Ep. 808: A Costa Rican Immigrant on Hunting In America

Steven Rinella https://www.instagram.com/stevenrinella/?hl=en talks with Pablo Esquivel https://www.instagram.com/pablix66?igsh=YTBrdnd1N2dkaTI1 and Janis Putelis. Topics discussed: Blow guns and sling shots; learning about ballistics; getting whopped as a kid for hunting illegally; cooking everything; when your ma designates your personal fry pan; coming to American; learning and hunting for a long time before getting a deer; and more. Connect with Steve https://www.themeateater.com/authors/steven-rinella and The MeatEater Podcast Network https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork Steve on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/stevenrinella and Twitter https://twitter.com/stevenrinella?lang=en MeatEater on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/meateater, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/StevenRinellaMeatEater/, Twitter https://twitter.com/MeatEaterTV?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor, and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Speaker 01

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• 0:35Steven Rinella?

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• 1:32Steven Rinella?

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• 2:16Steven Rinella?

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• 2:22Steven Rinella?

  Howdy, everybody. Well, this is the Flop, Flop One from Meat Eaters Live Christmas Tour. We're in Birmingham, Alabama. Normally, when you join the show, it's, it's, everybody's familiar with our producer, Corinne, with Phil the Engineer, but today, we have our esteemed colleague, Riva. Uh, Riva, come say hi, just so people know what's going on. This is Riva. She's living on the bus with us. She's here for the whole tour. She's always working on stuff, but you never do this show. No, Riva's here doing this show today. Would you like to say anything to people?

• 2:55Speaker 04

  Subscribe to the YouTube.

• 2:57Steven Rinella?

  Oh, Riva would like you.

• 3:00Steven Rinella?

  Riva's one ask is you subscribe to the YouTube feed at the Meat Eater Podcast YouTube channel. Uh, we're, so what we're doing today is we're joined by a ticket holder.

• 3:11Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 3:11Steven Rinella?

  Pablo Escobillo. You're coming to the show tonight.

• 3:13Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 3:14Steven Rinella?

  You're gonna be here. You excited for the show?

• 3:15Speaker 05

  Absolutely. Yeah, definitely, because it's gonna be my first time, too. So, yeah, definitely.

• 3:20Steven Rinella?

  Now, I, I know you well. The reason I wanted to talk about you is I know you well from coming on. You've been on a handful of podcasts, and I've listened to your story on other podcasts. The Southern Outdoorsman, is that what it's called? Southern Outdoorsman Podcast?

• 3:32Speaker 05

  That's right.

• 3:32Steven Rinella?

  Yanni sent that to me, saying this guy's a riot.

• 3:35Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 3:36Steven Rinella?

  Um, and I've heard you do other interviews, and I thought, man, we're down here. I want to meet you and have a chance to talk to you and introduce you to our listeners to hear about some of your hunting adventures.

• 3:46Speaker 05

  Wow.

• 3:47Steven Rinella?

  And kind of your strange trip toward becoming an American hunter.

• 3:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, absolutely. Uh, it's, it's an honor, man. I really appreciate it. Definitely.

• 3:55Speaker 06

  Can you, before we get to Pablo, can you explain Flop, in case anybody isn't up to speed?

• 4:02Steven Rinella?

  Oh, yeah, I'd be happy to. What it means is this. A lot of times, we have this problem. I'm addressing you, listeners. We have this problem where we release shows on Mondays. So, we always run into this problem where things will prevent us from releasing our show right away.

• 4:18Speaker 06

  Mm-hmm.

• 4:19Steven Rinella?

  Do you know this? Why it's called that? So, one day, I was saying that I wanted to be able to do, to record certain shows, or just Flop.

• 4:29Steven Rinella?

  It comes out flop being the noise made when it just comes out like flop wham.

• 4:37Speaker 06

  When I heard it, I felt like you were some somehow going to compare the noise of it coming out with the sound of you slapping meat. Because you have such an affinity for slapping meat. So I thought there was some connection there.

• 4:52Speaker 05

  That's like a dry.

• 4:53Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, like flop when you slap a backhand.

• 4:56Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 4:57Steven Rinella?

  No, this just means it's gonna come out. We're gonna do three. We're gonna do three flops here on live tour. This is day one. This is the opening show. Everybody's nervous. We have a

• 5:06Steven Rinella?

  we're doing. I'm looking around to see who's listening because we're doing like a blowgun thing and we're very scared about getting in trouble with the venues. So we asked one venue if we could bring Clay's mule. They said no. So we didn't ask about the blowgun stunt.

• 5:22Speaker 05

  Should be fine.

• 5:23Steven Rinella?

  I know, but I don't want to. I don't want to bring it up ahead of time.

• 5:26Speaker 05

  No, you shouldn't.

• 5:27Steven Rinella?

  Because if you bring it up ahead of time, it's just gonna be no.

• 5:29Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 5:29Speaker 06

  Well, just hopefully like the manager of the last venue that we're going to this week won't listen to this episode.

• 5:36Steven Rinella?

  We have a pretty. So we bought some blowguns from Tim Wells. And he sends them with some wooden darts, which look unassuming.

• 5:44Speaker 05

  Like a puncho. I mean a pinchot, my bad.

• 5:47Steven Rinella?

  Yeah. And so I'm just, no one's around right now. It's a little nervous about the blowgun situation.

• 5:52Speaker 06

  What's a pinchot?

• 5:54Speaker 05

  Uh, a kebab. I'm sorry. Yeah. Kebab, pretty much.

• 5:57Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, a skewer. Chishkabob skewer.

• 5:59Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 6:00Steven Rinella?

  So, uh, Pablo Escobal.

• 6:03Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 6:04Steven Rinella?

  You grew up in Costa Rica.

• 6:05Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 6:06Steven Rinella?

  And I didn't know this until today. You grew up in Costa Rica and you were engaged in like hunting activities in Costa Rica. Or you you experimented, you dabbled.

• 6:15Speaker 05

  Yes, experimental.

• 6:16Steven Rinella?

  Tell about that a little bit. I didn't know that about you.

• 6:18Speaker 05

  So the thing is, when I was down there, man, um, you know, hunting is legal down there and

• 6:23Steven Rinella?

  Illegal.

• 6:23Speaker 05

  Yes, it is legal. Uh, any kind of species is legal.

• 6:27Steven Rinella?

  Oh, you're saying illegal. Like not legal.

• 6:30Speaker 05

  Not legal.

• 6:31Steven Rinella?

  Got it.

• 6:32Speaker 05

  Illegal, yeah. So, you know, as kids, man, uh, you develop your interest for slingshots, blowguns and things like that because you have resources all over the place. And, and then, you know, you start kind of like getting a little bit more curious, like I'm wondering if I can take that bird down with this rock. And next thing you know, you start becoming efficient. And, um, so, yeah, it was, it was hunting with a slingshot. And blowguns, we used to go through, well, the blowgun, man, it wasn't your particular blowgun. It was just like, we used to go to the hardware store, the only store, and they had like corking rod, rods, like aluminum rod, about half an inch.

• 7:10Steven Rinella?

  Okay.

• 7:11Speaker 05

  About a meter long, which is like three feet, three and a half. And then we used to go to the river, to the creek areas and just dig some clay because it's clay everywhere. Keep them in a, like in a plastic bag in your pack, a little bit of moist into it.

• 7:24Steven Rinella?

  Keep what in there?

• 7:25Speaker 05

  The clay.

• 7:26Steven Rinella?

  Okay.

• 7:26Speaker 05

  So it stays nice and moist, doesn't dry right away. And man, I guess it became like a muscle memory because you were just kind of like doing your pellets with your fingers all the time and keeping pellets in there. So the pellets were getting mushed, but then you just pull it back up and round it back up, put it in there and just keep on shooting.

• 7:42Steven Rinella?

  Shooting soft clay?

• 7:43Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 7:44Steven Rinella?

  Mm hmm. But, but what were you hunting with the soft clay?

• 7:46Speaker 05

  Birds.

• 7:48Steven Rinella?

  That would have enough oomph to.

• 7:49Speaker 05

  Oh, man, you'd be amazed. Being soft, we didn't know anything about ballistics. But I guess when they hit and they kind of mush from, I mean, we're talking about birds about this big. Oh, they don't stand a chance at 20 yards. Like they coming down, you know, so.

• 8:06Steven Rinella?

  Would you ever get any kind of furred animals? Like, I don't know what they got in Costa Rica.

• 8:10Speaker 05

  Fur.

• 8:10Steven Rinella?

  They got, they got like, uh, they gotta have, uh, like, uh, lava.

• 8:17Speaker 05

  Do you?

• 8:17Steven Rinella?

  Paca.

• 8:18Speaker 05

  Do you know pisote?

• 8:20Steven Rinella?

  No.

• 8:21Speaker 05

  It's like a, like a coon with an elongated nose.

• 8:23Steven Rinella?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, we call them, uh.

• 8:25Speaker 05

  I forgot the name.

• 8:26Steven Rinella?

  Cota money. Cota money.

• 8:27Speaker 05

  Yes, okay. There's some, uh, there's another one is, uh, watusa and tepesquinte. Those are like small capybaras as a reference, right? And. Those used to be with the slingshots, but that was not a one man job, man. It used to be like, trying to put a sneak upon him, you know, three or four guys and everybody's gonna aim at the same time and somebody's gonna hit it. Somebody's gonna hit it. Well, you gotta aim with a rock right at the head. Hmm. So somebody's gonna hit him, we're just gonna stung him and then we're gonna run to him and Get him. And finish what we started, yeah. So, and you know, and unfortunately,

• 9:06Speaker 05

  maybe one out of fifteen, one out of twenty Hans were successful. Okay. It's incredibly hard. You're just going out in the jungle. Yeah, right there on the fields. Cause you know, I grew up in a place with a perfect balance in between country and a teeny tiny city. Or teeny tiny town, you know, like there was a hospital in there, hardware store. Of course, as the years went on and on, everything started developing, but at the time when I was seven, that was it. And the funniest thing, well, the best thing ever is that nobody had internet. Hmm. Nobody has cell phones. Like we used to just go knock on somebody's door, trying to round everybody up because we're gonna go through the river later on. And everybody will wait in the corner. Like round up your hunting party.

• 9:51Speaker 05

  Yeah, or whoever wants to go, which was nothing but kids. Yo, would you guys fish? Yes, a lot. And I mean, I look at this core, we used to go to the hardware store and we were like, we need some fishing line. Man, and you will get line like for a thousand pound marlin. Just to go right there to the creek to get brims by this big, you know? Okay. Cause you just didn't have access to sporting goods, though. No, they didn't have a rod, they didn't have nothing. And we used to just like, do you know, are you familiar with the Cuban yo-yo? Nope. Got one of those. It's kind of like, we used to have bottles, plastic bottles and you just kind of like wrap your line around. Then long.

• 10:32Speaker 05

  Would you guys cast off those too? I've seen dudes do that down south, yeah. Like down in South America, cast with a bottle. Yeah, usually you cast towards the bottleneck. Okay. Like the end of the bottle is gonna be your stop, so you cast, when you cast, kind of like towards. You're holding, you're holding the bottom of the bottle. Yep, pretty much like this. You will cast like that, so the line will go that way. Got it. You know, and.

• 10:56Speaker 05

  We had a lot of fun, man. A lot of fun. Would you guys, would you guys bring the stuff home and your mom and dad to cook it?

• 11:04Speaker 05

  I did. I brought everything home. My mama used to get so mad because, you know, we didn't have much. And the few things that she had, I was always bringing everything into it. So she was like, this is your pan. Like you ain't gonna cook anything else now these are ten. So this is gonna be your pan. So I was like, okay. And I had the pan and I used to cook all kinds of birds and um some of them mammals when we used to get lucky. Cook them in there or go to a friend's house and they had like a bigger pan so we could put a bunch of pig lard on it. And just deep fried them. Oh my goodness, man. Yeah, it was good times. Really, really, really good times. Of course.

• 11:49Speaker 05

  How can I say this? It was a different time, right?

• 11:54Speaker 05

  As, as you know, everything else that is around us has been evolving. Uh, the culture has maintained itself, you know, and now unfortunately these days the laws is still the same. And, and one of the things that I don't like is that we just enjoy the outdoors, man, like we did. And, and the thrill of the chase and you know, like that was it. It was not just kill for kill. No, it was the thrill of the chase and then eating it. But unfortunately, we were caught up many times. And I'm telling you, oh yeah, back in those days. Anybody was allowed to give you a whooping regardless where you were. If it was somebody that you know, you're doing something wrong, somebody's gonna whoop you, you know? Got it. And it happened like that many, many times because they grew up with them.

• 12:37Speaker 05

  You'd get caught and get whooped by someone, but not a cop. No, no, the Cubs, they only have batons. They didn't really care, you know? But anybody else were like, what are y'all doing killing birds? Oh no, but just whoop you, man. And, and it was like, ah, we gotta regroup and stay out of this place.

• 12:54Speaker 05

  Pretty much. And unfortunately, man.

• 12:59Speaker 05

  People grow with the mentality that the hunter is the uneducated, the hunter is the ignorant, the hunter is the savage, you know? That's a sentiment in Costa Rica. Pretty much, you know, and I, I truly respected, like I said, the place is beautiful, man. Don't get me wrong. And it's a fisherman's paradise. Yeah, but you can't spearfish. Can't hunt, can't spearfish. And so, so this is where you. I bet you laws has changed throughout the years. And of course with social media now it's a lot easier to access everything else. But when I was down there, man, I never heard anything like such about like fishing uh restrictions or regulations or never like if you can catch a thousand snappers, catch them, you know?

• 13:42Speaker 05

  That was back then, but we're talking about like twenty years ago, right? So nowadays days, I bet you they do have um different regulations and things of that nature back in place. So how was it that your mom so came to the US? She get married with my stepdad, right? My stepdad Rick, um she get married, let me take a sip of water because this is gonna be a long story. No, keep it short. We got a lot of ground to cover. We haven't even gotten to deer hunting yet. Yeah, yeah. She gets married with Rick. She said, I, well, here's the thing. I didn't even know they were fixing to get married. My mom was kind of dating Rick. Rick was kind of like going back and forth to Costa Rica and all that stuff. From America?

• 14:25Speaker 05

  Yeah, uh right here born and raised in Alabama, so um I didn't know English at all, nothing, dude, like, I was just like, hey. I was a teenager. Then suddenly she's like, ah, son, we're gonna get married. I'm going to the States. I said, cool. How old were you? Man, when she left, I was between fourteen and fifteen. What? I was about to be fifteen. Uh my grandmother, she was gonna be in charge of me, but Oh, okay, yeah. But my grandma used to live on the other side of town, which I call town, you know what I mean? So uh on the bright side, I was the only teenager without adult supervision, you know, so I was like, let's go. But what what once she took off, what were you doing for money? How'd you support yourself?

• 15:10Speaker 05

  She said, just stay in school, don't get in trouble, and we pay the bills, which the bills was the water, electricity, and food. So she split? Yeah. But you didn't view it that way? No, I just thought about like, I'm a man, dude, two weeks after my mama left, I felt it. And that's when I realized, man, I was missing my mom so bad. She was like, son, we we have a process, like we got you in a process. Oh. Like in the reason, I don't know, I gotta ask her, I don't remember why I didn't qualify as a dependent right away. I wanna say because I was about thirteen or fourteen. It's kind of like an immigration thing.

• 15:50Speaker 05

  Well, the years go on and she keeps saying like, well, we got a notice. The documents have moved into a different office and all that stuff. Man, to be honest, I thought that it was never gonna happen. So I just kept on with my life, got done with high school. Then I went to a community college and I took sport fishing. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to eventually become a captain of a sport fishing vessel. You studied sport fishing? Yeah, we studied. It was about like six months of classroom theory, learning about species. Yep. And how to rig lines and things like that. And then after that, it was nothing but fishing, fishing, fishing every single day in the ocean. Man, it was the greatest time ever, you know?

• 16:35Speaker 05

  Even if we didn't cut anything, it was, it was the greatest. Well, so as I'm going, man, think about this. I'm 21, fixing to be 22, or I was 22. Got a life, the whole thing, you know, got a house and pursuing a career, friends, you know, childhood friends and all that stuff. Suddenly mom calls, mom used to go every Christmas, you know? Suddenly she calls, she says, son, we got an appointment at the US Embassy. And I say, ah, whatever. Like, it's been so many years now, like, we're probably just gonna go in there. Somebody's gonna read a paper, something like that. And then they're gonna say the documents have moved to that office, whatever. That's what I thought. I said, we're just gonna be a quick in and out.

• 17:20Speaker 05

  Yep. The little that I know, three days later, I was leaving everything, everything behind me. Jumped her in a plane, which I never done it before. No, didn't know the culture, didn't know the language, have nobody, no friends. And you landed where? Well, we jumped Costa Rica, we landed in Houston. I was with my mom. Okay. Cause I was losing my mind when I went, we landed in Houston Airport. I never seen anything like that before in my life, man. So I was just mind blowing, we landed in Houston? Went through the immigration office right there.

• 18:02Speaker 05

  The lady was asking me all kind of questions. I was just like, yes. Had no clue what she was asking, because I didn't speak English. Came in, we flew from Houston to Huntsville, landed in Huntsville. And you know, the idea that you get from the States is like big cities, all these big, big cities. And, and I'm looking, I don't see nothing on the plane, you know, nothing feels like feels. And I was like, where, where's the city? She said, what city? I was like, the big, the old building cities. And she's like, I was like, well, do you remember where you at? And I said, yeah, Alabama. She said, yeah, there's no big cities in Alabama.

• 18:43Speaker 05

  And I was just looking down like, oh my God, what I got myself into.

• 18:48Steven Rinella?

  But you were excited in moving forward because you were gonna be with your mom.

• 18:53Speaker 05

  Absolutely. That was the main thing. Well, we landed, made it home. Next day.

• 18:58Steven Rinella?

  I got, I got back up on one.

• 18:59Speaker 05

  All right.

• 19:00Steven Rinella?

  Kind of what he said. What was the main selling point to come to America?

• 19:08Speaker 05

  Well, there's no selling point. It was pretty much like a self-explanatory thing. It's like, I'm gonna be with my mom.

• 19:14Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 19:15Speaker 05

  You know, it's just my mom.

• 19:16Steven Rinella?

  So you viewed it like primarily a way to be reunited with your mom.

• 19:19Speaker 05

  Yeah, with my mom and my little brother, you know, because I have a little brother.

• 19:23Steven Rinella?

  Oh, he was here?

• 19:24Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 19:24Steven Rinella?

  I see. Oh, okay. I understand now. Yeah.

• 19:26Speaker 05

  So I was like, it's, this is meant to be like this. And whatever else is up there for me is gonna be there regardless. Then we landed. Next day, wake up, first morning on the stage, it's September. So I'm out there looking, man, like losing my mind on Rick's property, we'll call it the farm. And my mom, she said, and, and I'm gonna mention this to you, they fix some chocolate gravy biscuits. And I was like, this is the greatest day ever on my life. And I mean, I'm dunking them puppies in that gravy, man, you know, just going out, because I never tried it before. First breakfast, excellent. Then mama says, ah, we gotta talk. Rick has to talk to you.

• 20:11Speaker 05

  She was translating, because Rick didn't speak Spanish and I didn't speak English. So she was translating between us. And Rick said, ah, boy. No, is he a good guy? Oh, yeah, yeah, he is. Yeah, it's pretty much the backbone of everything that I have accomplished, pretty much, to be honest. He said, ah, boy, um, we got to put some rules and, and things that you got to accomplish. And I said, so he says, you got ninety days, kind of like on the order, to get a job, get a vehicle, learn Angli- learn, learn some English, get a driver license, and find an apartment.

• 20:51Speaker 05

  And I just kind of laugh at my mom, you know, and she look at me and she is like, he's serious. Like, you got ninety days to make that happen.

• 21:01Speaker 05

  And I was like, well, crap, you know, I waited all these years and now here we are. I, I, I didn't realize I was in a courtroom. You know, like now I got ninety days to make this happen. Man, all, all day long that day, I just couldn't stop thinking like, what am I gonna do? Like literally, what am I gonna do?

• 21:22Speaker 05

  We go eating that night to a Mexican restaurant. Never been before in a Mexican restaurant. We going there and I was so pumped. And on my way back home, it click.

• 21:32Speaker 05

  I said, man, these people speak Spanish, then they speak English. This is it. I didn't even had a way to ride around. So I called my mom and said, Mom, can you take me to the spa? I really want to go and ask for it. She said, ah, we drop to it. Going to where? To the Mexican restaurant. Yeah, we went back next day, next morning. So I looked for the manager and I said, man, I introduced myself and I said, man, um, I really need a job. I will do dishes, I clean the floors, like you tell me, but I need a job. Uh, key word, I do not speak English. He said, okay, cool, man. I really like that attitude. I'm gonna teach you how to wait ta- tables. I was like, dude, I just told you, I don't speak English.

• 22:16Speaker 05

  He's like, don't worry, I'm gonna put you with this girl. She's gonna teach you. Don't worry about it.

• 22:23Speaker 05

  Little that I know, that day I was standing in front of my wife. What? Right there. That's who you're married to? Yeah, that's the lady. And it was like the Billy Madison movie with the child board and all that stuff. That's pretty much what she was teaching me. How to do everything. Huh. And, well, I started getting good at it. And I said, uh, honey, I really like you. Would you like to be my girlfriend? She said, my dad doesn't let me have boyfriends. I was like, what? You know, I said, who's your dad? She said, he's seated out there.

• 22:58Speaker 05

  I said, ah, give me one second, man. I just went straight to him and I introduced myself and I said, sir, I really like your daughter. I would like to see if I can get permission to, to date. Or, or maybe to go in a, on a. Why was he in the restaurant? He was eating. Oh. Yeah, that day, the day that I asked, he was eating on the restaurant. So I said. You said this in Spanish? Yeah, yeah, he, cause he's Mexican. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm asking him, um, can I date your, uh, your daughter? And also, I mean, you're more than welcome to come with us to a movie theater, to another restaurant, it don't matter. And the dude doesn't say nothing. He just staring at me like a pit bull, you know? And I'm there like, is that a yes or no? Like, is this a cultural thing that I'm not aware of?

• 23:43Speaker 05

  So I said, well, sir, thank you so much for your time. And I just came back and. No answer? No, none. And, and, and that's the beginning of one of the craziest ride of my life, like one of the craziest one. And, hmm. Well, when, when did he say yes? He never did. Well, you're married. But yeah, but here's the thing. I go back to her, she said, what did he say? I say, he's, he didn't say nothing. She said, oh my God, I'm in trouble. So I was like, God almighty. Well, next day she doesn't show up to work and I'm kind of nervous. Oh, no. Second day she doesn't. And I was like, dude, I blew it.

• 24:27Speaker 05

  Third day, and I'm just gonna put it out there because everybody knows that like it's not that big of a deal no more. It's a personal story, but it's not a big of a deal no more. But she comes to work and she has a little bit of purple on her side. And I say, what happened to you? She said, well, my dad had a little, like one too many drinks and he kind of like hit me a little too hard because I've been talking to you.

• 24:50Steven Rinella?

  What?

• 24:50Speaker 05

  I say, I say, heck no. I said, do you want to go with me? She said, where? And I said, I don't know. She said, yeah. Dude, the only thing that I needed was a horse.

• 25:04Steven Rinella?

  No way.

• 25:05Speaker 05

  And a cowboy hat to make it look like the western style. And we just left on my truck that day. Oh, well, at the time I already had the truck, but I'm still living with Rick on Rick's house.

• 25:18Steven Rinella?

  Yeah. So you stole her away?

• 25:21Speaker 05

  Well, we.

• 25:22Steven Rinella?

  She needed to. How old was she?

• 25:24Speaker 05

  Uh, 18. She was fixing to be 19.

• 25:27Steven Rinella?

  Wow.

• 25:28Speaker 05

  And I was 22.

• 25:30Speaker 00

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• 26:00Steven Rinella?

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• 26:40Steven Rinella?

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• 27:06Speaker 03

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• 27:21Speaker 05

  We left and I said, "Uh, I gotta talk to my mom." Called my mom and said, "Mom, do you remember that girl that I talked to you about that I like her?" She said, "Yeah."

• 27:32Speaker 05

  "Oh, she's with me." She said, "Okay, what are y'all doing?" I said, "Well, we're running."

• 27:39Speaker 05

  And it was a brave pause. She's like, "In the name of Jesus."

• 27:46Speaker 05

  "In the name of Jesus, you stop where you at? Tell me right now." And I, well, it was a big deal. One of them guys from the restaurant gave her dad my number. And the dude called me furious. "Oh, my gun, I'm gonna kill you." And I said, "Listen, dude, chill."

• 28:05Speaker 05

  I said, "Chill. Let's speak like men, you know, let's, let's just be reasonable about this and let's just talk." Like, "Man, I tried to talk to you once and you didn't talk to me. Let's just talk this time." "I meet you tomorrow at the Walmart up there where I live." And I said, "Ma." My wife's just like, "This is not looking good." I said, "No, no worries, like, I got it." We get to, man, I pull up to the parking lot and I get out of the truck and this dude comes out running, flashing a gun.

• 28:38Speaker 05

  Like losing his mind. And I said, listen, I said, whoa, chill. I said, listen, first and foremost, they're fixing to call the cops. I said, put that thing up. If you're trying to impress me, that's the wrong impression. I said, I came here to talk to you and you're behaving like I don't even know how. Well, then the situation gets weird because the dude starts crying.

• 28:59Steven Rinella?

  Hmm.

• 29:00Speaker 05

  And I was like, well, as the dude just pointed a gun at me, cussing me out. Now he's crying. He start doing the, you know, the Hispanic blessing and all that stuff. He said, I gotta give you the blessing. I'm just kind of like, what's, what's going on with this dude? I mean, he grabs me by my mouth and kissed me in my mouth.

• 29:24Speaker 05

  Her father.

• 29:25Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 29:26Speaker 05

  Dude, I froze in time right there. And I said, hell no, man. That ain't no blessing. Like, what's wrong with you? You know? And, and she was like, no, no, I'm, I'm. Is, I'm sorry. I don't understand. And well, you're taking my little baby and this and that. And I was like, ah, well.

• 29:45Steven Rinella?

  Well, well, back, back up. Your wife views it as a blessing or she doesn't?

• 29:50Speaker 05

  Uh, she, she was like, I, I, I never heard that before.

• 29:54Steven Rinella?

  Is he, is he gay?

• 29:56Speaker 05

  I hope it ain't because that they traumatized me.

• 29:59Steven Rinella?

  Um, so it was an unexpected maneuver on his part?

• 30:02Speaker 05

  Yeah, it was a carbo. I was never expecting. I was like, what's going on?

• 30:06Steven Rinella?

  And your wife wasn't expecting it?

• 30:07Speaker 05

  No, she was just like, boy, this, this. And I was, then my wife.

• 30:11Steven Rinella?

  She was surprised by it?

• 30:12Speaker 05

  Yeah, and she becomes.

• 30:13Steven Rinella?

  Now, are other dudes you know from, are, are other like Latino dudes that you know surprised by that?

• 30:19Speaker 05

  Everybody said that wasn't no blessing. I knew.

• 30:22Steven Rinella?

  Wow, man.

• 30:23Speaker 05

  Everybody's like, dude, that ain't no blessing. I said, that's the first thing I said.

• 30:28Steven Rinella?

  Hmm.

• 30:31Steven Rinella?

  You think it's a show of dominance?

• 30:32Speaker 05

  What kind of dominance? Well, I don't want none of that dominance, you know what I mean like?

• 30:37Speaker 06

  I get the feeling that I heard Pablo's story.

• 30:42Steven Rinella?

  About the kiss?

• 30:43Speaker 06

  Yeah, but my, my, uh, the way I would read it would be that he sounds like he had his own issues. Sounds like maybe he didn't have a plan.

• 30:56Steven Rinella?

  Like you're getting an unstable vibe off him, I am.

• 30:58Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, and then maybe that like he was literally overjoyed that you, such a fine, young, upstanding man, would, you know, want to be with his daughter, and the way that he expressed, expressed himself in that moment was with a kiss.

• 31:17Speaker 05

  That's one way to express himself, and I wish he would have just shook my hand.

• 31:20Steven Rinella?

  That's really something. I would have been thrown by that. I had to go ask my wife, Stad, if I could ask her to get married. He didn't do nothing like that.

• 31:29Speaker 05

  Really? And I was like,

• 31:32Steven Rinella?

  I didn't give him a big old smooch.

• 31:34Speaker 05

  Yeah, I was like, dude, you just like traumatized me for life. I said, from now on, this is-

• 31:40Steven Rinella?

  So how did the interaction end?

• 31:42Speaker 05

  That was it. Well, he just keeps saying some stuff, man, my head was-

• 31:46Steven Rinella?

  He's, he's, but, but how did he, okay, I wanna, I wanna,

• 31:51Steven Rinella?

  this is great, I wanna, I just wanna cover a couple more things, but I just need to understand something.

• 31:58Steven Rinella?

  What, to your knowledge now, looking back on it, what is his state of mind from brandishing a pistol to a blessing, a Catholic blessing, to a kiss?

• 32:12Speaker 05

  I don't understand it.

• 32:13Steven Rinella?

  How many seconds? How many minutes?

• 32:16Speaker 05

  We're talking about, uh, we're talking about five, four or five minutes. It was a blast. You know, the drill came out really good, I mean, really quick. It came out of that truck like if it was a drug bust, you know, just and all that stuff.

• 32:30Steven Rinella?

  By himself?

• 32:31Speaker 05

  Yes, and then he kinda hit a brick wall. I guess because if you think about it on a psychological aspect, he might have done hit a brick wall because he wasn't impressing me, and I was telling him, like, that's the wrong impression.

• 32:42Steven Rinella?

  You weren't intimidated?

• 32:44Speaker 05

  No. You know. Was some part of you wondering if he was gonna shoot you, or did you know he wasn't gonna shoot you? No, I knew, man. You knew he wasn't gonna shoot you? Yeah, I knew he was just bluffing. And it was just the wrong cowboy to mess with, you know? So I was like, man. Then he hits that wall. And he realizes that. Yeah, they like each other's. And she's fixing to go with him. And he starts going that, and then I guess his emotions just went crazy. Is he a part of your life now? No. No. No, I cut ties. I said, man.

• 33:23Speaker 05

  Cause at Christmas later, I was like, hey, man, uh.

• 33:27Speaker 05

  I'm gonna go back to something else. The tension stayed in there. Sure. It was tension, especially from my part, cause I was just looking at him like, you weirdo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Christmas. And he'd hit your wife. Yeah, and Christmas party comes along, he knew that I didn't eat spice food at all. Like spice, spice. You don't like spicy food? Yeah, yeah, I eat some, but not like fire, right? Okay. He fix a plate for me. And he's, uh, he was dynamite with chicken, literally. Like, my nose was running, eyes, I mean, you're talking about, I was having a bad time. And he's just looking, I'm like, how is it? Is it good? And I was like, it's delicious.

• 34:11Speaker 05

  I was, and do, and I cleaned that plate, cause I wasn't gonna let this man. See me fumbling right there. I was like. No, if I'm done, I'm done standing, you know? And it was a try, and she was like, don't eat that no more. And I said, no. I'm not gonna give him the joy. You know, when I'm finishing this. And that day, I was like. This is it. That was it. Yeah, I said, I don't give you many, many chances. And you keep coming, kinda like a trying sucker punch, man. I said, every time that I'm a. You know, pretty much like opening myself up to you. So. After that, I just decided that. For my personal interest, it was better off if I just kinda like kept my distance. Not interfere with the relationship between father and daughter.

• 34:57Speaker 05

  Cause that's none of my business. You know what I mean? Are they still close? Kind of. Yeah. That's a story for a different time. Yeah. Yeah, but. Wow. Welcome to America. Yes, and, and all this happened. Ninety days are up. And I got all the.

• 35:17Steven Rinella?

  So this is all in the ninety day window?

• 35:19Speaker 05

  Yes, yes. And I was thinking like.

• 35:21Steven Rinella?

  You're like, I'll do you one better. I'll find a girl.

• 35:24Speaker 05

  Yeah, and then at the end of the ninety days, I had all the requirements that Rick wanted. Plus, I was moving in to the apartment with my current wife, you know, with my wife. We're moving into.

• 35:36Steven Rinella?

  Driver's license.

• 35:37Speaker 05

  Yes, I was.

• 35:39Steven Rinella?

  Social Security number, job.

• 35:41Speaker 05

  I had, I had a two hour break on the, on the restaurant. So I had a dictionary and the driver license manual. And I was just trying to translate and make sense out of it. I knew how to drive a vehicle, kind of. But.

• 35:57Speaker 05

  I knew that she was gonna ask me a bunch of questions. I failed the test four times, no, three, and I passed it on the fourth one. Cause she, she was like, um, ah, let's do a three point maneuver. And I was like, yes.

• 36:09Speaker 05

  Keep driving.

• 36:12Steven Rinella?

  Cause you didn't know what she said.

• 36:14Speaker 05

  Make it right, make it right. And I was like, okay. Until she was like, pull over, pull over, pulling the, the wheel above me. And then she was like, ah, you sit on the passenger side. And I was like, ah, I failed, you know? What happened? And my mom, what? And I was like, what happened? So what you failed? That's what happened. I was like, oh, so yeah, the fourth time I got it.

• 36:39Steven Rinella?

  So when, uh. When did you, because, because you, you've become a very avid American hunter. Here's, what, when you got to America, so you, we talked about growing up in Costa Rica. And you had like a, you, you had like the drive. And this is an interesting deal. My old man was raised by Italian immigrants. He's raised by his Italian immigrant grandparents. My father. They didn't know, there's no kind of, he, he grew up in the slums in the south side of Chicago. But he knew, he don't know where it came from, but he knew he was supposed to be a fisherman.

• 37:18Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 37:18Steven Rinella?

  And a hunter. And he would go fish on the pier in Lake Michigan. He would go try to jump on a train and ride a train out and try to hunt rabbits along the railroad tracks outside of the city. He just, he was called to it. Right? So you had the calling. When you came to the US, how long did it take for you to put together that you'd landed in like a hunting and fishing paradise?

• 37:40Speaker 05

  It took me a little bit because everything, everything was a process, right? And I was kind of like evolving as I was going and understanding a little bit more at the time. And then I started seeing deer on the side of the road being hit by a car, whatever, alive. And I was like, oh my God. Well, my stepdad's never been a hunter before, ever.

• 38:00Steven Rinella?

  He was a farmer?

• 38:01Speaker 05

  No, he, he had a construction business.

• 38:03Steven Rinella?

  He had a farmer, didn't farm?

• 38:05Speaker 05

  We just call it the farm. Yeah. The only animal in there was my little brother's dog. And so I said, Rick, how do you hunt? And he was like, no, man, you know, you got to have property, you got to have land and, you know, and I was like, really? My mom was kind of translating me. So they turned direct to you. At the time it was direct to you. Remember it was no, no big social media like it is right now. I didn't know anything about anything. Well, it was this deer hunting shows from the promised land, you know, the Midwest. I have no clue.

• 38:40Speaker 05

  Just watching, he was like, these guys, they got thousands of acres, manages. As if anything else, well, there's public land, but if you go public land, everybody's going to be shooting at you. You don't want to go there and all that. I remember about a year or two went by and I was like, man, I really, really wanted like, because I brought my slingshot with me, the frame.

• 39:02Speaker 05

  Now practicing, my little brother had a BB gun and I got a BB gun, man. And I was in the middle, the first thing that Rick told me is like, do not kill anything. I was like, why? He's like, there's rules or regulations. Well, that was another chapter to me, understanding why we do the things that we do right here, right now, why we have laws of conservation? And why do we follow the things that we follow, you know, which was a really good, like, mind opening breath fresh. And I was like, oh my God, these people really do the right thing.

• 39:36Speaker 05

  As it kept going, I was very interested at the time because I was just shooting pellets and clays and things about on the backyards of targets, you know? Well, we're doing a work on a construction business. This gentleman pulls up and he says, man, can I speak with the foreman? I will, I just want to know. He was needing some concrete on the side. Well, they asked me if I wanted to participate on that Saturday and I said, sure. So we go and we're pouring the concrete and all that stuff. My stepdad comes by.

• 40:08Steven Rinella?

  Hold on, I got, you're, you're at a job site.

• 40:10Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 40:11Steven Rinella?

  And another dude shows up to inquire about some concrete work.

• 40:14Speaker 05

  Pretty much to get a, to get a, an estimate. Now you gotta remember, I was on the Mexican.

• 40:19Steven Rinella?

  And you guys take it as a side job and you, you jump in on it.

• 40:22Speaker 05

  Hmm. I was on the Mexican restaurant about three months and I said, you know what? I got it. I'm good. I'm, I'm, I can go through the world. I know how to speak English and I'm, which I didn't, but I was very confident. Like I, now I know what I'm doing. Well, little did I know, man, I go to get a job on construction and I'm going, I'm going to a standard system and I'm coming from a metric system.

• 40:46Steven Rinella?

  Hmm.

• 40:48Speaker 05

  Well, back to square one. And I was like, God almighty, yards, miles, inches.

• 40:55Steven Rinella?

  The dumbest shit in the world, man.

• 40:57Speaker 05

  Everything is just backwards. So I was like, God almighty. Anyways, I get better at it. Uh, it's been three years. I, I started as a groundsman with no experience on anything, didn't understood anything. And I move up to a concrete finisher. So that day we're doing that job. My stepdad comes out. I've been watching the shows, keep constantly watching the shows. My stepdad comes out, he said, son. Let me show you something. He, he's like, come over here. So we go in the back of this property where we pouring the concrete. That's Mr. Tony Miles residence, right?

• 41:36Speaker 05

  We walk on the backside and there is giant hundred and sixty plus ca- uh, class books all over. One seventies, one eighties, state records, you name it. All over on the wall. Yeah. Textur. So, yeah, shoulder mounts and a bunch of uh, euro mounts. So I'm losing my mind, man. Never seen this before. And I was like, oh my God. First thing that came to my mind, I said, he probably sells them. I said, do you sell them? He, Mr. Tony was kind of laughing. He said, no, I don't. I said, where did you kill him? He said, right up there. You know, and I was like, what is that? And I asked my stepdad the name of the place. He's like, well, ask public.

• 42:17Speaker 05

  I was like, oh my God, and I'm admiring and all that stuff. Well, the concrete is drying up, so I have to go back out. Went back, had a brief talk with Mr. Tony and, and uh, man, I came back home and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. How magnificent these animals were, the size, everything. Never seen anything like that before in my life. So, I said, Rick, I really want to go hunt.

• 42:47Speaker 05

  He said, well, first thing you gotta do is take the hunter education course. I said, ah, so I took it online, got it done. That was in twenty thirteen.

• 42:59Speaker 05

  I said, okay. He's like, ah, well. Did they have that in Spanish? You did it in English? No, in English. Yeah. At the time, I was able to comprehend way more than what I was able to speak. Like I could comprehend, but I couldn't speak anything and uh, which I'm still, you know, fumbling here and there, but um, got it done, you know, based on the pamphlet and all that stuff. I said, okay, so you can hunt from this day to this day. You know, from like, October the fifteenth until January the thirtieth, as an example, right? So good. I want a bow like the guys from the show. So they take me to a big box store, man. And they're trying to give me a right-handed bow, but I'm left-handed.

• 43:45Speaker 05

  So, so I'm grabbing the thing like this. It doesn't feel good. And I'm like, no, I can't. Eventually they found a left-handed bow.

• 43:54Speaker 05

  And the so-called technician is called another technician who is calling another technician just to try to help me set it up. Said the peep sign and I said, I'm going home. Man, I go home to set the boat, watch a few videos and I said, I'm gonna set it up. The first shot that smoked my forearm. I mean, I'm talking about like that. And put several shots through the siding of the house. Uh, several errors disappear. But the grace of God, there was no neighbors. Because I sent a lot of broadheads to it. They just say, you know? And I got good. Well, it's been three years. Well, hold on, because this is one. It's a shame, but I, I went to Walmart.

• 44:38Speaker 05

  It's my first day. First day ever, man. I'm ready, I'm gonna do an evening hunt. So I go to Walmart and I told the lady on the hunting section, can I get some sand deer scent? You know, because these dudes are spraying all the time in the shows.

• 44:52Steven Rinella?

  Okay.

• 44:53Speaker 05

  She said, okay, deer scent? And I said, yes. And she said, do you pee? And I said, yes. You know, like, what do I know? She gives me a big bottle, man. I go, jump out the truck. And I, that's what these guys are doing. And the first pump, I was like, God almighty. I said, this crap is just taut.

• 45:15Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 45:16Speaker 05

  But I just go at it, man.

• 45:18Steven Rinella?

  Soaking yourself in that deer piss.

• 45:19Speaker 05

  And I'm gagging, well, it was doe estrus. Later that I know these dudes are spraying with sand killer, man. I didn't know the difference. You know, so that was a really rough lesson that day. I was like, don't spray this crap on yourself. You know what I mean? I was like, God. Man, made it home. And I walk in, she said, how did it go get out? What is the smell? And I was like, that's what they use. And she was like, nobody's using that kind of crap. What's wrong with you? Anyways, you know, I had to get rid of that thing and. I was mimicking what I was watching in the shows.

• 46:01Speaker 01

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• 46:32Steven Rinella?

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• 47:12Steven Rinella?

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• 47:38Speaker 03

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• 47:53Steven Rinella?

  So how long has you hunted for? You got a deer?

• 47:55Speaker 05

  How long? It's been three years.

• 47:58Steven Rinella?

  So at this point, you hunt?

• 47:59Speaker 05

  Three long seasons, mimicking what they do. All bow hunting? Yeah. On Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, down here in Alabama.

• 48:10Steven Rinella?

  You're taking those moves and you're hunting in Alabama?

• 48:12Speaker 05

  I mean, it's like... Halloween and I'm entered and rather than they don't run until January, right? Never saw a thing until finals start seeing deer poop and I was like, at the time I had a phone and I was like, how those deer poop looks like? And I was like, oh my God, I'm on, I was like, I'm getting very close and um, never seen a thing. So I said, Rick, something's gonna have to change, man. I said, do you remember Mr. Tony? He said, yeah. I said, do you know if he still lives in there? He said, I don't know.

• 48:46Speaker 05

  I said, I'm gonna go, I know the concrete, so I'm gonna go find him. He said, oh, I, man, I'll go up there.

• 48:55Speaker 05

  And look at the house, find the concrete. And I said, that's him, that's the house. Doesn't seem to be nobody. And I said, ah, two things, something is gonna happen. I'm gonna find Mr. Tony, or I'm gonna catch around. You know, I'm gonna fix and get shot. Knock on the front door, nobody. And I was like, I remember we went on the back. Now I was just bracing myself for the impact, you know, because it's the South, you know how it goes. And then if you use stereotypes, it has an accent, it has the taste, you know what I mean? So I said, here we go. Went back there, knocked on the door. Ms. Donna comes out. She's like, can I help you? And I was like, hello, hey, do you remember me? No.

• 49:39Speaker 05

  No, who are you? I said, is Mr. Tony home? She said, he's, uh, he's honey. He'll be back later on.

• 49:47Speaker 05

  So I, I'll be back. I just went inside on the party for like six hours.

• 49:52Speaker 05

  And then I seen his truck pull in. I said, ah, here we go. Pulled back in. Man, he recognized me. Oh, yeah? Hey buddy, coming in. Yeah, I remember. Man, it's been three years. Then I start talking with Tony and uh, he realized that I was a grown man with the experience of a three-year-old kid on the woods. And, and he said, man, we got a lot of work to do.

• 50:20Speaker 05

  Uh, we're gonna start from zero. I said, all right.

• 50:25Speaker 05

  Do you know your feet trees? And I was like, what is that? Do you know your uh seasons, the rut? And I was like, what is the rut? Man, feeding wise and all that stuff, I ended up getting a book that says Alabama plants and bushes, you know, like native. Uh huh. Just to get a better understanding of all the different species. He was like, okay, this is a white oak, this is a red oak. I had no clue. And when, you know, whenever they get full of acorns, they're fixing to drop. And I was like, what are they gonna drop? He was like, acorns. And I was like, what is an acorn? It was like this. And I was like, what is it? A deer is gonna eat it? And the process went like that. Next year, I'm sitting on this piece of public.

• 51:08Speaker 05

  First time ever, a deer. Well, I was climbing. At the time, I was wearing a steel climber. Mm hmm. Bad choice. Cause you climb about a hundred yards from the truck, man, circulations to your arms, everything is cut, like this, everything is purple. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's so heavy. And climb up and there is a deer. Like, I can actually see a, and he has antlers, man. So I never understood this, buck fever. Mm hmm. Man, I thought I was having a heart attack. Like, I couldn't stop shaking, my blood pressure was up to the roof. And I was like, oh my God, this is it, this is it. And the thing comes riding like textbook.

• 51:53Speaker 05

  Ain't no telling where I send that arrow, man. There's, there's no telling where that arrow went to. The thing takes a running. And I was like, looking at the arrow and the deer just disappears.

• 52:12Speaker 05

  Dude, it's been three years. How old are you now? Well, I was like, twenty five, twenty six. And I'm not gonna lie.

• 52:23Speaker 05

  I cry like a kid that day. Cause I was like. This is what it is. Like this is what it was. Like it just came down to this moment. On tears of joy or frustration? Frustration. And I was like, and I blew it. That guy blew it out of the water. Well. I came home heartbroken. Told my wife, I ain't never doing this again. Period. You were done. What happened? I said, I missed deer, seen deer and he had antlers and I missed. She said, well, just try harder. And I was like, it's not that easy, you know? She doesn't hunt.

• 53:04Speaker 05

  About three days later.

• 53:07Speaker 05

  I was off the whole week. She says, you're not going back to the woods. And I said, no, I'm not. I'm done with that. Never ever again. She said, just go and walk and kind of clear your mind and. No. She left to work in about.

• 53:24Speaker 05

  Twelve, twelve thirty.

• 53:28Speaker 05

  I said, you know what? She's right. I'm just gonna go for a walk. So I went back to the place. Where I missed Luke up and I was like about to cry again. I was like, I had him right here. Walked about a hundred yards south. Sat on the ground. How far was that shot that you missed?

• 53:45Speaker 05

  Thirteen, fourteen yards. Like he was right there. Yeah, yeah. And. I had a. Sure, man. We've all been there.

• 53:55Speaker 05

  Man. You don't need to be Costa Rican to miss, man. We've all missed all kinds of stuff. Oh, yeah. And I I sat on the ground that day, that evening. I said, screw it. I'm just gonna sit here for the evening. And I remember this like if it was yesterday, man. I had a tree stump behind me, a log and a previous head. I'm just pretty much in the same position that I'm at right now. Looking at. It was a trail, but I have no idea that it was a trail. That was the opening right here. So I was sitting here with a little bit of sand and a stick, just kind of like. Making the time go a little bit faster. Next thing I know, I heard some footsteps and I said, that's a squirrel.

• 54:36Speaker 05

  And I look up and the same bug, that small eight pointer is walking my way. So I was like, dude, and well, I'm on panic mode. I cannot get my release on the bow. I'm shaking so bad. I'm having a seizure attack, man. And I'm On the ground. Yes, seated. And next thing I know, that bug is right there, man, like right there, just looking at me. Like how far? Ten, twelve again. Dodging his head all around? Yeah, bobbing his head. Like, what is that thing? Man, I don't remember seeing the peep side. I don't remember aiming. I just know I did this and I heard that thump. Boom, that thing, moon kicks, takes up running. And I thought that I seen him pile up because I seen him kind of like going. And I was like, oh, my God.

• 55:21Speaker 05

  All right, now panic set scene because I was like, they're gonna find us both dead right here. Like, I'm fixing to have a heart attack. You know what I mean? Settle myself down a little bit, went to the arrow, man. The arrow's covered up with blood. And I said, I gotta get out of here now. So I got out. Called my wife and I was like, honey, I'll kill him.

• 55:42Speaker 05

  Instead of being supportive, she's like, are you sure? Like, you sure you should, like, you you kill him? Like, you didn't miss like last time? And she got on my head bad, man. And I was like, you know what? She she might have been right. I could have just spooked him. I don't even know if I hit him. Man, man, talk about a pickle, you know? Well, at the time, I didn't have onyx.

• 56:10Speaker 05

  My, the only light that I have was my cellphone. So I'm trying to find this stump. It's already dark. And I'm trying to find this stump where I was sitting. To go look for my arrow. To try to find the deer. You can't even remember where you were, let alone where the deer was. Clue. About two hours go by. I was like, right here, there it is. The arrow's torching blood. I was like, oh, my God, I hit the thing. I hit him. And I, man. I keep looking and looking. Well, there was a blood trail about this big, and I just keep walking over and never saw it, you know? I was about to start crying again. Next thing you know, that bug was like maybe from here to where Reba's at. Just out there. Reba. Yeah. And, um.

• 56:55Speaker 05

  Lost my mind, drag him out, the first thing I did, went to Tony's house. He was so pumped about it, man. You take the buck and show them. Yeah, he was like, it's nothing but a small, two and a half year old, uh, eight point basket, eight pointer. I showed them out that buck. I swear to God, cuz he was, is the first deer that I ever shot in my life. And it was a buck.

• 57:21Speaker 05

  So I showed them, I got him out there in the house. And after that, you know, the processes start getting better. Now I'm hooked. You were hooked at birth, man. Yes, but, but this is like, I don't, like, I was able to taste it, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And you, you, did you just get your, you got your biggest buck to date this year? Day before Christmas. On public land here? The first one, I got it. Oh, on the day before Christmas, so you got last. No, I'm sorry, day before Thanksgiving. This year? The biggest buck ever in my life happened on Halloween. And little did I know, three weeks later, I was gonna kill the biggest buck ever. You know, I broke my PB, if we can say it like that, two times. This not both on public ground? Yes, this year. Can I see a picture? Yeah, sure.

• 58:06Speaker 05

  And I'm gonna show you the one that I killed the day before Thanksgiving. So this is the second biggest buck? Mm-hmm. I was like, a man, you ain't never gonna make this happen again, and, uh, next thing you know.

• 58:23Speaker 05

  This, hold on, this one is acting, there it is.

• 58:27Speaker 05

  Holy cow, man. Yeah, man. That's Alabama public buck. That's an Alabama public land giant. I'll say. Look, look at the one right here. Here, Reva, film that with your camera. Look the inside spread of that thing.

• 58:45Speaker 06

  How, how, how wide is it?

• 58:47Speaker 05

  Nineteen and a half. That's a cool picture. Film that with your camera, Reva, you wanna film something?

• 58:56Steven Rinella?

  You getting a good shot of it?

• 58:59Steven Rinella?

  Dude, you know what I like about all that? I mean, I like everything about that story.

• 59:04Steven Rinella?

  But the biggest thing is, this is an observation I make all the time.

• 59:09Steven Rinella?

  And I've mentioned it a bunch. It doesn't matter where you go in the country. And we, me and Yan even fortunate to go everywhere, all over the place, talking to guys that hunt, talking to guys that fish, everywhere around the country. Everywhere you go, there's two kinds of guys. And man, they live next door to each other.

• 59:27Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 59:28Steven Rinella?

  There's the guys that like, it all sucks now. Fishing game ruined it. The mung ruined it.

• 59:36Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 59:37Steven Rinella?

  The wolves ruined it. The out of staters ruined it. It all sucks. Da, da, da, right?

• 59:44Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 59:46Steven Rinella?

  And next door to him. Everywhere you go in the country is the guy that can't scratch the surface. There's so much to do and he's so excited to be alive. And he can't get to it all.

• 59:59Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 59:59Steven Rinella?

  And you're that guy.

• 1:00:00Speaker 05

  Nah, I appreciate it.

• 1:00:02Steven Rinella?

  I like that, man.

• 1:00:04Speaker 05

  The crazy thing is that. You know, after, well, Mr. Tony introduced me with Mr. Michael Perry, Mr. Jamie McCain, the ball keeps on rolling, Parker McDonald, Daniel Williams, and everybody just started like pitching in, you know, to.

• 1:00:18Steven Rinella?

  To educate you.

• 1:00:19Speaker 05

  To educate me, yes. And I started learning from all these killers, man. Like everybody's like, ah, doing good. This, a lesson that Mr. Tony taught me, and I think it was the most valuable thing that I, he could have said to me, he was. You gotta put some deer under your belt.

• 1:00:37Steven Rinella?

  Hmm.

• 1:00:39Speaker 05

  Don't think that you're gonna just go out there and shoot one of these.

• 1:00:42Steven Rinella?

  Just get it figured out.

• 1:00:43Speaker 05

  Yes. I was at, I'm. So I kill a bunch of spikes. A bunch of them and those and four pointers and just keep shooting with my bow with the rifle. If it was legal. I was shooting it.

• 1:00:57Steven Rinella?

  Just to learn, yeah.

• 1:00:58Speaker 05

  Yes. And he was like, eventually it's gonna click.

• 1:01:03Speaker 05

  Well, I had several encounters with really big deer, couldn't take a shot, couldn't got busted. Uh, five years ago, Christmas is gonna be five years ago, put a shot on that monster with my bow. He was running, man, and I hit him a little too far back. I couldn't stop it. I was like, ma, ma, ma, ma. We got dogs that I shot them up by nine o'clock in the morning. It was like four o'clock in the in the morning next day.

• 1:01:30Steven Rinella?

  Never found them.

• 1:01:31Speaker 05

  Never, man. The blood went dry. Heartbreaker.

• 1:01:35Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:35Speaker 05

  But.

• 1:01:37Speaker 05

  It was incredible. It was one of the best moments ever because I was like, good. That confirms, you know, that what I've been learning and the process that I've been following is actually paying off now. Now, I'm I took like, put a step inside of what these guys do, you know, like I had an encounter.

• 1:01:54Steven Rinella?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:01:55Speaker 05

  And it's really good that I have this experience because now I can relate with them because this will happen and is going to happen.

• 1:02:01Steven Rinella?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:02:02Speaker 05

  You know?

• 1:02:02Steven Rinella?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:02:03Speaker 05

  Um, I think that killing that deer would have steer me on the wrong direction. I could have got cocky. Oh, I don't got it all figured out.

• 1:02:14Steven Rinella?

  Oh, I got you.

• 1:02:15Speaker 05

  I just killed and all, you know what I mean? So it was a very humbling experience. There's a lot more work to do.

• 1:02:22Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:22Speaker 05

  And it has to start with myself practicing throughout the whole year. Um. Then. Well, one of those days with Daniel, Rick and my mom, they gave me my first rifle ever in my life. Ever. Never owned one of our arms. It's a thirty oh six Remington seventy seven thirty oh six.

• 1:02:43Speaker 05

  Then throughout the years, I've been having issues missing, you know, so I was like, kind of weird. Then Daniel said like. When was the last time you saw this thing in?

• 1:02:52Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, he told me about this.

• 1:02:53Speaker 05

  Yeah, and I was like, what? What do you mean signing? Little that I know, you know, you gotta take this coat to range and I have no clue. I thought they just go out there.

• 1:03:04Steven Rinella?

  Cause it was it was it was brought to you with a scope on it.

• 1:03:06Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, I just thought that you put that cross where he's at and because, man, I had a doe, I hit it. Boom, and she hunch over.

• 1:03:16Speaker 05

  And I went crazy, man, and it looked like a battlefield, like dirt just blowing all over her. You know, she was kind of like hopping around. I just kept shooting, reloading four more shots in the magazine. I end up entering 12 shots that day.

• 1:03:31Speaker 05

  And I was like, what's going on? I bet you everybody in that public piece was like, what's going on in the holler? You know, and to make it short, man, I never found the doe. Hmm, never did, you know. Learned your lesson there too. Yeah, that's I said, Daniel, he said, what happened? I said, I missed. And then that's when he brought up like, when was the last time you saw this thing? So what I mean, he's like, you shot at a target, say a deer? He's like, wait, like a target. I say, I never like, I just took it and went hunting. He was like, oh my God, no.

• 1:04:11Speaker 05

  Man, it was like your typical goodwill, $29.99 scope. You know, you gotta try to like, you spend five minutes trying to find the thing. Finally you find it and it looks awful. Yeah. I thought that's what it was. Yeah. And it was pretty funny. It was a very fun experience. Yeah. Well, Pablo, listen, man, we gotta get ready for the show. This is awesome to talk to you though. I know, man. It's a, this is a very unique opportunity. I really appreciate you guys. I'd like to have you on and tell more of the hunting stories, but that's a good background primer right there.

• 1:04:43Speaker 06

  Yeah, the enthusiasm is both like jealousy inducing and motivating, you know?

• 1:04:50Speaker 05

  Appreciate it.

• 1:04:52Speaker 06

  I think part of the thing that we sometimes battle, at least I do, is because we get to do it so much. I sometimes find myself like, I'm like, I should be more excited in this moment. I just got to kill another beautiful mule deer buck in the mountains of whatever western state.

• 1:05:07Speaker 05

  Man, man.

• 1:05:08Speaker 06

  And I'm here in the moment, but like, I don't have the enthusiasm that you're experiencing for shooting spikes and does.

• 1:05:16Speaker 05

  Man, I get it with the doe, like as we speak, I get laser sharp on the moment. As soon as that arrow or that bullet leaves, it's like a dump of it. I don't know. Yeah, I got you. And this, oh man, this has been the best it's ever. Two bucks out of state.

• 1:05:36Speaker 05

  I gotta give a shout to Clay really quick. Gave me his bibs, got Clay's Newcombs bibs.

• 1:05:42Steven Rinella?

  They've been working for you.

• 1:05:43Speaker 05

  Didn't even wash them. I said, I ain't even gonna wash them because it got Clay's luck. Put them on. Went to Kansas by myself, just jumped on my truck and drove. Shot a buck. Called a friend, they're like, ah, man, nice, we're heading to Missouri. I said, can I join? Yeah. Went down to Missouri, shot a buck. Threw steel with my bow, came home and shot two. One of them being that big one, the rib I was showing y'all.

• 1:06:09Steven Rinella?

  Great.

• 1:06:09Speaker 05

  With, with all of them with Clay's bibs on.

• 1:06:12Steven Rinella?

  Excellent, man.

• 1:06:13Speaker 05

  So the man has something, you know, I've never been superstitious, but.

• 1:06:18Speaker 06

  I might have to give a.

• 1:06:19Steven Rinella?

  There are Clay's. I want, I want to welcome you to America, man.

• 1:06:21Speaker 05

  Thank you, man.

• 1:06:22Steven Rinella?

  Welcome to meteor life.

• 1:06:23Speaker 05

  Thank you, man. Thank you.

• 1:06:25Steven Rinella?

  All right, buddy.

• 1:06:25Speaker 05

  I appreciate y'all. Y'all have a good one.

• 1:06:55Steven Rinella?

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• 1:07:35Steven Rinella?

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• 1:08:32Steven Rinella?

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