KHC 212 - B.C. Stone Sheep Hunt Recap

Join Cam and James for a conversation about Cam’s recent Stone Sheep Hunt in British Columbia. They’ll cover troubles in traveling, the kill shot, hardships of hunting the mountains for 15 days and how it’s changed their faith, and more! Follow along: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cameronrhanes Twitter: https://twitter.com/cameronhanes Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camhanes/ Website: https://www.cameronhanes.com Timestamps: 00:00:00 – A Rough Start to the Hunt: Travel & Hiking 00:13:41 – Week 1: 10 Sheep, Mosquitos from Hell, & 00:21:22 – Day 7: 32 Yards from a 9 Year Old Ram 00:27:14 – The Colosseum: Back to Square One 00:35:54 – Kurt’s Faith & Certainty 00:39:38 – Day 15: The 59 Yard Kill Shot 00:45:55 – Sacrifice, Precision Planning, & Unknown Problems During Hunting 00:53:37 – The Old Man and the Sea 00:58:06 – Fred Bear Country & the Fellowship of the Hunt 01:59:03 – More Than Just a Hunt & Getting Baptized 01:06:04 – James’ Predictions on the Hunt 01:11:11 – Messages From Home 01:13:34 – Championing Hunt Stories for Future Generations 01:14:55 – Comparing Worth vs Success 01:18:22 – Remembering Roy Roth 01:22:59 – James’s Effort and Dedication to his Work & Fitness 01:27:19 – Final Thoughts & Shoutout to Reg Collingwood Thank you to our sponsors: Black Rifle Coffee: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Use code KEEPHAMMERING for 10% your order Montana Knife Company: https://www.montanaknifecompany.com/ Use code CAM for 10% off LMNT: Visit https://drinklmnt.com/cam for a free sample pack with any purchase Sig Sauer: https://www.sigsauer.com/ use code CAM10 for 10% off optics MTN OPS Supplements: https://mtnops.com/ Use code CAM for 20% off & Free Shipping ALP: https://alppouch.com/ use code CAM for 10% off your first order

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:15Cameron Hanes?

  So this is the Northern BC Stone Sheep, Archery Stone Sheep recap.

• 0:23Speaker 01

  The much anticipated.

• 0:25Cameron Hanes?

  How about that?

• 0:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's good.

• 0:27Cameron Hanes?

  So that's where we're at. Um, here's what I found out. Hunting stone sheep with the bow.

• 0:37Cameron Hanes?

  Turns out it's pretty hard.

• 0:42Speaker 01

  Not quite as easy as we thought it was gonna be.

• 0:44Cameron Hanes?

  Oh my goodness. Uh, yeah. I mean, and props to Kurt. Kurt McGee, the most positive, uh, just nicest, which I guess he hasn't always been, but as far as what we know, he's nicest, most positive, but a little delusional, I will say, because how it started off, which is fine. I like to be delusional too. And uh, it's, it's better to be delusional than like a pessimistic dumb fuck.

• 1:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22Cameron Hanes?

  But he did set me up for failure because he said, Stone Sheep day one, Rocky Mountain goat day two, wolf day three. And so I'm like, this place must be fricking tits. It's like the normal, must be like the normal high fence places I go.

• 1:41Speaker 01

  Hunting in a zoo.

• 1:44Cameron Hanes?

  So just kidding. That's, I, I don't hunt high fence. So that was, that was a joke. I know the people that, some people listen to this aren't really hunters or don't really get the hunting lingo. And they might think that, oh, you kill all these big bulls or all this stuff because it's a high fence place, or some people maybe not even heard of it. Doesn't matter. I would never hunt, I would never kill an elk or any of this stuff in a high fence. Um, fair chase, wild, big game is all I ever hunt. That said,

• 2:15Cameron Hanes?

  this sheep hunt was the next level of wild fair chase. How about that?

• 2:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, I don't think there was a fence within

• 2:27Speaker 01

  100 miles. And I'm talking about not a high fence. I'm talking about a

• 2:31Cameron Hanes?

  Any fence?

• 2:31Speaker 01

  A shitty old trapper fence from

• 2:35Cameron Hanes?

  Probably more, probably more than a, I mean, unless it was like one of the hunting camps.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:41Cameron Hanes?

  That had horses.

• 2:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, like a horse, like a

• 2:42Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, like a corral.

• 2:44Speaker 01

  Electric fence or a corral. Yeah.

• 2:45Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. But other than that, no, there's not shit out there. Just wild, rough country.

• 2:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:52Cameron Hanes?

  And lots of it.

• 2:54Speaker 01

  I mean,

• 2:57Speaker 01

  standing up on one of those peaks and looking out at the expanse was like,

• 3:00Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 3:01Speaker 01

  I mean, the amount of country back there is ridiculous.

• 3:06Cameron Hanes?

  And, and also you, you'd think like, if you could see mountain after mountain after mountain, you'd be like, man, we should build a glass sheep on all these.

• 3:15Speaker 01

  Is that what it was? Is that what happened?

• 3:18Cameron Hanes?

  It is tough to find sheep.

• 3:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:20Cameron Hanes?

  I mean, so yeah, it's a lot of country, um, a lot of big country. And there are sheep, but man, you gotta work.

• 3:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:31Cameron Hanes?

  Dude, you gotta work so hard. And like, it was, it was probably three or four times harder than I thought it was gonna be. And I thought it was gonna be hard.

• 3:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:44Cameron Hanes?

  But it was brutal.

• 3:45Speaker 01

  It was brutal.

• 3:46Cameron Hanes?

  So it was like such a wake up call. We'll just start it off like first, even to get out. So it was like flying to Smithers, you know?

• 3:56Speaker 01

  Three flights.

• 3:57Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. I mean, that was, lost my bow, but whatever. Um, took two bows just in case. Then a long ass drive. I don't want to say how far because people are gonna get their, their protractor out to figure where we are. Uh, long ass drive to get to another bush plane, which we got weather in for opening day. So it was delayed. Um, and this is not delayed like, oh, flight two, six, four, four is delayed? No, this is just like, you look outside, it's pouring rain and the float plane's not going.

• 4:29Speaker 01

  I mean, it was more than that because it was like, we took off and then we hit that wall of clouds and we were like, yeah, not happening.

• 4:37Cameron Hanes?

  Turned around, came back, uh, hung out and, um, waited till the next day.

• 4:45Cameron Hanes?

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• 5:28Cameron Hanes?

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• 6:10Cameron Hanes?

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• 6:49Cameron Hanes?

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• 7:13Speaker 01

  Oh, but before that, it turned out, and this is what was interesting. There was a bunch of things about this hunt along the way like this, but you had told a story before this happened about it was the, it's the old Chinese proverb of the man.

• 7:28Cameron Hanes?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The blessing.

• 7:29Speaker 01

  The blessing.

• 7:30Cameron Hanes?

  Is it blessing or curse?

• 7:31Speaker 01

  Yeah. I can't call it.

• 7:32Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 7:33Speaker 01

  And so we had to turn around. Our flight came back in. We couldn't go in and it turned out to be a blessing.

• 7:38Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 7:38Speaker 01

  Because Kurt, his throat swelled shut in camp and he had to rush to the emergency room.

• 7:44Cameron Hanes?

  He could not swallow. So he had to put his head back and could not swallow and his throat was getting smaller or like inside his throat, like where his tonsils are, was, I don't know what was gonna happen. So basically it was gonna be, if we would've got out on schedule, if that weather would've been there, we would've been packed in, in the middle of nowhere, and the plane couldn't come because then the weather came. With his throat, so I'm like, I had accepted the fact that I would've had to do a tracheotomy.

• 8:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:17Cameron Hanes?

  And I don't know shit about anything. Shit about Shinola. So, but that's what it was gonna be because if he couldn't breathe or swallow, and that airway gets, you gotta open the airway somehow. Anyway, took him, Wes took him to two in the morning to this little, um, medical facility and they were able to lance whatever was in there and he was fine.

• 8:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, I remember he was sitting on his cot and he's like, oh, we got a problem. And then he's like, could someone look in here? And I went over there to look, turned on my flashlight and I was expecting just like something kind of red and irritated in the back of his throat.

• 8:54Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 8:56Speaker 01

  It was bad.

• 8:56Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  And I didn't, I tried not to react so I didn't freak him out, but like, there was only a tiny little hole in the back of his throat for air to go by.

• 9:04Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 9:04Speaker 01

  It was like

• 9:05Cameron Hanes?

  Not looking good.

• 9:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, you might want to go to the emergency room. So.

• 9:09Cameron Hanes?

  So that was, so the Chinese proverb is, um, I told the story about like, uh, all these horses ran down to this Chinese, Chinese, uh, farm in China, I guess. And, um, I think the villagers or somebody there at the farm said, oh man, look at these horses. You got free horses. What a blessing. The, the Chinese farmer said, maybe, maybe it's a blessing, maybe it's cursed, don't know. Um, then his son is riding on the horse, falls off the horse, breaks his leg. And then somebody says, man, these horses are a curse. Your son broke his leg and you know, isn't that terrible? And he's like, well, I don't know, maybe it's a blessing, maybe cursed, don't

• 9:48Cameron Hanes?

  know. Then the army came, they needed, they wanted his son to go fight in the war, but he had a broken leg. So it turned out the broken leg was actually a blessing because he didn't have to go off to war. So it's how you look at these things, like in the moment, you don't know, is this a blessing or a curse? So we wanted to get out, we couldn't get out. It was a blessing because it would've been very bad for Kurt and for us to try to deal with that and for, try to take care of him. I don't know what would've happened, but so it turned out it was a blessing.

• 10:16Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 10:18Cameron Hanes?

  Then we finally did get out and the pack in was not a blessing.

• 10:26Speaker 01

  Quick little five K.

• 10:27Cameron Hanes?

  Oh, yeah. So that was another, I think Kurt told us is going to be three miles.

• 10:32Speaker 01

  Right. We had to have a discussion, a little pow wow, family pow wow to all get on the same page of how we are measuring distances.

• 10:40Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 10:40Speaker 01

  Is it as a crow flies or is it actual on the boot or boots on the ground?

• 10:44Cameron Hanes?

  Right.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  Walking. So.

• 10:46Cameron Hanes?

  Cause maybe as a crow flies, it was.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  It was still wrong, but it was closer.

• 10:52Cameron Hanes?

  Right. It was probably like six miles as a, but walking the way we walked, I don't even know how many it was.

• 11:00Speaker 01

  I think we, we had 10 at the end of the day. So maybe nine.

• 11:05Cameron Hanes?

  And we were soaked and beat to shit.

• 11:08Speaker 01

  How was that walking?

• 11:09Cameron Hanes?

  And your heel was, had a hole in it already.

• 11:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. So we get there and first of all, every step you take in this country is like, there's not one single footstep. That's like, that is solid.

• 11:25Cameron Hanes?

  Money. No, no. Like every step you take here, like in town, there's not one like that.

• 11:32Speaker 01

  No.

• 11:32Cameron Hanes?

  It's like slipping tundra, like soaking up all your strength and, and step, high stepping, or tearing through brush, brush, just ripping at your packs and your, my bow and just tearing it stuff the entire way. Because there's no trail. So for 10 miles where it's just resistance and friction the whole time. And also then we had, I don't know, seven, how?

• 12:01Speaker 01

  14 creek crossings.

• 12:03Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, but 70 pounds probably. I mean, Kurt probably had a hundred and some. We had 70, maybe, I don't know about 80. But anyway, for 10 miles going up, packing your whole camp. Yeah.

• 12:17Speaker 01

  I bet realistically, my pack was somewhere in the sixties poundage wise.

• 12:22Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 12:22Speaker 01

  I mean, maybe low, like 61 or 60. Usually you're like, oh, my pack was a hundred pounds.

• 12:27Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 12:27Speaker 01

  You weigh it and it's like 30. But it was rough. And yeah, I opened up the back of my right heel in the first.

• 12:36Cameron Hanes?

  Five minutes.

• 12:37Speaker 01

  Two miles, maybe.

• 12:40Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 12:41Speaker 01

  It was bad. It was bad news.

• 12:43Cameron Hanes?

  It was rough. And, uh, yeah. So, but we were excited.

• 12:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:47Cameron Hanes?

  So we got up there, you know, fell in the creek a million times. Cause that, the, the, uh, rocks get, I don't even know what the, what the product they put on those rocks to make it so slippery. But God, we would ask over T kettle a number of times.

• 13:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:08Cameron Hanes?

  Kurt caught you by your underwear.

• 13:13Speaker 01

  And ripped me across the creek.

• 13:16Cameron Hanes?

  So yeah, just a disclaimer, Kurt is like a monster of a human. I don't know. I think he, I told him, I said, if you ever lifted weights, you maybe could have been an Olympic weightlifter.

• 13:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:25Cameron Hanes?

  Cause he is so strong.

• 13:27Speaker 01

  Yeah. He's just a beast.

• 13:28Cameron Hanes?

  Freak.

• 13:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:29Cameron Hanes?

  And, uh, and just, yeah, it's just so tough. But, uh, so that's the, the, kind of the side story. Uh, we get up there and here's the first week. We ran every ridge, every finger, every rim rock, every, everywhere, every inch looking for sheep. Saw 10 sheep in a week, covered 50 some miles, all with weight.

• 14:03Cameron Hanes?

  And, uh, there's only two young rams.

• 14:05Speaker 01

  And we saw those 10 sheep a couple of different times.

• 14:08Cameron Hanes?

  About five times.

• 14:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:10Cameron Hanes?

  Miles apart.

• 14:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:12Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. So they were, our, the theory was, and I don't, I'm trusting Kurt on this, but is that there was no older rams in there to kind of set the tone or like show this, like where they're supposed to be feeding. Uh, it's one, one key aspect to why you need old, old animals back there. And, and old rams, I think just kind of set the tone. And it's just like a, a sense of structure.

• 14:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:38Cameron Hanes?

  It feels like for those, you know, eight, nine, 10 year old rams. And without that, it seemed like the, uh, they were kind of lost, the sheep. But anyway, point is we covered a lot of country, um, had pretty much every mosquito in the universe on this range with us. So we were able to share a lot of time with them.

• 15:03Speaker 01

  Yeah. Here's the thing, you're grinding. So, okay. If the hiking isn't bad enough, you, you know, you're going to sit down and take a break. You can't because you sit down and you are pummeled by thousands, tens of thousands of mosquitoes.

• 15:18Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 15:19Speaker 01

  It was heinous. It was so bad. I, at first, like when we were hiking up, I was like, I think I'll, I'm going to go crazy.

• 15:28Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 15:29Speaker 01

  I mean relentless.

• 15:31Cameron Hanes?

  It's tough.

• 15:31Speaker 01

  I know you said you've had one hunt where they've been worse, but for me that was as bad as I've ever seen them.

• 15:37Cameron Hanes?

  That was, uh, me and Roy did a float trip up above, like kind of Prudhoe Bay, way the hell up there on the haul road. But we did a four mile, 40 mile float for Caribou and dude, worst mosquitoes. I mean, they were terrible where we were just in BC. But it was, I, I know, I, I told you this, I said, I know you probably won't believe this, but I've seen it worse. And it's, it's, it's maddening. But, uh, where you gotta like dive in your tent underneath as fast as you can, close it.

• 16:10Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. Those things are just, they will, yeah, they're obsessed.

• 16:15Speaker 01

  Yeah. Um, but yeah, so like you said, we spent that first week, I think, like you said, covered 50 miles, if not more.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  And it was frustrating.

• 16:27Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 16:27Speaker 01

  It was really hard to, to stay optimistic. And that's, I mean, Kurt, of course, never wavered in that.

• 16:35Cameron Hanes?

  No.

• 16:35Speaker 01

  First week was just like, yeah, it's going to happen. We're going to find them. And we looked, it seemed like in that range, you know, we won't be able to show this, but we get back to the lake and it was like, you look up and we had stood on top of every single point. And then some that you couldn't even see. And it was like, we looked at it all.

• 16:54Cameron Hanes?

  We covered that entire range.

• 16:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:57Cameron Hanes?

  And, um, so that, but that's, you know, I have talked to people about stone sheep hunting since we've been back. And I told them, you know, we were there three weeks and it took me 15 days to get a shot. And a lot of them said, that's not too bad. So, I mean, and Kurt was kind of saying that, that first week where we weren't seeing the shooter. He was just like, hey, this is just kind of a normal stone sheep hunt. I mean, there are, there are hunts where, um, and we weren't on one like this, but where you'll see more rams.

• 17:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:30Cameron Hanes?

  And there'd be like three different bands of rams, maybe on one stretch, like we hunted that entire week. And you could pick through them and they're, they might be like a hundred and 40 inch, maybe a hundred and 50 inch. Kind of a class down from, we were wanting something very special, old, big ram. And if, a lot of times if you're going after a ram like that, they will be off away from like the big numbers, kind of doing their own thing. Those old rams, they know how to stay alive. Um, and so they're kind of loners. And, uh, so we knew that we weren't going to see the big numbers, but maybe we could find a diamond in the rough.

• 18:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:12Cameron Hanes?

  And we rolled the dice there. It was, I mean, we could have easily found like a 12 or 13, not easily found, but potentially found a 12 or 13 year old ram. And maybe it would have been close to world, who knows?

• 18:23Speaker 01

  Right.

• 18:23Cameron Hanes?

  I mean, that, that's like the, the dream is like, you don't know what you're going to find. You're taking a shot. And we gave it our best and they, there wasn't one there.

• 18:33Speaker 01

  No.

• 18:34Cameron Hanes?

  So we were like, well, let's, uh, head over to the next range over. And so that's what we did. And, uh, kind of retooled, packed all, that packing out was, you'd think it would be easier. But when we were going to go to the next range, we had to pack our whole camp all the way out and down. And you'd think downhill, oh, this is going to be nice. Brutal.

• 18:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. And for those of you that don't know, it turns out hiking a bunch of miles every day with weight still, actually isn't good for healing a blister.

• 19:08Cameron Hanes?

  What?

• 19:09Speaker 01

  In fact, it actually might open up one on your other foot.

• 19:12Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 19:12Speaker 01

  So, yeah, that was, I, uh, deserved two purple hearts for that.

• 19:18Speaker 01

  But yeah, so we decided to move.

• 19:21Cameron Hanes?

  You're a damn hero.

• 19:22Speaker 01

  Thank you. Thank you.

• 19:23Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, so we decided to head over to the next range over and that was, uh, we're still on the lake, but um, we could not pack up to where I, I think it was foggy and cloudy and rainy that first. So we, we set up the tent, set up the stove and thought we'd, we thought we were gonna have to wait it out till Wednesday. Do you remember that?

• 19:46Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 19:47Cameron Hanes?

  It was gonna be like four days before we got weather and we're gonna be like, we're gonna be stuck here till Wednesday.

• 19:52Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 19:52Cameron Hanes?

  And this was, I don't know what this was, Saturday or something.

• 19:55Speaker 01

  Saturday night.

• 19:55Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. Um, but turns out like, I think right, maybe it was, I mean, you saw the ram.

• 20:03Speaker 01

  Right when we got there, there was a small little break in the clock. Yeah. And I decided to sit down and just look and.

• 20:08Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. Looked through the spotting scope and you're like, I see a sheep. And like, we hadn't seen a big ram for a week.

• 20:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:15Cameron Hanes?

  Right? We've been looking and first time you sat down, I mean, obviously it's way up there from the lake, but we had a target.

• 20:21Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. I remember you were like, no, you don't.

• 20:25Cameron Hanes?

  That was sick, dude. And then we got some good phone scope.

• 20:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. And the spirits, the, the energy just changed so quick. It was like, everybody was fresh again and we were just, we were ready to go.

• 20:37Cameron Hanes?

  I know.

• 20:38Speaker 01

  But.

• 20:38Cameron Hanes?

  Um, and then the weather ended up breaking. So I think we, did we go up the next morning?

• 20:44Speaker 01

  No, we waited one full day.

• 20:45Cameron Hanes?

  One day.

• 20:46Speaker 01

  Yep. We, so we waited all of Sunday.

• 20:48Cameron Hanes?

  Okay.

• 20:48Speaker 01

  And then the weather broke. Monday we went out.

• 20:51Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. So we, we just wanted to get up there and even if we got wet going up, we wanted to get camp set up up there to where on, we're on the map, up on the sheep mountain. Cause it's, it's hours to get from the lake. Any, well, what we'd say is anytime we were gonna go anywhere, like if you just looked like across a little thing and said, oh, I want to get to that ridge. Three hours and it might, it might look like it's 400 yards away.

• 21:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:17Cameron Hanes?

  It's gonna take you three hours. This country is huge and rugged and unforgiving, but uh, so we took off and it took hours and hours and hours, but we could see as we went around kinda, we're trying to get the wind right, trying to see what, what the sheep were doing, but we could see those rams the whole time. And so we were, we were pumped. We ended up circling all the way around, all the way to the backside and came up on top. And then that first pack up, which hardly ever happens, cause it's so far, we were hunting that night.

• 21:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:50Cameron Hanes?

  And uh, should have had them killed.

• 21:54Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, we got caught in a rainstorm right there, pitched the tent quickly, but then that storm broke. And that was kind of the, that was kind of the story the whole time is the afternoon, a weather system would move in.

• 22:04Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 22:05Speaker 01

  And the temperature would drop by 15 degrees and you'd get soaked. Right? When everything was getting dry, you'd get soaked.

• 22:10Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 22:11Speaker 01

  But, and we had that break and we decided to try and take advantage of it.

• 22:14Cameron Hanes?

  Hmm.

• 22:16Speaker 01

  Yeah. Had it, had a small little chance.

• 22:18Cameron Hanes?

  Oh man, I was like, we're sitting there watching the rams and uh, you know, Kurt, we kinda waited and Kurt was sneaking around and he's like, oh, he saw him. And so then I went and I was like, okay, let me check out what it looks like. I looked and I said, I said, dude, I said, I can be down almost in bow range in five minutes.

• 22:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:40Cameron Hanes?

  I said, I, I can use this contour of this country right here and I can be right there, right where they're gonna come out in five minutes. And so you went up with Kurt to, to film up from up high with the spotting scope. Wes went with me, Wes Yoder, uh, I don't think introduced him on this, but he's a, a friend from Colorado that we've hunted together and killed bulls and stuff and in Colorado. So, um, he was also running a camera. So he went with me down there and I was just like smiling. We get down there and I'm just like, how, this is like so sick. You know, this is day seven or eight of the hunt so far. And uh, here comes this big ram and like the two big rams.

• 23:24Cameron Hanes?

  One was nine, the one I wanted, uh, or the only one I was gonna hunt. And then the other one was eight. So I wasn't gonna hunt the eight year old. Um, cause the thought was that the nine year old, at that age, there's a, there's a chance they might not survive the winter.

• 23:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:42Cameron Hanes?

  And so if, if I would kill the eight year old, the nine year old doesn't survive the winter, then again, just like that other place, there's no old ram to, to structure.

• 23:52Speaker 01

  Right.

• 23:52Cameron Hanes?

  The behavior. So I'm like, okay, it's gotta be the nine year old. That's gotta be what's good for these sheep here. Gotta go after the old one only. But they were with a five year old too. And the five year old was sort of serving sentry up there on the rock. But I wasn't too worried about it because the old rams got up, started heading right to me. Wind was going up. It was perfect. And uh, I kinda scurried down and Wes was in tow and I got down to this little knob and I'm like, I could see the five year old and I'm like, these giant rams are right here, right over this knob. And so I looked, tried to go to the left and look and I'm like, no, not there. And I went to the right and, and I'm like,

• 24:35Cameron Hanes?

  there he was, the giant nine year old. And I range 32 yards. I'm like, oh my God, this is a slam dunk. So I come back, I put my, turned my, my dial to 32 and I look up and that five year old's looking at me do this. But the, the old rams can't see me because I'm behind the knob. The five year old was a little higher on the hill and I kinda like ranged quick, but I was so focused on the old ram. And I came back and I didn't really tuck in like I needed to. I, I don't even know. I thought I could just, I thought these sheep would give me a little more time, but not at 32 yards.

• 25:14Speaker 01

  Right.

• 25:15Cameron Hanes?

  Not above them looking down. They don't like that. That's so close. And so by the time I, I'd got my, uh, my dial dialed to 32 and got my release on, started to come to full draw. That five year old was stomped and was looking at me and took off and took the, the big rams. And I'm just like,

• 25:36Cameron Hanes?

  I, I mean, being 32 yards from, you know, a giant stone sheep does not happen very often. And it is so hard to make it happen. And I screwed it up.

• 25:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. I was looking and you know, through, through my camera and I saw you, after they busted, I saw you obviously upset and I looked at Kurt and I said, did they just bust him? And he goes, no, I think a, a whistle dog just got him. And I said, oh, okay. And then Kurt's, you know, in his binos and he looks and he's like, they busted him. And then Kurt does not cuss.

• 26:13Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 26:13Speaker 01

  But he just goes shit, shit, shit. And then runs up. He's like, I gotta go see where they're going.

• 26:17Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 26:18Speaker 01

  And I was like, if Kurt's cussing, which shit isn't really a cuss word, but.

• 26:22Cameron Hanes?

  Right.

• 26:23Speaker 01

  It's not good.

• 26:24Cameron Hanes?

  Mm-mm.

• 26:25Speaker 01

  And I was like, oh, man.

• 26:28Cameron Hanes?

  I don't think I realized how not good that was at the time, because that was my first stalk in this new, on this new, in this new country. And I'm like, oh, this is gonna be shit. There's rams everywhere.

• 26:41Speaker 01

  First stalk of the whole trip.

• 26:42Cameron Hanes?

  Got 32 yards on my first stalk. I can get, I can get close to these animals. I know how to get close to, you know, I'm, I've been bow hunting a long time. And I usually judge my bow hunts on how often I'm within bow range on animals. So my first one, I'm like, got right in. This can be not gravy, but I'm like, I'm, I'm confident. Well, that confident, confidence went by the wayside pretty quick.

• 27:10Cameron Hanes?

  Because yeah, they, those rams disappeared.

• 27:14Speaker 01

  Disappeared.

• 27:15Cameron Hanes?

  Hmm.

• 27:16Speaker 01

  Into nothing.

• 27:17Cameron Hanes?

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• 28:02Cameron Hanes?

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• 28:42Cameron Hanes?

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• 29:21Cameron Hanes?

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• 29:41Speaker 01

  Yeah. And we spent the next, was it three or four days?

• 29:45Cameron Hanes?

  I don't know, covering every inch of that country though.

• 29:47Speaker 01

  Right back to square one, like we were in the first range, looking for any little glimmer of hope.

• 29:56Speaker 01

  That we would find him.

• 29:56Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 29:57Speaker 01

  And we there so I don't think we ever saw the five year old again.

• 30:02Cameron Hanes?

  You took a picture of him.

• 30:04Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. But we, okay, so we saw him again, but then there was two other rams.

• 30:09Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, younger rams.

• 30:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, that had linked up and we spotted them a couple of times.

• 30:14Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 30:15Speaker 01

  So we knew we were doing something right.

• 30:18Cameron Hanes?

  We were in sheep still.

• 30:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:20Cameron Hanes?

  But we couldn't find where the big rams went.

• 30:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:23Cameron Hanes?

  We're like, because the big rams never knew I was there. It was only the five year old. So I'm like, if they never smelled me, never knew I, never saw me, how spooked could they be?

• 30:34Speaker 01

  Right.

• 30:35Cameron Hanes?

  Well, there's a reason they get old.

• 30:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:38Cameron Hanes?

  Because they went miles and it took days to find them. We looked at all this country, found these other sheep and we're just like, where the heck are these big rams? And um, we were gonna split up and check like really low to see if they just dropped down. And then Wes is gonna take a spotting scope. Right after we all split up, Wes had the spotting scope out and looked miles across this country and found the two big rams. They went all the way out to the ridge, all the way around and we're in this like inaccessible, like goat rock, so steep. It was like a stadium. You could not approach from anywhere. They're in the middle of that.

• 31:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, we called it the Coliseum.

• 31:18Cameron Hanes?

  The Coliseum, yeah.

• 31:19Speaker 01

  Which was a perfect name for it.

• 31:21Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 31:22Speaker 01

  And I mean, that, the, the evening that he actually spotted them was a good one because you again were, uh, what, what did you range that younger ram? Fifty six yards?

• 31:32Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 31:33Speaker 01

  They fed right down past it. That was awesome.

• 31:35Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, that was sick.

• 31:36Speaker 01

  I mean.

• 31:36Cameron Hanes?

  So we got great, great footage there. Um, young ram, just kind of cool interaction. We wouldn't have got that, um, if we wouldn't have been looking for those sheep. So it just worked out, but Wes found them. So then, okay, so we knew where they were. They're miles away. Now we had, you know, days to come up with a plan.

• 31:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:57Cameron Hanes?

  How are we gonna get within bow range? Cause again, this is, I only bow hunt. Uh, yes, you can use a rifle. Um, everyone does, but um, I wasn't. So to get within bow range is a whole nother set of challenges.

• 32:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:14Cameron Hanes?

  And we were looking and these sheep were, they knew they were safe where they were. Nobody could get to them. There's a lot of predators here, a lot of grizzlies up on every ridge. We saw, or we didn't see the grizzlies, we saw tracks, uh, wolves. Um, it's, you know, there's a lot of predators there. So they know how to stay alive. And where they were, we were trying to get tricky, get creative. Maybe we could come around here, drop down here. Maybe we could wait for them here, ambush them here. And I think the key to all of it was, um, and we tried to approach once and it was just too sketchy, so steep. And it was just like, somebody's gonna die. We could not get over there. And so we had to back out and then we just decided.

• 32:57Cameron Hanes?

  And again, I think, I think we talked about this on maybe Reg's podcast, but uh, uh, Wes brought it up. I think it was Wes that brought it up, but he said, what if, you know, our survival depended on killing that ram? And uh, because sometimes with hunting, you just kinda, oh, I can make something happen.

• 33:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:17Cameron Hanes?

  And you're just kinda like, you're overconfident in your ability and, and you're shortchanging the animal's ability to stay alive. And you're just like, oh, I can, oh yeah, I can sneak around here, stay in the shadows, drop down, bow range, smoke them. Well, there's usually a lot of little things you're missing when you make decisions like that. So we decided if our, if our survival depended on getting this ram killed, we're gonna make sure everything is perfect. So we analyzed and analyzed and sat and watched and watched and watched for hours to see what these rams are doing. Just to make sure our plan was bulletproof. We weren't gonna go in there and blow them out again because it took us four days to find them.

• 34:00Cameron Hanes?

  So who knows where they'd go the next time? To more nasty country and, you know, maybe we couldn't even get there. Um, so finally, the rams were kinda coming back to where I had spooked them. They wanted to, after four or five days, they're kinda working back that way. And then they're, then we're like, man, they're gonna be right back in our country. We gotta be careful when we get up in the morning so we don't just stumble out of the tent, spook them.

• 34:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:30Cameron Hanes?

  And uh, turns out finally on day fifteen, uh, they were probably within rifle range of the tent.

• 34:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, we, we opened up the, the fly or the, the tent door and.

• 34:43Cameron Hanes?

  The curtains?

• 34:45Speaker 01

  Kurt steps out there and.

• 34:46Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 34:47Speaker 01

  There they were.

• 34:48Cameron Hanes?

  No, he didn't step out. He looked out. You don't step out. Didn't he just, didn't he just look with the spotting scope out or did he step?

• 34:55Speaker 01

  No, at first he was sitting outside the tent.

• 34:57Cameron Hanes?

  Oh.

• 34:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, cause Wes was out there piss, pissing.

• 35:00Cameron Hanes?

  Hmm. Yeah. And so they're up on the hill kinda working our way. And so we hid in the tent cause we're like, God, are they gonna see this tent? Well, they can't see us walking around. Anyway, they, they started to head back to like this, the safety of the Coliseum. But they stopped short. So we're like, okay, we don't think they're gonna go all the way back. Cause that was miles back. So we thought they'd backtrack a little bit. And once they disappeared, we went up on the ridge, um, slowly started easing that way. You had dry heaves.

• 35:38Speaker 01

  Too much fudge sludge.

• 35:40Cameron Hanes?

  And, and yeah, God, that was nasty. So rich that fricking whatever that meal was.

• 35:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:47Cameron Hanes?

  Chocolate on chocolate, mud pie, mud pie in your shorts. Um, yeah, so uh, we get up there and I, I can't explain, I mean, the film will show this, but before we took off in the morning, I still can't get over this, but um, Kurt's faith is like so strong. His, he's such, and so is Wes, just the strongest, most faithful Christians and just good people. But we did a lot of praying. We did a lot of, read a lot of James.

• 36:23Speaker 01

  Um, John.

• 36:24Cameron Hanes?

  John in the Bible. Yeah, like uh, ten or eleven chapters of John, didn't we? Um, so it, it was incredible. But that morning before we took off, once the sheep kinda disappeared, we said a prayer or Kurt said a prayer and he said something in the prayer that was different. Cause all the other prayers, it was just like, you know, if it's your will, Lord. Um, you know, we pray the arrow flies true. You know, if it's not, we, we hope to learn the lessons that you're part on this type thing, you know? Not, just not assuming that it's all coming down to like, oh, if we, if we're good Christians and we pray for success, we'll have it.

• 37:06Speaker 01

  Right.

• 37:06Cameron Hanes?

  And that's not how it works. So we didn't, we weren't doing that. We were just want, we just wanted to do our best, right? We're not trying to, if we're not supposed to kill, then we're not supposed to kill. But that morning Kurt said a prayer and he said something like, uh, I wanna, something like, how did he word it? Like?

• 37:31Speaker 01

  He said, he had thanked Jesus for this harvest.

• 37:37Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, he goes, he goes, thank you, Lord, for this harvest, the, for the harvest today.

• 37:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:43Cameron Hanes?

  It's like, it was done.

• 37:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:47Cameron Hanes?

  It was done. We, we were getting the harvest. He, he thanked the Lord for the harvest we were gonna get.

• 37:57Cameron Hanes?

  And there was no question we were, whether we're gonna get it or not. It was, we're getting it.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:01Cameron Hanes?

  We're thanking you for it. And I was just like, that's a lot different. Just that, there's a big difference in being hopeful or being faithful or accepting whatever may happen and, and the, and thanking for success. There's, those are two completely different things. And so he, he, he thanked the Lord for the success that we were gonna experience that day and thank you for providing the ram for us.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:28Cameron Hanes?

  And I was just like, how is he so confident?

• 38:33Speaker 01

  It gives me chills thinking about because he also said he had a vision and it, it ended in you and him scooting on your butts down a grass and rock slope.

• 38:45Speaker 01

  For an hour in onto this ram and, and, and maybe this is hindsight, but thinking about it, it, that it was different. You're right. It was different. It was like the words he spoke with were, it's not that he was confident, he was sure.

• 39:00Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. No, it's certain.

• 39:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was certain.

• 39:03Cameron Hanes?

  There's no doubt.

• 39:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:05Cameron Hanes?

  He, he said, and like, but he said that the whole time on the hunt, he said, oh, he goes, buddy, he goes, it's already been written.

• 39:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:13Cameron Hanes?

  This has already been written. We, we're gonna kill a ram. He goes, it's,

• 39:19Cameron Hanes?

  he goes, I have no doubt. And so he was saying stuff like that, but not praying.

• 39:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:24Cameron Hanes?

  And that was just kinda like, guys say that. And he, I'm like, wow, he's very confident. But then when he, you know, he prayed and, and solidified it there. I'm like, okay, this is, this is different. And then he said he had that vision about us sliding down on our butts. And we get, so we, we work around, we get up there, we see the rams are kinda bedded down in the open, but there's a little bit of contour. I, I saw a little bit of a break. There's a little ridge. I'm like, I don't need much. That might be enough. So we drop down, wind's coming up, uh, very, very slow peeking over those. These, the rams have, you know, their eyesight's like eight times the power of ours. So they're basically looking through binoculars

• 40:08Cameron Hanes?

  at all times and also 360 degrees. Their eyes sit out of their heads so they can see behind them. So you, if you think you go slow, you gotta go like 10 times slower. It's like not even, I can't even explain how slow you need to go, but that's what it takes if you're gonna get within bow range of, of a big stone ram. So, um, we snuck down there, like bow on my, yeah, we were sliding, just like, just like his vision. And, uh, look, and then, you know, I kinda went in front of him and I was just easing, easing, easing. Finally I look, I say, I could see the base of the horns. I'm like, okay, so I set my bow, go, come up with the

• 40:50Cameron Hanes?

  range finder, boom, 75 yards. And I just turned to Kurt, or he like, I leaned back like this. He leans forward and I said, I go 75. And he's like, can you make that shot? And, uh, I'm like, man, it's, I mean, the wind's coming up. I have a shot. Like, you've been up there for weeks, right? I shoot every day, but you can't up there. And, uh, I like look at the situation and I said, well, I said, I'd rather drop back behind this ridge. There's green grass right there. You see that green grass? I said, from right there, I said, I think I

• 41:30Cameron Hanes?

  can shoot that ram. It'll be 50 yards. We're in the 50s. And so that's a big difference from 75.

• 41:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:37Cameron Hanes?

  And, uh, so he said, okay, if you, if you think you can do it, he goes, can't get downwind. I said, no. And I did the, the wind checker. I said, the wind's screaming up. I said, I think we're good. So I back out, get all the way down, and then I get to that green grass very slow. And I look up, range 59. And I'm like, they're both bedded, kinda quartering up the hill. I could take a shot at 59 and I had a window. And I'm just like,

• 42:06Cameron Hanes?

  a bedded ram at 59 in the wind. Um, I realized I made a target out of the, the drop, the airdrop bag, and I was hitting high. So I'm like, okay, I gotta hold low because I'm hitting high at this elevation. Um, wind's gonna push it right to left. So I gotta hold to the right. So I'm trying to calculate all this. And I'm like, and do I wanna try to get this little window on this bedded ram? So I told, I just leaned back to Kurt and I said, I'm not shooting till he stands. And, uh, so I sit in there at 59 waiting. And, uh, I like look at the, like, there was like a little tiny rock. Um, not even, you couldn't even say it. It's like

• 42:46Cameron Hanes?

  a little rise of rock, maybe five inches. But I'm like, I could use those five inches. I can lay down and scoot two more yards. I thought I could get to 57 because I was at 59. And 57 is a higher percentage shot than 59 because I always think in my head, I'm psycho about numbers. Every inch, my percentage goes up on lethality. So I get scoot, scoot, scoot, range 57. And when I do that, I look, the she, uh, plane had flown over, which I didn't even hear. You guys told me this, but I was so focused on the ram, but the ram heard the,

• 43:27Cameron Hanes?

  the plane and he got up. And then he got up and I was kinda caught like with my bow half up. And he looks like this and he sees me up on the ridge. And I'm just like,

• 43:41Cameron Hanes?

  are you gonna, is this gonna happen again? Am I gonna spook this frickin' ram again after eight days from the first time? So I should've killed him on day seven. This is day 15. Eight days to get to, to this point. He looks up there and I'm just frozen. I'm just like, oh God, please no, please no. And he's standing there looking at me, looking at me, looking at me. And for some reason, he turns his head and I draw back. And I think I'm like on one hip. I think my leg's out. I'm like on one hip like this. And I'm sitting here at 57 and I hold to the right because the wind's coming up the hill. And I hold a little low.

• 44:24Cameron Hanes?

  And then he turns and he kinda court, he's, then he turns back and he kinda quarters to me because he's looking at me again. And then I'm like, I gotta go right behind the shoulder. I thought I'd get, I'd get this long liver guts. But right when I shot, as arrow was flying, he turned a little bit more and then it hit further back, came out here and frickin', the faucet was turned on, dude. It opened him up. I caught both, I think both femoral arteries where they split. And it was like a waterfall of blood.

• 45:01Speaker 01

  Nothing I've ever seen.

• 45:03Cameron Hanes?

  And he, he didn't go anywhere.

• 45:06Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, in the film, obviously I, I think we'll just let that moment speak for itself. But for people listening, it's, uh, I mean, you shoot, Wes is like, hit him again, hit him again. And then you said.

• 45:18Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. I, uh, and I just kinda stood up and Kurt's like, get down, get down. And I just turned around and I, I, I'm like, he's done. He's done. I said, that's femoral. I mean, he wasn't going anywhere. There was no, no extra shooting that needed to happen, no getting down. It was over. It's a rap.

• 45:38Speaker 01

  I mean, whatever video or shot you've had yourself where you hit an animal and there's a lot of blood, multiply it. I mean, this was like, it really was like turning a bath faucet on. It, it was wild.

• 45:51Cameron Hanes?

  It was nuts. And it was like, and then, okay, so I don't know how to explain this, but I'll try. In that moment where I thought I was gonna spook him again, and I thought about all the sacrifice, you, Wes, Kurt, Esther, Kurt's wife, his kids, his, all the dreams, all the talk we had about this, this, he's, you know, he wants to be an outfitter. He is an outfitter, but he wants to, he's got big dreams. And like, I'm sitting there with this opportunity. He's never, he's never taken an archery hunter and that got a stone.

• 46:29Cameron Hanes?

  So it's like, this would be his first one. We worked so hard for 15 days of just miserable sacrifice and just work, giving everything we have. And then the thought, the stress I had that I was gonna screw that up. And I almost did. And I was just like, it was weighing on me so I could barely function on that hunt. Cause I'm like, this is gonna come down to one shot. I'm gonna get one, I don't know what kinda shot it's gonna be. It's gonna be a 80 yard shot. Is it gonna be a walking shot? I gotta stop him. Is it gonna be a bedded shot? Is it gonna be 40 yards in the wind? And I'm like going through

• 47:10Cameron Hanes?

  all these scenarios. And so here I am with the shot and I'm like, this is my shot on one hip at 57 yards with him looking at me?

• 47:21Cameron Hanes?

  That is stressful.

• 47:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:23Cameron Hanes?

  But I put that pin there and you know, whatever. My arrow took him out. That's all I know. Was it a double lung? No, it wasn't. This episode is brought to you by Mountain Ops, a brand I've trusted for years to fuel my training, power me through the backcountry and help me recover strong so I can do it all again the next day. Whether I'm deep in the mountains on a hunt or pushing hard during a workout, Mountain Ops has been a constant part of my routine. I worked closely with the team at Mountain Ops to create a full line of products that match the way I train and live every day. We call it the Keep Hammering line and it's built to help you show up strong physically and mentally, no matter what your goals are. Need a boost before a tough workout or a long hike?

• 48:07Cameron Hanes?

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• 48:50Cameron Hanes?

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• 49:23Speaker 01

  So when you were having all those thoughts,

• 49:27Speaker 01

  did they ever quiet? Like, was it when you came to full draw? Or was there ever a point before you shot that it was like, you know, no matter what you had dreamed of or thought of, or worst-case scenario or best-case scenario, it didn't matter because the moment was now?

• 49:44Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, it was, okay, so I don't get stressed out during hunts. I mean, usually I don't. I, like, even when we were going down there, me, Wes and Kurt, we were going down, we were behind the ridge, before I'd got within 75 yards, but we, we liked the situation.

• 50:02Speaker 01

  Right.

• 50:02Cameron Hanes?

  And I just said, I looked at him, I said, guys, I said,

• 50:07Cameron Hanes?

  this is what we're meant to be doing. This is what we're supposed to be doing right here. This, what we're doing is what we're destined to do. I said, how amazing is this? And I was so relaxed, but then, so I'm relaxed, I'm like, yeah, I can make that shot, this and that, I think I can make it from up here, I feel better. I've, you know, made a lot of shots like this. But when the animal, when it starts to unravel, like from the perfect, like you want the, the quartering away, looking opposite, you're back here, they have no clue, you got all the time in the world, you level up and just squeeze. That's what everybody wants. You don't want the, I'm not really ready and he's staring at me, now he's turning, is he gonna run?

• 50:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:51Cameron Hanes?

  You'd, that's when it starts to be like, God, I gotta make something happen right here. So, and a lot of times people rush that shot. And I was trying not to rush, I was very intentional on where I was holding. It just with the angle, I knew I had a, a small window with him quartering to me, but then it even closed further. And then what I, what I can attribute the kill to is a big, sharp broadhead, a perfectly tuned arrow that got tons of penetration through, you know, a lot of big muscle stuff back here and hit bone and everything else, but cut from oral arteries. That doesn't happen without a perfectly set up bow and perfectly tuned arrow.

• 51:36Cameron Hanes?

  And I'll even go one step further on how much I think about this stuff. Is right before I did my final stock, I took my first two arrows out of the quiver and I spun them both. Spun them both and I took the one that spun more perfect to kill him with. So I'm thinking about, I'm not assuming anything. I'm like, no, these arrows have been in my quiver for 15 days. I've fallen a lot. If one screwed up or splintered or bent, because it can happen. If something happened and like I spin it and wobble and that would have cost me that animal.

• 52:11Speaker 01

  Right.

• 52:12Cameron Hanes?

  Then that's on me. So I'm like, no, I'm gonna have the exact perfect arrow. And I knew that my first two were my best. So the one, the one that was number one arrow, it was still number one, but I just double-checked. But I just know, that's my mindset, is this whole thing is coming down to one hunt. Yeah, I have five arrows in this quiver, but

• 52:35Cameron Hanes?

  it, the first one's all that matters and it better be perfect. And so with that, with that, that was the case. And while my shot, like, I've killed, you know, I've killed a lot of animals with good shots. I've, I've lost some animals with shots that looked, looked really good. And you can't, like, you hit a shoulder blade and like, you're an inch forward and you hit a shoulder blade and get no penetration on a bull. That bull's not dying, but you lost him and you were inches off.

• 53:08Speaker 01

  Right.

• 53:09Cameron Hanes?

  So I've been, had my heart ripped out, losing a, a bull that had caught the shoulder blade and he didn't die, but I didn't kill him for only being a couple inches one way or another. And then every once in a while, I'm like,

• 53:26Cameron Hanes?

  a foot, two feet off and the ram goes 36 yards and dies. So is it fair? I don't know. That's just the way it goes. That's hunting.

• 53:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, what I, the other thing I kind of, looking back, I can enjoy it now, but because, you know, these were the only rams that we had seen, it really was you versus one animal. I mean, we were on one animal that entire time.

• 53:52Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 53:53Speaker 01

  And I don't know why I didn't think about it out there, but one of my favorite stories is the old man in the sea.

• 53:57Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 53:57Speaker 01

  And now that I've been back, I've kind of assimilated the stories and it's, it's like, you know, you were saying, I won't leave.

• 54:05Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 54:05Speaker 01

  You know, it, someone's gonna either have to tell me to leave or I'm going to be out here until I'm walking off this mountain with this ram. And, and that reminds me, I mean, that is the old man in the sea. That's the story, right?

• 54:17Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, that was, that was what I told you guys. I said, because you kind of had the night before, I don't know if I wasn't, I was probably irritated, but whatever. It's like, you said something, we were talking about something like, do we need to go to another area? What if we can't find these rams? Something like that. I can't remember what it was. But I just told you guys, I said, I go, listen,

• 54:41Cameron Hanes?

  I will never leave this hunt without, I'm not quitting. I will not quit. So I said, I don't know who's staying, what's going, I told you, I said, I don't expect you to stay here for a month. I said, but I am not leaving until this is done or I'm done. Or I said, when does the season end? And he's like, October 15th. And I'm like, well, we got a while there. And so, yeah, I get obsessed and it's the only reason why, you know, I mean, for a long time, I, I hadn't eaten a tag since 2009. And elk hunting, Roy did in Wyoming. And that was the only unfilled tag I'd had for years. And it's because of that attitude.

• 55:21Cameron Hanes?

  And since then, I've not filled like a lion tag, I think, with dogs. And that, I can't really do anything about that. But, but there's a reason why all those tags get filled is because if that's the only option, that's the only option.

• 55:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:39Cameron Hanes?

  And I just, I just don't, I am gonna be there until it happens.

• 55:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:45Cameron Hanes?

  So, and you guys were like, I don't know what you're thinking, but.

• 55:50Speaker 01

  I was thinking, you know, in my head, I'm thinking, okay, yeah, he said, he said I can go home, but I was like, I'm invested.

• 55:57Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 55:57Speaker 01

  And I was like, I don't, I don't want to have to go through the decision of, I had the chance to go home and now I'm on day 35 and I'm still here.

• 56:06Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 56:07Speaker 01

  But there's, there's just no way I could have walked away from it. It was too transformative, too, too, it was too important to me by that point, you know?

• 56:15Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 56:16Speaker 01

  Um, and so it was like, yeah, that, that would suck to have to stay that long, but I'm also gonna have to see it through. And by that point, my batteries would have been dead. I'd have been, I don't know, I'd have just been there for the, along for the ride, but.

• 56:27Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 56:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean.

• 56:29Cameron Hanes?

  We were all invested though. I mean, I don't think anybody want, nobody's wanting to leave.

• 56:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:34Cameron Hanes?

  I mean, Kurt had another hunt coming up, like he's on it right now, the 24th. And he's like coming up with plans, like, maybe I could have Esther, his wife, take him and we could, you know, so it just needed, we needed a break because we had been working so hard. And then it's like, you know, I was going through it mentally and then you're like, you're so isolated. So you start having all these thoughts. So then I was like thinking about all the things I wish I would have told my family that I never do because we're so distracted by regular life. So I'm like texting these heartfelt messages and like, because my heart really changed up there. And it was, it just, I, I just can't think clearly down here with, with all the distractions and all the shit going on.

• 57:19Cameron Hanes?

  And the stuff that we do, but up in the mountains for that long is so pure. My heart's so, so pure, my brain's so clear. So the, the love and the, how, what I feel about people is, is very powerful. And I just felt like, if there's ever time to share, it's now. Because, I mean, we could have easily fell back there and, and you could easily die about a million times on something that, in that sheep country. And so what if I had these things that I wish I would have said and I didn't? And because it wasn't like good timing or I was on a hunt. So I'm like, I was going through quite a bit of that, which I think kind of happens on long hunts for most people.

• 58:04Cameron Hanes?

  But then also, you know, we had talked a lot about Fred Bear and like trying to honor his legacy because he hunted that same country. And, you know, as I said in my post the other day, but I got fired by another camel company. So I think I've been, I mean, I've been sponsored by RealTree, Mossy Oak, Sitka, Origin. And I'm not with any of them and they're still, I think they're still in business, most of them. So is is a problem me or them? But anyway, so I'm like, I'm gonna be Fred Bear. I'm gonna wear plaid and I want to kill a giant ram. He killed the world record in 1957, scored 158 and an eighth.

• 58:49Cameron Hanes?

  Same country, we went to the cabin, he slept in.

• 58:54Cameron Hanes?

  And, you know, we've read Fred Bear's field notes. You listen, you can listen to the podcast, but hear his stories and his tales. And it was so just like, like I said, soul enriching to to know that I was hunting the same country as Fred Bear. And he killed a giant ram and I was trying to do the same thing. And uh, just having the, holding out hopes of that was pretty cool.

• 59:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, we had a conversation that was like, you know, when, when you're worn down and, you know, you feel like your luck, or whatever you want to call it, is run out or you're having a tough go is like, you have no option but to face the truth of whatever these distractions in regular life have been keeping from you. And, and when it's just you and your thoughts, there's no running.

• 59:43Cameron Hanes?

  No.

• 59:44Speaker 01

  There's no escaping, there's no more lying to yourself. And it's like, your only option is to finally think through all the things you've been putting off.

• 59:54Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 59:55Speaker 01

  And, and what's tough about it is, it's tough, but I think it's a good thing is like, you don't have immediate access to fix the problem. So you, you can't just, you know, uh,

• 1:00:10Speaker 01

  I mean, you can send a message, but you can't call somebody or you can't look something up or whatever it is, or, or find some escape or some excuse. And so you're left with this,

• 1:00:21Speaker 01

  basically responsibility.

• 1:00:22Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:22Speaker 01

  It's like, this is on me, these things are on me. I don't know how this person feels or how this event really happened for other people, but for me, I know I can fix how I feel about it. And Kurt, I mean, for, for me especially, we would do our classic jokes or talk about something that happened in my life that I just make jokes about because it's the best way to cope. And, you know, he would chuckle and then he'd sit for a second and then he'd ask a question. And it was like, ah, man.

• 1:00:51Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:52Speaker 01

  I mean, he just got straight to my heart. And I told Eric this, I said, you know, I've, I've never met somebody, and you talk about Roy like this, but, you know, I've met a lot of religious people that I respect and look up to. I've never met somebody that so much lives it as he believes it. I mean, he just lives it. And how can you not respect that and listen to the words that he says? And that's basically what the 15 days were for me is just listening. I, I couldn't help but think I'd been stuck in a tent for 15 days with a guy like this. Here's your answer. You want answers? You, you want your doubts to be, to, to be calmed? All right. Here's a guy for 15 days.

• 1:01:30Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:31Speaker 01

  Listen to him.

• 1:01:32Cameron Hanes?

  And also like, you know how many people you can spend 15 days in the same tent with? Like, not very many.

• 1:01:38Speaker 01

  Very few.

• 1:01:39Cameron Hanes?

  Before you'd go crazy and be like, I fucking hate this guy. And we, we never felt that way.

• 1:01:45Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:01:45Cameron Hanes?

  It was, it was nuts. It was just like, it was never hard.

• 1:01:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:50Cameron Hanes?

  I mean, the hunting was hard.

• 1:01:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:52Cameron Hanes?

  But the situation wasn't hard. And um, the, the, the fellowship was, was incredible. And uh, you know, I, I'll just say it here is, we're talking so much about faith and, and being Christians and what that means and reading the Bible, that even be, like a week before I killed, I said, I'm gonna get baptized in this lake. And uh, because I just felt like, I felt a change. And then the more we talked, you were feeling the same way. And like, you just explained how Kurt could just speak to you.

• 1:02:33Cameron Hanes?

  And he's got something, yeah, I don't know, it's the Holy Spirit is what it is, but um, so after I killed the ram in the most idyllic setting and the most, in the most beautiful country I've been in, you know, recently, uh, we got baptized in the lake.

• 1:02:56Speaker 01

  And how many people do you think have the opportunity to be baptized in the place that changed their hearts so much?

• 1:03:00Cameron Hanes?

  No, I know.

• 1:03:01Speaker 01

  Is incredible.

• 1:03:02Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, it was, it was amazing.

• 1:03:06Cameron Hanes?

  So yeah, it's just like, and that wasn't, I wasn't on like a high from the ram. I, as you know, I said that way before.

• 1:03:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:14Cameron Hanes?

  And so this hunt was like, yeah, it's probably my greatest bow hunting trophy, but it's so much more than that. And like, as we talked about, we don't get rewarded. Like I used to go on hunts and I used to say, oh, I've worked too hard to fail. And like, I'm taking all the credit. And it's just like, no, it's not about me. I mean, yes, I work hard, but that's not a gift I created. That's a gift I was given to have, to have this focus and this obsession and this work ethic to chase a dream. That was, that's been a, a blessing on me. That's allowed me to pursue all these things, but that's not me. That's a blessing from, from God.

• 1:03:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:58Cameron Hanes?

  And so I can't sit, sit here and say, I did this, I did, no, I didn't do it. I did what I was supposed to do. I've been gifted with whatever, whatever skills that make, make me good in the mountains. But that's not me, that, that's like the creator. And so, once I got away from like, hey, like celebrate me, celebrate me. It just feels, I just feel different and better.

• 1:04:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's funny, you know, you, you had said you wanted to be baptized in the lake, but I hadn't really said that I, that I wanted to be. I was thinking it, but even after all these signs, after all these answers, that morning, when you were going to get baptized, I said, okay, give me one more, give me one more sign that, that I'm supposed to get baptized. And you get baptized and come out of the water. And I was like, I'm not going to say anything. And Kurt comes over and walks out of the water and he just sitting there, standing over me and staring and he goes, well,

• 1:04:57Speaker 01

  there's my sign.

• 1:04:58Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:59Speaker 01

  I said, I'm in, let's do it.

• 1:05:00Cameron Hanes?

  God, it was so amazing, dude.

• 1:05:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was, I mean, something I will remember for the rest of my life, for sure.

• 1:05:07Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:08Speaker 01

  I can't, I can't begin to put into words what those 15 days, well, really 22 days, but specifically those 50, 15 days mean to me as a person. I mean, I just don't think you can get that anywhere else and you can never replicate that, you know? That's, that's truly a once in a lifetime occurrence of those people, those conditions, working that hard together.

• 1:05:33Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:33Speaker 01

  You know?

• 1:05:34Cameron Hanes?

  No, you can't, you can't simulate that again, I don't think.

• 1:05:37Speaker 01

  And for me, it's like, you know, this past year I've trained so hard. And so also to have the fitness to at least be able to hang in there. It's like, I, I wouldn't have been able to do that before. And so I wouldn't have been able to have that full experience without that either. And so all these things coming together, it really was just the pinnacle.

• 1:05:55Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:56Speaker 01

  It was perfect.

• 1:05:57Cameron Hanes?

  It's incredible.

• 1:05:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:59Cameron Hanes?

  And then, yeah, just everything about it, but um, yeah, what, what's your thought? Did you think it was gonna happen?

• 1:06:10Speaker 01

  Hmm. In hindsight, of course, I'd like to say yes. But also those, that, that night before we had that conversation you talked about, I had decided in my head that,

• 1:06:26Speaker 01

  that I was married to the process. That I was there to, to capture the story. And if I wanted to capture something that was different and hard and gritty, then I better be prepared to go through the motions of whatever that looked like. And so I was no longer attached to the, to the success, uh, the success of killing.

• 1:06:49Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:50Speaker 01

  I was just attached to whatever it was going to take for the film to mean something, you know? And so I guess in that, in that case, then I, I didn't, I had no prediction for what was gonna happen. I certainly didn't think it was gonna happen the next morning.

• 1:07:04Cameron Hanes?

  Right.

• 1:07:05Speaker 01

  I mean, not after the, what we had been through.

• 1:07:07Cameron Hanes?

  I know.

• 1:07:08Speaker 01

  You know, for the 14 days prior.

• 1:07:10Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, and, and even, even that morning when they were, you know, right outside the tent, and then they moved back around where we couldn't see them, I figured,

• 1:07:22Cameron Hanes?

  Gone.

• 1:07:22Speaker 01

  All the way back around, we're gonna go see him in the Colosseum and then we'll start from, from zero again.

• 1:07:27Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't know. It, and it's funny because this has happened so many other times. It's like, all of a sudden it just all comes together.

• 1:07:37Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:39Speaker 01

  I don't, I don't understand how that works, but.

• 1:07:41Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. And also for, but for it to all come together, there's a million different little decisions. And it's just like, you make one of those wrong. Yeah, I mean, that's what's, that's what's so hard. We could easily been, you know, three or four days getting home, all this and no sheep.

• 1:08:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:00Cameron Hanes?

  You know, and like all that effort, all that, because most people, I mean, I've talked to a lot of people have been like, oh, I've been on 10 stone sheep hunts I've never killed. Been on five, never killed. Been on three, never killed.

• 1:08:14Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's really hard. Low percentage success, that's with a rifle even.

• 1:08:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:22Cameron Hanes?

  So with the bow, you know, they say Brendan Burns told me this stat. He's with Kuyu, but he said, four times more people have been to space than have killed a stone sheep with a bow. So, yeah, it's just, that's how hard it is. Hardly anybody has done it.

• 1:08:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, we can talk about, you know, once we got them broken down and back to camp and cleaned all the meat off. But I, I do want to talk about this, and I know I've told you this, but you said something down at the lake when we were enjoying the sheep meat that for whatever reason has really struck me. And, and I think it's just a testament to how we can take things for granted, but you said, this little moment right here, this simple little moment, took a lot of sacrifice and hard work. And I think there's so many things in day to day life. I mean, everything, your, your entire life boils down to each little moment, as simple as it could be. And so how could you so easily just brush that off?

• 1:09:26Cameron Hanes?

  Right.

• 1:09:26Speaker 01

  You know, when in reality, it was a lot of sacrifice. It was a lot of hard work just to have a simple little moment of enjoying sheep meat by the lake.

• 1:09:36Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:36Speaker 01

  With three other guys.

• 1:09:37Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. It was, and we like, it was so special hiking out with loaded down. I thought it was going to be a lot easier again. God, but loaded down with camp and the sheep. And again, Kurt had way more than we did, but it was, took us, what, six hours to get out of there?

• 1:09:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, and everybody was hurting.

• 1:10:00Cameron Hanes?

  Oh, God, it was brutal. So we had some, we had some death marches. But yeah, I just, I can't believe we pulled it off. I can't believe the ram is such a magnificent specimen. He's, I mean, he's old and giant and beautiful and dark. And we were in Fred Bear country, dressed like Fred Bear. And, and we did it as a team. And just like, I'll never forget it. And I just want this, I want to share this with people that can appreciate moments and hunts like this and experiences like this.

• 1:10:45Cameron Hanes?

  I want the film to, to capture all these emotions and all the thoughts and feelings that we've, we've talked about here. And I want people to feel that when they watch it. And I have high hopes because, man, we laid it out there. There's, there's no acting, there's no fluff. It's as real and gritty as it gets. And I think it's going to make an incredible adventure film.

• 1:11:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I hope so. I have some, some other questions I want to ask you about that weren't necessarily like timeline. Necessary, but we were out there for 15 days. Like I said, 22 days for me, door to door, 21 for you. What were the messages like you were getting from people from back home?

• 1:11:32Cameron Hanes?

  Oh, they just were like, kind of trying to hype me up. Cause I was just like so, I think I was frustrated where I think I said I had the ram at 32 yards and blew it. So then it was just like, oh, it's just, you know, control the controllables and, you know, it's just a matter of time. And, you know, just trying to be supportive.

• 1:11:58Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:11:58Cameron Hanes?

  Basically.

• 1:11:59Speaker 01

  Uh, you know, cause we were talking while, while we were out there and it's like, obviously the Odyssey just came out. Odysseus was gone for whatever it was, 20 or 30 years, you know? And it's like, people were hearing little rumors about your whispers and no, that's from the, the war on Troy, Troy.

• 1:12:15Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:15Speaker 01

  I was just wondering if, you know.

• 1:12:17Cameron Hanes?

  Right. Yeah, no, I was like, well, that, like, being frustrated because I should have had him killed and didn't in day seven. And then my heartfelt messages, they're probably thinking, what is, what is this guy going through? But I'm, I'm serious. You go through a lot.

• 1:12:32Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:12:33Cameron Hanes?

  This is like a, a mental, physical, spiritual test, every, every ounce, every day, all day. So yeah, I was going through a lot, but so I was getting messages like that. But one that I just always go back to is, uh, so I sent, Wes said, what's the goal with the film? Is that what he said?

• 1:12:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:12:55Cameron Hanes?

  So, let me see where, yeah, so he says, uh, at some point I want to know what you're trying to build for film content. I'll be able to get some B-roll from somewhere else. Oh, yeah, whatever. Anyway, he talked about like, what, what's the goal? And I said, I go, yeah, B-roll is perfect. I said, I just want to make the most epic bow hunting film ever in the history of bow hunting. That's all. So, so I'm going to send you that.

• 1:13:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:13:26Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. So anyway, that was the goal. But, uh, and that's, I don't know if we did it, but we'll see.

• 1:13:32Speaker 01

  We'll see. We're definitely going to find out.

• 1:13:34Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:35Speaker 01

  All right. Um, another one was, and Tanner had mentioned this in a text to you, but in our world now, all these quick hitting social media clips, everything's made to go viral.

• 1:13:48Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:50Speaker 01

  What, do you think there's some responsibility to champion stories and adventures like this for future generations? I mean, just like we are reading Fred Bear.

• 1:14:01Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:01Speaker 01

  And that's like, man, that, what an adventure.

• 1:14:04Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:04Speaker 01

  You know, I mean, yeah, I mean, there has to be stories from today that, that inspire future generations.

• 1:14:12Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:12Speaker 01

  Somebody has to do it.

• 1:14:14Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, I mean, I saw a lot of comments because I talked a lot about Fred Bear and, and a lot of people said that, you know, currently I've, I've inspired them because I talked about how Fred inspired, you know, the, my generation or like probably the one before. But yeah, so, but like the more good stuff we're putting out, the more real, uh, authentic films, you're going to impact people. I mean, I don't want to make fluff stuff that people watch and they forget about, as you know. I want to make stuff that moves people. And, and if we do that, yeah, I think, I think there's going to be a legacy to it and a lasting, it's going to be around a while.

• 1:14:56Speaker 01

  Um, you know, we talked about on Last Shit Talkers, but like Mark Dowdell's mindset about he doesn't attach his, his worth to success.

• 1:15:05Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:05Speaker 01

  Was there any point out there that you were like?

• 1:15:08Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, of course. Yeah. No, I'm not perfect. Yeah, I was like questioning, am I even good at bow hunting? I mean, am, have I been a fraud for 40 years? Cause I'm like, I don't know what to, I don't know what to do. I don't know, because when you're hunting one animal, it's not like, if I'm hunting elk, if I mess up on a bull, I can probably find another bull.

• 1:15:37Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:15:38Cameron Hanes?

  If you mess up on the oldest ram on the mountain, you're not finding another oldest ram on the mountain. That's, that's the one. So when that was the only goal, that feels, I mean, we can't find them for days. It's just like, is it, I don't know if this can happen. I don't know if I'm good enough. I don't know if I have what it takes. I don't know. You know, am I, do I want to quit already? Am I, I'm two weeks into this and I, I say I'm never leaving unless I quit. But then there's moments where everybody is just like, every, there's like some weird thought that comes in the back of your head about, fuck, is this the one?

• 1:16:22Speaker 01

  Um, yeah.

• 1:16:23Cameron Hanes?

  I mean, it's so expensive, it's so hard. And most people don't succeed on it. So why am I thinking that I'm not better than anybody? I'm not the best. I could easily waste a hundred grand on this sheep hunt and go home with nothing. That happens all the time, especially when you choose to do it with the bow. So I'm like, yeah, I had, I had doubts, but then also I do have confidence. And I, we were working so hard and I have been blessed with confidence.

• 1:17:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:00Cameron Hanes?

  So I, I did, I, I thanked Jesus when I was heading down there. I didn't thank him for making me a good bow hunter. I thanked him for blessing me with confidence to believe in myself in these moments. And I said, I believe in myself.

• 1:17:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:18Cameron Hanes?

  And I smiled to myself because this is a trick I do with the ultra running. Like if you're in misery and you smile to yourself, it changes your brain. So I was like basket case, but walking down to stalk this ram. Well, at the same time of having doubts, also saying, thank you, Jesus, for giving me this confidence. Cause I know I'm going to make good on this shot and it's, and it's because of you. It's not me, but you, you gave me this belief in myself and I want to thank you. And I was just like, kind of, then, then happy again.

• 1:17:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:51Cameron Hanes?

  Then maybe a basket case another second later. But I was trying to stay in that mindset, like, no, this is, I'm good, I'm good.

• 1:18:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, that, the, the smiling thing really works.

• 1:18:03Cameron Hanes?

  It does.

• 1:18:03Speaker 01

  I, I use that too. It's, and it's amazing how quickly it changes.

• 1:18:09Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:09Speaker 01

  How you feel.

• 1:18:10Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, it's, it's, I mean, our brains are so powerful.

• 1:18:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:15Cameron Hanes?

  We just have to harness them the right way because they can also be incredibly detrimental.

• 1:18:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, definitely.

• 1:18:22Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:22Speaker 01

  Um, yeah, obviously I, I feel like Roy is present on every hunt, but to me, this hunt, it felt stronger for some reason. Why do you think that was? Did it feel that way to you or?

• 1:18:34Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, um, I thought about Roy a lot too, because, you know, a sheep hunt like that, he never hunted stone sheep, but he killed a lot of doll and he loved sheep hunting because it's so hard. I mean, I know that, that one right there, he killed, took him 17 days. So, you know, I was 15 days and I'm just like, well, he killed that in 17 with a recurve. So, I mean, he's still setting the tone.

• 1:19:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:19:01Cameron Hanes?

  I'm still trying to catch up with, to him, but he's, you know, he's, you know, the legends never die thing is a hundred percent true. You know how much I talked about him. I read, I read excerpts of my book. Sometimes when we're stuck in the tent at night and, uh, you know, chapter 15, Legends Never Die about Roy. Really hard chapter for me to read, but I need to, I need to feel that.

• 1:19:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. You also told a ton of stories about him, ones I hadn't heard. And that was like,

• 1:19:33Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:33Speaker 01

  I mean, between those, your stories and Kurt's and then reading from your book and then John is like, man, I, I look forward to that every night. It's like, I, I wonder in those, those couple of days we had stuck in the tent down by the lake because the weather was like, they weren't that bad because you guys just told stories and

• 1:19:52Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:53Speaker 01

  It was, yeah.

• 1:19:54Cameron Hanes?

  Then we got the cribbage board.

• 1:19:56Speaker 01

  Oh, boy.

• 1:19:57Cameron Hanes?

  And then it was on.

• 1:19:58Speaker 01

  You guys got your butts kicked.

• 1:19:59Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:00Speaker 01

  Not really.

• 1:20:01Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. Um, yeah, it was just, I don't know, the most impactful hunt I've ever been on.

• 1:20:06Speaker 01

  Yeah. Uh, last question. Do you feel with this hunt in specific, there's a little piece of you that'll stay out there?

• 1:20:16Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. I don't.

• 1:20:21Cameron Hanes?

  You know, I,

• 1:20:24Cameron Hanes?

  I don't know how I'm going to top this hunt.

• 1:20:29Cameron Hanes?

  So it, it feels like, you know, since Roy died, the, the hunts have been, they've been good, you know, I, I've had a lot of success, but they haven't been as sweet because, because Roy's not here. So it's like, I don't have, you know, the guy who got me started bow hunting. I don't have my mentor to, to share the experience with, whether it's story or writings or, um, on the phone or in person. Um, so it's like, I lost a little bit from the successes because it's just not as sweet without Roy.

• 1:21:06Cameron Hanes?

  And so I think similarly, this is a pinnacle and I'm wondering what the kills after this are going to feel like.

• 1:21:15Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:21:16Cameron Hanes?

  Because what is a kill? If I go kill a bull on day two,

• 1:21:24Cameron Hanes?

  which I usually do, it seems like day two is always the day.

• 1:21:30Cameron Hanes?

  That's going to feel a lot different than 15 days of suffer fest. And to get the, the, the greatest trophy I've ever put my hands on and greatest experience for so many different reasons, for the connection with Roy, for the, for the Fred Bear legacy, for, um, just how much suffering was involved to my heart changing up there to, you know, creating this strong connection with God now that I'd never had before. I don't see how any hunt can compare, um, especially a quick one. So I'm curious on how I'm going to navigate that because

• 1:22:16Cameron Hanes?

  this is what I do. This is like my life and it means a lot to me. It's not like, I just don't kill animals and just don't think about it. It's just like, it means so much. So with this one, meaning the most any hunts ever met, met to me, meant to me, um, what's this going to be like moving forward? And I don't know.

• 1:22:36Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:22:37Cameron Hanes?

  But there's a, I put a lot of gravity in, in what I do. So I'm curious about how I'm going to feel.

• 1:22:44Speaker 01

  Well, we'll have to be sure to come back and talk about that after the season's recap.

• 1:22:49Cameron Hanes?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:22:49Speaker 01

  It'll be interesting.

• 1:22:51Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. Yeah, well, but you know, it's a good place to be.

• 1:22:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a good problem to have.

• 1:22:57Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. But yeah, I, and I, I just want to say like, you know, I know I've told you, but you did so good on this hunt, dude. You fucking kicked ass. You're so tough. Um, and you've come, I don't even, I don't want to, I don't like saying you've come so far because you're tough for anyone. So it's like, I don't want to say for being a complete pussy, you're, you're a little tougher. No, you're just tough now. It's like, I don't care who I'm comparing it to because that, that hunt, every person on that hunt said it was the hardest hunt they'd been on. And you were right there the whole time. So I just got to give, I, I just want to give you credit that you deserve. Um, you worked really hard. Um, the photos are amazing and I'm sure the footage is incredible. And yeah, you deserve a lot of credit for what you did.

• 1:23:43Speaker 01

  I appreciate that. I, you know, I told you guys, I was like, all I know is that, you know, if people are having to tell you that you did good and that you're tough, it usually doesn't mean that's the case.

• 1:23:56Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:56Speaker 01

  But, um, yeah, I mean, I, I, I do, I, I'm at a weird spot and we'll talk more about this with the picnic, but I have worked really hard.

• 1:24:09Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:09Speaker 01

  To, to improve my fitness and, and to be at a point where I never thought I would be at. And so it's weird for me because I've never once felt proud of myself to be at a point where I want to, but I don't, I don't want to be content or conceited or anything like that. Uh, but I'm, I'm proud that I gave myself the opportunity to, to even be able to keep up and enjoy the hunt and capture the story. So and that's, that's where I'll leave it. Um, because like I said, I mean, it, it's, uh, it's beyond words, what, what this hunt meant to me also.

• 1:24:48Speaker 01

  Um, and I can't, I mean, I know I told you this, but I'm super thankful and grateful that I even get the opportunity to do this, you know? I mean, who, who gets to tell a story like that? And then afterwards be like, yeah, that, that's my job, you know?

• 1:25:03Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, that's pretty sick.

• 1:25:03Speaker 01

  I mean, Kurt, I guess, and you know, it's like, but it's different. It's different, you know?

• 1:25:09Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:10Speaker 01

  So I'm so grateful and so blessed to, to be able to do things like this and have cool stories to tell.

• 1:25:17Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, we're very lucky.

• 1:25:19Speaker 01

  What would I do without it? So.

• 1:25:20Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. I mean, it's for the lore, right?

• 1:25:22Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:25:23Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, that, that's your thing. So it's just like, you can't have that and not chase big stories.

• 1:25:29Speaker 01

  No, not at all.

• 1:25:30Cameron Hanes?

  So it's like you, you did, you did it for the lore and we're going to have an incredible story to share.

• 1:25:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm excited.

• 1:25:37Cameron Hanes?

  And that's, I mean, that's the cool part of it. It's like, and we're not thinking about that during, actually we're kind of thinking about all the cool footage we're getting. We're like, God, if we have a kill to finish this off, that'd be really nice. Um, but yeah, it's just such a hard task, but we're, we're lucky. We were able to, to get out there and chase big rams and made it happen.

• 1:26:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, pretty cool.

• 1:26:01Cameron Hanes?

  So thanks for being part of it. I, like I said, I, I'm, I'm 25% at most responsible for this hunt because you guys all contributed just as much as I did. Um,

• 1:26:13Speaker 01

  I'm going to give you 26% because you did everything we did and then also had to deliver a good arrow. So the pressure you had, I do not envy. And let me also say this, hold on. And we're at the end of the episode, so I can say this now.

• 1:26:28Cameron Hanes?

  Okay.

• 1:26:28Speaker 01

  If one of you motherfuckers, okay, I'm right here. I'm in camera 17. If one of you motherfuckers says it must be nice to be able to go on a stone sheep hunt, take it, write, write it down on a piece of paper, rip it out of your journal, crumple it up and shove it so far.

• 1:26:46Speaker 01

  You don't need to comment it. Don't, because you have no idea. So now I feel better.

• 1:26:53Cameron Hanes?

  I don't think most people would enjoy that hunt. What do you think most people would have thought?

• 1:26:58Speaker 01

  I don't know a single person that would have made it through that. I don't.

• 1:27:04Cameron Hanes?

  It was tough.

• 1:27:05Speaker 01

  And I got some tough friends, but you're not doing it. You're not doing it. So.

• 1:27:09Cameron Hanes?

  It was a test.

• 1:27:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, there, there is no, just leave the comments at home this time, guys.

• 1:27:15Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. Leave it on red.

• 1:27:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:27:17Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, yeah. No. Uh, well, so that's the sheep hunt recap. Uh, we're, as you can tell, we're very grateful and thankful for everybody that helped make it happen. Um, I want to give a shout out to Reg Collingwood too, for doing a podcast with us and he's a legend up there. He's guided 125 rams and, uh, just, just learning of that country and those people was, man, I'm a different person. That's all there is to it. I'm different from being up there.

• 1:27:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:27:48Cameron Hanes?

  I'm very grateful.

• 1:27:49Speaker 01

  I feel like I've said this four times because it is true. I mean, I had all these things that were like, what, you know, everything was my favorite, but it was cool to be in the country. And then learn as it went on, it unfolded just the history of where we were at and the people we had met and the people we were around and the areas we were around. And it was like, it was just, it felt like we were a part of that history. It was really cool.

• 1:28:12Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, it was so unique.

• 1:28:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:28:14Cameron Hanes?

  But, uh, yeah. So anyway, that's the recap, guys. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for all the support and, uh, yeah, well, uh, we got another one we're going to do before I take off on my next hunt. So stay tuned. Keep hammering.