Show Notes
On this episode of the Nine Finger Chronicles, Dan is joined by Sam and Linda Gaylord of Old Barn Taxidermy for an all things hunting BS Session. The trio kicks off the episode by talking about a new avenue of their company with G2 Taxidermy Forms. The conversation then turns to Linda and how she was introduced to hunting through dating Sam, including a couple stories of their first hunts together. As time went on Linda has turned in to a hardcore hunter who will go hunt any species at any time. Sam and Linda explain their love for hunting Africa and share more stories of adventure hunting in remote location around the globe.
Another fun episode where Dan is his friends talk about the great activity of hunting.
Show Transcript
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Here we go again, another episode of the nine finger chronicles podcast coming your way guys. I tell you right now. One of my favorite times of year, right? Is when I get the phone [00:01:00] call from Sam Gaylord at Old Barn Taxidermy And he goes, or this year it was actually Linda This year Linda left the message on my phone and was like Hey, your head's ready, come on down and get it And so, uh, it's one of my, it's one of my favorite times of year Going down, visiting with Sam Watching, uh, the, the, the progress that they make on deer heads, watching, uh, how they do what they do.
You know, he's given me tours several times. Uh, he's got this new form that he formed company that he's created. Uh, just all the irons in the fire. He's a good businessman and, uh, he's just a good person. Same with Linda and the rest of the company, the people that work there at, uh, old barn and. And I love going there and talking to him because like I mentioned in this podcast, I get to walk away with a memory, uh, that I can look, I can look on the [00:02:00] wall at this inanimate object and all of these memories start flooding back into my head Where I was, what the wind direction was, where I shot this buck, the blood trail, how it all went down and, uh, dude, I'm telling you right now it was, it was, it's just, I love looking at my deer mounts, uh, and, and my Euro skulls and, and my sheds.
I used to be able to pick a shed off a wall and know exactly where I found it. Where it came from what property it came from and I don't know if my brain is full or I It's full and I had to get rid of stuff. I can't do I can't do that anymore Some of the special ones some of the bigger ones that I found I can tell you exactly where those were found at who I was with but the insignificant ones none of them are real insignificant, but [00:03:00] Some of them, I've, I've lost that memory, if that makes sense.
So, maybe I'm getting dementia. I don't, I don't know. But today's episode, man, it's a really great, uh, uh, it's a really great, um, episode. I, I dive into taxidermy with Sam, right? We talk about... Uh, how him and Linda met and basically how this all comes together is Linda and Sam started dating and he goes, well, if you're going to date me, you got to be a hunter.
You got to start hunting because that's how we're going to spend time together. And she's like, okay, I guess we can do that. And sure enough, he created a monster. And now she is full blown bow hunter, hunter, uh, everything like she loves to go do it all. And, and, uh, we talk about that in this episode as well.
Uh, before we get into today's episode though, we are going to do some [00:04:00] commercials like we always do. I really appreciate you guys taking time out of your day to listen to these and not skip through them. Because, uh, ultimately the people who you're going to hear about are the people who. Pay my bills and, uh, and, and buy advertising space on this, on this, uh, platform.
And so I really would appreciate it if you would just sit back, relax, and listen to me talk about these products for a moment. First on the list is tethered, man. Um, I've been shooting my bow out of my off my platform and in my saddle just so I'm getting more comfortable with it I'm feeling I'm feeling really good.
I'm feeling sturdy in it I'm feeling confident in it and it's just gonna be a matter of time until I shoot you know my first deer this year out of a saddle and My goal is to do it in several states now I don't know if I'm gonna be able to get into a saddle In South Dakota because I'll be kind of spotting and stalking in mule deer country, but I'm gonna have it with me just in case [00:05:00] I I see a opportunity to hop into a tree and uh And you know, and maybe cut something off somewhere, right?
So I'm really looking forward to that. Uh, hopefully Hopefully it all comes together while I'm in a saddle this year. Uh, if you're looking for a great saddle company, go check out Tethered at TetheredNation. com. They have platforms, they got saddles, they got saddle hunting accessories, everything you need, including the information and including the content to make you a better, uh, you know, to flatten the learning curve there at Tethered.
So go check that out. Their new, uh, their newest saddle is called the Lockdown. So. Next on the list wasp archery huge fan and here in coming up in October I'm getting ready to do wasp week where I will dedicate an entire week of podcasts to the people who are part of the wasp [00:06:00] community and Man, it's gonna you know so far.
I've got two recorded. I got one more to record it's a really good episode and I'm looking forward to that and so if you are looking for a really, really good broad head. Go check out, uh, wasparchery. com. And I do have a discount code NFC two zero, and that's going to save you 20 percent off. Next on the list is vortex optics.
I mean, you guys, they're everywhere, right? They have an apparel line. That's money. They're bread and butter, which is optics, spotting scopes, rifle scopes, range finders, binoculars, uh, red dots. You name it, they have it. And it's, uh, their VIP, uh, what is it? They, they got a VIP warranty out right now. Uh, and that means that if you break it, smash it, bust it, send it in for, uh, they will fix it for free and then send it back to you, right?
And that's how, that right there is customer service at its finest. Be sure to check out the [00:07:00] new line of binoculars that they, that they have coming out. They have some new youth binos. That are would be perfect like a perfect gift for a kid who's an outdoor enthusiast and then they also have the new triumph HD very affordable very high quality Pair of binoculars for anybody who wants a very affordable Style right there.
All right, and then next on the list is ozonics you're gonna be hearing me talk about ozonics this month and Man, I'll tell you right now I am a huge fan of O3, uh, the science behind how, uh, ozone works, how it kills bacteria, how it destroys scent profiles, how it basically, um, I don't want to say eliminates 100 percent of the scent, but what it does is it dilutes it enough to where if your scent molecule hits a [00:08:00] deer's nose, they don't run off like a banshee, like if they caught a full You know, a full scent of you.
And so I'm in, man, I want to say the past 13 years, I don't even know how long Ozonics has been a company. It's probably something I should know, but I've been in the tree with their very first unit that they ever made. And back then it used to be the size of like damn near a DVD player or VCR. I mean, it was huge and you had to take the screen out and you had to wash it.
Uh, and, and put, then put it back together now. You know, technology has advanced tremendously, and they have these little lightweight units you take into the tree with you, you can put them in a, a closet, or one of their, uh, they, they sell like a, a garment closet to dry wash your clothes, I, that means you're not having to wash your clothes every single day, uh, throughout the hunting season, and I take advantage of that, man.
Uh, I, I let Ozone [00:09:00] do a lot of the work, so, uh, Ozone. Ozonics, go check them out. Ozonics, hunting. com and, uh, basically read up on all the different units and how ozone, uh, can help you in and out of the woods. So those are the commercials for today. Uh, let's cut the chit chat and get into today's episode with Sam and Linda Gaylord.
Three, two, one. All right. So when I get the text messages or the phone calls from old barn taxidermy, I get jumpy. I get giddy. I get happy because I know that means I got to, I got to go pick something up. Something that I've put a lot of time, effort, energy, uh, into. And I know now from working with Sam and Linda here for a very long time that I'm going to pick up something of the highest quality.
at, uh, Old Barn, and, uh, so I am excited today to [00:10:00] be back at Old Barn podcasting with the, the both of you, and, I mean, the cherry on top is I get to pick up my deer head and take him home. That
[00:10:07] Sam Gaylord: is the cherry. It is sweet. And what a great
[00:10:11] Dan Johnson: deer head of all. Yes, it is. Man, it turned out great. No offense, but the first deer head that you ever did in 2016 of mine is still one of my favorites.
Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And I, I think you did that almost... from scratch, a little customization in the neck. We've customized most all your stuff. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And so now that we're sitting here on, uh, with the new G2 form. You got a G2 form, baby. Yeah. It looks great, man. So I'm very happy with the results as I always am.
And I love talking, you know, one of my favorite things about working with you guys is, and a lot of the companies that I work with is, you know, I'm a, [00:11:00] I'm a huge fan of good people. And, that's why I like working with you guys. You're just good people,
[00:11:05] Sam Gaylord: man. I think good people find good people. Absolutely.
That's kind of been, always been my, uh, take on things, I think. Yeah, yeah. So, works out good.
[00:11:15] Dan Johnson: So, you're always busy. Yeah, always busy. And the first thing I want to do here today is talk about the new, uh, avenue with a company and that is the G2 forms. Sure. Okay. So talk to us a little bit about why you were like, Hey, we need to start.
We need to start a form company.
[00:11:35] Sam Gaylord: Yeah. You know, um, a lot of the driver of the G2 was, uh, COVID, um, you know, the supply chain backed up and the taxidermy. was not, uh, it was in that same bullet as everybody else was. I mean, we couldn't get mannequins. Like we might order your mannequin, Dan, for your deer today.
And we might get it [00:12:00] in six weeks. We might not, it might get on back order and get kicked out of it. I mean, it would just, it got very, very. Brutal trying to maintain a schedule. So, you know, being as we're in Iowa and Southeast Iowa, you know, we never really had a, the big shutdown that the rest of the world had.
So we, we worked through it. I mean, so we had to go through those battles of getting those mannequins in here and trying to keep somewhat of a schedule. Um, I'd already been tinkering with the idea before that, but at that point in my life, I thought, you know, there's got to be a better way to do this, you know, and, uh, with G2, we didn't reinvent the wheel by any reason.
I mean, there's a lot of decent, good deer mannequins on the market right now. Um, what we did is took [00:13:00] my years and years and years of mounting deer, and then. My sculptor is named Steve McCready. Steve is out of, uh, Wisconsin, Deerfield, Wisconsin. And Steve's older than me, so he's a master taxidermist as well.
So, we were able to feed off one another what we didn't like about this mannequin or liked about that mannequin. We both amounted literally on everything the industry had to offer. And, you know, and I'll go back to what I always say. You know, only God gets these things perfectly right, you know, we're all just trying to, to recreate his creation.
Um, but with that being said, we want to recreate with the quality that you expect. And I want a deer to look like a Midwest deer when it leaves my shop. So, you know, I tell Steve, you know, I That mannequin, I don't like the forehead on that. You know, I don't like the eye set on this one. This one, [00:14:00] the shoulders are too wide.
The rest of it, I like. The neck's too short. So we fought through all those battles just over the phone. You know, on Zoom meetings. Like, let's build it like this. He had actually sculpted for a lot of the bigger supply houses, uh, under the radar. I mean, his name's not in the books. Nobody even knows. But a lot of mannequins that some people are mounting on were already sculpted by Steve.
Yeah. So it just, it just fit. It fit well. I love Steve. He's, he's a good dude. Uh, again, good people find good people, you know. So I got to hold him and say, hey, you know, let's, let's make, let's make a banger company. Let's, let's start this out. I don't want to reinvent the wheel. I want to invent something that, that looks like a Midwest deer.
Um, fits like a glove. Uh, something I could be proud to put our, our brand on and, and market it. And man, we've, I tell you, [00:15:00] I'm biased of course, but we hit a home run with these things. That's awesome. I mean, just a home run. Um, we've got now one full year of being on the market to other taxidermists and literally, you know, you usually can't keep everybody happy.
I mean, you just, you just know that going into anything we haven't had, but maybe one taxidermist that had anything negative to say. Everybody else absolutely loves them. I mean, loves them and like, it's a pleasure to build them again because they're, you know, they fit well. They fit because the shoulders of the right, the right, you know, distance across the next right length and it's just years of wisdom.
Yeah, I guess you get something for being
[00:15:43] Dan Johnson: old. Yeah, there you go. There you go. Um, question like before you started the company, were you having to alter, uh, existing, uh, forms a lot to fit Midwestern deal? We,
[00:15:56] Sam Gaylord: we did, uh. We alter, we [00:16:00] still even alter our G2 stuff. Uh, you know, everybody's a different size. It's like, you know, you're big, strong guy, and I'm a short little fat guy.
So, I mean, Not anymore. Well, not anymore. Every deer's different. So, and I've got a pretty quick alteration deal that I teach my people. So, but yes, we, we altered a lot of deer to make them fit the way that we wanted to. Either with a rasp, knocking down shoulder widths, or adding a little bit to neck length.
Or, you know, whatever we gotta do to, so when you slide that hide on that mannequin, that the mannequin fits the hide, not the hide fits the
[00:16:36] Dan Johnson: mannequin type of thing. So, customization as far as taxidermy is almost. Expected across the board. It is in my house. Okay, I gotcha. Yes. So maybe, maybe
[00:16:49] Sam Gaylord: not in some of the smaller shops.
You know what I'm saying? When I say smaller shops, you know, all tax them are on a different playing level. Some of [00:17:00] my there's people that are just way greater than we are. I mean, I appreciate, you know, how our customers think about us, but we're not the best by no means, you know, I don't claim to be, but you know, everybody's got a different, uh, a different place in their taxidermy career, their journey.
You know, some guys that intimidates the crap out of them to lay a knife on a form. And I'm like, guys, it's just foam. You know, you just gotta know anatomy. You gotta know which vertebrae makes the head go up and down, which vertebrae turns the head left and right. And then that the rest of the vertebrae don't move.
The rest of the movement comes down into the end of the base of the shoulder and just teach that, you know, and then once they teach that, they can cut it, screw it together, put some two part foam on it and do something really cool. Um, is there a lot of that out there in my shop? There is, but I don't see that in a lot of other shops, you know?
Yeah. Um, Not saying it's right either [00:18:00] way. Yeah. You know, as long as I guess what's, what's right at the end of the day is the sparkle in the customer's eye when they come in, you know, if their eyes are sparkling, you know, you hit a home run. That's awesome. If they, if they look at it and look at the ground, you're like, Ooh,
[00:18:13] Dan Johnson: Oh, I screwed a pooch on that one.
Okay. So as of right now, what do you got? I know you got the semi, a semi sneak out.
[00:18:21] Sam Gaylord: Yeah, we, uh, we've got the full line of semi sneaks. Uh, we got a full line of semi uprights. We have, uh, semi sneak offsets, which are really cool. Shows a little bit more shoulder on one side or the other. Uh, and then we have got our first addition to our wall pedestal series, which is just, it's a home run.
Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's just a banger. Uh, we've got, In clay, as a matter of fact, they're picking it up in Wisconsin tomorrow, our first full sneak offset shoulder, which [00:19:00] I'm excited for. A lot of shops don't mount a lot of full sneaks, and we don't mount a ton, but it just needs to be in our arsenal. I like it.
I like a good full sneak. I've done some full sneaks for you, and you did some creative head turns. I like that. So, but we, it's, it's
[00:19:18] Dan Johnson: going to be cool. Yeah. And so, okay. Currently full sneak. Yep. Next is semi sneak or excuse me, uh,
[00:19:30] Sam Gaylord: Yeah. Yeah. Well, right now, we we've got our semi uprights done. Okay. For Midwest sizes. Gotcha. We got our semi sneaks done for Midwest sizes. Yep. Now, when I talk Midwest size, I'm talking a seven and a quarter to a seven and three quarter head. Gotcha. Which most of those heads you might. We're not running a 7 1 4 stock hit, are we?
I don't believe it this time. I think we have one. We have one. We have one. Yes. So most of our heads are either [00:20:00] 7 1 2 or 7 3 4. And in our industry, you know, it's called taxidermy. You know, we're taxing skin. I don't see a huge issue with using a seven half or seven, three quarter on most of our deer because you can taxi that skin around.
Now, if you got a swampy head, you gotta do a little bit of alterations to it. But again, that's, that's an easy thing to do. Yeah. So that's what I'm talking our mid, our Midwest lines are done. Yeah. So we got, we got semi uprights done, semis, sneaks done. Semis sneak offsets are getting done. We've got Derrick, we have
[00:20:34] Linda Gaylord: the up, we have the uprights.
We we're gonna work on the semis sneaks as soon as we're done with the full sneaks. Yep.
[00:20:41] Sam Gaylord: Yep. So, and then we're old,
[00:20:43] Dan Johnson: so I'm thinking here. Yeah, no, that, I mean, here's what I'll say is I've seen these forms, uh, they're. Awesome. And so next time you guys go and you shoot a deer and you're like, Hey, I want to, I want to mount it.
You got to ask for G2 cause they are, dude, they're ridiculous. [00:21:00] And your
[00:21:00] Sam Gaylord: tax determinants is going to love you because, you know, um, right now we, you know, we met and exceeded all our expectations for our first year for our inaugural year. I mean, we've, we met our sales goals. And we're just getting a little sliver of the pie.
People are just now getting to taste these things. And when they taste them, they're like, Oh, this, this is not my last one of these. You know, and we, I'm a, I was a businessman way before I was a tax numbers way before I was a supplier. Okay. So I understand cost. I understand overhead and the biggest benefit right now that.
For a new guy that might have his own flavor is what he likes. He needs to look at these for the, for the price point. Um, we own the foam that, We build this product with. When I say we own the foam, I worked with a gentleman about 10 years ago to [00:22:00] develop this foam for our industry that I sell. I private label this stuff.
Uh, and I've sold to most of the manufacturers, not all of them, but most of them, except for the big ones. So they, they're using our foam already. Most of them. Um. So, I've got that foam in house. I'm in an old building. My, my overhead's diluted in three, because I actually run three big businesses off of this one umbrella of the old barn, okay?
And, with all that being said... You know, if you look at industry standards on prices right now for a mannequin, you know, some of them are 85, 95. Well, we're selling these every day for 65 bucks. And the reason why we can do that is because I control my overhead. I don't have a big, fancy catalog. I'm not running a bunch of shows, you know, I don't.
Have a new truck. I'm pulling things around. I'm not in a manufacturing building that I'm paying [00:23:00] 3, 000 a month for. So I'm able to keep that cost drove down. Well, Not only do we offer the everyday price 65. We have what we call a baker's dozen promotion Which if you buy 12 the 13th is free So now that drives the price down to 60 a piece Yeah, okay, which is tremendous right now in this in this economy in this industry So then we come up with For a business model for for advertisement purposes, we're doing the last quarter of this year.
First quarter of next year. We're doing a 55 for 55. So if you're a taxonomist out there listening and you've got your workload in, okay, you've got your deposits. Now you can order 55 mannequins at one time. For 55 a piece you're saving almost 40 a mannequin So now let's put that back in dollars and cents if you do a hundred deer a year and you put a hundred of the Deer on g2 mannequin.
You just made [00:24:00] yourself between thirty five hundred four thousand dollar raise.
[00:24:03] Dan Johnson: Yeah, go on. Yeah on Sam Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah, that's awesome. Beautiful. That's awesome Well, if you're a taxidermist or you're a hunter, definitely go, uh, go talk to, uh, your taxidermist about getting these G2 forms or they're pretty sweet.
So well, congratulations on another business being successful. Yes. This is the
[00:24:25] Sam Gaylord: last one.
[00:24:26] Dan Johnson: force. Are you sure? Well, that's what I think I've heard that before. That's what I say.
[00:24:30] Sam Gaylord: Yeah. This, this, this is a piece of the puzzle that kind of puts the four square block together, I guess. So, between the meat processing, the tannery, the taxidermy shop, now the, the supply mannequins, we are pretty much self, self, uh, Induced here.
Yeah.
[00:24:48] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Self sufficient. Self sufficient.
[00:24:50] Sam Gaylord: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was the word I was looking for. So, but, tell you what, it's, it's back. It's here. Yeah. It's, it's, it starts next week here in Iowa.
[00:24:59] Linda Gaylord: Man. We're [00:25:00] not, we're not ready. I'm not ready. The meat processing is not ready. We just had our first phone call this morning and I looked at Colton and I went, oh boy.
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:25:10] Dan Johnson: Turn on the freezers. Yeah.
[00:25:11] Sam Gaylord: Yeah. They're starting, they're starting to call. Yeah. Uh, going to travel or, you know, I got a lot of guys coming in wanting to make sure we're, we're going to be open the 15th because of, uh, youth hunts and then, uh, you got the citywide hunts going on and so, you know, everybody's Jones and they're ready to get in there.
They're ready.
[00:25:31] Linda Gaylord: We're not ready, but
[00:25:33] Dan Johnson: you better get ready.
[00:25:34] Linda Gaylord: I know it's coming. Whether we're ready or not. I know, you know,
[00:25:37] Sam Gaylord: it's, it's, it's put together as we look, Linda keeps me put together, but you know, I'm a last minute guy. I, I work really well under a deadline and pressure, which means I procrastinate really bad.
[00:25:51] Linda Gaylord: But gives, gives me huge anxiety. 'cause I'm like, uh, you're a planner. I'm a planner. Yes. Yeah, Linda Linda's
[00:25:57] Sam Gaylord: a spreadsheet girl. I'm a spreadsheet girl. She's a day's aging [00:26:00] reporter. She, she, I get my list on Monday and I call it Linda's wishlist. Like, what you wish me to get done this week? You know?
[00:26:08] Dan Johnson: Alright, Sam, here's a list on a piece of paper of all the shit you gotta take care of this week.
And sometimes get it
[00:26:14] Linda Gaylord: done. Sometimes. And sometimes that list is very long. Yeah. And then the minute he gets a phone call on Monday morning, I'm like, well, there went that list. I should have just deep through it in the trash.
[00:26:25] Dan Johnson: Some, some knucklehead comes in and wants to record a podcast,
[00:26:28] Linda Gaylord: right? But that's okay.
No, no, no, no, no,
[00:26:32] Sam Gaylord: no, no. That's the beauty about what we do. We can't shift gears quick when we have for
[00:26:37] Linda Gaylord: sure. And I make him work late too. Yeah. You know,
[00:26:40] Dan Johnson: that's a bad part of this business. The bad part. Yeah. You
[00:26:43] Sam Gaylord: really don't have like set hours. So. That can be whenever your wife wants you to go try to make a
[00:26:49] Linda Gaylord: little money.
And we live so far away from here that, you know, it's really difficult to drive here.
[00:26:56] Dan Johnson: Yeah, when you're this, when you're, when you live right [00:27:00] on the property, I could definitely see where it's like, I know there's times where I'm laying in my bed and my office is above my garage, where I'm laying in bed, I'm trying to shut my brain off for the day, and I'm like, Oh man, I forgot to email this dude.
Yeah. Get out of bed, open the laptop up, type up an email, set it back down, try to fall asleep again. Oh man, I forgot to do this. Cause I, I, I'm, I'm a procrastinator too. I don't write down a lot of things. It's all saved up here in the, the bear trap. But, but yeah, man. All right, cool. So. Um, now Linda, when I, when you just sat down here and me and Sam go, well, you're going to do a lot of talking today.
You're like, uh, what?
[00:27:44] Linda Gaylord: Yeah. I'm not a big talker. Say, as you know, Sam is the talker. I'm just, I just sit back and like, Oh, I got to remember to do that when he says this. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:27:52] Dan Johnson: She takes notes. Yeah, exactly.
[00:27:54] Sam Gaylord: What'd that goofball
[00:27:55] Dan Johnson: say? Yeah. So, but we're, we're going to step away from Sam [00:28:00] today and we're going to talk about you because.
Man, every year, Facebook, some picture pops up of you behind something with a bow or a gun or a crossbow or whatever the case may be. You're killing something somewhere. I like to kill stuff.
[00:28:16] Linda Gaylord: Yes, I do. I do.
[00:28:18] Dan Johnson: And I'm getting jacked up because I'm like, man, this ain't no, you know, like there's a, there's a little bit of a stereotype in hunting, right?
Where it's like, oh, the lady. gets put in a tree stand by the man, right? Some man's like, here honey, sit here and shoot whatever, you know, this deer that walks by. And my gut tells me that you're not that type of lady.
[00:28:38] Linda Gaylord: Well, um, here's the scoop. So, I never even... I didn't know how to shoot a gun or a crossbow or anything because I shoot a crossbow because I've got a vertebrae that's smashed and so I can't pull back a bow which stinks, but it's the way it is.
Anyway, um, I didn't ever do that until I met this guy.
[00:28:59] Dan Johnson: So that was, oh, you [00:29:00] said, oh, seven. That was her lucky
[00:29:01] Linda Gaylord: day. That was, yes. In oh seven, um, he said, you know, why don't you start hunting? And I'm like, what? I don't know. Why would I want to do that? It's kind of, we were dating. We
[00:29:11] Sam Gaylord: were dating. We were dating at the time.
And I said, you know, my whole life has been carved out of the hunting industry one way or the other. I love to hunt. I love to shoot stuff. You know, at the time I didn't have this big taxidermy business, but I played with taxidermy. Um. But I said, you know, if you want to be with me, you need to pick up a bow and go do it.
So
[00:29:33] Dan Johnson: that sounded like an ultimatum.
[00:29:36] Linda Gaylord: Kind of, it kind of was. And I was like, you know, of course I wanted to be with him because, you know, we do 99. 9 percent stuff together. So I was like, okay, I'll, I'll go with you. So I went with him first time, you know, I'm thinking, wow, I think I could do that. You know, I'm, I'm like.
Well, that looks pretty easy, so it's not, but I mean, you know, it would, it looked like fun. [00:30:00] So then the first year I got it, you know, I got my bow, went out, went out with him. He sat with me and everything. And then after that, uh, we The first year, was it the first year or the second year, we went to the ammunition plant.
I'm going to tell this story because it's not a very pretty story. And, uh, we had to shoot two, no, we had to shoot one doe. We were, we were muzzleloader hunting. We were
[00:30:23] Sam Gaylord: muzzleloader hunting. And you had to shoot your doe first. Yes. Both of us. Of course. I'm, you know. We both have buck tags. Yeah. And in an orders plant, them are extra tags.
Yep. That's, that's beyond your statewide stuff. So this is cool,
[00:30:35] Linda Gaylord: right? Yeah. So, and you know, and I'm, I'm hyped up, you know, he's excited, I'm excited. We're like, okay, fine. So we are in the ammunition plant. We're all set up. Granted, I'm new. I don't know what I'm doing yet. Yeah. Okay. Here comes these. Two does he whispers to me and he says, okay, these these does are coming.
They're coming, you know, they were probably what [00:31:00] 150 yards away. And he says, you take the one on the left. I'll take the one on the right. I'm like, okay, fine. You know, we can do that. Then they're
[00:31:09] Dan Johnson: coming to us.
[00:31:11] Linda Gaylord: So what are you doing? Oh yeah.
[00:31:14] Dan Johnson: What are you doing? Accidentally pulled
[00:31:16] Linda Gaylord: early. No, I didn't know. I thought he, I thought he's.
You said go ahead and shoot, you know, I'm thinking okay. Yeah, I'm gonna be
[00:31:23] Sam Gaylord: 10 yards from us
[00:31:24] Linda Gaylord: I didn't know this, you know, i'm thinking so it was a very very quiet ride home. Okay.
[00:31:31] Sam Gaylord: I knew
[00:31:31] Linda Gaylord: I made a bad mistake Oh, man, he was
[00:31:34] Dan Johnson: very upset mistake. Like you you regret taking her with you. No, I regret
[00:31:39] Sam Gaylord: being an asshole.
[00:31:42] Linda Gaylord: It was pretty bad. He was pretty, uh, what are you doing there? We're going to be, you know, it's like, I'm like, I thought you said, shoot, I thought, I mean, I was, I tried. So anyway, I missed, of course, you know, stupid me. So the next, so, you know, I'm thinking I ain't doing this again. This sucks. Sorry for my, but [00:32:00] anyway, so he says, let's go out again.
I humbly apologize. He did. It was You know, it was great. So it was, it was, it was, and anyway, so it was the next night or the night after. I don't remember, but anyway, we went back and he set up this ground blind. Sam is a ground blind guy. He loves ground blinds. Okay. And, uh, and it was a wonderful ground blind.
We had this big old tree in front of us. I mean, I perched my. Muzzleloader up. It was awesome. Um, so here come these does, and I'm, and he's like, there you go. You know, and they were probably 25 yards, okay? So, boom. I shoot. It comes running at us, into our blind, over top of me. He says, here's what he says.
Every man for himself. Every man
[00:32:48] Dan Johnson: for himself. I'm rolling the other way. Abort, abort.
[00:32:51] Linda Gaylord: Exactly. I go down. Of course, you know, it dies behind me. You know, but it jumps over top of me and I'm thinking. A deer,
[00:32:58] Sam Gaylord: her first deer [00:33:00] literally leaped.
[00:33:01] Linda Gaylord: Over top of me. Okay, so this is the hunting. I'm thinking, ooh, this isn't so easy.
[00:33:07] Dan Johnson: Wild. Animals, after you hit them, run straight towards you. Yeah. Almost like to attack you.
[00:33:13] Linda Gaylord: Yeah, that don't happen, you know, so. Okay, so anyway, well then we did. The next
[00:33:19] Sam Gaylord: night. The next night. Now she can shoot her buck. Yeah. And Sam dinked around and found some green. Beans I'm talking green, green, fresh, fresh green beans.
And it was just this little point. This was early season. This was early muzzle. Okay. This is the little point I just was dinking around. I'm I'm glassing. I can see green son of a buck. Demer green. And so I went over there and there was just. Poop everywhere. I mean, it was, it was phenomenal. So you can go ahead And
[00:33:48] Linda Gaylord: so anyway, he sets me up, you know, I'm on, I'm on a pod with the, with the muzzle loader and I'm sitting there.
This giant comes out. It's probably what, 40 [00:34:00] yards maybe, 40, maybe, maybe, if that, at the max. So, and it, it's standing there and it's looking at
[00:34:07] Sam Gaylord: me. And I, I sit up. 10 yards from her, which was my first behind her, behind her to her left. And this, this deer was to her, right. Which was my first mistake. I set up too far from her.
[00:34:20] Linda Gaylord: So anyway, of course, you know, it's facing me and it's looking and it's not,
[00:34:24] Dan Johnson: you know, it's, were you guys in the beans?
[00:34:27] Sam Gaylord: No, we just, just, just out of, just barely out of being sitting up against a couple of big oak trees.
[00:34:32] Linda Gaylord: So, um, it's looking at me and I'm thinking, okay, you know, it's going to turn well. He sees me and runs off.
[00:34:41] Sam Gaylord: Well, let's back up a little bit. I'm like,
[00:34:44] Linda Gaylord: shoot him. Oh yeah, yeah. And
[00:34:47] Sam Gaylord: nothing. Shoot him. Nothing. Shoot him. Nothing. Now he's doing that hip bob in there. Shoot him. I'm like,
[00:34:59] Dan Johnson: well, why didn't you [00:35:00] shoot him? The first time, it didn't take you nothing to fire the shot. Yeah, why didn't you
[00:35:04] Linda Gaylord: shoot him? So, I'm gun shy that night, obviously.
But anyway, go ahead.
[00:35:08] Sam Gaylord: She says what? He didn't turn sideways. I said, you got a muzzle loader, you don't have to turn sideways, put it in the on off button and pull the trigger. Well, I thought he had shim in the lungs. That was a buzzer loader.
[00:35:21] Linda Gaylord: Again,
[00:35:22] Dan Johnson: learning experience. Exactly. Just so happened to be on absolute giant.
Oh,
[00:35:26] Linda Gaylord: it was a mega giant. It was a mega giant. But then I redeemed myself because it was 100. There was a one that was like 100 yards out. It wasn't as big, of course, you know, I shot and I. I got it, you know, so I, it was, yeah, it was, first of all, it was
[00:35:43] Sam Gaylord: 185 inches, yeah, so, but it was one of them, oh my goodness,
[00:35:47] Dan Johnson: yeah, so, so did you come from an outdoors family, no, no, no, uncles, dads, no, not fishing, anything,
[00:35:56] Linda Gaylord: no, my dad, my dad was not a fisherman at all, [00:36:00] um, No, I came from nothing like that.
Yeah, they were workers. I mean, my dad owned a service station and worked sun up, sun down. And
[00:36:11] Dan Johnson: so when you met Sam, you were just thrown straight into the fire.
[00:36:14] Linda Gaylord: Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. It was, it was all or nothing. So, but, uh,
[00:36:20] Sam Gaylord: we, we had knew one another for years. Yeah. Um, Years and years. I mean, it's, it's a story for another day, but, uh, we actually worked together.
So we knew, she knew about my passion for the outdoors. And then one day it was July 4th, 2007. I walked by her office. We were both divorced at the time. I see, I can flirt with you for real now. She smiled back at me. So we went out,
[00:36:45] Dan Johnson: dog. Yeah.
[00:36:46] Sam Gaylord: Yeah. So we went out that July. We, we took the kids, our kids to the fireworks that night and, uh, It wasn't, it was that fall was actually your first fall you hunted.
So that's when I said, hey, you know, if you want to be [00:37:00] with me, you want to be around me, you're just going to have to go hunting. Because this is what I do for three or four months. You know, I don't, I want you with me, but you gotta like it, you know? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I love it. Then we got, we made this animal.
[00:37:14] Linda Gaylord: Yeah. She's an animal. I, now I don't even want him around to be quite honest with you because, you know, he, he still wants to tell me, and I'm as slow and steady. I'm not a pull up and go, I want to see the animal. I want to look at the animal. I'm not, you know I can pull up and, and shoot, but I don't like to do that.
I like to see them. I like to see where they're at. So I like to be up in, in a stand. That's my favorite spot. Um, I'll do blinds. I like blinds if they're elevated. Yeah. I'm not a big ground, you know, because I can't see him. It limits your view. It does. So, but I'll do them, you know, but I'm not a big, I'd rather be up.
Yeah. So,
[00:37:54] Dan Johnson: so you. You shoot a doe and you shoot a buck your first year of, of hunting. [00:38:00] Like you're a slayer now. So how long did it take for you to go from, I don't know nothing about hunting to, Hey dude, I love this. I want to hunt as much as I possibly can. Oh, I was in the tree
[00:38:11] Linda Gaylord: that, that, that next year, next, since then, since.
Every year since then I was out in the tree right right away. So it was like a light switch. It was it was it was just like, oh my gosh, this is awesome. First
[00:38:24] Sam Gaylord: grip and grin was nice.
[00:38:26] Linda Gaylord: Yeah. Yeah. So,
[00:38:28] Dan Johnson: so then White Tails is is your, it was your foot in the door to white tail, you know, with White Tails. Um, talk to me about the next, I mean, the next couple seasons because there's a lot of people that, you know, they dedicate a They're almost their entire life to hunting.
Like, I feel like I'm, I'm one of those people where, uh, when I, when I first started hunting, you know, I had other things like, uh, you know, I had football and I had like social and now other than my family, I [00:39:00] don't even have, like, I have friends. I have like two friends, I'll say, but like people to help drag out deer.
Exactly. If I need to, but, but like. I dedicate time, like if I, if I'm thinking about something, if I'm thinking about trail cameras or hunting or which pinch point and things like that. So I've, I'm in the deep end and there's no coming back for me. Right. And so did that, did you go to that level immediately or did it take you a while?
To start learning about deer behavior and things
like
[00:39:28] Linda Gaylord: that, learning, being out in, in the field, I was like, Oh, I see their pattern. They're coming from here. They're coming from there. I know what the winds, you know what I mean? And then it took me a couple of years to really get into it. And he would, he would say, okay, what's the wind, what's, you know, and, and watch the anatomy.
And so I would say a couple of years, and then I was. I kind of knew. Now
[00:39:49] Sam Gaylord: she has spreadsheets built. Yeah. So, if we have 72 degrees and a southeast wind, you know, we're running like 30 cameras, she knows where those [00:40:00] deer are gonna, what time they're popping out, what they're doing. That's right. Yeah. You know, she's right.
Yeah. And she's looking at, you know, the barometer, trying to put it all
[00:40:10] Linda Gaylord: together. We had a smoker come out the other night and I said, okay, what's the, what's the moon doing? Where's it at? What's the weather? What's the wind? You know? What caused him to daylight? Yeah. What, why is he out today? So. All
[00:40:22] Dan Johnson: the right questions.
Yeah. All the right questions. Yep. Okay. Okay. So. Did you. Did you stick to muzzleloader for a while? Or did you go to shotgun? Did you pick up a bow, crossbow? No,
[00:40:34] Linda Gaylord: um, crossbow. I really like to crossbow. That's, that's one of my favorites. Um, I liked muzzleloader. Except for the fact that I struggle to load a muzzleloader.
Okay. So, that's a big deal. So he has to do that for me. Which is why I put that kind of, you know, And the back burner Love my shotgun. He had the first year. I used your Thompson Center. Oh my gosh Yeah, that gun is sweet. Yeah, [00:41:00] so and then I got my own of course, you know, I was using all his All his stuff and then I got my own and and from there it's but crossbow I think is my favorite or my bow season is my favorite.
I guess I should say Archery
[00:41:12] Dan Johnson: season because of your your vertebrae. Yeah. Yeah, so that's
[00:41:17] Linda Gaylord: uh, that's a big controversial
[00:41:20] Dan Johnson: thing It's not control. I think it's controversial. The controversy comes from this. It's not So for me, I I'll be honest with you. I am I am anti crossbow in In archery season. But, there's asterisks, if you cannot physically pull back a bow, then I'm all for you taking a crossbow out into the woods.
If you're old, or if you're a kid, take a crossbow, right? Everybody needs to experience the archery season. Just get outdoors.
[00:41:50] Linda Gaylord: Exactly. You know, I mean, it's, it's. The most amazing thing. And then, you know, I mean, I got it in late in life and I'm like, I just like going out, sitting in the tree stand [00:42:00] and watching the deer.
Yes. That's one of my favorite things. If, if a big one comes by, well, yeah, I'm going to shoot it. I'm not going to pass it. What I like about
[00:42:08] Sam Gaylord: this lady, she is a sniper. Oh, I believe it. I mean, and she closes the deal, you know, very rarely. Now, every time she calls me, I think I shot it bad. I I did. Every time.
I do. And every time, it's not shot bad, and it's laying at the end of the blood trail. Right. You know, not saying it ain't gonna happen this year, but she second guesses herself after the shot. Every time. I do it. Every time. I do it. Boy, I shot it bad. I think I shot it bad. I'm like, well, what do you think you shot it bad for?
You know, how far was it? Yeah. How far was it? I mean, Stevie Wonder could follow this up, you know? I'm like, jeez, honey. Give yourself a
[00:42:44] Dan Johnson: break here. That's funny. And
[00:42:45] Linda Gaylord: even when I do, I'll look and I'm like, Ooh, I shot it a little too far back. And Sam's like, It's dead. It's dead. You know.
[00:42:53] Sam Gaylord: Don't make a bad shot when it's laying upside down.
Exactly. I don't care where you hit it at. Yeah. If it's laying upside down and you found it, It was a good
[00:42:59] Dan Johnson: shot. Yeah. [00:43:00] I'll tell you this, One of the, One of the, What I would say, Fastest deaths I've ever witnessed On a deer that I've shot. is, uh, a liver shot, you know, behind the diaphragm, behind the lungs, hit it right through the liver on both, you know, both lobes.
And uh, uh, it died in about 40 seconds. Really? I mean, it just went around at about 25 yards, hunched over, fell over, dead, blood out that fast. So, you know, is what it is now last year I was here and I don't know if I was dropping off my deer. We're picking up my, my meat. But you had a big one that you were chasing and it got away from you.
And here's when I knew you were a serious, like you were serious about it. Is you were, you were upset and you were very quiet that day. You didn't want to talk to anybody. I want to hear that story. [00:44:00]
[00:44:02] Linda Gaylord: Well, um. It's a, it's a hard story just because, you know, I mean, when you have one that, that you just know you want, and every year, I try to increase my Inches.
Inches, you know, I mean, I'm, I'm adamant about, I don't want to shoot one if I If it's smaller than I, and that's just a goal for me. Yeah. So, which is
[00:44:27] Sam Gaylord: unrealistic at this point, it is, it is Sam, not unrealistic, Linda. Unrealistic. Yeah. Okay. And I'm having these conversations behind closed doors, honey, you gotta let, you gotta let your standards down a little bit here.
Yeah.
[00:44:40] Linda Gaylord: Yeah. They're not around, they're not around every tree, you know, obviously. So, but, uh, yeah, I, you know. Honestly, I don't, I don't remember, you know, why I was like that, but when I miss, when I, when I miss one, you know, or don't make a good [00:45:00] shot, it just eats me up because, and, and I totally missed it, you know, I mean, it was, it was just like, what did I do?
You know, I'm checking my equipment, I'm looking and I'm like, I come in here and I'm going. What is, why, why did I, you know, and he's like, sometimes it just happens. Yeah. So, yeah.
[00:45:21] Dan Johnson: Was this, was this a deer that you'd been chasing for a couple years? Yeah. Yeah.
[00:45:26] Linda Gaylord: Yeah. So, and it, it's, it's fairly close where we're, where we're located.
Yeah. And I haven't seen it on camera yet this year. Okay. So I don't think it made it
[00:45:36] Dan Johnson: Okay. So, or somebody else shot it or something. We think somebody else.
[00:45:38] Sam Gaylord: Yeah. We
[00:45:39] Linda Gaylord: think somebody else. We think somebody else got it. But, uh, Same
[00:45:42] Sam Gaylord: being the Deer Store, basically. You think we would see everyone, but we don't.
Yeah. No. I mean, there's a lot of great taxer in this area. Yeah. So we don't get 'em all. Yeah. But, but yeah. I, I do have a neat story. Uh, she had worked herself up to a 1 49 mm-hmm. . This was like [00:46:00] seven years ago. Yeah. So she said, if it ain't one 50, I don't wanna shoot it. Well, we had a really good one, I mean, a really good one.
And I'm looking at it, I'm like, honey, it fits one. 50. It's just one 50. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's in my mind's eye, it's a shooter, but in your mind's eye, I don't think it's going to be what you want it to be. So the very last evening of archery season before the first gun season. So the last day of our first archery season, I guess you can call it.
She texts me I got him in front of me. He's at my decoy. This is great So she videotapes him for what 10 minutes. Yeah, he's dinking with her decoy for 10 minutes now. He's 15 yards So now she's sending me these videos and I'm looking at this thing doing the math in my mind in my mind. I'm like Who he better than 150, you know now cuz I'm seeing all [00:47:00] angles and yeah, I'm like, oh man, I really Screwed the pooch on this thing, you
[00:47:04] Dan Johnson: know?
See, in your head it was pass. Yeah, it was
[00:47:06] Sam Gaylord: pass. She hard passed it. You know, and then when I, finally I texted her and I'm like, you might want to shoot this one. And she's like... Uh, he already left. So I, you know, and she came in and she was on cloud nine. I mean, it was the best, best set of her life and have him that close.
And man, he's going to be a giant next year. On the very next day, my neighbor rolled in with him in the bed of the truck. You know, I look at this deer and I think, Ooh, so of course I got to be happy. I'm going to make 600 bucks. Right. So we roll this deer in. I get down to the neighbor and he leaves and she's up here.
And I said, Hey, you want to come down and look at this one? She walked, she said, Oh, that's my deer, isn't it? I said, yeah. She said, are you sure that ain't?
150? It was 162. Something like that. I missed it by like 8 or 12 inches. [00:48:00] I missed it by a lot of inches.
[00:48:01] Dan Johnson: So this is like, the moral of the story is, don't trust Sam. Don't do not. On a field
[00:48:07] Sam Gaylord: judging deer. And I told her that day, I said, if you like it, you shoot it.
[00:48:11] Linda Gaylord: Yeah. We, same thing happened last year. I had one, you were gone.
And I don't like, cause recovery is hard for me. So, and I don't like, I'm not a big person to ask people to help, you know? And he's like, everybody will come help you. But I'm like, I'm, you know, I want him there for some reason. It's just my comfort zone. I don't know why. It's just, I like him to be there to see, you know, and, and I want to see his face when I, you know, when he goes, I love that part.
You know, I'm like. Okay, I did good. You know, I mean, it's that recognition I get from him. But, um, anyway, I passed it. And, oh man, it was a nice one, too. And I'm going. Dude, it's a 150
[00:48:51] Sam Gaylord: inch 8 pointer. Yeah. 10 pointer. Yeah. You don't pass 150. 8 pointers. No! [00:49:00] No, you don't pass
[00:49:01] Linda Gaylord: 150. Yeah, yeah. We had, we've, we've got a nice one.
I'm hoping I get that. I'm hoping I'm going to be sitting right where I need to be Nick this year. So I hope, I hope you got it. You got another day. Oh, I got a dandy on camera.
[00:49:16] Dan Johnson: Is this a deer that you think it could potentially be like. Opening weekend type
[00:49:22] Linda Gaylord: pattern. I'm keep my fingers crossed. I don't know.
Um, so far daylight He's daylighting, but it's on a specific wind and it's at a certain place and we have
[00:49:33] Sam Gaylord: we have to have a strong north We're gonna have
[00:49:35] Linda Gaylord: yeah, and that's gonna be tough. That's gonna be tough. Yeah, so for this for this place, so she's
[00:49:40] Sam Gaylord: already on me You gotta get me in You gotta get a different tree.
Stand in there, . Yeah.
[00:49:44] Linda Gaylord: I that's, yeah,
[00:49:45] Sam Gaylord: you, you, you gotta get this ranking. Didn't run a south wind. Yeah, because we're gonna south winds. 'cause she's tracked every wind. Yeah,
[00:49:51] Linda Gaylord: it's for the last seven years, it's, it's an east, south wind, east, southeast wind. And I'm going, oh, we gotta set this up somewhere else.
So, but anyway. [00:50:00]
[00:50:00] Dan Johnson: That's awesome. Okay, so it's not just Whitetails though. Right. So you have expanded into a variety. Here's a question. Here's, here's the direction I want to go to. You can, you've been to Africa. We have. Okay.
[00:50:15] Linda Gaylord: We can hook you up
[00:50:16] Dan Johnson: too if you want to go. Well, I, I appreciate that, but I, I'm necessarily ready for Africa in my life right now.
Dude, it's the most incredible thing you've you, you and a couple other people have said, That to me, and I look at, look at, I've only killed whitetails in North America. I haven't killed a mule deer, an elk, a pronghorn, a moose, like all these other animals are on my bucket list. And we did our
[00:50:48] Sam Gaylord: bucket list way before we ever did African.
Right. What I like about Africa is the affordability part of it. I do too, yeah. I mean, you know, you can go over there and shoot five animals for around five [00:51:00] grand. You know, uh, we have some amazing ways through some credit card programs. You get free air flights and stuff like that. So, I mean, we've got ways we can work, work through there.
But, I, I wished I'd have started earlier. Mm hmm. I'm not ever gonna miss. As long as, as long as I can get myself around, I'm gonna be in Africa. Yeah. You know, most old people, they take winters and go to. Texas or Florida. Mm hmm. This old guy is gonna spend summers in South Africa. Yeah. That's gonna be our travel destination.
It's,
[00:51:31] Linda Gaylord: it's beautiful. It's just so nostalgic and the animals are just awesome. I mean, so you go, you go out west and right now it's hard because you know they had a really hard winter out there this year. And it's dry. It's dry and so they lost a lot of Other herds. Other herds out there. So, um, it's going to be tough out west this year, I think.
Although I've seen a lot of dropping happening. I mean, there's a lot [00:52:00] going down,
[00:52:00] Sam Gaylord: so. I think, I think for Linda and I's journey, Um, you know, I'm, I'm a bear guy. I love bears. So that was the easiest transformation from whitetail to bears. And that's what we
[00:52:13] Linda Gaylord: did first. Yep. And that was fun. Oh my gosh, fun.
[00:52:18] Sam Gaylord: We chased
them
[00:52:19] Linda Gaylord: for a lot of years together.
Yes, we did and it was just, it was amazing. Um, they're the coolest, they're cool. They're cool animals too. I mean, I don't know, there isn't an animal I don't like. I mean.
[00:52:30] Dan Johnson: And I've never, I've never been on a bear hunt. So here's, here, I'm going to tell you why I don't. Unless it would be like some kind of spot and stalk type.
environment. I don't find it and I've never been on a bear hunt. So this is just a I'm passing judgment on this scenario with no information. Right? And I'm saying, like, I don't want to sit over a garbage pile or a bait pile and shoot a bear. Well, you tell me, I want you guys to tell me [00:53:00] maybe why I'm wrong there.
Well,
[00:53:02] Sam Gaylord: the first advantage is if you're hungry, you can crawl down and get. You can get some
[00:53:10] Dan Johnson: donuts. We got Dale Donuts
[00:53:11] Sam Gaylord: in there. So, I mean, you can literally, you'll never go hungry shooting a bear.
[00:53:15] Linda Gaylord: Yeah. The wolves even like it too. They don't want to be out there with them. No, no. Uh, Dan,
[00:53:21] Sam Gaylord: I, I think there is some misconception, I believe, uh, as far as, Especially in Ontario, we hunt is so thick.
The bush is so thick. Uh, I'm not telling you couldn't spot and stock one. I mean, but it would be really, really tough. Uh, we, we do some predator calling up there, which is fun. Uh, a whole different level of excitement. Um, I've never, I've never been even the slightest. anti baiting, I mean, as far as with, with the [00:54:00] bears.
Um, so I really, I don't have a, I guess a good comeback for that. You know what I'm saying? I
[00:54:06] Dan Johnson: mean, um, so from basically what you're saying is from a strategy point in certain places in Canada or the United States. The terrain does not allow for stock. It's so thick.
[00:54:22] Sam Gaylord: So like if you get in on a burn area or get in somewhere where they've logged recently, you can set up on some hillsides and see some bears pop out.
Yeah. I'm not saying it's impossible. Yeah. I mean, you could definitely do it. But, uh, I'm a bear guy and I'm a bear bait guy, so I'd love taking my five gallon bucket of donuts out there and dumping them in. I love having A new guy there because I'll always reach down and grab a donut out of the barrel and eat it because they think I'm crazy You know, I just love that atmosphere what I like about bears.
[00:55:00] My most favorite thing is it's it's late may And in in mid august So both of those times, you know late may you're starting to get warm here So we leave and we go put a hoodie on i'm a hoodie guy. I like to have my hoodie on You leave here in August, it's 110 degrees. You go up there and you put a hoodie on.
I mean, you literally, you literally get to do this one. Hey, there's nothing else to hunt. You know, there's food plot stuff and stuff like that. Uh, I'm sure, you know, shed you're finding sheds. I'm sure in May, but, um, I just liked the bears. Yeah. So I just like, I mean, I like hunting them over
[00:55:38] Dan Johnson: doughnuts. Yeah.
There you go. So back to Africa though. Like What, what was your, what's your favorite thing about going in hunting Africa?
[00:55:50] Linda Gaylord: Well, um, when we first went, I mean, it was never, like I, like Sam said, it wasn't on our bucket list. You know, we, we were like, okay, this is a one and done. And [00:56:00] so, you know, I picked all the, and it was my turn to shoot cause he always lets me go first.
Cause we alternate years when we, when we go out West or when we go up bear hunting. So, um, he let me shoot first. So I was like, okay, this is a one and done, you know, I'm never going back here. So I picked out all the animals I thought would be cool to. Have to come home. Yeah. And, uh, I picked out a lot. So anyway,
[00:56:26] Dan Johnson: you're going to have to build an extension on your house type a lot.
Yes,
[00:56:30] Linda Gaylord: almost almost fatigue. We have Aaron Barnes is coming to help us. I think next year. Anyway, maybe. Um, but anyway, um, We just went over there and we just fell in love with the place, with the people, with, you know, I mean everything we sat one, one day and we watched monkeys in a tree just, and they, when they see you, they go up.
They climb up. It was just cool, you know, giraffes. They're just, they're just cool, you know, so, [00:57:00] um, I was asked what was my favorite animal to shoot over there and all of them, every one of them, there wasn't one that I didn't love. Um, I put the one I have on my Facebook profile is my black buck. Um, my back, it's a spring buck.
Um, and it was just because I thought, yeah, It looked really neat, and it was really big for a spring buck. So, um, but the wildebeest are great. The, the, I shot a, um, sable, which is phenomenal. Um, my lechwe. That was the coolest animal ever. You know, I mean, I can't say they were all cool. It's just
[00:57:41] Dan Johnson: a killer experience killer kudu
[00:57:46] Linda Gaylord: Like I said, I shot so many I can't I mean I'm sitting here going okay, I shot this this and it's terrible You know to be like that, but and then I'm like going. Okay. Now, what am I gonna shoot? Am I now he gets next year. So the year after that I'm like, but there's so [00:58:00] many more animals to put on your list I mean, we saw so many different kinds of animals where, again, like Sam said, it was the, the cost of it is so much less expensive than going out West and shooting one mule deer.
Yeah, I mean, or one elk or, you know, I mean, it's
[00:58:21] Dan Johnson: depending on where you go. I, I've been looking at that cause I have a lot of preference points for elk in Wyoming and I, you know, I was looking at, okay. Do I want to try to do this DIY or do I want to go through an outfit or a guide? And man, you're looking at like 7, 500 minimum For that kind of I'm just like, yeah, my wife might leave me if I spend five
[00:58:46] Linda Gaylord: hundred on a But you could go to Africa and shoot a lot of animals for that.
You
[00:58:50] Sam Gaylord: know, so we've been going out to the Oklahoma, the panhandle, uh, Linda's been shooting Mulder out there, but that's 10, 000 tag [00:59:00] time. You buy the tag, get the outfitter. I mean, that's a high dollar hunt, but she shot some just absolute slammers
[00:59:07] Linda Gaylord: out there. And then the people are wonderful. The outfitters are great.
I mean, I highly, every, I have not been to an outfitter. I have not liked. You know, I mean, they're all wonderful, so
[00:59:18] Dan Johnson: they have to be like if they want to continue business, you know, you hear these stories about some real shady dudes, right? And if you know, you can't, you can't, you can't keep a secret. Our industry is so small right
[00:59:31] Sam Gaylord: now with social media, with a podcast.
I mean, it gets out quick and I can get ruined in a hurry.
[00:59:38] Dan Johnson: Absolutely. So. You've been to Africa, have you been elk hunting before? That's, I have not. You have not, okay. No, no. So, You've been to Africa. You got mule deer. You got a pronghorn. I do. Okay. So what is on the bucket list yet to shoot for you?
[00:59:57] Linda Gaylord: Um, moose and elk.
Yeah. I wanna [01:00:00] shoot in a caribou. Oh, that's my number one. Yeah. I would love, that's, yeah. Yeah, those three basically for my North American, and then I'm pretty well set. Yeah.
[01:00:09] Dan Johnson: So, and then, so when you go back over to Africa, what's, what's on your list?
[01:00:13] Linda Gaylord: You know, I haven't thought that far ahead because it's his turn.
He wants to shoot a Kudu next year, so that's his big thing. Yeah.
[01:00:21] Sam Gaylord: Um, so I did get to shoot one this, this time over there. Mm-hmm. , uh, I shot up. Beautiful buffalo, Cape buffalo, but it was a surprise. Uh, we got to customs on the African side and Linda handed me this big wad of money. I said, what, what do you need me to do?
She says, well, we can only take 10, 000 a piece across the border. I said, well, how much fricking money did you bring? She said, well, I got $20,000. I said, why? I said, we, we had this half paid for, you know, she says, well, I worked it out with Stewart and you're gonna shoot a Cape Buffalo . So I did for her year to hunt.
I, I gotta shoot a nice, [01:01:00] and that's very nice of
[01:01:01] Linda Gaylord: her. Yes. This was really a funny story because at the time, you know, I. Of course I didn't, Kate Buffalo, I think, I'm thinking Buffalo, you know, big deal. I get over there and that night, he was real quiet when I, when I told him this, and then that night he says, do you know that they are called the Black Death over here?
And I'm like, I'm, I say, what? I didn't know. Yeah. He said, and, and Stuart. My knees are jacked. Yeah. And Stuart said that, that lions and leopards and they're, they're all. Wusses compared to the Cape Buffalo, and I'm going oh What did I just do?
[01:01:41] Dan Johnson: This was a rifle hunt yes, okay, yeah, at least you had a little bit of yeah, yeah, yeah
[01:01:46] Sam Gaylord: It was cool, and then we had two backup rifles with us, so it was fun.
[01:01:50] Dan Johnson: I think I Don't know if it is number one or number two, but I think Cape Buffalo There might be a [01:02:00] snake ahead of the Cape Buffalo, but the Cape Buffalo is responsible for more human deaths in Africa than any other animal. I think 200
[01:02:08] Sam Gaylord: a year. I think, I think I've seen that somewhere.
[01:02:11] Linda Gaylord: Bananas. And after watching, cause we couldn't be with him.
You know, we had to be up away. We were probably, what, about three, four hundred yards away when you were, where you were at. But we could see. And, uh, you could see why, why it could get really dangerous. As a matter of fact, they, one of those, um, was it the, Was it was the cow. The cow got shitty. Cow got, Yeah, it got a little, and they said, Oh, the show's it's getting ready to get ugly.
So
[01:02:40] Dan Johnson: they were getting ready to charge it. Yeah. Yeah. So
[01:02:44] Sam Gaylord: they laughed and he said, all we got to use. outrun him. You know, my knees are just jacked, you know.
[01:02:51] Dan Johnson: They're probably talking in a different language. They were. They were. They were. Be faster than the white man. Yeah. What'd you
[01:02:57] Sam Gaylord: say? What'd you say? [01:03:00]
[01:03:00] Dan Johnson: That's funny. You know,
[01:03:01] Sam Gaylord: you know the neat part of Africa? I want to touch bases with real quick. The minute that animal's laying on the ground. You get your gripping grins, they get that loaded and it goes to a wonderful meat processing center.
Yeah. And every ranch we hunted on had a meat processing center similar to ours out here that we do our wild game with. And they have four or five guys at each one of them and they picked through the guts and got the edible, I mean everything, every little morsel gets ate. Yeah, off
[01:03:34] Dan Johnson: of every animal and is that given to the local people or do you take some home?
Yes. No, we
[01:03:39] Sam Gaylord: know Okay, we we ate it in the evenings. Okay, you know, which was delicious. It was really good. So but it all goes to either Orphanages a lot of it Uh, it goes to a local food pantry. Uh, some of the choicer cuts do get sold at a meat store. [01:04:00] So, I mean, it's just, I call it mailbox money for them.
You know, added income. But it all gets ate. I mean, from zebras to everything. I mean, it all gets
[01:04:09] Linda Gaylord: ate. And those facilities are so clean.
[01:04:13] Sam Gaylord: It's just like a beef processing center. It is. And every camp has one. And those camps are, oh my gosh,
[01:04:18] Dan Johnson: luxurious. Oh, I believe it. I've seen some of the pictures of some of the swimming pools.
Oh, yeah. Bedrooms and all that stuff. It's crazy. It's nice. Yeah, you know, I think, I don't know if I'm necessarily ready for it now, but over the, you know, when I was younger I used to be like, I'll never do that. I will never do this, or I'll never do, and as I get older, that word slips away, starts to slip away a little bit more, and I, I'm like, you know what?
I want to give it a try, I
[01:04:47] Linda Gaylord: it, too. Yeah. I mean, just to be there with you in the Safari is awesome. Yeah. You know, so,
[01:04:53] Sam Gaylord: and... It is a wonderful husband and wife
[01:04:55] Linda Gaylord: experience. The food is
[01:04:56] Dan Johnson: delicious. I believe it.
[01:04:58] Sam Gaylord: It's... We've had [01:05:00] Wild Game all over the world. Uh, the worst Wild Game I think we've ate, we were in New Zealand.
Yes, New Zealand was... And they eat stuff that... My fat butt wouldn't eat. I mean, it was, it was gross.
[01:05:12] Dan Johnson: So the animal
[01:05:13] Sam Gaylord: itself didn't taste good. Yeah, it was, it was a lot of mutton and you know, like Linda shot a tire up on the mountain where we had the tar backstraps and it just, it wasn't
[01:05:24] Dan Johnson: good. Yeah, that was a cool hunt.
In New
[01:05:27] Linda Gaylord: Zealand? In New Zealand. The tar was phenomenal.
[01:05:31] Dan Johnson: Did you get a red stag while you were there too? We
[01:05:33] Linda Gaylord: did. Yeah, both of us did. We got the red stag. He tried for the tar the first time. You should tell this story. You tell it better than I do.
[01:05:40] Sam Gaylord: Well, I'm scared of heights. I already confirmed that with the tree stand.
They the mountain. So we get out and we're like 2, 000 feet above tree line. So we're in that shell rock and old Billy goat here She's hanging out on the edges and looking over and I'm like grabbing her [01:06:00] like, you know, you're gonna die. You fall Frickin way it was a long way down. I mean, it's a long way down so we're We're sittin there, we're glassin and it's a really beautiful scenery.
We were in this big valley, and we could literally see the ocean. Yeah. And we're in snow, but it's like 30, 80 degrees, no? Well, I'm watchin this intense fog roll up this valley. And I looked at my guide, our guide, and I said, uh, Anybody ever get left in here? He looks at me, and you know he's like 21 years old, right?
And he says, well... This is my first time on a mountain. I don't know. So I watched this fog come in, Dan, and it got so thick, I couldn't see you from me. I mean, that's how bad this fog was. Well, we were supposed to hike back to where they were going to pick us up at like 5pm. Uh, so about four o'clock comes and I'm looking at my watch and [01:07:00] I tell Linda and I tell our guide, I said, you know, we need to make that trek back to where they're going to pick us up at.
And we knew where we were at. So, I mean, it was just following one ridgeline, but you know, you're, I was on pins and needles anyway, cause you're on that edge and it's 2, 000 foot straight down some of it. So we mosey around and we finally, we get to the pickup spot. Five o'clock comes and goes, no helicopter.
Five thirty, no helicopter. Six o'clock, no helicopter. Still, fog so thick that you can't see one another. So, we'd been in this snow all day at this, you know, high thirties now. So we were all wet, you know. And I look around, there's not a stick in sight. You know, we're above tree line. So I look at my little guide, and I said, Do you have any provision to make fire?
And he looks at him and he says, no, Linda says, I got a big lighter in my pack. I said, well, I'm going to make the executive decision. We're giving this 15 [01:08:00] more minutes. And if this don't lift, we're not going to get out of here tonight. We got to make that 2000 foot track down this to, to get to tree level.
Yeah. And we got to build fire. We're going to die. We're gonna have hypothermia. We're gonna die, right? I'm not shitting you. No more I get this out of my mouth, I watch a gleam of light hit the rock in front of me. And I look up, Dan, and there was a hole. Almost square, but it was about football size field.
Square, right above me. Now, and this light's piercing through. And I hear this, and this copter, helicopter, drops straight down. And he's yelling, get in, get in, get in. So Linda gets in the front. The guy jumps in, and I jump in the back. We, we just no more get in. We don't have our belts on or anything. He's lifting up, right?
We don't have our headsets on. I watch Linda get her door shut. I get my, my [01:09:00] uh, seatbelt on. And just as I get mine locked in, he banks that helicopter. Banks it hard. So it's, now it's downhill to my guide. The door comes open. My guide don't have his, his safety belt on. He goes falling out of this helicopter.
We're up 6, 7, 800 feet by this time. Me and him lock arms. And so we're like two feet apart, locked arms, and his face and his eyes like, Don't, don't drop me, don't drop me. So I grab him, and he literally reaches around and gets his deal in and reaches out and shuts his... Chopped her door, gets our headsets on, and then we're getting this amazing ass chewing
[01:09:41] Linda Gaylord: from the pilot.
I'm listening to it because I had my headsets on. He's like,
[01:09:45] Sam Gaylord: shut the door, shut the door, shut the door. And I'm like, dude, we didn't even have our belts on yet. He said, you guys were minutes from getting left. He said, I've been hovering up there for now an hour and 15 minutes waiting for an opportunity to get in and get you guys out of there.
He said, I don't know if [01:10:00] we have enough fuel to get back. So you want to talk about
[01:10:04] Dan Johnson: butt pockers, right? Adventure hunting at its finest. Yes.
[01:10:08] Sam Gaylord: So we get back, get on the ground. I look at Lynn and I said, I lost nothing up there. I'm not going back. She says, well, I want to kill one. I said, well, have at her. So we typically, on these kind of trips, we'll put together several couples.
So, you know, it's a husband wife thing, so. And usually it's just the husband hunting and the wife's there for the tourism part. Well, in our case, you know, we both hunt. So the next day I went with the ladies and we went shopping.
[01:10:39] Linda Gaylord: I went with, I went with a husband and, and,
[01:10:42] Sam Gaylord: uh, end up shooting. She shot a nice scene and that's, you were just
[01:10:45] Dan Johnson: a chaperone.
I
[01:10:46] Sam Gaylord: just, I, I, I went shopping and I'm proud of it. I lost nothing up there. I
[01:10:52] Linda Gaylord: was not going back. It was, it was. It was, it was quite an experience, um, but, you know, I was like, well, they won't do [01:11:00] that to us again. Well, here, the next day, we get in the, in the helicopter, they let us down, you know, we trek around, we go up this mountain, um, Shep shot his, and, you know, on the ground and everything.
And then there was one I made, it was a 600 yard shot, and I'm like, and we're using their guns. Which is mistake number one. Yeah, don't ever, don't ever use your own, take your own gun. Um, but anyway, so of course, you know, I missed, um, but we got into the helicopter and the, and the guy says, Hey, let's go up and see if maybe you did hit it, you know, let's go
[01:11:34] Sam Gaylord: check it out.
Turn it into a, they call it hella hunt at that point, you're going to hunt in a helicopter.
[01:11:39] Linda Gaylord: So that's where you have the two rungs of the helicopter, what are those, the little, the feet, or whatever you call it, the skis. One is on the cliff, the other one's hanging
[01:11:49] Sam Gaylord: off. You get out. You get off those cliffs with that, with that thing hovering.
Yeah. So,
[01:11:55] Linda Gaylord: I, I... Yeah. I'm fine. I Yeah. So, the, the [01:12:00] outfitter's like, get out. We're gonna shoot this thing. It's right there, you know. Okay, fine. So, I get out. Of course, I didn't get it the first time. Get back in. Let's go. Let's do this again. We're gonna go on that cliff. Okay. So, I go on that cliff. I think I scared the thing to death.
No, I did shoot it, but it, I shot it. fell into a ravine, a cave ravine that was, you know, a couple, 300 feet, you know, below that and they, it took them everything they could get to get it out of there. They got the helicopter in there with a rope.
[01:12:34] Sam Gaylord: With a rope. Dangled a guy, dangled a guy down with the rope.
He tied it up and they lifted it up, come up and set him down. Yep.
[01:12:41] Linda Gaylord: Got crazy got my grip and grin and oh man, it was experience. I was on cloud nine I get back he had video he we had our video camera and he had videotaped me I bet I didn't stop talking for I mean I was talking yucky. Yucky. Yeah fast And I don't even know if I said [01:13:00] anything.
Yeah, so I was just it was awesome. That's awesome
[01:13:04] Dan Johnson: Yeah, that's what and that's what I love about hunting is You know, it could be as easy or as difficult as, really, you want to make it. And, but it's the stories, right? Oh, man. The stories and the people that you're with in those moments. Yeah. It's amazing. I love it.
[01:13:20] Linda Gaylord: And it's just like yesterday. I mean, I can vividly see all of this. Yeah.
[01:13:24] Dan Johnson: So. Yeah. Well. Sam and Linda man, I really appreciate you guys taking time out of your day to uh, to hop on here I know you're busy and and so I'll make sure that I I keep preaching the old barn word the gospel We appreciate we appreciate that.
Thank you guys very much for taking time to do this today. Yeah. Thank
[01:13:44] Linda Gaylord: you
[01:13:47] Dan Johnson: And there you have it. Huge shout out to Sam and Linda. Uh, they are really busy people and so I really appreciate them taking time out of their day to listen to this podcast. Good luck with [01:14:00] everything that you guys are doing over there.
They put out absolute quality taxidermy. Uh, especially if you're a whitetail guy in the Midwest. I mean... I drive an hour and a half to get to them to go drop off my deer and pick them up. They, I would probably go three or four hours. Maybe even longer to drive to get that kind of quality. I have had some work done in the past by other taxidermists.
And the really big defining moment for me was the detail. The amount of detail that they put into every head versus what other people don't do. Uh, man, I'm going to continue to go back to old barn until Until they do me wrong and I know Linda and Sam and they're not going to do that, right? So, um, if you're looking for a stone cold taxidermist, man, you got to [01:15:00] go check out Old Barn in Fort Madison, Iowa.
Huge shout out to Tethered, Wasp, Vortex, Ozonix, Code Blue, The Woodman's Pal, and Huntworth. Please go out and support the companies that support this podcast. And, uh, last but not least, man, we got to talk about those good vibes. So, good vibes in. Good vibes out and we will talk to you next time. Oh, wear your safety harness too.
[01:15:23] Sam Gaylord: Boom.
