Ep. 501: Kayaking For Alabama Public Land Bucks with Parker McDonald

talking to Alabama. This is another one of my hunts

that I did this past fall. Working on this new series, I've been telling you about where I am traveling to a new part of the country, meeting up with a regional expert and learning about how they do what they do, so spending a day following along with them, asking them how they hunt, how they find their spots, their different unique tactics, whatever it might be, and then going out there for three or four days myself in that area, trying to hunt on my own and get one done.

So that's what I did in Alabama, went down there to visit with Parker, who is a die hard public land deer hunting nut he's having a lot of success in the state of Alabama and other southern states, and he's doing it by using the water to his advantage, kayaking, canoeing, boating, whatever it takes to get too hard to reach areas, finding these bucks where other people can't get to them.

That's what I wanted to learn about. So in December, me and the crew were able to go down there and meet up with Parker and his dad, actually Randall, for their annual rut cation. The rut down this part of the country is in December, and it seemed like we're going to hit it just right. So what we're discussed today with Parker and Randall on the show, we're

in discuss how that hunt went. We're discussed why Parker uses water, how he uses water, how he has discovered ways to discover and locate public land dear down in the South in places like this now Alabama. We're gonna cover all that, a lot of good how to stuff, but then we're gonna walk through, day by day how my hunt went down there, the crazy things that happened, the good times we had, the lessons I learned, and ultimately how I ended up killing a buck. So there's

a little teaser for you story to come here. It's a good one. It was a lot of fun and it was it was just great to finally get to go down get a glimpse into this Southeastern deer hunting culture that I know so rich and so many of you are part of. Uh got a little look at that, a little taste of what that's all about, and uh, I'm not sure enjoyed it. So hope you guys enjoy this one. Thank you for listening. And from here, let's get to my conversation with Parker and Randall McDonald. All

right with me on the show. Now we've got Parker and Reginald McDonald. Okay, not Reginald, this Randall. But our our inside joke of the trip was giving Randall many different names. So, guys, thank you for being here, Thanks for having us, And it was a great time visiting you guys down in Alabama. And uh, this is a podcast I've been looking forward to more than some just because of what a great set of stories we have and laughs we had. I mean, it was just a

heck of a week. So uh, I don't know, I'm just thrilled we can do this wish that more of the guys from the crew could be on, but um, we'll have a we'll have a good bit of nostalgia as best as possible, the three of us. I figure, um,

here's here's what I want to do, guys. I wanted to first get a little background, so we'll kind of lay the groundwork for who you guys are and why I was out there to visit you, and then we'll go through day by day our trip, what we did, what I learned, what you were teaching me Parker, and and all the different things that happened along the way.

Um that said what I think drew me to you, Parker. Originally, you know, I was I was aware of you from AFAR, and I knew about your podcast and had seen you on you know, Dan's videos, podcasts all that kind of stuff, and so I knew there was this guy Parker, and I knew you were doing two things that were particularly interesting. Number one, you were consistently killing good deer on public land in the South, and number two, you were doing

it by water. You were boating, kayaking, getting to these places by River Lake Reservoir, all that kind of stuff, And that was you know, not the most unique, but you made it like it was. It was almost all of your hunts you were doing it there and many of them were like that, and so it was really a specialty. So those two things were very intriguing to me. And uh, and that was what I was hoping for

when I came to have this hunt with you. I wanted to kind of dig into how you did that, why you do that, how that all works, and then see if I could, you know, guinea pigott and and maybe make it work for myself. So that was that was what intrigued me. And I'm curious, Parker. Well, you know, let me take let me take one step back before I ask you how you came to that and how this style of hunting became your way of hunting. I wanna,

I wanna get your perspective, Randall. Can you tell me the story of how you saw Parker growing too the hunter he is today and doing the things he's doing today. Let's let's get the story from Papla McDonald's perspective. Wow, that's a that's that's that's a great question. It really is. And uh, Parker Man, I'm as big as fan number one of course, Simon's dad, and uh, I love both

of my kids, got a daughter as well. But Parker, there was something about him when he got into the outdoors that that just he just was attracted to it. I mean when the other kids, uh in boy Scouts or or uh similar program we're out doing kids stuff. When he was young, he would just get by the river and catch fish until he couldn't catch any more fish. I mean, he just he just had that that stick

tuitiveness and uh. And then when we got into deer hunting, man um, I just remember his eyes and his excitement of just being in the stand and in deer hunting, there was he was just automatically attracted to it. We've got one of our favorite pictures in the McDonald household. I mean, it was just an amazing deal. Uh. We had went went out hunting on a guy's piece of property. Parker killed a little nine point buck that day. And when he killed that buck, he he went to sleep

with that buck up to his chin. And and we have that picture in our house and it it is just one of the most incredible, incredible pictures that I've gotten. Shows his love for deer hunting. That's amazing. So it's it's not a new thing, Parker. How this thing took hold early and it's has claws ever since. Oh man, like um, Dad, Dad didn't mention this, but the first time I ever went deer hunting, uh, which which he

wasn't really into it. Um. I think doing some mule deer hunts out in New Mexico when he was younger. But we were terrible at deer hunting. We were awful, man, my dad were awful at it. But I got to I got good grades on a report card, my first in first grade, so I was I guess I was about seven years old, and I remember coming home I got good grades and Dad said, all right, I'm taking you hunting. And we got invited to go with this

guy and his son. And the first morning we were out there hunting and it was like hill country of Texas. So if any listeners are from Texas, you know, the hill country is like just loaded up with deer. There's so many year out there. And we were in a blind and Dad shot his first deer ever and I was there and uh, I remember curling up with a like a little felt blanket in the floor of that blind and the deer came out and he shot it.

And then later that day he shot a turkey, which was you know, you can fall turkey hunt in Texas. So he shot his first turkey and I was there for that. Then he caught a big bass out of a stock pond, and then that evening he shot an eight point and it was like, this is this is amazing, Like this is my favorite, this is my new favorite thing ever. And uh, pretty much from that point on,

you know, we were we were die hard. We were in it, like and from a young age, like Dad said, uh, like most kids at this is back in the day of Blockbuster. Um, most kids were getting you know, video games and you know whatever from written at Blockbuster. And I was getting Real Tree Monster Bucks, you know, and I've rent the same video over and over and over and over again. And uh or the Fitzgerald's. FitzGeralds were my favorite. Um like I just I don't know, man,

it just it was always just that thing. And and so whenever the story that Dad's talking about, that was only my second dear ever and it was my first buck. And uh, I mean I literally carried that, uh that skull cap around everywhere. Um, and I fell asleep with it. And that's the that's the picture he's talking about. I was laying on the laying on the recliner with it

up underneath my chin, you know, like it's a teddy bear. Um, that's just I mean, I guess some people would call him call that being the weird kid, but I just I'll just eat up with it. I get it. I get it. Man. So, so you're originally from Texas, Randall, you're still in Texas, Parker, You're in Alabama, And I guess what, I'm curious to get a little bit more from you on And this is something we talked about while I was down there, but I think it's worth

exploring a little more now. Is is what makes hunting down there different than what I know up where I'm at, because I'm hunting a lot in the Midwest. I live in Michigan, of course, And when I knew that, you know, coming into this year, I wanted to experience southern deer, honey. I wanted to kind of have a window into what all these other people are experiencing and hunting for because

I get the same messages and emails all the time. No, yeah, that's great, but you know, it's not like what I do down here in Georgia, or what I do it in Texas, or what I do in Alabama, or what I see in so and so forth, Mississippi, Louisiana, whatever. Um, So what do you think it is? Um? I'll start with you, Randall, how would you describe what makes you know the deer hunting and maybe public land, especially down in your neck of the woods, different or unique or

or more challenging. I mean, what makes it stand apart in your mind from stuff you're seeing on TV from both places. Well, it's definitely, uh, it's definitely difficult. I think you've got to know what you're doing. I don't think you're gonna luck onto a buck. I mean there's guys that do, but I just I'm hunting in Texas and not a whole lot of public land around here. However,

I have found one recently that's fairly close. And and it's uh uh, it's it's not an easy thing to do and and and to you know, to kayak into some of those places, and and Parker's just kind of challenged me to expand what I'm normally done. I've normally just hunted from blinds or you know, my own property. But but I really have enjoyed getting out and really stretching myself at fifty eight years old, stretching myself to try to become a better deer hunter. I'm just I

just have enjoyed the sport. But I've never really tried to excel at it like Parker has. But I've been stretched and and Texas public land is not not very easy, nor is it easy in Alabama the public land hunt. I just it's it's difficult to get out there and do it. But when you've got a good teacher and having learned that, I know Parker will say, you know, wired to hunt meat eater and he learned, has learned

so much from it. And I've started watching it and trying to do new things, and I'm I'm learning from it, and so I'm starting to learn a little bit more about it. It's not easy, but it's worth it. Yeah, So what would you add, Parker, Well, you know, I don't know what it is. I'm not a I'm not a biologist or or a scientist by any means. But I have hunted um up, you know, North Dakota hunting, Kentucky I've hunded a couple of states that I wouldn't

necessarily consider the Southeast. And I don't know if it's just like a soil thing, but typically our deer are not gonna be as big. Uh, your bucks are not gonna be as huge, you know. I would say for most people in the Southeast, a one fifty on public land is probably gonna be like a once in a lifetime time type deer. You're not just gonna see a bunch of them. Um. Obviously, with anything, there's exceptions, there's guys who are doing it consistently, but it's just not

it's not calmon um. And and I would say, up in, let's just take Kentucky for example. I've seen multiple deer that big in my limited amount of time, just hunting there for a week at a time. And uh and and in North Dakota, you know, uh, I was a long story short. I was hunting private land and then moved on to a piece of public land and in the two days that is that on that public land, I saw a deer that was bigger than any deer I've seen in Alabama all season in two days, not

even knowing anything about it. So maybe it's a soil thing. Maybe it's just having you know, soybeans and crops around that make it just easier or better for growing quality deer. So I think the quality is diffinitely lower um. But when you when you start talking in terms of quantity um, I don't believe that our quantity or our density of deer is as high as a lot of those places. And so you know, I I hear people I have friends like yourself, Mark who hunt uh states like Michigan

or uh Wisconsin. I know, I know Michigan the hunting pressure is pretty high. And so the thing that I consistently here about Michigan hunting is that it's easy to find dear. It's hard to find mature deer um that you're just not gonna find a lot of them. And so I would stay out here in the South. It is not easy to find mature deer. Nor is it

easy to just find deer in general. You know, does you go out and you see five or six does in a sit and you've had a heck of a sit um, and so you know you add that in with uh, just the the terrain of a lot of the areas that that like where you hunted at the train can be fairly difficult. Uh. In other parts of the South, you have a ton of swamp and water

that you've got to try to figure your way around it. Um. And it's just you know, if you wanna and then add the add the pressure aspect to it, um, it's pretty There's a lot of hunting pressure in just about everywhere in the South that I've ever hunted, there's tons of pressure. So you kind of have all those things working against you, which makes it makes it relatively difficult.

And I'm I'm of the opinion Mark, Like I talked to a lot of people through through my podcast and just in general conversations who hunt all over the country, And I know you always hear people say, well, if you can kill a deer in Michigan, you can kill one anywhere. If you can kill a deer and or

whatever Louisiana, then you can kill one anywhere. I I think anybody who everybody likes to think that the place that they hunt is the hardest place to hunt, Like, that's just kind of typically see it on Facebook all the time, people saying that kind of stuff, And I definitely don't want that to come across. You know, I think if somebody hunts in the South and they live in the South, then they have a huge advantage of

being able to live there and figure it out. And so I never wanted to come across to anybody that you know, where I hunts the hardest place to hunt, because I think once you kind of figure out your system, once you figure out what works, then you stick to that and you just kind of grow based on and build based on that. But you know it, definitely there are there are some different types of challenges in the Southeast versus the other places. I'm not gonna say that

they're greater challenges, but they're just different. So so why was your solution go into the water and why why was it that to tackle the specific challenges of the South that you gravitated towards h two al So, for me, it was the only thing that I was thinking about when I first started. It was getting away from people. Um I had hunted public land in Alabama a little bit, but not really effectively hunted it, and uh it long

story short, I had bought this suv. I was really into kayak fishing, so I would bass bass fish for my kayak. Always had a truck to carry my carry my kayak and just loaded up in the back. But uh, I bought an SUV and so I had to figure out a trailer for it, a trailer system while I bought this big, giant like skiboat trailer from my kayak, and I started thinking of all these things that I could do with that. I could put a rack here, I could put a place to put a cooler up

right here. And then for whatever reason, it just sparked this thought in me that was like I could put a rack here to put deer on. Oh heck, I wonder if there's a place where I could hunt deer with water access out here close to me. So I literally bought on X that day, uh here, and you talk about it here, and you know, just the different people that I had watched on YouTube or listen to on podcasts, I bought on X that day and started just marking all these water access places. And that's really

where it started at I was. I knew I didn't really want to hunt public land just by walking in because of all the people that were out there, But going at it by water, I would I would be able to do a couple of different things. I wouldn't have to pay for a lease anymore, which was great because I was about to have my first child, and uh, I didn't really had to have the money to do

it at the time. And honestly, like I was finding so much pressure on these leases that I was getting on that I was just I was like, if I wanted to not see dear, I could just not see deer for free on public land. You know, I don't. I don't have to pay and not see deer anymore.

And and I also knew this. I knew that the quality of my hunt would be largely based on not so much like shooting the biggest deer that I had ever killed, but just in that beginning stage, it was like, if I shoot a spike and I kayak it out, that's gonna be the most like hardcore thing I've ever done in my life. And and so the quality of the hunt was based more on the experience of it and not so much the size of the size of the animal. And so um, that was really where I started.

That was kind of the beginning of this. Uh. My wife would call it a monster, but I would call it a passion. Uh. And and that's that's really where it started at. I'm glad it happened. Monster or not, I'm glad it happened. It's it's ledding us some good stuff. Um, and it led to me come down to Alabama finally getting to do this. Um. So okay, So I feel like you've set it up pretty nicely for me, Parker. We kind of know why you do this in those years,

since you've done it a ton. It seems like you spend every free moment, if I've judged by nothing but your YouTube videos and Instagram, seems like you're out there all the time on public land, boating around and putting a buck in your canoe or kayak every day. It seems like sometimes but you've you've got to figure it out and and that's that's why I was coming down there.

So let's get into let's get into this trip. And then as we kind of go into the specifics, I'll kind of grill you on on some of the wise behind this. But Day one, well, I guess kind of Dave zero, we were arriving meeting you at this lake and we're gonna hopping boats, move to a spot where're gonna camp, set up camp kind of get settled for the night and then go out and hunt together the

next morning. I gotta ask you both of you, guys, when you we're envisioning us showing up and we're gonna join you guys for your your family rutcation and we're gonna camp with you and we're gonna hunt with you, what did you think that was gonna look like? And did didn't meet your expectations as far as what the group was like, what the group dynamic was like, what the whole thing was like? Uh, Randall, what do you

think about it? Before and after? I can hear Dad and laughing in the background, So I'm like, well, let's see thinking now, I got to be honest with you, man, I was expecting, well, you know, I don't I don't know how to say it. You're kind of a big deal and and most of the times when I've dealt with big deal people, you get an attitude that comes with it, and because they kind of they're sold on themselves, and and so I kind of expected Hollywood tips. I

really was not expecting guys that were number one nice. Um. I've listened to your podcast, but anybody can come across on on you know on the media and sound good. But man, y'all were nice and and you were approachable, and I wasn't expecting that. I don't know about Parker, but I I just was not expecting that. And and then to see you put up your own tent and do your own stuff. I thought you'd have people to do that, and you didn't get a little expectations of me.

You had such aspectations on me. I love it. It's great you're impressed that I put up my own tent. I mean, I wish my wife would be impressed in that kind of stuff. But thank you for saying that, right. But also, I mean, I mean there was one point where where and I've said this before, but I hope you don't mind repeating me repeating it, but but uh, Andreas was needing some water to wash dishes, and and

uh and nobody volunteered. And here comes Mark Kenyon and he jumps up and says, I'll go get the water out of the lake. And you went and did that. That was probably the I'm amazing is that your deer hunting. I'm amazed at your family. I'm amazed that, I mean, you called your your your your family every night your family. Man,

those things, man, they're super impressive. But you got up and went and got water and you served the camp and I just, man, I don't know if Parker got that, but that's that was the highlight for me is just watching watching you serve. So that was cool. Well, thank you for saying that. I don't know if I can talk that. It's a pretty good answer. I mean, you know, I I definitely for me, uh, Mark, I had you on the podcast before, so we had had some interaction

and talked to you on the phone. So I definitely didn't have any like concern of whether or not, you know, you're gonna be a nice guy, or or your crew was gonna be great or anything. But I just I think for me, I didn't imagine that we would have as much fun as we did. Um, you know, you get that many people, and you get you know, you guys are on a pretty strict uh storyline and you know, creating the right storyline, getting all the right camera angles

and and all that stuff. But it was really just so organic. It wasn't like anything was just you know, staged or anything like that. It was it was super organic. We had such a stinking good time, and uh yeah, I definitely would say that My expectations were, um, we're you know, not not necessarily low, but it far exceeded him. We had. I found myself, I know, I had a good time. When after the trip is over and it's done, I'm like, and I find myself sitting at home thinking, man,

I wish those guys were still here. That was such a fun time. So you know, I definitely had fun. Yeah, it was. It was great. And I asked that because it's just got a it must it was a risky thing for you guys to take on. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. I and I felt bad. I felt a little ad like we're intruding on this special family event that you guys have and we're coming in with all this camera equipment and all these people

and all this stuff. And I had like worries like, oh my gosh, I hope we're not imposing too much. I hope we're not going to ruin their week. I hope, you know, I hope they have fun. I hope we have fun. Um. So I'm glad to hear it. It turned out well for everyone, and and you know, we showed up that first night set up camp, and I think pretty quickly you've got a sense of our sense of humor, and we got a sense of yours, and that we all jibed really good. Um, it was it

was a lottle after on this one. But so Mark, I have a question for you, if you don't mind me. Yeah, my podcast, my podcast Hostness is coming out. I love it. Um, Whenever I told you that, hey, yeah, that'd be cool. My dad's a pastor, he's gonna be here. And what were your expectations of a pastor being in a meat eater camp. Well, I did have worries a little bit, not not like significant worries, but we sometimes operate on like a PG thirteen level. I guess would say, like,

we're not bad, but we're definitely PG thirteen. Um, and I just hope that must be honest at least okay, at least okay, fair enough. I just didn't want to offend I didn't want to offend you Randall or or do anything to put you in an uncomfortable situation. And so I was hoping that we'd all be on our best behavior. Um. And what ended up surprising me was

you know you're you. How do I say this without you were a great sport and you had a good time with us, and you didn't seem to be, uh, you know, bothered by any of the jokes, any of the fun we're having, and you're just part of the crew of course. And uh I think I told you you're my favorite pastor and uh I stick to it. Well, if you've been in camp with Parker, what y'all did was very mild compared to what Parker. Parker is one of the most uh, lovingly sarcastic people. Your effort and

uh I had a blast. Y'all were y'all were so much fun and and uh my whole deal is I didn't want anybody to say, all the pastors here, we gotta calm down now. I want you to be you. And uh I thought we had a great time. It was it was so good. The food was unbelievable. We did often come back any time to Ruta ring and dress food. Yeah. So for those who who Andreas hasn't been in the podcast yet, he probably needs to be in the podcast as he became such a part of

my season. Um, but Andreas is the producer for my two shows I was hosting this year one week in November, and uh this show, and the way I would describe what Andreas does and what a producer does a mediator is you're basically an air traffic controller for everything related

to these shows. So he's helping playing logistics of all sorts and types and and he comes on these hunts some most of them now, um, and he's just there at base camp making sure everything's going right with the cameraman, managing all the different footage that we're compiling, managing all the different gear issues, managing camp, managing the million different things you have going on when you've got a group of five or six people trying to build out this thing.

And uh, so andre has has taken up the mantle of camp chef when we've been camping out for some of these hunts. He's at the camp all day while we're out hunting. That's been his thing to pick up and do and he's gotten very good at it. So Andrea's gets kudos from me and I think all of us,

I'm doing a nice job with that. And um and yes, so I think I think that first night we ate before heading in, we we voted in set up camp and the next morning, the game plan was for me to follow you, Parker and tag along for a hunt and just see how you do everything you do and then ask you a million questions, kind of do like a podcast in person, and try to learn about your whole stick in that morning. And the first thing that stood out to me that first day was, you know,

we're getting into our kayaks. It was two hours before daylight or something. We're on the edge of the water and we're getting set up and it was just it was just a cloud. We're in a cloud. There was no visibility. We could hardly see five ft in front of our face as the fog it was pitch black, and then this this soupy, thick fog that was just nearly impenetrable. And you start going out ahead of me.

We're reaching kayaks. You're in the front kayak. We've got a little trolling motor on each one and then a paddle for you know, close close to shore work. But we were troll motoring across the main lake and we seemed to be going and I didn't know where we were going. I don't know how big this place was. I didn't really have a context, it just seemed like we were going forever, and it didn't look like we

were going anywhere though. It kind of felt like I was just stuck in the same place us going nowhere, but doing it for a very very, very very very long time. And then I don't know how long, it felt like we've been motoring along for half an hour. It probably was ten minutes, I don't know, but I

started thinking we were spinning in circles. It started feeling like I was just because I felt like I remember my trolling Maar was slightly turned but we never straightened it, so just like constantly spinning, and I'm all of a sudden, I started thinking, man, we're just going in a circle.

And then my head started spinning like literally, and I know I told you this that day or the next day or something, but I started getting nauseous, like it started really thinking I was spinning around in circles, and I was getting sick, and I thought, if we keep going like this very much longer, I'm gonna puke, like I was right there about too. And then all of a sudden, like just as I was started and had that feeling, all of a sudden, shore came into view

in the head lamps and we were right there. Um, but it was bizarre. And you told me that's not that's not an uncommon thing around there. Huh. That kind of disorientation, this horrible fog, I mean, that's that's a real factor. Yeah, And I don't know if that has something to do with and I'm sure it does has something to do with the just the weather in the South. So like, for example, yesterday morning, I woke up and it was seventy five degrees and by midnight yesterday it

was snowing. So it's just kind of dumb. But water temperatures, when the water is warmer than it is outside or whatever, I mean, you get fog on on water like that, and you don't ever get like a consistent cold. I think whenever I think that first day we were there, it was like what like seventy degrees something like that. I mean we were all in like early season, like September,

clothing and sweating like it was just whatever. So so you get that, and so when you add water to it to it, you get this, just like you said, Dick, Dick, fog on the water. And I remember the first time that I did it, that way. I mean you eventually, you eventually get used to it and you just kind of learned to navigate it and it nothing freaky out too much, and you know whatever. But I remember the first time I did it, and I was like, it's one of those It's one of those times when every

scary movie you've ever watched you start remembering it. You haven't thought about I hadn't thought about Poltergeist, and you know, ten years and all of a sudden, hey remember that scary movie you watched. It's like and so so you get that kind of stuff and then like every once in a while, you'll hell hear beavers slap the water. You're like, freaking crap, this sucks so bad. And and like you said, you just you're like I feel like I'm just spinning around in circles and uh. And like

I said, you get used to it. You start using you know, whatever map mapping system you're using, whether it's you know, on ex Spartan, Forge Hunt Stand stuff like that, uh, and learning to navigate those those type of situations. But yeah, I mean, I don't I don't think I knew how serious it was for you until I listened to a podcast that you did with Dan on nine Finger Chronicles and you were talking about like I almost threw up. I was like, huh, and I have a bad habit

of like it really is a bad habit. I tried not to to be that way, um of like just going and I remember looking back at one point I was like, oh, crap, I've left I've left them behind stopped and uh. It's it's hard to do when you're in the front and you don't you know, just kind of expect everybody to be falling you and you look back and it's like, oh crap, there yards behind me.

I better slow down. Yeah, because because not only did I get all kind of woozy, but then also still just getting the feel of steering with the trolling motor and the extension on it. You know, everything's like backwards and I kept my head just was like not there were just so many things going on. It couldn't get it straight in my head. And so it just took me longer to get the hang of everything that night or that morning. But but I figured it out. We

survived it. It was all good, um. And that was the worst of the fog for the trip. Really, there was one an other day was pretty bad but not horrible. Um. But that brings to point to or brings to mind from me two things. One, you know, this was an inherent challenge of using water like we experienced that morning.

One of the big challenges of depending on water to get to your spots, because you know, if you didn't have on X or an app of some kind, you know, it would be essentially impossible unless you just used a compass and then follow the shoreline to get to different places. But I mean it definitely throws a big kink in or big challenge into getting into your hunting spots when you've got to deal with fog or you know, serious wind.

Like one day we had some serious wind and I started thinking, Man, I don't know if this kayak is gonna make much ground at all going against those gales of wind coming down. I mean, there's a lot of challenges to it. Um, So why is it worth those challenges? I know, you know we kind of touched on and briefly like get away from people, But sell me on why and how water access is so important and war the challenges that that that comes along with, because there

are I mean, there's there's safety issues to them. And there's a bunch that comes around along with it. Why is it worth it? What makes it so so important? And what you do? Well, there's a there's a couple of different things for me, Um, like I said before, Like I I really like the adventure and the story and the you know, being able to tell somebody, you know, I went, you know, in the wind and rain in a kayak and killed this buck. You know, that's a

it's a cool story and a cool experience. Stuff that like what you've called type too fun is definitely it's a definitely thing in it, and it type too fun is almost more fun in the long run than your type one fun. Right Like so, so there's that aspect that has almost nothing to do with the strategy or anything. It's just a feeling. Um. The second thing obviously is getting away from people, and it makes it definitely worth

it what I would rather do. I like it. There are not a lot of things to me that are worse than somebody like a human ruining a hunt. Right, so somebody walking underneath you or whatever, like nothing just completely destroys my confidence like that does. And uh, and so that it makes it worth it and worth it in that regard. Um. But there are so many advantages

to coming at a piece of property from water. Um. Number one, let's just let's just talk about getting busted on your on your access so early in the morning. You if anybody knows anything about thermals, you know that your thermals are pulling down usually if it's dark outside. So when you're coming from water, your thermals are absolutely

drawn to that water. And so any deer that is on land as long as you as long as they don't like if they don't see you or hear you or whatever, if you're not like super close to them, you're not gonna spook them, um, because they're not gonna catch your wind because your your thermals are just pulling down into the water. The second thing is is most of the time the deer don't associate that water with danger.

There's people fishing, like I said, there's beavers making all kinds of racket, there's ducks making noise, I mean, fish jumping, any type of splashing or anything like that. It's just not a it's not a spook to them, like you know, like a brier catching onto a to your hoodie and making a wild racket that spooks them because they associate

that with danger. But when you're coming at them from water, I mean, they're used to noise in those type of areas like that, and so they don't associate it with danger. And I think for me that has turned out to be one of the biggest advantages that I wasn't even thinking about earlier on um. And it like I can access a piece of a piece of land. And just for example, I had a hunt it's uh, probably in October.

It was in October, and I drugged my kayak to a like across a piece of property apart, drug it across, making all kinds of noise and literally just kayak right across a slough to another piece of property that was only accessible by water, like you would I would have had to do do it that way. And I shot a deer at daylight. I mean I made all kinds of noise getting that kayak drug across the land that

was only maybe a hundred yards away. And literally when I stepped my step foot on the land and walked like I think I walked like ten yards, there was a deer standing there and I shined his eyes and it was it had been standing there the whole time I was making all that racket, And to me, that just proves, like you know, the deer aren't expecting any type of danger coming from the water. Now they will get condition and to expect it in certain spots if

you're you know, over hunting a spot or whatever. But by and large, I find all over the country that coming coming at any animal from water, turkeys are the same way. I mean, uh, I've literally paddled right underneath a turkey on the river that was roosted and got set up on him, you know, later that morning before he flew down. So I mean it's I just think for a lot of wildlife, and then you have you have just the idea that, uh, wildlife is drawn to

water because they needed to survive. So your your densities are going to be a lot better close to water because they're just they're just drawn to it. So then what about how you're getting across that water. I know you've you've used a number of different types of vessels to use, you know, to get water access to spots. We use kayaks for some of the time, you had

a boat for some of it. Can you walk me through like how you make your choices, what's the ideal set up, what are the different types of boats or vessels you'd like to use. Kind of give me the scoop on all that. Well, it's like anything, man, it's it's uh, you kind of want to have every tool for every job. And I recently just bought a new boat last week. I bought a boat because the kayak is so sexy, man. I mean, like, there's there's not a lot of cooler pictures to me than a buck

laid on in front of a kayak. But there's also some efficiency issues with a kayak when you're talking about some spots that might be five miles away from the nearest spot you could put in. And so like I was finding that my effectiveness while while I am try to grind as hard as I possibly can, Like I would be getting up at one one o'clock in the morning to get out there and be on the water by three so that I could get to a spot

before daylight. And I mean that wears on you. Whereas with a boat, you really I mean, when you got a you know, a decent sized boat, you can get into a spot and in just a matter of minutes compared to ours with a kayak. But I have many spots. I mean a spot that I killed, um two of my Alabama bucks that this year where I couldn't use a boat, that I wouldn't be able to get a

boat back in there. Um, it's just too big and and it's not It's also not a far trip in a kayak, so I can get from where I put in at from the launch to the spot. I can be there within a few minutes in a kayak just paddling. So uh, it's better for that. And I've I've hunted places in in Kentucky where you really, I mean, it wouldn't be worth the trouble of hauling a boat because it's the waters, it's skinny water. And so I think

there's I think there's different reasons. Uh. One of the eye opening things to me this year, I was hunting in Kentucky and I was using my kayak to acts as a place. I shot a big buck um at like eleven o'clock that morning, and the deer just didn't bleed. It was a great shot. Deer just didn't bleed. And I was calling dogs. I searched for a little bit myself and decided a dog would be the best option. I was calling dogs, and nobody wanted to come and try to figure out a way to get their dog

on a kayak and all that crap. And so if I would have had a boat, there's not a doubt in my mind I would recover that deer. But I never found it because I was I was limited to just me being there by myself. And uh, if I would have had a have had a bigger vessel, I could have you know, I got a dog in there and recover the deer and so and and it was also completely accessible by boat. I didn't need a kayak. That was just the only craft that I had at the time. So I think, Uh, I think, like I

said before, there's there's different Uh. You want to have a tool for every job, and so I have both now, which is gonna be great. I can't wait to get that boat out there and use that more. Yeah. So, given your experience with boats and kayaks, is there any advice you'd give people if they're trying to get into this as far as style of boat or kayak or accessories or you know, any of the customizations or things you've kind of tweaked over the years. Anything on that

front worth noting. I would definitely say to to anybody wanting to get into it, Um, kayak is gonna be kayak or canoe whatever. I chose the best of both worlds and got a new canoe kayak which is basically a hybrid and it's got like an over six pound weight capacity on the the unlimited and the Frontier twelve version, so you have plenty of weight capacity, got lots of space. It's a really really good boat. You can put a troll and motor on it. You can put a small

outboard motor on it. When you're talking about versatility, that is like the most versatile thing. So I would buy that first before I bought a boat, because with a boat, you're still gonna be limited to a launch. You know, having an actual boat ramp that you can put it in at the kayak you can just drag it and go and uh, it may be more work in some places, you know. Like I said, for five years now, I've been waking up at one thirty and go and doing

it that way. But it's still worked. It was still effective. I'm just trying to be a little bit more effective by having both of those. So I would highly recommend a new canoe Frontier twelve or unlimited um as far as versatility goes, and then you just kind of grow from there. Like uh, like I said, the kayak is super sexy, but like I'm tired of waking up at one thirty every time I want to go five miles away from the from the ramp. So so yeah, I would.

I would definitely said that that's a a great tool to have, is and and if you can't afford a new canoe, a kayak is still gonna be a kayak or a canoe is still going to be about the most versatile one, because I mean, it is still going to be possible for you if you want to kayak fifteen miles, it's possible, right. It might not be fun and it might be hard work, but it's still possible. So I would I would get something like that that

you can put anywhere you want. Yeah, Randal, you've you've used some of these access tools now as well, since Parker has been getting into it from up. I mean, Parker, you're you're young guy who's kind of crazy, but from a dad perspective, Randall, would you would you add anything else? Is there anything for people you know a little older than Parker and me if they're thinking, Man, I don't know if this is just a young man's game or not. I mean, you've done it successfully too, right right. I

really have enjoyed the the kayak ability. I I mean, yes, I love having the buddy heater in my in my tall blind and be able to crawl up there and just enjoy the hunt. That's great, it's fun. I do that on my land. But but man, I tell you, one of the funnest times I had was last year at rut cation. Uh, and I think I think it's on Parker's YouTube channel, but man, I had a spike come in and and I got to first of all shoot the spike out of my tree saddle, so that

was kind of cool. I've never done that. And then uh got to kayak it out with my my nucas. And I'm a big guy, okay, I mean I'm wide. I'm I'm a wide fella. And um that that kayak and that deer or out of that place was just it's a memory I will always have. I didn't I mean, I loved paddling out it didn't really matter how far back in we were. I had my my little trolling motor, but I really enjoyed just paddling it out of there.

So I don't think that really matters how old you are that that was such a high in my life and it was a spot, but you would have thought it was a hundred and fifty class buck. I mean, I I really enjoyed that, and so yeah, it's it's great in a boat. I'm I'm taking my boat out Palabam and we've done that, but there was just something a little more special about the kayak. It just it just is a great experience. Yeah, well I can test from from my time out there, there's definitely something special

about that. I could I could see it too, So that brings that brings me then to the next piece of this though, which is, Okay, we know we got to use wall water. That's gonna get us away from people, that's gonna give us better access. But the next thing that I think a lot of people struggle with, and that I certainly was curious about when I was looking at maps of this area, was how the heck do

you find a deer? How do you find deer in these big, vast, big woods tracts of public land where you know, I mean, without knowing anything else, you could say, well, it could be anywhere out here. Um, that first morning, Parker, we headed straight across the lake, went up a ridge, got up top in a spot where you said, there a few things all coming together that you liked, and we we hunted there. Could you talk to me about

a why was that spot good? But then in general, you know, what are the things you look for in this kind of terrain in Alabama to find deer on public land? Well, that spot is such a good example. And that's why I think it it worked out perfectly for that first day is because that spot is where I killed probably the biggest deer I've killed in Alabama, not probably definitely the biggest deer I've ever killed in Alabama. And it really kind of opened my eyes to a

lot of a lot of different factors. And and it wasn't necessarily that I hunted that spot for that reason, but it was really like maybe the first time where it came together for a big, mature deer, and um, just just a breakdown of that area. So, uh, where we're hunting is big woods. You know ridges fairly steep,

not too terribly tall, but pretty steep stuff. Um mostly big woods though, And I I think it's easy for people to get intimidated when they look at a map of big woods type areas because there's not like, there's not soybean fields and the agg that you can really pinpoint. There's not corners like that that you can pinpoint, or funnels or anything like that. So um, the thing that I've kind of developed for myself is this uh um

common denominator type mentality of if everything. If if I find a spot on a map that shares all the different things that I'm looking for, then I'm not even scared to go in there blind on a morning hunt. Because what I found is if if an area offers all these different things, more than likely it's gonna have deer. I've been a very few of these places that I just found nothing, and so that's kind of up my odds a little bit. And those and I didn't coin

this phrase. Another guy that I had in my podcast named Matt pale Um brought this up whenever I was asking him how is he getting all these big bucks in the boat range? He said, well, X marks the spot.

And so when you think of uh, when you think of an X, right like everybody can make an X with their with their fingers, if you can imagine a different habitat type in each one of those negative spaces and each one of those points of the X, so as many different habitat types as you can find coming together, if you can get right in the middle of that, that's a lot of times gonna be where where the

deer are gonna end up at. So that by itself is great, But then you add some type of terrain feature like a ditch or a saddle or a bench or something, some type of terrain feature that we know that deer use. If you can put that to where it's either in close proximity or right on where all those habitat types meet, then you've just up your odds even more because we know that deer like to use

those type of terrain features by themselves. And so that's been able to help me just really eliminate entire chunks of big woods public land um because if it doesn't have that, then there's a good chance I'm probably not ever even gonna go in there unless it has that those things, those common denominators and it ups your odds significantly.

I think you know you you found that out. And um, you know when you when you're talking about Alabama and and maybe lower deer densities, or maybe it's not lower deer densities, but just a lot of monotonous type habitat and you're trying to key in on, you know, a pocket of deer. Then that's been the greatest thing. And so all of the uh, once I once I started kind of figuring that out, this specific spot, um where me and me and you went where I thought I

could explain it the best there was uh uh. Put the on the public land side there was just hardwoods, but then the property line, on the property line there was a clear cut and then there was a bunch of pines. And so you have a three way transition right there that you can watch. And then going right up into where all those habitat types come together, there's a very subtle like when I say subtle, I mean very subtle. Um uh did that goes right up into

those pines. And man, I the deer that the buck that I shot in there a couple of years back, he was just he walked right out of that three way transition walking that ditch, go into his bedding overlooking the water, and um, I find with water access, you you you typically are gonna be deer light to bed close to water because it offers a lot of thermal advantage to him in the day where those thermals are

rising up and the winds going up over them. Also, like I mentioned before, the water doesn't really pose a threat to them, and so they'll bed close by it because it's just a less chance of being in any type of danger, uh coming from the water. So um, yeah, all those factors start to add together, and you've come up with you know, you may not have just you may be looking at a thousand acres and there's only three spots that you could potentially hunt on those on

that thousand acres. But I mean it really starts narrowing down places to where it's not nearly as intimidating. Yeah. I found that to be the case too. It was it was easy for me to narrow things down when you you kind of broke down the two or three most important things. I remember after that first day, we we sat in that spot you described, We both got up there in the tree. We sat up there for

the morning. Didn't end up seeing any deer, but you know, I had a good amount of time there just to talk through all your different ideas and what you do and how these deer in the south act and behave and how they handle hunting pressure and all that stuff. And when we got done with that, I kind of got a thing like, what are the biggest takeaways here? Is like number one, you know, find that convergence of habitat type seek you described the X marks of spot

thing that was key. And then number two, use the water to get to places like that that nobody else can get to. And as you describe, there's not that many spots that check those two boxes. So I remember telling you, all right, Parker, so I just gotta find where the marks the spot, got to make sure I use the water to get away from where other people can get to. And then that's it, right, And then you said, well, there's one more thing. Then there's time

you gotta go. You gotta find these places. You gotta get to those hard to find places, and then you gotta give a time and if you do that, it'll, you know, opportunities will rise. Um. Was there anything else like when we when I parted ways with you after that morning hunt and I started go off on hunt

on my own. Was there anything else that you thought in your mind, like, man, I wish I'd told him this, or I forgot to talk about this, or there's something else that's important that we cover, you know, anything else people need to know to get the basics of finding and hunting deer in this country. I think you hit on probably the last thing that I didn't feel like

I spent much time talking about. But that was the time and and the conditions right, So anybody can go into these spots with a wind crappy wind and not see anything. You know, I've dealt with that this year of people who have watched some of my videos and figured out the spots that I hunt and they're going in there and yeah, I mean, just as an example, I went out there one day and there was a guy hunting a spot that was on one of my videos.

But the wind couldn't have been worse for that specific area, and so automatically I'm like, well, he's not gonna kill a deer there. Uh So I don't really don't have much to worry about. He's not gonna he's not gonna do much other than educate the deer you know that are in some of those betting areas. But um, you have to go in. And I don't think I'm saying anything that most hardcore deer hunters don't already know. But if the wind's not right, then this it can be

the best spot in the world. You're not gonna see anything. You're gonna just all you're gonna do is educate and so making sure you put in the right amount of time and making sure that you're in there when the conditions are right, that is, uh, that's perhaps the greatest

thing that anybody can do. You can go into a a spot, um uh, you know, a hundred yards off the road on public land that may be getting pounded, and if you sit there every single day of the season, you might kill a right like you might there's a there's a decent chance that you're going to just because you put in the amount of time. I find that the most the people who kill the best deer and are the most consistent are the ones who are out

there the most. So I mean think that for what it's worth, you know, I think that might be the most important tactic that anybody can can put into practices. Just go as much as you can, but in the right places and in the right places at the right times for those places, right sure, And I yes that will I think that will increase your odds for sure. Like I want to be I want to be effective and efficient, and so I'm gonna go into the right

places for the you know it's gonna take. I think if you're in the right places, it's gonna take significantly less time. Um. I think what I'm saying is is like so out here, nobody, nobody really hunts the green fields on the wm as because everybody hunts the green fields. Um. But I know a guy out here that the biggest buck he ever killed was on one of those green fields.

Um on on one of the w m a's He killed a hundred and sixty inch deer on public land in Alabama, off one of the green fields because he was just kind of there at the right time. So I think all these spots everywhere can produce if you sit there enough, But your your efficiency is gonna go up. Like for me and you, Mark, you had four days

to go out there and and make something happen. We're gonna do the thing that I feel like is the most efficient, not just something that eventually it'll maybe produce something. We're gonna do the thing that's gonna that that I feel like is going to produce the quickest speak kind of being on you know, short time frame to four days, brand new place, hunting, a new area, new style of hunting. You and me. You're sitting in that tree still that

first morning. I remember asking you, Parker, like, what's a realistic what what is realistic for me to get a stab at out here? You know, I kind of wanted your perspective on how I might be thinking about my goals or standards for this trip. You want to kind of recap for me what you were thinking when it came to, you know, how I should be thinking about

my decisions to target. Dear, And I remember, you know, when we first started talking, I was like, man, well, I see a two year old buck, a three year old buck? Should I shoot? The first year? I see? I really had no idea what was out there? Um, what was Give me a load down again of what

your thoughts are on that. So we were I think we were talking on the phone and we were either texting or talking on the phone, I can't remember, but you had said, uh, hey, man, listen, this this whole dear culture thing is turn it out to be a lot harder than I anticipate it, going into new places and trying to kill a deer. And so you know, maybe what do you think, what do you think I should shoot? And I said, well, here's an example. I would be pissed if my dad didn't shoot the first

buck that he saw when he comes down. Like, to me, that's if you can come as a nonresident to the South, especially in in some of the places that I hunt, if you can come out there and you can shoot a buck like that's a big accomplishment. When when you're not from here, you don't have the time invested and you're just trying to trying to shoot a deer like

that's to me, that's a huge accomplishment. Um. I think I mentioned it before and when I was in Nebraska or not Nebraska and North Dakota earlier this season, I went out in like the second day on that public land area that I was hunting, I saw a giant buck. That's just not realistic out here. Um. And so I think whenever you when you when you said originally like you know, a three and a three year old or a two year old would be like you're cut off. I was like, you know that that might not be

a super realistic expectation. Uh, it's definitely possible, but may not be realistic for what you might see. And I gave you the example mark that I had hunted probably close to five days a week from October one through Thanksgiving and saw two bucks in that entire time period. And I I consider myself to be somebody who knows the area as well that i'm hunting, and I'm fairly

effective in these areas that I'm hunting. But I saw a spike, and I saw a six point like a basketback tiny six point um And and that was from October through November through through I mean almost two months of hunting a lot. And so obviously you were there during the rut, so things would I felt like you had a good chance of being able to see a buck, but being able to see a big buck that's just a hard that's just a it's just it's just hard.

I mean, I think hunting matured deer anything over three and a half three and a half and older. Is is uh, very very difficult thing to do even in the place that you live, let alone it be in a place that you've never been to before. Um so yeah, I think that's kind of where my When you said like, hey, I might be willing to shoot something a little bit younger, I know, I lit up because I was like, oh, yeah, we're gonna make this happen. Now it don't work out,

you basically said, man, you better let it fly. And when you when you told me that you've seen only two bucks since October, that's when I was like, Okay, I got a better idea of what we're dealing with here. And and I also was thinking about you talked about

one thing that stuck with me. You had said after we got done that morning hunt and we're about to go boat away from the shore line, and you said, you know a lot of guys have that moment, like that really special moment for them is when they walk up to a buck they just killed and they finally get to see it and put their hands on and said, well,

that's not the moment on this kind of hunt. The moment on this kind of hunt is when you get that deer in the kayak and you're floating across the lake or the river or whatever, and you're just paddling along and you get to kick back and look up at the sky and look at the water and the waves lapping up against your boat and the buck out there in front of you, and you just soak that all in. That's the moment. I remember thinking, I want that moment. I don't care if it's a four year

old or a one year old or a buck. I want that moment to kind of get the whole experience. And that's when I decided, you know what, Yeah, if I can get a buck, I'm gonna be pretty darn tickled. And so that ended up being the goal was just you see, if you see handlers, you're you're letting a rip, and uh, that was the game plan. That moment is

is unbeatable to me. And um, you know it. I have found, like like what my dad said earlier, even if I have a motor hooked up, if I shoot a deer, I'll just float out and I'll take my time. I'll take pictures. You know, call people, call my friends, you know, my hunting buddies, called dad. You know, I just that's the time for me. That's like, that's that's it.

Like I just I soak it up, man, And it really ticks me off when I have somewhere that I have to be and I just like I just decided, like I'm gonna get a quick hunt in right here. And it really ticks me off when I'm successful on those quick hunts like that, because you don't get to really soak in that moment uh nearly as much, and so that kind of sucks whenever you're successful on those

type of hunts. But when you don't have anywhere to be and you just you know, wife's not expecting you home until dark and you can just really just take your time, it's just man, there's there's not much like it. Yeah, that that seems hard to beat. And uh man, that's what I was shooting for. That's what I was hoping.

That was gooding to experience. And uh, I guess for the stake of speeding things up, I'll start moving us a little bit more through what happened from there, because we hunted that morning, I went back to camp, made a game plan for what I was gonna do after that, and then we we separated and you were gonna go hunt, and your dad was gonna go hunt, and I was gonna go hunt, and we're all gonna go different directions.

And that first evening I decided to go in the same general direction as where we hunted the first day, um or the first morning, but kind of the other side of it, and uh explore some different train that looked like there was one of these convergences of a kind of a cutting and some pine plantation stuff and then maybe some kind of field or old food plot on a neighboring private peace. I thought maybe that looked good with some ridges pinching into it. UM. Long story

short on that one. As I walked up in there, boat across walked up in there, kind of scouted my way up to that area, and I didn't find much. Found a couple of little rubs and sat for the last part of the night, didn't see any deer. UM wasn't blown away with anything. The next morning, I was going to go back to the same general area, UM, because I did find a little zone that I thought, Man, it might be worth giving it one good morning hunt.

And you told me that, for whatever reason, mornings are a lot better out there and there was some weather pushing through, so I thought it could be decent. So I thought, I'll go back to that spot in the morning and then scout and find my way to something new for the afternoon. But we woke up that morning and the same as what the forecast had been, there

was a big storm blowing through in the chop. I mean, the wind pushing down the lake was more than I was expecting, and I remember thinking, man, is this kayak even gonna be able to make it up here? Because I was gonna have to go right into the wind across the main body of water, and it just seemed like that was gonna be quite an endeavor. And I can't remember if it was you, Parker or random one or the two of you, was like, Man, I don't know if you want to try to do that in

that in that kayaking might be easier. Just go with the wind. Go this other general area looks pretty good. Try that. Um. I don't know who told me that, but whoever it was, that was enough to kind of push me in that direction, and um, that's what I did. We ended up going to a totally different area. Basically, this was a spot you we kind of looked at the maps together. Parkers you probably remember, and you said, hey,

this is a decent general area. You know, there's a couple of good train features that you might like, and you know this is where you would want to take your boat into, and then from there you can figure it out. And so I took my boat up this little slew parts of the bottomless little Finger, and then worked my way up a point before daylight, and I got up on top of this point, and on the map you kind of see that this looked like, um, like a big half circle with a bunch of points

coming off of this. I almost think of like a horseshoe, like an upside down horseshoe ridge, with little spur points dropping off into the bowl. So it's a little bit an amphitheater. And I was on a point that was right in the middle of this bowl looking down it, and then there were several other points that all converged right down beneath me, like uh, like a reverse turkey foot almost, And I thought, all right, well, if bucks are cruising right, this is the rut out there in

southern or wherever nail Band we were. It was a late rut December ruts, So these bucks should be cruising if they're trying to get from point A to point B. A lot of different point as and b's that many of them might funnel down through this little convergence of these different points coming down. So I thought, hey, this has got potential. So I decided to sit there and

see what happened. Big old storm came pushing through. I forgot to bring any kind of I brought my rain gear, but the camera guys that brought little tree umbrellas that they set up above their trees. So we're all sitting on the ground. There's me and two cameraman. They all

had these little umbrellas over them. I had nothing, so I just kind of curled up in a ball and tightened down all my rain gear and just got pummeled for I don't know how many hours, several two or three hours or something like that, of just I mean a pretty darn serious storm. I mean that sucker came through hard and heavy and just dumped on us thunder and lightning, and and I was just sitting there trying to survive it. Um. I don't remember where you guys

were at that point. I I don't know what I don't know what your hunting experience was, but we were. I believe we were in town eating. We were there. Yeah, we did not go hunt that morning, you weren't. I think I woke up to alloud crack of thunder that was literally like it lit up the sky right like lit up our whole tent, and I look over at Dad and he kind of gave me that look like I'm not scared, but that was kind of scary, and

uh and uh. I texted you, I said, hey, you guys alive, and then I didn't get anything back for like two hours. So y'all, ye could have been dead and we just never would have known. But um, yeah we did. We definitely didn't hunt that day. We props to you guys for going out that morning because we were kind of like, I don't really want to do that. It wasn't the most one I've ever had, but it

wasn't the worst. I guess. We we we sat out to the storm, and it actually almost worked out for me because I don't know, a couple hours into the storm, the rain was still coming down pretty good, but the thunder and lightning had passed, and I was just like rain and wind, and I remember looking down the point and all of a sudden seeing a deer running down one of these one of these kind of spur ridges dropping down to the bottom some you know, dal and

deal and buck coming down, Buck coming down. One of the camera was actually off going to the bathroom somewhere, so it's just me and Dalon and this deer comes tearing down to the bottom. I pulled my binoes looked down on the bottom and it's you know, pouring rain and windy, so it's hard to see, but I could see, like, I'm pretty sure that's a buck. And so that buck gets down to the bottom, he's probably two yards away something like that, and he's now running up the opposite side,

and he's he's really moving. It's not he's he wasn't like spooked running, but he was like trotting along. And so I remember grabbing my gun, pulling off the scope covers, and then thinking to myself, Man, if he comes up this point on the left side of me, I'll be able to see him, but I gotta move, I gotta move.

So I kind of crab walked like four or five yards to the left so i'd have a better view, and now I'm thinking, Okay, if he comes up this this ridge, it will be you know, within view, and I think i'd ranged in the past the far the second see was about a hundred and fifty five yards, and this is a this is a gun hunt, so I could shoot you know, off that far. And I remember thinking, if he comes anywhere along the front side of this ridge, I've got a shot. Well, he didn't

come on the front. He came right on the top and kind of just over the other side. So there was moments where I'm trying to pick him out in between his thick woods, I'm trying to pick him out. I'd see him for a moment and then he'd be gone. And then I'd see him for a moment in my scope, but he'd be too far on the other side of the ridge side just see his head on the top of his back, and then he'd be on my set

for half a second. And there just was never a moment when I could clearly see him in my scope and his vitals at the same time as he's just like cruising fast in this rain and wind. My scopes you know, wet and foggy and all that stuff, and it was just like all that stuff made for a chaotic I don't know how long it was, thirty seconds or something, as this buck was running through there. Um, but it was enough to at least get my blood pumping.

I saw my first buck of the trip, first deer of the trip, I guess, and you know, made that stormy, nasty sit a lot more palatable. Um, we're all excited and um. The rain eventually let up after that, and I don't know, I think we sat there to like one o'clock, and then at one I got to thinking, Man, we've seen that one deer. We've been here for I don't know, seven hours or something. Um, I've yet to see anything else around here. I hate to put too much time in a spot like this without, you know,

having gotten a sense of what's around me. And so I decided, you know, I'm gonna take advantage of this wet leaf cover we have now in the wind and do a quick scout. I thought, all right, I'll do a midday scouting session. I'll make a loop, look at some stuff that I'm interested in on the map, and either confirmed that yes, I'm in the best out and come back here, or if I find something new along the way, you know, and then I can hunt that. I just wanted to learn. I didn't want to be

hunting blind. So I looked at my map and found a couple of different spots where it looked like there were these edges that we talked about coming together. I remember seeing there was a spot where there was a horrid line of pines you could see, like planted pines. I didn't know how old or young. I didn't know if it was thick or mature, but I knew like there was pines meeting mixed hardwoods, so that was an

edge of interest. I saw another spot where that looked like thick brush, like maybe there's been some past clear cuts or something there. This is like thicker, nasty stuff that butted up against the hardwoods. And then I found two other spots like that, So I thought, all right, I'll circle up to the pine edge. From there, I'll take that edge to where it connects with this brushy looking stuff, and then from there I'll circle south to what looks like something else kind of along those lines.

I just didn't know if this is like shrubby stuff or if this was trees. I don't know how old these cuts where I didn't know how old the arrow imagery was. Um, so that's my kind of game plan for that loop. So we worked our way up, got to the mature pine edge, and I saw that it was not too mature, like it wasn't big hard it wasn't like big old pines. These were I don't know what the h B fifteen years old maybe something like that, enough that you couldn't walk through them easily. You couldn't

see through them easy. It was. They were tight, it was thick, it was low like good betting. And I'm thinking, man, okay, this is this is a good thing. Found a couple of rubs are on that edge. Kept working that edge another quarter mile or something like that, and then I got to something that didn't show up on the map. I got to hear and there was a bridge coming

up to that hard pine edge. But then where that ridge connected with the hard pine ridge or sorry hard pine edge, was a clear cut on the neighboring private land, like a big old open clear cut where they cut it probably the year prior. I'd say, this is like a one year old clear cut, so you could see across it. There was a lot of like low brushy cover um, but you know, nothing over waist high probably, so there's this big open brushy I assume there'd be

you know, some good food out there. Now you've got this very distinct edge between the pines and that there's a distinct edge between that in the hardwoods. And I was walking along in the line of then there's the spur ridge that's coming into that, so you've got that

terrain feature. And then I got to the top of that ridge and on the other side of it was one of those older cuts that I've seen on the map, and that was like a I don't know, five year old, ten year old cut of some kind where really shrubby, brushy, nasty stuff, and some like young pines that were you know, I don't know, a little overhead high that kind of stuff,

like really thick nasty. So you've got four one, two, yeah, basically four different terrain or have kind of cover types, all converging right where these two ridges came together too. And I'm like, man, this is like bing bang boom. This is an absolute perfect example that X marks the spot type situation you were describing Parker. And then as I'm seeing these things and identifying these things, and I'm walking along, I'm saying, look, there's a rub, there's a rub,

there's a scrape. And I hadn't seen any sign almost anywhere else the whole, the whole, the rest of the time I've been out there, right, and now all of a sudden were these edges. I'll come together, here's all this sign popping up. And I did a little circle around there a little bit more, just to check things out. I found ended up finally fifteen scrapes in this general zone, six or seven rubs and all right. Then I said, okay, this is by far the best thing I've seen as

I've walked all around here. Um, this has everything that I think should pull deer in here. And I'm not at this point. I you know, as I subscribed, wasn't trying to kill a big, giant buck. So it wasn't like I was looking for a huge track or monster rub or something like that. This is simply like, is this kind of place that deer would likely be moving through. There's a lot of different edges coming together. It's the rut. Would a buck be passing through here? I sure as

heck would think. So you've got a couple of spots that probably could be deal betting. There's a couple of spots where there might be deer feeding. There's all these edges that are probably travel corridors, possible pinch points of those terrain features. I was sold. So sat there that afternoon. I didn't see a deer, but that was okay. I figured, um, I figured it was worth coming back to the next morning. So that was day two. The next day, the next day was a third day of our trip, not counting

our first night. Voted back there, me and my two Cameron, Dylan and Bob. We slipped up this initial ridge. We we accessed by the same route we did the first day. So we voted down that slough, came up this ridge, circled around up this little draw to get to the ridge where I was sitting the first night. I'm sorry that that second night get set up again. We're just sitting on the ground. And this is probably worth noting.

This is something that you know, you had talked Parker about how you often like to hunting the saddle, like to get up high, and so I brought my saddle, I brought my climbing sticks, and I thought, yeah, very well,

might do that. But as I started like seeing the area and getting a sense of it and knowing that I had a gun, I ended up making the decision that I would prefer to hunt from the ground because what it did for me, at least in this early exploratory phase, was it gave me the ability to quickly adjust, right.

I mean, in a moment's time, I could adjust. Because when you're going up in with sticks in the saddle, even though that's more mobile than any other tree, you know, tree stand type hunt, that's as mobile as you can get, it's still quite an investment of time energy, not to mention when you've got two other guys that need to get up in a tree with camera gear too. And I knew that if we made the investment in time to get up in a tree like that, we're kind

of stuck there. You know. It's hard to get out of that situation and make a bunch of moves. Um. I imagine if we had done that that first day, it would have been a lot harder decision to pull everything down and go scout midday. You know. So with a gun, I knew, like I've got more range, I'm not so worried about a deer seeing me beforehand, because I'm not setting myself up right on top of where I think they're gonna travel. I wasn't setting up twenty

yards from those edges. I was setting up a hundred yards from those edges. So I would see any deer well before it would see me. Hopefully I have the range to get a shot at it, and I preserve the ability to make any little adjustment I needed. I could stand up and shoot. I could stand up and walk ten yards and get in the better shot. You know, I could do anything like that, and that ended up being super helpful. I mean I had to do that

during the storm buck encounter. I had to make a five yard move to get you know, even to be able to see this deer. Now that midday, I got up scouted found new area that first morning. Now, in this location I'm describing, we all sat down against trees up on this ridge. We can see down to will where all these edges come together. And about forty five minutes an hour after daylight, here comes a buck working right along that hard pine edge, that thick, nasty pine edge.

Remember seeing the buck, I stood up, I tried to get my gun rested against the side of the tree. It was first buck was like a little forky I think, but then like right behind it there was a bigger buck, a six pointer. If it had brown, I could never see if it at broad times, so it might have

been an eight. Uh, it might have been a two year old possibly, But I remember thinking, all right, I'm gonna take a crack at this buck, the first one I would have, And then when I saw a second one, I was like, Okay, I'm gonna try to get a shot this second buck. But from where I was sitting and at this point standing, they were visible for just like a couple of seconds dropping down into this bottom, and then they disappeared the hill, disappeared behind the hill

as they were coming up my ridge. And the problem that I didn't realize at the time was as soon as they would get to the top of the ridge where I'd be able to shoot at them, they were buying these thick, nasty pines and only popped out for like a split second before going further into the cover.

They didn't walk on the outside of this. This is gonna be hard to describe, but as I as I mentioned, there was like the the first pine edge, and then there's the clear cut, and then there's like the newer um, the newer pines. They were traversing the edge of the old pines and then coming across to the new pines, but instead of going on the outside edge of the new pines, they went right into them. And we're like five yards into him, and I couldn't shoot through that.

There's just so much junk. So that first buck popped through, and you know, it was out of my view before even really having a chance to range him or get any idea if i'd get a shot. But I knew, like, okay, that's where the next buck is probably gonna pop up. So I just put my scope there and was waiting, and sure enough he popped out. But I mean he was in and out of my opening in a moment before i'd even have a chance to get the scope on him, clearly get a good idea if it was

a good shot, anything like that. So he was in and out of my life very quickly, and was in that brush and you could still see his antlers moving around. You could see him, but not any kind of clear shot opportunity. And then they disappeared. So that was that it was great that I saw these two bucks. I was excited, but disappointed that I couldn't get a crack

at him. Now, I've seen three different bucks on public land that I potentially could have shot at, but not any one of them was able to actually get a clear, good you know, a good shot opportunity. So in my mind, I'm thinking, man, like, I gotta I gotta take advantage of one of these encounters. I've had these opportunities, like I take advantage. And now on a half hour later,

here comes four doors. They did the exact same thing that those two bucks did, come down that hard edge, work their way down to the bottom, up the ridge into the pines. So I'm feeling good about this setup I'm in, but now I know, okay, this is a second group of deer that followed that same edge, and I just don't have many good shot opportunities. It was like so brief, these little tiny windows. So this is where sitting on the ground really ppped out. I just said,

all right, we're gonna move. We're just gonna bump up. As I told the guys, all ight, I'm gonna shift like thirty forty yards down the ridge to get a little bit closer to this, and to have a little bit better vantage point to see down to this bottom, so that I could see them not only when they're in the edge, but also when they dropped down, and then also see them for a longer period of time if they came up the opposite ridge by the new pines.

So I'm still watching my three points all coming together, just from a slightly different elevation and a slightly different angle. And we were able to stand up, walk thirty forty yards down, sit down again, and be in this new spot with a new vantage point in one minute versus the who knows half hour forty five minutes it would have taken to tear everything down, walk over there, set everything back up, Especially when you've got all those cameras

and stuff they bring, it's a nightmare. So this, uh, this worked out well. Well, you know, I guess at that point there was one other thing interesting that happened. I had made my move, I'd shifted down there. It's now later in the morning, and I remember looking at my phone and getting a text from you, Parker. You had some news for me. Do you want to describe what happened to you at that point. Yeah, I had

a great morning that morning. Um it was really uh like I don't know that you mentioned it before, but we had had hot weather the two days. The first two days it was like seven degrees really warm, and we finally got a cold front that pushed through that day and so I really felt like dear after that storm system blew through, the cold front started coming in. Um, I really felt like we had a good chance that morning, so I kind of went into a high odds type area.

The wind was gonna be perfect for it, and uh, I was able to shoot probably the biggest buck I've killed the season. Uh, that's that same morning that you where you had all the encounters. It was really nice, heavy, heavy mass eight point and I saw I guess he was the tenth deer that I saw that morning. It's just really good rud activity Bucks small Bucks chasing. Does I think it was about nine nine or nine thirty that I killed him, And uh, it was it was cool. Ben.

I mean so you uh you you kind of mentioned you know where we've we've really kind of talked about uh subtle terrain features going into these uh convergence of habitat types and it was it was really almost an identical setup to that first morning. The spot that we went into that first morning, there's a a clear cut um that meets some pines on private and then hardwoods on the public side, with a with a very subtle draw that goes right up into that into that convergence

habitat types. And so all the deer were either coming out of that or going up into that. And uh, obviously that time of year, some of the doughs were hot, and so there was I had a spike come through just grunting and you know, carried along and then right at nine I can't remember that one was at nine

or nine thirty. It was fairly late in the morning, though. Uh. He came down, came out of it, came out of the the convergence, and was going downhill in that that little subtle draw chasing or uh sent nose to the ground on one of those hot dough trails, and uh, I was able to shoot him right there. I mean it was I could have shot him with the bow probably it was like thirty yards away man, as it was a nice buck and you and no, I can't remember because I was busy with all my drama that day.

Did you meet up with your dad and recover him together? Did you bring him back to camp? Like? How did that all go down? So Dad actually, uh brought his his bass tracker with a fifty horsepower mercury on it. So, um, while y'all were there, I decided to retire the kayak for that week and hunt with Dad using the boat because it was just a little bit easier and I was able to get back into some of these spots that I don't get to hunt just a ton with

my kayak, and that was one of those spots. Uh. And so Dad came and dropped me off that morning. He you know, it took me up, dropped me off, and he went back and hunted man, not as the crow file is not very far away from where you were at, but kind of in that same general area, uh, spot that we call kill Hill where we've killed a lot of killed a lot of bucks at. So Dad came back and hunted that area. And then when I shot, I believe he had. Dad, you had some deer around you, right,

so you you weren't able to come right there? Yeah, I had. I had some deer that were just my fifteen yards from me. But there was a couple of doughs, but and I was hoping a buck would come out on him, but he didn't. But but yeah, I was. I guess I was probably a mile and a half from where you were at. Yeah. For a matter fact, when you shot, I thought it was marked. I texted you and said, I think Mark just just just took

some shots. I don't know why. I guess the wind direction that day was just bringing in that that sound. But you worked long ways away from Yeah. Yeah, it was kind of weird, um because you, I texted, said big buck down or something like that, and you said, I think Mark just shot one two. He shot three times, and I was like, well I just shot three times. Uh yeah, but he uh So Dad ended up coming around eleven o'clock and we drug it off, jug it

off the mountain. So funny, it was a funny thing that happened right then because uh there was another guy apparently that had also been dropped off on the same mountain by another guy in the boat. So there was zero boats parked in the spot and two guys hunting it um and neither one of us knew that the other was there. And so when we come dragging that deer down off the mountain. We ended up walking dragging

that deer, I mean, right underneath this dude. Uh, and with really no way of knowing that anybody else was up there, um, which I mean I had been up there talking to my camera and me and Dad had been talking the whole time. So it wasn't like, I mean, that guy's hunt was ruined probably a long time before we walked underneath there, but it was. That was a kind of funny thing, and it was really one of the first times that that's ever happened to me out there,

of running into anybody the else hunting. So um. But yeah, it was cool. So we went back to camp, had our celebratory ball of fruity pebbles and pebbles. Yeah, you guys, you guys are enjoying yourselves. They're celebrating. I was celebrating with you virtually. I was excited, but I had a

long day head. I remember hearing about that, and then that was very soon after, like mid day, when I said, Okay, it's kind of breaking some snacks and me the guys, so we're eating our lunches, eating I don't know, chips, and hostess treats and all that kind of stuff. And I remember we got into like the mid day crazies where it must have been like one something one, and we've been there a long time and it just kinda

worn on us. So I think at this point, I was eating an apple and thinking to myself, Man, these poor camera guys. They've got to wear headphones to monitor my audio. And I just thought to myself, man, these poor guys are sitting here listening to be chomp on an apple in their in their heads, like every time I eat anything, it's just crunching in their minds, like they must just hate me so much. And I remember looking at them and like saying like, I'm sorry, guys.

It s must be really annoying, isn't it. And then I'm like we should have some fun with this, and so I was like, all right, let's play a game. So you know, you gotta you gotta do a little something to spice things up out there sometimes with the with the crew, So I start humming songs quietly, but in their headphones they can hear it very well. And so for like ten minutes, I'm humming different songs and

they're trying to guess what song it is. And then we're like we're cracking up now, sitting there like a couple of schoolgirls underneath trees, humming to each other, trying to guess the songs. And then all of a sudden, like, oh, there's a deer, and coming down the ridge behind me, coming down into that bottom towards the pine edge is a buck. Pulp my bino. See it's a buck. See it's a shooter. This is like a tighter and taller

buck than the other ones. We saw what I thought was like maybe a two year old, and and you know, so right away I'm getting into position. I remember grabbing my gun. They're getting into position. I kneel and lean my gun against this tree for stability. I think I

was kneeling. Did I stand for this one? I can't remember. Um, but this buck comes is coming down a hill and he stopped, and he stopped right between two trees, and I can just see between these two trees, like I can see like a four inch window maybe I don't know, very very very small window between these two trees. And I remember that's when I was able to get my

binoculars and see what he was. And remember at this moment, thinking to myself, this bo is not getting away, Like I've had three different bucks come through haven't been don get a good clear shot through the trees and all the movement and stuff, and this time like, there's no way I'm not going to shoot this buck. So I remember thinking, like, you're gonna make this work. So that

buck stood there for a while. I watched him. Everyone's in position, He's I don't know, a hundred and fifty yards something like that away, but kind of angling towards me, maybe last maybe a hundred yards something like that. And sure enough, he eventually started moving again. After he stood there for a long time. I don't know if he heard us or just was doing that kind of thing the bucks do where they stopped and just taking their surroundings.

But eventually started moving again. And he's dropping down this hill and he moves down almost to the very bottom. And there was a couple of times where I I'm trying to remember what specifically I was using my rifle, and this was a rife, so I had my rifle, so I must have like clicked off my safety. I feel like I have this memory of clicking off my safety and telling the guys are gonna take a shot.

And then he started moving again, and now he stopped a second time, and this time he stopped and again he's behind trees. But I remember seeing him and seeing him stop behind the trees and then thinking to myself, well, that's the back of his front leg right there. So what i'm seeing this opening, I'm seeing that's the vitals.

So if I put it right there, even though I couldn't see his front part and I couldn't see his back part, like I'm looking at his vitals because I could just catch the edge of his legs, I'm like, all right, that's it. I can take this shot through this gap. And again, I'm not not going to get a shot of this deer, is what I've been telling myself. So I lined up and took the shot, and he blasts out there, running, racking another shell. And he's not you know, he's not looking hit. He's running off at

the same time. You know, sometimes you just don't know in the heat of the moment. But I'm like, man, he's still going pretty good. Why is he going? So I just kept waiting for him to show a sign of being hit, and he didn't, so he got up the other side of this ridge, and I had been trying to get back on him, and I would get back on him and I squeeze off another round, but

nothing happens. There's just like no shot, nothing, and then he runs off and I then look on I try to rack that shell out and for whatever reason, I still don't know what caused it, but it never racked a shell. And when I when I tried to UM put another one in there for that second shot. So something happened got jammed up in some kind of way. So I took a shot and had no round in there, no round to be able to actually take advantage of that second round. And so there's there's all that, and

I don't know what happened. I don't know did I miss it? Did I get a bad hit on it? Why did he run off the way he ran off? I asked the caraman, like, man, let's look and see what happened here. UM, just a lot of uncertainty, as oftentimes it can be when those things happened fast and crazy like that. To make a long story short, we look at the footage, it doesn't look like there's an impact. UM, But at the same time he jumped. You never know,

So we're gonna go down there and look. We go down there to the shot of the site, and within moments of getting to where I thought that buck was, I said, oh, I know what happened. And right there on that tree that he was standing behind, on the last inch on the outside, there's the hole in the tree, and my bullet lodged into the tree. If I had been an inch and a half to the right, it would have been perfect dead deer. But instead my bullet

found an Alabama oak tree. And uh that shot. Lots of those shot mini Alabama oaks and they don't taste good, but know this one didn't. So I was pretty bummed out, super bummed out. Um, you know, just just was very disheartening. But we walked in the can I jump in here just for please, I'm sorry to jump in, but you say you shot one of those Alabama oak trees. I have happened to shoot the same oak tree twice, so uh, I that's video footage of that that Parker has, uh

did the same tree twice, So I'm sorry. I just didn't sill that in. I do feel better, thank you. That makes me feel a little better for sure. Yeah, you know, there's a bunch of them out there, and uh, I have not. I didn't have one suck on this, not one deer that was taking its time. That was the rut, So I mean that's not too terribly uncommon.

But all the deer I saw on this trip were cruising fast, even the doughs, like there was nothing lollygagging around, there was nothing enabling its way along, there was nothing taking its time sniffing like. Everything was on the move. Um. I don't know if that's unique or if that's how they always are out here, or if it was just because of the rut, but I mean there was no slow shot opportunities. Everything was progressing very quickly and um, and I just had to try to take advantage when

I could and didn't work out. But that one, that one stung. We went up back to the top of the ridge and I remember telling guy as well, you know, that wasn't what any of us wanted. Sorry guys. But on the bright side, we did just see another buck. We've seen three bucks come through cruising there here, so at least the spot's good. Uh, let's see if anything else would do it. And uh, we got set back

in the same spots. Uh. I just remember sitting there, just kind of kind of in my own head, knocking myself up the head and thinking like, what could have done differently? Should he wait until he cleared those trees, or just you know, should you have aimed a little bit further back knowing that you had more you know, more give or more more forgiveness. If I would have aimed a little bit further back on the lungs instead of rapped towards the heart, like you should have done that?

Why did you aim close to there? And did you pull the shot? You know, all that kind of stuff you do after a bad shot. Um. But as I'm doing all that, I remember sitting there and I just remember hearing this from across the way, and instantly it was like that was leaves, like scraping leaves. And I

looked across the way. And then and as I hear that noise out this time, I see a leg like a big black thing moving sure enough across that ridge, the same ridge that buck had ran across and up out of he'd and you know the one I hit the tree on, he ran up this other ridge and went into those that hard mature pine edge. Well, now coming off of that same ridge, here's a buck again across the way and he's making a scrape. So this is at three something o'clock, somewhere in that three o'clock hour,

if I remember right. So, holy crap, this is buck number four coming through here. Tell the guys we get a buck over the let's getting position. I remember grabbing my backpack, moving to the other side of the tree and putting my backpack on the ground in front of me. This time, I'm sitting on my butt, my knees up, and I put the backpack in between my two knees. And my backpack that I was using was like a bigger framed backpack, so I had like a hard top.

So I remember thinking, this is going to give me a better steady aiming position. I popped my gun up on that look at this little buck and it was a seven pointer, nothing big, but a seven pointer and a buck I was gonna shoot. So I remember seeing the uck, knowing he was probably generally arranged, but he was moving again. He made that scrape, but not before I was able to get in position. Now he's working down his way towards me and to make a long story short. He works his way down almost to the

bottom until he finally stops and turns. He turns broadside. I tell the guys, all right, here we go. I pop it off safety and then he spins and starts going the other way again. And I remember thinking, okay, do I do? I wait? He'd spun almost a d eighty degrees around, starts going the other way. No, I was going away from me. And then he turned and kind of opened up. He was quartering away and opened it up enough, and I thought, okay, and there's all

these trees down there. It's just like he's in and out and in and out of available shooting lanes. Just when he turned quartering away, I said, all right, that's it. Took the shot this time. You can see instantly he had been hit. But it wasn't like the pile driving hit where he where's like front legs drop and he's

like a snow plow. Uh. This was like hit and jumped straight up, spun backwards, and then went running off the direction that the first buck had come from, off to our right up and over this hill, just tearing out of there. Definitely hit, definitely hit hard, but didn't see him drop within sight. Uh again, not sure of you know exactly where the shot was. Look at the footage. The footage shows that the hit was further back and then where I wanted, And I thought I'd be a

little bit. I wanted to be a little bit back. Is that quartering away angle? But this is further back than that. So we wait, I don't know, not as long as we should have. But an hour something after that, we're like, well, let's just go look for blood and see what the situation is. And it it did look like when he ran off, he got over this little rise and it just looked like he was about to

topple over. He was definitely hurting. So we go over there, don't find a lot of blood, but you can see pretty somewhat clearly where it looks like he kicked up the leaves and was running. So I felt ray to this thing that all of us are tempting to do sometimes, I think, which is you just want to see that dead deer, like you just want it to be done. You want to know that you got him. And I

missed that deer earlier in the day. So I was had this like overwhelming like, oh, no, not like another thing, not go right. I just gotta find him. I want that feel good. I need to feel good. What I should have done is I should have said, all right, the shot wasn't perfect, um, but he's gonna die. Let's just get out of here and wait longer. But instead I was like, let's just let's just look over this next hill, and sure enough, we go over that next

hill and bump the buck. He had not gone down yet, goes kind of running shuffling off. This is now at right at dark, so I can't go any further. Um. I was able to see that it was the buck going off, but couldn't get another shot at that point. All right, let's back out, give this deer a little more time and to to take you know, seven hours, and compressed it into thirty seconds. We went back to camp, met up with you guys, had dinner, hung out. Parker. You had a buddy who has a tracking dog, and

he was excited about going out and doing this. So I thought, well, why not bring him out here just to be in the safe side. It hasn't been a good blood trail. Let's get him out here and just be sure that we find this deer. And so late that night, your buddy came out, hopped in the boat, drove over this place, hiked up to the top of this hill, went to where the shot site was. He brings his two dogs. They go tearing down the trail

and easy is pie, I mean so easy. Those dogs walked right up on that buck, not I don't know, eighty yards from where I last saw him, and uh, I found me my Alabama public land buck dead as a door knob. It was. That was cool, man, that was such a cool moment. And uh, I remember I remember at first when those dogs got on the trail, on the track, we got up there and dogs tore off into one direction and you said, uh, that's not

the direction at all that the deer went. And I could sense the like, oh man, we're not finding this deer. That was kind of in your face, um, because the dogs went just completely different. But what Justin said, Uh, he was just as a tracker. Justin Moser, super good, good guy, and he's got great dogs. He's like, Hey, it's okay. They're just working it out. They're they're just getting their bearings. They're just these the they're not going

necessarily on blood they're going on scent. He's got one dog that's more of a ground scent dog and another dog that's more of a wind scent dog, and they just work out. They work it out together. And but I could definitely tell, like there was a moment of oh, man, they're not even going the right direction. And then and then on that GPS he said, well, they're really hanging out in this one area. They usually won't do that

unless unless they found something. And I remember you, Mark, you looked over and you kind of said, well, fingers crossed it. And sure enough, man, I mean, I mean, what did it take like five minutes for them dogs to find that deer? So fast? So quick? Yeah, it's quick. They're amazing. I've got a buddy in Michigan who has one, and so often times, you know, any time I shoot a deer and we're not in a rush, I'll call him over just to give the dog practice and just

to see it go. And it's so cool to see how they work and that they are really incredible animals what they can do, and a great tool to have as a deer run it, that's for sure. In this case, I mean, it wasn't a good blood trail. Um. So they definitely shortened our night. You know, we would have been probably walking circles trying to find that deer um, but they went right to it. So it was great.

And I think I think a lot of people get really that that's something that I thought was a really cool thing for you in the South because like tracking dogs down here, most of the time, they don't cost anything, Like, they don't ask for any money. The guys just like doing it, but you give them tips and stuff, and so it's pretty good. But um, it's a really it's pretty popular done here for guys to have tracking dogs, and so it made the whole experience. You know, you

got your nice Southern experience. Nobody wants to call a tracking dog. But you think of it this way, like, you know that shot was far back right, um, and we probably could have found that deer the next morning. Uh, you know, you get five guys on that. I mean, it wasn't that far from where you were at. We probably could have found it. But that's five six, seven hours longer that that deer is just basically sitting there and the meats just running with every hour. Um, the

dogs made it quick. We were able to get it out there, get it gutted, get it cleaned up, and we were able to eat backstraft that next night. And so you know, I think I think people have this really wacky perspective on tracking dogs. I saw a post about it yesterday where a guy was like, people have lost the art of tracking because are so dependent on

tracking dog. It's like, like I've said fifteen times in this podcast, I want to be efficient, and those dogs, knows, are a whole lot more efficient than I am at tracking a deer. And so I thought it was cool. Man. I love watching them work. Oh yeah, it was. It was terrific and very very thankful we had him there, like you said, made it how much speedier recover? And uh we were eating him the next day, which was

a darn good meal their fireside and tell you what. Yeah, And and like I told you guys, that was Um that was the first year and a half old buck I had shot in thirteen years, and I had had like a lot of apprehension around that this season. Um, this had been a year where I was doing all these different things, going to all these different places. And I remember that first hunt. I was in Washington, d c I'm like, ma'am holding out for three year old still like I usually hold out for four year olds.

But I thought, Okay, this year, I'll do a three year old. And then after that first hunt, I started thinking, man, hey, that's not terribly realistic and be you're not really going to get a whole lot of the experience if you're just sitting around waiting for a buck that really doesn't exist in a lot of these places, or if he does exist, you know, it's very very very hard to get your eyes on him in three days or four days. And at the most, um, you're gonna miss out on

so much. Uh. You know, going to Nebraska, if I was waiting for a four year old buck, I might never get the chance to go chase after one of the decoys, see one up close. If I was in Arkansas waiting for a four year old buck, you know, I might never actually get to see if I could kill one on the ground in a saddle over oaks. Uh. If I was in Alabama waiting for a four year old, I never get to kayak one out and see what that moment felt like. All that stuff. Um, and I realized,

I mean, I was working my tail off. And my my thing why I had chosen personally to try to target older bucks was that I was trying to find a new way to challenge myself in a way to you know, encourage growth as a hunter. I wanted this new challenge of force be into learning new things and trying new things. And that's why had originally taken up that goal. Um. But now I was challenging myself and growing as a new hunter in this new way that

didn't require holding out for a big buck. It just required me go to some crazy off the wall place and hunting a crazy off the wall way and trying to do it in a short amount of time. And I was getting just as much of a challenge and a whole bunch of new enjoyment and doing it trying to kill any buck. Um. So I gotten to this

place where I did not. I wouldn't have thought I would get to that point at the beginning of the year where I was just as excited putt my hands on that year and a half old seven pointer in Alabama as I was getting my hands on any three or four or five year old buck that I've killed

over the years and other places. Um and and it was just this year in general has been just a really good reminder to me about what hunting is all about, and how it is different for everybody, and how everyone's got their own hill to climb, everyone's got their own challenges, everyone's got their own adventures, everyone's out their own things that are going to get them fired up. And who am I to say that my way is better than

anybody else's or that anyone else is better than mine? Um, And this, this whole thing was just such a great, a great illustration of that come to life and getting to spend some time in your neck of the woods and see how you guys do it and see the habitat and the deer and the culture and and everything.

I mean, it was. It was so cool. And to have that cherry on top of of actually getting a shot at the buck and putting them on a kayak and floating on the lake with you the next day, Parker, and eating that backstrap that night, I mean, that stuff that uh, that stuff will just stick with you for a long long time. And getting to eat the fruity pebbles at the McDonald tradition of a bowl of fruity pebbles after a successful kill. I mean, that's that's just

too cool. I'd be I would have been a poorer man if I hadn't had a shot at that buck and got to experience those things. So I'm just I'm glad that you guys have me down. I'm glad you encouraged me to, um, you know, think about any any buck being a buck row shooting. I'm glad I did it. I'm I'm just a happy camper here sitting at home remembering that Alabama experience. It was. It was truly terrific. We we had a great time, Mark and uh kind of kind of what Dad said before, you know at

the beginning of podcast. We were just so impressed by by you and the crew, meet eater guys, the conversations that we had, just the camaraderie, the whole thing. Man. Like I said, I was, I was bummed out when it was over because I had such a good time. So any time you want to come back and shoot another year and a half old buck, or if you want to up your standards next time you come down, well that's fine too. And uh, our camp is always gonna be open to you guys. Well I appreciate it.

I do appreciate it. Uh, Randall, I gotta give you a moment to shine here. You filled the tent. You fill the tag a little a little after I left in't it? You want to show that story real quick? Well, I had taken the shot there uh at at during ruttcation and had five bucks chasing the dough and and I thought I hit the deer. I still think I nicked it, but I never did recover that deer. Um. But we got home, Parker came out and uh Parker came out to Texas and we did a deer hunt

on my property. I usually on my property, I'm not gonna shoot spikes necessarily, but I've had a number of chances to shoot some deer on my property. This year, just just hat and pulled the trigger and out there by myself or whatever. And Parker was here, so I had a spike come in. We got to celebrate a great spike and uh just a great hunt, had a great time and and uh h Parker even shot a super deer out here. So we've we've had a good

good year. Sounds like it. Yeah, I couldn't believe it, Parker, your head on tear. It's been a pretty pebbles that that time too. We also went and had some pretty pebbles after that, so that was a that was a great deal. That's awesome. That's awesome. So is there anything? Is there anything that we haven't touched on that needs

to be said for someone? If if in some kind of way, we're trying to encapsulate a little like a time capsule of what it's like to hunt down this part of Alabama, this time of year, this kind of thing. Um My, my hope was to get a really nice snapshot of that kind of experience, and and and now with this podcast, trying to translate that experience into a

little to our nugget of it. Is there anything we left out, Parker, that needs to be said, that needs to be touched on, that needs to be mentioned, anything else? I think we would be failing in this podcast if we didn't mention that we wrapped up the whole trip with a meal at waffle House, the waffle House experience. That's a good point. We did get waffle House. It was just what it was, just what we needed after

a long day out there. Like I gotta, I gotta admit to you one thing, Parker, we ate that waffle House with you guys, and then we went to our hotel and then we went to the hotel restaurant. We got more food that night at the hotel to we were really I was disappointed, Mark because you went to waffle House and you got a burger and I was like, I mean, it's still a waffle House burger. It's still grilled on the same you know grill that all that

greasy stuff is. I mean, so you still got the taste of waffle House, I guess, but you didn't get a waffle. It would have been a mistake. That isn't There's not really a mite about it, like you got. If you don't get waffle House on a regular basis, you gotta get waffle waffle as a rookie move as a rookie. You know, I hadn't been to a waffle house since spring break of college in Florida, like sixteen

years ago or something. So I just was not up on my waffle house ordering guidelines and just really really screwed the pooch on this one. But you need to do so what we should have done is set up the waffle House experience the same way as we set up the deer hunt experience. So you should have just interviewed me like, Okay, what do I do? What about order house? What am I looking for? Just set it up the same way and I think you would have

been less disappointed. Yeah. Man, that's season two of the show next year. That's what we're gonna do. Food culture. Thank you Randall, Thank you Parker. H. Parker. Can you give folks a rundown of where they can see the things you're doing. You've got a lot of cool content out there for Southern deer hunters. What can they find

and where can they find it? Yeah? Um, I do the Southern Ground Hunting podcast and YouTube channel, so you can pretty much just search Southern ground Hunting and it'll pull up on YouTube and uh anywhere podcasts or listen to. The podcast is through the Sports from His Nation, So a lot of your listeners probably familiar with that. Uh Old. Dan Johnson started that and uh so I'm on there on Instagram and Facebook it's at Southern ground Hunting, um, and then on go Wild. I have a gear page

on go Wild, so you can check that out. Yeah, that's that's pretty much it. Awesome man, Well, it's great stuff. I've enjoyed listening to the podcast and senior videos on YouTube. You're you're doing a good job and obviously the proofs of the pudding. You know what you're doing out there in the woods. There's been a lot of deer who, yeah, seeing their tombs. Don't call on the ground because you've been up in a tree nearby. Soup. Good work man, and thank you again to both you and Reginald. Thanks

Mark for having me and that's gonna do it. Thank you for tuning in. Appreciate you spend some time here. I hope this is inspired. Until next time, Thank you and stay wired. Hi.