Iconic Public Land Hunting Stories

American wilderness affair. We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation, who will also bring you into some of the wildest country on the planet Chasing Battery. This is a really actual episode of the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast for me because I'm able to take you into my family deer camp on public land in southwest Arkansas with my dad, my brothers,

my children, and another close friend and his kids. Were sitting around the campfire, and it seems like every year on Saturday night, we cook a big dinner and we end up telling these iconic hunting stories that have have shaped us all. I really wanted to capture some of the stories of my dad, who's been bow hunting for

forty years. He's seventy years old, and he he's really the one that shaped and mentored me as a hunter, and the stories that he tells are all stories that impacted me as a as a young hunter, as a kid, and as even as a young man. The conversation also flows into some of my iconic stories that happened on public Land and Southwest Arkansas. And it was really fun to to capture this in the moment. This wasn't captured

over zoom or over a phone call. This was around the campfire, and these stories are being narrated to a live audience, which is our family and friends. And these kind of oral traditions and storytelling is truly something that's ancient, no doubt. Men have been telling these kind of stories for thousands and thousands of years, and it was really fun to to just capture it. And this is what we do every year, and I really think you're gonna

enjoy this podcast. We tell the kind of little snippets of multiple really fun hunting stories, but hunting stories that all my kids would have already known, but it seems like we tell them again and again, and every year we keep adding to the to the profile of iconic hunting stories. You're gonna enjoy this podcast. It's November the ten team and we are at the annual Newcomb Family Public Land deer hunt in southwest Arkansas. Dad, how long have we been doing this? Oh, he's got a mouthful

of burger. Let me let me let me tell you what we're doing. Let me let me describe the atmosphere here. It is cold for Arkansas November. The tenth high temperature this morning was around twenty five degrees And we found a beautiful log that has been burning all day, a huge oak that was hollow in the middle. We set it up and it's been burning all day. So we're all setting around a huge campfire. There's about fifteen of us here and this is this is and we're eating dinner.

We all all the me and my brothers, my dad and Ty cooked a big dinner for the kids. Hamburgers, corn on the cob, French fries, the real deal for a Arkansas cook out, Arkansas camp out. But what we're gonna do on this podcast is it seems like every time we get together, we always talk about some iconic hunting stories that have influenced us. And I want to talk to my dad about some of his some of his early hunting. Dad's been hunting public land since when

the sixties, seventy, mid seventies, seventies seven. Really that's when you started both hunting. Yeah, No one in our family, no one in our family, uncle's cousins deer hunting. I didn't even know what a deer track looked like. And I had a couple of guys, the principle of a school and a guy that had about a hundred sixty I Q. He knew everything in the world about deer. I mean he could tell you the exact date they bred and when you know when they dropped, and just

anything you want to know. And back in the day that was unusual. Yeah, And this guy was brilliant. His name was Barry Wait four hundred pounds. And we'd go to this coffee shop and he taught me about deer. He told me one day he said, come to the house and I should teach you how to shoot a bowl. And so he he gave me a recurve. I hated the recurve, but I went and hunted with him, and

they could not kill deer. It was real funny. And and uh, I went with some buddies down south, and I had a compound by then, an old bear compound, and uh we I heard a guy that was with us and he said, bear or deer like white ok acres, and I go, holy cow, that's what I've been looking for. I mean, I didn't hardly know what a deer track looked like, but I figured if you could figure out where they were eating, And all of a sudden, I started killing deer, I mean every year, and and back

then it was it was a big deal. Any more, what I do is, you know, I'm I'm on the bottom of the cotem pole. But in the seventies, if you could kill two or three deer year, even if they were Southwest Arkansas, you were doing Yeah Central Hospital and I've said all the times that you were killing there with the boat before it was cool. Yeah, well I don't know about that, but it sure was fun. And people would ask me how how you do it?

How do you do it? Well? You do it? And you know, man, I just go to McDonald's and shoot them as they walking. And you've killed a deer with the boat every year for forty years. Yeah, in Arkansas, not in the high density areas, but on public land. And then, you know, about eighty three, I read an article about the way I hunted. A guy in Alabama wrote exactly what I was doing. And and then as the kids started growing up, they started doing the same stuff,

but they started killing big bucks. And I never shifted to the big bucks because I had plenty of opportunities. You know about every three years when you hunt away, I hunt big, a big good hundred thirty five hundred forty five class buckle walk up, you know, But uh, it's too boring for me. I want to kill a few deer, and I'd always quit, like to kill them when they when they walk. Well, November the fifth man, I put my stuff up. I was done. So I hunted.

I funded five saturdays a year for forty years, and if I could go in the afternoons, I would. And it was pretty tough to kill two or three deer with five saturdays. You had to do a lot of things, right, yeah, yeah, And so anyway, I've always enjoyed it. And out of the kids, Tyler's here, it's Mr Tyler Nukelem. Hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna go around the campfire and introduce everybody, and Zach Tyler was too young to go with me, but I'd take Zack and Clay. Zach liked it. Okay,

Clay Baby, absolutely, I could not wear him out. No one wanted to go with me because I scouted like a dead gum, you know, crazy person, because I wouldn't hunt unless I could really find there, And so no one wanted to go with me. But Clay Baby would be by my side. We'd even scout on foilers back when you could ride into woods, and and we would run banshees through the woods looking for the stuff. I knew what to look for. And Clay would never give up.

Would you be going through creeks, would go through cutovers all that was legal back then and in uh you know, not telling how much territory. And Clay would never ever wear out. And I was a kind of dad that I'd made a commitment. I was gonna kill a deer every year regardless. And my dad said, you'd never do it. My buddy said, you'll never do it. So I was so motivated to kill that if you couldn't keep up, I didn't baby sits you like dad? Should you know?

I drug Clay around and he never ever, he never quit and uh and now he's taking it onto another level. But anyway, that's pretty much my story. Well man, there's there's a there's a lot to be said about that right there. But part of the reason that I wanted to record this here was this is really where I cut my teeth. Bow hunting was right here in this management area, and this is this is where we scouted, this is where you drugged me around, and so it's

pretty cool. I think we've done this for twenty years, man longer. Well eight we moved to Mina in eighty four and in in in December of eighty four, we moved to Mina. January second or third, I killed the dough with my bow in the snow right here in this area. And uh, a guy just told me, he said, go to this particular you know, areas the public public land. And so I just drove around and and I killed a dough. That was kind of my signature that I

was in the right spot. And uh so after that, I never hunt in January, but I just wanted to do it because we were new and uh one of a few times I've ever killed a deer other than October or the first two or three days in November. I just put my stuff up and tried to be a good dad. But dear in October, I was how did that work? Zack and Teller? It didn't work good. These kids turned out to be just absolute dirt balls. No really, they all turned out good and in spite

of that. But I'm not like you with your kids. If you didn't want to play the game hard, that's fine, stay home. Tyler was too young, you know, he was he was too young to go. But Zach stayed with me pretty good, really, But it wasn't Yeah, I was too young. You know what was happening. I was probably taking a nap in the back of the truck. Hey, before we get any further, I got I gotta introduce, I gotta I gotta to show the audience. So this is like a this is this is like in front

of a live studio audience. Here, but we're we're we're sitting around the fire. And I was gonna say, that's that's why these stories are so cool, because we're right here. But we've got I'm okay, I'm gonna go right in the fire and tell me, tell me who you are. We've got one River Newcome. We got my brothers. We got Bear Baron Newcomb, my oldest son. We got Liam, we got Liam, we got we got a ship, we got we got Ike. We got my brother Tyler. Tyler.

Now Tyler has been hot today. Tyler's not even hunting. But he came down here and he came in rolled into camp with a cell phone picture of a probably a hundred and thirty five in buck that he took on the side of the road right up here, and he wouldn't tell us where it was. And your name, young man, and then I didn't even introduce my dad before he jumped on there. But Gary Newcomb, yeah, Gary Newcomb. And then we got last but not least, Tarrell. So

the so it's all Newcombs. So we've got our good friends. The Dennison's here with us too, and so we've the hunting has been this trip is really not about hunting. I would have to say, it's short. It's about getting a deer. It's not about getting a deer. But ty you did have like the best hunts today. Yeah, I saw I saw plenty. I saw four deer in the morning and probably tender in the evening hunt, and uh, it was. It was a lot of activity. Nothing quite worked out for me to get a deer. But boys,

what have you all been doing all day? Who wants to tell you what you've been doing? What have you been doing? Well? In the morning hunting and lasted about an hour and thirteen minutes before I felt like my fingers are about to fall off and started walking down the road and Popball came and picked me up. Well because he just happened to be driving at the same time I was walking. You have your Hunter's Safety Education cards so you can actual hunt a by yourself? Yes,

and a hunt in this afternoon? How did this afternoon? What do you guys been doing? Man, you'll been at camp all day at camp shooting baby guns and having fun shooting bb guns. Uncle Zack, you've been doing some fly fishing, a little bit of fly fishing. Thirty minutes of hard hunting this morning, thirty minutes a hard hunting river. What have you been doing? I don't even know what you've been We've just been hanging out the fire, one rock and fire and then all right, I extraly, what

have you been doing? Being cold? Being cold? All right? All right? I hear you, Atticus. What have you been doing? Man? This is your first deer kimp. How's it been for you? Great? Have you had a good time? I have a great one. What do you um? I enjoy hunting a lot, and you're pretty tough out in the woods. I've noticed you're always right on my heels when we're walking. Yeah. Yeah, and you're good at not getting your boots wet. Here's

what I thought I would do. We thought we would talk about some iconic stories that have happened right here in this area. And I've got one, if not two iconic stories. And I want to give a little bit of a context to this because you guys have grown up and I grew up in a region of the

country that was rich with public land. And growing up where I did, I mean where, well, where we all did, there was public land, massive amounts of public land within ten minutes any just about any direction that you drove, and public land really has a pretty massive influence on the culture of regions, you know, because you can I mean, the hunting culture as are usually strong. And you just

you don't you don't realize that, I mean, dad. And then we grew up riding four wheelers recreationally in the National forest and in places that you could. That was a big part of what we did. We grew up hunting. We grew up coming down here. There are parts of the are parts of this country and for sure most of the world. You can't come to a place as big as this, with as much game as this and go and just hunt. Did you guys know that this

is like a pretty significant deal? Come on, kids? Yes, yes, honestly, I can't recall and if they have w m as technically in Texas, but growing up in Texas, I grew up on the coast, and all of the deer hunting that I knew was on deer leases, so it's always somebody's leaks, and so if you wanted to go deer hunting,

you had to go on the lease. So that's why I grew up duck hunting, because I could just go up on the coast or going like smaller public places and I could duck hunt, or I could dove hunt in some places that wouldn't be as that were accessible to me without having the land, because we never knew anybody with a deer lease. So moving to Arkansas, which you did twelve thirteen years ago. That was like a pretty well, it's a pretty big deal to have access

to public line. Yeah, it's great. That's something that's really cool about. You know, there's the land down here, there's w a up where we're at north of here, and like it. It gives me the opportunity to hunt kind of like garious talking about you know, my we didn't grow up deer hunting. Um, so I can kind of start deer hunting without having to have land or at least or anything like that. Yeah, Dad, what would you say is one of the most iconic hunts that that

you've had in your bow hunt career? I mean, whether it would be like the first deer that you brought back and showed people, you know back in the seventies when you killed a deer, or whether it was a clicking buck that got away, or whether it was Hollywood back with the Well mean, you know, I've just got I'm full of those stories, you know, Um, the clicking buck, we've got to stay. We call the clicking buck. They

cut it. But I mean one morning I had a he ended up being a twelve point and I mean he could have been from and he wasn't one thirty five, he was one forty to one sixty perfect twelve point in uh he he clicked, he clicked, And I've been told and I don't know if this is true. You guys, some of you guys probably know if you knew, if you know Texas Clay or whatever, how you communicate with Clay and say your dad was right or your dad

was wrong. But I stopped at a couple of guys that are kind of legendary hunters in this area, and I said, you know, I got on the darned stay in this morning. Um, a buck walked in, a heavy buck and clicked. And I said, I would never know what a click was, but my buddy had bought one. It just it was just you'd spin a deal and it would go click click a click, and and and you know, this buck came in clicking. It's like a partial grunt. It's like just like that almost it really

is just real quick grunts. But it sounds like this thing like a grunt is a series of clicks. Basically, It's just like it's the way it sounded. So anyway, I'm thinking, man, this is a big animal. He came out of a pine thicket. I'm sitting on a white oak feeding area and he leaves, and I think, what the heck is going on? All of a sudden, a ten point, a nice ten point, you know, maybe a

dred class buck pulls up right here. And that's about the time they started putting loops on the bow, and I didn't have a loop, and but you know, he just stood there watching the snow feed. And so anyway, my era fell out of my bow. That's what happens to me. And so anyway, I'm thinking the hunt's over. Well, a six point comes in and he and they're all with they're all tending this dough, right, yeah, they're all

after in. This little old six point comes in. He's pretty good six point and he's looking at He's like a little kid, and he's going, what are the adults doing? And all of a sudden, he just folds his legs and drops to the ground and he's just looking at where the dough. The ten point after, I'm so he just bedded down while he was but he was looking, man, I mean, he was hiding. All of a sudden the ten point comes runs him off. So I'm thinking that hunts over well, I start climbing down. I had to

get back to town that morning early. Here he comes in the eight point. Well, so the next week I'm back at that same spot, and these guys told me that that clicking buck will will sent check that dough and she's not ready, he'll leave, And that's exactly what he did. Well, the next Saturday, he's with this dough. He pulls up at thirty yards and watches her feed broadside and I got a hickory tree in my way, and man, I maneuver round. I mean, I'm twenty two

feet up and I'm doing this. I finally find a hole and by the time I find it, I forget the Dere's thirty actually thirty three yards away and I put my twenty pen on it. I mean, holy call, it was a for this area. You know, it was a world beater, and I mean, I'll always remember that. So the next week I put Clay in there. He comes home from college or whatever, and of course the buck never came back. I never heard about it being killed, but it's kind of buck you might hear about if

somebody had killed it. I'm sure they did, but really, I got two more stories. You want to might want to spread them out. I've got I've got a story that like for you that what about the five hog Bottom? Well, that's my story I got. I got. Okay, well you tell that story and then I'll tell the story connected to that, because that's what I want these kids to hear, and some of the stories. You know, some years, it really when the kids growing up. Some some years, it

was really tough hunting. Even the way I hunted, it was tough. In one year, no one with a bowl was hardly killing a deer. And I had one little spot that I thought we could kill a deer on it, and I put clay on it, and I said, I'm gonna go to I'm gonna go to hog Bottom and it's leased out now, and I'm gonna be in the hogs and the deer. Surely something will happen. Is this

the story? And so I'm walking in hog Boy, So, I mean, this is a place that you had scouted for deer, and there was hogs and acorns, and but the hogs, I mean, you know, the deer was really what I wanted to kill. So I'm walking, I'm walking to my stand and I hear hogs coming man. I mean it's not one hog. It's thirty hogs. And they come offside this ridge and they come through cane is and I'm standing there and I'm going, holy smokes, look

at all these little pigs. You know, they were like sixty pound unders to a hundred pounders and some bigger. And I'd just go whack and I'd reload, whack, reload. I went through all the way down to one arrow and all of a sudden, and you guys that no outdoors you know, I'm telling you what happened. And I knew some guys that were big hog hunters from Oklahoma ran dogs, road horses, I mean, they were outdoorsmen. And

I asked him about it. I said, this hog came off that mountain and I said it sounded if I didn't know what it was, I can't remember what I said. It sounded like a lyon a roller. That sucker came off that mountain and sounded like a roar. And I'm standing on a creek in these halls. All these hogs jumped up about the creek was about four ft deep,

you know, the bank, and they were up there. You were you were killing them as they were across as they were coming through, I'm I'm killing You're standing in a dry creek bed. Yeah, And and as these hogs acrossing the creek, you're shooting them one by one and they're squealing the whole bunch. I got thirty girls out there going. So guess who hears this big the big board. So I called old man Green, and I said, what was this hog doing? I talked to two hog hunters.

They said he has two purposes in life. He's to breed and protect. And when he heard those Souths squealing, he was looking for you. He wanted to eat you. So I looked down the creek man, and I mean a hog came across that creek that was as just about as white as the creek. And he came across the creek and I'm sitting there with one eraw, I got this four ft bike. He jumps up on the bank.

He goes up there close to and I had a bunch of sous here, but says he came right between them, and he started coming down a trail right to me. And I'm sitting there at full draw thinking, and I had a tree picked out right here, and I go dead gimmut boy, and he got to the edge of the he can fix the I mean it wasn't eight yards six yards from me, And I go, okay, and I whacked that sucker right in the forehead with a wasp broadhead and the loom namera and the loomonamera broke

and spun and he ripped the trees. I remember saying that it it hit him in the air, just just flipped half of it. The other half stayed in his head and he turned around. It didn't penetrate nothing, It just enough to stick up wasp broadhead right here. And he turned and ran up a hill. But if I'd let him get in the creek with me, he would have just I mean, he'd kill me. You guys wouldn't have a grandpa. But such a sissy. I had a mint up that tree quicker than you know, you could

say scalded dog. So anyway, here's the part I like, so I go pick Clay up. It seems like you might have seen a spike. I can't remember, And I go, Clay, baby, we got hogs down in the bottom. I'm are you gonna know you going into I'm gonna go to your I want you to tell your story, right. Well, but first of all, you killed I think you we we only killed two or three. We recovered three good size holes. Yeah yeah. And so anyway, Clay, I said, Clay, this is gonna be a horrible job. You know, first time

we'd kill pigs. They were clean. They were cleaner than a white tail, no odor, they were just spotless, man. I mean, it was the cleanest thing. We got him clean. And then then Clay does his thing. He always was coming up some crazy you know. I was. I I remember because I was fifteen years old because I couldn't drive yet, and so Dad, I was with it. I was hunting somewhere else. When you kill those pigs, I helped you recover them. So I knew where the pigs were.

And that week at school I told my buddy Jared Moore about these hogs, and he was sixteen, and we were going to drive his truck down here and go hog hunting, but the lights on his pickup didn't work and so we couldn't go. So Dad took me down there the next week and on Saturday. I remember you were wanting to go hunt somewhere else, and you just remember, let me let me just interrupt. You know, I got to me it was like a little thirteen year old kids.

So he's fifteen. He's just a kid, I'm telling you know. And I'm thinking, how many daddy's are gonna drop their kid off with a bow and arrow after that big bow where I saw and all those hogs. But I just knew Clay can handle it, and I just dropped him off and then tell what happened. But it had to it had to have been around in mid October because it was warm. And I mean, I for some reason,

I remember everything about that hunt. But I remember you dropping me off, and you leave it, and you're just point in the direction I should go, you know, like, hey, I'll be here after dark to pick you up. And man, I remember I didn't walk into the wood fifty yards before I heard a pig grunting and I I knock an era and I listened, and here's a pig grunting, And I mean, I'm serious, hasn't been Dad, hasn't been

gone ten minutes. And I see a big black hog coming through the woods and it's just gonna parallel me at about twenty yards. And but by the time I get my bow, get my ara knocked, and get everything ready. The hog passes by me and I'm just like Dad, come. That was one of the first live hogs that I had seen. Well. Directly, I hear another hog coming and it was a good size hog, and this time I

didn't let it pass. It came by it about fifteen to twenty yards and I shot it and I just hit it right behind the shoulder and just tendering this hog where the hog runs off. Directly, I hear what sounds like an army of hogs coming, and it was twenty seven hogs passed by, one by one by one by one by one, right in front of me. And why I didn't shoot him, I don't know. To this day,

I can't remember why I didn't. I think I was so used to white tail hunting that you shot a white tail, and you know, I mean I was you just waited for Dad to come pick up. You know I did that one time on deer. I could have killed two deer, a buck and a dough one morning, but I was thinking turkey hunting and I just killed the bog too. And to say day, you know, I kind of wanted to get my killing over with you know, since the only hunted five Saturdays. But anyway, I think

it's probably what you were thinking. Well, I think I just wasn't used to the idea that hogs had unlimited numbers. So I let twenty seven hogs passed by me, and they were all shots, well about thirty minutes passes, and these are the these are the first hogs I've ever seen really in the wild. And now I've seen twenty nine hogs, and Dad hadn't been gone thirty minutes by this point. I wait about thirty minutes, and I go,

I guess I better go track that hog. So I go over there and find blood and start tracking this hog, tracking this hog, tracking this hog. And I don't go very far, and I start hearing hogs grunting again, and I just start moving in closer, moving in closer, and I see this like swarm of hogs, and I'm trying to interpret what's happening in front of me, and I'm moving closer, moving closer, moving closer, and these hogs never spook.

And what what had happened is that I had shot this this big, this big sow hog, and those shows, they were totally adult shelt shows. But I guess she was the leader, and they were just hanging her and

hanging out around her and wouldn't run off. And I watched them for probably an hour, thinking that they would finally just leave, and they never left, and so I don't I don't recall what process was going on in my mind, but UH put a knife in between my teeth, and I got on my hands and knees, and I wanted to see how close I could get to him. What's up to the process that was going on? I think I just I was just curious to see how a little for us. I just wanted to see how

close I could get to him. And why I didn't want to shoot another one, I don't know. But I put a knife in my teeth and I started walking towards them, grunting like a pig, and they let me walk right in amongst them. And finally I got to where I was within like five and six yards of these pigs. And I think because their leader, I was crawled. I was on my hands and knees. Did I say

walking second? Okay, I was. I was on my hands and knees with a knife in my mouth, and I got I mean right in amongst them, and I guess they I guess they felt like their their leader wasn't afraid because their leader is laying there on the ground because I had shot her and you probably looked like a pig. And and finally I got up and I just ran them off. I just stood up, and how I get out of here in any way? Recovered the hog, and uh so I drugged the hog out, and when

Dad came back at dark, we had a hog. Yeah. I pulled up. Man, it's a big old black hog there, and I just I mean, it's a daddy. It was pretty stinking cool. I mean, how many little ole kids you throw out in the big hog woods? And they you know, you could have had probably five laying here if you had wanted them. Yeah, and now I wish I had, now that we realized what a vermin they are. I watched Rambo two early. That was right at the peak of Rambo's influence on me Zack and Tyler's life.

Rambo really had a big influence on Tyler. Tyler still thinks about Rambo. Hey, Well, that that's a good that's a good place to tell you. I think I tell this hog story almost every deer camp. But let me tell you. Let me tell it to you again, Atticus, because this is your first time listen to this story. One time Pap Paul found a bunch of hog sign under some white oak trees because hogs love white oak acorns. And we he found a bunch of hog sign and he came and he said, Claire, there's a bunch of

hog sign up in this place. And I had my cousin Todd Marriott with me, and Todd had never killed a hog, and we're both hunting, and I said, hey, Todd, we ought to go in there and hang double stands and hunt those hogs and kill two at the same time. Well, this was part of the story, was that we didn't realize it was daylight Savings time. So that night when we woke up, we woke up an hour early and we went out early early in the morning and hung

these stands like two full hours before daylight. We weren't trying to be that early, but it ended up working good, so, Uh, day savings caught us. I remember that because we were like, when is it gonna get daylight? It just never got daylight, never got daylight. Finally we were like we we figured it out well. So Todd Marriott and I are sitting in a tree together, and sure enough, like clockwork, thirty minutes after daylight, here comes a sal and some pretty

good sized shoots. Shouts are baby young hogs. Let's just call him young hogs. And and I also want to emphasize that these hogs have no regulation on them. They're an invasive species and the gaming fish and everybody in the world wants them all killed out. So we don't have any problem at all shooting sal's and shooting young ones. Okay, I just want to say that because no other big game species do we manage that way, right, Like we don't want to shoot young bears. We don't want to

shoot young deer necessarily, But hogs a different story. Do y'all know that? Yeah? Okay, got you? So they're nuisanceentials. So this this this sal with a bunch of shows and a nice boar hog come in to our tree. I mean, just perfect. And I tell Todd, I say you shoot the sal, I'm gonna shoot the boar. That was our agreement. I was gonna shoot the boar. And and man, we had to get we had to get

our timing right. Because like his sal would be turned right, but then my board would be turned wrong, and then my boy would be turned right and his would be turned wrong. And so we draw, and both of us will be drawn, and we'll be like we'd be talking

to each other. I'm ready, I'm good, I'm good, and he'd go, no, no, I gotta wait, gotta wait, got away, And so we let down and we draw again, and finally, after some cycle, both hogs got lined up just right, and so we said one and we'd rehearse this one. Two whack and man, I hit my hog just right where I was aiming, just right behind the shoulder. Smack.

The hog squeals and runs off, and Todd missed the south the sad the era just thuds into a tree right underneath the pig in My pig just ran off, squealing, and I was upset for Todd. I was like, dang, man, I'm sorry you missed, but I was pumped because I had taken a super nice board. Had We're still mad at We've never Todd, we've never forgiven you, buddy, and so we're you know, we're kind of happy, but we're kind of sad. We continued to hunt it was early

in the morning. Directly we hear hog grunting, and we hear leaves crunching coming up from the mountain, coming up from down below, and who was it? If it wasn't the sal and the same shoots. They're they're not the brightest town. Actually, it's pretty unusual. And here comes us sound the same shows. And by this time I'm thinking, Okay, we got a big boar hog that we gotta haul out of here. Todd's not really that worried about killing

a pig. I said, Todd, you ought to shoot one of those shows for for meat, and then that way we just we got a nice showed for eating, and then we got this boar hog. And he said, okay, I'll shoot the show. Well, shoot the show. He shoots the show. He shoots the show, and all heck breaks loose when that show starts squealing. Okay, show, it starts squealing.

And what do I hear down the mountain? I hear what sounds like a freight train coming up the mountain, grutting, popping, chomping, stomping, romping, brush crashing stuff. I hear something just from pounding up the mountain coming directly to that show that's squealing. And just like Papa said earlier that a board is made for breeding and protection, here comes a huge boarhog and I think, dad gum, this is my lucky day. I

grabbed another Era and I'm about to kill two. And man, he comes up there and he is woofing and popping, and he is spinning circles around that pig, just looking for whatever is hurting it. I mean he was I guess he was expecting to see a coyote or something chewing on his back leg. And he is going nuts and there's just chaos and Sue and you know, the other shows are running around, the salves running around, and

this board had come out of nowhere. Man, I knock an Era draw down on him and I mean just tendering this pig, and it runs off down the mountain the same way the other one did. Man. Todd and I are high fiving in the tree. We're like, yes, we got this shoat and we killed two big boar hogs with the bow. We're excited. That's a good story, right, Okay. We get down out of the tree and I say, which hog are we gonna track first? Todd, and we're like, well,

why don't we track the first one shot Clay. That's a good idea, Todd. So we start tracking blood right from the tree. What's that? Nope, that was it. So we start tracking blood and we track it down the mountain.

We're following good blood, following good blood, following good blood, and all of a sudden, the blood starts to turn to the left and hook to the left, and it goes to the left, and I go, hah, this pig is kind of going back over a little bit by the tree stand And all of a sudden, the blood trail turns and starts coming up the mountain and comes directly back to the tree. What happened the pig? What was it that was running in circles going crazy? It

was the same pig. How do y'all know that? Y'all know that because I told that story before going I mean, like, it was like so predictable. It was just it's just thrashing your storytelling that, Come on, man, No, So so it was the same pig. I shot him like perfect, and he ran off down the mountain and he came back. And then listen to that, listen to this. This was early in the morning, and we blood trailed that pig

till three pm. And I jumped him up alive in a clear cut at three pm, setting in a bed of blood about as big as a silver dollar. And here's what happened is, at the time, we were shooting those jack camera broadheads that were so good for deer wash jacket not good. Yeah, And I told you to do that too, and they're they were awesome on deer they bloon out real big, but for hogs that were terrible. Yeah.

I was shooting a sixty five pound um high country bow, which you know was a full size, hard shooting bow, and man, I just didn't get any penetration into that shield. A boar has a big cardlet shield right behind his shoulder, and never found that pig. And boys, let me tell you what. That bow would kill a cake buffalo. Okay, that just tells you how how how tough these hogs are. So this is like a bow that would shoot hard, was shooting through stuff and it didn't kill that stinking pig. Anyway,

that's my pig story. That's a tough one. I got a story. They'll put that story to shame. Hey, you guys, listen to the story. I don't know if you've ever heard it, but when Clay Baby was young, it was real fun being his day's real fun with that r Zach all did cool stuff. Of course, I like to hunt. So Clay was really the hunter, and he he'd bring rattlesnake home. He'd come into bedroom at two o'clock, knock on the door, Hey, Dad, come out, look look at

this ice chest. Sure he's got rattle snakes, copper heads. I mean, why do you catch snakes? Well, anyway, he's always doing stuff like that. Well, I'm out in the mountains. We're not in this easy hunting. I mean, this is deep into the mountains. And I go Clay. But I come home, I go, Clay Baby, I found I found some good bucks. I mean, there's there's a good buck in this area. And I told him how to get to it. You had to have a jeep or four wheel or to get in there, or walk for about

for two a couple of miles. And so anyway, he goes in there, and uh, you know, he comes home and he walks in the house just like always, and I go, well, I want to hear a story. He was, well, I killed I killed the deer, and uh, just like I don't know for you being cool, I never did ask. I didn't know if you've been so anyway. You had that green Chevy trucks which you had nice big heavy forward you know, four wheel drive set up high anyway,

so you're able to get in there. Well, I go out to that truck and looking the back and there's a little buck in a turkey with a ten inch beard. You remember that. So I go back in the house. I said, club, baby, I mean, you just walked in the house like nothing happened, and there's a deer in a turkey in the back of your truck with a bowling arrow, wasn't it Yeah? And I go, I mean

and he just was, it's no big deal. And he said, well, he said, I went to that stand like you told me, and on the way this this deer was right close to me, and I just shot it. And I went ahead and got on the stand and got the buck. Later and he said, a turkey came by and it was real foggy. Best I remember. Let me, let me stop you, because this is what happened is I was on that four wheel drive road, so it was perfectly it was perfectly legal. It wasn't like a county road.

I'm driving up this four wheel drive road and this is National Forest and I see it deer across the road. And I mean back in those days there weren't a lot of deer in the National Forest. It's a pretty big deal. Just see a deer. And I mean we were just meeting hunting and we were just trying to kill a deer. Man. I got out of the truck and this deer just went off and was standing there thirty yards away. And again I'm not on a county road.

I mean I'm on like a trail. Yeah. I get out of the truck, walk around in the front of the truck, step off the side of the road, and the deer still standing there at thirty yards. I shoot the deer. And I was going hunting, and I remember I just ten ring the deer, and I just knew that it was gonna die quick, and so I didn't

even wait for it. I mean, it ran off and I was hot on its hills, and about the time that it slid into the dirt, I was grabbing it up by the hoofs, dragging it back through it in the truck and then went hunting. Yeah, so he goes hunting, and I don't know what happened, but from a dad's perspective, this is what happened. He's in a tree stand probably up. Turkey comes in. This is where all the big buck sign was, and it was foggy and I think maybe even a nice deer might have come by. Anyway, he

kills runs a good duck up there. Yeah. Yeah, it was good stuff. And so this turkey comes up and he shoots his turkey and uh, the turkey runs off. Well he climbs out of the tree, right, yeah, I go to look for the turkey. Yeah, so he comes down, goes look for the turkey with a turkey runs straight to this pig trail and it's just sitting there like flew it flew. Do you remember when I shot at it? Just pitched the story from here because it's just crazy.

Do you guys remember the story? This is the you wrote about this story? Yeah, we had like I don't even remember what the prompt was, but I wrote about it and got a really great great let me tell you why this story is important. It's because at the time I was dating Misty many of you. Here's mother, many of you's and many of you school principle, and I came back from this hunt and I told Misty about it, and that was the That was like the icing on the cake that Misty was like, I like

this guy for real. And I actually took the deer in the turkey over at her house. So there's there's a lot of play here, guys, especially for you who's this woman is their mother? Hey, let's get back to the real deal. So I can tell Okay, I can tell it. So here's what happened. Is this big turkey comes walking up the hill. We had a fall turkey season at that time. We don't anymore here in the

wash Toss. I shoot at this turkey at about twenty four yards across this little drainage, and I miss, I miss, But the arrow hits the other side of the bank, on the opposite side of the turkey. So the turkey perceives that the danger is on the opposite sides of the turkey, jumps straight up in the air about twelve feet and hits the ground and comes running straight towards me. Okay, so the sound was, y'all get that I shot? Well, the turkey comes back and what I was good at

back in those days was grabbing another ERA. So I grabbed another ERA and it came right up onto the stand and I shot it again. And man, that turkey turned around. And I was sitting on the side of this beautiful mountain and you could look kind of across this valley, and man, that turkey just pitched out of there like an airplane taking off, and just he just spread his wings and he just sailed out across there.

And if you hunt turkeys very much, you know that that's a bad deal because turkeys don't bleed, and you can't find them if they get away from you pretty much with a bow and ara, a turkey needs to, you know, die pretty quickly or you have a hard time recovering them. Well, I continue to deer hunt and it starts to get dark, and I go, man, I better get down and start looking for that turkey. The woods were wet, it was it had been raining. And

remember I've got a deer in the truck too. And I get down and I started making some loops down off where I saw this turkey flying. I can't find it, can't find it. I actually go back to the truck and I put my bow in the truck, and I think, man, I'm gonna go one more time up in this little area and just see if I can find that turkey. Remember, the woods are wet, so you can walk like super quiet. And you remember how I was teaching you to walk today, Atticus. Yeah,

And I was walking like that. And I was walking and all of a sudden, like I come into view of this little pocket that's in a thicket, like probably eight to ten feet from me. I come around like this corner of vegetation, and I see the turkey, and the turkey is laying there with his head up on

the ground and his eyes closed. I was close enough I could see his eyeballs and they were close so I can see as I lived right well, I freeze in the truck, is like maybe not that far away, And I think, let me go back to the truck and get my bow, or should I just bum rush this turkey and catch it? Always go with the man. I watched that turkey's eyes pop open. He pops open, he looks at me, and he jumps up and takes off running like he's not even hurt. And he is

running down the mountain, And what choice. Did I have, guys, what chase him? Man? I took after that turkey, running through briars, jumping over rocks, jumping over logs, and we're running downhill and that turkey is gaining ground on me. He's getting further and further and further away, and I'm just thinking, Dad gum, this turkey is gonna get away from me. I'm running, I'm running, I'm running. I'm running.

We get all the way to the bottom of the mountain, where the turkey has no choice but to go back up the other mountain. And I don't really know how far it was. I should go back there to really see. It was like we were running for days, but it probably wasn't. We start. We get to the bottom and then we start to go up the next ridge and where I'm running, running, and I start to gain on that turkey, and I remember what it felt like when I started to gain on it. It was just like

I'm gonna catch you, you sucker. And I'm running, running, running, gaining, gaining, gaining, gaining, and finally I get about five ft from him, and I just dive airborne and just wrap that turkey up, poof and slam onto the ground, and both of us are so tired. He's got his head up looking at me and the eyeballs and I and I it's that same eyeball that I saw pop open and look at me is now about two inches from my eyeball. And

we're laying there. And I was so tired that I did don't even do anything, just keep him wrapped up. I just breathe and he was breathing, and uh. I dispatched the turkey, quickly, threw it in the truck, drove home, showed hers a dad, and then took it to Misty's house and showed her. And so that's why all you kids are here. Is this the first time in Bare Honey magazine history that the nickname clay Baby has come out? That this isn't the first time, of course, it's the

first time. That's important. I guess that's what happens at this deer cab. Oh jeez, well that was that was the iconic moment. Iconic moment. Well, what are iconic stories happened down here? That I had one about you? And you know it didn't need to be about me out but there most of them were, and I forgot it. But I think of it in a minute. So let

me tell you a story that I listened. I never read about deer hunting and never watched stuff, But recently, just the last two or three weeks, I've been watching videos of these guys. Tell them about how to deer hunt and the stuff I've experienced in seeing They don't talk about it, but I'm gonna tell you that this

this happened to me. What I was fot up on the mountain, It took me two and a half hours to get there, Clay and get there an hour and a half, and uh, I was doing a practice run, and I knew where the deer were, kind of knew what they were doing, and I didn't. I was lazy. I didn't want to get up real early. So I got up about eleven or got into the woods. It was gonna do an afternoon hunt. I already had a

forty pounds that this place was so hot. I carried a forty pound ambush are upside of that mount with an old buddy of mine. Basically a two hour walking and where you're hunting, well two and a half for me. So anyway, I got to stand up, and I don't stand up you know, I probably could have killed twice a dear if I could stand up, but I was always afraid to stand up when you shut long story of the reason on that way. But anyway, so I'm sitting on the stand and I had heard the tape.

I swear I have turned. I've looked all through my house, I've gone there. I'd pay I'd pay a thousand dollars to have this little tape. And I can't even remember the guy's name. And he he told of a call, two calls that I used, and one of them was what he called a dominant button grunt. And no one I knew knew this call. No one talks about it on TV, on YouTube, never heard. Well, I get up on the stand and I mean, you've got little old bitty trees twenty ft tall. I mean, that's how high

you are in Arkansas is pretty big mountain. It's about the third fourth tallest spot in Arkansas. And so I'm sitting on this ambusher and I'm on a V tree because there's no trees big enough to handle it. And I'm right at the V and and I pull out my rattling horns and I mean, I don't know what happened, But it was like it was scary. I mean, chill bumps when I think about it, I feel them right now. I mean when I hit those horns, chill bumps for going up my back. I mean it was like I

was killing those horns. And I took that grunt call and I did exactly what that guy said to do. And here's the call. Did they tell you not to do this unless you're after the biggest buck in the woods. And it goes, it goes, it's along and it crescendos at the end, and I, well, let me tell you, I did this thinking call and I'd rattle those horns, and I mean it was I've never been able to copy what I did physically. I mean it was. It was.

I was so into it. And all of a sudden, behind me, I hear a deer making the same call, except he was a little too short. He was going, and I thought, that's just thinking a little six point. I'm not even gonna monkey with him. There's nowhere I'm will shoot a six point on this mountain. So I just turned around and there's a little football bump behind me, and this thing is flat like a football field, and this one little bump. I just turned around and it vitrie.

Now Clay would have been up and you know he would have been at full draw. He'd have kill this buck. Well, it ain't my style. So I'm just looking back, thinking, here's a little six point coming. He's going. He was a little short, you know, he's monkeying up. I'll be honest with you, I was doing it right. So he comes around the corner and this suckers a hundred forty plus. He's got horns sticking way up here. I am pointed the wrong way and I'm looking back, afraid to stand

up on that ambusher. And he pulls up about thirty yards right at the end of that football, and his horns were tall. They caught up in the trees, you know, I mean there, you know he was. They were that his horns were taught, and uh, he's disappeared and never made nothing sound. But it was the one of the most exciting hunts I've ever been on. And he it was. And I mean, trust me, they make that call. If you do it on a little buck, he's gonna run

off big bucks. He came in with his ears back, his hair up, making that same call I was making, but he monkeyed it up a little bit, a little too short. So anyway, Clay listened to these stories about stuff I was encountering up there in the bear that would tear my stuff up that I had to leave up there, and he never was interested. And uh, anyway, I hunted there a couple of years and learned a lot about the mountain, and then when Clay got older,

he started killing stuff up there. So anyway, that was a tremendous hunt that really wasn't iconic hunt because you found that there sheds up there, which well I found a ship, it wasn't his. I mean, his shed was huge, was a heck of a shed you did find. Yeah, the bucks the sheds I found were one thirty fives. He made those look like he was not quite as big as a bucking Howard County, but well, yeah, you

know he was. He was. They probably would scored about the same, but I don't know if they were different. You know, I think what's cool about all these stories is that these are the stories that it made deep impressions on me as kid growing up and as a

as a as a teenager. And what you don't realize is that some of these stories that you're living out become iconic stories for your life, and sometimes you don't realize it until it's it's it's already done and you kind of grow up and you start telling these stories over and over. But at the time, those were just kind of normal hunts, you know. Yeah, you know. Another thing this guy taught me on that tape was an

Estrius grunt. And it's not the same grunt that I'm here and taught in, the same grunt that I use. I've had a whole lot of luck with with with a what I call attending grunt, which I'm not sure what I'm doing is attending grunt, but that's what I call it, a little just short, choppy grunts because that's what I hear Bucks doing. And then Estris bleak and I mean certain years, you know, I mean I'd call

Clay every day and I'd go dead. Gum. I had of were Bucks around me, and I killed a little you know, a decent eight point or I missed a ten point or you know, using that using that sequence. But um, when this guy told me this call, I was using stuff I was hearing on on YouTube or on videos. But this guy that had this little c D. He had another call, and a friend of mine and I went to Missouri and we hunted to or three different places, and everywhere we went, no one would be

there'd be twenty camps. No one was killing deer. And my friend Mesco and I we would scout. I set up and I used this estrus bleak, and I swear this buck went nuts. He immediately got up out of his bed that looked to me like and started scraping and rubbing trees. And when he got through, he came right to me. He was a big old body, dear. His worms were just decent, and he came right to my stand when he got through. And it was because

of this call. And you know, back then, the nineties was when Colin started becoming really popular, and it wasn't a thing until then. And I think that's why all this impressed you and impacted you so much back in the day. And I mean we we all we use these calls now, but back then it was almost like magic. Because anybody knows this this tape, I mean I would I'd easily give somebody a hundred bucks for copy that hundred dollars for a copy of the tape. Yeah, who

give Gary? You know, I mean I learned two calls from him, and I mean when I used them that you know, not every time obviously, but but but they worked in Uh so, hey, Atticus, remember when we found that rub today, the deer rub on the tree? What do we say? That meant? Actually? What I try to impress the girl? That's it. That's it. Yeah, we were we were finding rubs and they were asking what they meant. So I said, it's just the boys. We kind of

had a little skit we did. It's pretty informative. Count uh back. You know, Clay learned how a turkey hunt in one year. He was really better than I was after ten or fifteen years of turkey in it because I didn't want I didn't I wanted to do my own thing. I didn't want somebody to go with me and call a bird in. So it took me a long time to learn it. Finally I got where I can kill one or two birds a year with a gun.

And then I bow hunt. And so I was at one day with my bowl and uh, I was going up a mountain and I was real tired and I stopped. I remember drinking I drank a coke and then I sit back and I called, and I heard two birds up above me, two or three. I couldn't see them, and they they came around and they did exactly what the textbook said, a bird will not come down to you. So he went way down the mountain. He came down, he got below me. Only one came in. It was

a big gobbler. He came in strutting, drumming, putting a show on. Well, there happened to be a log there that was about fourteen sixteen inches laid across with briar thicket on both ends. In this turkey got the strutting on the other side of that log. And I'm going like, holy cow, look at this bird. He's gonna be in my freezer here for long. And so man, I'm watching him and he he struts up this log and then he turns and fans and I'm thinking, this looks like

an opportunity. And he goes down. He does the same thing, comes back something and second time that's his deal, boy, And man, I've draw back. And when he does his turn, and his fan as soon as he comes back, almost shot his head off with a with that big old jack hammer, and I mean he didn't go nowhere, boy, And uh so anyway, I mean need to kill a curtain. But see that was you were you killed a turkey on the ground without a blind with a boat back before people were doing it. Yeah, I don't want to

this day. I mean, boy, if you can just kill him off the ground. And so anyway, it's time went on. I hated just to kill one bird. You know, you just think it's luck. But over the years, you know, the maybe four years where turkey it was so good you could do that that, uh you know, I had opportunities to kill probably three or four turkeys, and I knew a lot of guys that had killed a lot, you know, fifteen or twenty doing that same thing. So

I wasn't very good at it. Here. Well, I met some guys in some of the bigger cities that said that they do that. They might have a blind, I don't know. But anyway, you know, i'd either miss or misjudge or you know, something would happen. But you know, with a little luck, I could have killed three or four with a with a bow. But that one was just so much fun because you know, the way he strutted and how that was an iconic Turkey story. I

remember that, I remember it. Well, Hey, we've gone over an hour here, and uh, I need a little just a little bit of feedback from from these guys, any closing comments from Uncle Tyler. What do you think? Well, I would say I was oblivious to a lot of those stories. Um, A part of me wonders why I didn't get pulled into the hunting culture. You know, whoa whoa whoa deep. Yeah, but I'm not blaming you guys, but I'm pretty amazed at what's been going on out there.

You know, Yeah, that's awesome watching Rambo when you get I gotta I just gotta tell this one story. You might have to make this three to get your own podcast, man, get cut it in two or three. But this one was this, This was the good one that I thought, you know when podcast Clay Baby and I'm I'm hoping I'll be in the movies maybe next time. This is your smoker. So anyway, we we my good friend and I we rode these bunshees. If you know what a

banshee is, it's the hottest thing you could buy. Really, I mean, it was up there yeah, and we wrote them pretty hard too. And uh anyway, when I wasn't riding, Clay would write it. So we had a big ride one day and Clay was on the Benshee and and I'm with my brother in law and the kids are out run in front. Of course, Clay's screaming his banshee. Well, we topped a hill. I see my bunshee where the fenders laying on the ground, and my boy's not on it.

I mean, daddy's like going home to kill the kid. What's wrong with him? So I pull up, get the looking around. He is in the creek with the deer. He's got a deer with a with a headlock on it, with his pocket knife out. He's not saying a word. He's just wrestling this deer. He's and he finally gets this throat cut and and I go, clue, baby, what in the world happened? And he goes, well, it's a

little sucker ran into him. I was going about fifty five and this guy just swammed right between the fenders and he said he was alive, and he started running off. I can't even kill him with my knife. I forgot about that. I go, man, you can't make this stuff up, man, I mean, anyway, we took that little deal. Mean, it wasn't real small, but it was. It was a year. We didn't want it to ruin our hunts, so we

rolled it up in were right. Yeah, we rolled it up in a tarp and we rode over to a buddy of mine's cabin and he happened to be there and we gave it to him. But you know that was just And what was strange. It's about a month before that I hit a deer but it didn't kill it on that same banshee, And you know that was another story. But and then you sold it. Do you remember that spooked you? I mean that was the beginning

of the end of fast forward. Right, Well, it wouldn't end because we still well, well, well you're right for for me though, yeah, for me it was. And now our riding mules, we went bad on boys the other direction. Yeah to anyone. Well, alright. Closing comments Tyrrell Dennison about the deer camp this year, Um, deer camps always great, Always glad to be here and always glad for the stories. Glad for the story. Man. You almost made one to day. It was close. Do you know the hog story happened

exactly where you miss that dear this morning? Yeah? No, yes, River closing comments, No, Rivers got some good stories. How's your head? All these people that listen to the podcasts heard about your mule accident? Yeah, your daddy lets you ride wild mules. My daddy let me ride wild forward Uncle Zack closing comments, no comments, no common bar Sadly they have nothing. What did you enjoy those stories? Yes? Liam, do you enjoy that? Yes? Oh, Liam's tired. Liam's tired.

I thought we were going coon hunt. Shepherds asleep? Ixter. You're looking a little glazed over. Do you want to go? Yes? You want to We got the dogs down here, we may go coon hunt? All right? Hey, thanks for listening to the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. Hey, do us all a favor? Do us all a favor? What could they do that would help? Like and subscribe? What could they do? River? Like and subscribe? Subscribe to zine Bear hunt Magazine, the

only what bear hunting magazine or in the world. That's correct, you kind of stuttered there, The only old bear hunting magazine in that's right, that's right. Rate it five stars to podcast rate five stars on iTunes. Yeah, hey they can. Did y'all know that they can find this podcast on pretty much every major podcast. I mean, it's on Spotify, it's on Apple Play, it's on all the Yeah, so the Sportsman's Nation is pretty cool deal that old Dan

Johnson's doing. All right. Hey, thanks guys, thanks for listening to Baronning Magazine podcast. And keep the Wild Places wild because that's where the Bears live. E