Smoke, 30 Packs & Big 8's

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Everybody welcome to the nine finger chronicles podcast.

Hopefully everybody is having a good week.

It's hump day.

If you're listening to this on the day, it's launched.

It's hump day.

Not sure why Wednesdays are called hump day when most of the people do it on the weekends.

I've always I've always kind of thought that I understand like halfway through the work

week, get over the hump, but my mind is usually goes to a more adult place whenever someone

says something to me, whatever, right?

So like today, I had a guest lined up.

He called me last minute.

He said he's got a sick kid at home, so he had to go pick him up from school and do the

whole daddy thing.

No big deal.

Guess what that means?

That means that there is an opportunity here for me to share a story from my past.

And for those of you guys who have been listening to the podcast for a while, I've had a weird

past, right?

Just like a lot of character building moments, I guess we could say here.

And so there's a lot of stories in my life through my wild party and drinking days,

my days when I was living in the South, I went through two divorces as a kid, so there's

opportunity to talk about things like that, my journey that I'm currently on, like trying

to renew my faith.

So I have like this entire catalog of stories, some are appropriate, most are not for what

I'm going to, you know, what we could talk about today.

So I'm going to do this.

I'm going to go one hunting related story and I'm going to go one non hunting related

story, maybe two, because some of them, some of them kind of cross over or blur together

the non hunting stories deal.

So I think that's what I'm going to do today is just to give you guys a couple stories.

And I'm trying to debate which one, which, which story to tell from my high school slash

college days, the one story I'm debating talking about makes me kind of sound like a huge

douche bag, which admittedly I was back when I was 21, 22, you know, 22 to 22 years old

still in college, just self proclaimed douche now, all right.

Like I get it.

If I was to go back in time and tell myself one thing I would just say to myself, stop

being a douche bag.

And I think a lot of people would agree with that.

So I don't know how let's do them all.

I have about 30, no, I have about an hour here on this podcast.

So story number one, no, I'll tell you what, let's do the, let's do a big thank you to

the partners of the nine finger chronicles podcast.

These are all hunting companies.

And so I always, I'm always like, if I, when I go off on rants like this and have a non-deer

hunting themed podcast, I always am thinking, is it, am I giving them what they paid for?

Like, am I supposed to be talking about hunting all the time?

But most people, they just, they must like me somehow and they don't ask too many questions

about it.

So before we get into today's episode, let's just send a huge shout out to the brands

that help support the nine finger chronicles, whatever topic I'm talking about.

First on the list is wasp archery.

I've been working with wasp for a very long time.

And I would say 95% of all of my bow harvests, my archery, deer harvest, mule deer harvest

have been with a wasp broadhead on my arrow, a huge fan of the wasp lineup.

So go check out wasp archery.com discount code NFC20 for 20% off.

Next on the list is vortex optics, turkey season is coming up.

I just last week I launched an episode with Mark Bordman from vortex about red dots.

So go check that out.

That's another piece of content about red dots and why red dots may help you during turkey

season for your, your turkey shotgun.

Go check out vortex optics.com.

Next on the list is code blue sense.

They have a full lineup of real and synthetic dirions.

They have laundry detergents, body washes, field sprays.

Next week, this week, we have state wrestling next week.

I'm heading to do a little shed hunting with my oldest son and his friend.

And we're going to do a little bit of a mini adventure.

We're going to go stay at a really crappy motel in a small town.

And then we're going to go it's, you know what?

They did a remodeling project.

So it's not fair to say it's crappy anymore.

It's a good hotel.

It's a really good hotel.

It's in a small town.

It's affordable.

It's close to my farm, anyone.

And then we're going to be working on moving some tree stands, setting up mocks grapes for

this upcoming season because of my knee surgery.

I got to get this done now so that I, so that I don't have to do it with a bad knee this

summer.

So all right.

And that's code blue sense.com discount code NFC to zero.

It's on the list is reveal trail cameras.

They have the, their newer model is the ultra.

They've had a ton of updates to their platform and to the, and to the cameras themselves.

Very, very good functionality, very, very easy to use and set up and connect to your phones.

And I would say that if it is, it is the top, if not the best cell camera on the market

just from the ease of use, scanning the QR code, all the functionality on the app.

So go check out tacktocam.com slash cameras.

Next on the list and last is my company full sneak gear.

Just, just do me a favor.

Go buy a t-shirt.

I believe they're 50% off by one, get the other one 50% off.

I can't remember what I did.

I've done it so long ago, but they're, they're hunting t-shirts and I have a turkey t-shirt

right now with turkey season coming in.

Go check it out.

All right.

Story number one comes from high school.

And I was pretty good in high school.

I didn't like, I didn't party too much.

My sophomore, my freshman year or my sophomore year in high school.

I can remember the first time I ever got a buzz was my sophomore year in high school.

I went to a party with a couple buddies whose older brothers and sisters were at this, this

bonfire and it was a cabin that we used to party at all the time.

And so I ended up going to this party in this, this particular place.

First time I ever got buzz was my sophomore year in high school.

We were drinking Miller Red.

That was the big thing for us.

Maybe it was dirt cheap.

I don't recall it necessarily being good and when you're a sophomore in high school, I

don't think you're really, you don't care or even in high school in general.

You don't care what the alcohol tastes like.

At that point, I wasn't sitting there going, hmm, I'm going to pass on Miller Red because

I'd rather drink some other Heineken or some shit like that, right?

That didn't happen.

It was whatever was available.

And for some reason, MGD or Miller Red was what we were drinking at that time.

Along with the Southeast Iowa quintessential bush light, anyway.

So we're at this party and the first time I ever got buzzed was after a football game,

everybody went to this cabin.

It was one of my first nights ever driving a car.

And so we're sitting around the bonfire and I'm just scanning, there's so many people

there.

I'm scanning through the light of the bonfire and I'm looking around and I just see my

buddy's dad's face in the, in the reflection of this and he sees me seeing him and my eyes

got real big.

He goes, Johnson, you're coming with me and he pulled like five or six of us out of this

party, got into his car and he took us back into town and he's like, he was pissed.

And so then he took, he took us back into town and then I had to come back the next morning

to get my car, all that shit.

So the, you know, growing up in Iowa in the 90s, there's a lot of small town Iowa, there's

a lot of country parties, bonfires, dead end roads, that type of stuff, parents are out

of town and type of parties.

I'm sure most of you guys are used to that or, you know, grew up that with yourself.

But I took the summer after my senior year off, like I hurt the summer, excuse me, the

summer after my sophomore year, me and my buddy.

We took weightlifting really serious.

We were working out every day, going to the gym every day.

I had a sweet tan because at that time I was a lifeguard, I believe it or not.

I was responsible for other people's lives.

And then my junior year in football, I blew my knee out.

So I was unable to finish my junior year in high school.

And so I didn't have to wait around for all of the, you know, I'd hop into a car full

of girls and then all my buddies who were in football would be in a set the after parties

wherever that was at some Friday night or Saturday night.

And my mom was really lenient with me as far as when I had to be home.

My senior year or my junior and senior year, like once football is over, I could stay out

as late as I want pretty much as long as I was safe.

And I, like my junior year, I didn't push the limits too bad.

But anyway, I don't know, did any of your moms or dads used to do this?

My mom made me check in with her no matter what time I got home.

And sometimes that was like at three in the morning.

Sometimes it was at midnight or whenever I rolled in, she's like, come into my room, give

me a hug.

And so my mom, number one, she grew up in a house where her dad, my grandpa, was ripping

three packs of Salem cigarettes a day.

He would smoke three packs of cigarettes today.

So I look back at this and I laugh this story.

I laugh because my mom knew, my mom knows about, you know, what smoking smells like.

And so we weren't at a bonfire.

We were in some dudes garage drinking and smoking.

And I come in, it's like, it's probably December, it was cold outside.

And maybe with Christmas break or something and I walk into the house.

My mom is sleeping.

I go into her room, I give her a hug and I don't know, did any of your moms or dads used

to do this?

They just take a huge whiff of me.

So they knew if I was drinking or smoking or whatever the case is.

And I like it would really change the outcome of anything.

But she's like, what's that smell?

Like where have you been tonight and I go at a bonfire?

And this is when I knew like trying to trick my mom was no longer an option because all

parents have done what all kids have done at some point in their life.

They're not idiots.

And I, I just for some reason was like, God, my mom's never going to know.

And she, I go, I was at a bonfire.

She goes, Oh, were you burning marble lights?

I was just like busted.

And so at that like from there on out, I never lied to her again.

I told her exactly, you know, exactly what, what I did because she knew I used to like

try to lie to her and be like, Oh, no, I'm at so-and-so's house or I'm doing this

in this.

And she's just like, dude, I know exactly what you're doing.

Don't be a dipshit.

And that was like one of the last times I ever tried to pull anything on my mom.

And from that point on, I told her exactly, yeah, we're going to go to a party out in the

field.

And I might stay, you know, might sleep in my truck.

I might go to my buddy's house, you know, sleep on his couch, whatever the case is.

And this was before cell phone.

So I know my mom was worried shitless about where I was at and what I was doing back

in the day.

And so that was the last time I tried to pull the old fast one on pull the fast one on my

mom telling her I was out of bonfire instead of smoking cigarettes.

So and that happened like a hundred times before that.

So she knew and like, I wonder, I don't think I'm going to be the dad who will put up with

that shit.

Like if my kid comes home and he's 14, 15 years old and somehow comes in and gives me

a hug and I can smell cigarettes on him or booze on him, I'm going to tell him exactly

what I think I go, dude, you are, you smell like you smell like cigarettes right now.

What are you doing?

My hope is, and I think that because I have been, this is like where there's the shift

about, don't be like me because I was a loser.

I am very open to my daughter about that right now.

She's a third, I have a 13 year old.

And when I was 13 in seventh grade is the first time I ever had a sip of alcohol.

It was a Bartles and James Wine Cooler that some girl brought to a birthday party that

I was at and I took a sip of it and that was the first time I ever, I got another buddy

who was there.

He took a sip of it and then he faked like he was drunk.

The whole time he's like, whoa, dude, I'm so hammered right now, this is crazy.

And he had like one ounce of Bartles and James Wine Cooler.

It was the funniest thing and if I still hung out with him today, I'd still make fun of

him for it.

Anyway, that was the first time I ever had alcohol.

And now my kids, they're in so many more activities.

They're so much information out there now about drinking and alcohol and things like that.

And I'm very vocal.

I'm like, hey, I wasted 11 years of my life drinking.

I don't think you should do that.

Same with the boy's mom.

She's on this no alcohol journey for me.

And as long as they're in high school, man, I'm just going to be blunt with them.

I'm like, you're wasting your life drinking or trying to party in high school.

You should be doing other things like fishing or hiking or going on camping trips,

which I don't know if a camping trip would be recommended.

Because I went on some camping trips to that were wild when I was in high school in college.

So maybe not those.

So that's the first story that popped into my head today that I was drinking a cup of coffee

this morning.

And I was just kind of staring out the window like an old creepy man usually does.

And that for some reason, that just popped into my head.

The second one popped into my head was it's been windy here.

And for some reason, there's an empty 30 pack of bush light in my backyard.

And I looked at that this morning as it was kind of blown in the wind and I started laughing

out loud.

And here's why.

So when I went to college, my junior and senior year in college, I transferred from a smaller

school into a bigger state run school, the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.

It did I turned 21 and it was just party time like I didn't care about college.

I didn't care about grades.

I went to every class.

I've very I only in my entire college career.

This is no joke.

I was worthless, but I never skipped class.

And I think that's the only if I skipped class and did what I did, I would not have graduated.

At least I showed up to class and listened to what the teacher said or what the professor

said.

If I didn't do that, I wouldn't have a college degree.

Anyway, so when I so I had this buddy who lived, there was a group of guys I played

rugby with and they lived in a house, what we used to call frat row.

So it was like three, two frat houses, our buddy's house, which is full of guys I played

rugby with, and then another frat house.

So it was like we called frat row.

And so we had a lot of fun during like rush weeks where they would hang up, they took

a bed sheet and during rush week, and if you're unfamiliar with rush week in the fraternity

system, it's where all these new people come in and they try to join a fraternity and

then the fraternity like the fraternity picks and chooses.

And so we made up our own frat or they made up their own frat called don't ramagai.

And that was the name of that was the name of their fraternity called don't ramagai.

They took a bed sheet and on this bed sheet they painted pay for sex, not your friends

rush don't ramagai.

And during the rush week, we would set out on their front steps.

And as the people would walk in to rush for a fraternity, we would sit out front and

we would be like don't go in there.

Instead of joining a fraternity, why don't you come party with us instead?

We promise we're not going to make you give another due to hand job or we're not going

to haze you, we're not going to make you do anything gay, we're not going to make you

pay any fees or anything like that.

You just hang with us and you're going to have a much better time.

And we actually pulled some people, got their information and we would just call them

whenever we have a party.

We would just be like all right, let's do it, let's have a party.

And those guys, they were in our circle, it was hilarious.

And then they, of course, the fraternities would get mad and they're like this is something

serious for us, you know, how are we supposed to roof your girls if you are stopping it,

right?

And so I would, I was just like, God, you know, we're sorry, but we didn't care anyway.

So when the bars would get out, we would sit on the front step and we would just watch

all of the people flood out of the bars and walk and it was like this big people watching

thing.

And there was a lot of intoxicated people, you know, guys would run their mouth and what

are you looking at, you know, like, and then there was a lot of almost fights that would

break out, almost fights.

But one thing we started, one thing we started to notice was that if there was a can or

if there was an empty box of beer or anything, basketball, anything on the sidewalk, somebody

would kick it.

And they, whether, no matter what it was, people, when they're, must, when they get drunk,

they want to kick stuff.

And so they were kicking all this, I guess you would just call it garbage on this sidewalk.

And one day, it was like standard procedure after the bars got out, we'd walk up back

to this, my buddy's house.

And they're all sitting on the front step just laughing their asses off.

And I'm like, what is going on here, guys, you know, and so they had a couch on Cinder

blocks on their porch.

And so I took a seat and everybody else was kind of gathered around.

And they had a 30 pack, empty 30 pack box there and I'm watching this group of guys,

another group of guys, you know, obviously intoxicated, walking down the sidewalk.

And some guy takes off like an NFL, like field go kicker to kick this, this box.

And he crushes it and he starts to like, he's just like, and everybody on the porch just

started laughing their asses off.

And I'm like, what the hell is going on here?

And they had, they had noticed that everybody kicks things.

So they put a broken Cinder block in this, in this empty 30 pack of bush light and set

it in front of their house.

And people would just come by and kick it, thinking it was empty and instead be kicking

a, a broken Cinder block.

It was some of the most funny things I have, like I have ever seen in my life.

I regret it because it was not a nice thing to do, but I will say that watching someone

kick something extremely hard, not knowing when they were, when it was, thinking when

they thought it was not hard is one of the fun, it's like watching a fat person fall

down.

Dude, nothing is more hilarious than watching just a, I mean, a regular fat person fall

down.

Right.

I don't mean just like, I don't mean like, like a regular fat guy, I got a, I got a

gut on me, right.

I'm a little fat, but I'm talking about real fat people, like the, the fattest of fat

people when they trip and fall.

We've talked about this before, but that's the, that's the most hilarious thing.

The second, most hilarious thing is watching these people kick this Cinder block and just

watching their reactions when they did it.

Luckily, not that I know of, I don't think anybody got seriously hurt, but it was alcohol

induced fun and at the expense of others.

And I hate to say it, but to this day, I, every once in a while, do I regret that type

of behavior?

Maybe, maybe not.

I don't know.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do, right.

Looking on this journey of trying to be a better person now, and then looking back and still

laughing about all the times where I did really douchebag things, I don't know like how I was

supposed to feel about that.

And so that's just another, that's another example of how big of a douchebag I was 20

plus years ago.

So there's that story, got to take a sip of my coffee here.

The next thing, this is a gear hunting story, okay, 2013, I believe it was, and I know

it was 2013 because my buddy Ryan came to hunt with me in 2014, and so I videoed for

him.

I was videoing him trying, we were trying to kill this big buck on a property that I had

to access to, and the goal, the rule was, or the agreement was not a rule.

At the time I was filming for white knuckle productions, all of my hunts, and I said, dude,

why don't you start putting in preference points for Iowa?

As soon as you draw, you come be my camera guy for the rut.

As soon as you draw, then you can hunt my farm, and I'll switch, I'll give up my season

for you.

And that was in 2014, but in 2013, he was my camera guy.

And so there was, through trail camera pictures, through seeing him on the hoof, there was

this buck that I named Megatron.

And the first time we saw him was mid-October, he came in, and I was hunting a corner,

imagine a fence line, two fence lines interchanging, and they make a tee, right, or a tee post,

or whatever.

Southeast of that intersection is a timber.

Southwest is a marsh, northwest is a cornfield, and to the east, or north east is a quadrant

or whatever you want to say it is, is more timber that leads, it's like a hill that's timber

that leads to more ag.

And so it is the morning of probably, maybe it was actually late October, some morning

hunt, and we're kind of 20 yards inside the timber, there's a good trail where these

deer run north south, and they kind of parallel this cornfield.

And we're sitting about 50 yards off of this two track, this four-wheeler track, and

we're about 20, 30 yards from the cornfield.

And here comes Megatron, all right, and I'm like, hey, big deer coming down the two track,

he turns around and starts to film it, and sure enough, it's like this mid 160 class,

maybe low 170 class, pure eight pointer.

I mean, just imagine 170 inch eight pointer walking through the timber, and it was one

of the most glorious moments that I've ever seen in my life.

I have 154 inch nine pointer downstairs, and that buck that's downstairs could easily

fit inside the rack of this eight pointer that I had deemed Megatron.

And so Megatron comes down, he's doing this set checking, he looks at some doves, and

he just kind of goes north, we were south of his position, and we had the wind, it was

all good, he didn't bust us.

And so I said to myself, that's the buck I want, that's kind of what I was doing back

in the day, was kind of going after two or three deer that were of that caliber, maybe

150s are over, and back then I was passing gear, I should have shot too, you guys have

heard that story as well.

Anyway, I start making plays on this buck.

I start putting trail cameras in places where I didn't have them trying to locate them.

Long story short, I locate this buck, he's now, he has since moved into the bigger timber

of the farm, and because I don't think all of like on the, I don't think the deer were

ready, or the doves were ready down in the bottoms, so he's now looking for other go groups.

You know that, that active type searching before the rut gets crazy, probably before the

first doves go in, might obviously my favorite time of year, is to hunt when the bucks are

ready to breed, but the doves are not.

And so deer are covering a lot of ground, they're looking for specific doves groups, and

so I got a picture of this buck, not turtle in the big timber, like at three in the morning.

Usually that didn't mean anything, but now I knew where he was at.

So we bounce into this pinch point that I had a trail camera in, that I did not, that

I did not check, however, for previous years history tells me this pinch point generates

a lot of traffic through here.

It's a cattle pasture, it's an outside corner of a cattle pasture that is in big timber,

cattle pastures to the southwest, everything else is timber.

And so I'm sitting just off that, and he comes through, and it's like, it's 80 degrees,

it's November 4th or 5th.

I was wearing a t-shirt, we did a run and gun in on this ridge, sure enough, 4.30, 4

o'clock in the afternoon, he shows up out of some random thick area, and he just flanks

our position.

And long story short, the second encounter, he gets downwind of us.

And so he gets downwind, and I had no zonics running, he just barely got to it and then

his mood changed, and then at that point I knew, do this over, right?

I tried to grunt him in, and his head came up and he was looking for something, but it

just didn't work, right?

He went down the backside of the ridge, and I didn't, if I would have been 10 yards further

to the north in my tree on that ridge, I would have had a shot opportunity at him, it didn't

work out, all right?

I saw that buck another time at a long distance in that big chunk of timber that year, chasing

a doe.

Eventually my buddy Ryan had to go back home, he had kids, and he had a job, and so he

couldn't just be my personal cameraman all season.

And so in 2013, the rut kind of just trickle away from me, and I didn't, I didn't have

it, I didn't have any opportunities, I didn't see that buck again.

So it was late November, probably the week, it was probably the third week, usually back

then I was taking vacation the first two weeks of the year, and then I was done hunting

for the year at that point, just because I had a real job back in the day.

And so I'm like, I had a free weekend, and I'm like, okay, Friday night I show up, I

check trail cameras, two days in a row, actually two previous days in a row.

I had a really good access route in this buck walked in front of that eight pointer

walked in front of this trail camera, eight days in a row, excuse me, not eight days,

two days in a row, and I checked it on that third day in like in the morning after a morning

hunt.

No, no, it was, excuse me, I checked that camera, sorry, I checked that river bottom camera,

usually what I do is I go in, and I hunt it in, so this camera is a river bottom, so

I go in, I hunt near it, I went and checked it.

The wind that I needed for that stand was not, so I hunted a different stand, and then

at dark I went in, grabbed the camera, then I found out that two days in a row at like

one 30 pm, he had been daylighting two days in a row right in front of this camera.

So I hunted that morning, and I needed to wait for the wind to change, and it was cold

that morning.

And so I walked back to the truck, I went back home, and I was like, it was a quick turnaround

because he was coming, the wind was shifting, and I needed to be in this tree before the

wind, like I couldn't do it before the wind shifted, I had to do it while the wind was

shifting, so I was walking in with the wind to my back.

So it was going to be an east wind, and I walked with the wind to my back, and then

I get to the stand, and while I'm in the stand, my wind is blowing into this creek system

and not into the bedding area south of the creek.

And so I'm assuming that he was going to come back out, right?

So I hunt that morning, I'm just, I'm trying to get in a stand where I can see into there,

I didn't see him.

I saw a lot of does, I saw another young buck, and I get back down, I go back to the truck,

I go home, I take like a coffee break, I take my morning poop, and I switch up my, you

know, from my cold weather morning stuff, I always dress lighter in the afternoons, and

I creep in there, and I get to my stand, and I climb up, and there he is in the bedding

area, he's with a doe, and I wasn't even completely set up yet, but he's in there.

So I hang my bow up, this is a, this is a prehung set, so there's no running gun, it's

been in the same tree for however many years now, it's like a perfect front funnel, I get,

I've never shot a actual deer out of it, but there's been a lot of really good deer really

close to that, that stand.

So there he is, the, one of the biggest eight point, the biggest eight pointer, I've

ever seen in my life, my bow's hung up, my arrow's not, I see him in there, and they're

not really coming towards me, but they're not going away from me, they're just kind of

milling in there, and then he's on this doe, and he's just kind of like following her,

he's eating a little bit, he would bed down every once in a while, she would bed down,

every time she stood up, he'd stand up, and this is happening at about 80 to 100 yards

out here, but if I knew anything about this particular deer or this particular bedding

area, there's a trail crossing at 22.5 yards, I range it every year, 22.5 yards, and these

deer always cross right at 22.5 yards, they pop up, and then again, they're at like

22.5 yards, and they're kind of quartering away, heading to the ag field, and so essentially

I'm set up in this staging area, and I'm like, oh shit, there he is, right? He's doing

this thing, this is probably 30 minutes of me watching him, and I go, because all my

pants, all my hunting pants are like pocketed cargo pants, and I put my hand down in there

to grab my release, put it on, and so now I'm ready to go, check the one pocket not there,

I'm like, oh shit, check the other pocket, not there, I'm like, shoot, I must have put

it in my backpack, unzip the backpack, not there, now my heart is beating 1,000 miles an

hour, I have my number one buck at 80 yards, I don't know if he's going to come through

or not, and I'm frantically looking in my hoodie pockets, all the pockets of all my coats,

all my stuff, and I realized my release is in my cold weather pants at my mom's house

in a tote. Luckily, I don't know if you guys have ever done that, and then you're starting

to think, dude, I'm going to pull fingers, and I'm going to have the same accuracy, and

I draw back with my bad hand, my nub hand, and there would have been no way of doing

that. So at that point, I was just like, dude, do not come by me, like I wasn't trying,

I was praying to not let this deer come by me, because I would feel so embarrassed, and

luckily, a doe got downwind to me at, shoot, like 30 minutes, 40 minutes after that, and

didn't like, started stomping, didn't necessarily blow too hard, but was stomping, was making

kind of like a, like moving, they noticed her, like her bilingual English changing, that

doe, the doe that this buck was on worked away, and so he worked away, then that doe worked

away, and I just got out of the stand. And all, like I probably, like I don't like to joke

about suicide, but when a once in a lifetime deer comes by your stand, and you don't have

what you need to kill him because you forgot about it, that would be a cool story. Those

are some stories. How about this? If anybody is listening to this, do me a favor, reach out

to me if that happened to you, right? I've been so tired sometimes, where I've even forgot

my bow, walking to the stand, but I've never made it to my stand, right? I've always been

like, why am I not carrying anything, turn around, walk back to the truck, to the truck.

I mean, I've had to go all the way back to the house a couple times, because I forgot

some certain, you know, I've forgotten some things, but knock on the wood. I have never

been in a tree, and a deer has come by within shooting range. That was the closest ocean moment

I ever had. And honestly, it's been why I always carry like backups in my bag now, in my pack.

So that made my butt hole go, and made my heart beat a thousand, like I didn't, I was so angry

at myself, because at this point, you know, you've been, I've been hunting for like, almost 10 years

of just hardcore hunting, thinking that I'm the shit, you know, connecting on some good deer,

and then all of a sudden, boom, rookie mistake. I wish I could say, I've got better at it,

but I still make those types of mistakes every single year, whether it's ranging wrong, like I

did this past year on that one fifty ten, whether it's forgetting something somewhere or not

packing something or maybe packing the wrong socks or the wrong boots or forgetting the boots

or some crazy shit like that. Oh, man, I still do it every year. And I guess that's what makes me me.

Those were three stories today. Hopefully, 40 minute episode there, give or take,

just wanted to, just wanted to put out some content, feel like telling a couple dumbass stories

about all the times that I've been a dumbass. And that actually might be the title of this week's

podcast is, I'm a dumbass, but like, I just want to wish everybody a good day, good vibes everybody.

I don't know, I don't know what to say other than practice shooting your equipment,

be very clear and concise with your gear, make sure it's, I mean, that was the perfect time to do

that, is to check your gear. I have stacks and stacks of shit in my garage that I need to organize

right now. After, after the hunting season this past year, I literally ended up throwing everything

in a pile and I haven't touched it yet. I haven't shot my bow yet. Again, I'm thinking about getting

to do bow for this upcoming season. So if anybody has any really good success stories with the bows

that they're shooting and you want to talk about it, dude, I'd love to talk about it on the

hunting gear podcast. If you have a turkey story, you want to, you want to share, hit me up. We'll

talk about it on the how to hunt turkey podcast. Other than that, good vibes everybody,

wear your safety harness, be good to each other and we'll talk to you next week.