Ep. 246 Texas Deer Stories with Kolton McDaniel

Today I'm joined by a young man from Texas named Kolton McDaniel. Kolton has a passion for deer hunting and has had some great experiences in the woods. He shares some gun and bow stories along with his powerful testimony. He's thankful to be alive and share that passion today. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to Shutting Light Hunting Stories Podcast, a show dedicated to the average show and favorite hunting stories. I'm your host, Travis Williams, and I believe that is a good story. Thanks for joining us. Let's dive in. Wherever you are. This might be a new format for some of you. Some of you you're listening to me like you always do over on uh Spotify or iTunes or wherever it is that you get your podcast. But some of you might actually be watching the YouTube. And if this is your first Shedding Light Outdoors podcast, I just want to say welcome. We're going to try a video format and see how this goes. And I'm excited to try it today. And you know, a lot of times uh I have to hit the stop button and re-record, but since I'm videoing myself, we're just gonna push right through. So welcome to the show. This show, if you are new, is all about average Joes telling some of their favorite hunting stories, and we connect that to faith in some way. And so just want to say welcome, glad that you're here. Give you a little update into life and what's going on. Uh right now, we are about a month out from turkey season. I'm taking both of my daughters this season, um, and I am super pumped to do that. Uh, so taking my seven-year-old Selah and my nine-year-old Ansley. Ansley is 0 for 3. Uh, she's been out three different seasons and not gotten to, she's she shot at a turkey, I guess, last year, but she has not got to punch her tag. And so that's my number one priority going in. Um, I bought a 360 ground blind. Um, actually, it's like 272 something. It's got it's blacked out in the back, which I like. But I I just I don't like being in a ground blind, but I talked about this last podcast. I did. So I'm not gonna go elaborate. I'm just gonna say it's not about me, it's about her. So I'm gonna put her in the best situation I can uh where she's not uh she's got more cover, more time, and hopefully those birds will cooperate and come into the decoys for her. But anyway, we'll we'll have some fun. Uh otherwise, not much else going on. I am waiting. Um, hopefully, here within the next two weeks, uh, whenever April rolls around, I'll know if I'm going elk hunting again. And so I did apply. I know, I know some of you know this. Uh, I've been on a once every three years plan with my wife. However, last year was amazing. And also, my buddies are going to go back because next year they're they're being losers and going moose hunting, and I'm not doing that. So uh so we decided to go ahead and apply, see what happens. We have like 50-50 odds. We have zero points, uh preference points for Montana to get drawn uh to a general tag unit. So um, if you don't know Montana's regulations, don't it's it's a nightmare to try and figure out. But at any rate, we'll find out if we're elk hunting and um had a great opportunity this past uh weekend to speak. Uh, one of the guys that's been on this podcast before, Tony Fall. Uh Tony, I think he was episode maybe 209. I could be wrong on that. But uh Tony came on and he and I have kind of stayed in contact. He's an Ohio guy, and he is in charge of a ministry at the New Life Church there in Poland, Ohio, near Youngstown, and he invited me to come up and speak at their game night, wild game night. And I thought that was cool. I thought there'd be like 80, 90 guys there. It's only their second year doing this. I get there and there's 250 guys, which just blew me away. It was awesome. And then um, you know, they had amazing food. We had uh elk meatballs, and there was some great food, great door prizes. They gave away like six or seven guns. My buddy Ben uh won a gun, he won a uh a root uh Henry 22, which is sweet. And I gotta share my story and tell some hunting stories, some wins, uh, some I call it highlights and lowlights. That video is actually out on YouTube if you would want to watch that. I I actually went longer than what I intended, about an hour long, but I tried to keep it interesting, tell some stories, some of them you've probably heard if you've listened to the podcast before, but uh I gotta share my heart, tell stories about Hattie and my coal truck accident, and um, yeah, it was a really cool experience. Speaking of YouTube, I'll say this and then we'll go ahead and get our introduce our guests. Uh, we are releasing videos. Actually, two things I want to plug real quick. Uh, we are releasing videos about once a week, and we have another video coming out. It should be out about the same time this video is, and it is our last, probably last, turkey video before this season begins. So, this is from last year. We've released four videos in total. Um, my buddy Trav's Recurved Turkey, my public land bird, Nate Godfrey was last week with a crazy hunt, um, bird flying over our shoulder, him shooting at Jake, and then this week is my buddy Matt Duff. And so, four great films. They're a lot of fun. We try and make those enjoyable. I might have one more like short. Uh, there's some footage I forgot that I had uh of a youth hunt. So uh encourage you if you haven't go over to Shutting Line Outdoors, check out our YouTube, and um give us a subscribe, comments, like, shares. We appreciate all that stuff. It all helps us and uh just thank you for your support. The other thing that you can do if you are interested is maybe buy some merch. We just got some brand new shirts. Wearing the quarter zip. This is kind of a heavier fleece version of this, and we have some new hats. Now we don't have black, but we do have uh we got some mossy oak right here, Mossy Oak camo. Um, this is a Richardson 112, kind of a heavier, stiffer hat. This is a little bit loosey, loosey goosey. Is that a word? Yeah, looser hat. This is a mossy oak, this is a perfect little turkey hat. Mossyoke 111. Uh, we also have uh two more down here. We have a um real tree, so it's kind of your standard real tree. I don't see it around here, it must be in another box, but we have uh just a brown, uh brown hat. So all of those and this shirt, along with a if you kind of prefer like a more athletic, lighter one, we have a really sweet light one. We only have two in stock right now that are size medium, but we are selling shirts, we are selling hats, and if you would like to support this ministry, um check out the link below, especially down in YouTube and also in uh I'll put it on the podcast audio platforms as well. But if you check out this link below, I create an online store to help us keep track of how much inventory and stuff that we have. We've never done this before. If your size isn't there, please do not just say, Oh, they don't have my size. Send me a message. Send me a message and we will write that down and I will put that on our next order and we'll try and restock that store a little bit more frequently and kind of keep our merch available. So if you're interested in supporting us, all of that money doesn't go into my pocket personally, it goes into supporting this podcast, paying for our music subscriptions, helping us stay up to date on all that sort of thing. So we're greatly appreciate your support. Um, and uh yeah, I thank you to everybody that's ever supported us in the past. Greatly appreciate it. Today's guest reached out to me through a thing. I talked about it uh last week on uh the podcast about fan mail. I didn't even know my podcast uh host had fan mail, and somebody wrote, his name is Colton, said he wanted to come on the show. I gave him a shout out on the podcast, and he reached out. And the way that you reach out, leave all the fan mail you want, but I can't respond to that. Go to uh shedding light outdoors on Facebook, Instagram, and you can leave us a private message there or send an email at sheddinglightod at gmail.com. Those are the ways to get a hold of me. And if you do that, I'd love to have you on the show. Well, Colton did that, said he's been a longtime listener for over three years, 18 years old, lives in Texas, and he had some stories to tell. So I was excited to have him on to hear, and he did not disappoint. Uh, for somebody who's 18 years old to tell the stories the way that he does in this uh is phenomenal. He's a great storyteller, keeps my attention, uh, just just I don't know, it's just fun. He had some hilarious stories, um, all dear stories, and I think that you guys are gonna absolutely fall in love with Colton. Super great young man, love his faith that he shares. So uh we're gonna jump right in. Thanks for checking this out. Thanks. If you're watching this on YouTube, hey, give us a thumbs up. Hope that you like it. Let us know what you think about the online format, and uh, I guess it's always been online, YouTube format. I'm rambling. We're gonna jump in. Here's Colton. All right. Well, joining me all the way from Texas, Colton McDaniel. Colton, how are you doing, man?

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Man, I'm doing great. Had a good day at school, you know. Everything was good today. Man, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Doing good. It's a it was a busy day, so it's Wednesday, and that's kind of the day I'm just running around like crazy. I got meetings, galore, and a lot of running, but it it was good. Good day.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Nice, man. That's good to hear.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yeah. So, Colton, tell us a little bit about yourself. What are you doing there in Texas?

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Well, I'm 18 years old. I'm born and raised in Beaumont, Texas. Currently live in Viter, Texas, which is you know close to really, really close to Beaumont anyway. Um, I do detailing for a living. I kind of do little in and outside hustles for a job, mainly detailing cars. And um I go to go to uh first Pentecostal church in Silsby, about 35 minutes from my house. I mean, life's good here in Texas, man. It's awesome. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Nice, man. That's cool. I uh so I had an interesting experience this past weekend. I got a speak at a church, and it was a Pentecostal church, which I'm not Pentecostal, but I mean we we all get along. And so I was and uh what's crazy is I have a buddy who is a um I was just texting him. He is a minister within the Pentecostal churches. He found out that I was there, he actually spoke there in October, and he lives like across the state, so just kind of a small world, but that's cool, man. So 18 and you got into detailing cars. How did you how'd you get into that?

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Well, man, I've kind of always been, I guess, a cleaner. I've kind of been like a clean freak for all my life. My brothers, uh, they're not at all, by the way. Anyway, uh, so with my mom found out like early on that I was kind of cleanliness, had a cleanliness side to me. So she gave me my own room for a while. It stayed pretty clean a lot. So they started discussing when I got older, about 15, 16, I think, on jobs I should do. And um, I just thought about something cleaning-wise. And they mentioned, like, hey, you do good at cleaning cars, like, why don't you try that? So I was like, that's a good idea. Why don't I try that? And I'm like, looking up YouTube videos and stuff, like tips and tricks and stuff like that, which there's not a whole lot of tips and tricks to that. Yeah, but I mean, I started doing it for my mom and my family, started doing it for my church, and just dude. It's been awesome. Eventually made cards, passing cards out.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

It's just awesome.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yeah, good for you, man.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

That's an I mean, I I I if you live closer, I'd take you up on it. Because my truck, I try like so. I got a got a new truck there last year, first truck I've ever really owned. And I am trying to keep that thing clean, but having two kids that are seven and nine in the back seat isn't about near impossible. They're getting mud all over my white seats. Should have thought that one through.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

So white seats is a rough one on me.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yeah, they're like a cream, kind of a cream collar. So yeah, it's a bummer. Gotcha. I'm excited to jump into some of your hunting stories. Um and I'm just kind of curious there in Texas. Um, so to kind of tell us about how you got into hunting, like what was your upbringing? How did you get this passion for it?

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Gotcha. Well, thankfully, the Lord's blessed me. I've been I've was born into this. My my dad, my grandpa, my great-grandpa, they all hunted. Um, but my dad was the biggest into it. My grandpa hunted a little bit, he killed quite a few deer, but mainly my dad has the one with a passion for it. Yeah, and basically I was born with a gun in my hands, man. It's it was we've like I've been woke up before in the deer stand with my dad shooting a gun. Like it's just all my life that's what I've done. And like it's it's kind of weird because I love to hunt, man. Like all my life I've loved it, but I got my first deer kind of late. My younger brother Lane, he's 17. He got his first deer, I think, when he was about seven years old. He got it with a shotgun. Awesome story there. But my dad has all he, whenever I was about nine or ten, I think I was nine when he first started, really trying to give him my first deer. He he brought mainly we hunt deer. So my we have a deer lease and my grandpa he's inherited it, it's I think 15 acres he owns on this deer lease. And we only hunt box stands on that because it's kind of hard to do a little bit, a little bit more, but we hunt box stands on it and we hunt over corn. I know, I know you like hunting over natural movement and all that, and that's something I really want to get into.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

It's whatever's legal, man. Well, and real quick, on Texas, yeah, you know, whenever you think of Texas, there's there's a picture that comes to guys' minds from what you see on videos, and there's different, it's a giant state. So what's what's your terrain look like? Are you kind of you know, there's I know sometimes you gotta be in a box blind and use use corn because there's not a lot of it's like scrub brush, a lot of not very many trees that you can actually hang in. And so you shoot I see guys shooting rifles down like long cuts.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

So yeah, that's your basically how it is. Okay, so what we call it, what we call it, it's kind of funny. We where we live is we call it the armpit of Texas. Cause it's like it's not the prettiest, but it is the prettiest, if you know what I mean. Like for us, we live here, we've lived here all our life, we love it, but it's a lot of brush and pine trees, and it's not you think when you hear Texas, you think of cactus and you think of like um cowboys and all that stuff. That's just that's just not where we live, unfortunately. I've I've hunted in South Texas and it's completely different.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

But they use corn out there, we use corn here. I've really wanted this year to be my first year hunting over just natural movement. I've always had a an interest in that. So maybe, maybe this year I'll get one, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

I mean, it's you know, there's a lot of different opinions about it, and I've talked about it on here before. And it's like for me, it's like if it's le first off, it's it's legal, and I think hunters need to unite and try and not pick each other apart on how we're different because I mean we've got people that want to take hunting away from us. So I think you know, we can have our opinions and we can debate, but at the end of the day, it's like whatever you want to do. And this year, I'll be honest, I use corn. We had that EHD hit our herd, and if I was gonna kill a deer toward the end of the season, it was gonna be over. And I almost shot a buck over it, and I would have yeah, I would have totally flung an arrow at that guy with the recurve. You know, this this year I hope I like hunting without it, but with my girls, it makes it easier. It helps.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

I feel like that's the reason why my dad has always used corn with us because whenever we were younger, we kind of, you know, all kids do it. We'll be move too much, we're kind of loud in the deer stand. I feel like that's why he only used box stands because if you're in a ground blind or you're in a two-man tree stand, it's kind of hard to get a kid a like a nine-year-old kid a deer. Yeah. Um, but anyway, so my dad, when I was about nine years old, he really, really wanted me to get a deer, like really bad. He brought me uh to the first stand we call on our property. We call it it's my granny's stand, my granny's old stand, so we call it my granny's stand anyway. Um, so we got two lanes, one has a theater, one does not. One leads to a creek out there. And I remember I'm sitting in the floor floor of the of the box line, usually asleep, sometimes not, sometimes playing on a game or whatever. And uh my dad says there's a deer. And for me, it don't matter if it's a doe, if it's a yearlin, if it's a 150-inch buck, if somebody says there's a deer, I go to shake it. It's just the way I've always been, still am that way. So he says there's a deer, I go, I want to shoot it. I don't even know what it is yet. I'm saying, Daddy, can I shoot it? Can I shoot it, Daddy? He says, It's a good buck.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

How old how old are you at this point?

SPEAKER_00 16:18

At this point, I'm nine years old. I have not cut a deer yet. He really wants me to. And so he says, It's a good buck. And you this is during the rut time, so they're not worried about corn, they're not worried about no bait you put out. They are on fire for those doughs. So this dude, he my dad tried his best to get me on his knee because I'm a I'm a small kid. I'm 18 years old, I'm only like 125 pounds right now. And nine years old, I was small. So my dad is trying to get me on his knee. He's having to help me put the gun to my shoulder and stuff. But before that, he has to put the gun to his shoulder. He usually puts the gun on my shoulder and all that process and stuff. But he puts the gun to his shoulder, he's trying to look to the scope and see what it is. It's a good buck, he says. And he's following it, following it. And this dude's about to leave. Like he's going in the thick stuff. So there's no getting him after this. And I don't my dad says this was like a reaction, I guess. He had his finger on the trigger and he just he pulled the trigger. He didn't even mean to. And dude, the crazy thing about it is he didn't even have the gun to his shoulder. He's shooting like a I think a seven man. He's got the gun on top of his shoulder.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

So when he shoots, the gun kicks, he breaks this dude, my dad's nose. He's got blood everywhere. He's crying because he shot the deer. I'm crying because my dad is bleeding. Oh my gosh, dude, it is chaos. And he that like he dropped this deer. It is like a really good buck. I think it's like 130-inch deer. That's a really good buck. And I was upset for my dad, but also because man, that would have been an awesome first deer. I'm talking about an awesome deer. He still has that deer in his shop.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

That's that's also one that you can hold against your dad. Yeah, like you can always bring that one up. Remember that deer that bottom a little bit sometimes. Oh, yeah. Remember that deer that you shot away from me and broke your nose off?

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Yeah, yeah. I'd say go hunt with daddy, he'll let you, he'll bring you to all the deer and then shoot him in the middle.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Yeah, the whole way to back to the deer camp. He's apologizing to me, saying how sorry he feels terrible. He wants me to get a deer back more bad than he wants to get a deer. Like it it tore him up. And my mom's not happy. She's mad at him for shooting the deer and everything. But so the next next year, my dad brings me to the spot, a next spot, about a 300-yard walk past that stand. And there's another stand there. My people used to hunt. Well, we would have hunted that, but there was about two or three rattlesnake skins in there. We don't deal with those. My dad is petrified of rattlesnakes. I am too.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Yeah, we don't we don't have those, so I think I'd freak out too.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Y'all are blessed to not have a side.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

We have copperheads, but that's not the same.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Yeah, speaking of copperheads, on the way to that stand, my dad actually had his foot almost step on a copperhead. I'm talking, we're walking, and he he stops his foot and he's like rubbing his foot against his copper head.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

By the way, we didn't see any deer that day because he's screaming his head off. Anyway, so we get to the stand, there's three rattlesnakes uh skins in the in the box blind. So my dad's like, we're not doing that. So what he does, he grabs a ground blind and he puts a ground blind up about oh, I think it's maybe a hundred yards in front of the feeder. And we hunted hard, like hard, hard for this on this stand. We didn't leave it. My dad says, if you're starting to hunt a spot, you probably should stay there because the deer will eventually come. And so we hunt this spot hard. We're not seeing anything. Three days go by, we don't see anything. And I'm disappointed, my dad's disappointed. We know there's deer in there. It's just it didn't work out. My mom's hunting on the on the first stand that he killed that buck on. And on the fourth day, I think is what he told me, because I had to ask about this. On the fourth day, he I said, Daddy, I think I see a deer. And he you know, all kids they think they see deer. They think everything's a deer, everything looks like a deer. And he goes, Oh, maybe you do, buddy. I'm like, No, daddy, I'm I'm being serious. I think there's a deer. And he goes, Oh my gosh, you're right, there is a deer. And it looks like a young yearlin, a young yearlin' doe. But at this point, my dad just wants me to kill anything. He'll we'll take a doe, we'll take a spike, anything. So my dad, he has he puts the gun on my shoulder. This is like a smaller 243, my people gave me. And um, he puts my gun on my shoulder and I put it on the shooting stick. And this is me shooting by myself, 10 years old. My dad's taught me everything he knows on shooting. And I shoot, the deer drops, and I am pumped. I mean, I am so happy that I killed a deer finally. My brother's killed one, and I've been envying him for a while. I wanted one so bad. I finally killed one, and my dad's so happy for me. I I don't remember him crying, but I'm sure he did. Um but we're so happy. What makes this even better? We thought this was a dope. It's a young nubbin buck whenever we get to it. And dude, that sweetened the deal because in my first year was a buck, and that made it so awesome. And you I know nubbin bucks, you don't want to shoot them, and I don't like shooting them either. But I'm a 10 year old kid, never killed a deer, hardly ever seen a deer as far as that goes. And dude, I you would have thought I'd done killed a hundred and eighty-inch deer.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

I love that, man.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

I was so caught.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

I mean, to each their own, and each parents got to decide what they're gonna do. But whenever I watch kids passing deer, like, you know, pass in 120s and 130s, and I'm just like, that's not a YouTube video I can relate to. I'm like, I want my kids to shoot as many deer as they can and get that experience. Now, I did, you know, my my youngest did want to shoot like a really small spike this year, but that was a different situation. We were hunting EHD, you know, population, and I had to hold her off. I normally if it was any other property other than that one, the guy let us hunt it. He was being kind, and we knew that there was nine or ten does there. So I was like, if we're patient, there's got to be a doe. And so I'm so glad that one came in and my dog won a big doe, but big enough. And she, you know, my youngest shot her first deer at seven years old.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

I saw that video, man. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

It it was so hard to hold off my seven-year-old on that spike, and then two fawns came in. She wants to shoot them. In any other scenario, I'm probably saying, yeah, absolutely shoot one. I don't care. But when I'm hunting some other guy's property that's trying to grow big bucks, I'm like, but man, that's that's cool. Uh, it sounds like you got a good dad that's uh definitely spent some time with you in the woods. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

Man, he spends more time on us getting us on deer than he does himself. Yeah, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

But that's great, man.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

Yeah, I mean, if you want me to go ahead and jump to the next story I've got prepared for you, I can.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

Um yeah, absolutely. I'm excited. I love this.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

So this my dad, man, he's a big bow hunter. I'm talking he his biggest buck he's killed is with a bow. So he got us whenever we were young. He started us early. I think we were about seven or five or whatever. He got us itty-bitty compound bows to play with, started us out small. Well, later down the road, he got me shooting a good compound. Well, I say a good compound, it was a very small lime green bear compound bow, like the bear brand.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

And I shot that thing so much, I don't even think I could hit 20 yards good. But finally he got me where I could hit, I think, a pie plate in a decent grouping. And he got me got me out bow hunting, put me in a tripod. And this is another time that it's just man, it's taking forever. I don't see deer. I've got good bucks on camera. I'm talking good bucks on camera. I'm just not seeing any. I've seen rabbits, I've seen squirrels, I'm not seeing no deer. Well, that year passed, didn't kill a deer. Next year passed, my dad puts me on a different spot. This time, I'm on the deer lease, the hunting lease, not my grandpa's property. And the latest is it's kind of weird. I'm on one of my grandma's lanes. She has her own hunting stand, and I'm on one of her lanes that's cut. There's a lane here, lane here, uh, and two out in front. Yeah, a lot of good deer killed on that one, by the way. And so I'm on the left lane. My boat, my dad and me scattered out. There's decent deer sign in there. There's been a lot of good buck scene. So he puts me on this tree line, my puts me in a ground line tree line, and he puts me a little hang little hang feeder, little rope feeder out in front. And I don't remember the first, I don't remember how many hunts it took, but it wasn't very much. First, first deer walks out. It's a late evening hunt. It's dark or almost dark. There's like maybe 10 minutes left of shooting light. And dude, I see a deer. I'm I don't care if she's in the brush or not. I draw back on this deer and I shoot, and I just see my arrow bouncing off its limbs. It just it in my mind, I thought I killed the deer because I was like maybe 14, 15. I don't know. I was so excited. I shot at it. I told my dad, I think I smoked her. I think I smoked that deer. And we're out there looking. He looks at my area's like, I'm sorry, buddy, you didn't you didn't kill that deer. I'm all down in the dumps, man. I'm so upset. But I keep hunting that spot. My dad's taught me right. I keep hunting that spot. I think the next day another deer walks out. I shoot right under her belly. And I think in total, I think I missed four deer before I finally got. I mean, but it makes it that much sweeter that it took that many times to kill one.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

So the time that I finally killed my first deer with a bow, so I'm in that ground blind. I mean, just enjoying the hunt. I I like to enjoy my hunts as far as just enjoying looking out, watching squirrels, looking at the sunrise, all that stuff. I love that. It's my favorite. And I'm just enjoying the hunt, and I see a doe walkout. I see another doe walkout. It's a it's a good doe and a yearlin. And I I couldn't really tell at the time what the yearlin was. I just saw a deer and I knew I wanted to kill one. So they get under the feeder, they're eating, they're not worried about a thing in the world. I draw back on the yearlin, didn't know it was the yearlin. I draw back on her, clean miss straight over the back. Well, thankfully, this doe other one did not leave. She had her head behind a tree. She didn't see where the arrow came from. She didn't know what happened, why the other doe left. So she's still there. And man, at this point, I'm not sad. I'm mad. I'm mad at myself. I'm mad that I'm missing. And I just I grab another arrow. All our members, I grab another arrow, I draw back, and I hold my pin right on that crease right by the elbow. I squeeze and I watch that arrow sink right in that deer. And dude, I knew it was a kill shot. I was so pumped. I just remember saying, this seems to be my catchphrase. I'm just saying, there's no way, there's no way, there's no way. And it was just, it was awesome. And the crate, the way I found this deer, I'm I'm just like, man, I I guess I'll just go get in my grandma's box blind and just watch and see if there's any more deer walk out. I'm not gonna shoot anything, I'll just watch. I get in the box blind and I look out my binoculars, I'm like, there's a deer laying there. That's my doe. And dude, I am pumped. I didn't even know I killed the deer yet. I I thought it was gonna be a long, you know, blood trailing and everything, and I just see the deer like maybe 60, 70 yards from where I shot her.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Oh heck yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

I am pumped, and I'm I drag I dragged the deer to the deer deer stand, and I'm just sitting beside the deer waiting on my grandpa, and man, that that will never leave me. My first year with a bow won't won't ever leave me. That's my favorite hunt, probably.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Oh, that's fantastic, Holden. So tell me a couple questions for you. So you were struggling a little bit to to make some good shots, and you had some misses and things like that. What do you think was going on there? Was it just beginners' nerves? I mean, you've killed some deer before, but yeah, is there a difference between the gun and the bow, or what's what's going on?

SPEAKER_00 28:54

For me, there's a big difference. So for the gun, for some reason, I'm just a really good shot with a gun. My dad's brought me up in that. It's just I've been a good shot with a gun, but I just don't have I'm not real nervous as much with a gun. I don't shake real bad. I can get it done with a gun, but when I started out with a bow, man, I still have it sometimes. It's bad target panic. I'm talking bad target panic. And my nerves, every time I see a deer, like I told you, I shake really bad. And I just know for me when I saw deer, because the year before I told you I didn't see anything, and me just seeing deer was so awesome. I got so excited that I was shaking. I was nervous that I was gonna miss. And it was just I I I know I rushed the shot, obviously, but it was mainly just nerves and excitement.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Yeah. The first uh I think four deer I shot with a compound bow, um or any bow, really. I think I thought my first one was with a crossbow, actually. Um, I spined. I hit every single one of them high. And I think what it was is like I was so used to shotgun hunting where and we did deer drives, so it was always deer on the run, and you're always trying to make a running shot. And it was just always like you had to be fast because the deer weren't gonna stick around. Very rarely did I have a situation where a deer was standing there, you know, and that's not ideal. I know that now. You know, there was a lot of deer injured in that that form of hunting, but it was fun. But whenever I picked up the bow, I'm like, all of a sudden, one, the deer is not out there 50 to 100 yards, he's now you know the like 20 yards right underneath my skin. And all of a sudden, I mean, it's just like I didn't know I could get this close. There, there's I mean, I respect I respect gun hunters and I I love gun hunting, but it there to me there is a difference between gun hunting and bow hunting, and it's that having a deer and an animal like that close, to me, it it takes uh that messes with your nerves.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

I agree with you, man. Bow hunting is my passion. I love it way more than gun hunting, but there's just something different about having a deer that close to you. Like we always would hunt maybe 100 yards from the feeder, and even me dropping deer, I've dropped does, I've dropped you know, that's that that nub and butt. It's just different. It's way different whenever you kill it with a bow. It's way different.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Yeah, it's uh it gets me fired up, man. That's awesome. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

So I am curious. I don't know if you have any stories around this, but you keep referring to grandma's blind and your grandma, and so tell me about grandma. Grandma must be a killer. Like, what's what's uh I don't have too many grandmas on this show. What's what's the story with grandma's blind?

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Well, what's funny about that is we call it her blind, but she doesn't really hunt it that much. Okay, she has hunted it, she has killed deer, she's killed hogs. I've got a lot of memories hunting with my grandma, but she's just she likes to watch deer, she likes to video them on her phone. She's not the biggest killer out there. Okay, but we call we we it was built for her.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

But yeah, so there's been a lot of good bucks. My dad has had a a tree stand on that uh on that lane. He's killed a good buck on there before. My brother's killed hogs. Uh, we've killed a lot. I think my brother killed his first doe on that stand, and we just we've had a lot of good uh experience with it. Nice and cool. Unfortunately, we don't have that stand anymore, but it used to be an awesome stand.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

That's cool. Yeah, it's yeah, yeah. I would I love to hear about grandparents. One of the saddest things is like this this podcast, every every time I've recorded with somebody, it's been posted. There's never been anybody that I felt like I'm not gonna post whatever, you know, it's always been good. But the worst thing that's ever happened is I recorded um this like 85-year-old grandma telling stories, and she was hilarious, and she had some amazing stories about just for her, hunting was just a way of life, it was just providing food for her family. Yeah, and she was like you know, kind of snarky and fun. Somehow I lost that recording, like it got erased by something, and I never found it, and I never had the heart to ask her back again. It was like I was like, oh, you know, I know those I know her stories, and it uh unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

I was gonna say, I don't think I've ever heard that one before. I was gonna ask you.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

It was an epic, epic uh podcast, and I I let it go, and unfortunately she passed away a few years ago, and so that one never made it.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

But was that early on in your podcasting?

SPEAKER_01 33:12

Uh yeah, it's before I used Zoom. I was using like a recording thing on my phone that I had to pay for, and I stopped paying for it, and therefore my my what I what I had saved went away. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Man, hate that.

SPEAKER_01 33:25

Yeah, so that's cool, man. Well, awesome story. That's really cool how you got your your first deer with bow there.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Man, it's awesome. And if you want me to keep going, I've got another, I've got a couple more I can tell you. Yeah, yeah. This one, this one's also bow. And the the lead up to this one is my favorite. So we're this time we're not hunting in uh the deer lease, where we always have hunted. Um, so this time we're on my my friend's well, he it's not my friend, it's a uh national, national forest. Oh and my dad's friend Ben that he works with, he let us hunt with him. We know we're staying at his deer camp, you know, eating roast, or I don't even remember what we was eating. We had a good time with him laughing, cutting up and all that. Yeah, and uh so originally my dad had me set up in a ground blind. I love hunting ground blinds, love seeing the deer eye to eye like that, but it just was right off the road, it just wasn't the best spot and didn't see any deer on it. So my dad's friend Ben, he decided that he was going to excuse me, he was going to help me find a better spot, if I can say it like that. Um, so he puts me on this really old um ladder stand. We don't even know how old it is. He just found it in the woods one day. No one's ever hunted it, he's never seen anybody in it for years. And this dude is on a pine tree. It's not it's not brushed in at all. It's I'm sticking out like a lollipop, man. It's I don't think I'm gonna see nothing on this spot, but I hunt it anyway. And we don't for this time, we don't even have a feeder. You can't use uh feeders in a national forest, so we just okay like do little hand corn pot tosses like that. You don't want to use too much, and um, that's what we did, hunted over corn and the first hunt didn't see anything, saw a lot of squirrels. It's a beautiful spot in the morning time, the sun's rising up, you see it on the horizon, it's awesome. I love that spot still, but just didn't see anything the first couple hunts, and I mainly I feel like because it was hot, it was about 75 to 80 degrees. It was hot. And so, like I was really I was really happy because I saw on the weather app that it was gonna be cooler in the day. I think it was gonna be in the mornings about 45 degrees. Pretty pretty good weather for deer movement, I feel like, at least down here. And we get up in the morning and I think it's like 40, and it's it's chilly, the wind's blowing, it is it feels like good, good deer movement. Deer Cass says it's gonna be good, and I'm excited. And I get out there and I always I always start off my hunts with a prayer. I've just what I've always done. I'm walking to the stand, thanking God for the opportunity and that he's allowed me to hunt. And I'm just saying, Lord, if you whatever you want to bring me, I will gladly take it. Whatever you want to bring me, I'll take it. And I get in the stand and I'm still praying a little bit, and I'm like, I think I hear something. I hear little little footsteps. I'm like, well, normally I'd say that's squirrels, but squirrels aren't up right now. And it could be a hog, but that just doesn't sound like hog steps. I'm like, I think I think that's a deer. And you gotta understand, this deer, I I all I can see it's like not even any kind of daylight at all. It's like barely daylight. You all you see, I see is a little silhouette, a black silhouette of a deer walking in front of me, and I'm pumped. It's like five yards below my tree stand. I'm happy. And I'm hoping to God, I'm like, Lord, let him stick around till daylight. I can't shoot in this, but I just Lord, let him stick around till daylight. I don't I don't know if it's a doe or if it's a buck or whatever. And um so it gets cracking daylight. I can tell that it's some kind of buck because it's raking its horns on a bush. And I get my rangefinder up and I look, I can see a little better with my range finder. Um and I look and it's unfortunately it's a little four-point. Here in Texas, you can only shoot. So the way it works as far as legal is if it's a grown deer, it's either doe 13 inch or 13 inches or wider, and a coal buck. That's for grown. If it's a young deer, it's either a spike, uh, you know, a nubbin buck or something like that, or a three-point.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Three points is me is max on a on a young buck.

unknown 38:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:00

And this one was four, and I got mad. I'm like, man, this would have been my first buck with a bow. I'm I'm upset, but I'm like, it's all right. He he this deer walks off, and I'm just gonna keep hunting. It's a good morning, good weather, feels good, feels good. I just keep hunting. Well, a little bit later on, a little later on the hunt, I think maybe an hour later, I hear uh no, I see a fawn and a doe step to my left. And the fawn doesn't think nothing of it. Mind you, I'm like a lollipop in that tree. I there's no cover around me at all. And the fawn, how young she is, it doesn't think anything of it. But the doe sees me immediately. She bounds off blowing. She she I feel like I'm not gonna see nothing that hunt. The fawn sticks around just because she don't she don't see me. She's so low to the ground she probably can't see me anyways. And the I can hear the doe just continually blowing in the woods. I'm like telling that fawn, go in the woods so your mom will shut up. It just and I was so upset because I'm like, man, dough blowing for me is like just it's the end of the hunt, it just feels like. And I just keep hunting. I'm like, I'm not gonna get out of the stand. I've made the mistake before just getting out of the stand when I hear dough blowing. I'm like, I'm not doing that, stay and hunting. And a little bit later, I think it's about we get out of the stand at about 10. I think it's close to 8:30. I see that floor point again, and it's walking. So I got the corn like maybe 20 yards angled at my left, and the deer, the uh buck walks out, comes around, comes in front of me, and goes into the corn. I take a little bit of a video of the buck and I send it to my dad. I'm like, Dad, is there any way I could possibly shoot this deer? He says, Well, from what I'm seeing, one of his points looks a little bit shorter than an inch. And that's how we, you know, how you say it's a legal measurable point or not. And he goes, if he is legal, shoot him. And as soon as he said shoot him, I stand up, I draw my bow back. He's about 15, 16 yards. I draw my bow back, I shoot, he drops, arrow goes right behind his shoulder, and he runs off about 50 yards. I saw the arrow fall out, he's gushing blood, and he's looking at me, he's about 50 yards in front of me. He's looking at me, he gets a little wag wobbly, you know, and he falls. And dude, I lose my mind. I up to this point, I've never shot a deer with a bow where I've seen him fall in front of me. Yeah, and dude, it I was so so pumped. Yeah, that was that was like my probably my favorite hunt out of all of them. That was probably my favorite. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 40:59

That's sweet. I love first, uh, what I love about that is you're shooting what makes you happy. I mean, we we put so much pressure on the big buck world and the mature buck world. And I mean, if if that's what people want to do and it makes them happy, I'm not gonna tell them not to, but I I just think my buddy Trav and I talk about this all the time, how we've made hunting almost not fun. You know, it's like people people shoot deer, you know, small deer, and then they want to apologize. Well, he's not the biggest like just just go out there and enjoy it. Go out, especially if you're deer. Go out and cut your teeth and get into it and have a good time. I mean, yeah, it's just we put so much pressure, and I think we make hunting not be a whole lot of fun whenever we we set crazy expectations.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

I agree. It's kind of because especially social media, the way that people put their posts on social media, that's not a bad thing at all. I I would uh like to do that too, but I'm just saying, like, people I think it's more of a status thing than anything. You want to be the one posting only big bucks, only 140 inches or or higher.

SPEAKER_01 41:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 42:00

And I get pumped for somebody when I see somebody young just shot of their first deer, or some old guy just who you didn't think would ever kill anything again. He shot of like a spike, dude. I'm happy for that guy.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

He's got a big smile on his face. He's got nothing to prove, and it's just like if you don't like it, scroll on, you know. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

So I agree, yes, sir. Uh love it. Yes, sir. But um, man, I don't know how long you wanted to go, but I've got one more up my sleeve. That's my most recent one.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Yeah, I want to hear it.

SPEAKER_00 42:33

Alrighty. So this one I've actually got with me. I'm gonna show you, show it to you after uh I tell the story. So to start it off, it was we were at a youth uh youth event with my all of our all of our youth group and everything. I think it was like a birthday party or something. And I invite my friend Britton, he's the same age as me, born on the same day, like he's four hours older. Best friend. I invite him to go hunting with me. He he does hunt some, but his his dad's really not much in in contact with him a whole lot. He used to take him hunting, he just doesn't really do that anymore. And I'm like, Brenton, why don't you why don't you go hunting with us? He's like, Man, I'd love to. He just let me know when we're going. I'm like, all right, I'll talk to my grandparents and see if you can come with us. And so he gets to come. He drives uh no, he rides with us. Uh we drive two vehicles, my Dodge Durango and my grandparents' truck. And um so he goes with us, and I'm I'm happy he's with us. We're having a good time, we're cutting up at the camp and stuff. And I put him on a I put him on a ground blind. I told him he that he could bow hunt because he really he likes to bow hunt. He hasn't done it much, but he likes to bow hunt. So I put him on a ground blind that my dad's killed deer. We've seen deer before. Put him there, and my brother is hunting. Um he's hunting with my dad in that national forest. So he Going off with my dad, and I'm hunting that stand that I killed my my another buck.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

But this recently, this my dad has rebuilt a new stand. This other stand fell down. We rebuilt a new stand, and I'm hunting in that. So we hunt for a little bit. My friend doesn't see anything. I see a couple of does. I'm wanting a buck. I've killed a lot of does, killed a lot of small stuff. I want a buck, I want a good buck. And so I'm like, well, Burton, I just I mean, I've seen a couple of does, man. I'm like, how about this? How about I'll let you hunt that stand in the mornings and I'll hunt in the evenings. And he's like, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. So what I do is I actually don't hunt that morning. I let him hunt. And he he sees deer. He doesn't get a chance to kill him. He his mom calls him or something and it rings and it there they take off. He's mad. He that's a whole nother story. He's upset about that. And uh but I went to the grocery store with my grandma that morning. I didn't uh go hunting, but I get this call from my friend Britton. It's about 10 o'clock, he's done hunting. This dude apparently gets lost um as easy as ever. I didn't know this, but um, it's a it's a straight trail to that stand. He calls me. I'm we're on our way back from grocery shopping, and he calls me. He's like, dude, I think I'm lost. I'm like, dude, how are you lost? Like, there's it's a straight trail. There's no way you could be lost. He's like, Well, I'm gonna try to find my way back on the trail. And no sooner than he says that, his phone dies.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 45:42

So so, dude, we're responsible for him. Like, we we're responsible for him. His mom let him come. We're responsible for him. So I'm like, dude, I don't care if I scare off every deer in the county. I've gotta find him. I've got to go look for him. And so I go out there, I don't want to. It hurts me so bad, but I had to like, I had to holler for him, had to scream his name. Brenton, Brenton, where are you? I'm going, I'm going on the back stand where he's hunting. I'm going on the first stand where deer have been killed. I'm going all the way to the house hollering for him. And finally, my little brother goes in the house. He goes, He's in here asleep. Dude, mad is not the word to describe me. I was mad mainly because I let him hunt that morning, being nice. But what made me the most mad is that I I let he call me, uses the last little bit of battery he has to call me and telling me he's lost. So what am I gonna think? He tells me he's lost, I'm going out there screaming for him. Yeah, and dude, I'm mad, but at the same time, I'm like, this dude hasn't been hunting in a while. It's it's kind of different for him, I guess. And I'm like, yeah, I'm not gonna be I'm not gonna stay mad at him. I'm not gonna stay mad at him. But I stick with the deal, I stick with the plan. I hunt that evening. I don't really see much, obviously. Um, but so the next morning he hunts, and he no, no, no, the next morning he actually decided to hunt the ground blind. I said, dude, I'm probably not gonna see nothing else on that saying, you can just hunt the ground blind. Um, he goes, All right, that's fine. So the next morning, I'm hunting it and I see I see four does. And I'm like, dude, this is insane. I was back here screaming this dude's name. And I see four does and I see a buck, about a little basket rack six point chase him off. I'm like, okay, maybe maybe this is a good spot to hunt right now, even though I just got done screaming. And um anyway, so that night, uh that evening I saw more deer. But I forgot to tell you this, we had a trail camera on that spot, and there was a few decent bucks, little tall seven-point younger deer, and uh a couple, a couple younger does and all this stuff. But then we had a good Cole Buck. It looked about maybe a three or four-year-old, maybe maybe three and a half. And um, it was a good Cole Buck. He had really good brow tines, had a good, good curl to his to his horns. He would have been, I think, a 12-point if he'd had his whole whole rack. Yeah, and so I'm like, man, I want to kill this buck. I nicknamed him coleslaw. I've never I've never named a buck before. I'm like, man, that guy's kind of fitting. So I named him coleslaw, and I'm like, man, I want to kill this deer. And so the next morning, after uh, you know, I get I get a picture of him on that stand. I'm like, dude, I didn't even think this dude was even around anymore. After me screaming like that, you think the older deer would leave? But he's there, he's eating corn, he's chasing doughs and all this. I'm like, man, I'm gonna hunt him in the morning. So I get in that stand on the way. I'm like, Lord, you can send me what you want to, but I would be so happy if I kill that cold buck. I would be so pumped if I kill that cold buck. So I get in the stand, it's really cold morning. I uh turn the buddy heater on, and it's cold, it's a good morning, and I fall asleep. I don't I don't like to admit it. Sometimes I get drowsy. It's like I wake up well before daylight and I go to sleep before daylight. Well, I woke up about crack of daylight, and I'm like, well, I guess I'll give out a few little grunts, and I go brr. Just two little grunts. That's all I did. Dude, it wasn't even a full minute that went by. I hear steps. I'm like, it could be a dough that you know piqued a curiosity, but that might be a buck. And I hear it off to my right, and it's coming, and dude, it's that cold buck. And I'm like, there's no way that's that cold buck. I'm gonna start shaking, and I'm like, no, I gotta calm down, I gotta calm down, I gotta kill this deer, I gotta kill this deer. And so he's he's his head's on swivel. He is ticked, he's mad, he's looking for whatever buck just running at him, and he walks out, and so the the way the lanes are set, there's one lane here, one lane here, two lanes at an angle, and one lane out front. Well, there's also a bunch of thin trees out along it, so it's really kind of open. So I see which way he's gonna go. There's a trail that cuts across a pipe feeder my dad made with PVC pipe. There's a trail that goes through there, and he's going along that trail looking for that buck that that I just you know made that noise. And his head's on a swivel, he's looking, he's walking, and I'm like, I'm gonna stop him with a grunt because if you whistle at him, sometimes they might run off or whatever. So I grunt at him. I've got my grunt tube up on my arm, and I go, and I get my gun up in the socks, he stops perfectly broadside. He could not have been more broadside, and I shoot and he runs off, and I shake like crazy. I mean, I'm shaking like a leaf in 60 mile hour wind. I am so pumped. And first person I always call, always text is my dad. Always call my dad first. And my dad is he hears my phone ringing, he's like, I bet you Colton killed that cold buck. And I answer, I said, Daddy, I just killed that cold buck. He's like, No, you didn't, no, you didn't. I'm like, Daddy, I promise you, I had him right beside right behind the shoulder. I pull the trigger. I'm pretty sure I saw blood score out. I'm almost positive that dude's dead right now. He said, Okay, what I want you to do is wait a few minutes, just wait maybe 10 minutes, and just go go blood trail him. And I I wait, I wait 10 minutes, I get out, I bring my gun just in case he's not dead, and I go blood trailing him. Well, there's not a not a lot of blood, but it's good blood. It's pink blood, there's bubbles in it, it's good blood. And I call my dad, I'm just there's bad service back there, so it's kind of bits and pieces, but I tell him there's good blood. And he says, Okay, just keep just go to the next blood, go to the next blood, just you'll find your deer if you just keep doing that. And I've trailed, you know, I've trailed blood trail deer before, but my dad's the type of person, he'll just he'll he'll tell you like you've never done it before, but I just listened to right, yeah. And uh, so I just I do it, I blood trail him, and I call my dad joking with him. I said, Daddy, I don't think I'm gonna find this deer. He said, What do you mean? I'm like, I just don't think I'm gonna find him. I'm like, I'm just kidding, he's right here. I found this dude piled up on the bank of the on the bank of a dried up creek, and I got him right here.

SPEAKER_01 52:45

Yeah, let's see this guy.

SPEAKER_00 52:47

It's a really, really nice one.

SPEAKER_01 52:49

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 52:50

He's got good brow tons.

SPEAKER_01 52:52

I think five on one side, and that looks like a blade on the brow.

SPEAKER_00 52:55

Yeah, I was about to say we could have called him blade. He he would have been a stud. Dude, I'm thinking what happened on this side is kind of rounded off if you can see that. Yeah, I can I'm I'm thinking he might have broke off in velvet. I don't know how that could happen, but I don't think he was like a legitimate call buck. So I was a fraction of me was upset that I shot the deer because I knew he would have been bigger next year. But the most of me was pumped that I killed that deer. Absolutely. That's a good deal. And I've I've never killed a deer that I've seen on camera before, and I was man, I'm okay. I know you're probably getting a little bit tired and everything, but I kind of wanted to tell you you mentioned tell my testimony if I could.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

And so what I'm leaving this with is I'm just thankful to be here, man. I'm thankful to be alive, thankful that God's blessed me to be here. And so I'm gonna tell this little quick story. I'm probably not gonna get all the details right. So I was born about I think two or two or I think probably two months early. Because my and the only reason they pulled me out early is because my mom had preclampsia and stuff. They thought she was gonna die from that. So they they pulled me out early, and apparently, apparently my stomach or my um the wall of my of my belly had not closed all the way. I was early, very, very early. And so I'm trying to remember how much. I think it was I can't remember. The majority of my small intestines were just floating around in the womb, and they got kinked up and they just were floating dead in the womb. And man, the doctors didn't give me much hope, man. They had them they had a meeting that they called, and they said, So we got two options for you. One is we can send them to Nebraska, see what they can do with him there, and two, you can take him home, make him comfortable, and just let let nature take its course. And my grandpa, my mom's mom, mom, mom's dad did not give them a chance to even say another word. He said, No, there's no way. If there's a chance, we're we're taking him to Nebraska. I don't care if we got to take him to Canada. I don't even know if he said that. I'm just trying to get the point across. He that they they wanted, I was their firstborn, firstborn child. They they want to do anything they could to save me. Wow, and man, I went to Nebraska, I lived there for four years. They didn't give me much hope, man. I just when I when I go in the deer woods, man, I'm looking at the sunrise, I'm looking at the squirrels and everything, and I'm like, man, God, you're good. I should not be here, I shouldn't even be alive, and you're let I shouldn't be in my right mind, I shouldn't have all my fingers on my toes, but man, I'm out here hunting, killing deer, and I'm like, man, God, you are so good. And it's just I'm just thankful to be here. It is such a blessing.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

Oh, cool. Yeah, man, great. Thanks for sharing that. That hits me hard in a lot of ways. Um, yeah. A lot of people, they don't recognize um how fragile life is. And I I mean, my you probably heard about my my cold truck accident and that whole situation on the streets. You know, it just I'm so grateful that that happened in some ways because it's like you there's no way to really recognize just how grateful you are. And that that was my first feeling. Like after I came out of it, I mean there was pain, there's things I had to deal with, but at the end of the day, I was like, I'm still alive and I shouldn't be because that that car looked awful, and you know, and it's just and and I also think about my daughter, it's the same thing. You know, we were blessed with five years with her, and she wasn't supposed to live that long, and it's just like while some people think that that's a sad story, in my mind, it's like some of the best years of my life were we're taking care of her, watching her do amazing things. So man, I I love that. I I think, man, so many people live their lives and they just they complain, they're bitter, they're angry, and they just don't recognize the the gifts that we have. Just another day is a gift, and like don't like my job, I don't like this, or whatever, and yeah, there's things that are tough, but man, a lot of life is really, really good, and we need to recognize that.

SPEAKER_00 57:17

So I feel like I completely agree with you, yes, sir. Yeah, and for for me, it's not just not just that I'm alive, you know. Some people can say, I'm alive, but I've got this wrong with me, I've got limbs missing, I've got all this. I was born completely whole, minus this minor stuff in my in my in my intestines and all that. Born whole, born in my right mind. I can play basketball some, I've got friends, I go to church. Man, it's just I've I'm able to do things, and that's just the way I look at it. Every sometimes I would get upset. My dad would encourage me, say, son, you could it could be way worse. You could be like some of those kids are in those mental mental institutes that don't even really know what's going on, you know. And I'm just he's really helped me with that, he's given me a lot of encouragement, and I'm just ever every time I pray, and I try to thank God every time, but I thank God every breath that you give me is another blessing. Every breath I take in is just another blessing. It's awesome. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 58:21

I love that. I love that. You're 18?

SPEAKER_00 58:24

18 years old, turning 19 in May.

SPEAKER_01 58:26

Nice. Well, I think you got a bright future ahead of you, man. I mean, you are uh fun to talk to. I enjoyed the stories, and uh love your story, man. I think that's a great way for people to look at things. So Colton, definitely uh hit us back up. You know, I want to have you back on sometime. We'll get some more stories over the next few years. And uh cuss, brother. I appreciate you giving us some time tonight.

SPEAKER_00 58:48

Thank you for inviting me. I appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_01 58:54

Man, I love having Colton on. Um just super impressed with him and just his heart, not only for hunting and just his uh the fun that he's had in the woods, but also um his heart for the Lord. Um sharing that at the end, that had me tearing up and um just super glad to have him on. Uh a verse that kind of came to mind, and I will we'll wrap up with this. Lamentations 3, 22, and 23 says, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. When we think about God's mercies, God's love for us, it never ends, and it's new every morning. And I just think like Colton's trying to live with that type of attitude, and man, I so appreciate that about him because it's so easy to get bitter and frustrated, and when things go hard in life, it's easy to take a route where you're just kind of being negative. And Colton's trying his best to live in a positive way. Whenever he's going into the woods, he says a prayer thanking the Lord for what he's got. And um, I think that's that's tremendous, tremendous. So hats off to him, and I'd encourage us all to try and remember that. It's easy to let life knock you down and get to the point where you're just frustrated and mad all the time. I made a post recently on my own Facebook about how you know we just need to chill out, and um everybody should be slow to speak, slow to anger, quick to listen, and um just uh take time because man, uh life is short, and I don't want to spend it just staring at my screen, being mad at the world. I want to I want to be appreciative of what God has given me. Guys, I want to say thank you. Uh thank you from the bottom of my heart for coming back for another episode. Hope that you enjoyed this one. I hope that you will come back again until next time. Remember to shut the light.