Ep 152 / Chasing Shadows: The Legend of the Ghost Buck

Welcome to the Whitetail Advantage Podcast with your host Brett Bovin. Thank you for tuning in and enjoy the show. I'm an idiot. I missed the part that is my fault. What is up guys? This is Brett Bovin. Welcome to Electronic Campfire. We are not politically correct on this show. Hunting and brotherhood come hand in hand together in my opinion. So there's hazing on the show tonight. We have Squatch, Johnny and Dave aren't here tonight. So we're kind of happy about that.

Not kind of, we are extremely happy about that. No, I'm just kidding. And our guest tonight is Doug. So we invite you all along haze along with us as well. It's part of the show Sundays and Tuesdays. We do a live show every Sunday and Tuesday at 8pm Eastern time. We have a saying on the show. We record in the slot machine. Strongly believe hunting is a dying sport. It's a dying lifestyle. So we ask everybody out there is just to help share the show, help us grow the show.

Everyone out there that's been doing it, we love you all. Just help us continue doing that. I do also like to take a second to say thank you to all the men and women in the military. Thank you for your service and thank you for your sacrifice. We greatly appreciate it. I also want to say thank you to all the men and women and the police officers, the firefighters, the nurses, doctors, care construction workers and corrections officers. Basically everyone in in public service.

I want to say thank you for your service as well.

Now today is Sunday May 18, 2025 episode 152 and tonight we're going to sit back and relax and listen to an amazing story that Doug's going to share about the Ghost Buck. I read this article online. I was like oh I gotta have this guy on a show and share his story on it. Now 10 ring news here.

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So if you only listen to the show on the audio version there won't be an episode released next Monday or Wednesday because with it being Memorial Weekend we're taking time to spend with our friends and Family and thanking everyone for their service in the military. And so there will be no live show on Sunday or Tuesday. This is going to be our last week. We won't be back for another two weeks. And that is it.

So with that being said, I ask you all to pull up a chair, gather around the electron campfire and let's talk with Doug Squatch. How's it going, brother? What's up, brother? How you doing? I'm doing good. At least we have I. At least I have one good friend in you, Squatch. There too are just bastards, you know. When the tough gets going, you know who you can count on. I can always count on my brother Squatch right there. That's for sure. I think it's just because I don't have a life.

So you know, if you saw my calendar, I was texting the group chat today. Yeah, my calendar is literally filled from 6:00am to 10:00 clock at night. I get like one hour a night where it's just myself and I like to take that moment sometimes and just sit in the bathtub and watch funny bloopers and just normalize the heroes I watch in football and stuff like that. Yeah, I just have fun. Doug, what's going on? Show brother. Thank you for coming on. Thanks for having me. Oh man.

I'm excited to learn more about your story with this ghost buck. I read it online through Outdoor Life. That's the name of. That's the website. Yeah. Yep. Outdoor Life, that's where I read it. And I was like, yep. I got instantly at. When I message you, I got done reading that within like five seconds. I am like, I was. It was hard to find you for a second, but I'm like, oh, please let me find them. And I found you. I was like, yes. Now let's hope he answers.

What's pretty cool is when I was a kid growing up, my grandfather and my dad had a buck called the Phantom Buck. The old Phantom. So having somebody on the show that's got a kind of a similar story about having a ghost buck, it's home. It's pretty cool. But yeah, we had a big old ten pointer we used to call the Phantom. So yeah, I never knew they call this buck the Ghost Buck until I got it scored. And guys like, yeah, this. This called the Ghost.

Well, why you're like, well, people have on camera. Cameras are illegal still. Like he'd have on camera and then he'd be gone. Then they'd have them in their sights. They'd miss or he'd Just disappear behind a tree, Never be seen again. Wow. Yeah. I had a. A deer on my property that I called the ghost buck. Mainly because I saw him once out in the field, and he was just a monster of a deer. But never saw a photo of him. And I never saw him again that year. I. I don't.

I don't think I've ever saw him again. And he was just a beautiful, beautiful nine pointer. And he wasn't, like, tall on the tine length, but he just had mass and spread like a. And I was like, oh, I think I just jizzed in my pants a little bit when I saw him. Well, Doug, sure give a little background by yourself first before we get into your story here. All right. So I'm originally from upstate New York up in Boonville.

And then I joined the army and been stationed in Fort Riley, Kansas for the last about five years, so. Yeah. You were in the army? Yeah, I'm in the process of getting out. Oh, okay. Squat Dave and Johnny were in the army as well. And Squatch was. Was days. Both sons in the marines or just one of his sons? Yeah, both. I believe both of his sons. That's why I believe both sons. Drawing a blank there. Well, Doug, thank you for your service, though. Hey, man, thank you.

Were you a police officer in the army or what did you do? I'm a cav scout. A cab scout. What's that? Yeah, it's basically like a reconnaissance. Like, what we would do is we'd go like, say we're in war right now. We'd go. Go past the line. Like, the. The enemy's line. I gather information and send it back up. Oh, okay. Yeah. Actually kind of fun. I'd like to do. I like that sneaky snipe type. It's like, oh, I get to sneak in there and collect all this intel. To me, I think that's a lot of fun.

It's almost like ghost recon man. He's going in behind the lines, going on. Yeah, yeah, it's. It's been fun. Well, Doug, start off what hap. What's this ghost buck that people that might not know about it. So I first saw three years ago, four years ago on camera. I only had, like, a blurry picture of them just passing by the trail camera, like, probably about a mile from where I ended up shooting them last year. So I saw him. I'm like, Jesus. So I'm like, I'm gonna start calling you Jesus.

Seemed good. And I. I hunted them hard that year, and I Just, I forgot about them. So I'm like, okay, whatever. And this year came through. Can't have trail cameras anymore. Then I wasn't gonna hunt that morning. Luckily, the wife's like, hey, we better go. So I ended up sitting there. I wasn't gonna sit in the spot I was gonna sit in early in the season. I missed a big buck on the side of the hill. Got a couple hundred yards away. So I was gonna sit there.

Like, no, I'll just sit where my tree stand is. Like, no, I'm gonna move down about 50 yards and sit in the fallen tree. So I'm just sitting there. I'm like, my binos are in the truck. I gotta scope on the rifle. I'm fine. So I said, I hear this crunching, and I just look up and I just see this brown thing moving across the. Coming from the tank trail into the hardwoods. I. Oh, just little dough. So I didn't think nothing of it. Just sat back down and started relaxing again. And I saw.

I saw a rack. Like, oh, I thought I was. There's been three or four eight points running through there that I've been watching all season. So I'm like, you're going to get shot. It's too late in the season to be picky right now. So I pull the rifle up and I'm like, you're not in a eight point. And then I couldn't. I didn't have a clean shot. So then he started moving away across in front of me. So I had to kind of spin like this way to shoot him.

And I just touched off the rifle and I watched him hunch. He ran like 15 yards and just dropped. Got up, ran a few more steps and just dropped again. And that was it. I just sat there shaking for like 10 minutes. Yeah. Wow. So what was your reaction when you realized this was the buck that everyone has been kind of looking for and now you have them pretty much right in your sights? So I didn't realize it at first.

Like, I knew he was a big buck, but I didn't know it was that buck until I got up there and laid hands on him. Oh, really? Yeah. So I just thought it was a nice, like 12 point, maybe a 14. Getting up to him. I just dropped, sat down next to him like, you gotta be me. I started counting. I'm like, I can't count this. I gotta take my boots off, my socks off, start counting on my toes. It was just insane. And I figured it out. I'm like, this is Jesus. And I pulled my phone out there, some pictures.

I'm like, I called the wife. I gotta call my buddy. I'm like, no service, so I don't want to leave you. But I left him anyways. I went out, got my truck, drove to the top of the hill and called the wife. And I just shot a buck. I need to come out here. Help me drag him. So is he big? I'm like, a little bit big. Not. Not too big. I called my other buddy, Yo, Tuttle. He's like, what's up? Like, I just killed the buck. I need you out here. He's like, all right.

And he dropped what he was doing, drove the. It's like 30, 40 minutes out to the spot we hunt. He came right out and helped me drag it out. Nice. Wow. So, yeah. So what.

How did this nickname Ghost buck come about with this deer? So that came later on in the night. I called the Brad Forbes. He's. He works on post. He's retired, I believe. And he's a official scorer for buckmasters. So I called him up like, hey, man, can you score this buck for me tonight after work? Like, yeah, fine. Cool. I brought over to him. He's like, do you know what this buck's name is? I'm like, big Jesus. He's like, no, they call it the Ghost. I'm like, why?

And that's when he told me that there's two hunters. Within two weeks prior to me shooting him, that one guy missed him completely. That was back when it was still. It was BO then. I never saw him. And so he ended up missing him. He was like three quarters away, the drawback. And his. His hand hit the release on his bow and sailed the arrow. So then I noticed how his right main beam, there's a chunk missing, probably like that much. That's weird.

Come to find out, about a week before I shot him, some guy shot at him and hit him in the main beam with his arrow and broadhead. Oh, wow. Yeah, they hit him right in the main beam. Oh, yeah. With the arrow. Yep. Oh, yeah. So that guy actually reached out to me and told me about him. Like, oh, no. I'm like, I kind of want the arrow. I want that broadhead. And he's like, just let me. Just let me hold the deer when he's done. I'm like, too easy. Let me see if I can get this up here.

Share this screen right here. Oh, what caliber rifle did you shoot him with? Or was it a shotgun? Using my.301 mag. Nice. Wow. So reading this article. This was not one of your trail camera photos. This was somebody else's trailer. Trail cam photo. That's actually a photo that Brad Forbes gave me. The guy. That's nice. I think that was back in 21:22. That's when he's at his peak. It looks like this photo was taken July 1, 2022. Yeah. He estimated his peak like 2122 season.

And when they found his sheds, they were saying he's about 230, 240. Wow. Here is a close up. Wow. I'm not too good of the camera. No. Geez. How many points were legal on this deer? 21. 21 points on this? Yeah. You can actually see right there. That's where the. This right here. Yep. Yeah, I see it. Wow. Yeah. I was about to say, was that where he got hit, man? Yep. And what was the spread on this? Because he doesn't look like he's getting always passed out his ears at all. No, he.

He wasn't very wide at all. The spread was. I actually wrote that down. 12 and 5, 8. But the greatest spread was n. 19 and 3, 8. Wow. I don't know how they. I don't know how the scoring works. I said I'm from upstate New York. I'm happy with 130 inch 8. Oh, yeah. So this thing just blew my mind. It's the first thing I've ever had scored. He's got a lot going on. He's got a lot of palmation. He's got non typical stuff. I mean, he's just. Yeah. Who?

You know what, when it comes to something like that, I just go, it's a freak. I call them bucks freaks, man. They're freaks. You know what? I shoot every one of them I could freaking find, man. When they come through, they got something funky. I got one downstairs. He's a big mainframe. Looks like an eight on one side. But then he just shoots up. He's got like two points that come off. He was a big old freak. And I was trying to get his dad, but his dad finally just died. Old age.

Yeah. Yep. They found him laying dead out in one of the orchards. And that's the worst. Ah, it hurt. It hurt because I was real close to getting them, but it's okay. You know what, things happen and whatever, but. Yeah, that's a. That's a nice buck, man. That's. That's cool. When they're freaks like that, I like. I like deer. I'd shoot. I'd shoot one of Those deer over 30. Just normal ones. Oh, absolutely. You know, I, I have a deer on the property from last year.

I think it was both that were palmated or just one side, but I released. I know one distinctly. It was his left main beam. Everything was palmated and like the, like the tines themselves were just maybe like an inch. Just based off the photo itself. Yeah. And everyone in, in the area agreed like this deer was probably two, two and a half years old maybe. And we're like no one shoot this. And we're all agreement, like we just want to see this, the potential what this deer could get to.

Hopefully he stays in the area and everything that all the neighbors are trying to do to make sure to put out good feed and stuff like that, to make sure he gets up age and gets the proper nutrition stuff. But. Right. We all just want to see what the potential this deer gets. And obviously whoever gets this deer is going to be excited for what he turns out to be. Hopefully he does. I wish I had a photo with him, but I don't have it somewhere on my phone right now. I'll share it next episode.

But no, it, that's a beautiful deer. And I was reading this article and it says Forbes estimated the deer to be around 7 1/2 years of age and gave it a BTR score of 206 and 78 inches. Yep. And yeah, like I said, I don't know much about scoring, but I got a lot of, a lot of backlash on the old Internet about that's not 200 inch deer. Yada yada yada. I'm like, just, I don't care. Shut up. That's what an official score gave me. That's what I'm going with.

I don't know anybody can, can say that because pictures are so hard to go by. Yeah, exactly. Unless you're absolutely standing there like looking at a deer. I've seen small deer look huge. I've seen big deer not look big. You know, and all these keyboard warriors getting on there going, yeah, it's not that big. You know, it's just, come on. You know. I, I to play devil's advocate here, the only thing that I can think of that for someone to say that isn't a 200 inch deer is because of its spread.

Yeah, that would be the thing where people are like, but even that, the spread, I would just say estimating it based off of this photo. 20 inches, maybe 18 inches just looking at this. But you look at all the character that goes along with this deer and how tall these Tines are on these things, G2s and all these kickers and stickers, everything. It's like. Yeah, I could see 200 inches just off of all that put together. I mean, he was, he was seven and a half my big guy there.

And he's 21 and a half inside spread with five and a half inch bases, but he only scored 125, you know what I mean? Yeah. So. But because he's short, kind, but he's just wide and massive. But when we aged him, he was seven and a half. He. The whole back part of his molars, they were ground down to nothing. That. That buck was old, man. He. He was 225 on the hoof. Jesus. New York, New York deer. I'm in, I'm in the Hudson Valley. Okay. Ulster County. I shot him with the bow in 2001, so.

Hell of a good morning though, man. When I got him, I was happier. And you know, reading this article, Doug, it seemed like you were going to be hunting in one area or an area that you've been hunting, and something made you change your mind to go hunt a different area. Yeah, I don't know what it was like. So I was gonna hunt the same area, just a different part of that property. Okay. So as a hunt, the. Be the west side of the mountain. I caught a mountain. It's just a big hill.

Was this public area. I'm sorry, was this public land or private? It's public. Okay. So I was sitting. I was gonna. I drove past where I ended up parking to shoot the deer. I'm like, I'm gonna drive around and park at the base of the hill and walk up the corner. But no, let's just go to my tree stand. So I end up going to my tree stand, got like two feet up on the stand. I'm like, nah. So I just walked 50 yards down, deeper into the woods. And then kind of like the middle of the.

Between like the. It's like a valley. So it's like cedar. Cedar and like a big draw up the middle. So I just kind of sat probably like 50 yards off the middle of the draw. And I. I don't know. We found. Me and my buddy found that spot last year and we were shooting does in the late season out of it. So I'm just like, it's. It's a nice little spot kind of like tucked in helicop. It's a falling down treetop. So you got all the branches and stuff for like a stabilizer.

Stabilizer to shoot off of like a longer shot or whatever. And I just. Something told me to sit there. If I was in my stand, I might have gotten a shot, But I would have had it turned around almost completely backwards to get a shot. How far was granted it was two, three years later where this photo was taken from where you shot him. So that photo, him and Velvet back in July, that was probably 7, 700,000 yards away.

So he kind of stayed roughly in his home range type area For a good couple years. But where I had him on camera the first time I ever saw him was about a mile to the east. So you did get. Do you get it on camera that year you shot him or the year before? No, because they, they, they banned trail cameras. So not this season. The season before that. Kansas Public land got rid of their cameras. And then Fort Riley followed suit this past hunting season.

So I had zero trail cameras out this past year.

That's so lame. You use truck. Is it during the hunting season or is just in general? So Fort Riley did it. It was, I think, August. You had to have your cameras out of there. So up until like, August, you could have cameras. But I don't know if they're bringing cameras back this year for, like this, like the whole summertime Doing the same thing they did last year or if they're just going to completely keep them banned the entire time. I hear more and more states doing that.

I can't remember which ones are on top of my head, But I've been trying to wrap my brain about why. And the only thing that I could kind of think about Squatch, maybe you know, is because now we're going more towards these cell cameras out there with tacticams and moultrie with more cell cams, obviously. And you're getting live time action photos Sent right to your phone. And you hear it all the time. Oh, there's a deer right there by my camera. I gotta go out there right now.

And then they go shoot them. Yeah, or they, or at least they go try to. I think that's one of the reasons why they want to try to get rid of these cell cams or just cameras in general. I, I. Do you have an opinion on that, Squatch? Well, I think a lot of it is too, because he said, Doug, I. If I heard you correctly, you said on state land and the government land at your hunting. Now, did they ban them also on private land too, or. No, I don't know about private land.

I don't have it in private land to hunt. So I don't really pay attention to that part. I think a lot of it is, you know, when it comes to like having public lands, you know, state land or federal lands and stuff like that, they're probably trying to keep it on a level two, because I'm sure a lot of those go missing, people grab them, steal them, then. Then the, the agencies get complaints about, you know, oh, my camera went missing and blah, blah, blah, blah.

So maybe they're just trying to regulate, like, look, let's just do away with the problem right away and just not have anybody put those damn things out. But I'm sure a lot of it is they're. They're probably just trying to enforce some kind of like more of a fair chase situation. All the cameras I run are moultrie. They're all instant time data. Let me tell you something.

By the time it gets the picture taken, by the time it goes to the satellite and maybe gets to your phone and some kind of thing, there's at least five or six minutes difference from the time it actually took the picture. Because I've actually sat in the stand, watched a deer come up the path. Deers pass me gone by. I get the notification. So if they're basing it on something like that, like, oh, they're gonna go get the deer, I mean, good luck.

The deer still may be in that area, but it's not that like, super quick. But it's, it's probably just. I think it's probably a thing for not having, you know, complaints, having so many complaints. Maybe something got stolen. Guys fighting over territory. Oh, well, that's my spot. I had my camera there for six months. You can't go there, you know, so it's, it's probably just stuff like that. That's why they, they enforce it. That's my opinion on it, really.

So. But even then, I still think that's kind of like a cheap way to think about going about it. I'd like to get like a DNR person that's behind the laws that says this is why we're doing it, just to get from their, from their mouth themselves. Yeah, but like, you said it perfectly. You can have a cell camera out there and send it to your phone and let's say you get it. I have tactic cam, so I get it within two minutes, roughly. Let's say some cameras, you get it within five. Right.

The odds of you getting from where you're at, let's just say you're. Let's say you're actually sitting in your living Room and your trail camera is 300 yards away. The odds of you, because you're not just gonna go out in your blue jeans or your sweatpants, whatever the you're wearing, you're gonna at least put your camo on, go out there with your stuff. And this is the tricky part. Let's say that deer miraculously is still standing in that area. You have to sneak in and do it.

Even if you have a gun with you, Odds of you shooting that deer just from that photo that got to you, in my opinion, is 1% or less. Yeah, I. I agree, too. I did have it work in that situation with coyotes, because I had a bait pile out, and I had the camera set up by the bait pile. Got the notification, the coyotes are out in the field. I was able to drive up, get out of the truck, sneak up, and they busted me at the last second, where I was almost to the blind where they were.

But I didn't throw camo on. I was in my blue jeans, I was in a plaid shirt, and I was sitting on my couch, and I grabbed my.204 and I beat feet right up the road to where I hunt. So I. I was able to get on them that quick. But like you said, in deer hunting, in a situation, I mean, not a lot of people can just go out in their backyard deer hunting. A lot of people have to drive 45 minutes an hour to get to where they're hunting. Yeah. What. What the hell is it hurting?

And, you know, I mean, I have put cameras up on state land here in New York. We got a lot of dep Land that's New York city drinking water, you know, protected land around the reservoirs and stuff. And I have set cameras up there, and. And I've had, you know, okay. Success with it. But the only thing I was still running an SD card camera. I had it. I had put it up higher on the tree. And I went back after about two weeks, and my son and I, we. We got to the camera, and I, you know, it was on.

It was working. Pulled the SD card out, put it in my reader. There wasn't a damn picture on it. And I'm like, well, that sucks. And he's like, oh, you're kidding me. For, like, two weeks, there was. You didn't get any on the camera. I'm like, no freaking way. You know? So what ended up happening was we went back up. We had been out of there for a little while in that spot. We go back up, and we go in in the dark. We hunt Further back from where that spot is on the way back out.

He's looking, he's like, he's like, what the hell is that? I'm like, what? He goes, I think that's a ladder down there. I'm like, a ladder? He's like, right where you had your camera. I'm like, no way. He goes, yeah, come on, let's go look. So we walked down there. Somebody had some. Because this is like 25 minutes riding in on a side by side up this log road where we go, somebody had drug a freaking regular damn aluminum ladder up there, had another ladder, like strapped in a tree.

And then like some makeshift shitty platform up there in the tree where I had the camera. I'm like, you know what? I think I know what happened. He's like, what? And there was blood. There was blood and hair. So they, they shot something out of that spot. And I was like, this son of a. Just read my card and put it back in the camera. And I said, that's why they set that tree stand up. Must have been a good buck coming through there. And he probably killed it.

So I was like, well, we ain't doing that no more. He's like, yeah, we didn't, you know, but it's. It's pretty far back where we go. But I mean, you know, you're not the only one. People get back there and stuff. But hey, good for that guy. I'm glad he got a buck. I'm not upset or anything. State land, good for you. But I don't know, I. I'd really like to get a DNR person on here too, and say, you know, what's, what's the deal? And that whole stuff with the drones too.

You know, when you got an animal down, I get it, somebody can abuse it and put really strict policies on it. If they abuse it and be done with it, there's no reason why you can't use a drone to go get a wounded animal. I don't want that animal to suffer and die off somewhere and you lose your animal.

I mean, it's just stupid. Well, some people out there are saying using cell cams and let's just stick to drones with this point of it, that is taking away the woodsmanship part of it, all that. That's one thing that I've been hearing lately. Yeah, Doug, I want your opinion on the cell cameras and these drones, but Dave sent in this comment here, and these are the states that can't use cell cams. Arizona, Delaware, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Utah, And Alaska on public lands.

I'm assuming that's during the hunting season, obviously, but that many. I knew there was states out there. I just couldn't remember which one they were. And I thought Idaho was on there would have been on there, too. I thought they were, too. I could have swore either they. They had it and they removed it, or they're getting ready to. Dave, if you're out there and you're able to look that up, I thought I could have swore Idaho was on that list. I'm a little surprised it's not.

Here's a. Here's a little fun fact right here, because I Googled it because I was just curious about what the actual answer was, if I could find it. So they said in Kansas, the theft of cameras, too many cameras being in the same areas, disturbances to wildlife, privacy issues, and other problems coming from the use and overuse of trail cameras. That's right from Stuckley, who said multiple issues were brought forward on the days leading up to the ban in 2023. That's out of Kansas.

So basically, people stealing other people's cameras. What I said, it's theft. It's too many cameras being in the same areas. So you're not allowing, you know, Joe Blow to walk in there. Hey, that's my spot. I have my camera there for six months, you know. You know, state land. Kick rocks. But so, okay, I can get behind that. In the innocent. I could get behind that. That's what it is. It's causing. You know, people are setting up a hunting boundary because they had their ca.

You know, and it's just like I said, I had a camera there. The guy came in, read my camera. Well, guess what? I'm on state land. It's fair game, bro. If the guy wants to read my camera, he can read my camera. If I put a tree stand. But here's the deal. I was going to get in his effing stand if it was safe, because it wasn't really safe. And I was going to shoot a deer at stand, too, because it was already there. And if he gave me any shit, I would have just squashed his ass.

But, you know, I'm just telling you, it's. You're near state land. You know, you got to remember, it's. It's public land. It's not private land. You know, it's a whole different thing. And that's what it is. It just causes too many issues, I think, on state land, and that's why they got rid of it. Too many complaints, you Know, oh, this guy said, I can't go in this acre of woods because he's had his cameras there all season and. Yeah. Sucks. It sucks. Public land. Yeah. It's just.

Yeah. Basically, who. Whoever gets there first. That's what it. That's what it is. And, you know, I gotta. I gotta honestly say, especially for, like, where we go. I mean, you'll be getting ready, putting your stuff on. You know, I got the Wheelers there warming up, you know, so we can drive up the trail and guys will come in, you know, and you got. They got their trucks, maybe they're driving up into. And it's always, hey, fellas, what's going on? How's it. How's it been? You know?

You've been seeing stuff? Yeah, you know, a couple here and there. Where are you guys headed? All right, cool. We're gonna be up on that other face. It's like, hey, if you knock one down, you need some help? I got the Wheeler. I'll help you drag it out. I mean, you know, it's. It's state land. You can't freaking, you know, go crazy. If you see somebody whistle, give a wave, go the other way, man. You know, it's not. It's not like, you know, it's like family feud up there or something.

You just do your thing and move on. You know, there's plenty of land. So, Doug, what. What's your opinion on the drones? So I've never really been around drones at all. Like, I definitely can see people use them to abuse it. Like, hey, there's a deer on the other side of this hedgerow. Let's go get them. But in aspect like recovery, I feel like it'd be beneficial. Yeah. Because I shot a buck last year. It ran across the road in the impact area. It goes in the impact area. You can't go get it.

That's where tank rounds and mortar rounds all impact. So, like, you're lost. I shot a buck earlier last season that did the same thing. Went into the impact area. I called the game wardens up. Yo, it's. What's going on? Put a good shot on him. He's like, that sucks. He's Kyle bait now. Like, well. But I had a. I helped a guy earlier in the season, shot him. I don't know, buck or a doe.

I didn't pay that much attention to it, so it wasn't mine, but I. I spent probably four hours helping this guy track his deer. We couldn't find it, but I feel like it was in a CRP field. Yep. So it was all like waist high grass and all that other. I feel like a drone. Really beneficial to help that whole aspect out. Yeah. And Michael, you asked the question within minutes. Don't answer yet. But he's going to a. I want to ask you here, Doug, if you've tried possum, don't answer yet.

I know the answer. Much like you got to say. But he said he has to leave in a second. No, I never had possum. But I almost shot one last weekend that I was turkey hunting and had one attack my boot scared the out of me. I didn't know what was going on. I just about shot him point blank with 3 inch mag. Nice. So one of my buddies I hunt on the property with, they shot a deer, they couldn't find it. So that he said, hey, are you able to come track?

And I said, yeah, but I won't be there for 30, 35 minutes. And I said, okay, that's okay. We want to take a break anyways. We think we might be jumping them. I said, all right, give me some time. It was rainy, snowy mix. I said, give me about 40 minutes, I'll be there. And so me and my dad went out there to go help track. And my dad, we just got him the year before a like those thermal, you can see the heat sensor one and then the. There's the other version of the heat signal.

Anyways, we pulled, we. We took that out there and we're scanning the last area that they were looking at and I asked him like, well, where have you gone? Where's the deer gone? And stuff like that. And basically everything was going, it was going into this, into this giant hill, bottom of the property. And I said, I guarantee you he's either down there bedded or just sitting there waiting to die. So I took my dad's thermal while they're trying to listen and stuff like that.

And I'm sure, shit, I see something big just sitting there, but I can see like movement, like if it's breathing. I was like, well is. I'm gonna guarantee you that's your deer. And we start walking up there. We get right next to this deer and it's not even moving and it's still breathing. And like, well, everyone cover your ears. So. And it just, it was amazing because they said they were tracking for. I think they did an hour worth of tracking.

Yeah. And then we found him within 20 minutes of actually being out there in the woods starting to track based with the help of this because we we were scanning areas just doing 360s, and we couldn't find anything. And I was like, well, let me go check. Check over here. And sure. Like I said, I found him and I just shaved. Shaved. So much time off of tracking, you're able to find the steer. And we were able to get. Get him to the deer and able to officially put him down, harvest the deer.

Imagine if you don't have that ability.

I think that's the point of drones. It's to help recover animals, and it's a good thing. And I think, like you said, Squatch, there's people out there that could abuse it for the wrong reasons. And if you're able to put restrictions down and have people, I don't know, just off top of my head, they had to log certain shit or training, they have to get qualified. I don't know.

Well, being that I used to fly model airplanes and stuff like that, and I had a drone, you have to register the drone with the faa and you have to have what they call air maps. It's an app for your phone because you can actually interfere with commercial flight if there's airports in your, you know, area, your specific area where you're flying. Yeah. And you have to. Before you take off, you have to actually, like, say, I'm taking off. I'll be at this altitude. I'll be in this quadrant.

Because if there is a collision or something like that, they know who to go look for. And they see it on their. Their, you know, on their stuff, their sonar and stuff the radar. But, you know, it's like I said, if. If you're gonna be something with drone recovery, just like a deer tracker has dogs, you know, go make the person have to go get special training, make them have a license, make them follow all the rules of the ffa. Make them call it in when they're starting to search.

Make them call it in when they're done with the search. And you know what, if you got a drone and you're flying around and you're using it, like for being a shithead and trying to, you know, just get up on deer and fool them, then you know what? That's it. Instant reveal. You know, revocation of license for 10 years. You know, put a. Put a, you know, 12, something, $15,000 fine on it. And I guarantee you, first couple few idiots that do it, they won't do it no more. So. Okay, Michael's back.

Oh, hi, Michael. Welcome to the show. Yeah, yeah. Doug, have you ever. You ask it again, Michael. I See your question before, Doug, have you tried possum? No, he tried it. Maybe he tried it in the meantime, since you asked him the last time. No, five minutes, nothing changed. Okay. Okay, that's fair. Never know when you got a possum strangling down through your freaking hallway. And yeah, you know, he's on your lap. He could be the flash and just went outside, killed one and came back in.

He could have gone and done that. We would have known. He's so fast. You know, we've had guests that are so dedicated on the show, they'll just go outside and get one and actually try it right on the show. Yeah, I guess Doug's not dedicated guests then. Better man than me. Well, he said in the. In the comments, his WI fi is not that strong for him to go out and find a possum. So we lose them. That's fair. We lose him on the show. Yeah, there's actually a storm rolling in, so I lost power.

We just had a storm Thursday and Friday and it knocked people's power out forever. It's. I think people still don't have power. There's a tornado in Battle Creek. I know you guys don't know that, but for people that know, I'm in the Kalamazoo region and Battle Creek's about 45 minutes to an hour away from us. And yeah, I've heard of Battle Creek. Yeah, that's where the fort. Not Fort, but for. I kept drawing a blank what the actual name is. Zimbabwe Creek Military there.

Anyways, Doug, I just want to say thank you for coming on the show, man. We greatly appreciate it. Thank you for sharing your story, man, that. To read the article about it and have you come on and share it's amazing story and to you. It's hard to hear a lot of stories where a lot of people are actually looking out for the same deer and it just turned out to be like. Like you said, it's a ghost and no one's seen it and they want to get out there and get it and. But it's all. I haven't.

I've yet to hear someone actually shoot at a deer and it hit its antler. Yeah, that's the first for me that blew my. I thought it was like from fighting or something. Gouged by another brow tiner. It's like a G2 or something. But he's like, no, I hit him in the head with an arrow. I knew a guy. Quick story. I knew a guy that grazed one in the head deer. The deer went Down. He's all happy as runs over there, rolls it over, sticks the knife in his freaking rib cage.

Deer jumps up, kicks the ever loving out of him and takes him off running. And he's holding it by the rack, getting drugged through the freaking woods. What the. He just realized he only the bullet grazed it knocked it out for a second, you know. Jesus. True story. My book. My freaking guy I grew up with, I work with him every day. His uncle had that happen. You ever see those memes where a guy is actually fighting one of those deers? Yeah. I don't know why, but I want that to happen to me.

Lee. I'm just one day. Absolutely. I just. I want me to say I've. I lived that I wanted. Exactly. They're like, yeah, I bought a deer and I won. All right, cool. As Doug, I got a couple rapid fire questions for you before we let you go. Okay, brother? All right. Besides hunting, do you have any other hobbies or interests? Like to turn wrenches? I used to like fishing, but I kind of got out of fishing. Yeah, I grew up fishing and I just haven't had time to go out there and do fishing.

I know Squash loves to fish. I'm an outdoorsman. But Squatch makes me look like a though. Come on, man. Yeah, I tell you the guys honest truth. I got out fishing once so far. And every chance I get to where I want to go, something either happens. It's been windy and freaking. Nothing but rain here. If it's not raining, it's 30 mile an hour winds. I haven't got the chance to get out yet. And I've been turkey hunting so. But I was glad I got a bird. So I'm happy, you know, with that.

So hopefully now in the next week or two I can get out, do some fishing. I think we've had whoop my ass. Oh really? They're tough. This year I got. I got two or three my buddies a bird and I can't get myself a bird. So like I just suck apparently. Well, it happens. So later I tell everybody, got to get on the birds. You got to get them into the first day, the second day, maybe the third. You're lucky after that. Good luck. It's. It's tough after that. Real tough.

What animal is on your bucket list to hunt? Probably a moose. I think the second person ever say moose on the show. Yeah, second or third. No elk or mule deer. Those are the top three. But moose has been the top one. I've always wanted to shoot. They're just so majestic. Yeah. God, they're like amazing. What is an animal you want to try eating? I hope not legit. No, no, no, no. It's definitely not going to be possum. Probably, probably moose. I've never had moose.

Yeah, I'd like to try moose one day actually. What has been your favorite state you've hunted if you want to. Kansas. Kansas. Straight up Kansas now I believe Kansas, that's not over the draw. You had to get points though. Correct. So I think it's through like preference points, like a whole draw process. But since I'm here with the army, I'm technically a resident, so I just have to take my orders to like Walmart or wherever the hell you get your license from. I just give them my orders.

Like, cool, you're a resident now. Here's your tags. Oh, dead. Okay. But for a mule deer, like rifle mule deer you do have, even if you're resident, you gotta do a draw. Okay. Yeah. What is the top state you want to hunt? Alaska. Alaska. Yeah. That's a big one. We get, we get that answer quite a bit. And I'm right there with you. Or Montana. They're kind of side by side. Yeah. Last frontier. The big sky mountain. Two questions last for you.

If you could pick anybody, you can get a non family member and a family member either living or non living to go on a hunting trip with or share a campfire with one time. Who would that be? Probably my one grandpa who got me into hunting. He passed away. Shit. 10, 15 years ago. And then probably my best friend Matt who passed away five, six years ago. Sorry for last question here. What do you think we as fellow hunters could or should do to improve the hunting community?

Probably be more respectful of the people you're hunting around. Stop dogging on people's harvests like Joe Schmo shot this nice spike horn. Don't talk about it. Or Jack over here shot 220 inch deer. Don't talk about it. Don't say, oh, he spotlighted it, he baited it, yada, yada, whatever. Just be happy for someone for their harvest. Well, Doug, I have to say your, your deer does not look like a 200 inch deer. So just going to throw that out there. Everybody's I agree, man.

So we get that answer a lot. Like I, I agree with you completely. I think there's a difference between what we do on the show with hazing each other and we haze with the guests and we haze with the audience out there as well. But they know it's all in good fun. But there's also a point where you, you haze on people's harvest like you said, and it casts a bass bad light on, on the hunting community as a whole. And I think that needs to stop. When we haze each other, we're.

That's just what brotherhood's all about. Oh, absolutely. And obviously, you know, because being in the military, I'm sure you know that this is what you do. And in my opinion, that's how you bond with, with your. Your brothers and sisters. That's how I bonded with my friends in the military, in the, in the law enforcement world. And that's how you get to know each other. But you all know I have your back no matter what. Yeah, absolutely.

Like me and my buddy, he says when I shot Jesus there, he's like, oh, that's a 20 inch deer on your eight points. A baby. It's just straight up. Hazen. Yeah. What's going on with the camera angles here? I don't know, buddy. I just saw that myself. I thought. I thought I broke it. That's so ugly. No, no, the Internet just said, hey, let's, let's do this view. It's the ghost buck. He's podcast haunting the show. He turned into an actual. Well, Doug, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Squatch. First, how can people reach out to you and follow along your journey as. Always, you guys know you can find me here on Sundays and Tuesday nights at 8pm on the whitetail Advantage. You can also find me on the boondocks outdoors and with the Garden State Outdoorsman podcast. Frank Bistika, Mike Nitra and all the guys with that crew. You can hit me up on Instagram Outdoors and More with the Squatch. You can find me on my YouTube channel. Outdoors and more with the Squatch. Check it out.

We released a turkey hunting video. It's pretty cool. The editing didn't come out too shabby for me and I appreciate everybody always tuning in and listening to us. And thanks for watching, guys. Doug, how can people follow along your journey? Facebook, I guess. All right, I like it. Well done too. Internet savvy, so it's all right. Hey, don't. You don't have to be. You shoot big deer. That's all that matters. Exactly. You just enjoy being out in the woods, man. Facts.

Squatch, thank you for being the one teammate to actually come on the show. You're the only one that texted Square Dave and Johnny. They don't like texting. You and I are always texting in the group Chat. So I don't know what the going on. They say that I don't text and now my ghost. So I gotta say Johnny, Johnny did say earlier on in the day and I only caught it between what I was doing that he got called into work so he wasn't sure if he was going to make it.

And Dave had let you know a while back, but maybe you forgot that he had to take care of some family stuff. Oh, I'm just giving you guys text more than I do. I'm constantly busier than. Well, you always look at my Grindr account or my only fans account for gay dudes. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. Ginger spice on Grindr. Look bread up. It's. It's badass. I mean you'll see on there. You never thought could. You could imagine. I got all the moves, man. I got all the moves.

You want to see some nice feet pick? We got some nice feet pick up there too, my brother. I've been trying to get the wife to do the whole feet pick things. They're like toes and. And yeah. Make some extra money. She won't do it. People have that weird kink. Exactly. And I'm like, people pay $5,000 for a photo of a feet. Yeah. I could fund a hunting trip by selling feet picks. But she won't do it. Yep, yep, yep. Selfish. Come on now. Selfish. I know you think about.

She's in another room watching this. I might get beat. Doug's wife. Come on. Let's think about your husband first. Okay? It helps him get a hunting trip. We go get another ghost buck out of another state. Go, go. Just all it takes is one little photo. Click, click. There you go. Exactly. And your trip's funded there, there and back and everything included. So. But Doug, you know what? How about this? I'll take a feed picture and I'll. I'll create an account and I'll send you the funds for it.

How about that? Sold. Squatch Dog, thank you for coming on for tonight's show. I greatly appreciate it. I hope you have a great rest of your night, guys. You too. Thank you. See you guys. Oh, man. Yeah. Great guys, right there. Well, everyone, that's going to conclude an episode of the Whitetail Advantage podcast. I want to say thank you to everyone that's gathered around the electronic campfire for tonight's show.

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