George Blitch: 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Son of a Blitch podcast. I'm your host, George Blitz, and I'm here with my right hand man, my BDT and co-host for today, Matthew Mitchell. How are you doing today, man? Pretty good. How are you?

Matthew Mitchell: 0:11

doing.

George Blitch: 0:12

Doing fantastic man. So for those who are looking at the both of us right now, you might see that Matthew Mitchell is a familiar face here. We do a lot of stuff with wild game series, we're interviewing a bunch of chefs, and we also have a bunch of mostly audio only podcasts, because we'll be out at the ranch talking about our hunting experiences. And so this year 2023, got off to a ridiculously amazing start. You know, matthew and I have been working throughout this entire year, up until when hunting season started for us in October with our managed lands deer program, so we can hunt to the last day of September, to the very last day of February, and so that very beginning of October we went out there to the ranch with our friend, johnny Boots Actually, it's Johnny Bolts now. Right, johnny Bolts?

Matthew Mitchell: 1:04

Yes, he changes often, yes, and he did join us. So we so George and I the way we look at the entire year is we have what we call work trips, and then you have the hunting trips, and so pretty much every month we go out there for the work trips. And John was able to join I think he actually started joining in July, if I remember correctly and so he you know he was kind of scheduled, if you will, to be able to hunt with us in October. So we did our work trips and now it's October and all three of us are out there.

George Blitch: 1:43

Yeah, and so the goal was to get him his first deer, his first large game animal, in fact his first animal he had been up until that time in July. He hadn't fired a rifle, hadn't fired a pistol. I think he'd had maybe a BB gun, you know, and maybe some you know stuff like that. Yeah, but nothing as far as like a true center fire or, you know, you know, a rimfire rifle. So we got him in. I think we started him off in the 22, you know, near 22.

Matthew Mitchell: 2:09

I believe.

George Blitch: 2:09

so, I think we set up like the 25 or 50 yarder kind of.

Matthew Mitchell: 2:13

Yeah, we actually did a podcast at that time. So you know, we can, obviously you can go back and kind of hear how excited we were about his ability to shoot. I mean, he was incredible from the from out the gate, and I think you started with a 22 and then went straight to a 30 out of six after that.

George Blitch: 2:30

And I think he had bullseye, bullseye, bullseye at 100, bullseye at 200, bullseye at 300. And you know sometimes it's really about your mentorship and who brings you to the dance. You know how good of a dance you're going to have. And I mean I'm not going to pat ourselves on the back, but you know I'm saying.

George Blitch: 2:47

But you know some boom, yeah, no he was really cool about that and you know we talk about in the podcast I won't go too much into it there, but the idea of when you're talking to someone, there's certain people who really they want to follow those steps and read about them ahead of time. So kind of like you know the idea of picking up your you know user manual for whatever you know thing you have, you know piece of technology, and reading it first and so you have like an understanding when you bring it into play.

George Blitch: 3:12

He did such an amazing job of being able to really compartmentalize all that information and whenever he got out and the way he was breathing when he was, you know, going to fire and stuff, so it felt like for him and how you know he learns, that was a very important thing because he was just able to turn that on. So you know, the first thing we do before we go on a hunt is to make sure our rifles are sighted in. So we went over to the bench, you know we each took shots 100, 200, 300, make sure we're still on. All of our rifles were. So we knew we're ready and I think we kind of were hoping to keep him under 200 with a fresh shot. I mean, I know, growing up, 100 was where you started or under. And you know, in a lot of places for the first time, 100, that seems to be like kind of, you know, key.

Matthew Mitchell: 4:02

The way he was showing he could shoot, though, and just the he has a calmness to him when, in that situation, I think you and I already felt like 200 would be okay. You know, and you know we talked a lot about hunting and a lot about the blinds and the situations you can be in, and we were talking a lot about, like, how to position the gun and the blinds and like there was a lot of preemptive conversation for his comfort level, and so I think we even drove around some of the work trips, opened up some of the blinds and sort of set the rifles on and gave him sort of a test opportunity, just to get a sense of what it'd be like you know, and that's a great thing.

George Blitch: 4:40

I think that I had failed to do that with new hunters for many years until one day I kind of saw someone who was shooting off. When, like on the bench, they were shooting, perfect, I'm like what's happening? And then I was like I'm going to go look at their setup in the blind and whatever it is whether you have shooting sticks or things you got to practice with how you're actually going to be performing, right, it's like you need to go and see that, especially if you're mentoring anybody, go and see how they're setting up. Oh, here's a suggestion get this arm up here so you have a second level and, okay, put it in the corner of that. So you have you know different things that you're doing to make sure that someone has the most steady rest possible, right?

George Blitch: 5:18

So, anyway, we go ahead and we do all that, and I think the thing we're also talking about trying to, you know, keep that under 200, obviously, and maybe even closer, is the idea that you know, when you have a live breathing animal in front of you and you know that the shakes that you could get, we just don't know what he's going to perform like when it's a live animal versus target right. It's just first one. So we kind of set up and we went and took one to the color blind and that one was one that I think the there's a feeder. That's about 162 yards, it's 162.

George Blitch: 5:52

Yeah, so then and it's fenced in. So we have those. We used to have a protein feeder in there. Now it's just corn, but we had fenced it in to keep the hogs out. And you know, every now and then you get a big hog that'll get that one little corn. It's knocked down. But that was something that we knew. We had corned the roads and so in there you kind of have Kind of a V is looking out and then you have two on your far right and far left at kind of your 90s.

George Blitch: 6:17

So you have like you know you basically have a really good swatch of four different lanes In between. If you've got the V in front of you, the right V and then the far right lane, you know you've actually in between the middle V's is you have a pond, so there's a lot of action coming in. You can see about 200 yards On the middle V and then on the far right and left you're about like 300, you know visibility but you got some high grass and stuff.

Matthew Mitchell: 6:43

I'm gonna say the way, the way we cut it this year. I think pretty much every shot was 200 or in, basically, and we try to usually the grass and everything.

George Blitch: 6:53

And it's tough, though, because we had issues with a tractor being down and we had issues with you know more and all sorts of stuff, to where we couldn't really mow as much as we wanted. But it was really cool, and we kind of been talking about this too, is it? Certain areas we had mowed earlier, like way at the very beginning of the year, and so there was, you got the big brush and then you have, almost, like this, medium high grass these may be three or four feet, and then we have the stuff that was mowed and it kind of gave that Transitional buffer zone that a lot of animals stopped in before.

Matthew Mitchell: 7:23

There's really that it was.

George Blitch: 7:24

I really liked hunting with that, you know.

Matthew Mitchell: 7:26

Yeah, because I think it even slowed, that I ended up seeing like a rather large buck somewhere maybe five and a half years old, six and a half years old, and it actually gave Me probably another five to ten seconds with that buck because he did sort of slow down in that transitional zone. And so if that was the right moment for me to pull up the gun and put the scope on everything, I had a had a little bit more time there and that was kind of nice because with those big bucks or, let's say, a pig or or even a predator coming through, that they move fast and you have to be ready and you they're not just gonna Wait for you at all, and so you're, you're in a window of 15 to 25 seconds most likely, if not less, you know. And so that transitional zone was really interesting because it definitely slowed down. Every animal I whether again, whether it's pig or coyote or deer, it all of them slowed down because of it.

George Blitch: 8:28

Yeah, yeah, no, it's. It was really neat. In fact. I remember I talked with Lindsay Thomas, who's the chief communications officer I believe it is a CCO with National Deer Association and we talked about that particular thing. I can you saying one of the big benefits is being able to have this buffer zone he had a particular name for that that kind of thing between your big woods and then you know your open areas. But you know we got and got to see that, you know, by default of Right to get everything mode, but I think that's something that will continue to do Absolutely, you know, in future years. It seems to be a nice little you know kind of buffer there, but you know, getting back to the hunt there, so I went up I mean he had gone with you the first two hunts.

Matthew Mitchell: 9:10

That's right. And one of the hunts we actually had a nice dough. She was inside the feeder pin, basically, and you know it was his first time putting the crosshairs on a dough and you know, I think he, I Think he felt good at some points and didn't others in terms of comfort level. But yeah, 20 minutes with that, with that dough and you know I'm only giggling because, like I, I would have this is probably been my first time too, doing the same thing, where now like 20 minutes seems like an eternity with a deer in front of you. But you know, I said, if it's not right, don't do it. You, we've got. This is your first night. There's a first. I mean, this is your first time and we have another five or six coming up on this trip.

Matthew Mitchell: 9:56

So just continue to put the gun up and keep doing, you know, keep practicing, going through the motions and just get comfortable. Don't pull, don't pull that trigger until you're comfortable and ready. You know, yeah, and so we finished that hunt. No shot was fired. But I think he was able to kind of learn a few things in that in that moment, for when he sat with you after those two hunts with me, you, I think that's when he was probably finally really truly ready, you know yeah, yeah, well, and it's funny to remember we got back to he said something about he's like I don't know.

George Blitch: 10:27

I just I also didn't want it to be over so quick.

Matthew Mitchell: 10:30

Right, yeah, he wanted to enjoy more time.

George Blitch: 10:32

What's that old adage like don't pass on the first day that you wish you'd had on the last? Like you know, it's this idea, that, but it happens to a lot of hunters too. It's like I've had that happen too. Or it's like, well, okay, that's that I was playing on, get one big buck and it showed up early. And it's like no, that was the first time, first 15 minutes.

Matthew Mitchell: 10:50

Like did not expect for it to go that way, but that deers down. How do?

George Blitch: 10:54

you down.

Matthew Mitchell: 10:56

That's the good feeling never know you can't pass them that pass it up, you know, so you know it's.

George Blitch: 11:00

It's. It's funny because you know when we go on our longer hunt here we go to South Texas and we kind of have you know five days where it's. You know You're like that you might see a coal buck or something that we're looking at, but what might happen tomorrow? And it's just, you know, sometimes you don't ever get back to that opportunity, even for you know A deer that might be at that age, class or that size or whatever it is. I mean, you know we're trying to fill freezers with as much meat as possible, but yeah, it's, it's one of those things you got to. You know kind of compute it, but it's good because we were seeing a lot of deer and I think it's good that he got comfortable with that idea.

George Blitch: 11:35

So you know that that third hunt he came in with me and I brought in my good camera and I was gonna try to film his first time, you know, hoping that you know someone show up and you know we got out there and I think we're probably about an hour in and you know we're texting back and forth.

George Blitch: 11:51

I think you were starting to see a little bit movement and then we were seeing some stuff and then a group of Doe were over at the feeder and then there were some that were coming out from the other side, was all on this kind of like center left lane and we're seeing a lot of action there and before you know it it's like they all kind of were congregated out the road and Right on the edge of kind of the woods there and I guess that probably about 150 to 160 yards there where it was. And so he this one, that there were two dough and one was bigger than the other and it was coming out. We had a little weird gate when it was walking Couldn't see an injury like externally, so it's not like, you know, there was some wound or something like that, but it definitely had some. Maybe it had hurt, it's you know, it's hoped for something or maybe it was something higher up.

Matthew Mitchell: 12:45

But it was the one that had the gate. Are you saying that was the bigger of the two?

George Blitch: 12:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, cause that's the that's the one that I was like go, you should go for that one. And he's just like gimpy and y'all. We all have to play the audio commentary because we we're recording this part. Yeah, maybe I'll do like a pause here and go, but yeah, so funny, it is hilarious.

Matthew Mitchell: 13:06

He's like I don't know about shooting gimpy gimpy from our first deer I was like if there's something wrong with the gimpy deer in terms of the meat or whatever. You know this is hilarious.

George Blitch: 13:16

It's tainted.

Matthew Mitchell: 13:17

Tainted. No, it was so freaking funny.

George Blitch: 13:20

And I'm sitting there we're giggling man, we're like cause I couldn't keep straight. I'm sitting there trying on the camera and, like all professional, it's like you're laughing at him or with him. And so, yeah, we ended up. You know, eventually it was like he was about to take the shot. You know I hear the safety go off. He's like ready, or you know he's, he's about to take that shot. And then they're too young, maybe one and a half year old, doe memory serves that are off on one side and they kind of come in and then they get right in front of the deer.

Matthew Mitchell: 13:52

He's going for old gimpy, and he's, he's finally getting settled on the idea. Yeah, and it's like oh, there's. He's like, oh no, I'm like wait, wait, wait, wait.

George Blitch: 14:01

You know it's like, and he knows too, you know it's like I just externally said it, but he's like we're waiting and then eventually the that deer passes and so it's like, okay, green light, you know, and he fires a shot and that thing, you can see it take the hit, kind of spin around and then run off into the woods and they all kind of were off in the woods and we're like whoa, okay, well, then that's kind of when the clock starts, right. So we'd like to give them at least 30 minutes before we're going and looking for, you know, the animal that we've shot, right, unless it something falls right over. And then you know it's still the first thing you do reload, get back on there in case it tries to get up again, cause I've known cases where it's gotten up, walked off, and no one ends up with anything you know, and might end up with a wounded animal, which is the last one.

Matthew Mitchell: 14:47

So real quick. What was it he? You know he, he fires it, he fires the shot and, like, I think, any person who hasn't hunted very much or first time shooting an animal, you put the crosshairs on, you pull the trigger, but you just don't know if you hit it, cause you're just not experienced enough to like kind of know that you hit the animal, what, like, how, what was his reaction afterwards? And like how it like, could you like just his body language, like, what was he like in that in that first 10 minutes after the shot?

George Blitch: 15:19

You know, I think there he kind of he didn't have like the shakes or anything. He's like I came to, that just happened. And then one of the things that we I was like how did you feel about the shot? And he's like I felt good, I was like I could see that the animal was hit the way it, you know, kind of felt so he did see it, yeah, I did.

George Blitch: 15:37

I don't know if he I can't remember if he fully saw it I think he's like he felt he felt like it was good. So at least he felt the setup was good. Whether he kept the scope on it or whatever else, I can't really fully recall, and that doesn't matter, because it was gone pretty quick. He saw it run off so, but I think he meant to pick his head up after and kind of saw it run off and I was like reload, you know, and kind of you know, cause I think that first time you're shooting too, you're kind of like whoa, that just happened, you're not trained and necessarily like shoot, put another one in, right, you know. And so it's like just in case it comes back out or whatever, or goes that next lane. So I'm kind of leaning back too because of how we're kind of set up, in case it comes out in that other lane and I got my rifle at the ready to in case it goes far right, and I need to take a shot form. So it'd be harder for him to get it over me. So we're, you know, we're kind of all prepped and whatnot for for any situation there. But then we realize, you know, there's no deer moving, there is nothing out, we can't see anything, nothing is crossing the road. So it's like, okay, we think it ran back behind the pond, which then would not give us a view, because if it ran kind of behind that right V that we're on, he shot on the left V and so if it ran behind the pond it we wouldn't be able to see it, cause we only have visual to about 200 something yards and so it would have been behind that. So again we're like okay, and I'm like, well, we got the camera here, let's rewind and let's take a look at what just happened. And we were wind and we're looking at the footage and to me and to him, when we slowed it down, it looks like the shot is behind his intended area, which was heart long, and that it was maybe a gut shot, and then that timer resets.

George Blitch: 17:23

So for those who maybe know or don't know, rather, if you have a gut shot it could still be a lethal shot, it could still be a mortal shot, but it may take longer for that animal to die. So you know, you shoot a heart shot. I mean, I shot a heart shot before in a deer, right in the center heart and it still walked a hundred yards before it fell over and I mean it was bleeding the entire way, basically blood out, and that was a heart shot. You would think heart shot, boom down. No, not always the case. Lungs too, you know. Sometimes it may run a hundred yards. It's like adrenaline, all the things that are going through their body Right. So even though their ticker's gone well, with that being a potential gut shot or something a little further back, maybe a different, you know, organs there, we decided we'd give it more time. And so, you know, keep looking back at this footage and it's how it starts to creep in, probably a little bit.

George Blitch: 18:18

It's like then it's like, oh, it looks like it back here in the way that the body folded and ah man, and so we waited. So normally it would be 30 minutes going down, right, and if it runs off and that way it's given time to expire and I guess around that 40 minute mark I think we're going to maybe try to push to an hour because the weather wasn't too bad. To where you know, it's what I'm going to be like a media spoilage. It wasn't like it was, you know, super hot, and so right around that time I'm looking out and I start to see some deer funneling out of the right V and probably about 220 yards are coming out of the brush and they're starting to just stay along that brush line, which is about 200 to 218 yards there, depending on where we are.

George Blitch: 19:13

On that visual and you've probably got about a maybe a 75 yard swatch of space you're looking at I see a decent sized doe come out and then right behind it I see a very dark doe which is a melanistic doe, and there are about seven or eight counties in Texas where there are the deer about 20% abnormally dark and they have a lot of melanin in their system, so melanism. You know, when you think about albino, right, it's very easy to think about oh it's a white animal, right you know? Or lewis stick and like there's, it's a lack of color for the most part that you're seeing, right? Well, with melanistic animals, melanism is a trait where the coloration, the tissue, everything is colored darker, so that hair is dark. I mean, we're talking chocolate brown, like black. You know, it's dark, dark.

Matthew Mitchell: 20:09

And so those who don't know very different, very different. Deer yeah, this is very different. I mean very obvious that, wow, that's a very dark animal, you know.

George Blitch: 20:19

And we've seen some before and in fact in.

Matthew Mitchell: 20:21

November. We knew this one was here.

George Blitch: 20:23

We knew this one was here. We saw it two years before as a younger one. Last year we saw it and had cross hairs on it. It's two and a half. I saw it the night before you saw it the night that's right.

Matthew Mitchell: 20:36

I don't know if you remember that, yeah.

George Blitch: 20:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's bring that back in real quick.

Matthew Mitchell: 20:39

Yeah, the night before we were sitting in the same stand and hadn't seen really anything. No, I'm sorry that was the same night that it was the first hunt that Johnny and I had and after the deer went away that he was potentially gonna shoot, there was in the right lane. I mean we're past sunset, we're into the last five minutes, five, 10 minutes of shooting light and I knew it was four doe. I could tell it was four doe just by the silhouette. You know, if you're out there long enough you can tell the difference between the silhouette of a pig and a doe or a deer. But where I had no confidence was like is that one in front or behind? Or like how are they positioned? Because the way they were feeding in that lane so their necks were crossing each other.

Matthew Mitchell: 21:29

But I could tell one of those doe where it was significantly darker, and so I knew what I was looking at. I just there was no way I was gonna shoot with that little of confidence of where I could intentionally put a bullet right, and so very neat to see, but there was a high likelihood that she was gonna be in that same area and fast forward to the next day, the next evening, when you guys are sitting there. Indeed, they actually came a little sooner than they came the night before.

George Blitch: 22:04

Yeah, and that was, and the way they came out. They didn't go to corn. It was like they're probably maybe they're coming into the water there too in that pond, or maybe they're just crossing the property there, but they kind of came towards us and then did like a 90 degree turn along that brush line too. They weren't coming out and feeding in any area there, and, you know, I was kind of the idea of like millinistic animals on the property. We've seen a buck before. I've seen a lot of millinistic deer, but one of the which I had an occurrence with was in 2016, on Veterans Day. I ended up taking a very mature buck that we dubbed Black Beauty, a millinistic buck. There, too, 10 point, and so there's a story. I've written about it too. You can go to thesonofablitchcom website and look at writings, and there's that there too. Maybe I'll put a link in here as well, but that kind of talks about an experience of seeing them around there and talks a little bit more about them. And so we've had many sightings over the years and there's been some, you know, mature doe that we've hunted for, but they just never showed up. So this one we decided, at three and a half years old, we would take it.

George Blitch: 23:10

One thing that's interesting, and something that hopefully we'll be looking at more, is that in millinistic doe I've never seen one with a fawn ever, no matter what age class, over the last you know 12 years of being observing these not a single time. So I don't know if they're sterile, like I don't know if they're not producing I don't. A lot of times other doe will push them away. I don't know if bucks they feel the same because they look different. Maybe it's like. I don't know what it is about that. But we saved a bunch of tissue samples. I've talked to Jim Hepplefinger, who's a wild game biologist helping with the Arizona fishing and wildlife there. He's, you know, I think that's the name of what they have, but he's, you know, one of the main men in this arena, and so he's like make sure you save some stuff. So hopefully we'll talk to some people and maybe we can get some, you know, genetic samples that we can send out to the right people and figure out more about it.

George Blitch: 24:02

But again, here's this doe coming out. It's no fawns with it and that's one of the things we will never shoot a doe with the fawn. We want to give the fawn a chance, you know, to be able to make it on their own, so at least a one and a half years old or whatever. But that's what we see a lot of them running out on their own. So I immediately recognize this is the one that's, you know, three and a half, and so I'm getting the camera really quick set up with a shot, and then I kind of make sure I'm looking over to kind of the side of my eye camera is where it needs to be and there's another doe in front of it and it kind of like steps out and to where I can see the whole doe and I've got my crosshairs ready to go safety's off and then I see the doe that's next to it take one little movement forward. I'm like I don't want it to run off because they're both kind of being a little sketchy.

George Blitch: 24:56

There was some hogs you know that we had seen right after, just very shortly after Johnny had taken his shot at his doe, and so I was like I don't know if they're spooked, if they're about to run. I've heard some coyotes. It's like all those things in your mind like I need to make this shot now, but I want to make sure that I'm making the right shot. So I was steady. That doe made that one little flinch move and then I just fired and I could tell immediately I could see through the scope that it took the hit. I was like, okay, it's hit. And then it ran almost like this weird, almost like a question mark shape around and it had definitely hit the front and its legs were kind of it was almost like a wheelbarrow. It was running by and then it just dropped and so it kind of ran towards us and hit the ground and you know.

Matthew Mitchell: 25:45

What was wild is you caught it on camera? I don't. I think you happen to have the camera up and running and you were filming those doe and then it's like, oh okay, wait a minute, there's the melanistic doe and you sort of left the camera in place on the doe. On the doe, yeah, made the shot and what's wild is in the video. You can see the doe is hit and then she runs to the left side of the frame, out of the frame and then all of a sudden, like much more forward and coming from the left frame across the right frame and where she was, like you know, running but struggling to run, but it was really, you know, it was like out of frame and then back in frame. You know it's like a. It's kind of a neat video, but that's, I think, what's more incredible. The most incredible thing about that entire moment is you actually got it on film yourself. Yeah, like that, like you know, like that's kind of hard to do.

George Blitch: 26:41

I mean it was. You know. I know a lot of people that sell film too, like I saw. You know a video, jim Shockey. He's also been on the podcast. He's got his book above me here, call me Hunter great book, and he's like self filming, you know. So I know that there's folks who do it too.

Matthew Mitchell: 26:57

Yeah, sure.

George Blitch: 26:58

But it was something that kind of happened real quick, because I did not. I'm looking at the time and I was like, okay, we're about to get out. I'm not thinking, because it's like it's starting to get darker, right.

George Blitch: 27:08

And so I'm thinking we need to get out there and try to see, with a little bit of light that's left, to see if we can find some blood sign and go after this. But again we wanted to. You know it was like don't want to pressure the deer and bump it in case it's, you know, expiring slowly and you know sending that search onto you know a more difficult task. And so you know we that when we see that that's, you know, the middle of this dope, it's down, it's like without a doubt. And so then I'm like, oh, like my goal was to try to get pictures of the daylight with Johnny and his dough, but again it's like now I'm not really sure the status of his, I know mine's down. Let's go over there and let's get some pictures with the melanistic dough, cause it's light. It's a very rare, rare thing to have happen.

Matthew Mitchell: 27:57

Yeah, it makes no sense. I mean, and Johnny got it too, he, you know, he, yeah, he's like okay cool.

George Blitch: 28:01

I mean we went out first and we're like I was like, oh, let me give my good camera, ran back up to the blind and came back and let's like try to set it up. And I'm looking at him like okay, go over there, get by the dough. And so I'm kind of trying to figure out how to frame it too, cause I was like I don't know how well he knows how to operate the cameras and I was like I'm just going to get it on regular auto focus stuff. And I was just like you just keep clicking and you know, and so like we're taking pictures and stuff and I feel like I've got a good framing and I'm like smiling and doing the whole grip and grant, I'm very excited, you know. But I'm like trying to get the pictures quick before the lights fading. And then I'm like okay, we're good, I figure one of these whatever 40 or 50 pictures he took is probably good.

George Blitch: 28:39

And that is when I was like I finally recognized like I don't need to get the picture now, I'm done, I've got it right. And so he's still sitting there behind the camera and I kind of put my hands down on the deer and I'm saying my, you know thanks, kind of a you know prayer of just you know appreciation for this moment and the fact that there's lightning struck twice, you know the second melanistic animal or some second melanistic white tailed deer it's pretty like there's big feelings going on. I'm just like wow, and I'm not even recognized this later. But then we get back and we're reviewing the photos. Johnny took a couple pictures of me in that moment. Those are the most you and I were looking at those photos. That's it. That's the one right there. That's it, because it was unintentional.

George Blitch: 29:34

I wasn't posing and trying to or looking serious or whatever. I'm trying to figure out what might be good in case, because I'm going to write an article about it. I wrote an article, got published in a few different magazines, so I'm already thinking in my mind. I want to get a good picture to go along with the article. All right, Right, that's interesting. We got live pictures over the years and stuff too, so I got some good video. I got some pictures of this deer beforehand in previous years, previous sits, so it was that one that I'm kind of having my hands on, I'm in prayer and I was like that is. I'm so glad he took that picture.

Matthew Mitchell: 30:06

I'm so glad, so good.

George Blitch: 30:10

That exemplifies so much.

Matthew Mitchell: 30:12

Something you put on your wall show up in a magazine. It's the moment, yeah.

George Blitch: 30:18

Oh really, it really. That was it. It was the moment and that's when I could actually let it all in, and that's when I was like this just happened, because it's kind of like there's a certain point where, whatever you're taking, whenever you put your hands on the animal, really, or you're and the photos are done, or whatever it's like you're like, oh my gosh, it's hitting me. This experience just happened. Whatever it may be, or maybe it's when you walk up to that animal the first time, you're like it is down, oh my gosh. So we're like, wow, you get you. And we're like, okay, we're going to go look for Johnny's deer. And then we realize we're not finding any blood at all and like, oh, no and more doubt sets in.

George Blitch: 31:15

And maybe you can talk to this too as well, because you've had this experience enough. Now too, it's like whenever an animal is shot in an area and you're identifying the area where it was, are we able to look back on the camera too. So we're like, okay, it was here, it was in this spot, in front of these cactus, and we kind of pinpointed that, took a little screenshot with our phones too and like, okay, yep, there's that cactus. Okay, so what are we looking for as far as trying to figure out a pathway of where we might start our search if there's no blood?

Matthew Mitchell: 31:47

Oh, if there's no blood. I mean, essentially you work your way to a grid system right, and so you're going to enter, or what it seems like we tend to do even before the grid search is we have kind of an idea of where it entered the woods right, and then you start to look and you're trying.

Matthew Mitchell: 32:11

When you get into the woods, what's nice is that you have limbs and you have other things that are more at the height that the deer can brush against, and so you really start looking for blood at not on the ground, but at a higher level as well, like a couple feet up and then you're looking for the game trails and you're looking for the blood on those game trails and then you're kind of scanning around to see if you see a white belly and you just kind of layer yourself in a bit and then when you get to a certain point where that is not really working out very well, the main highways have no blood, the little secondary trails have no blood, and you've kind of done maybe 20 or 30 feet in every direction on those main trails.

Matthew Mitchell: 32:56

Then you kind of get in the grid mode and then you just sort of you know like I think you and I on this particular trail, about 50 feet in, we were onto a major sort of drainage that leads to an adjacent tank, I mean the yeah it's kind of creek bottom.

Matthew Mitchell: 33:17

Yeah, it's a creek bottom but it was dry and so we got down in there. And so I think we were both like instinctually, both of us were kind of going in different directions, path of least resistance kind of thing. And I think you saw me go to the water. So I think water can be a source where they're going to go, maybe go to die or like it. Just, you know, like, is this somewhere they can tend to go? Excuse me. And so, like I kind of went down towards the water and started walking around. All of a sudden, I hear found it, found her, you know. And so I hear found her, and so I go back up the creek bed and she had kind of done the opposite. She just went, she went upstream and it was the path of least resistance for her. And you know, very odd to you know, it's real odd when the deer are shot correctly and there's no blood trail whatsoever.

George Blitch: 34:33

And that was when we got there and saw the deer. He shot it in the heart.

Matthew Mitchell: 34:39

Perfect. It was perfect Like, and actually I know because I helped him clean the animal, he actually he clipped the top of the heart, yeah, and got both lungs.

George Blitch: 34:50

So that's the thing that had we not been fooled by looking at a video, thinking that it was hit further back, we would not have given it over 30 minutes, we would not have had that run-in with that melanistic dose. So it's a very strange thing. It's like I thought we had video evidence of what happened. The video evidence is the thing that threw us off, because if we didn't have that video.

George Blitch: 35:22

We would have been down there in 30 minutes because I was like this guy shooting well. He says he shot it well and he did. He hit it right where he's supposed to do, but there was no blood. But then the exit hole was about the size of a baseball.

Matthew Mitchell: 35:34

It was very weird how that happened and it's again I don't we thoroughly looked for blood, I mean, and what's crazy is, the wound was as if there should have been blood squirting the whole time on this journey to where it went and laid down.

George Blitch: 35:54

And I even tried to backtrack from where we saw it, areas around it looking for blood, just to study, and it's like what happened here. I don't understand, but again, everything's strange. Nothing ever happens the same way twice and you just never know. There's no explanation sometimes of what happens and how, Other than it's like we found it, we found it, we found it.

Matthew Mitchell: 36:15

Do you?

George Blitch: 36:15

remember I found a shed antler right next to it, so I had kind of put it up when you walked up and you're like yeah, I walked up and internally I'm going like something's not right.

Matthew Mitchell: 36:25

Why did he? No, that's not. Yeah, okay, that's a shed. Yeah, it took a few steps, but-.

George Blitch: 36:31

George is a truck.

Matthew Mitchell: 36:33

But yeah, it was. You know he, we did. What every group of hunters should do for a guy who shoots his fur or a gal who shoots their first deer is we let him drag it out. Yep, he dragged it all the way out and we got, you know, we got some good pictures and you could just tell the relief set in. He started joking around and just started having he just he was just at ease. And I've been there. I know that feeling. I mean, we've been on the worst side of that, like where you never find the deer.

Matthew Mitchell: 37:09

You know, and you know, but more often than not we, you know they're there and you just have to take your time and look and just do your due diligence, not get no, not panic or freak out or anything. And yeah, and so we. I think the cigars came out at that point.

George Blitch: 37:30

Yeah, yeah, I know they did. There was a celebration, you know, kind of sitting around and kind of getting them up on the skinning racks and getting everything prepped. And then there was like that moment of like, oh my gosh, this just happened, like and you know some pictures where I'm next to my dough, he's next to his, and it was a.

Matthew Mitchell: 37:48

Yeah we took some great photos of like I think you have some of mine where they were on the Polaris laying next to each other, because that's how you, you know we, just we set them up there on the hood just to get them back, and just side by side you could really see the difference in the fur and then when they were hanging, the same, you know, same thing. But there's some really great photos that you know that help you understand, like how dark that deer really is Absolutely, absolutely.

George Blitch: 38:21

And there's other melanistic deer that we've seen out there that kind of have a lighter shade and you know, like I said, that in those areas too there's 20% of the deer population has abnormally dark coloration, right, and it's that's a very unique thing. It's like we just have that there. But the this one was very much and it's almost black. You know it's the, the, so chocolate, brown, black, it like that would be the, the combo color I'd, I'd describe it as, and you know the one that I had taken in 2006, the buck was very similar in that coloration. We have some that are a little bit dark, a little bit lighter, like you can still tell like, but it's like a just kind of a, a chocolatey color and again, it's just so. You never know what you're gonna see. But you know, you see that kind of come out sometimes and unless there were other you know deer, you might think like, what is that? It's like, it looks like a different species, it's it just completely it'll throw you off. I've seen pictures of people like. That's not real.

Matthew Mitchell: 39:19

I'm like no, I'm sure it is it's it's.

George Blitch: 39:23

I did not Photoshop this. I'm not that good.

George Blitch: 39:25

But it does look like a different animal altogether. It really does. And you know, and that's you see that with pie balls, you know listed, you can see albino. There's a lot of different colorations of deer, of animals altogether. I mean I've seen melanistic coyotes and that I mean just any kind of animal you can imagine, squirrels, they're everything there. There is that and again, hopefully we'll find out, you know, through some science and research and and working with the right people a little bit more about that and seeing sin in those samples, and I'm really excited for for for that to you know all that information to come back and yeah, and to kind of and to see you know genetically what, what the differences are and if there's more insight.

Matthew Mitchell: 40:09

I'm also really excited. You know Johnny's first doe, his first kill, is tied, is forever tied to this moment for you with this melanistic deer and that whole story about you know melanism in the county and your history with that and you know we have it's it. It's really amazing to kind of get another person into the fold because you know you can go back and listen to podcasts from last year when we're in South Texas and George and I have some really interesting synchronicities on on, you know, some bucks that we've shot down there and, and now this is another moment where there's some special events kind of tied together and I just it'll be really interesting as John Johnny kind of continues his hunting career, like what other synchronicities and what other kind of events that can be shared between us that'll happen. You know I can look forward to that camaraderie and that continued connectivity you know, absolutely, absolutely, and you know it's, I think I also.

George Blitch: 41:17

I look at that too and it's a paired memory, like I don't. It's like, oh, the Milanistic it's both, because one would not happen. I mean, the Milanistic wouldn't happen if we didn't wait, if we weren't tricked by our visuals of this video of like, oh, he didn't make the best hit.

George Blitch: 41:35

we did, and you know it was spot on, but the video made it look like it was off. And so again like if that didn't happen, we wouldn't have waited, never would have saw the Milanistic and you know, maybe you or I would have saw the next day. You know, and I was kind of hoping you were, you were gonna get it during that trip, because I wanted to kind of have someone else have that experience and that I could kind of be the witness on that instead of, you know, like I've had the experience, you know, it's like I checked off the once in a lifetime.

George Blitch: 42:05

I know your feelings.

Matthew Mitchell: 42:06

Yeah, you know my feelings on that. You know I feel like there's something to you shooting that deer too. I won't get into it, you know there's a lot to cover on that, but you know, it's just one of those things where I think I think it set itself up right. I think this is I think it was the right. Everything happened the way it was supposed to.

George Blitch: 42:25

And I would not disagree there and it's, I think, that hope is that, like the same thing that I'm, I always want someone else to experience what I experienced, because it's like I want someone to get their first deer. You know, recently, at our ranch, you know, Meg's cousin David, his son Aiden, got his first buck and it's like it's a buck we've seen, you know you, and I saw it in person and like it was one that he ended up taking, you know, during the hunting season here.

Matthew Mitchell: 42:56

That's like the one we were talking about earlier in this podcast the five and a half year old who came. Yeah, that's amazing, what a great first deer. I mean, I cannot think of a better first deer.

George Blitch: 43:09

And you know, johnny, when we were talking with him, he's like, yeah, I'll start with the doe and work my way up, and it's like I can't wait for him to get his first buck. But the first. Nothing replaces that, right, there's no. You know, that is something that you will always remember. That first animal that you take, whether it's, you know, you know, and in each category, right Deer or hog or coyote or whatever, you got your coyotes. So, like all the different things that you, you will never forget those things. They will always be seared into your memory. And so I was so happy to be with him when he got his first, the fact that we got to get in a video, that we got the setup recorded, to have that memorialized like that too, because I didn't have that growing up. I have some pictures of it, you know, when we were scanning it, a couple gripping grains, when you know I got that. So I have those in my first year for sure. And then we did it, you know, shoulder mount. My dad and mom decided they would, you know, go ahead and take care of that. And so it's there at the ranch in South Texas from that first one. So I still have that visual reminder. But you know, having a video and that technology and all the pictures we took, you know and you know it's like.

George Blitch: 44:18

I saw the other day something that Mark Canyon, who runs Wired Hunt podcast pardon me, deeter, he's also been on this podcast he talks about. He's like if you take that, you know experience and you've gone, you got the hunt, take your time, take 500 photos if you want. That's right. Look in that moment, get all the memories you've earned that time. You know, and a lot of people are like I can't believe you're taking a picture of that deer. It's like. It's like it's not the thing that people are doing for it's the experience, the meat that they're sharing. It's not the end. All result isn't to have this picture you can put on social media. That's not it. You know that's the end of it, that's the after right. It's like for us it's a part of it and you should. It's part of it and you should celebrate it and take your time.

Matthew Mitchell: 45:11

If you want to take five more pictures, take five more pictures you know and that comes back to the way we started this podcast, right, we mentioned, oh, the work trips and Johnny had started, you know, joining us in July and you know we take a ton of time to like really get that place right and do a lot of things to. I mean, we work really hard throughout the year. Yeah, we do. You've earned the 500 photographs. You've earned that time when you're butchering to take your time and get every morsel of meat that you possibly can. Yeah, you know you've earned that time to not speed yourself up and not just try to fly through because you're a little bit extra tired.

Matthew Mitchell: 45:57

You know, it's like these are the moments that you've worked really hard for and you know, if you got to put the knife down, take a step back and take a breather and just appreciate that moment. Do so so that you can butch your and get the animal in the right way. When you're talking about photographs, it just sort of reminded me of those moments, too, like when you know the last thing you want to do is just rush through that moment. You know you want to.

George Blitch: 46:23

I think we did that you know like we ended up like stepping back and having the cigar for a second and lighting it back up and just being like that just happened.

Matthew Mitchell: 46:30

Like Well, that's what we do anyway.

George Blitch: 46:31

I mean like we, yeah, you have the idea.

Matthew Mitchell: 46:33

Yeah, I mean we. I'm a little slower, I do take. I'm slower than the average person on butchering, but there is a part of me that's not only trying to butcher in a very precise way, but I'm also like that's a moment that I cherish. You know, it's like this is only happening a few times a year. This meat is going into a freezer that I'll enjoy with my family and I work my ass off to be in this moment. Yeah, and it is a very earned moment in that year. Yes, yes, so you have to remember that. And so that extra five, 10 minutes to maybe pull the rib meat or pull or like get the rib meat the right way I'm just throwing out an example. I mean like it's worth it.

Matthew Mitchell: 47:20

It's worth it. You've earned that you know, yes.

George Blitch: 47:24

No, it's, it's definitely not a chore, it's a reward you know it is.

Matthew Mitchell: 47:29

Being that moment with that animal in that way, and it's a reward to be able to take pictures and just cherish it in whatever way you possibly can you know?

George Blitch: 47:39

Yep, no, I mean I fully agree. I mean I did something too where I took I got a shoulder mount done of this dough and probably by the time this podcast come out it will be including when the article comes out and stuff too, because I want to have it all at the same time, so probably be around then. And then that was something that whenever you get a shoulder mount done, you have to basically remove the hide in a particular way, but then I had all the rest of it. So I took the time myself to remove the back half basically of the hide with the legs and everything all together. And so it was something that before I kind of cut out swatches and I was like they sent it to the tannery to where I have these little, maybe 18 by 20 inch sections and stuff of that, and I had many of them, but this one I was like, well, let's see if I can get the largest piece. So I got that on.

George Blitch: 48:40

It Took the time to do that because I was like this is a once, well, twice in a lifetime opportunity, but it really is one of those kinds of things that's so exceedingly rare that I was like I want to get every single piece of this hide that I can get to the tannery that I can be able to keep and that's like whatever I'm going to do with that. I don't know whatever that is, it's like, even if it's just something that's laid out someday on a table or whatever, put on the wall or made into part of a pillow or whatever it is. I just wanted to take every. I did not want to waste a single piece of that hide at all, and I took the time to do it and it took me longer, but at the end, whenever that last piece was on, I was like that was awesome. Yeah, so neat. In fact, that's one of the things we had done with the previous year. I'm going to try not to break everything here behind me as I took the tail and that was the one from 2006. That's cool.

George Blitch: 49:39

And so this was the only bit of white that was on, or any other coloration was just that underside of that tail. And the same thing with the dough. There's a little fleck of white here, even less than this one here, but the B&B taxidermy. I was like what can you do with the tail? He's like I can make a hole or a slip and I was like I don't know what that means, but yeah, let's try it out. He's like I've done this a couple times and he's like I want to try that out. But yeah, anyway, that's the coloration. For those who just want to see that visual, it's like it's very, very dark, and this was. It's even darker than this one, I think, than that tail there too, because there was a little bit lighter on the tail, but anyway, that's.

George Blitch: 50:19

Yeah, that was one amazing day and I'm just so incredibly thankful.

George Blitch: 50:26

It feels like almost all the work that we put in that reward of those experiences just feels richer, and to be able to kind of talk about it and share it with my friends is the most incredible experience, and then to be able to share that with my family and friends is just, it's all a part of it, man, and I think we're just so blessed to have these experiences.

George Blitch: 50:56

I'm reading a book right now by Rick Rubin, talking about creative arts and artistry, and it talks about how, every single time you go to, whatever your craft, is that you're doing, whatever you're creating, whatever your artistry and, in fact, just your experiences in life sometimes try to go and look at something through the lens of it being the first time ever. How would you experience this the first time? And I think that that's something that I've kind of taken back into this hunting season is, every time I go out in the woods I want to try to act like it's almost like my first time and really trying to be eyes open to that thing and really, as I've been letting myself into that mindset just how lucky and blessed I feel to be able to have that experience, because there will be a day that you and I will step into the woods to hunt for the last time.

Matthew Mitchell: 51:52

And I don't know when that is. I don't know either.

George Blitch: 51:54

But I think about it.

Matthew Mitchell: 51:55

And that's what you're talking about.

George Blitch: 51:56

That's exactly it. Be conscious enough to realize where you are and that's where that whole marketing idea too. It's like you're there. Take those pictures, Take that extra time, Absolutely Step back.

Matthew Mitchell: 52:07

Pause.

George Blitch: 52:08

Look at the sunset while you're field dressed and you do whatever it is, take it all in and I think when we do, we realize that this is a way of life we want to preserve, we want to conserve, we want to pass it on to future generations, because there is such a connectivity of being able to put that wild game, that wild meat, that experience into our lives and touching back to something that connects to our ancestral ways and how we arrived here where we are today. So it's a full 360 richness and, man, I can't wait for us to get back out in the woods and do this again and we'll talk about that next set of experiences that we're lucky to have. It'll be great. Can't wait, can't wait. Hey, man, thanks for joining today. Hope everyone enjoyed it.

George Blitch: 52:57

Guys, tune in. Make sure. If you haven't go like subscribe, leave some comments. Let's talk about these things. You got any questions on this. We're happy to answer them. We love communicating back and forth with this and if you have any guests that you think that we should be interviewing, let us know. So do them in the comments below. Thank you once again, everybody, and thank you, matthew Mitchell.

Matthew Mitchell: 53:15

We'll talk soon, of course. Take care everybody, bye, bye-bye.