Chase The Unknown Podcast
Welcome to the Chase The Unknown Podcast, brought to you by the Boondocks Hunting Podcast family! This show is all about embracing the pure joy, excitement, and rush that comes from not knowing what lies just around the bend. To us, Chase The Unknown means the thrill of stepping into the wild with no guarantees—whether it’s locking eyes with a 200-inch whitetail, crossing paths with a 500-lb black bear, hearing the thunderous gobble of a turkey, or simply witnessing the beauty and unpredictability of nature. It’s about the anticipation, the adventure, and the stories that follow.
But what does Chase The Unknown mean to you? Is it the adrenaline of the hunt, the connection to nature, or the pursuit of something greater than yourself? Join us as we explore those questions, share incredible stories, and celebrate the thrill of the hunt—where the outcome is always unknown but the journey is unforgettable.
Let’s chase it together—one adventure at a time!
Chase The Unknown Podcast
Echoes of the Hunt: Behind the Hunt: The Wind Was Wrong, But The Wife Was Right
Brian’s story proves that success in the woods isn’t just about technology—it’s about showing up.
Raised on tradition, Brian was reluctant to use trail cams until 2019, when a giant 10-point buck with a kicker tine changed everything. Almost staying home because of the “wrong wind,” his wife reminded him: “you can’t kill them sitting on the couch.” That push led to a 26-yard shot on a 150” Pope & Young buck known as Kicks.
This week on the Chase The Unknown Podcast, we bring you a special segment: Echoes of the Hunt: Behind the Hunt. From instinct and woodsmanship to trail cams and apps, Brian found the balance—and learned that consistent time in the woods is what truly matters.
🎙️ Tune in now to hear the full story.
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Hey, how's it going? Everyone, welcome to Echoes of the Hunt Behind the Hunt. Some hunters choose chase deer, others chase ghosts. Today on the show, we sit down with Brian man, raised on instinct, tradition and raw woodsmanship. No gadgets, no shortcuts, just grit and gut feelings passed down from his uncle and his grandfather. But in 2019, something changed. For the first time, brian stepped up and started using trail cams. What he captured would actually just spark something new to him. It actually sparked a bit of a fire and, ultimately, a moment that would change everything that he believed into shooting and hunting. So, without further ado, I want to talk about the upcoming story with brian. This is the legend of kicks. So, brian, first off, I want to say welcome to the show man hey, thank you, zach.
Speaker 2:Very uh excited to be here. This is awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, same here, man. So with Kix, let's talk about the story a little bit. So this was in fall of 2019 and you decided to place a trail cam up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my whole life. You know, like, like you said in the intro, I actually was raised by my grandfather and uncle and pretty much learned woodsmanship at an early age, and back in those days there wasn't inches, it was just getting a nice buck. My granddad would call it a dandy and I was always wanting to make them proud by being able to hang a deer on our family oak tree, and that's what I I strive for. So as time went on and technology over the years and this is back in the 80s um technology we just have polaroid pictures back then and our technology was going to a country store bragging on the uh bragging board with a polaroid. But as time got on, it goes on.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, social media has hit the game, hit, hit, hit. You know, the hunting industry and, um, I was really reluctant to ever use a cell camera and a lot of my friends were like, hey, man, you gotta, you know, go out there and put some out. And I was like, well, so I bought an SD card, um trail camera on that. I think it was like in may, uh, may, may of 29, uh, 2019, I'm sorry and I uh didn't know what I was doing. I just went out to an area that I knew was a good area and I hung it um, and I was like, man, let me, you know, let it sit for a couple of weeks. I came back, got the SD card and I put it in my computer and saw a couple of does, a couple of pictures. All of a sudden, there was this big mainframe 10-pointer and I just stopped Anybody's first time they ever get a really nice buck on their camera or an area that's heavily pressured, just um, just blew me away and I just stared at it. My wife's looking at me like what I said, look at this grief. And this is in July. So this is July and he's already framed up, you know, really nice and I could tell he was going to be a beautiful deer. So I had a few pictures of him but they are all all you know. Nighttime and August went through and he started to value, developed a little kicker off of his back, g2. So after getting many pictures of him I just said, you know I'm gonna, the kicks just came out, you know I'm gonna name him that and that just stuck. It just was fitting for him and, you know, felt it like the rock band which shared with some of my buddies and, um, I got, I got really like having dreams about this deer. It just kept going on and you know I had other properties but nothing was really this big of a deer as far as maturity and the rack and I was, um, really just blown away.
Speaker 2:So in virginia there's a couple uh, there's an early season, they have, and then they have uh, for doe only, and then they have a youth season, which is the week before bow season, which young kids can go out with their parents and use a rifle. And that one bothered me a lot because, knowing that area, I know that you know there was probably the opportunity for him to be taken that way or in this area, because it's only 10 acres and it bordered up some other properties and, um, I, you know, heard shots. You always think of the worst. And so that, uh, friday night, before the season opener, um, I got invited to go to a concert with one of my buddies down in richmond. And we're driving down there and I mean I got, I said, hey, man, you don't mind if I pull out my SD card, I pull the cameras.
Speaker 2:I, you know, I want to see. I haven't seen Kixon, you know, a couple weeks he hadn't shown, you know, it's like he hadn't shown, he's been ghost. And I put the SD card in and there was nothing, man. So I was like dad, gone it. You know, this is, this is going to be, um, this is, you know, I guess you know it's not meant to be, I'm not sure. So he kind of has been ghost, you know, and I figured he got taken. But I kept up the hope and I really really did not hunt the area at all, um, until the wind was right and I needed to have like a northwest wind from the way. I was figuring of how he um actually was approaching, the way. I always saw him on the camera what I thought, so um yeah I.
Speaker 2:I just kind of hunted other areas. I hunted in there a couple times when the wind was right, never saw him. And I have limited time. I work, you know I work, um, pretty much try to save, like most hunters. You know, your vacation time during the rut or somewhere in between those and still a little early in the bow season. So, um, that october 19th day after I got back from you know the, I was going to go.
Speaker 2:That Saturday morning I got up and I walked outside and the wind was hitting me in the wrong way. I was like man, let me pull out my app real quick. I thought I was getting all tech savvy with the app and the app what it would say the app was saying you know, southwest wind is you know. I was like, oh man. So I just came back in in the house, man, took my shoes off, sat on the couch and I'm sitting there like man. I guess you know I'm trying to figure out where I was going to do that evening maybe, and about that time my wife gets up and she turns the corner and sees me sitting there and she goes what are you doing here? And I said well, honey, I said this. My app says the wind's wrong and she stopped. She went over to make some coffee. She said what I said my app I said it's the latest, greatest we have. It tells you which way is the wind blowing and it gives you really good. Tells you which way is the wind blowing and, um, it gives you really good. And I need a, a north wind. And I and I got a south wind right now. And she goes what are you talking about? And I was like I'm here and I was like you know, I'm having this conversation with my wife and I'm sitting on the couch and she's over there making her coffee and she goes. I've known you we're high school sweethearts since you were 15 years old and all the deer you have taken through these years, you have never talked such, you know, like tap wind, stuff like that, and you know she's right. You know, looking back at it, she's right. I was you know we'll get to this later but I said, listen, you know I got a cell camera out here. I got this wind app. I know I technology. You know I'm not, I'm not gonna mess this up. She goes oh, I got you, she goes. Okay, she goes. Well, honey, I don't know a whole lot about deer hunting, but I know one thing. I said what's that? She goes you can't kill them sitting there on the couch. And I mean that could tell you what that. That lit a fire in me, man, like when your wife says that to you. So I was like you know what? I'm just gonna freaking go. And she's like, oh no, no, no, honey, I don't want to mess up you and your app and all. And uh, I said you know what I'm going? She goes no, seriously. If it's gonna make, I said no, so I had. If it's going to make, I said no. So I had an attitude I will have to admit. And I went. And I went.
Speaker 2:I got out in the tree stand about close to three o'clock, two 30, and got up in the tree and the wind was wrong. It was the back of my back, of my neck, like I thought. So I sat there pouting as four o'clock came, 5 o'clock came About 6 o'clock was coming. My face was red. I was like I should have never listened to her. I probably boogered this whole thing up. I looked over to my left and I saw some movement. I thought I called a horn. I'm like, was that a buck? I saw these does started to kind of fill out and I heard that faint grunt sound.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:So I just heard and this is October 19th, right, so I just grabbed my bow and just stood there and then these does started kind of feeding their way to me and I heard it again and then I saw some horns coming. I still didn't think it was him for a second. And then next thing, I know these does are like 10 yards from me and one's bouncing around. It was eight does and like the seventh of the eighth does was just bouncing around and that was the one that I guess was coming in the heat pretty much, and he showed himself. And when he did I saw that kicker off the side and I said, oh my God, it's kicks, and I just was just blown away. So he's actually to the left of where I thought he was coming, instead of straight ahead of me. So the wind he's barely on the outside of the wind coming. He's coming just on the other side of it and the way they're coming and I didn't expect them to be that way.
Speaker 2:And then now the deer underneath of me feeding on acorns, right, and that one deer that he's coming just like on a string and he stops and it's like 26 yards and I I wish this day I had a GoPro or I had some kind of camera, because he he actually put his head down, lifted his rack up and lip curled and just went and I'm just state I can't do nothing. I got my bow on my hand and I'm like trying not to shake and I'm just like then he just shook his rack like this back and forth like a dog. You know how dog shakes his head oh yeah I'm like you have got to be kidding me.
Speaker 2:And he did that. The one doe started bouncing around and she went over to the right and I'm like, how am I going to get a shot on him? And they slowly just started turning. And when he turned he was almost fully broadside. He was following that other deer and I was like, man, it's now or never, and that's that's the thing about bow hunting. I try to tell a lot of people the when you get to full draw. And I had does around me so I had to do it as quiet as I could right.
Speaker 2:I'm like almost closing my eyes, you know, because I'm so nervous and I'm drawing back, I'm drawing back, I'm, I'm drawing back and it finally breaks and nothing happened and you're like, oh my God, it's going to happen, you know, and you just got to compose yourself and you have that short five second window of a million things that you train yourself in the off season of don't twerk your bow, follow through anchor point. You know, just trust, trust it behind the shoulder. And man, man, I just squeezed it off him. It was at 26 yards and I didn't have it light a knock at the time.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I just heard a big crack like, and he went up in the air like the Denver Bronco. I'll never forget this. He was in the air like the Denver Bronco, just doing this for a second, that's great. And then hit the ground and just bounced off and he stopped down in the bottom about 60, 70 yards and as he stood there it was starting to get dark and it was a full moon coming up at the same time. So there's a full moon, that's getting dark, so it's really kind of staying light and I didn't have my binos either, but I could see the left side of his rack standing there and then I could catch like his hind quarter on the right side, right Looking, and the does were kind of just they, they just kind of were all over the place Right Looking around, and he's just stayed there and I'm like I know I hit him and I just kept looking and I I peeked around to the right side for a little bit and then then your eyes are playing tricks on you because it's getting dark and then I look back and I couldn't see the rack anymore.
Speaker 2:So I'm like, oh man, god, now to just man. All the motions hit me, put the bow up. First thing I did was text my wife oh, my God, honey, I shot kicks. Then I text my best friend and she's. She replied back oh, I'm so happy for you. And I'm like she goes, you know, can't wait to see him. And I'm like, well, you don't know yet. I'm just, you know, I'm still in the tree. I think I'm in good shot.
Speaker 1:We all been there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I I just, you know, stood there as long in the tree as long as I could about another half hour, it's dark and then I finally said, look, I'm just going to walk down to where I last seen him. And I got down out of the tree. I didn't walk to where I shot, I walked in the angle to where I last seen him and under the moonlight I saw something kind of white down that way. So I, man should, I took my flashlight, or let me just see and I clicked my flashlight on real quick and there was nothing. I clicked my flashlight off and it was like something white and I was like that is, this is crazy, why didn't any, you know? So I got a little closer and I could still see something white, you know, kind of, and I'm like, and I clicked my flashlight and it, those eyes, just saw some eyes come back at me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I went oh, my God is that, is he, you know? And I just eased a little bit more and I could tell you, I could tell he was down. And then, when I got closer to him and I've never, and I've killed hundreds, hundreds of deer over the years, I have never, never, ever had this feeling with an animal but I knelt down with him and when I put my hand on him I started crying.
Speaker 1:I believe it.
Speaker 2:Yep, tears came down the side of my face and I looked, I looked at him and the emotion was so tremendous. It was like such a relief but such a heartbreak at the same time because it's over. You know that we met and this is where we were, so that whole thing is just indescribable. That you know, and I think as much as you know the questions asked a lot of times about cell cameras and this and that. And that's the good part of if you can get, you almost have a, you have a relationship, you feel like with this animal Right, that when it all comes to fruition and it can be the other way, where you have a relation and it never happens, you know, and that it was just so emotional and you know that that deer was very special to me and it's actually. I think it's there, it is, it's that deer right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's kicks right there and he's very special to me and I actually just had him taken to the PA show where he was scored and Virginia, Pope and young. He made the books. He was a one 50 gross and then he wound up Pope and young will beat him to death. So he's just at one 39 and like three force, three quarters. I mean Pope and young, but it doesn't matter to me, you know, really, I mean if he makes the books, that's, you know everything. You know. To me I'm not, but it was very, very, very. You know every deer on my wall has a story, Right, but he's a special one man. That's just the way all that worked out. Because I don't, I really don't think if I didn't go, because I never had a daylight picture of him which is crazy.
Speaker 2:I know, and I really don't think, zach, if I didn't go that evening the way he going that dough around and then they're really hard, that I would ever got it.
Speaker 1:I really don't yeah, I think it's absolutely incredible when you are able to actually have this animal in front of you for the first time. You haven't seen him at all with your own eyes yet at this point, have you?
Speaker 1:that's right, yeah, so like I can only imagine like that thought process as soon as it like hits you and you're just like, wow, this is it. This is like the moment I can't mess this up and the, the pressure that you have on you is just so incredible and it just literally radiates throughout your entire body, like you're shaking. You're just trying to stay calm and, like you said, you took a breath and that adrenaline hopefully calmed down just a little bit. I mean it worked. I mean whatever it was you did, it helped you calm your nerves and you're able to to put that arrow through him and just the the picture of him alone, just seeing him in the background, is just absolutely jaw-dropping. He is just a beautiful deer no, thank you so much man.
Speaker 2:And when I, when I actually saw him for the first time and um, I, you know, got to see him first time in the you know daylight, in the live, um, he was every bit of what my trail cameras have thought more man, just right, you know like a 22 inch inside, spread just over up top, just big, big, tall tines, just a, you know, just a beautiful virginia deer man. They're beautiful deer. And then the show he put on and the only you know, I look back and I think what kept me calm is I, I get my, I get I actually coach myself and I get kind of mad that I don't go into all on a deer when I see one. I get mad that you're not. You know, I'm looking, I see them and I'm not. I do not look at its rack, I try not to look at it.
Speaker 2:But the parenchy of the thing was just like you couldn't miss it, but I wouldn't look at it. But I said you're not going to break me, you're not going to break me, I've trained too hard, this is not going to, you're not going to do it. And I just kept coaching myself through that moment. Right, that's the thing with bow hunting man, because even doing this for so long, you can slip up so many times and so many things can happen. It's just so rewarding when it all goes into your favor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that feeling is absolutely incredible, is absolutely incredible. Now, the real question is, though, when you texted your wife and you said that you got them, did she say, uh-huh, I told you so. Or is it one of those like, oh, she let it be and to this day, she hasn't said anything about it?
Speaker 2:You know she's awesome man. She never said that at first. She never said that at first. Um, she never said that at first. She, um, actually um did after the fact. Um, I think she led about a week ago and when I was telling the stories with my friends and stuff, when they were over, she's like you know, you wouldn't have got that deer. And I said, absolutely you know, I I wanted to let her know that she she's fully correct on that, because that that um, her, her kicking my butt got me off the couch and real quick what, what I want to add, to add to that whole thing and something of the basis of.
Speaker 3:You know, I love and I'm a huge cell cam guy, don't get me wrong, huge cell cam guy. And every year I always look at myself like sometimes I let the cell cam dictate kind of how I'm going to hunt and what I'm going to do. And this is kind of like a perfect example for the. You know the, the generation coming up. You know I'm I'm in my thirties now, but there's kids now who they grew up on cell cameras. Now they didn't have the SDs and all these things, but they are completely just thrown into all this technology. And, yes, it's great in some instances, but on some others it's very misleading.
Speaker 3:And if you sometimes I think, as bow hunters especially, we dive too much and we overthink constantly like, oh, the wind's not right, the thermals aren't working, um, you know it's, it's too hot, like you know one for one example you know, halloween last year, I I'm like, oh, I'm not gonna hunt this one spot, it's too damn hot, it was like 90 degree. I'm gonna go sit at a you know water source. And what happens later? My number one hit list buck came cruising right through. You know where I was going to hunt, if it wasn't for it being too hot, and a big part was. I looked at all my apps and I was like, ah, the movement is not going to be there and this is like that prime example of that.
Speaker 2:No, no, you nailed it, man. So after that I got happy and bought like four or five cameras. Now I think I figured it out, the puzzle. The following year I got one, and it was SD cards too. I didn't have a To. The following year I finally got a cell camera, but I found another deer that daylighted early. But I found another deer that daylighted early this is 2020. And he daylighted early and I immediately went into the woods and I wound up getting that deer too, and I was another Pope and Young Buck. So now I think after that I had it all. Man, I'm going to just use self-camera. I got it figured out.
Speaker 2:Then I started hunting cameras and I'm doing exactly what you said. I did not even shoot a deer, right, because it's just so. Wife said to me she's like this, first time I ever known you not to shoot a deer. There was two things twofold. For that one I was worried, kind of subconsciously, what society would think, um, hey, if you don't shoot a deer this size, maybe they'll look at you and say, man, you should let it go. Or, you know, maybe I feel embarrassed if I just shoot a basket, rack, buck or whatever, and that I had to. Really it took that took for me to go through that, to realize that's not why I hunt. I don't hunt for that, I hunt to provide a hunt for the chase every deer. And I went back to looking at when did I, when did I ever, when was I the most successful? And I was the most successful is when I was a savage and I hunted. And I think the bottom line for all of us to learn is you have to be there, you have to be there. It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter now, if you do have a, the wind does play a big factor. Sure, 100, I agree, but it's not that you know how many times it swirls, how many times it changes, and you're like, oh shit, or there's so many variables, the neighbor might have just kicked the deer out because he's walking and he comes under your stand, but you weren't there because you thought, or just so. The bottom line I've I found and it and it helped me, like last year.
Speaker 2:Um, a couple things is fitness. Um, you know I'm on lone wolf custom gear team and we mobile hunt a lot, and you know I'm approaching 60 years old, I'm 50, I'll be 57 this year and getting into fitness. Being able to be able to still mobile hunt not only helps you be out there more with deer or be. It increases your odds of luck, but it also helps you in life to be better in everything you do, because now you're more in shape, you're active. Um, I think it's twofold. You know to to stay in shape, you're active. I think it's twofold. You know to stay in shape and then have that drive. If it's misty, rain, the deer don't. The deer don't mind, they live there. Right, you were the ones that are. You know in.
Speaker 2:Our technology has kept us. You know we, we live in a world of technology and everything so fast paced that it's Friday before we know it. All the time we go shit, I can't believe it's Friday. I've never used to say that when I was younger. And then we hurry. So then you hurry and you go out into somewhere where an animal lives their little life. That's never changed All the years.
Speaker 2:The whitetail deer has never changed. What's changed is us by putting stuff in the woods or us being rushing, and their instincts are still the same. And this is where we get sloppy as hunters. We'll cut a corner because we think we know We'll bang a car door. We'll do all the things just to hurry and I've toned it down on my cameras man, I like a camera for inventory because that deer kicks. I would have never. I hunted that spot for 10 years and I didn't hunt it a lot because it was so pressured. But I would have never known a deer like that was in there if I didn't have a camera. I think that's good, but then on the flip side, like you're saying, it almost cost me because I thought it was the wrong time to hunt it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the one thing that I've always figured out was I try to look into areas where I can't really see what's going on and then when I get in those areas, I usually see a lot of sign of deer and whatnot and which that's what blows my mind like they're usually in the thickets and it's like man, how can I hunt? And sometimes you just go clear it out. But having the ability to get in areas where others can't, being a mobile hunter, is tenfold so much better Instead of just going straight to a stand that you just keep throwing over a food plot. You just never know what you're going to see out there and it's amazing that all the types of deer that you come across, it doesn't matter how big they are, how small they are, it's just. It's so cool to see like the battle wounds and just from their daily life.
Speaker 2:It's just absolutely incredible no man, it is so for, or go ahead, no, no, no, I was just saying it is. And the thing that got me, you know, as I got older, before I joined the lone wolf team and I have to admit, that year I didn't kill a deer and then I started getting, I want to say, complacent of 40 years of hunting, say complacent of 40 years of hunting, and my, yeah, some of my friends, you know, had the means to make bed, neck blinds and hunt comfortably and they got heaters in there and they got windows in there and shit. One of them's got a tv in there and I'm like man, that's nice, isn't?
Speaker 2:it. Next thing. You know I'm sitting in this stand that's got windows all around it and I'm like you know who? What am I doing, man? And it's it. Almost I was getting. I was getting like just someone. I wasn't.
Speaker 2:And then when I got back in it, having the effort to because it's an effort, you know, break your stuff down, put it up a tree, do things and go. It's an effort, you know, break your stuff down, put it up a tree, do things and go. It's an effort, man. It's just not like. You got to stand out there. That's all cushy with carpet in it and you got a couch in there and you sit down and some guys are doing work and they look out and they shoot a deer.
Speaker 2:But at the end of the day and that's good for them, but I promise you this much At the end of the day, if you shoot a deer in that kind of comfort and you shoot a deer in the snow, where you hike the mountain two miles and you go back, that story for your grandchildren, that story for your front when you come over. There's two different stories there. You might not even talk about the one in the blind, but you're going to talk about that other one, and that's what hunting's about yeah, absolutely you know the effort yeah, so you so?
Speaker 1:do you think you still use your traditions from what your uncle and grandfather have taught you, or have you? Kind of like modify it now utilizing the technology that's out there yeah, 100, I actually back my.
Speaker 2:I do um will check, I'll check a camera. I have a cell camera. I look at it, but no, I still, I still look in. You know, in Virginia it's predominantly the if you're not hunting ag you have to look at. I like, I really like, like Onyx, I like the the hunt, the hunt apps you have where you can see properties and boundaries and then you can yeah.
Speaker 2:And you can actually I think that technology is fantastic and then hit where the ag is and then understand where the deer are living, because deer are just like we are. I mean, they have to eat, sleep Right, and they eat and but they do it opposite. You know, while we're going to bed they're getting up and it's kind of an opposite. It's kind of opposite but they're doing the same thing. But once you learn where they live, where is that? Where are they staying? And I have properties that I've learned by looking at maps and understanding where they're in the cornfields, they're in the ag the soybeans until the farmers cut them. And then, when they cut them, then they're coming my way. And those are the areas where some you might keep the does happy until you know the Halloween magic. Halloween time comes. So I actually look for white oak trees from. My granddad always taught me about oak trees. I look for um the, the tracks I remember. You know just old rubs from years back. You know usually. You know if you find old rubs from years back, usually that's tradition carried on from another buck will come through a lot of times and then a lot of times. Some crows, man crows sometimes, are blue jays. Um, love acorns man. And you hear a lot of blue jays around. You just got to kind of listen for that sound to say man, it's something's probably down in that area pretty good to feed some food source or something. And then, um, it's not long, if you, if you play it right, then you'll you'll see a lot of deer.
Speaker 2:So I always kind of take my time through the woods, look at trees knee-high that are nibbled off. You know you'll get subtle finger I call them like fingerprints. You know you get subtle ones and then you're like, yeah, they're, they're in here browsing. This is a good area. There's white oaks here, this is it. And then it comes from the instincts of doing it for so long. You know like what areas that has a. You know you find these ridges and if you're lucky to get properties that have a bottleneck, that bottleneck is perfect for the rut like those. Those are the ones where you can set up one of your uh, fixed stands and just only hunt it during the rut, like it's a bottleneck, cause if you get down too much in there and I've learned this the hard way your thermals come up and then it's just the whole area is saturated where you should have been above it the whole time. And you, that takes years, you know, to learn. But um, there's nothing. I, there's nothing beats boots on the ground.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so true. I remember I think it was two seasons ago I did not kill a deer and I was so like what did I do wrong? I had skunked. It was my first time in that area. I did some scouting. I was 30 days out. I just moved into the area and sign was everywhere. But I was 30 days out, I just got, I just moved into the area and, um, sign was everywhere. But I was just not getting anything. And I was talking to one of my buddies and he asked me what my setup was and I told him I was like well, I've been using my hang on and I've also been using my climber.
Speaker 1:I've been going to this area in that area and I've noticed that every time I went I always had wind behind me. I never had it in my face and so that was always like my downfall. I always end up getting blown out by these bucks that were coming in the area like I would see them. They just never would come in because they would smell me and I was like man. But over the years I started realizing I need to change my game. Or over the last two years, I need to change my game, and then last year I killed like seven or eight deer just because of changing my tactics up a little bit.
Speaker 1:So this year I hope I I want to repeat that, but if I don't, it's not the end of the world, but I just. I'm hunting two different areas this year. I'm going out to a 4B Outfitters out in Oklahoma. I'm looking forward to that. I've gone out to uh 4B Outfitters out in Oklahoma. I'm looking forward to that. And it's just going to be like one of those hunts where it's like in the rut November 6th and game on from that day on and I can't wait.
Speaker 2:Man. Yeah, we'll have to stay in touch with that, that's. You never know what you're going to run into. A Midwest deer man. There's a different animal.
Speaker 1:It's a different animal. Yeah, I, yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.
Speaker 2:I went out to kansas and got my ass kicked because I I've never hunted anything like this. I was like, where are the freaking trees at? Like, yeah, I'm hunting, you know, it's a hold, the wind's always blowing, the trees are freaking sideways and, um, I got my ass kicked. But I learned learned a lot, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, midwest hunting man is no joke, yeah when I went out to Yuma, arizona, for training with some of my buddies and some of our students, our students would go off into the wind and we would tell them where we need them to go and how they do the conflicts between each other and whatnot. But my buddy John and I would always go out in the middle of nowhere, climb up to the mountains and stuff like that, and you would see these. It sounds like a shotgun's going off and we're just like looking at each other and I was like that was a ram and we would come over this ridge line and you could just see them, just boom, and I was like, oh, that is so cool, so surreal, that's so awesome, yeah, and then as soon as I go to pull out my phone to film it, it's done.
Speaker 1:One's walking away and I'm like oh man. So I really wish I was able to actually go out there and hunt. But it's so expensive to get a bighorn and there's such like a big wait list and it's just like, oh man, they're all, some areas they're protected, some they're not and I was like, man, that would be awesome to just go out there and experience yeah, I'm definitely looking, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try it again and I know, um, I really want to hunt iowa and I have some friends on the team that have some property out there.
Speaker 2:But I was a draw. You have to put preference points in. It's not like you know, you're hunting here in Virginia over the counter, so I got to do my due diligence on that part. But, um, I'm looking forward to trying to get out there, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for real.
Speaker 3:So I got two or three left to Iowa Nice. We've been working on it.
Speaker 1:So, when it comes to the lessons that you faced from going after kicks, what is something that you took away from this and that you want every hunter to really like, understand and learn from?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so wow. So I think what every hunter can learn from this is about the cell First of all. Cell cameras are, I'm sorry, cameras, sd, any kind of camera it's great to use for inventory, but just use it for inventory, like understand that it's not that everything and you just have to be there you need, you need to get, you know your property, you know, understand that, you know the wind is key, but it's not everything to um getting out. So for me it was. You know, I had the obsession of hunting this deer and I tried to do it as best as I could and I and I wound up shooting on a bad wind day that I thought was a bad one day.
Speaker 2:So yeah that's the lesson that I learned. So I since then, like I said, as as after 2021, I went back to my roots and then I got more aggressive and helped me with a great deer I got last year, just to go, just go. You have to be there. I think if you hunt like a savage, the more times it's a numbers game that's going to increase your opportunities for that luck to happen and make the most of it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. There's a lot of experience out there that in my opinion, a lot of younger hunters are scared to ask questions and if I had to give a piece of advice, just ask away, see what you can get from an experienced hunter. Because, like there is gatekeeping nowadays still, but there really isn't. Everyone wants to see this community succeed and that's what I really enjoy about this community. In hunting, it's just absolutely phenomenal to watch everybody cheer each other on and it's no like bashing, of course, like we'll, we'll be like oh, you missed, huh, yeah, you did. Oh, you hit a tree, I'm sure. Like we always make fun of each other, but at the end of the day it's always like, hey, man, no matter what, you still got out there, you got after it instead of just sitting on the couch yeah, man, that's and that's who's in your circle.
Speaker 2:Now, you know the social media. There's evil out there too, and there's people who want to see you fail and there's people that are going to say stuff and there's people that are going to get jealous, and there's all types in the world, but the majority you're 100% right, man, and the people I surround myself with, the people that are on my team, are like family, that passion. When someone knocks one down, man, I get just juiced. Man, it's like you just said, it's awesome. It just motivates you more, man, because you know this man, when it gets into November and you're in the middle of November and you look on social media and I think everybody's killed a deer, but you, you're in middle of November and you look on social media and I think everybody's killed a deer.
Speaker 2:But you, you, you look at it and you're like, oh shit, man, what's wrong? You know you start grinding and that's, that's, that's. You know, whatever, we've all gone there and you're just starting to feel like then you, you're starting to think wrong, you're starting to look through it at a wrong lens, you're getting sloppy, you're thinking you have to just back up and go. Hey, you know, before the season starts, there's a lot of things. You know, we're starting our Virginia Roadshow this Saturday and then we finish up the 23rd in Iowa.
Speaker 2:And I always say that Iowa one's like the Daytona 500 hunting, because the season's beginning now. We're getting all our equipment dialed in, you're getting all your archery dialed in, you're locking down your properties, you're putting in your food plots if you're lucky to have a food plot or you're just knocking on doors getting permission or finding other areas for your pipeline, because every year it changes. There's a data center built, there's a house that's sold, there's a brother who now hunts that you can't hunt. There's so many things that we lose properties. You have to always be inquiring to gain properties to keep I call it like a business pipeline, but a hunting pipeline going.
Speaker 2:And then there's your hopefully always have public. And then there's that and don't don't be scared of hunting public, because that's been very good to me over the years as well, to do that and have that edge to say this is going to be a three month deal here. This is October, november, december. This is a three month and I'm going to go at it for these three freaking months like a savage. I've already talked to my wife Me and her got an agreement. I've already talked to my wife Me and her got an agreement. Hopefully everybody's done that and have taken their wives on vacations and stuff and had them all happy.
Speaker 2:For three months I asked my wife please don't plant anything as much as you can. My kids are grown now, so it's awesome. I've had two kids over the years and I've missed a wedding over deer. I thought I was going to get a divorce over deer. The obsession hits you of that animal, but it's great, I think, if you really go back to the question, if you focus, that this is a marathon. I'm not going to go out day one and kill a deer. If you do, hey, man, that's a bonus. But I'm going to learn on this day, man, that's a bonus, but I'm gonna learn on this day. I'm gonna have you know and I think having you have permission on a property and you could put a fixed stand up, that's perfect, but mobile, hunt around it and find other areas where you can just pop in on him and catch him. You know he didn't expect you to be there. That the deer like what are you doing over here? You know you just popped in on them and yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:It's funny when you walk into like a field and all of a sudden you see them all just like pop up and you're just like, oh, sorry to intrude, like I didn't mean to bust you guys up, but it's just like man, sometimes you hit it. Hit it, especially if you're going in for like an evening hunt and then you just walk in you just see all the deer just scattered and you're just like that's it. Yeah, it's like, like, like I give up, but sometimes you just have to keep at it. That happened to my buddy Rodney last year. He was talking to me about this eight point, that he's the elusive eight point. He has never gotten eight points. He's gotten a seven point and a. Finally I hear this and I was like please, let that be an eight point. And then I hear him just give, like that in the background.
Speaker 1:I was like I immediately knew that he got what he was after, hopped out of the stand, hauled down this trail.
Speaker 1:There's like a video of me. You can see me running with my rifle, like as fast I can with my pack, on through this little trail and I get up to him and we just embracing this hug and he's like dude, finally I got it and I was like I told you, man, something was different about this. Like we did a prayer with each other right before we went out to the woods, um, and and went our ways and he finally got that eight point. And I was like I don't care if I saw a deer at that point, like I was like I wanted him to get that eight, so bad. And he finally got it and it just it made me so happy for him and I just remember dragging that thing with him and it was like this sucks. Like I was like why'd you have to shoot him? He was heavy, like come on, but he's a beautiful deer and I was very stoked for him yeah, and y'all to share it together.
Speaker 1:Man, that's you know exactly, that's priceless. You know that's our memory of life.
Speaker 1:I think that was our first weekend hunt away ever as a as friends, so that was even better. And then, um, he was with me when I killed my first. It was a spike last year. Last year was the first time I killed a deer with my bow and I've I'm now addicted to it. And he was there when I killed it and I was like you want to help me track it? And he was like absolutely I. He hopped out of stand. I saw him on on. My cell can't pop up. And we tracked this thing went no more than 50 yards using the g5 mega meets.
Speaker 1:That thing just tore through that deer and I was very happy with it, like I don't care if it was a spike, I don't care if it was a doe or whatever, I was just like I need to get some meat in the freezer. It was the first deer of the season Got them down and I was like this is static. I was able to actually get a deer with my bow for the first time and and the confidence after that is what really got me going even harder and even better than ever. I came home practicing, practicing nonstop. I did wound a deer.
Speaker 1:I felt so bad and then that was what made me different from that point on later in the season, like I was adamant that I will make sure that I can just put the arrow where it needs to go every single time, and that's something I think young hunters need to understand too. There's going to be times where it's going to be hard and there's going to be times where you actually mess up and at the end of the day, it happens. You might not be able to track them, you might lose them, but it's a learning point, and a lot of people give people too much crap, I feel like, about that stuff, instead of letting them know like, hey, man, it's okay, it happens, it does suck, it's going to bother you for a little bit, you're probably going to have a nightmare or two over it, but at the end of the day, all you can do is just put that in the past, learn from your mistakes and just move. Just keep going.
Speaker 2:No, no, you said it right, man, and you do it. You bow hunt long enough. It's going to happen um, a lamb, something it you know, lord knows. But if you do everything and you're like you're saying for your practicing, your clear eyes when you're in the woods, you're not under a substance, um which never absolutely.
Speaker 2:That's a big thing that's forbidden for me at all now there if I have one on the back of my truck and I'm home, then my wife knows to come on out with some Tito's for me because we celebrate. But until he's hanging on my skin and pole man, there's no. I want to be my best, absolutely, and the respect of the animal, and then also, like you said, you don't want to live with that regret and just paying. That's, that's, that stinks man, but that's just. That's just part of it.
Speaker 1:It is so, but at the end of the day, this wasn't just about a buck named kicks. It was about listening to your gut, even when it doesn't make sense on paper, about stepping outside when doubt says stay inside, and sometimes all it takes is just hey, you're not going to kill him on the couch. And you could have stayed on that couch, but at the end you didn't and because of that you were able. You walked into a memory that will be with you for a lifetime and it's going to go on for others as well, because people are going to share this story and for every hunter out there waiting on the perfect conditions just remember the perfect moment may not look perfect at all. You can't kill him sitting on the couch, all right, and, brian, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on the show today. Sorry for some of the technical difficulties that I had. No, no, I don't know what happened back next from everybody, as you can tell, I had to change today.
Speaker 2:Sorry for some of the technical difficulties that I had.
Speaker 1:I don't know what happened back next. As you can tell, I had to change rooms. As you can see, the scenery behind me is completely different. I just want to say thank you so much for coming on today and sharing the story and diving deeper into the story of Kix.
Speaker 2:Thank you guys. It brought back a lot of good memories because it's 2019. To be able to relive and tell it, man, I was getting, I'm getting like goosebumps over it. Man, just always, like you said, I'll carry it to the grave. And thank you, zach. Man, it's been, uh been, a pleasure man that's awesome, man.
Speaker 1:I really appreciate everything. Hopefully next time uh, we can have you on again later on this year and hopefully you have another story about another deer from the season fantastic man.
Speaker 2:I'm looking for hope, so too.
Speaker 1:Thanks all right, guys, everybody take care and hopefully we'll see you next time on uh. Echoes of the hunt.
Speaker 2:Behind the hunt you got it, man, hang on, thank you.
