Coyote and Hog Hunting with Thermals

On this episode of the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John is joined by two of his best friends, Randy and Kelly. Randy is one of John's childhood friends, and if you listen to the show, you have heard John reference Randy's deer lease in West Texas several times. Kelly and John met in college, and now the three have become hunting buddies and share a camp multiple times a year. This week, the boys aren't talking whitetails though. Randy and Kelly loaded up some toys and brought them to John's family ranch to do a little night time coyote hunting. 

Randy has been into coyote hunting for a long time, and for several years spent way more time in varmint tournaments than a deer stand. Over the years he has accumulated some high quality night time hunting gear, and this podcast is mostly centered around that gear with some hunting techniques thrown in along the way. The guys talk thermal vs night vision and some of the benefits and downfalls of each. Why an electric ATV may be the way to go, and the advantages of having a raised hunting rack in the back of it. The three talk about some of the differences in calling coyotes with thermal versus walking up on hogs, and how to do each one safely. If you have been thinking about going on a thermal hunt, or maybe buying a thermal of your own, this episode is a great resource before you go spending a whole lot of money.

[00:00:00] Hey guys and gals, welcome to the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, brought to you by Arrowhead Land Company. Here you'll be educated, entertained, and equipped to get more out of your outdoor experience. So hold on tight because here we go.

What is up, folks? Welcome to the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast. I am your host, John Hut Smith. And, uh, Kind of a weird, uh, just intro and timing and everything of the, the podcast this week. So I'm recording this on Thursday, March 2nd, and it is right before we are supposed to get this massive, massive line of storms coming in.

And so, uh, like I said, I actually got off work a little bit early. Um, my, my, uh, boss, his, uh, kid's school actually let out early today for this upcoming storm. Uh, so yeah, everybody's just kind of sitting here in [00:01:00] anticipation. And, you know, when this, uh, when this airs, uh, this coming Monday, , the storm will have already happened.

And so, uh, you know, I just, I, I'm just praying for everybody, hoping everybody stays safe and I hope everything turned out okay. Hopefully it was not as bad as they predicted. Um, another kind of weird timing thing is, uh, the backwards show will have already happened when this drops. And I am actually getting ready to leave tomorrow night to head to the Oklahoma City, to the Backwood Show.

And so just kind of a double whamy there. Um, so yeah, like I said, hope everybody's safe. Hope buddy. Hope everybody made it out to the Backwood Show. Um, man, I know I've been talking about it for two or three weeks now. Uh, I hope I got to meet a whole bunch of you guys. Please, please come up, introduce yourself.

I'd love to hear from y'all. Uh, last week was really, or last week. Last year was really cool. I had a booth and everything. Got to meet a few people who, uh, actually got to meet a few people who had been on the show. Got to meet a few people who were, you know, listeners. Um, I talked to a lot of people who had never heard of it.

Talked to a lot of people who didn't listen to podcasts at all. [00:02:00] Uh, I had like two or three, uh, older gentlemen who knew what a podcast was, but didn't know how to do it, and they actually handed me their phone and had me download my podcast for them. So that was pretty cool. So hoping that, you know, now that the, the podcast has been going for another year, it's grown a whole lot hoping that I have some really, really cool interactions and I'm sure I'll be talking about that next week.

Um, yeah, well, next week on the podcast when I record another episode, so, so, yeah. Uh, yeah. Now that we got, uh, kind of the crazy awkwardness out of the way this week's episode, we have a cool one. Uh, we have two of my buddies that I've actually been trying to have on for quite a while now. Um, if you've listened to this show for any length of time, , you've probably heard me refer to my buddy Randy, who has the lease in West Texas that I deer hunt on quite a bit.

Well, Randy is now on the show this week along with our buddy Kelly. Kelly is an old college friend of mine who now lives down here and, uh, you know, he met Randy through Mead, so now we're all kind of buddies. And, uh, so yeah, Randy's on the show this week and this [00:03:00] week, uh, we went coyote hunting this last weekend and this week's episode is about that hunt.

And so we cover a lot of stuff. Um, you know, it's kind of based around coyote hunting for sure. Uh, we also got into some pigs, but kind of the main thing that we're talking about is night hunting. Um, we have, we're talking thermal night vision, um, you know, electric vehicles, uh, racks to go in those vehicles to get you up high and call to coyotes and everything.

Um, Randy just, you know, he's a huge environment hunter. That's kind of his thing. He's, he's honestly just recently kind of gotten back into deer. For a long time, all he cared about was coyote hunting, and he used to do tournaments. He drove all over Texas, um, you know, west Texas, a lot of that area. And, uh, so yeah, so this weekend he brought all his toys up to our place.

It's a calving season. It's about to be fawning season, so we like to do a hunt this time of year, just kind of try to knock back the coyote population. Um, but yeah, so we talk about, uh, you know, thermals, we talk about night vision, we talk about [00:04:00] electric vehicles. Uh, his rack that he made to put in the back of the electric vehicle.

Um, all that stuff as we cover. So if you've been thinking about maybe buying a thermal or buying a night vision scope, something like that, we kind of talk about the differences between the two and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Uh, we talked about the, the, the coyote setup, you know, how he uses his call, why we started it, what end of the property we started at.

Um, so yeah, it's, it's just kind of the whole gambit of. Coyote hunting, a little bit of hog hunting, uh, thermals, night vision, all that good stuff. And so, yeah, it's a really, really great conversation. Um, he did , it was funny, we never mentioned it during the, uh, during the, the episode, but Randy did want me to throw out that we ended up killing five coyotes that night and some terrible conditions.

Um, you know, he told me, he's like, man, the two things that are gonna hurt us is if it's misting or if there it's really calm, you know, no wind. And we ended up having both of those things. So, uh, but we did kill five coyotes, and he wanted to make sure to emphasize that that's like an okay [00:05:00] night, you know, like that's decent, but, uh, could, could have been much, much better.

So he just wanted to throw that out there. Um, but yeah, like I said, you got me, you got Randy, you got Kelly. And it's a pretty darn cool episode if I do say so myself. We all know each other very well, so it's a very lighthearted episode. We're kind of joking with each other and everything, but it's also, there's a lot of education in there too.

So, So, yeah, that's gonna do it for this week's intro. We're gonna get into the episode on coyote hunting at night. Right after this, there is truly no place like the great outdoors in Oklahoma. When you're out in the wild, you want your wireless devices to work unlike other carriers. Bravado Wireless believes that coverage in rural areas is important so that you stay connected with competitively priced plans and coverage where you need it.

The mission of Bravado Wireless is to keep you connected no matter where you are. Visit bravado wireless.com or check them out at one of their retail locations. Bravado Wireless, the power of connection. [00:06:00] Deer Lab is the number one trail camera app for hunters and land managers from photo recognition to tracking individual animals.

Deer Lab's Trail camera app saves you time. It's easy to use and works with all trail camu manufacturers. Deer Lab makes it drop dead simple to track specific animals or groups of animals. Using your trail camera photos profiles allows you to understand patterns by date, ranges times, and camera location.

Deer Lab's heat map allows you to visually see how a profiled animal moves at different times of the year. For all these features and more, check out deer lab.com. And don't forget to use Code Oklahoma Outdoors for 20% off. One lake all day, all yours. That's the private water fishing motto. Private waters fishing is a member-based fishing club that offers a superior outdoor experience in some of the best places to fish in Oklahoma and Texas.

Private means private. When you [00:07:00] reserve a lake, you have exclusive access with no other members on the lake with you. These are professionally managed in stocked lakes, most of which are over 10 acres in size. If you want to get in on the action, call 2 1 4 8 7 1 0 0 4 4 or go online@privatewaterfishing.com.

Arrowhead Land Company has one goal to help the hardworking landowners of Oklahoma and beyond. Founders will Bellis and Andrew Schultz have years of real estate experience behind them and will use it to help you either buy or sell that little slice of heaven. Real estate is one of the oldest and safest investments you can make in this great country of ours.

So it makes sense that you want to trust that decision with someone who really knows the business and wants what's best for you. And it certainly doesn't hurt if that person knows a thing or two about hunting. Also, check out Arrowhead Land Company for all of your land buying and selling needs. Hey everybody.

Welcome to today's episode. Today we have two [00:08:00] of my best buds on. We have, actually, I'm gonna let y'all introduce yourselves. Uh, Randy, why don't you go first? Yeah. Randy Bell. And you got Kelly Higbee. . That's right. Randy and Kelly. Uh, for those of you listening, y'all have probably heard me reference both of these guys in the past.

Um, Randy and I, uh, Randy is the guy that talked about my buddy in West Texas a lot. Uh, he's got the lease out there. We go hang out. Uh, Kelly, I, I'm, I'm gonna, if you've seen the movie Gone in 60 Seconds, there's the scene where you have like the old school guys and the new school guys, and they kind of come together and they're like, Hey, like, what's your, and he is like, oh, like I'm the IT guy.

Like I can do all that stuff. And the other guy's like, I'm the driver, and they pointed this one guy and they're like, who's that guy? And they're like, oh, man. He orders pizzas like nobody's business. That's Kelly. That's Kelly in our group. The Lord of Snacks recording to do. That's right. Kelly. Kelly is the snack man.

So, but no, uh, Kelly and I went to school in Idaho together, and he moved down here and, um, Randy and I were friends in high [00:09:00] school and now all three of us kind of hang out, so, so anyway, that's the dynamic of this episode. And, uh, this last weekend, the three of us got together, went up to our place, and, uh, and did a little coyote hunting.

So that's what we're gonna be talking about today. And, uh, man, Randy, I, man, I don't know when we went on our first co hunt together, probably 15, 14, 16, 14 years, I would've 14. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and and a lot has changed in that time. So I'm, I'm 33. You're 31, 32. Somewhere in there. I'm 32. Yeah. I'm, I'm a year younger than you.

Yep. Same grade, but a year younger. . That's right. That's right. And then Kelly, uh, man, you didn't start hunting until you started hanging out with us, right? Which would've been about nine years ago. Golly, that long ago. Yeah, this summer will be nine years. So I got christened by both of y'all into what Hunting is like.

That is crazy, man. Man, you killed a, you killed a nice buck this year out there on Randy's place. [00:10:00] Heart rate was well over a hundred when that happened. , he was so hesitant, too. , I had to threaten him to tell him I was gonna kill it if he didn't. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . I said say less. Put the old safety off and let the copper jacket keep him.

Sure did. Oh man. I, I hope we have more lines like that. All right, well let's get to, uh, let's get to the hunt this last weekend. So, uh, uh, so yeah, basically we went up there. Uh, Randy has a ton of awesome toys that we took full advantage of, and, um, you know, part of the reason we did this hunt and, and when we did it, when we did it, uh, that's kind of a double negative.

But anyway, why, why we did it when we did it is because it's calving season. Um, you know, my family still has a, a ranch. Um, the mamas are getting ready to have their babies, and this time of year we just get overrun with coyotes. Um, last year my brother thinks we actually lost a couple because of [00:11:00] coyotes.

Obviously it's good for, uh, you know, deer funds and everything like that, and it's just, it's just a good idea to take some coyotes off the landscape when you can. So, so that was the plan. And, uh, we met up, uh, Randy and Kelly went out to his place and got all, uh, his toys together. And Randy, that's kinda, I wanna start this thing off.

Why don't you to tell us a little bit about kind of the setup we had, um, you know, the ranger, the rack, describe those, you know, why you got it set up, the way you did guns, all that stuff. Just kind of take us through the gear list. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. So I have an electric ranger. The batteries, as you know, are, uh, dying.

Uh, I had just bought some lithium batteries that are supposed to be great, but they wouldn't fit, um, in that slot underneath the seat where the current batteries are. So we weren't able to use the good strong lithium batteries, so we stuck with the old ones that are burned out, but they worked for us to get around the [00:12:00] place a little bit.

Um, the problem with that ranger is it's really small. It's the smallest frame ranger they make, and. I mean, it's a tight fit with two guys in the cat. So with the four of us, you know, with the rack in the back and it only has a thousand pound payload. So the time you put a 150 pound rack and then four grown men in there

Yeah, I, I forgot to mention my, my brother came along with us also, so yeah, there were four of us. And, and, uh, and, and tell people like why, why you went with the electric version. Well, I would, you know, in certain places you can't use that ranger cuz it just doesn't have enough battery life or you need to put more gear in it or whatever.

But since we, your brother lives on the place, we were able to pull it on a trailer, you know, behind the truck, right to the house, get out and only need to drive it, you know, a few miles, hopefully total. I figured it would be okay. It's quiet, which is great. So, like, hunting a place that's not [00:13:00] massive, you know, we're not out hunting a 50,000 acre ranch, so you wanna make the most of the, the property that you have so, You know, if you're hunting 13 or 1400 acres and you're trying to maximize it, you want to be quiet.

Right? Like, if we had a, a really big ranch to go hunt on, I would drive a mile at least, you know, um, between sets. But we're trying to maximize what we have and make as many stands on the place as we can. So, you know, we start and try to go like, so the wind, uh, which unfortunately switched on us several times.

Mm-hmm. , um, generally, you know, like say the winds out of the south, I would go start on the north end of the place. And we thought it was, when we started, we thought it was outta the southeast, and then so we went to the northwest corner. Theoretically we would start there and work our way into the. Right.

So that we wouldn't [00:14:00] get our scent downwind on the new country we were gonna hunt. Mm-hmm. . Um, and if there's some wind it helps, you know, deflect the sound a little bit. It was so quiet. We were, I mean, we had terrible conditions, right. Like, as Kelly and I drove up there, I told him multiple times, like, dude, we're not gonna see anything.

This is the worst conditions I could ever dream up. Yeah. Back when we used to use the lights a lot, I would call it a fuzzy light night. You know, if it's foggy and you, and hazy, you can't hardly see anything. But it was beyond that. I mean, we had actual mist and rain at times. Mm-hmm. , which is terrible. Um, yeah.

But I don't, I, we're gonna get into the conditions, but I wanna back you up just a little bit, kind of get back to the gear thing real quick. So we got an electric ranger, uh, and it's electric. So you could be real quiet. And then talk about the rack you had in the back. Yeah, the rack. Um, that was a really lightweight one that's made of aluminum.

Um, it's seven foot on the top, [00:15:00] seven foot wide, and then it's like three feet deep, so not super deep. It's got two chairs in it, that swivel and it, we need to do a little bit of modification to it cuz the sh shooting rail that's attached to the chair is, is too low. Um, I've meant to put like a cop figure, you know, adjustable reaper rest on it.

And I just haven't had time to do it yet, but intend to, that way you can adjust it up and down on a stem, lock it in place, and it's the right height for whoever's using it. Mm-hmm. . Um, but the, that it's light, you know? Mm-hmm. seven foot wide and. Just enough space that both guys can spin their chair all the way around.

Mm-hmm. , you can fit a third guy up there to stand and scan a little bit better. Standing up. You, you know, you got a couple feet over the, the guys sitting down, so you got just a little bit better vantage. Um, and it's hard for the guys in the chairs to, so we're running thermal. Right. And so the guys [00:16:00] in the chair, you know, you're bumping into each other.

You got the gun up there trying to hold it. So you got one guy, he's just a designated scanner. It makes it a little easier for him to spin around. Um, and with four guys like we had and then additional guy on the ground, uh, which isn't necessary, but it was the only place for the fourth guy to be . , yeah.

Inside the ranger. And then he is gonna be moving around, uh, and causing trouble. Uh, cuz it's, it's not real steady. So everybody has to be super still when it's time to take a shot. Mm-hmm. . . Yeah. So you got big rack elevated, sits in the bed, you know, it's up over the cab, two individual chairs that swivel 360 degrees with a built-in table.

So like when you swivel your chair, the table swivels with you as well. Mm-hmm. . Uh, so yeah, it's very, I mean, really, really cool setup. Uh, your older rack that we used to use, they had a double rail, but it didn't move, so you just kind of had to pick the gun up. And, but for, like you said, for [00:17:00] using, when you're trying to use thermals, uh, where that's your only, you know, you can't see anything unless you're looking through the thermal.

Being able to spin with that gun is, is huge. Yeah. I still like the, the old rack and have it, um, but it's big and heavy, you know? Mm-hmm. so it, it, it won't fit in that ranger and it ha it has to go in a truck, which is fine. Um, but it was really calm and quiet that night and we thought the Ranger would be better.

Mm-hmm. . And it actually water. Right? Because I could actually help lift it up. ? . Yeah. The big one. It's uh, it's going in the back of the pickup and it's, it's not fun to load and unload and everything like that. Mm-hmm. , but it's a little bit taller. It's, it's bigger. There's more room to move around and, and while it doesn't have chairs that spin with you, it has like bass boat seats in it.

Mm-hmm. , it has a double rail around it. All you have to do is lean up to the rail and you've. Very solid double rail with like eight inches [00:18:00] between the two rails. It's, it's pretty nice. Yeah. Oh yeah. But it was much more set up. Yeah. It was much more set up for light honey. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And uh, that kinda leads us into our next thing.

Cause we were not light honey, we were using thermals and night vision and stuff. And so, um, you don't have to go into extreme detail necessarily, like brands and everything like that, but kind of talk about one, you know, why you might use night vision verse thermal, and then kind of the different pieces we used together to, you know, go out there and find our critters and hunt.

Yeah. So I used thermal almost exclusively for hunting, but I have, I don't know, multiple night visions, but I usually just wear one. So if I'm wearing a helmet, my normal setup is I wear a white phosphorus on one side. A thermal on the other side, which is kind of funky. And I don't know very many people that like doing that.

I've only met a couple that have, that have done it. And they also agree with [00:19:00] me that it's like kind of messes with your eyes a bit. Uh, and it takes, even when you've been using it regularly, it still takes a little bit of time to like get adjusted. But thermal can't see through glass and night vision can.

So I like to drive blacked out, be quiet, be stealthy, don't want anything to see us. The night vision allows me to do that. And then when I get out or have the glass, if I raise the windshield up, I can see with the thermal, I just can't see detail quite as well as I can with the night vision. So the night vision is used pretty much just for driving and spotting.

Um, the thermal is used for spotting animals and then on the guns we had, um, and I don't mind talking brands, so like, uh, I was, I was, I don't actually don't remember. I think it's an L three, um, white phosphorus that I was using. And then, um, I had an ira, um, micro, I can't remember the exact model. I, I re [00:20:00] something 25.

It's like a six 40 by five 12 resolution thermal. I like that a lot. I've found that if I'm coyote hunting, I won't use the, the helmet. I use it more when we're out stocking pigs and fields and stuff. Um, the helmet gets, it's heavy, it's tiresome. I haven't been doing my neck exercises lately, so, uh, , you know, it gets tired easily.

And, uh, I decided that I'll wear the helmet when I drive with the night vision on it. And then I take it off and I use a chess rig. Um, I've got a couple different ones. The ones I like the most is, um, FHF Gear. Makes a pretty nice chess rig. Um, . And then I've got an Everly stock as well. But the, the Fhf one is the one I've been using lately.

So I'll, uh, I'll run the chest rig and I'll hold the thermal, like what if I'm scanning? Um, I'll hold the thermal in my hand with the chest rig open, which is basically like a, a heavy duty vinyl harness. And [00:21:00] when I see something, I'll be holding it up to my eye and I can just basically drop it into that chest r it's like a big pocket attached to my chest, so I'll just drop it in there and switch to the gun.

It makes it real easy versus if I've got the helmet on, I am very likely to bump it on the gun or ding it on something. I constantly getting in and outta the ranger will smack my head. , you know, it'll ding. So it's better to run it for me. It's better to run it like this, plus I don't get as tired. Um, yeah, I, I like that.

And then the guns we were running, um, , one of them was a tricon and then the other two were ira, they were IRA bolts on bolt guns, um, or one was a bolt gun, one was an ar. Yeah. And I don't know, I, I liked the combination of the bolt in the ar if we were strictly pig hunting. I like an AR for obvious reasons.

You know, you walk up on a big group, you one of those shots, Kyle [00:22:00] hunting a little bit more of a controlled situation. You're probably not gonna use more than a couple shots at once. And, uh, I don't, I just, I prefer a bolt gun over an AR usually anyway. And so I liked, we kinda had both set ups and ended up shooting both.

Um, so yeah, so, so yeah, so we, we got all our gear, we all had like a handheld thermal, like you said, for scanning. Uh, somehow Kelly and I drew the short straw and wound up riding, uh, in the rack, which was very cold. Cuz as you mentioned, not the best conditions. It was a little cold, uh, it was misty foggy. Um, we actually, at the end of the night, we ended up cutting the night a little bit short because it, it got so bad that like the thermals were just useless basically, you know, everything was mm-hmm.

cold and foggy and you just couldn't see very far. Um, that's a very big disadvantage to thermal is . Yeah. When the weather conditions are like that. If there's, if there's rain fog or, um, if it's hazy, you know, you can't see as well. Yeah. All right. So I wanna transition a little bit here. [00:23:00] Uh, we're gonna kind of move into the hunt and so we're gonna.

Uh, a little bit of just story time. You know, we're gonna kinda walk through the hunt, um, how we did and everything. But as we go, you know, I might kinda stop you and slow you down and ask some more like, specific questions of, you know, why you did what you did. Um, we covered the conditions. You mentioned that we started in the northwest corner cause we had, uh, you know, supposedly a south wind.

Um, so let's, let's walk through that first time. So we go through the gate, we get to our spot and just kinda walk us through the setup, you know, why you set the call, where you set it, why you faced it, that direction, and just the whole gambit. Yeah. So I mean, we started in that northwest corner because the wind was one mile an hour out of the southeast, right?

Allegedly. So, allegedly it did switch on us, right? Um, even while we were making that first stand, it switched on us, which was unfortunate, but we were able to deal with it. It didn't really screw it up for us. Um, and boy, uh, was I shocked that we killed three coyotes there. Uh, [00:24:00] that one stand was more that, you know, killing three coyotes on that one stand is more than I've ever killed in a, in a night when the conditions were like this.

Mm-hmm. . Um, now I've gotten to where I'm just lazy and I'll quit if it's like that or I won't try it all. But since we had made the effort to get there and um, drive as far as we did, we decided to make a go of it. But yeah, we, we, we pull in for a couple reasons. Um, I face the call kind of predominantly west, so this place is, runs predominantly north and south.

It's mostly open, kind of rolling pasture land. And on the west side there was, I, I don't know how many acres of, of thick timber on the west side, but quite a bit. Trying to maximize our acreage. Right. So I'm like, okay, we're gonna face the call over here, predominantly west, a little bit to the south, [00:25:00] and try to call something out of no, no telling which direction they're gonna come from.

Right. Because they could come from, from the north was a big block of timber from the west was a big block of timber. Mm-hmm. , uh, to the south was a kind of meandering, wet weather creek that ran from the northeast and moved kind of southwest right there, um, with some trees along it. And then we had a lot of open pasture land kind of off to the east and further south.

So trying to maximize ground knowing there were still gonna be coyotes out there in, in the open pasture country with the cow. I was trying to be quiet too, you know, I was trying to call what was close, um, and then we could move around the place as needed. But, um, we tried setting up there to, I would try to break it, the place up into, it's not really wide enough to, to make three calls.

So like, if we were gonna hunt just the north end, it's not wide enough really to get a comfortable distance [00:26:00] apart. For me to wanna make three stands, I would wanna make a call in Northwest. And, and just for the listeners, the place is a mile wide, so you got a mile to work with, so, yeah, exactly. Um, and kind of in between that, you know, you can see a lot of ground and it's open, um, especially in the direction, you know, we were in between those, in between that one mile at width, it's all open.

Um, so I wouldn't want to go 800 yards and make another set. Um, so we, we start in the northwest corner and then move to the northeast corner. Mm-hmm. , um, But northwest corner, I was playing a bird sound. I like, I have different rabbit and bird sounds. This is one of my favorite bird sounds. It's busy. It's, it's worked really well in the past.

I've killed, I don't know how many, hundreds or thousands of, of predators with it and turn, it's like almost my go-to every time because most people use rabbit. And my thought is if any of the neighbors are out [00:27:00] calling, I know John and his brother haven't been calling lately, so if any of the neighbors have been calling, they likely haven't used this bird sound.

Maybe it's just different enough that it'll work. So we try that and Sure. I mean, sure enough it does right away . Yeah. Um, and we ended up killing three coyotes there plus a trophy Skunk. That's right, that's right. That skunk skunked us all. Man, . We had, uh, I think that was the last thing. I, I killed the first one and then a second one came in.

My brother was having trouble, uh, finding it. And, uh, we ended up shooting at the exact same time. That was pretty cool for, for not trying to do that on first . Yep. And then he shot very close on the timing too. Like it was, yeah, it was one right after the other. Mm-hmm. and then, uh, and then Luke Sniped one from way far away.

Uh, we never did really figure out a range on that thing. Uh oh. It was well over 200 though. Yeah. And, uh, and then, yeah, rain and [00:28:00] I both saw this thing and we both just assumed it was a coyote. I mean, it was charging in hard and, uh, coming in, coming in, coming in, and it turned, I was like, what the heck is that?

And we both kind of, we agreed it was probably a fox maybe. Um, and uh, I genuinely thought it was a skunk, but I've never seen a skunk. Come charging into a call like that. So I, let's try, I think I said it. I think I, yeah, I think said at one point too, I was like, man, it looks like a skunk, but it was just like, it was coming to the call, so, and it was big.

It had a really big tail and so my thought was I can't clearly see as well as I normally would because of the weather conditions, right? Mm-hmm. , like, there's almost a, a wall at certain times it was really bad where you couldn't, couldn't see further. You could see things like cows way off in the distance, but not near as clearly as we normally would.

Yeah. So that was like, what kind of put the confusion in my mind was like, that looks like a skunk. Why is the skunk running [00:29:00] like full speed right at us? Mm-hmm. and, and the way it was bounding did a really big tail, but it. Looking through my thermal, there was like a weird shadow, hazy shadow around it.

Mm-hmm. . So I thought, uh, maybe my eyes agree with that were playing tricks on me. . Yeah. That consensus was a pew tail is what it was. Oh yeah. The tail was like almost twice as big as its body. Mm-hmm. . Good thing we, uh, determined it was a skunk fairly quickly so we could get out of there. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah.

So that was, uh, call number one. And then, uh, I don't know, I dunno if it's worth talking about our next caller two, uh, pretty slow. I think so. Okay. Yeah. I mean, the next spot where we move to, right. We, we take our time to get over there and we we're in the northeast corner of the place and we get, we're like, Hey, there's a car coming.

Let's, I forgot about that. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, like, we go put the [00:30:00] call out, we, y'all climb in, we're sitting there waiting. We're like, dude, is this car ever gonna get here? You know, and it's, it still hadn't even made it to the west boundary of your place, which is a mile away from us. And we wait and wait, and wait and wait forever.

I mean, I, I think we waited three or four minutes for it to get to your west boundary, right? Mm-hmm. . And then, then when it gets there, it mo it's looks like, like it's moving five miles an hour. Like they're just idling long. Mm-hmm. . And I think what, what did we determine? We think they were probably scanning with a thermal, they had a trailer behind them.

Yeah, they had a trailer with what looked like a four-wheeler on it. And yeah, we think they were probably scanning, um, I don't know if they were looking for hogs or coyotes or what, cuz uh, like they would, they stopped twice pretty close to us and both times it was like in a gap in the trees looking onto the neighbors.

Mm-hmm. and, uh, and, you know, we had thermal and so we could see that there was like, there was cows in one spot, uh, that I couldn't tell what they were, but there was some other [00:31:00] hot spots in another spot. And so they, uh, they definitely seemed like they were up to no good. Oh, you're some nefarious activities going on right there.

Yeah. And, and they probably saw us sitting up there in the, you know, we didn't have any lights on or anything, but if they had thermal, they were probably looking at us too. Yeah. And we were like, just close enough to the, to the house and the, and the barns and stuff where all those really bright lights are, you know, that there could have been enough backlight behind us that from the direction they were looking, that they could have silhouetted us out there in that clean, open pasture.

Mm-hmm. . But it was definitely creepy. We were all, we were all a little creepy, especially when they stopped. Uh, and then like they stopped when they got as close to us as they could get from the road. Right. Yeah. And they got straight in line with us. They stopped for a while. Yeah. Yeah. And then like, they didn't drive off fast either.

They just kind of kept mosey along all the way out of there. No, and the only thing. that made them drive away was the car that started [00:32:00] approaching from the other direction. Mm-hmm. , right? Yeah. In front of them. Yeah. I don't think they cared about us. Yeah. And they did have their headlights on. I guess we mentioned that, but Yeah.

Oh, sorry. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know, but it was a little spooky for sure. Yeah, they were, it was definitely nefarious, but at least they had headlights on. Yeah, right. , that's true. If they were driving down the road in plain sight. Yeah, that's right. That's exactly what they were doing. Mm-hmm. . So we, we tried there for just a short period of time, but it was a waste.

I mean, we had, these guys were, uh, I don't know, 150 yards or so from us mm-hmm. driving down the road, talking, sitting there for a while. Yeah. And then another car comes by, so we just, we wasted time right there. Um, I, I almost wouldn't even count it. Right. Like , we, we tried. That trailer didn't have a single bolt that was entirely put together.

or working light? No, no. That that trailer was shaken more than like a [00:33:00] rap artist up there. I mean, it was ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. And then unfortunately, um, the poor little ranger just, it didn't make it, uh, luckily we were close to the house and able to load it back up into, uh, the truck, which ended up working out just fine.

Mm-hmm. especially after we figured out we could turn all the lights off in your truck, . Yeah, no, that was, uh, that was handy. And it's, it's fairly quiet. Uh, and so yeah, it ended up, and with the mist and everything getting in that mass warm cab was way better than riding on the roof of the Ranger. So Kelly and I didn't mind at all.

I'll tell you from my perspective, uh, there were two key s. One is that, uh, my wool long Johns were double effective inside the cab than outside the cab . And number two is that you can safely eat Mike and Ikes inside the cab without alerting everybody around What you're doing? The snack man. The snack man.

Like I was [00:34:00] about to die. Like I needed some, I need a little boost, a little power up and uh mm-hmm. . There's nothing better than a Mike and Iker like a hot tamali. I loved when I asked What flavor are these? And John says, well, you got mics and you got hikes . Yeah. There's only two flavors. I, I didn't mind the truck.

It felt great. Yeah. And then luckily I had a couple extra hoodies in my truck so we could, uh, block out what little bit of in the cab lights. Yeah. And yeah, for those listening, like when Randy says he wants it blacked out, he wants it blacked out. So I, you know, we had it to where when you open the door, the lights wouldn't come on.

Um, , I made the mistake one time inside. Yeah, go ahead. Oh yeah, I was gonna say, yeah. And uh, you know, like sweatshirt over the dash, the screen display goes off. I mean, everything. And then, uh, I made one time, I made the mistake of leaving the key in the cup holder instead of putting it in my pocket. So like when we closed the doors, it beeped.

Uh, so I took care of that. And so, yeah. So even though we're in a truck now, I mean, it's [00:35:00] still stealth mode. Yeah. I mean, the biggest problem is you will. Ruin good night vision with lights. Yeah. Uh, and, and if you don't ruin it or damage it and by ruin it or damage it, I mean, like it causes specs to get on the, on the screen, um mm-hmm.

it, it doesn't look as clear. Um, the lights inside the cab, and I'm talking even the smallest of lights, like in my ranger, the little buttons, I put like three pieces of duct tape over each one of them, and the light will still bleed through. It looks like completely dark to the naked eye. You can't even tell there's a button there.

And then I put the night vision on and it's super bright. Same way inside a truck. Like the, the lights that are on the side of the door, you know, the tiny little light that lights up the, um, the window control, for example. And I'm talking that thing is like the size of a match. It's little. Those are the kinds of things that would, it'll just blind you when you look at it.

So you [00:36:00] wanna be able to see out of the vehicle to tell where you're going. In which case I was in the passenger seat directing John . Yeah. Or uh, actually for most of the time I was driving the truck from, I was working the pedals. He was working the steering wheel. Yep. Tina, that is the biggest business, like trust exercise I've ever been through, I think.

Yeah. . All right. So yeah, we got the rack in the back of the truck. Now we go to set up for another coyote call, but we ended up hunting a, something a little bit different on this one, so. Mm-hmm. Kelly, you wanna walk us through this one? I feel like it's your turn to talk. There I was amped up on sugar Uhhuh my ready to go in the backseat.

I was just like, I was like the police dog just waiting for that button to be clicked, you know, let me out that door, out there. Let me get after him. Uh, so you boys were actually doing a lot of the work? I was mostly just there as moral support and good luck, but, uh, we hip hopped out of there and [00:37:00] we could tell that to the north of us in this alley that there was, uh, some significant shapes out there that we could tell even with the mist.

These were no longer cows and they definitely weren't coyotes. But my favorite nemesis pigs . Hmm. Yeah. Actually whenever we got out, like immediately I heard some really close to the trick. I don't know how we got that close to them. Yeah. But, and we haven't, we haven't mentioned yet. Randy was out there with a bum knee.

He just had surgery about a month before. Uh, so we had seen some hogs in the distance, but walking up on 'em just was not in the cards for Randy. Uh, yeah. You guys were welcome to, but I was not. Yeah. We, we were on. Yes. Nick Long was not gonna make it over a fence. . Yeah. Uh, but anyway, sorry. I just wanted to interject that that's, we had seen some hogs hadn't gone after him, but these were just right in our lap basically.

Well, some of these in the big group [00:38:00] were some we had already seen, I think they had mm-hmm. kind of, I think they haded moved in from that North pasture, like past one and two down. That's what, uh, I agree a hundred percent with that statement. Yeah. So like when I got out, I didn't. . I don't know why didn't have my thermal on, but there were some probably 30 yards from the truck.

Uh, I don't know how we drove that close to them, as quiet as it was. Mm-hmm. . But we did, and so then I'm like turning it on, like, oh man, there's some red here. Uh, by the time I got my thermal on, which is like five seconds, you know, they're running away, but they weren't running toward the big group that was straight north of us.

They went to the Northwest. Mm-hmm. . Um, which didn't screw it up, thankfully. Oh, I didn't realize there was two groups like that. No, they were, I mean, there was probably more than that, but there was two definite big groups. Right? Yeah. Like the group that we shot at was. I don't know, 20 or so. Mm-hmm. , it was enough that I asked you, I would say probably four times.

Those [00:39:00] are pigs, right? These are cows, right? Yeah. These are pigs. . Yeah, because I'm not trying to shoot an expensive pig, a aka a cow . And, and a lot of times in our place they are intermixed, and so you do that Well, they really were, they were close. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, these were in the calf pasture. Uh, yeah.

They, you know, they were probably eating the feed from the calves. Uh, so yeah, so it, I'm sure it got, it got a little western. Yeah. Luckily it, I was able to use the upper body to get in the back, get in the truck. Um, it was actually easier than getting in the ranger because of the, the nice Chevy, uh, in the bumper step, you know?

Mm-hmm. . Up there. You didn't even have to have social security to use that one. , . No. So, yeah. Well, then we load up in the, in the back of the truck? Or did we, did all three of us get in there? No, you were in the top. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it was just you were on the top. I was over the cab and, and Kelly was over.

I went to the fence before we decided to do that. I thought we all had gotten [00:40:00] in. Kelly was up there with me for sure. I think you're right. Yeah. I think I, I climb down up there first. Yeah. Yeah. I climbed down just to spread us out, son. Yeah. And then Kelly was literally directly behind me. Yeah. So we, which was not ideal moving and since I was the least mobile, I got to stay in my perched position.

Yeah. I was a little worried you were gonna Spartan kick me outta there or something like that. it, it worked out all right. Except for John took the bolt gun and. What did we do? Did, did your brother not reload it? Yeah. Luke had, uh, Luke had taken one outta the chamber. Yeah. He had completely unloaded it.

Yeah. Yeah. He went against the protocol. Yeah. To be safe with the bolt gun, what we usually do is just pop the bolt off. It, it's still on safety, but you just crack that bolt. Mm-hmm. and it literally cannot shoot. Right. Yeah. Like functionally it won't work. Um, so he had taken the bullet completely out.

Mm-hmm. And we didn't know that. [00:41:00] Yeah. , which to his credit, that was very safe. That's a safe move. Right? Like agreed. We didn't know and he had decided to go in the house. Mm-hmm. . So here we are, not knowing the guns. Unlock, get, getting ready for a 1, 2, 3. Yeah. Yeah. Getting ready to try to, you know, put the smack down on a bunch of pigs and John's over here with no bullet in the chamber.

Great. So I very audibly, you know, counting out loud or 1, 2, 3, Kelly and I, you know, both rip off a shot and, and get one. I hear the, I hear the, the dreaded

Yeah. Of the fire pit going off and not hitting anything. Yeah. And then I hear John say, my gun's not loaded. , I was, I was eye on the prize. I was all in the moment. Baby John on your own baby. Yeah. You're, you're on your own over there. Yeah. I didn't even think to reload my gun either. Right. So I have this ar [00:42:00] with four round, we had a 10 round mag and it feeds better if you don't max it out.

So I think we had put like eight, eight in it, you know? Mm-hmm. and then we'd already shot the gun so it had like four left or five left in it. Uh, and, and of course after you shoot, you know, all pandemonium breaks loose and so I. I, you know, racking, uh, round in and stuff. And I'm looking for pigs and I see some, and I'm about to pull the trigger and all of a sudden I hear Randy yell like, they're right here.

And I flipped down and there's this, there's a line of pigs running, like, I don't know, maybe 10 yards in front of me or something. Yeah. When I said that they were about 20 yards and by the time you probably looked they were like coming under the fence. Yeah. Like, probably not 10 yards from you. They were close.

Yeah. Cause it was hard to make 'em out in the thermal cause they were so close. Yeah. And of course, I'm sitting here with no bullets. Mm-hmm. , uh, I'd already shot three pigs in my four bullets. One of 'em I shot twice. Yeah. Those rounds were, I hadn't shot those rounds before. They were a little slower than I thought, so.

Mm-hmm. . Um, [00:43:00] I'm over here. I shot this, the first one I shot broadside in the group. Right? Yeah. And then the, when they took off running, the first one I shot running. I just put it on him. I thought we were close enough that it, I didn't need to have any lead, but I shot him way back, like at the back of the guts.

Kind of toward the ham, and then I shot again, I hit him there again. I was like, oh, okay. Mm-hmm. . Um, and then I shot my last bullet at another one. Yeah. Um, I was very, very cautious not to spray and pray. Yeah. Uh, I don't normally do that anyway, but I was just mm-hmm. , like, I was just being extra cautious to Yeah.

And really bear down and hit the target. . Yeah. And we've all hunted together a lot. Like, you know, when they scattered and stuff. You checked where I was at, you know, I, once I was outta bolts, I made sure to step back. Uh, so you weren't like shooting over my head or anything like that, so, oh, yeah. I asked like three times where you were.

Yeah. Communication is key when you're hunting at night, especially pigs when they're, you know, when all heck is breaking loose. Yeah. That's why they always put the village into it. As far away [00:44:00] from the other ones like me. , . What happened with your gun Kelly? I know it jammed at one point, but, uh, did it, it jammed while you were shooting with the 10 round mag or was it with the, what It was the 10 round, uh, the 10 round mag.

I think it jammed and I cleared the last one and I, I think it was just at the very end. And then that's when I knew I had the, uh, 30 round mag in the truck, which I don't know why I didn't just switch that out and start with that. Yeah. Yeah. That was a poor choice on my part. I mean, we, we probably didn't have enough time to think through, like, let's, let's maximize our mags here.

Mm-hmm. , I was thinking pretty optimistic that you guys had bullets and that we were just, you know, one bullet, one pig kind of scenario. I was like, I'll show you. Assuming I have bullets, . I mean there was enough pigs and they were, most of them were adults, right? Yeah. Like adult pigs. Yeah. They're not that hard to hit.

Yeah. Even when running, especially when we somehow [00:45:00] lucked into as quiet as it was, I didn't understand how mm-hmm. and they all ran to us. I was about to say I, I think so. That pasture y'all may not have seen cause it was night. That pasture actually has woven wire around it. That's why we have the calves in there.

And so there's probably only a couple spots that they could get out of that pasture. And we would just happen to be parked next to one of those spots. That makes a lot more sense. I mean, yeah, but they had plenty of ground that they could run in to get away from us. That's true. I did my come hear their pig dance

That's right. Kelly. Kelly just s subjectively brought 'em in. So I was just happy that when I was outta my bullets in the grindle that Kelly says it's no, it was for sure jammed when you handed it to me, Kelly, cuz you handed me the 30 round mag and the gun was jammed and I cleared it. Put the 30 rounds mag in.

That's, and then by that time they'd already come across this fence, across the, the driveway where we were on. And then there's, you know, a hundred plus yards. [00:46:00] But I still managed to pop four more, which I was so tickled about. . You had the high ground up. I did. You had the best position. Yeah. Oh, I did point.

And, and by that time they were out from amongst the cows. They were just on a wide open pasture with no cows. So you're a little safer to shoot out. Yeah. My good angel on my right shoulder was like, Look for cows , don't shoot a cow. Mm-hmm. . So I was very patient, uh, on my shots. I'd be like, there's some cows, there's not some cows, so let's just, uh, I I forgot that I had shot four pigs right there, uh, by the shop in the barn.

Oh, that's right. When we, yeah, when we got there. Like, uh, that y'all followed me. I drove in first somehow didn't see him. I mean, my headlights must have been right on him, but yeah, we were like, we were getting outta the truck and Randy just, you know, steps out of the truck and shoots four pigs right there by the house.

You know? I was, and the only reason I remembered it was because I'm sitting here thinking, why was there so few bullets in my gun ? I had a 10 round mag. And I know it didn't max it out, but like, why, why did I only have four bullet. Mm-hmm. , it's [00:47:00] cause I put eight in it and I had shot four bullets previously.

Yeah. So, so yeah, that was just kind of an extra little, uh, you know, piggy bonus that we got there. Uh, obviously we did not kill any coyotes at that location, so, uh, we didn't even try. We just, no. We were like, let's load up and go to the next spot. Yeah. And then, then we did that again. We loaded up, went to the next spot and as we got there the mist got a little heavier.

Yeah. We called for just a little bit and those two, there was two pigs out there. I forgot about that. Yeah, you killed more pig. Two more. Yeah. Yep. That was so fun to watch. . Oh yeah. The one that was, so they, there's like a tank dam. Mm-hmm. and the, the two of them were trying to get away. They had actually gone so far to our right and I'm in the right chair that John wouldn't had a shot.

Mm-hmm. . So I, which I was angry about cause I hadn't shot a hog yet. . And uh, I was like, oh, I got this one. And all of a sudden I hear like a clink because my chair ran into Rainey's chair, which means I know I couldn't shoot, I could tell you were pretty riled up over her. Mm-hmm. , you were trying to get the 1, 2, 3, like really fast.

And I was like, yeah, they're still kind of [00:48:00] moving. And then I look down and I see that your barrel is like all the way over. I was like, mm-hmm. . Ah, I, I see what's happening here. Yeah. Yeah. I, so I had to shoot pretty quick, right? Mm-hmm. , because I was even gonna run out real estate to shoot. So I sit and went over there and hit that first big and rolled him completely over sideways.

And he did a, a, a rain prayer with both, all four legs up in the, in the air straight up. And then the other one took off running and. Shot once and hit him shot once and missed him shot once, and I don't even know how far he was there, but mm-hmm. , he was running straight away basically at that point really far.

I held it probably two feet over at the top of him to hit him. Hmm. It was pretty far. Yeah. That was a weird stand because uh, at that point I was scanning for you guys and the ground must have been either warmer or colder or the mist was higher up in spots [00:49:00] because everything to the south of us I could still see is normal, but everything to the north, it was like a very white blanket.

And the only thing I could really discern were cows and then those pigs that you guys shot, I mean they were, you know, just blobs almost no joke. Yeah. I think it was fog or, yeah, it was, because there were, I don't know how many cows were there, like 80, there was a lot of cows. So I think it was the heat.

From the cows. Ah, I can buy, I noticed the same thing. Yeah. So I had, uh, so I was again, on the left, I was more facing to the south and up on that hill we have a big water tank, big plastic tank that our well pumps water into. And so I could use that as kind of like a basis. So like I could see that water tank and I could tell like where the hill stopped in the sky started.

And so I would basically set my gun and, you know, the thermal on that line and then just hold it there and swivel back and forth so that I knew I was looking, you know, at the horizon and not up in the air, down at the ground. [00:50:00] Yeah. Yeah. It was hard at times. It was just, I, I couldn't tell what I was looking at.

Like I knew I was looking across the landscape, but I couldn't see the landscape. Mm-hmm. , it was just white in my screen. Yeah. Or if I switched it, you know, if I'd switch it back and forth between why hot and black? Hot? It was either all black or all white. Yeah. Which was frustrating. Yeah. So now we've made our second, what I would call half call

You know, we, we made one good set at the, at the first one had, uh, potentially poachers or nefarious characters interrupt our second one. We went to blasting hogs at the third one. Didn't even call. And then here we are. We called just shortly and decided to shoot the, the hogs again. So fourth spot we go to and actually call, right?

Mm-hmm. . Kill that one immediately. Yeah. And he was what, like 90 or a hundred yards away? Probably. Yeah. And that's one thing I remember you, uh, teaching me the first couple times we were hunting [00:51:00] together is you always start your call a little quieter and you always scan right away because like that, you know, we probably drove right by that one.

You know, he wasn't that far off the fence. Mm-hmm. . Um, and yeah, I mean, we, we killed him right off the bat. Um, his body behavior was very interesting because he was, oh, I don't know, looking for a mouse. He was mouthing. Yeah. Which, that was cool. I'd never seen that before. So it was like he was a cat. Like he was, you know, jumping up in the air and like pouncing on it.

Yeah. It was funny cuz John was like, I see a hog over here. just because you, you know, it's so, at this point it's like, it's misting so hard mm-hmm. that you can't see very well. Mm-hmm. . I'm looking at it and I'm like, that's a funny shaped hog . Then he's like, oh no, it's a coyote. Yeah. I think, I think it just like it being there, like being there already, and I think I just ex, it was more hog behavior than coyote behavior.

Cause we had just driven right past it and it was still there. [00:52:00] And so yeah. I think that's what threw me off. I was thinking trophy, skunk number two. . Because there's no lesson, like I, I want a little how-to guide on these dang thermals where it's like this shape at this size is probably this animal. Yeah.

Because it's deceiving the size of what something is in the thermal versus Yeah. You know what it actually is. Yeah. Well, yeah, that one, and you're switching back and forth between, you know, your one power. Mm-hmm. , you know, no magnification scanning thermal, right. That you're holding or wearing on the helmet.

And then when you go down to the gun, , that one had, it starts at three power optical magnification. Then you digitally magnify it. So when you put the gun up, it looks a lot closer and your field of view is a lot smaller. Mm-hmm. , the other thing, it doesn't help that it was dark and I felt like I was looking directly into the sun and then I would look away and I'd look back and I was like, oh yeah, I definitely, I definitely had some eye strain by the end of the [00:53:00] night.

Yeah. Going from pitch black and then holding that little screen right up to your eye. It's kinda like clean. It was very dark. 64, like you just don't blink at all. . Yep. Yeah, I, I know multiple times where I tried to point, and normally I could, you know, point with my whole arm and give you a direction and there was just, it was like almost no moon illumination that night.

So whenever I would point you couldn't see my arm. I'm like, in this direction. And then of course, You pull your eye off the thermal and you're blinded for like at least five seconds anyway. But you're over here trying to look at where my arm is and unless I pointed it almost straight up, you couldn't see anyway.

Mm-hmm. . No. So, and then if I point it straight up, you're like, oh, the coyotes are up, they're up in the sky, they're all at the moon. Like, what's going on over here? Yeah. That's what happened with that, that next one, right? So mm-hmm. , and it wasn't very long, maybe two and a half or three minutes before that one came in and I caught him just bee lining it, but he was going for our [00:54:00] wind.

We had a little bit at this point. Mm-hmm. , no. When we finally got some wind for these last two spots we were at, the mist was just so bad. It was heavy mist, like mm-hmm. like almost to a drizzle. Um, and I'm over here saying, oh, here's one, here's one, here's one. He's getting here fast, you know? And he's going for a wind way fast.

Uh, yeah. And that's why Kelly Amateur like me. Yeah. It's going faster than you think. Well, that's why Kelly couldn't find him, cuz he thought he was. Farther away. And then of course John was already on him and oh goodness. He's like, he's like, let Kelly shoot him. I'm like, Kelly doesn't see him. like, I'm trying to point, I was trying to be nice.

Hey, if he was, where's Waldo? I was not finding him that time. I'll tell you that right now. Yeah, yeah. I mean, cause I looked at where he got shot and then I looked at where I was looking and I was like, I'm, I'm in a different continent over here. I'm you county wide. You were two hours away as a, as a clock.

Uh, yeah. [00:55:00] Sits, you know, yeah. He was on Mountain Time and I was, meanwhile I was over here still on central time. . . Yeah. So I, I stole a kay from Kelly, kind of stole a cow from Luke, and then Randy stole all the hogs. You sure did. I got, I dunno how many killed, I killed a bunch of furs. I'm not sure either. For, uh, for not trying to, you know, hog hunt, we killed a lot of hogs that night.

Yeah. Four by the house. Well, I mean, before even unloaded. Which I couldn't believe that they just, I mean, they were trying to ease away, but I mean, you drove in there and turned around. Mm-hmm. . I drove in there with the trailer and turned around and I told Kelly, look, there's hogs right there. And I'm like, over here trying to get out of the truck, hopping out of the truck, you know, gimping along as fast as you can,

So trying to find the first gun I can find, turn the thermal on, wait like eight years for it to light up, you know, before I can see them. But they were still there. Mm-hmm. . That's right, that's right. Well, we're, uh, we're coming up on time here, but, uh, I got a closing [00:56:00] question for each of you. So, so Randy, if somebody's, you know, maybe looking at getting their first, uh, thermal, uh, just what are some kind of, some things they need to be aware of if they're gonna start thermal hunting?

Um, I, that's a very broad question, but just, uh, maybe a, a safety tip or, uh, you know, good use practices, maybe field care. Just something they should be aware of. Yeah. Don't take your thermals out when it's wet. , we, that's like my biggest rule, and we broke that, right? We had several of them out getting missed on them, but they're fine.

Mm-hmm. , um, I for sure wasn't gonna fly the drone up in those kinds of conditions. Yeah. Not that we really needed it, but it's fun to use it sometimes. Yeah. Um, for, for safe practices, man, and I go with people somewhat regularly that don't have much experience with thermals. Right. I'm not out guiding them, but I'm taking friends or [00:57:00] people I do business with and constantly what the big problem is, as we've talked about multiple times, when you take your eye off, you know, you pull your head away from the.

And you can't see anything. So just being aware of where you are in relation to your hunting partners is a big thing, right? Mm-hmm. , like, yeah, and, and talking that communication is, is key. I'm always trying to let people know where I'm, I'm not trying to scare animals away, but once you start shooting, it's not really a big deal, right?

Yeah. So you can talk to each other a little bit, like, Hey, I'm right here. Don't turn too far. Or, you know, where your buddy is next to you as the hogs move. Um, usually it's not a problem if you're coyote hunting, right? Mm-hmm. like, you know, where everybody is, especially in our situation where we were in a rack, but like for guys out hog hunting with thermals, that's the big issue I find is people not knowing where each other is.

You gotta be safe. I haven't had any, any issues with like close calls, but [00:58:00] I try to be extra cautious with that. And then sometimes, you know, like we've had the problem with lots of people want to go bigger groups, make it. even more difficult and dangerous, right? Like if there's three of you, you got one guy in the middle, he can count down when you do your 1, 2, 3, and you, you just, you're very aware of where your hunting partners are, but if there's five of you mm-hmm.

you know, you can shoot in a line, but as they start to move, you just know like, Hey, I can't move. Or if you're on one end of the line and you're on the left side and they move way to the right, maybe you can, you know, turn around, point your gun up in the air in a safe direction. Like if I'm on my tripod, I've done that.

Or like if I'm the guy on the left and they all ran to the right, I'll like point my gun up it in the sky, carry my tripod over there, around behind everybody. Hey, I'm going behind. I'm going behind. Mm-hmm. . That way nobody gets confused or Yeah. Scared when I [00:59:00] start firing off rounds next to them. Mm. . Yeah.

And at some point, you know, a hog's not worth somebody else's life. So at some, at some point, you know, you just need to quit shooting, you know, and that's kind of mm-hmm. , you know, again, kind of comes with experience. Like when you've, when you've killed a lot, you're not quite as, you know, blood thirsty or whatever you wanna say.

You know, like, absolutely, you've kinda been around the block. Whereas, you know, if it's your first time and you're not sure if you're gonna get to go again, you might be a little bit more willing to push that trigger and stuff. Uh, but yeah, just kind of knowing when it's time for you to stop and let just, you know, letting 'em run away or letting somebody else continue to shoot is a big part of it too.

I agree. You knowing, like, are there houses in the, the fields on the next way over or something like that? Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . Yep. Kelly, uh, I need your top three snack suggestions. You gotta go for something that will survive the evening . So you gotta have some hard goods like your Mike and Ikes, or your hot tamales, because they're, they're gonna do well.

They got [01:00:00] that hard outer shell. They're gonna taste great and they're very mobile. However, they're too loud. So that's like, you're in the truck snack is a mike and Ike and not that filling. And not that filling. Yeah. No, yeah, you'll definitely still be extremely hungry. And then you gotta have what I call your, your gas station trophy, which is, you've been hunting, you stop over at the gas station and you get that like ice cream bar or something that's, uh, very time oriented that's gonna expire, but it's gonna be a nice big boost.

Uh, and that'll really get you going. And then if you want that kind of filling snack, I'm just gonna say it. Barbecue, Pringles. It's, uh, it's a classic, I mean, Uhhuh, , you cannot go wrong with a Pringle. I'm, they're, they're space engineered. Uh, just gonna be a great thing. , if you never pop the top, you could send those bad boys to outer [01:01:00] space and back.

Uhhuh. . Yeah, I mean, that's, that's the three snacks. So you gotta have your, your truck snack, you gotta have your gas station. And then you gotta have your, you know, your old tried and true warhorse, which is Pringles. Gotcha. Gotcha. I love it. I love it. Awesome guys. Well, uh, is there a need for either of you to, uh, dish out your social medias before we, uh, close it down real quick?

no, brother. I don't even got one to dish out. . Yeah. Yeah. I got an Instagram that I have 12 friends on and I don't take the, I don't accept the request just cause I don't want, I don't want anybody to see what I'm up to. Last photo was 12 years ago. like eight. Yeah. Well just, I'll give y'all the opportunity.

Uh, well cool guys. Well man, I appreciate y'all coming on chatting with me. It was fun. We're definitely gonna have to do it some more. And, uh, we, we've been saying for two years that, uh, we are gonna do a Deer Camp podcast and we have not got [01:02:00] that done yet. So Yeah, I'm just putting it out there for everybody to hear.

Now this one, now we have some accountability. This coming fall, we gotta do a Deer cat or a, uh, deer Camp episode. So I'll bring the snacks. I bet we can kill five cows at Deer Camp. Probably so. Probably so. . Awesome. Well, thanks guys for coming on, and until next time, we'll talk to y'all later. All right, see you fellow.

The infamous Randy and the Everwise Kelly right there. Thank you guys for coming on. Uh, thank y'all for coming up and hunting with me. I hope you guys enjoyed that. I know it was kind of all over the place at times, but uh, I really enjoyed recording it, so hopefully y'all enjoyed listening to it. That's gonna do it for this week, guys.

We had a nice full long episode this week. We got a lot more coming down the pipe. Uh, hopefully, like I said, uh, when I head to the Backwood show this weekend, I get to meet some new cool, exciting people to have on the show. Uh, man, last year, oh God, I met several people that ended up coming on the show, including a couple people [01:03:00] from like the National Wild Turkey Federation.

Um, Yeah, just lots, lots of cool people. So thank you guys for listening as always. I really, really appreciate it. If there is a topic out there that y'all want me to cover, please, please shoot me a message on social media or something and I will do my best to get that taken care of. Still got a few, uh, few topics here on the list that I don't think I've ever covered that I've been wanting to get to.

So I'm doing my best to track down some, some new exciting guests. You guys keep listening and we're just gonna keep powering forward. So thank you guys once again, and until next week, I will see y'all right back here on. The Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast.[01:04:00]

‍