What did you Learn Part 2

This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John continues his "what did you learn" series with returning guest Tyrell Roy. Tyrell is one of those under the radar killers, who constantly harvests mature whitetail bucks with his bow year after year. Tyrell is fortunate to hunt some fantastic whitetail country in north west Oklahoma, and every year fills most of, if not all of his tags with his bow. So it only makes sense that he is a great candidate for the what did you learn series.

Tyrell and John take turns talking about the ups and down of their seasons, and what they learned along the way. Tyrell takes us to his DIY elk hunt in Colorado, and his once in a hundred lifetimes moose encounter! Ever had a rutting moose drool on your chest while trying to stomp you into the ground? Well Tyrell has, and he does a great job of bringing you along for the action. John talks about gaining access on private ground out of state, and Tyrell recalls his brief stint with target panic, even after years of success harvesting bucks with his bow. The guys also talk about not getting ahead of yourself on opening day, how you should never stop scouting, and how important it is to take does if you love hunting whitetail deer in the great state of Oklahoma. This is a great episode looking back at the 2022 season, and once again is meant to encourage you the listener to reflect back on what you learned this past season.

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John Hudspeth: 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.

Welcome folks. This is the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast. I hope you're doing [00:01:00] swell. I hope you're staying warm. I'm recording this right in the middle of this crazy, nasty ice storm we're having, and it has not been fun. Basically been trapped inside for, I think today's like day four or something like that.

It's just been really nasty outside, and so I hope nobody's had to get out there in it. I hope everybody's been safe. I haven't heard of many power outages or anything, but I know the road's been terrible. I've seen a lot of accidents on social media, so hopefully everybody's been safe. I actually had to get out in it on Monday, I guess was the night it all hit.

My sister-in-law had been visiting a friend of hers that had just had a baby and she was flying back in Monday night. And obviously she was trying to beat the storm back, but obviously it hit a little earlier than they expected. I didn't think they were any you. The Tuesday wireless, they got really nasty on Monday, bottle wireless, so she flew in mobile.

So I volunteered to help my brother-in-law and took my. We went together, just so sitting out there on the roads by himself, wireless. We took it nice and slow taking us probably times longer than it would normally take. See what they [00:02:00] have offer. We took a lot of or one of the back roads. We didn't wanna take major fiber wireless to your, lots of bridges, business partners.

So we just all over the world, rev Highways and stuff like that. Power of connection ended up making it safe and sound and everything, but boy it was a little sketchy, not gonna lie. It was a little sketchy. So hope everybody's been safe. Yeah, just my prayers are for anybody who had to get out there in this weather, especially interview first responders, firemen, police paramedics, hospital workers.

If you had to get out there and work in this, my hat is off to you. Thank you guys so much. Yeah, that's that's enough about the weather. I hope everybody's been doing good. Like I said, I've not really been up too much, just been trapped inside. I have not got to scratch my fishing itch yet.

I've been, looking at gear and stuff online not buying too much. Been trying to, be easy on the old credit card . But that's what I end up doing a lot of times when I'm trapped in trapped in the house is I do a lot of online shopping. So been looking at all kinds of stuff, but not really buying.

and [00:03:00] spent quite a bit of time on OnX. I can't remember if I mentioned it on here or not. It's been about three weeks ago now. One on my first big kinda walk about, after deer season. Found some really cool areas that I'm almost ashamed I'd never found before. I found some cool ridges.

I found some swampy areas that like I never would've guessed. We had swamps on our place. But basically in the canyon, I'm always talking about down at the very bottom where a few of the different, ridges and draws come together. In the bottom there was these little mini swamps. I'm talking, reeds and willows and standing water and stuff.

and a lot of deer sign around those. So just another one of those cool little diverse things that you just don't think about. So that's my encouragement to you guys. This is the time of year to get out there, put some boots on the ground, and really dig deep and explore and get to know the property that you're hunting.

Whether it's private or public, doesn't matter. This is a great time to put some boots on the ground and start scouting man in sheds. Also before I started recording with my guest today that I'll talk about in a second he mentioned that he's already found some [00:04:00] sheds. I've been hearing reports from all over.

I think I talked about it maybe last week. It just seems like a lot of people are finding sheds earlier than normal. I didn't find any on my walk. From the pictures I've been getting, I haven't seen any bucks that have dropped. But again, that's not uncommon for me. A lot of times I don't start seeing sheds till late February, early March, honestly.

And again, I haven't seen it yet, but it seems like a lot of people have. So man, I think that's about it. not a lot to talk about cause I've just been trapped inside like I keep saying. So yeah, we're probably just gonna dive in. We have a great episode today. Today I'm talking to Tyrell Roy and this is, I wanna say this is Tyrell's third time to be on.

He was on super early in the podcast. And then I had him on again last year cause I liked him so much and had him on again this year. Cuz man, he's just, he's a killer. He's a really good deer hunter. . He also went on a DIY Colorado Elk hunt this year. Had a lot better luck than I did.

Had a crazy moose encounter that you're definitely gonna want to hear about. So yeah, so [00:05:00] we're continuing. This is part two of my series, the What Did You Learn Series. And again, I just want to emphasize how important I think it is to look back on the season, think about the things you did right, think about the things you did wrong, and learn from those so that when you go on to next year and the following years after that, you just learn from those things.

Keep 'em in mind, keep 'em fresh in your mind. And learn and make yourself a better outdoors man or outdoors woman. So that's what we're doing this week. I hope you guys are ready for it. I'm really enjoying this series and, doing a couple of 'em, I join in also, I talk about things that I've learned.

It's really pushing me to really reflect, cause this, this is the second one I've done. Hoping to do at least one more, maybe two more. And it's getting not necessarily harder for me to think of things, but I'm having to think of like less obvious things which is great.

I'm having to really reflect on my season. So yeah, I'm enjoying it. Hope you guys are enjoying it. If you are, let me know on social media. If you have something that you learned, hit me up on social media. Maybe I'll share it on the [00:06:00] podcast. And I think that's all I have for you. Yep, me and Tyrell this week.

I hope y'all enjoy this. We're gonna get into it after a quick word from our partners, which is going to happen right about now. Post-season can be one of the most important times to be running your trail cameras. Maybe you're trying to see if that shooter buck that alluded you all year is still alive, or maybe you have a great late season food source that is pulling in bucks from all over the county.

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Hey everybody, welcome to today's show, and today we're talking to repeat guest, Mr. Tyrell Roy, how you doing Tyre? Pretty you good, man? How are you? Oh, not too bad. Not too bad. We're in the middle of this crazy little ice apo apocalypse thing, but you sit up [00:09:00] where you're at. You're not even getting any of this right?

Nope, nope. For precipitation at all. Just the cold temperatures, man. I am jealous. I am jealous. Cool man. Today we're gonna do part two of my little series. I've just started. And it's gonna be basically, what did you learn? And so the point of this is just kinda to take this time to reflect back on this past season.

Think about the ups and the downs, the things you did right, the things you did wrong, and just try to learn from those experiences. So if that sounds good to you that's what we're gonna do today. Sounds good. Manam. Oh man, I almost forgot I just told you kinda our little order here and I forgot to let you introduce yourself.

So you've been on the podcast, I wanna say this is maybe your third time, something like that. But just in case nobody remembers who you are, why don't you give us a quick little introduction? Yeah, man. My name's Tyrell Roy. I live up here in, I'd say the northwest part of the state, and I farm for a living.

We[00:10:00] we are mainly we farmers and we also run a bunch of cattle, and I've got a three year old daughter and stopped to have a baby here in a couple weeks. That's pretty much my life. Nice man. Congratulations. I don't know if I knew that or not. I probably have, I keep up with you pretty closely on, on social media and stuff, but congratulations on the new baby.

That's exciting. Yes, it is. We we opted to not find out on this disco round. Ah, so at first it was a little difficult, but now that it's almost there, it's, the anticipation is high. . Yeah. My, my brother did that on almost all of his kids. They didn't find out. And man I don't know if I could do it, one way or the other.

You're gonna find out eventually, but it just seems yeah, I don't know. That'd be tough, but yeah. Again, congratulations. Yeah I'm excited for you guys and I'm sure you're excited about it too. You yep. For sure. Cool man. Cool. All right. Like I said, we're gonna do a little what did you learn this year?

And I [00:11:00] feel as the go, as the host, I should probably go first, so I'll kick us off. If you have any input on my things, go ahead and throw it out there and I'll do the same on yours. And yeah, let's get after it. So the the number one thing I got for this week, or the first thing I have for this week is don't get too excited about opening day and ruin a good spot.

That's something that I've actually, I've even preached that on this podcast. I've thought it to myself for years. I obviously I'm always excited for, deer season to get underway, but I always keep in mind that, at, in this, at least in our part of Oklahoma, like usually opening day is just not that great.

It's hot. A lot of times the deer shifting from their summer to their fall pattern. And so it's just normally not that great, honestly. And this year I was just so excited. I, I was up at the ranch. I was I'd been shooting my long bow and stuff all summer.

I decided I was gonna take my long bow. And I basically, I pushed it way more than I should have. And the wind was not the wind wasn't really good for anything. If I remember right, [00:12:00] we had like a northeast wind or something. We had a wind, like we almost never have. There's just a weird, I don't know, weird front moving through or something.

And basically I pushed it, I decided to hunt, one of my, not best spots, but one of my better spots. I had a enclosed blind, I was counting on that thing to keep all the sin in and everything. But of course, it gets, it's getting close to dark and two doughs come from like straight down wind.

And then before they even get to me two bucks in a dough, I think come from the other direction. They're all kind of closing in. And then of course, one of the doughs, gets my scent blows, blows all the deer. So I end up basically spooking like five deer this evening. Out of one of my, better spots on opening day.

It just set, basically just set a bad precedence, for the rest of the year. Yeah. For that spot in general. So my number one deal is yes, be excited because it's deer season, but if the conditions aren't right, don't try to push it and ruin your spot from the get-go. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. The [00:13:00] thing that jumps out me is you can shoot your long bow from a enclosed blind. So that wasn't the plan at the beginning. I actually took it with me to test it and I almost switched up, so I actually carried both bows with me to it. Okay. And it cl I climbed up and had both with me and then did a little practicing and I actually could I have a banks blind.

I think it's the stump four. And I think my longboats 62 inches, I want to say. . And if I was in just the right position, I could shoot it. Okay. But I, out of most of my blinds, I put plywood around the bottom so basically, I built, I used four by fours for the post to raise it up, and then I put sheets of plywood around the bottom and cut a little shooting hole.

So if I need to, I can hunt off the ground with my long bow and then hunt out the top with my regular bow or a rifle or whatever. Yeah, that's, but this time I was hunting out of the top. I gotcha. Yeah. Do, are you shooting out of a vertical window or horizontal? That one was gonna be a horizontal if I was shooting straight.

And that's one of the reasons I picked the banks blinds.[00:14:00] So they have a lot of blinds. They have bow windows in the corners and then a horizontal in the front. But their horizontal window is like way taller or wider, however you wanna say that, than most blinds. And I think it's because they're made to be used with crossbow.

Oh yeah, exactly. But most windows are like eight to 10 inches or something. I wanna say this one's 14 inches, something like that. Oh, wow. Yeah. So it has a pretty, yeah, it has a pretty good space out of that front window. And that's part of the reason I bought it because, I do a whole lot of bow hunting, but all of my, siblings and I have like my nephew took his first deer this year outta one of 'em, and they're all rifle hunters pretty much.

And so I wonder one that was truly good for both. So that's why I ended up going with the banks blinds, I gotcha. Yeah, I, I have, I don't know if I've ever shot a deer out of a, like a, a true bl bow blind, enclosed blind, like a muddy or whatever, redneck or whatever a lot of people use.

Yeah, I just, lucky enough, I have not, . Yeah. Oddly enough, I have not yet [00:15:00] either. I take, I have a, I have some older round ones that I sh I've shot a dough out of, but this year I had, I think four of those new blinds. But I ended up shooting my buck out of a good old fashioned tree stand. And I, I hunted out of 'em, but I didn't actually kill anything out of 'em.

Yeah. So yeah I'm still new to this also. Yeah. I think they have some serious advantages for sure. I've been contemplating getting some for a couple of spots, but I'm so mobile that it, how it's hard to justify. Yeah. . Yeah. Yeah, like I have one on a big food plot that, I just, I don't have a good other I've talked about it before on here, but so our place was almost completely clear cut in like 2008.

So I just don't have a lot of trees that I hang a stand out of, honestly. So these blinds, they allow me to hunt a lot of places that I couldn't normally hunt. That if you had, bigger trees, you could be more mobile and I probably wouldn't rely on these as much.

Yeah. But another 10 years there's gonna be a lot of trees I can probably hunt out of, but for now I'm fairly limited on [00:16:00] trees and so these allow me to hunt a little more that I couldn't normally hunt. Yeah. The thing that's attractive to me about him is the I like hunting in bad weather, and now it's just, it would make it that much more comfort.

For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Having a roof and everything. Yeah. It's pretty nice. And kids, you said you're about to have your second kid. Yep. That's, like I said, my nephew this year shot his first deer out one, and so yeah they're fantastic for kids. Yeah. And I, this year I took my daughter Heidi, she's three, she just turned three.

, I took her out several times. Sitting in like a pop-up style blind, like a hub style pop-up line. And man, we had a blast of, we, we gotta see a lot of deer. And we just, we had a lot of fun and That's perfect. She can get down on the ground and play in the dirt or whatever, but that's a lot of fun. We ended up shooting a dough off of the ground. We just went and set up on a trail where they're crossing into the south, south and filled a [00:17:00] lot and sat behind some, like a blow down. Me and her and my wife and ended up shooting one on the ground. She's standing there eating a cracker, watching the whole thing.

It was . It was so much fun. That's ama That's yeah. That's amazing, man. Yeah. Not a lot of people. I don't, I'm trying, I don't think I've ever killed a deer off the ground. I've killed some hogs, but yeah, to do one with a three year old and your wife that's pretty awesome. Yeah, it was pretty comical to say the least.

Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, it was awesome. Fun. Cool, man. Why don't you hit us with your first lesson learned . Okay. First of all, I'm gonna go, so I went, I was able to get my hands on a landowner voucher for a bull tag in Colorado for second rifle season, which is, I think it was like October 29th through, it was like nine days long into November, which is a, it's a bad time to be away from.

The deer woods in Oklahoma. that week and a [00:18:00] half in my opinion. But especially that week, the last week of October, but . Anyway, I wasn't gonna pass it up. And so we jetted out there, my wife and I and my wife had a tag a couple years before this. There was a third season bull tag, and we had gone up in there and she was able to shoot a shoot.

A nice, a younger bull. A nice bull. . On the first day. So that kind of like limits you, like I want to experience I'm going to the mountains, so back country, all hunt. I want to exp I want the full experience. And so we went up there on her hunt, shot a bull opening morning, and we were out of there that day, . And it was perfect for our situation. For that situation. But this this hunt that I went on was the complete opposite of that. I ended up sending, seven, seven and a half days in, in the back country. I put, I think I did a little over 75 miles in that seven days. Like on my boots [00:19:00] and , they just covered so much ground and I've never, I've never elk hunted before.

That was the first for me. So there's a lot of things to take away from that. Experience, there's, and I was able to shoot on the seventh day I was able to shoot a bull in his bed. It's just, it was like the cherry on top of the, an incredible experience. The mental aspect of that hunt is I think much more overlooked than a lot of the other aspect of that type of hunt.

, I hear it in, researching for that hunt or whatever. A lot of people are talking about fitness and gear. , but you rarely hear people talk about the mental aspect of that. Huh? Like the , the, I don't know, just to dig down and keep going, , the mental game that you play, because I was seeing El every day, but if I was on this mountain, they were on the other mountain.

If I went to that mountain or whatever, they were always one step ahead of me. And it was, it eats you up. It's almost worse than, I don't know, [00:20:00] it was almost worse. Probably not, but almost worse than not seeing elk at all. So I was getting so close that I just couldn't steal the deal, . So that, I would say that something that I really took away from that hunt was it can literally change, like in the blink of an eye. Just keep walking, keep glassing, and just keep going, don't take your head out of it. . , which is, it's visible, but yeah. You're up there and you don't have any service.

You can't talk to your wife or your family. And like I was up there with my brother, luckily, so it was the two of us, which if, I don't know how anybody would do that by himself. But we were able to communicate. We didn't always spend the day together or whatever. But yeah, it's definitely it's one of those things that, I would tell anybody, and I've heard people say this too, I would tell anybody, go try it, it and yeah, you might get your truck stolen. , but , [00:21:00] if I get the best experience you've ever had, and you don't know until you get out there and experience it. That what, that seventh day I was hiking out of there and in my mind, . Like I was done. Like I, I was trying to make it since, but I hadn't, I hadn't got a elk.

It was worth it, it's worth every minute of it. But I was going home without a elk and I was walking out of there when I saw that elk, beded down, he was a mile and a half away, and I'm literally up on a rim on this point. And I at that point I had radio signal to my, the cabin down there where Carly, my wife, Carly, and some family was, and I was able to radio them, and I, Hey guys, I see a bull, but I'm just beat.

I can't, I can't go for it. And they were all like, a hundred percent behind me, go get it. Go get it. And . And obviously they're like, that's not [00:22:00] like Tyrell at all, to stop or to say, oh, I can't, so I just. I, at that point, I had done 12 miles that day. I, yeah, it was, I was just gas and I don't know how I made it back up that mountain, a little over a mile and it was just, it's one of the most insane feelings to be like, completely done in and be able to push through and accomplish some something that you set out to accomplish.

You know what I'm talking about? . Oh yeah. That is hands down. It's one of the best feelings ever. Especially for, flat landers. Flatlanders like us . Yeah, I know, right? Yeah. And I the bull was like at ten five, I think when I shot him it was like 10,500 something feet.

That was way up there. Fair know. But I. . Little side note on that hunt. Something that I was not really [00:23:00] prepared to deal with at all was about the middle of that week. I was by myself. I was going up, I wanted to get up real high above Timberline and just glass a lot of country. Like I, the way I hunt, especially out there, is I cover a lot of ground.

So I was right at the edge of Timberline and it was windy and I heard something like, I don't know, maybe five, 600 yards across, on the edge of that timberline type of, it was like brush and just borderline trees and stuff. And it sounded to me almost like a really deep bugle.

So I, I was like I can't, nothing to lose here. So I started heading over that direction and I get about halfway there and I hear another, it's like the tail end of a bugle. And this one was a little more higher, higher pitched. . And it's pretty windy, so I'm not sure you know what I'm hearing, but I'm like, there's gotta be a bull in there.

So I get over there to this's, like this finger of trees, almost like an island of mature, like [00:24:00] bruise trees or pines or whatever they are. And I go up to the edge of it and I'm looking at it and I can't really see anything. So I start into there and it's like big, trees blown over and they're like matchstick, scattered across there where some of 'em are three poor foot off the horizontal, off the ground.

So I'm like climbing up on these logs and looking around and I see a like a glimpse of antler. I get my gun off my shoulder and I'm thinking this is about to happen. I'm about to, there's a bull there. I'm, this is about to happen and it's 30 yards away, but it's really thick in there.

And I'm watching and then, outta that brush comes a bull moose. A giant bull moose. And then he's going from my left to right and crosses in front of me about 18 yards. And like I was saying, not knowing like this is a problem or something to be aware of. I'm just, I'm sitting, I'm standing on a log that's probably three foot off the ground, three or four foot [00:25:00] off the ground, and the moose walked by 18 yards.

Giant bull ends up there with six moose in this group. And there was a hot cow, there was four bulls, a hot cow, and she had her calf with her from the previous year, so it's almost as big as she is, but not quite. And there's a bunch of young bulls that are just pounding that cow. And then some of the bulls would take her calf and this mama is fired up and she would run a little bull off and then she would try to get back with her calf, and then the little bulls would chase her.

And I've got some of this on video, but it just, just going crazy, within 20 yards of me. But a couple of the bulls are going to my right and they're hooking down like even like straight to my right, almost behind me. But they're maybe like 30 yards away. And then the cow chasing is up chasing a bull or, yeah, the cow chased this little bull away from her [00:26:00] calf.

And once they got out a little bit like straight to my left, there's a bunch of young spruce trees and stuff, pretty short, but really thick. And they were behind that, so I wasn't really paying attention to 'em. And once that cow chased the bull off and the cow started to come back, then the bull started to chase her back and the calf had looped around to my right.

Hard, right? So the cow comes outta that brush and she's running from the bull toward her calf. And I'm between her calf and her. . And about the time I'm realizing she's running toward her calf and I'm in the path , she's on top of me. So I'm I like trying to jump off the back of the log backwards. She's by that time she's in my face and she literally smashed up against the log, the horizontal log.

I'm on the other side of the log and she's like trying to stomp me. Her feet are just going crazy, [00:27:00] and her half was all raised up, super aggressive stance, . So I shot my gun off pretty much in her face. And that kind of, that got her attention, but I literally had like slobber on my chest and

I was screaming at the top of my lawn. I was terrified. . Gosh. Yeah. And then, so I poop around the island of trees. Like I'm, as soon as like I shoot my gun, the bull is right behind her. and he's just like pushing her. She's scared, of course, of the gun. They go to the right to where the rest of the moose were.

I go to my left and loop up around there. I'm top footing up the mountain above Timberline trying to get where I can see everything and it's this three foot tall brush and stuff that I'm going through. I look up right in front of me as a bull moose laying down 15 yards. All I see is antlers, just and he's moving his antler trying to hear I'm, yeah, I was yelling at him

It was [00:28:00] very terrifying. Oh man, that is a that is definitely a once in a lifetime typing counter. Yeah, it definitely was. Yeah. I to know how many people, oh, sorry about that. That morning I had, I knew I was, we were hunting this big Meadow Park type of deal. And I knew from that point in the morning after the hunt, I was gonna head up the mound.

So I went as light as possible and I didn't take my pistol, which is the rest of the trip. I never went without my pistol . Yeah. But you think of Colorado, there's nothing, there's no wolves or grizzly bears or anything I need to worry about. No. That, that mama moose was out for blood,

galley. I would love to know how many people in history have had moose slobber, on their chest from a live moose, not counting dead ones from a live moose. Yeah. That's an incredible story, . Yeah, it was definitely, yeah. [00:29:00] Something to take away from that hunt for sure. In this last season.

. . Yeah, man. And then going back to your original point, just with the mental toughness I've done a couple of those, back country hunts in Idaho and Idaho's not near as high. But I, me personally, I think it's more rugged. Like I think it's steeper and stuff. Yeah. And when you get to, when you get to like morning number three and you're trying to wake up before the sun and you're just already, dog tired and you can hike back to the truck and drive an hour and get a nice hot cheeseburger after you've been eating, jerky and granola bars for two or three days.

Yeah. It's tough man. It really is tough. Just, and it's something down here that it's hard to relate to, and a lot of times when I go deer hunting, I can run to town for lunch or even run to town for dinner after I hunt and stuff if I want to.

So yeah, you definitely get used to your little creature conference. Yeah, for sure. . . Just being away from my wife and my [00:30:00] daughter and knowing, that they're just right down the mile. It's not like they're at home in Oklahoma. They're six miles away down the trail, like I can get there tonight. That's a that's a difficult thing. Yeah, man. For sure. For sure. Awesome, man. So what, number two on. All right. So this one I'm gonna go back to back in I guess September. I went on, I think it might have been my first out-of-state whitetail hunt ever, which is crazy.

I've hunted a couple different states, but I've always lived there. But my sister moved to Nebraska and married a farm boy and his farm, his family has a bunch of land and stuff. And I went up there to go deer hunting. I had a real short trip. I think I only got to hunt two days or something like that.

But one thing I learned while I was up there is one, don't be afraid to knock on a door or ask for permission. And luckily in my case, I didn't have to, I had something better. But I didn't, honestly, I didn't even think about this before I got up there because, they already owned land and stuff.

But once I got up [00:31:00] there, found out like one of the pieces of property they owned, they had a real bad neighbor that, if it's Brown's down type neighbor, So I wasn't super excited about hunting that spot. And then another piece of property they owned they had planted in soybeans, but the beans had already turned and yellowed, uhhuh

And so I I that's where I hunted the first evening. And just I saw two dough skirted, but they didn't even come out into the beans, so that was disappointing. Oh, wow. But I had already when I was doing all my scouting on Annex before I went up there, I noticed one or two neighbors that they had that looked really good.

And so after my first hunt, I was talking to my my sister's father-in-law, was passing the time and I was like, yeah, such and such had, his spot looks really good. And he's oh, you wanna hunt it? And I was, . I would, and he pulled out his phone right then and called him

And he is yeah. He said, it's fine. Oh, . And so I was like, oh. So then I was like, oh, hold on. And looked up. I was like, do such and such? And he is oh, yeah, calls them. He's yeah. He said, you're good. Oh my goodness. Oh yeah. And so I kinda learned two things.

One, and also while I [00:32:00] was driving around I pulled into somebody's driveway to turn around cuz I was looking at a spot. And a few minutes later I looked at my rear view mirror and that person like pulled outta their, they saw me and, they were wondering, I was up to, and ended up talking to them.

Yeah, they were super nice. And they were like, they said, I can come hunt on their place. And so lesson number one is just in the world. Don't be afraid. Oh yeah, I know. Lesson number one is just, don't be afraid to try to, knock on a door or something like that. Because I, just especially in the Western states, I feel like just people, there's not as much hunting pressure.

People are just, nice. And a lot of the people I talked to, even if they deer hunted, they weren't bow hunters. Like a lot of 'em were just rifle hunting, they hunted one or two weeks out of the year, and when they found out I was bow hunting, they're kinda like, oh obviously you're not gonna kill anything.

Go ahead, . So that was a big plus. But then man, like having, having somebody in the loop, like having my sister's father-in-law, I, I quickly discovered like he could call anywhere and basically like a three mile radius and probably get me permission. And I started thinking [00:33:00] about it afterwards, look, obviously not everybody has, a relative or something in, in another state.

But even like that person that I ran into followed me down the road, I started talking to, they gave me permission and like they could have become that person. Hey what about your neighbor over here? . Yeah. And all, like, all it takes is developing a relationship with one person and who knows how many doors that can open. And so I'm, it's a little too far away now to figure out if I'm gonna go back. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna need to go back this year, and I already have that knowledge that I gained from last year. And this time ahead of time I'm gonna call my, sister's father-in-law.

Hey can you get me permission on these two or three properties before I even get there? And I'll be way ahead of the game. So yeah. So one, don't be afraid to knock on a door, and two, don't be afraid to basically leverage any kind of, foot in the door you can get ahold of, because you just never know what it can lead to.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's, I think a lot of guys going outta state, especially if they don't have a private land piece to go to they're looking at all these public pieces, and they're not even thinking about[00:34:00] , like you're talking about out west, there's less pressure.

sure. These guys are rifle lunch for a week or whatever, and bow hunting isn't looked at like it is in some places. Yeah. That's, , that's definitely key. Would you go back for longer? I would, yeah, for sure. Again, trying to figure out the whole vacation. , I have more hunts than I know what to do with I should draw Iowa this year.

That's my plan. So if I, Dr. Yeah, so if I draw Iowa, I'm gonna put away a lot of vacation time and Honey Dew time for that trip. I'd love to still go up, for a couple days to Nebraska. Yeah. But if I draw Iowa, that one's definitely gonna take precedence.

yeah. For sure. Yep. I think I'm a year or two away from Iowa, probably two years away from Iowa. Is Nebraska. It's over the counter, you third stated, and they have a September one opener. So that's, I went just, I've never had the opportunity to hunt a velvet whitetail and so I went that weekend.

There's [00:35:00] probably other weekends I could go that would be better. But one, those times are probably also gonna be good here in, in Oklahoma. And two, I just thought it'd be cool to, shoot a velvet buck and I wasn't technically hunted public land, but it was like a public land hunt.

I had never been up there to visit him or seen it Oh yeah. Or anything like that. And I was stepping foot on it even though it was private land, I was stepping foot on it for the first time. So there was definitely that, adventure aspect to it too. But yeah I definitely would love to go back and this year would be a really good year to do it.

Cuz last year just, it seemed like all the crops were backwards. Like where I would've wanted soybeans was in corn where I, where it would've been okay to have corn was in soybeans type thing. Yeah, assuming they do a every other year rotation this year, a lot of those spots that I thought would be really good will be in soybeans and so yeah I'd love to make it back for sure.

Yeah. . Yeah. Yeah, that's definitely a on my bucket list. Haven't hunted whitetail outside of the, they ever stuck out last year in Kansas. I'm drawing a tag, like [00:36:00] hopefully I'll get that tag this year and then hopefully here in a couple years I'll get Iowa and, yeah. Yeah, looking forward to that. Yeah, I think I've had a Kansas point for four years, but I just haven't, I haven't even put in for it, just cuz I knew I wasn't gonna be able to, last year I did the elk hunt.

I don't remember what I did the year before that, but I just yeah, I have too many irons in the fire yeah. But what about you, man? What's number two for you? Number two. Okay. . This one is a it's a hard build for me to swallow this year. I spill both my buck tags in Oklahoma this year.

And both of the bucks that I shot, I made poor shots on the deer. I don't know, as a bow hunter, like I don't rifle hunt for deer as a bow hunter. That's hard. And you spent so much time, trying to get that moment when you're about to release that error, you release that error, that moment.

You spend so much time for that, searching or whatever. And then to make a poor shot on an animal. , it's hard to swallow. And the first buck that I shot was, it was the classic like rut hunt. [00:37:00] The buck was between dos. I'd watched him all morning, I went and ate lunch, went back all afternoon.

I'd watched him with the dough and two hours before dart he broke with that dough and he was on the neighbors that whole time. And. . He, and then he jumped on the, my property and was just cruising. And I was in, ended up calling him in from four or 500 yards away. . And he just came running in and he was coming perfect.

But then just like old mature deer, dude he circled down one of my trees and I was in my shadow. So I'm really cranked around to shoot behind me. And it was like 20, it was 25, 26 yards and I spd him and that, that's like a shocking a shocking moment. You see that arrow flying and then the deer just dropped.

Cause you know, if you're, if you put a shot on a deer like you want put on it , it's gonna run, it's not gonna fall over right there. [00:38:00] And it, it just hit the ground. It's almost like a, I don't know, it's almost like a letdown. You want, you wanna be. But then, . , I just messed up, and so obviously I had to get down and shoot that deer again.

Then the second deer that I shot was,

It was a cla, it was a classic, it was, I did everything right until I , I pulled the trigger and I missed, the deer came in facing me frontal 15 yards, which I have no problem with. My shooting deer frontal at 15 yards with my setup. I'm totally comfortable. I've done that multiple times and pulled the trigger and totally missed the deer, and he didn't move or anything.

I just went two inches to the right and didn't even touch it. Buried in the ground. I can live with the miss more than Moon as well. He ran, he runs off, and this was a late season. It was late December, [00:39:00] and so there, there was like 10. Bucks in this bachelor group. And the, they split ways, but they really wanted to get back to their bed and, which I had bumped them outta their bed at one o'clock, and I was, and they were coming back to their bed, an hour later or whatever.

And when this happened, and then, so I missed him. He runs off a little bit and then he's walking back through this pinch point, and this time he is like 35, 36 yards. And so I'm like, oh, I can do this. And I shot him so far back, wasn't in the ham, but right in front of the ham, really low. And man, it's just it's a bad feeling.

And he runs off, I watch him lay down and, I gave him the night and ended up finding him the next morning. Know, 700 yards away from where he was. Luckily I found him, [00:40:00] but I so I've been pretty successful. So since 2014, I started putting some stuff together, figuring out how to get in front of Deere, some mature bucks, and I killed I think 17 bucks that are mature, pop and young type of bucks since 2014.

And I had not lost one of 'em. I hadn't put a bad shot on one of 'em. And every year I fill all of my do tags. So I was pretty, have been pretty prolific. And this year I don't know if I just got target panic, I got too comfortable. I'm just too used to seeing the arrow hit where I wanted it to and too comfortable with.

and messed up, on those two bucks. And it's definitely something that I've been dealing with, working over in my mind this year is do I need to, do I need to switch something up? Do I need to practice more? [00:41:00] And I think I know it comes down, what it comes down to is just slowing the shot down and really focusing on what you're doing.

And I was just rushing it and just knowing, hey, this is what's gonna happen. I'm gonna watch the arrow disappear where I want to do it. He's gonna die cuz that's what's happened. But that's not how it was. And so it really takes you back to the drawing board and try, trying to figure out where I'm messing up and so like as far as like from something that I learned from that, are you there?

Yep. Sorry. I'm good. Yeah, so as far as something that I've learned from that, I don't know the answer but I know that. at a certain point, and maybe it's your hunting career or this trajectory that you're on. For me, I've hit a point this last season where I messed up, twice and now it's now I'm at the point of, what do I do?

Where do I go to, to be more, to be that killer that you know that you [00:42:00] wanna be? For sure, man. And, I can definitely say that you bow hunt long enough that's gonna happen, I think so this year I put a really good shot on the buck that I killed. , but it's because last year, the buck that I killed on the same day in the same spot, I spd him.

Oh, okay. And so that just fed me, I practiced a little extra this year and everything. And so this year the buck came in pretty darn quick. And, but I think when I did the episode about it, I said, the best thing that happened to me was that deer. He came in and then he turned and faced me and didn't give me a shot.

And I kinda was forced to take some time, slow down. And in my mind, the whole time I'm sitting there going, aim low, because in 20 it would've been like 2019, I think I sped a deer. . And it's happened two outta the last four Yeah. That I've shot with my bow. I spinned. And so yeah, this year I was really making myself slow down, I practiced and everything and put an absolute great shot on it.

So that's some encouragement for you. Yeah. You'll get back on the wagon. It happens to [00:43:00] everybody but don't, obviously don't give up. You gotta keep at it. Yeah. And it'll improve for sure, right? Yeah. After that I, I still have three do tags to fill and fill those three, do tags with no problem.

An eye-opening experience for sure. . Absolutely. Absolutely. Man. That's part of the reason I like to have you on, cause I know you are a killer , and like you said, it's a pretty, pretty impressive streak. Yeah. All right I'm gonna move on. Let's see here. How are we doing on time? I think we got time for about one more each.

So I'm gonna skip over to this one. And , my last one for the day is don't sco don't stop scouting even in an area that you've already scouted. So my story behind this one was I did a little bit more than average public land hunting this year. I stumbled upon this place on accident.

I actually tried to go hunt a different spot and it was closed for a controlled hunt wound up on this little piece of public and ended up going back a couple times. And the, I guess it would've been the second time I went out [00:44:00] there I took a trail camera with me just because I, thought the area looked pretty good and I was walking around and it was a little bit before, it would've been like mid-October, so it was before, they were scraping or anything like that.

And I found this area that I was pretty sure was like a hub scrape. There was no leaves, no vegetation or anything. You could see like an old used licking branch and stuff above it. And so I was like, this. But, get a spot as any. So hung a camera on it let it soak for a about a week.

And now we're, we were this would've been coming into the last week, so like a muzzle loader opener, somewhere in there. And I was going and I found the camera and I looked and sure enough, the scope it would, and after I hung the camera, I opened, opened it up with my foot just to get things going.

And I had seen that deer had been there, there's deer tracks in it and stuff. And so I was sweet. Check the camera. There's like a decent eight point on it and something. And so I was feeling pretty good about myself. But I had brought a second camera with me just because again, I felt like this spot was gonna be pretty decent.[00:45:00]

And so I kept walking and found a few more scrapes, found a spot. I set the second camera up and then I was walking out and I was purposely walking in a different spot just to scout more. And I came across this area and there was two. Massive scrapes right next to each other.

And you you could smell the pee in 'em and everything. Like they were obviously fresh. And I was like, man, like this is where I need my camera. And so I pull out OnX to, to see where my first camera was, and I'm like, on the dot. And I was like, what the heck? So I look up and I'm looking around and I see my first camera maybe 20 yards away, something like that.

And so I don't know if the camera being on that first spot pushed the deer a little bit, or if I was just wrong about the old scrape or, maybe it wasn't a hub scrape. Maybe it was just an old scrape or whatever. But again one week made a huge difference on how those deer were acting and where they were at and everything.

So I ended up pulling that first camera and moving it over to that and got several really good pictures. And I ended up [00:46:00] not so that, Yeah, that weekend I ended up killing a buck. And then I had the buck that I ended up killing pretty regular on camera, so I ended up not going back to hunt that public land again.

But I did go back, at the end of the season and pick those cameras up. And again, like walking, just to get pick, pick up those two cameras, I found even more scrapes. I actually moved my second camera to a different scrape and I got scrape activity on it until I picked it up again early January.

And so just just because you go in and you scout some areas and you see some deer sign, that doesn't mean that you're done. It's not oh here's the sign, I'm good now. You have to be continuously scouting. And I don't know how you find that balance on private land again if this, if that was private land, I probably wouldn't have been walking all over the place and hanging creamers in random spots.

So I don't know where that balance is. But as far as public land, if you're in there and you're trying to beat another hunter to that deer, you can't afford to just sit back and wait. You gotta be aggressive. So yeah, like I said, just because you have done some scouting doesn't mean [00:47:00] you are finished scouting.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that is some killer advice for sure. You could just be off by, I don't know, just a little bit like, like you were, that some great stuff I don't know about, I would've been at a bo shot. Yeah. . Yeah. Does that public you're talking about, does it get pressured quite a bit or No?

So this little slice that I found, I don't think it does, because part of what made it so attractive to me that first time I was in there, I found like two sheds in pretty obvious spots. Oh, wow. And so I, yeah, I was like, man if anybody had been in here, they would've found these. . And I didn't get any pictures of other hunters or anything.

Now I know the area around there gets hunted heavy. I'd see people pulled over on the side of the road and stuff. Yeah. But I found a magical little sliver that I think is pretty lightly pressured. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. That's something that it's hard for me to invest anytime into [00:48:00] public land Oh, yeah.

Around here. Just because I've got it. It really is. Yeah. I've got really good land to hunt but it's very intriguing though. , I think I, that's the draw of Kansas, or one of the draws too, is just to go somewhere and and walk into somewhere and just figure it out. . Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. It's almost more of a challenge than a need, and I'm sure there's a lot of people listening to this who only hunt public that are probably angry at us for, saying that. Yeah. But but it's fun. It's a challenge. And that's, part of the reason I started this podcast was to push myself and challenge myself and learn from people.

And yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna keep, I'm gonna keep doing it. Yeah, for sure. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. All right. What what are you gonna close this out with today? Man I think I gotta go with something that's become increasingly, or I've become increasingly aware of in the last couple years. It is something that I've always tried to do, and that, and this is relating to [00:49:00] taking kids or.

and or people that don't have a chance or they're new to hunting is getting them involved with it. And this is a two-part thing cause obviously I have a three year old now who goes with me everywhere, but for, I've always taken people hunting that, that wanted to learn or that we're young or whatever.

And so I think that's really important in this part of the state where I live in the northwest, it's hard to find land to hunt because it's pretty sought after. There's lots of pieces of land that are at least out. These guys from outta state or from the city, from all over the, pretty much all over the country.

They're coming to hunt this land just getting leased up like crazy. And these guys come out here, they shoot a buck or two, but they don't shoot a dough. And our. , our deer numbers up [00:50:00] here are exploding. We have so many deers cuz no one wants to shoot dove. And you can see this like in the, at the state level they're adjusting rules so that you can harvest more of those.

But no matter how many, I mean what, no matter what, you make the limit. If people aren't shooting doughs, it doesn't matter. And I think that's a right. I think the dough harvest thing is a great way to get your kids or other kids, people who don't have the opportunity, don't have access to the private land or they don't, they don't know they, they won't learn or whatever.

I think it's a great way to get these people in immersed in, what you and I love what we love to do, what we did when we were kids or learning how to hunt. And I think that this problem, I think is becoming very, it's gonna become more serious. And I think that, , we're going to get to a time where we far exceed our carrying capacity for deer.

And [00:51:00] some diseases come through that, we don't wanna deal with. That's gonna affect everybody hunt. , because, just because , up here it's just, filled after field of ad drops and then cover fingers and, whatever. And so there's just, it's just insane amount of dough.

Like the other night I sat on a hill and I could count 275 deer in one field. That's, in, in five bucks. That's horrible because no, no one wants to shoot dough. So I think that's what I would want to go out with is get some kids involved or somebody that, that wants to learn.

There's lots of people out there go shoot some dope and yeah, you know my phone number, you know anybody that's looking. Get involved or whatever, send them my way. Cuz I'm telling you , you have gobs of do. Yeah man. For sure. You know the Oklahoma sane hunters in the know take a doe.

Yep. It's very [00:52:00] true. And I find myself struggling with this a little bit cause I'm in a different part of, I'm opposite side of the state and I'm more in cattle country. So like right around where I'm at, we don't have a super high Yeah. Deer density. Granted, it's probably still off.

I need to do a better of shooting dough. But yeah for most of the state, the property we sold I was a dough killer out there cuz it was definitely overrun. Yeah. And like you said, the old the Jurassic Park line nature will find a way, nature finds a way, whatever it is.

That's, we're, we got C w D, we got e h D in a lot of those, started in high deer density areas. Probably for the same reason. So yeah that's a really good one, man. It's, it really is important. Yeah. And it's, it's great meat. It's, there's really no excuse not to, right?

Yeah. Up here the local processing houses, you can donate those to, it cost $10 a dough. And I got, this year I got degradation tags. You don't wanna know how many doves I killed this year. take 'em down [00:53:00] there and they donate 'em to the homeless shelter. If we don't do something about it, I mean it, they're gonna be wiped out in an uncontrolled way.

. . Yeah. And, I've heard about it from other sources, other podcasts and stuff, and it's an old school mentality of don't shoot the do, because, it wa it wasn't that long ago, we were trying to grow the population. And you were trying to shoot a buck, you were trying to leave the doze, that, that time is coming and gone.

And yeah. And everybody likes to see lots of deer and they think it's cool, but if you're really serious about having a good steady, healthy population and bigger, mature bucks, if you have so many doughs that they're competing for that food your antler size is gonna suffer.

So if you consider yourself a trophy hunter, it's just as important to shoot dose as anybody else. Yep. Yep. Agreed. Gotcha. Cool, man. That was a great one. We're coming up, we're almost 55 minutes or something like that. So I think we're gonna go ahead and shut this one down. But man, Tyrell, this was awesome.

I really appreciate it. I appreciate you just [00:54:00] bringing all your experience and stuff. Do you want to give a quick social media shout out? Or would you rather people not come and find you? No. Come, come and find me. I'm . I all right. My Instagram handle is Tyrell underscore Roy.

And yeah, that's it. Wake me up. Follow me or gimme a shout out. Gimme a holler and talk about. Whatever you always have cool pictures and stuff. Your brother is basically a professional photographer and videographer, so I know he helps you out a lot with the photography and everything. Yep. So yeah, y'all are a great follow for sure.

Cool man. Like I said, I appreciate you coming on and I'll try not to wait as long before I have you on again, so I really appreciate it and hope you have a good evening. Sounds good. I appreci. There we go folks. Another great one, another good episode. Thank you Tyrell for coming on. That was awesome.

Like I said guys at the beginning, that guy really knows what he's talking about, so pay attention to when he talks. Go follow him on Instagram. He's super educational [00:55:00] and just a really good guy. So that's gonna do it for today, folks. I'm gonna go try to stay warm. I'm gonna hang out with my family while I can enjoy these couple days off work.

And that's all we have for today's episode. So I hope y'all are doing good. And until next time, I will see y'all right back here on. The Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast.

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