got our first taste into moose hunting.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:So I was in seventh grade and we were coming up on our first moose hunting trip. My dad got the tag. He put all of us kids that were old enough in it. None of us kids drew the tag, but he drew a tag. So me and him hunted hard and on the last day of season we decided to do this little thing and he's like you know what? Nothing's working. We're going after the big bulls normally and he's like we just need to get meat so there's three different.
Speaker 2:There's three different, um uh, harvest restrictions, I guess, or antler restrictions on a moose. In the unit we're in it's a 50 inch spread, so it has to be 50 inches and I don't know if you've ever tried it, but it's pretty hard to say. Mr moose, hold still. Let me put tape on you really quick before I shoot you right uh right, it won't go over. Well, there's the three brow tine. You know what brow tines are, right I?
Speaker 2:do yep, they're the point under the mid-bait tines for those who don't, it has to be three by two or a spike and a fork. So my dad was like you know what, we're not going to get anything. And he said he read in a book a long time ago where these two hunters imitated a cow moose, just pissed off and mad and was like I don't want anything to do with this little bull. So what he told me to do was just to make just a little bull grunts as he walked down this gravel like old logging road and I'd keep chirping back like a little bull and he's just going to sound like a mad cow who wants something else.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we kept doing that and I see him go around the next bend and then that was my cue to go forward again and we go about probably about a mile down this road where he goes 300 yards. I keep creeping up with just a little bull grunts like saying, hey, I'm still interested. This cow's not interested at all. And it was kind of like a last ditch effort. My dad didn't know if it was going to work and we're sitting there and I was like dad, do you not hear that? And he's like what? And I'm like I'm hearing grunting down here and once again I'm a I don't have the best application as a kid growing up. My dad was like no, you don't. And I finally convinced him. I was like let's just peek down this knoll and it's just devil's club.
Speaker 2:Blueberry bushes just the nastiest thing ever and my dad's like no, and I'm like let's do it, and it's all old logging timber, so there's stumps everywhere and just the worst thing you ever want to walk through.
Speaker 2:And I was like let's just do it. And we get down about 50 yards and there's kind of this little like bench and my dad just starts glassing and I just feel a fist right in my chest and he's like there it is. He's like right there. And now I've never seen my dad get the shakes on anything. I've seen him harvest nice blacktail, deer, everything. Never seen him get the shakes. And he's reaching into his pocket trying to grab out his clip and he's shaking and I still don't even see the thing. Don't even see it. So my dad's like he's, he's asking me range it, range it. I'm like I don't even know how to work this. You never taught me first of all. So I'm like trying to figure this thing out and he's like shoving it into my hands like pressing buttons and I'm like, okay, and I finally get it.
Speaker 2:And I'm like I finally see it. And I'm like I I turned towards my dad, never cussed in front of him for this, and I just go shit and he's like you see it now, and I was like yeah so I get a range on it and I'm like all right, that is. I said it's 425 and I was like but don't you have to worry about the downhill? And he's like no, that's fake.
Speaker 2:And I was like okay and he goes boom and I just see it. I just I I don't see the bullet, but I just see that whole area where that moose was just like kick and run and like you just see it disappear in the alders. And I hear my dad rack another shell and he's like range and I was like I don't see it. And he goes okay, and I hear boom and just another shot and then now we don't see it at all oh so we're like okay, my dad's like that felt, like, felt, felt, good.
Speaker 2:You know, I felt really strong on that second shot. I believe he's down and we're like okay, and my dad's like all right, now let's climb up and go down and get some people out here, because, like he was, like he didn't he told me he didn't even bother to check brow times. It was that big and I was like okay, well, we'll, we'll.
Speaker 1:And um, we go down the road.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're, we're all okay. I'm starting to get a little cold, Cause you know it's it's late August, early September. Uh, I'm getting cold now and I'm I'm a kid still, so I don't know. My dad tells me to layer up. I put on an extra pair of socks yeah, don't tell anybody about this but I just put on an extra pair of socks and I think I'm good and we're going down. We finally get to like the first house and we knew them, their family, friends, and we called some other people and we got like six guys out there to help us go down and pack up.
Speaker 1:My dad doesn't even know if there was blood or not, so me and my dad, but he got the whole village just in case. Six guys.
Speaker 2:We go down there and see nothing, absolutely nothing. And we come back up and now I'm like in the car trying to get warm and my dad and everyone else is still trying to look for it. And I turn towards my mom at this point she's up there with the car and we're getting warm as close as we can and I go Mom, I'm extremely hot, can you turn off the heat? And she's like what do you mean? You're hot. And I was like I'm hot, like my fingers are burning. And she looks at my fingers and they're in like half-clinched fists and my fingers are all blue.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, and I'm like.
Speaker 2:I'm so cold that the heat from the car was like burning my skin. Long story short, my dad called the whole village out there for no reason. Missed it clean Um, uh, but he's still convinced that he shot it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's like that's fake. When you're like the downhill, I was like, oh, this is not going to go where we want it to.
Speaker 2:He's convinced he shot it. So he is going out there and, um, uh, he's just out there. He's looking for dead meat. So he only has his bear pistol on the side and he's checking and looking around. He finally sees the moose and on his left paddle which would have been the paddle facing away from him and downhill there's a figure eight bullet holes right in that paddle.
Speaker 1:No way, yep. Both shots through the paddle.
Speaker 2:Both shots through that paddle. No way, yep Both shots through the paddle.
Speaker 2:Both shots through the paddle and then about three or four months later those old logging roads are common for snow machiners. The snow machiners were driving around and old man Turner was up there with his boys and they found that shed and my dad. I don't know if my dad still has the picture he's lost so many phones but I'll have to see if I can't get it from him, but my dad had. There was a picture at one point in time, my dad holding that paddle with a figure eight shot in it. Um, I'm sure I can get it for you.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, do you think so? You said he's deterred to this day. He still thinks he shot that that bold. No, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:Nope, he, he saw he the next day. The next couple of days after season closed, the fishing game there is pretty lenient. They say if you go out there, don't bring a hunting rifle. If you find your moose dead, we'll still like honor it, like we'll tag it They'll, they'll work with you basically.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And um uh, my dad went out there with his pistol and saw that moose in the same general area with the eight knocked in his antlers gotcha, gotcha and then yeah, so he missed and he found out a valuable lesson that when you're shooting downhill at 400 yards and then a mystery range, it really matters where you aim that's funny man that's too funny but that's a great story.
Speaker 1:That's a great story and hopefully you didn't lose any fingers nope, nope, nope, uh.
Speaker 2:I recovered pretty well. Um, uh, but yeah, it was, it was funny. Um, that really. That really taught me a lesson. I was just like my dad isn't gonna tell me when he, my dad, tells me to layer up. I might want to put on like a windbreaker and some rain gear.
Speaker 1:Yeah, more than more than two pairs of socks. Yep, so then that?
Speaker 2:leads into the next year, moose hunting, which I finally get a tag, draw a tag and I hunt hard all season. We're going on the riverboat now, so we're going up river and I get nothing. And then the following year, now I'm in eighth grade, my dad gets another tag. He shoots a moose and the brow tine on the right side there was two brow tines. The third brow tine on that side wasn't considered a brow tine because it was a little bit wider than it was long oh, interesting okay so um they have to be.
Speaker 2:They have to be longer than they are wide to be considered a point um or a brow tine, excuse me and that that moose didn't qualify, so it got taken away. My dad moose didn't qualify, so it got taken away. My dad lost he didn't lose his hunting permission. Uh, for the full year he had to pay like a $200 fine, and I got to still eat the moose cause it got donated to the school so.
Speaker 2:So my dad had free school lunches for a year, so my dad came in every once in a while and eat a couple of things chili and whatnot but that's funny yeah, so my dad how pissed was he when he saw that well, he, he thought that it was legal and like it's just, it's whichever fishing game wardens on at that time, they get a pick where it ends and where it starts and, like the three game wardens, two out of the three said it wasn't a point. The one guy said it was, so it was just like it was tough.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah. So my dad was like you know what? I'm done, I'm done, we're done with this unit and we're going to go stay up with some family friends and we're going to go to a unit with no antler restrictions. And the first year he went up there he went up by himself, left me. I was so mad, I was an eighth sorry, I was a freshman just mad and um, he takes off gone what was he?
Speaker 1:what was he thinking? Just like he's gonna be camping too tough for you, or why do you know?
Speaker 2:no, he was just like this is my first time hunting the area. Like I don't want to. I just I just want to go by myself and like hunt hard if I need to. That's also that was my first year of wrestling, so I started wrestling that year and my sophomore year. He comes back with a moose, tells me a bunch of stories. I don't know if they're true or not. I wasn't there, maybe.
Speaker 1:They're maybe true yeah maybe.
Speaker 2:So then the next year he's like you know what? We can definitely double up and get enough and be like because we try, we try to eat wild game if we can, because everything's so expensive in alaska. So my dad has this great idea of like you know what? Let's just let's go up there, let's get two, call it good. So now I'm a sophomore in high school and I'm of the age where I can hunt by myself.
Speaker 1:Um, okay, yeah, so me and my, dad.
Speaker 2:Uh, his, his rule is always, he gets first shot, so we can get meat. Um, uh, so me and my dad did that whole little moose cow calling thing back and forth again cause that really started becoming a staple and how me and him hunted Cause it worked so well.
Speaker 2:When you get a pissed off horny cow moose mad at a little small bull, you're gonna bring big bulls in. You're just gonna bring bulls in and they're gonna be wanting to chase off little bulls. Or even if it's a little bull, they're like I have a chance, because she's obviously mad at whoever this bull is trying to breed her yeah, so I'm uh we. We called in a nice fork and horn uh for my dad that year and he shot it and he stopped hunting.
Speaker 1:Didn't help me get mine, so I was on my own and I was like shoot first and then good luck. Yep, I was like sweet he's like you're old enough.
Speaker 2:Now, push comes to shove, we'll just, we'll buy a couple hogs and butcher them and then take the six hour drive back home, um, uh, through through Canada and whatnot. And I was like, all right, sweet. So I started going out by myself and, um, my first time ever hunting, I get turned around. I have my phone GPS, luckily, and I kind of get orientated to where I think I'm in a good spot. I'm far enough away from the road, so I'm not having to deal with all the people coming in from Fairbanks and Anchorage, cause that's, that's like the uh Yahoo's in terms and when you're in rural towns, cause they just they're weekend hunters, they come up, they just run around on ATVs and stuff and just try to road hunt, basically, cause.
Speaker 1:I mean.
Speaker 2:I don't blame them. They got a weekend to hunt, so they can't put in the time. So I mean I'm in Colorado, so same thing, man. Then the the weekend, just try to get lucky. Yep, yep, so hope something rolls by as you roll by, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I kind of get turned around and I'm sitting here now and I'm like this looks like a good spot, so I put my phone away, I'm not even looking at maps anymore and I just I let a cow call out, I rip it and I learned just vocals no, no horns, no reads, no, nothing like that. Okay, and I'm like that sounded pretty good. I'm just gonna sit here and wait. And I've never heard a moose call back right away and I mean bam, instantly started hammering, just nice little low grunts coming across on the back side of this field. It was kind of like a hot day and these fields are like marshes. And then there's like these, uh, just small evergreens, maybe four inches in diameter, six, eight, ten foot tall, nothing really taller, and those moose like to be in those bogs on those hot days to cool down.
Speaker 2:So I'm like this is perfect. I'm kind of calling in and then all of a sudden I hear another cow call rip off. And I'm like, sweet, I got a live cow. Now she's a cow moose. She's calling off back and forth. This is perfect. I'm right in the middle, I can just shut up and just start listening and I can just wait to make my move. And now I'm just like this is great, the cow's going off. I hear a couple more bulls just fight and I hear raking and I'm like this is about to be really good, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I get my glass.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get my glasses, I get my glasses out and I'm like seeing her and I see, and I scan to my left and about 600 yards down this little musk egg. I see a hunter and he's ripping that cow call.
Speaker 1:I'm like man, that is the best cow call ever.
Speaker 2:I'll just, I'll, you know, I'll just let him call in my moose for me, cause there's still this bull and there's another one raking brush. I'm like this is great, it's great positioning. I'm just going to, I'm going to like make myself known to him if, if I need to, so he doesn't accidentally just see movement and shoot it so I'm just kind of looking around like this is awesome.
Speaker 2:And then I look I start glassing my way to the right, where I'm hearing this bull coming, and I see a guy grunting and I'm like why is he grunting? Oh, he's probably trying to call in this bull that's raking over here. And I'm like, oh gosh, we're a bunch of idiots yeah we got four guys calling back and forth to each other.
Speaker 2:So I walk out into the field with my. I had a hunter safety orange in my bag backpack and I just start waving around like guys. We're idiots and I turned to my right and about 75 yards to my right. Directly. We're behind me, and to my right I see just the big ass of a moose and antlers booking off. Oh no, the guy I thought that was raking brush, was a moose coming in behind me and I was just like damn it. I really hope those guys didn't see that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're not idiots, we're actually really good. I'm an idiot, not we, yep.
Speaker 2:So that was like my first time solo moose hunting. And I went back and told my dad and he's like you weren't far enough away from the road, were you? And I was like probably not.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, dude, that's too funny. I have a similar story. I don't know if I've told it on the podcast or not, so I'll share it with you real quick, but it was two or three seasons ago, the season that I actually hurt myself, and it was like day after I had fallen, so like I really hadn't locked up and like been completely injured and had to get out of the woods. Yet, yeah, but we're in there and we we just were a couple of miles in and we're like, oh, you know, this seems like a good spot, this seems like something that if we started calling, something might come in. So we wait until, you know, the end of the evening, right before the sun goes down, and and we hear something pipe off. I'm like, ooh, okay, that's exciting. And then we hear another one pipe off. I'm like, oh, and this is all kind of like I'm going to say northwest and southwest, so we're like that's kind of the trail where we came in on, but that's cool. So I'm still just doing cow calls.
Speaker 2:I'm like I think I'm going to bring them in just doing cow calls and excuse me for interrupting, but this is elk, right, this is elk yeah, sorry, sorry yeah you're good, but yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'm just doing my little cow calls, just trying to get something to come in, not really dealing too much with the bugles. But I'm hearing bugles all over the place and then I hear another like and it's just like a dinosaur of a call, like like this crazy noise I'd never heard before. That I was like, upon hearing it I was like I don't know what that is, that's. That's not an elk, that's probably some, some jackass hunter, um, but we all start calling and so then I start throwing in a couple. I'm like these are hunters, I'm gonna have some fun with them, so I'm gonna throw some some, some, you know, bugles back at them. So now I'm bugling a little bit and they're calling from the northwest and then in the north or the southwest and then the northeast, and we're just calling and calling and calling and, uh, just having a good time with it and and I know it's people.
Speaker 1:So like we get out of there.
Speaker 1:We we kind of have a quicker way out than the rest of them because we can walk down this valley and we get to the truck where our truck is and there's a couple other cars there and we just sort of hang out and people start to file out and we're like yep. And then and they're like you guys hear those bulls, and like no, we heard you. And he's like oh, no, really. And I'm like yeah, and then you know it's a group of guys and they were broken up and they were all calling and they're like oh, ain't that some shit. So I started to realize that the amount of guys that came out that said they were calling we heard more bulls than that in more directions. So we started looking at the map and it turns out the one that was kind of to the east the other two were to the west were definitely guys. The one to the east, the dinosaur sounding one, that I was like that's definitely not a bull, was absolutely a bull, just so ruddy nasty, some old nasty bastard, yeah, man.
Speaker 1:And so, um, we, we went back the next morning and I started calling and he started piping off in the exact same spot. And so we kind of made a game plan being like okay, well, we see these kind of, um, these saddles and these ridges, if he's up there, that's where he'll be. So we kind of made a game plan being like okay, well, we see these kind of these saddles and these ridges, if he's up there, that's where he'll be. So we kind of swoop around and we start crawling up this hillside and it's, you know, it's like 1,200 feet straight up. It sucks. We get up there and then we start going side hill because we're like we're going to get in on him. We know exactly where he's going to be resting, resting.
Speaker 1:We got good wind and, uh, within probably 400 yards of when we started going, you know, side hill, the it was the worst downfall, downfall I've ever seen in my life like you were crawling up and over six to seven feet of trees and then back down the other side and we're like we're gonna die in here, like this is stupid, what are we doing? I was like I don't care how old and big that bull is like we're not getting to him, and if we did get anywhere close to him, he's gonna hear us from a mile away. So let's just, we're like we're only 200 yards from that valley, so let's, let's just drop down into that valley. That was stupid too, because the downfall was the entire way and I'm taught it was one of the hardest hikes I've ever done in my life. And then, basically that evening, because I had fallen two days earlier, that nerve that I had pinched just became inflamed and I couldn't sit down, man, man, that's brutal.
Speaker 1:I'm talking. It was probably two months before I felt like I could even take a crap without pain and it was just nerve pain down my leg, and then, six months before I felt like I could even work out, it was absolutely insane.
Speaker 1:But yeah, man, it was a similar experience where we're just calling with a bunch of guys and then I realized later oh God, there was one bull and he. We probably called him into a hundred yards maybe. Um, that first evening but I stopped calling for actual, trying to get an elk. I started calling just to mess with the other guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:My bad, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yep, I mean that. That taught me a lesson. I was just like you know what. Next time I'm just going to let it play out till I feel like I'm about to get shot. Then I'll go wave an orange flag and yell we're idiots, yeah Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's too funny. I have a question for you, though. I know we're not supposed to be doing any learning, we're just supposed to hear funny stories. Um, but I drew a cow moose tag. Yeah, and you appear to have a fair amount of moose hunting experience. Is calling something that I need to be concerned about at all with a cow moose tag?
Speaker 2:Now is it in the rut, or is it pre-rut?
Speaker 1:I don't know when the rut is, so you'll have to tell me, but it's like mid-September in Colorado.
Speaker 2:See man. I hunted moose in alaska I do know I do know, pre, pre rut, the cows like to group up and, uh, when they start getting interested they'll start making just soft cow calls to to each other to kind of know where they are and then as soon as that rut hits, they're, the only calling that's going to work is to bring in a bull, okay.
Speaker 2:But I have observed them pre-rut. They kind of do soft little moans at each other to kind of know where they're at, and they kind of group up right before rut and then they just disperse and try to find the biggest and baddest. They're not like elk. I mean elk cows will just herd together six, seven of them to a bull during the middle of the rut. I've noticed pre-rut they kind of group up and they'll chirp back and forth to each other.
Speaker 1:But okay, yeah, I was out there roughly the same time frame, maybe a little bit before the season started last year when I killed my bull elk um and we saw a bunch of solo ones. So if they're solo, you're telling me probably not gonna have much luck calling. But that's all right, man, I don't think so.
Speaker 2:I think the best bet would be to find where the bulls are and if they're, the bulls are in the area. There's going to be some cows in the area and they're. That's what they're after. They're after trying to find the biggest, baddest bull to get those genetics.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting okay, yeah, it's funny. So we went out and we were looking for elk but we saw cow moose every day and didn't see much for bull. But my buddy Jermaine that I was hunting with, he went back because he had a October tag and he literally to the spot that we park and then hike like two miles in the cow that we had kind of cased because she was in the same valley that I killed my bull.
Speaker 1:She was standing like in the field next to where we park with a bull, and so he just put her down. Nice it was. It was the easiest hunt ever. I mean. Granted, he did days and days and days of scouting, basically while hunting elk with me, but uh, it was a very easy hunt for him. So I'm, I'm hoping, the same.
Speaker 2:You know, it's funny about that. Now, now that you got a, now that you got a tag in your pocket. You're not going to the elk up there you gotta stay positive west, we gotta stay positive. I don't need that bad juju buddy uh, I got a funny story about that, though. Actually so my junior year I considered that like the year of my best hunting up to this date. Um, uh, that year I really committed myself to wrestling. I won a state title in Alaska that year for wrestling but what got me?
Speaker 2:into shape was mountain goat hunting. Oh gosh, I mean. I mean I'm talking waking up super early, running up the mountain before school starts, just trying to get up to where the goats are, and cause I had my first two periods junior year off so I could come into school around like 11, 10, 30, 11. So I would just I mean like I'm just booking it up five miles up a mountain, trying to get, trying to get some elevation, just try to see where I'm gonna hunt this weekend. And I was just shedding off pounds and while I was up there I'm like man, I don't see any goats. But every time I'm up here I see black bear. So so I go, I get my black bear tag and never saw another black bear again that whole hunting season.
Speaker 2:And I must, I must've went on 15, 20 goat hunts and just every time I got up there, just nanny after nanny after nanny, and one of my friends was like you know what? I would like to go. And I was like, okay, you know what? What? You've never been, so I'll do the nice thing, I'll let you shoot first, even though I hadn't gotten a goat that year oh geez we go up there and I'm like this is a spot I've been a hundred times.
Speaker 2:I know every single goat in this bowl like yeah, I just, I know what's in here, I know there's no billies, I know they're all nannies and kids. And we get up here and he's like, oh, there's a Billy. And I was like you, son of a bitch. I was like I was like God damn it, wesley, why am I too nice sometimes? So we're sitting here thinking. I was like man, this is going to be an easy hunt now. I mean, like we're 300 yards. He's shooting a 30-06 which terrible goat hunting gun in my opinion. So I was like I wanted to get him within 150 yards. I had a 338 wind mag which I feel comfortable shooting up to 300 to 350 my dad says it shoots out to 500.
Speaker 2:He shot out to 500 before. Had great luck um on moose and bigger targets, but I I don't.
Speaker 2:I like getting close if I can so me and my buddy jackson were like, all right, this is gonna work out great. Uh, we're gonna come up. There's this little rock we're gonna dip down. We're gonna come up again and there's like these three small trees we can post up here. That goat's bedded down, we'll sit and wait for him to stand up and we'll be good. We'll be right in at 150, 120. Executed that plan perfectly, got up to 120 yards and my buddy Jackson gets comfortable. I was like this could take 10 minutes. We could be here till dark, because I mean, when goats like the spot they're sitting in, they're only gonna move if they sense something's wrong or they're hungry yeah, so he's, that goat's bedded down and we sit there and we bust out a deck of cards.
Speaker 2:We're 150 yards away and we're just we're just playing cards there you go and, uh, just kind of waiting and I mean we're like, we're like laying down on our side, like trying to like stay upright because we're on a pretty steep slant. But my theory was, as long as jackson could get a good first shot, that goat was just gonna tip right into the drainage and go right down and we'd meet him at tree line, get him, pack him out in corridors and take the hide quick and easy. Jackson wanted to do it the hard way.
Speaker 2:The goat finally stood up and just like stood up, took two steps and started feeding and I was like perfect, nice broadside shot, I range it. It was like 224 yards, something like that. And, excuse me, he's right up there. And I was like Jackson, just, these goats are tough, I want you to put it right behind his shoulder. You're going to lose some meat, because it was kind of quartering away a little bit on the backside. But goats are tough. I mean, they will not die unless you get a good stone shot on them. And Jackson shoots and I was like miss low. And I was like I don't know how you're missing low at 120 yards. He racks another one and I was like I don't know how you're missing low at 120 yards. He racks another one. And I was like I saw fur, you hit high. And he racks a third one and shoots. And I was like all right, you hit him, but not well. And at this point the goat the first two shots is like what the hell is going on?
Speaker 2:yeah because I mean, like they, there's no predator. He doesn't think anything's going, he's just hearing loud noises bouncing off these rocks and he's like what the hell is going on. And that third shot clipped him low in his elbow and I was like jackson, like put another one in him. He's like I only brought three bullets west and I was like oh, are you kidding me, dude? So luckily I brought my gun just in case.
Speaker 2:We ran into a black bear and I racked a shell and I'm like range and jackson's, like I don't know, and I was like, all right, well, he was at, he was at 120, and I kind of arranged a couple noticeable landmarks yeah so I put a shell in at like 230 250 is what I was guessing and I missed low and I rack another one and I'm like, oh gosh, I do not want him to get up and over this next lull, because if he, if he does like, it's just gonna be miserable and I don't even know if we're going to be able to get this unless we go out down and around. Um, and I was like then that time it's going to be the next day and it's just it's not going to be able to happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And um, uh. So all of this is going through my head in a. I mean like I'm foreshadowing, I'm going into the future here, but this goat, when we got up to it, its elbow was completely broken, like there was no elbow joint ever. So this goat was doing this all on three legs and I mean it's going fast up in a way and I rack another shell and I'm like all right, please. Like I got four bullets. I got three in the chamber or three in the like clip, one in the chamber. I got four shots. My second one I miss high. I readjust, I'm like all right, then my last landmark was at 300 yards, because that's what my gun went to. I didn't.
Speaker 1:I didn't mark anything else and I'm on my second to last shot so we obviously had some audio issues, but what other stories you got for us, man? Um, if you have any more, I know you got a sheet printed out for us yeah, I got two or three more that.
Speaker 2:You know it's a, it's a big, it's really alaska general, uh specific. I mean, uh, I was able to go on a seal hunt, uh, I didn't touch your trigger nothing like that.
Speaker 2:It's an alan native thing. Um, but I had a boat and there's a couple older native guys who would like to go hunt seals and whatnot but, uh, they just don't have the means to anymore. The younger generation, um didn't want to take them out or they had already went out seal hunting. Um, uh, because I know a couple of my friends like ivan hotch and those guys. They uh, they harvested seals for the elders, but some others wanted to go out and do it themselves. So I was able to go take them out and, uh, it's not that exciting because, as you could think, seals don't get hunted a lot, so they don't know they're being hunted.
Speaker 1:They're like, oh, this guy's going to come under the water, yeah.
Speaker 2:They're like this guy's going to come take my picture. But what was really cool about that whole process was then being involved in the cleaning and harvesting, the oil, the hide, and I did dance in a tribe like a Tlingit dancing style and whatnot.
Speaker 2:And they were able to make me some regalia and stuff like that, and I learned a lot about that culture and everything through that process and stuff like that. And, uh, I learned a lot about that culture and everything through that process and it was just it's it's amazing that back then if they wanted to eat, they had to hunt and he was just feeling that whole thing and that inspired me to go a straight year with just eating wild game.
Speaker 1:No way that's awesome man.
Speaker 2:I went a whole year eating wild game and that consisted of my first deer I ever killed by myself. I was hunting Sullivan Island. It's a small island, maybe two, three miles long, three-quarters of a mile wide. The tale of how deer got there was in World War II. They needed something for the soldiers stationed in Haines to do.
Speaker 2:Just a deer they brought over a boatload of deer and dumped them on this island and was like there you go. I haven't found any factual research on how they ended up there or if that's true or not, but I know they did that with local lakes and stuff and they stocked them with trout. So just give these World War II soldiers something to do. I wonder if they regret that at this point, with trout, to just give these World War II soldiers something to do.
Speaker 1:But I was able to go on. I wonder if they regret that at this point. Often when we do that kind of stuff, messing with nature, years later we're like man that was dumb, like axis deer in Hawaii is a good example, because I've done that recently, molokai is completely overwhelmed and it's destroying the coral reef because the runoff is there, and so I'm wondering if there's similar issues with what they did there with bringing in all those non-natives.
Speaker 2:No, because the Sika black-tailed deer were native. They just didn't have them in the inlet. So they're like this is a great spot to dump them. It's an island. There's no way there's ones that are going to be able to swim over to mainland, where they're not, naturally, are. There's been a couple sightings of them, seeing them on mainland, but it's not like they're gonna blow up because on that island there's no wolves, there's no bears, there's no predators on them. They can kind of just stay there.
Speaker 2:But as soon as they jump over to mainland, they got brown bears, you got wolves, you got all these other kind of predators that will take them out. I mean lynx, the lyn links. I got here in my room, uh, I trapped on my trap line and that thing would be big enough to take down at least a one-year-old fawn. Okay, yeah, so they, they, they die pretty quickly, but, uh, that was a great hunt. Um, that was like my first ever, like shoot it, clean it, pack it out, all by myself. No contact, I had no cell service. Um, and that's what I ate mostly that year. I mean, I shot some ducks, I started duck hunting along that time and, uh, I realized very quickly that I needed a dog. Uh, me and my buddy Jackson we hunted.
Speaker 2:But we were hunting some geese and, uh, we went up to go jump shoot some and we were. We were walking towards these geese and I was like they're gonna be right over here. They get up, they fly, don't even get a shot at them, and then, like these three single birds, just split off and turn around and go right back towards us. I was like, all right, sweet, we will actually get some. And I was really looking forward to it because thanksgiving was coming up and I needed. I needed something to eat instead of a turkey, because we don't got turkeys up there and I was still trying to go on a year of wild game only and I was like this is gonna be perfect.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna shoot it and it's gonna be my thanksgiving dinner and jackson shoot ones. It dumps off, hits right in front of us. The one I shoot sails off into the middle of this lake and I was like man, I'm already completely filled into my waders. I've heard this time and time again is don't swim in your waders. And I was like my waders already filled. I feel comfortable like swimming in these right now. I'm fine.
Speaker 2:So I start swimming in towards this goose and I get there about half, I get like over halfway. So I'm committed and I kind of like stopped to take a break and I went to go roll over on my back and my waders filled up more with water and I was like, oh crap, like they're not all the way filled, like I thought they were. Um, uh, they're kind of acting as a life jacket right now because there's a pocket of air in there and I'm still able to swim. So I was like you know, I'm fine, I'm already over there, I'm just gonna grab my bird and go and I get to my bird and I stop to grab it to kind of like throw it on my, um, on my, on my belly at this point, because now I'm back pedaling on my back because I'm had some air in my uh, excuse me in my hip waders or chest waders and I stop.
Speaker 2:I stop to grab that bird and my waders completely fill up and I'm like fuck and I mean I just, I just start sinking quickly, so I'm like, all right, you know what to do in this situation. It's something that they tell you all the time get your waders off. I mean, I just start sinking quickly, so I'm like, all right, you know what to do in this situation. It's something that they tell you all the time Get your waders off, so we're in a late season hunt. Thanksgiving's right around the corner, so it's cold out there.
Speaker 1:And I was like all right.
Speaker 2:So I'm layered up underneath my waders as well. So I pitch off my straps over the top, I unbuckle my buckle on my waiter and I go to pull them down and it gets my first layer of like. I had these like synthetic sweatpants that I always wore, cause they're a nice insulating layer and it gets hooked on that. So I'm pulling down my waiters and those sweatpants. So now I'm trying to get the sweatpants off around my ankles and my waiters off around my ankles. Doing so, I pulled my long Johns down, completely, completely off. So now I'm like gosh, damn it, and I'm just trying to fight and my jacket is so heavy it's weighing me down too, and at this point I've been underwater for maybe 10-15 seconds, felt like forever, and I was just like man I need to stop.
Speaker 2:I need to just stop trying to stay above the water and just sink and really just fight to get off all these layers so I can have a chance to get back to the surface. So I just stopped trying to stay above the water and just sink and really just fight to get off all these layers so I can have a chance to get back to the surface. So I just stopped trying to kick up and I focus on just dipping off gear. And I'm thinking my buddy Jackson's on shore what's going through his mind? Like we've already almost died on a goat hunt previous this year.
Speaker 2:Like we've we've stocked black bears.
Speaker 1:Like we were in the same boots as he did. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, black bears, like we were in the same boots as he did. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I'm just, I'm just trying to think. I'm like I hope he doesn't try to swim out here and save me. And I've always told jackson I was like right before I die, that's when I want you to save me. I was like, I was like give me a fighting shot first, like this is I mean, this is my sparring partner in wrestling and everything.
Speaker 2:And I finally get everything off and I I'm like I'm like 30, 25, 30 yards out and we're hunting marsh, so it's tall grass. You already can hardly see into that lake. And I peel off and I get on my back and I can't see Jackson on the shore when I'm laying on my back and I finally get everything off and I'm just out of breath, I'm sucking in air, trying to catch my breath and I was like like all right, it's closer to this shore than it is to go back the way I came. So I was just starting to do a backstroke, kind of breathing for a couple seconds. I can't see Jackson. I'm trying to yell, I'm out of breath and I'm just I'm just probably thinking he's going back to the truck to get the sat phone and call it in, so I was like I need to beat him to the truck or beat him to going there first.
Speaker 2:So I'm backpedaling back, stroking, back, stroking. I get to where I think my feet will touch because I see the grass and I was like my feet should touch here and I stand up, nope. So now I'm in cattails and like these just, and they're sharp blades of grass.
Speaker 2:I'm backpedaling, just going back and back and I'm just getting just all sorts of kind of messed up and I finally get to dry land and I can start like getting a trot. And I'm just getting just all sorts of kind of messed up and I finally get to dry land and I can start like getting a trot and I'm like I need to stay warm. So I'm just gonna start just kind of like just nose to the grindstone, just kind of get there. I'm just like back burners, like I know what I need to do to stay warm. I'm barefoot at this point I'm in um Spongebob and Patrick compression shorts that I wear wrestling and a button-up T-shirt Compression shorts, underpants yeah, I mean underwear.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, and I'm in a button-up long-sleeve camouflaged T-shirt that I liked as a base layer because if I get too hot there's like vents in it, and it's just perfect. And I'm going. I'm just trotting towards where I saw him last kind and it's just perfect. And I'm going. I'm just trotting towards where I saw him last, kind of hoping he's there. And I see that where I set my gun down is gone. So I know Jackson was just there. He grabbed my gun and kept going and what I thought was funny is I don't see the goose that he shot by my gun where it just was. So he grabbed my gun, his goose and his gun and started walking back towards the truck.
Speaker 1:Like a good hunting partner should do and um uh.
Speaker 2:I, finally, I'm. I'm running now and I'm, I assume, Jackson's running, but he's in waiters. I'm barefoot and cold and motivated, so I'm.
Speaker 2:I'm running faster than him, my feet are getting cut up and I'm just trying to get to him finally and I finally see him at a tree line. I'm trying to yell but I'm out of breath and he finally just whips around and sees me and starts walking towards me and we finally get up to him and I was like thanks for grabbing the bird. He was like wesley, I thought you were dead. I was calling back to like get your body. I was. I saw something come up and float. I thought you were dead dude.
Speaker 2:I was like yeah, those were probably my waiters. I got them off.
Speaker 2:I see he was all puffy-faced red. I was like, let me see that bird, let me get a picture. There's a picture of me late fall in my SpongeBob and Patrick underwear, wet t-shirt, wet hair. I'm out of breath, holding it out, going, looking at this goose. And that all said the next week, uh, I found myself a hunting dog and just so happened to be the mutt I already had at home. I finally put in the real work I needed to on him and uh got him trained up. He was a greyhound husky chocolate lab. His dad was a three-time showound husky chocolate lab. His dad was a three-time show dog, purebred chocolate lab and his mom was a mutt bred for the Iditarod.
Speaker 2:Okay, yep.
Speaker 1:So we got him An Alaskan husky that's what they call those, right yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep. So we got him and he was a stud of a dog. He went on every hunt with me. I see duck hunting. I mean mean it was like negative 10 and I mean like he'd be pissed off if you put his coat on like he was like this is no, this slows me down like I want to go.
Speaker 2:So I trained him up pretty well and, uh, it saved, saved my life a lot a couple times. Uh, I went and jump shooting some birds on some small ponds later that winter that were kind of like half frozen. I was like I don't need them. I got my knee waders because all the lakes are down now and I mean it's frozen only like quick moving water into those streams and lakes were kind of open still for some ducks and sure enough I took a spill and ended up in those same underwear. I have another picture of me with a little golden eye, butt naked except for those fricking underwear, and I haven't worn those underwear again on another hunting trip.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't. I swear to God, you got a good attitude about all this.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you that, yeah, you know, I was kind of thinking of what was going through my head when I was under that water for the 15, 20, 30 seconds that I thought I was under there for and all it was was like I really, really want this Thanksgiving goose. I was just like. And then when I got up to the surface, that's when the thought of like my buddy thinks I'm dead, probably I don't see him, he can't hear me.
Speaker 2:That was the afterthought. Um uh, yeah. So long story short. My mom told me I wasn't allowed. I waited a year to tell her that story. She asked a couple times where my $200 waders went.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Never told her until a year or two later. You're like.
Speaker 1:I know exactly where they are. Mom, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2:And what's funny is I had to inform Fishing Game that I had a pair of floating waders in a lake so they didn't think someone died. Yeah, like they do aerial like flyovers for like observations and stuff, and it's happened in the past where they saw a pair of waders floating and they made a search party and so I was just like I had to tell them. But waited to tell my mom that, but yeah, dude.
Speaker 1:That's great. That's a crazy story. Yep, and now that I'm, I'm here in Kansas, it's.
Speaker 2:It's a world of difference.
Speaker 1:I came down to Kansas. Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I had my junior year. I won a state championship in wrestling at two, 15. Uh, my senior year I was told that I would not get any kind of attention. And um, uh, attention, this is my COVID year that I wouldn't get any kind of attention in college and left I bumped up to heavyweight. So I bumped up to heavyweight 240. I won a state title in heavyweight in Alaska and I got a couple of phone calls. It was either between that Oregon I had a school in California and I had a school in Kansas and I was like man, I don't know what to do. So the school in Kansas was Goodland, it was just a community college. I had a D3 offer in like Oregon or something, and I was like I just I want to get away from the wet cold, just that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:So I was like you know what.
Speaker 2:And then I looked on Kansas Fish and Regs and I saw if you were a full-time student that you got resident license and tags.
Speaker 1:There you go, yep, so I was a full-time student.
Speaker 2:I tags there you go. Yep. So I was a full-time student. I love it, so I went down there. And that leads me into the last two stories. I'll tell you. They're quick.
Speaker 1:How far is Goodland from from Larned?
Speaker 2:It's an hour and a half, I think two hours. I'm not in Goodland anymore. Now I'm in Hayes, which is two hours from Goodland.
Speaker 1:Okay, so yeah, and Hayes is real close to Larned though, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Larned.
Speaker 1:It's a small town. That's where my mom grew up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, actually, yeah it is. It's just south of here I believe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember like on the big days when we were down in Kansas visiting family, we'd go up to Larned. What's funny is so my grandpa hunted in Kansas, but he passed, you know when seven or something like that is that that?
Speaker 2:uh, doll sheep, you got that grandpa, or no? No, that was your father-in-law, that's my father-in-law.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so my grandpa, um, he's the one that, like, had all these cool guns, and then world world war ii guns oh yeah, I'm getting sold away sold. Yeah, um, but yeah, he was the only hunter in my family, but he passed before I was really old enough to to care um yeah so I went out and shot some guns with him before, but I I've I've never actually hunted Kansas, so it's it's pretty high on my bucket list and I have a friend, friend, uh, braden Ford, it's like episode three, I think.
Speaker 1:Um, he has a bunch of land out there in Kansas, so I'm going to try and get out there next year.
Speaker 2:Awesome, yeah, um uh. Well, this is Kansas. It's great hunting Awesome.
Speaker 1:But it's a world of different like all my camo I had nothing, no, I mean just nothing worked here for me.
Speaker 2:Um, uh, except for my first ever hunt it was about a school got out around 2 2 30 was my last class that day and I went over to my buddy's house and me being this cocky 18 year old, I was like yeah, I mean deer hunting here ain't nothing.
Speaker 2:You just got to find the corn and some water and you can shoot a deer and I was like I could do it by the end of the night, like I could have a dead deer hanging up by the end of the night, and my friends were like bullshit. And I was like take me to walmart, we're gonna go buy a bow. Went to walmart bought a bow.
Speaker 1:You ever archery hunted before.
Speaker 2:never archery hunted a day in my life, never.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, so I went and bought a bow from Walmart, bought my licensing tag. You can get an over-counter tag for either sex either species. Archery only Bought that tag. Went to my buddy's backyard. The farthest we could shoot was 25 yards. I was like that's all I need. I don't plan on getting any further away from him. Set a pin in.
Speaker 2:I had a grouping probably about the size of a eight inch dinner plate. Um, yeah, I was like take me out, let's go. I didn't. I didn't have a truck, I didn't have a car, I didn't have anything. But my buddy was like he was, he just wanted me to eat crow so bad. So I didn't have any camo, I literally had nothing. And I was like take me out, let's go. And he drives me out. And I was like I went on onyx hunt and I was like crap, I'm about to eat crow so hard, but at least I'll get a fruit. Yeah, yeah, I had yep. And I'm like, yeah, just keep driving on this road, I think. I think this is where I want to go.
Speaker 2:And I was like, all right, here's some, here's some walking hunting land. There's some corn on it, here's like a little cattle pond and here's a couple of junipers on a fence row. I was like I'll just go sit right here, you know I'm bound to see something. And about 30, 40 minutes before dark, a group of these mule deer does come walking in and I was like, and I mean like they don't even see me. I don't know, I'm in a, I'm in a, in a Carhartt shirt like that like orangish, like yellow color, same color as Perry grass, and I was either in blue jeans or like the similar color, kind of like um, as the grass, like work jeans, and my cowboy boots and I'm just kind of tucked up in this juniper and this tall grass and these does walk in.
Speaker 2:I'm like, am I about to waste my first ever mule deer tag on a doe? And I was like I'm not eating crow. And I let that arrow fly and I double lunged it and it went maybe 25 yards and piled up and died. Yup, I know I call. I called my buddy and I was like I called him. I was like, with 15 minutes to spare, now come pick me up. And he was like bullshit. And I was like I was like you come pick me up. And he got up and I had dragged this doe and he's like you shot Bambi, and it was.
Speaker 2:It was like a year and a half year old white tail deer, and I was like I told you I'd have a deer dead by now though, and I did. And then I went about two years uh, two and a half years, because I didn't get one until late that next night. Two next seasons, uh, another mule deer. But I shot another white-tailed deer that was the one, that same one. I was going home for Christmas and, uh, it was my last chance to hunt and I had a final exam later that night.
Speaker 2:And now we're in late season rifle tag hunting and I finally the good one is far and few between for white-tailed does, but I finally found just a small little patch of them and I took a shot at 400 yards and shot it, gutted it, and at that time I had a truck and I was able to put it in the back of my truck, and it was in the back of my truck while I took my final exam for English. I guess it was midterm. So the deer was in the back of my truck, dead. I went in, took my English exam it's midterm but went back to my buddy's shop, gutted it all I mean not gutted it, finished processing it all out and I brought it home for my dad. Um, on a cooler, brought some of it home just to kind of trade with him.
Speaker 2:So I was able to bring back a cooler full of salmon, bear meat and everything back from christmas and, uh, I thought it was a good trade. Uh, he said it kind of tasted like uh, what's that sagebrush? He said he was eating and he's like it tastes like sagebrush and I was like, well, the bear I got tastes like pork. It's really good.
Speaker 1:Thanks, yeah yeah, that's awesome, but yeah, now I got I'm, uh, I'm happy for you but I'm also a little pissed that you did do it so easily uh, I've had a lot of struggled, hunting my entire life and, yeah, it's never been easy.
Speaker 2:Now I'm in that boat like last year I wasn't even able to harvest a mule deer doe, I mean a white-tailed doe. I hunted, I mean, and I hunted every single day after work. I mean, I put in time. I had a doe come in during archery season at about seven yards and there was just this one thick bush in front of me Didn't get a shot on that one, and then I bought a. I bought a beagle pup and I put a lot of work into that guy too, for hunting rabbits and whatnot. So this next year we kind of like to make a break for that for him.
Speaker 1:Awesome man. But yeah, rabbit hunting is fun. I've done it a couple times.
Speaker 1:I've actually been elk hunting and I just have a small game tag because they make you buy it in Colorado and it seems like every year in November these storms blow in and I'm like you can't see 40 feet, so I'm not going to kill an elk. So I always make sure I have a shotgun or a 22 in the truck. And then we just start walking and these snowshoe hares, you just you kick a log and all of a sudden this white blur shoots out and you just follow its tracks. It's, it's fun and they're delicious.
Speaker 2:They are. Yep, I love, I love rabbit and you know, I kind of I kind of got my dog with clyde. He's trained, he's a beagle uh, nose to the ground and the first time where I knew it was going to work out for him is we were just hunting some rabbits and just kind of his pheasant season, quail season.
Speaker 2:I kind of got him trained like a just like, kind of like a flushing dog, and if it's a rabbit, he'll chase it. If it's a pheasant that wants to run, he'll chase it until it gets up in the air, which isn't ideal for pheasant hunting, but great for rabbit hunting.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's late, late, late November and he starts getting all fired up, starts barking, barking, barking. And I'm getting excited because this is the first time that I'm seeing some real positive things. And then out of this thicket, this hen pheasant flies up and he's just like you can't even see him. He's in that thicket and then all of a sudden I see his head poke up looking at the bird flying away, and then he just turns back at me and was like I did my job and I was like all right yep, this is he's.
Speaker 2:He's a keeper. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, keep this one around for a while yeah, that's awesome, man man. Nope, it's awesome having a great hunting dog. I highly recommend if people out there always had interest in it just start watching some videos, start reading books, just because it's such a rewarding feeling knowing that you trained this dog to help you with this task and it makes it more enjoyable.
Speaker 1:And my dog tank.
Speaker 2:He went on most of my goat hunts and everything. I had a pack for him. He would pack up my like just my hunting pad, my hunting knives and that kind of stuff and you kind of just sit with me. Uh, pretty hard to control wind and everything with a dog, but you know they're great. They're great hunting companions when you can train up a good one I believe it.
Speaker 1:I believe it. I just got a dog. It's not a hunting dog, it's a family dog.
Speaker 2:But my next dog if I do another one, yeah mine's, uh, actually an alaskan malamute, so five months old dogs he's about 55 pounds.
Speaker 1:Um, he's gonna be uh, he's gonna be a hoss, but he's pretty great. The kids love him and that's what's that's what's important for the first pup, gotta win over the family before I can then get a hunting dog yep, I won over my girlfriend.
Speaker 2:We got a border collie lab mix from the pound and then, about a year later, when I felt like she was buttered up enough, I showed her a couple cute pictures of cute beagle puppies and got her hooked awesome, man, awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, man, this has been fun. Do you have any more for us, or is that it, I think?
Speaker 2:I think that's according to what you were telling me, the end of the list.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I don't see anything else this was good, though, especially man, for how young you are. You have some awesome stories, so keep it up, wes and more importantly, stay alive please, because I'm worried about you.
Speaker 2:You know what?
Speaker 1:you got more close calls than I do and I'm twice your age. Let me make sure this door is closed, but you have more close calls than I do and I'm twice your age.
Speaker 2:Let me make sure this door is closed, but I don't want my girlfriend hearing this.
Speaker 1:She's kind of tamed me down.
Speaker 2:But we're going on a little family trip here and going up to see my family and then popping the big question.
Speaker 1:So she's helping me mellow it out a little bit. Wow, that's what you say. Yep, congratulations man. Yeah, congratulations there's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, congratulations to fall off here in kansas. That's probably why that's a good point. Did you meet? Is she a kansas girl?
Speaker 1:yep, kansas gal, yep okay, well, they're legit, my mom's kansas gal, so I can vouch for him. So, yep, all right, brother. Well, thank you, man. Um, I don't know, do you have any social medias you want to share with the folks, or you know?
Speaker 2:I have an instagram. See some hunting pictures, see some fishing pictures, pictures, family pictures. So people want to see what I'm up to, or, you know, I think that bear picture might even be on there. I know there's a couple of moose pictures on there, deer pictures, uh, trap line pictures. Didn't tell that story but ran into a wolf on my trap line. Smart, smart old wolf. Heard his pack going away and so I started giving a couple of wolf howls. He got all excited, started coming my way, came in about 125 yards, saw me, realized that he got, got just put his head down, turned broadside. But they can see some trapping pitchers up there and so if they want to check that out, they're more than welcome to.
Speaker 1:Perfect man. I can put you that after here. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. If you don't know what it is, that's fine. I'll make sure that there's a link to it in the show notes. So guys, check Wes out and give him a follow if you want, man. Thank you first off for reaching out and secondly for sharing some pretty amazing stories. So I really do appreciate it, brother. Yeah, of course, I definitely want to hear more stories from just average Joes like me. So reach out to them. I don't know if you're average buddy.
Speaker 2:Well, that's the whole. Like you, interviewed one of the Ketchikan basketball coaches a while back.
Speaker 1:I actually met him.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's just yep, I've met him before. I don't think he'd remember me, but you know I traveled there for sports all the time. So I met him once, but it's just. That's the average for Alaska.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, I was going to say you're an above-average hunter, but I'm going to say Wes your intelligence is maybe a little lower, the guys that are near death frequently. I'm worried about you, fellas.
Speaker 2:You know what? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding, yep, you've got to have nine lives like a cat. I'm on 12.
Speaker 1:Oh goodness.
Speaker 2:All right, we're on bar goodness all right.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you again. I appreciate you, um, and like wes said, guys, if you got some good stories, don't be afraid to reach out and let's hear them. So thank you, man thank you all right, guys, that's it.
Speaker 1:Another couple stories in the books. Again. I apologize for the technical issues won't happen again, I hope, um. But I want to thank wesley, of course, for coming on the podcast. I haven't spoken to him since he went off to alaska. Let's uh hope and cross our fingers that she said yes, I'm sure she will. Um, but yeah, wesley, thank you for coming on the podcast and putting up with all my technical issues to you listeners. Thank you, guys for tuning in. Uh, if you got all the way to the end, which you must have because you're hearing this right now, you heard Wes say it. If you've got some stories, reach out to me. I'd love to hear them, and that's it, guys. Thank you for tuning in. Do appreciate you. Make sure you give us a rating or a review or a follow or whatever you need to do and get out there and make some stories of your own. Thank you.
