The Antelope Hunt with Mitch Bailey - SAS CLASSIC

Summary

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The Steve Austin Show

Episode: The Antelope Hunt with Mitch Bailey - SAS CLASSIC
Date: October 14, 2025
Host: Steve Austin
Guest: Mitch Bailey (Nevada Hunting Services)

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Steve Austin Show is a lively recounting of Steve's first-ever antelope hunt through the rugged Nevada wilderness, alongside his brother-in-law, hunting guide Mitch Bailey. The two dive deep into the art, challenge, humor, and camaraderie of western big game hunting, the critical role of wildlife management, and mishaps and memorable moments encountered in the field. Fans of the outdoors, hunting stories, off-road adventure, and classic Steve Austin banter will find plenty to enjoy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Labor Day, Home Life & Pre-Hunt Setup

• Steve opens from his home in Nevada, playfully involving his wife, their dogs, and talking about post-hunt Labor Day plans.
• Food and drinks are a running theme, with Steve waxing poetic about hot dogs, chili, margaritas, and snack choices during the hunt (“There must be a frog's hair, crack cocaine in those son bitches, because once you start eating them, you cannot stop.” – Steve, 04:33).
• Discussion on how hunting season alters routines: increased whiskey, margaritas, and “junk food” become part of the diet during camps and hunts.

2. The Antelope Hunt – Preparation, Mishaps, and Lessons Learned

Preparation:

• Steve recounts the four years of trying for an antelope tag before Mitch’s connections finally secured a landowner tag (12:00).
• Sighting in rifles at the range, accidentally leaving his prized 7mm magnum rifle behind—only to have it safely turned in at the sheriff’s office.

  “It’d be like driving my car to the car wash, washing my car, and walking home.” – Steve (14:23)

Hunting Antelope:

• The hunt takes place outside Sparks, NV, covering 30-50 miles per day on four-wheelers in challenging terrain—powdery dirt, rocks, and sparse cover.
• Mitch explains why antelope hunts are special:

  “They’re probably, in my opinion and a lot of my friends that have hunted them their whole lives, the best eating of all the big game animals… but… their speed and eyesight—good luck getting close.” – Mitch (20:02)

• Discussion of antelope eyesight:

  “They got like eight power eyes… At a mile, they’re looking at you pretty much like you’re right in front of them.” – Mitch (21:17)

Spot and Stalk Challenges:

• The intricacies of “cat-and-mouse” with antelope—how attempts to close the distance get instantly countered.

  “Seemed like every time we was looking at them, they was looking at us for sure.” – Steve (22:13)

• Humor in trying to spot and glass animals:

  “You and Casey got a good chemistry… he does it a lot better with me than I do with him because his eyes are incredible.” – Mitch (24:41)

3. Antelope Biology, Conservation, & Hunting Ethics

• Steve and Mitch discuss antelope population recovery due to conservation, now estimated over 700,000.
• Importance of wildlife management quotas and the science behind buck-to-doe ratios.

  “Nevada is one of the best managed wildlife agencies in the country.” – Mitch (28:48)

• Addressing anti-hunting sentiment and ethics: all usable meat is consumed, and hunters are the backbone of conservation.

  “If people that don’t believe that [conservation] works, just look at history and see how close to extinction some… species were.” – Mitch (30:00)

4. Hunt Tactics & Protocol

Tactics:

• Mostly spot-and-stalk—using vehicles to initially cover vast areas, then stalking on foot using minimal cover.
• Extreme distances and terrain require both skill and physical preparation.
• The rut means bucks are preoccupied, sometimes making them more vulnerable to hunters.

Field Etiquette:

• Open talk about hunting etiquette in public land scenarios and dealing with other hunters.

  “If you’re on a road and you’re hunting, expect to get passed… but not everybody follows [the rules]. I’ll avoid an altercation at any time…” – Mitch (38:35)

5. Camp Life: Food, Stories & Mishaps

• Legendary storytelling about sharing food in the field: the “pickled eggs protocol”—an extended gag on the correct way to share a jar of pickled eggs with hunting partners.

  “There is no way this is humanly possible… Somebody with the size of your hands trying to get your big ass hand inside the pickle jar to get an egg…” – Mitch (53:13)

• Lessons learned in packing gear for long rides (plug kits, compressors, tools, food).
• The dust, technical riding, and hazards of Nevada four-wheeling are detailed with comic flair.

6. The Kill: Climax of the Hunt

• On the third day, during the rut, the group comes upon a distracted, battle-scarred buck antelope—close range due to breeding fervor.

  “I start clawing at everything… bungee cords, my gloves, everything… the buck is still sitting there just looking at me…” – Steve (59:10)

• Steve successfully harvests his first antelope, and the group quarters the animal, making sure nothing goes to waste.

  “What a great finish to a great hunt, man… nice clean harvest of an animal. Quartered them all up, bagged them all up, got them cooled down… memories made to last a lifetime.” – Mitch (61:14)

• Reminders about the importance of marksmanship, safety, and respect for the game.

7. Wrapping Up: What’s Next?

• Mitch previews upcoming hunts: bear and deer seasons, and how the guiding business operates through the year.
• Discussion of mountain lion hunting and eating (lion is a hit at his wild game cookouts).
• Mitch plugs his operation: Nevada Hunting Services (nvhuntingservices.com, Facebook, Instagram).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Antelope Eyesight:
  “At a mile, they're looking at you pretty much like you're right in front of them.”
  – Mitch Bailey, 21:17

• On Pickled Egg Protocol:
  “Somebody with the size of your hands trying to get your big ass hand inside the pickle jar to get an egg… cleaning your hands basically in the pickle juice…”
  – Mitch Bailey, 53:13

• On Hunting Ethics and Management:
  “For those people who want to go out and look at the animals and don’t want to hunt them, they can thank the hunters and the conservation group for putting it together for them.”
  – Mitch Bailey, 30:00

• On Celebration and Preparation:
  “If I’m going to take anything I don’t want it to suffer. So I want to do my part. I want to do my due diligence as far as being up to speed with shooting… I am a proud hunter, and I’m going to eat every single bit of that thing.”
  – Steve Austin, 61:42

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:43] – [03:00]: Holiday chat, food, lifestyle, setting the scene
• [11:16] – [14:40]: The lost rifle story and miraculous recovery
• [20:00] – [22:10]: Why antelope are such a thrilling challenge to hunt
• [25:28] – [29:32]: Segment on antelope biology, conservation, and hunting quotas
• [32:27] – [34:25]: In-depth on spot-and-stalk tactics, failed stalk story
• [35:02] – [39:39]: Crazy stories from guiding hunts, etiquette on public lands, and altercations
• [53:00] – [54:40]: The "pickled eggs protocol" story
• [56:41] – [61:42]: The successful hunt and shot on a rutting buck antelope
• [62:17] – [64:38]: Mitch’s future hunts, cooking mountain lion, ways to connect on social media

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Conclusion

This episode blends classic Steve Austin storytelling with expert insight from a lifelong Nevada guide, offering laughs, hard-earned wisdom, and a real glimpse into the camaraderie and adventure of big game hunting in the American West. Whether you’re a hunter, an outdoors enthusiast, or simply a fan of good stories, it’s a memorable ride.

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Guest Links:

• Facebook: Nevada Hunting Services
• Instagram: @nvhuntingservices
• Website: nvhuntingservices.com

Memorable Send-off:

“Man, it was a great, enjoyed being in the outdoors and it was a successful trip and I had an absolute blast… And that’s the bottom line.”
– Steve Austin, 65:13

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Transcript

[Steve Austin]

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[Mitch Bailey]

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[Podcast Announcer / Advertiser]

Liberty Savings Very underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company affiliates excludes Massachusetts. The following program is a podcast1.com production from Hollywood, California by way of the Broken Skull Ranch. This is the Steve Austin Show.

[Steve Austin]

Give me a hell yeah.

[Mitch Bailey]

Hell yeah.

[Podcast Announcer / Advertiser]

Now here's Steve Austin.

[Steve Austin]

All right, everybody. Welcome to Steve Austin Show. I'm coming to you from the Silver State out here in Nevada. Broken skull ranch 2.0. I'm finally back home right now, well, at least my house in Nevada, with my illustrious wife Kristen sitting across from me. Moolah's sitting beside me and Callie's over whining in her dog bed. Callie, we're gonna go out there and wash all the buggies, wash the four wheeler. We got plenty of work to do. I'll throw the ball for you. We're gonna have a great day. Today is Labor Day. Kristen we just got finished reading about Labor Day and I was going to describe what it was about, but man, it's kind of a lengthy description. All I know, Kristen, bottom line means Labor Day is a day off.

[Mitch Bailey]

Yep.

[Steve Austin]

Not for everybody, but for most people it's a day off. So anyway, I guess the laborers back in the day felt like they were working too much, so they need. That's a long story short and I'm sticking to that story. It's a beautiful day out here. I'm trying to rustle my wife up to go out there in the Kawasaki Terrace and go riding around a little bit. But I think she's gonna put me to work and there's too many things to do around here. My guest on today's podcast is my brother in law, Mitch Bailey. We're gonna talk about the great outdoors, all the adventures we had on my antelope hunt over there in unit 022. And we were in Sparks, Nevada for that hunt and we went out, there was a couple thousand acres out there before we went on a hell of a damn four wheeler ride. But we was just about 15 miles out of Reno and you could see all the casinos and stuff like that from the damn mountains that we were hunting in. And that's when we loaded up and went on the hell of a Damn four wheeler ride. There was some rugged stuff out there and just had an absolute blast. So ended up being successful. I don't ever really post any pictures of some of my hunting adventures on social media because most people are kind of shocked when they see stuff like that on social media. So anyway, I had a great time. I took an outstanding antelope and got him made up into a couple of back straps and getting him processed. Right now I'm going to eat every single bit of him and enjoy my hunt very much. It was my first antelope hunt and I got a mule deer coming up in November, which I'm really looking forward to. I was successful on last year's endeavor, but it just me and brother in law talking about the headaches, hassles and horseshit of getting out there and dealing with people and having a good time, you know, in the field and hunting and hunting responsibly. Kristen, what we got planned for today? We're gonna make hot dogs tonight for Labor Day. I came home from my brother in law's house. I've been up there for a couple of days and I told my wife I'd take her out for breakfast. So I took her ass out for breakfast. She's happy as a clam. Now we're gonna do hot dogs. And you said what?

[Mitch Bailey]

I'm having a veggie dog.

[Steve Austin]

You're gonna have a veggie dog?

[Mitch Bailey]

Potato salad.

[Steve Austin]

Potato salad. I got a can of hor corn on the cob. We'll put that on the grill. And I always like Hormel chili when we're making hot dogs. And my wife makes good chili, like good Frito pie chili or regular eating chili when you're eating hot dogs. That damn stuff from Hormel or Gebhardt or whatever it is. That's the best chili you can get on a hot dog, in my opinion. So that's what yours truly will be eating tonight for dinner in lieu of Labor Day. And today. I had to take a night off the margaritas last night. Kristin. I had been mixing margaritas over at my brother in law's house and he, he didn't have a shot glass, he didn't have a mixing cup. He didn't have shit. He didn't have a lime squasher, he didn't have nothing. So Crystal went to the store and got him all set up and I made margaritas for a couple of days in a row. But last night we were sipping on the Gentleman Jack and zero Coke. Cristin I just the mixologist in me was tired of mixing. So Kristen and I just loaded up on groceries and I am going to make my last batch of Broken Skull Ranch margaritas tonight. Drink about two or three of them and then I will shut down drinking season because my hunt is now over. And for some reason, Kristen, when hunting season comes on, the diet completely changes. It's more whiskey, more margaritas. I ate Fig Newton bars. I mean, he had the biggest damn bag of Doritos chips that you've ever seen. Nacho cheese flavor and they were awesome. And then my wife sent me with a big ass thing of potato chips. But there was something about those Doritos with that nacho cheese. There must be a frog's hair, crack cocaine and those son bitches, because once you start eating them, you cannot stop. So I was eating those. We was eating famous Avis chocolate chip cookies. Oh, we had eggs in a. The eggs are in the story of the podcast. I got a little heat over there for reaching my hand down there in a damn jar. There's protocol when you got three, three guys sharing a bunch of boiled eggs in a pickled. A pickle jar. You're not supposed to put your hands in there. You'll hear about that on the. And then what else did I have?

[Mitch Bailey]

I made sandwiches.

[Steve Austin]

Oh yeah, sandwiches. Ham and cheese sandwiches. That was on the list. And last night I cooked up a couple of rib eyes for us. So now it's going to be back to a glass of wine each night. Get back on the diet. And you know what, Kristen? Since I began ready for this antelope hunt, last time I was down here, I was working out like a bastard doing my cardio training. And then boy all of a sudden went to hell with all of the projects that we had. And so I'm towing it back. That was our vacation. So now trying to. But my point is I haven't trained in what, 10 days? 12 days?

[Mitch Bailey]

I'm not sure.

[Steve Austin]

It's the longest I've gone without training in a long ass time. You know what? I'm holding up pretty good too for doing all the bullshit that I've done. Probably a little bit weaker on the weights, but I'll find out tonight because I'm gonna go in there and kick up a workout before I start on the Broken Skull Ranch margaritas. And I keep teasing that I'm gonna let that damn recipe out. I am in just a few days. I'm gonna do a couple of damn modifications to it tonight, Kristin. Cause I'm messing with the ones without Triple sec without Grand Marnier. I'm just shifting the in a little bit. And my wife knows that I'm an absolute perfectionist. Not on everything but on margaritas. So I ain't gonna release this damn formula until I get it right. And that's the bottom line. What else we got planned?

[Mitch Bailey]

I'm gonna go horseback riding.

[Steve Austin]

Oh, when do you get your horseback riding lesson? Tomorrow. Are you excited about it?

[Mitch Bailey]

Yes, I am.

[Steve Austin]

When are you gonna come four wheeler riding with me, man? I've been trying to get you out there. I told you I got a great place and if you go out there, I think you'd probably get hooked on it and that would give me an excuse to go get us another four wheeler. All right. And then we just get a to and haul our shit around and camp a little bit and ride around, hang out with the dogs. Where are we going to put the.

[Mitch Bailey]

Dogs in the four wheelers?

[Steve Austin]

Well, we'll take the mule. We'll just put them in the back seat and take the mule. Are you down with that? Yeah, if you've ever been to the state of Nevada, man, there's so much stuff to do here, man. People out here are very outdoorsy and Kristen and I have been looking forward to trying to sell our RV that we were driving back and forth to Texas. It's kind of like a dog hauler and that some is barely longer than a Suburban and that thing has run its course. So if we can sell that. Want to get us a toy hauler? Probably about a 25 footer. I'm still doing my research. If any of you guys got toy haulers out there, I'm thinking about a bumper pull or a fifth wheel. So if you have any feedback on that, please send it to questionsteveaufossinshow.com way back in the day I had a fifth wheel trailer and I enjoyed it. But I'm just trying to consider whether I want to use the back of my truck to haul a dirt bike or something and not have that fifth wheel back there or just put the toys in the back of the toy hauler and go from there. So I would value your opinion if you have one on the subject at hand. Other than that, I'm gonna go ahead and wrap up and open to this podcast. It's me and my brother Mitch talking about my antelope hunt and not just about. We ain't even talking about killing. We're basically just talking about animals and wildlife and getting outdoors and having an absolute blast. So I hope you Enjoy the podcast. I had been looking forward to this hunt for a long time. When we first got out there, I didn't think we was gonna have any success at all. And then we just lucked into a hell of a situation. My podcast today with my brother in law Mitch Bailey from Nevada Hunting Services. In Nevada, if you hunting elk, mule, deer, antelope, bighorn sheep, bear, mountain lion, you name it, this guy is the best guide in the state. And that is my opinion. And I know what I'm talking about.

[Podcast Announcer / Advertiser]

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[Mitch Bailey]

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[Podcast Announcer / Advertiser]

And Doug, here we have the.

[Steve Austin]

Limu Emu in its natural habitat helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.

[Podcast Announcer / Advertiser]

Uh, limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

[Steve Austin]

Cut the camera. They see us.

[Podcast Announcer / Advertiser]

Only pay for what you [e-mail] Liberty Liberty, Liberty, Liberty Savings. Very underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company affiliates. Excludes Massachusetts. Oh, the car from Carvana's here.

[Steve Austin]

Well, will you look at that.

[Podcast Announcer / Advertiser]

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[Steve Austin]

I ride up sitting here in Spanish Springs, Nevada. My brother in law met from Nevada Hunting Service. We just got finished doing three days antelope hunting. We're sitting on this couch. I got my legs kicked up in front of me. I got a pillow on my lap for my laptop computer, my iPhone, all my technology. I got my Zoom H6 recorder going. Mitch Bailey sitting beside me. Mitch, how are you doing?

[Mitch Bailey]

Darn good, Steve. Just had a great hunt with you.

[Steve Austin]

You took a little cat nap earlier. You back up to full speed.

[Mitch Bailey]

I think I'm about 95% ready to go.

[Steve Austin]

Well, I got some Gentleman Jack and a little bit of Diet Coke going, makes for a great cockt. I had to just go stiffen that thing up a little bit to get a little bit of groove going, to try to start the podcast a couple times and shit to bed. So taking another run at it with a little more energy. We're watching LSU, ranked number 25, beating the dog shit out of Miami. Who's what ranked number six. That just took the damn gimmick off the screen. LSU's open up a can of whoop ass on Miami. So nonetheless, that's what's going on here. I'm drinking some Gentleman Jack and zero coke and me and Mitch just got finished doing some antelope hunting and God dang man, his buddy Casey came and joined us out there. We went to a couple different locations, but it all started off a while back when Mitch got me a landowner tag. And I've been putting in to draw for a tag for the last four years. I haven't drawn anything. And due to Mitch's connections out here, the fact that he's been guiding in the state of Nevada for over 30 years, he knows a lot of people. So we got a couple of landowner permits, had to buy them, support the wildlife. The landowners make a little bit of money off of them and God dang, we had a damn good time. But it all started once I knew this hunt was happening. I was down there at the broken skull ranch, 2.0 sighting in my gun, getting everything dialed in. If I'm going to go out there, I want to make sure that I am ready in every aspect and all my gear is ready and top notch. And of course I went out there, got everything dialed in and promptly left my rifle laying on a damn table. I called Mitch Because I went back down there. When I left that gun out there, I called Mitch. I said, dude. And he wouldn't take my phone call. He was at the bar drinking Jack Daniels, trying to do whatever he's doing, hang out with his buddy, and he says, I'm drinking. He said, what's wrong? I texted him back, I lost my gun. As soon as I texted him that back, he calls me. What did you do? What did you think when I said I lost my gun?

[Mitch Bailey]

First of all, I couldn't believe you lost your gun. And then you had to go accusing everybody of stealing your gun. You saw the guys that drove off with your gun. Everybody took your gun. I told you to go to the police station, ask them if they had your gun. I wasn't just down there by myself. I was down there with Casey and a client. We just finished up on an antelope hunt. And I told them both. I go, oh, God dang. My brother in law just left his gun at the rifle range. Who leaves their gun at the rifle range? Nobody in their right mind goes, shoots their gun, leaves their gun, gets in their car and drives away without their gun. I've never heard of it in my lifetime, and I hope I never hear it again.

[Steve Austin]

Dude, I never heard it myself.

[Mitch Bailey]

Unbelievable.

[Steve Austin]

I told my wife, Chris, it'd be like driving my car to the car wash wash my car and walking home.

[Mitch Bailey]

Oh, it's my favorite gun. You said, I've had that gun forever. It's my baby, my gun. And you know what? And bless Nevada's heart, sure enough, what happened when you went looking for your gun, dude, you told me that.

[Steve Austin]

You said, dude, you're in Nevada. Somebody's gonna turn your gun in. And I said, man, with my luck, ain't nobody gonna turn that thing in. He goes, nope. I'm sure they got video surveillance there. They can back up the cameras. Because there's no range master over there where I'm shooting. It's just a shooting range, and there's a couple of guys out there shooting. But you said, man, this is Nevada. Someone will turn your gun in. So I did the due diligence thing and headed straight to the sheriff's department. Y' all heard me tell the story on the podcast before. I won't go into all the. Finally, I called in there to dispatch because the whole place was locked up. They was in a big ass meeting over there. I called that damn guy and I said, hey, dude, I'm trying to report a lost gun. What kind of gun is it? It's a 7 mag model 700 painted in a camouflage pattern. He goes, you are one lucky man tonight. Someone found your gun and brought it in here and turned it in. And the officer's gonna be back in about 45 minutes. I waited over in the parking lot, got my gun back, chit chatted with the guys with the gang unit and oh, dude, I got the whole crime scene in Nevada. Got all the 411 on that.

[Mitch Bailey]

Oh, no doubt.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, dude, if you want to join a gang, I got the 411 for you. I don't think you're the gang type, but nonetheless, it was good talking with the cops down there. And anyway, I was back out at the shooting range. We just got back to Nevada to the BSR 2.0. And I told my wife, said, I got to go back out there at the shooting range. I want to make sure I am dialed in for a long range shot. Because I've never hunted antelope, but I've heard that they're very leery, they're very keen, their eyesight is unbelievable. They don't sc stand around and be still a whole lot. So it's going to be a very challenging hunt. You're dealing with windy conditions, long distance shooting. So I got to be dialed in. So I went down there, set up my target at 300 yards, and a dude comes over to me and he goes, hey, man, I got another little 8 inch gong target out there on a chain if you want to hit it as well. And I was shooting at 300 yards and those guys were shooting in a prone position. Two police officers. All the cops I met over here in Nevada are cool as shit, including the one gave me a warning when I was speeding the other day going to the broken school ranch 2.0.

[Mitch Bailey]

That's not right. You should have got a ticket, dude.

[Steve Austin]

I was in a passing lane and all of a sudden, man, I hit a 85 and I was running radar and that dude was on the side of the road facing me and he busted me bigger than Dallas. And I was able to. My wife was pissed when I got.

[Mitch Bailey]

Off that ticket, rightfully so. You deserved the ticket. You should have got the ticket. Anybody else would have got the ticket. And we're kind of tired of you being treated like you're some sort of celebrity.

[Steve Austin]

Anyway, so I'm over shooting that dude. I'm over hitting that guy's target. Like I'm just ringing it like a bell. And he's over laying in a prone position. I go over and said, dude, what are you shooting? And he goes, man, this is my.308. He goes, you want to shoot it? I said, really? He goes, yeah, man. He loaded me up, nine bullets in his clip. I laid down in a prone position. I started just zapping that damn gong with that damn.308. It was amazing. So anyway, I got back over on my 7 mag, got everything dialed in, and this time, Mitch, I did not forget my 7 mag. I didn't leave it on a table, even though the gun barrel was hot. I put it in the back of my truck, got all my shit, and then I loaded all my stuff up, and me and Kristen came over here in separate vehicles.

[Mitch Bailey]

It's amazing that it happened that way. But more importantly, I want to go back a little bit there. Don't you remember when you lost it? You didn't forget it, and somebody picked it up and you were all accusatory. I'm kind of curious, how do you feel about yourself now?

[Steve Austin]

Well, I figured there's no way. There is no way that I could forget my rifle laying on a table at a shooting range. How that happened, dude, I told the two cops that I was hanging out with and shooting the breeze with. It was embarrassing. I am a responsible, proud gun owner and an OCD when it comes to safety and guns. So for me to drive off with my shit on the damn table, and then someone turned it in to the sheriff's department, I'm lucky. I'm thankful, and I'm glad that, you know, no one was hurt with my gun. That's my responsibility that I take very seriously.

[Mitch Bailey]

You got a lot to be lucky and thankful for. You're lucky you got your gun back. You're lucky you didn't get a ticket, and you're lucky that you get to go hunting and have a good time.

[Steve Austin]

When I came out here, dude, I was ready. And so I got over here, got over here about 2, 2:30. Mitch had to work about a half day. He finally comes on in and he goes, man, are you ready to go out? I said, yep, let's go get them. So, man, we just rode around about a half day. We put in about 30, 40, 50 miles that day.

[Mitch Bailey]

Yeah.

[Steve Austin]

And we saw a couple of good antelopes. And I was like, God dang, man, these things are pretty damn leery. I was asking my brother Scott, he had went on an antelope hunt. And Ted, my buddy Ted Fowler, 361 down at the Broken Skull Ranch in Rockport, he's been on a couple antelope Hunts. And he says, man, that's a fun hunt. I didn't really know what they meant by fun. So how would you describe the fun aspect of hunting the antelope? Mitch, you've been guiding for 30 years. You're one of the best guides in the state of Nevada, if not the best. You won't never say that, but I'm saying it. So what is so challenging and fun and the allure of chasing the antelope?

[Mitch Bailey]

Well, let's just start off with they're probably, in my opinion and a lot of my friends that have hunted them their whole lives, the best eating of all the big game animals. Absolutely delicious meat, good protein. You know, it's, it's a, it's a table fair that you can really enjoy, which makes it even more fun to hunt them because, you know, at the end of the day, when you do get one, you're fortunate to have one fill your freezer and feed your family for, for, you know, oh, I don't know, however many months you can get out of one. They're not that big of an animal, but, you know, they're challenging with their eyesight so much better than ours. Their, their, their speed is something that you can't, you can't tackle that speed with anything. You've, you've got to fool them. You've got to get in front of them, you got to hide from them. You got to figure them out how to get in a place where they're going to show up. But if you get out there on foot, but you're likely not going to chase one down at all. They, they set off to get away from you, and it can be miles and miles before they stop running. So that's, it's a challenging hunt. It's not like a mule deer that stands there and, and you know, his best defense is that he can smell you or hide from you. Antelope just flat out run away from you. So that, that's kind of the allure.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, but what's the deal with the eyesight of the antelope? Because I think you were telling me they got like eight power eyes.

[Mitch Bailey]

Yes, they do. Eight power. So one power is, is 20. 20 vision for a human being is normal vision. Antelope 1, 6, 0. So at 160ft, they're looking at you like you're looking at them at 20ft. So great vision, you know, at a mile, they're looking at you pretty much like you're right in front of them. They, they can see your movements. Pick out what you're doing, they'll be staring at you. You go to make a sneak on one, and you'd be surprised like. Like you noticed yesterday when we made that stop. You know, we're. We're better than a half mile away, and those does pinpoint you, and they're staring at you the whole time, and they're watching every movement you make. So closer you try to get, the sooner they're gonna get up and sooner they're gonna keep that distance, you know? You noticed yesterday, they. They. We closed it to 500 yards. They increased it to 500 yards. You try to get closer, they got further. And it's kind of a game of cat and mouth.

[Steve Austin]

It seemed like every time we was looking at them, they was looking at us for sure.

[Mitch Bailey]

For sure. It's very, very hard to sneak up on nano, Especially that open country like that. I mean, yet yesterday. How many trees did we see out there? Couple.

[Steve Austin]

Ain't enough trees. No, we were trying to sneak up to some rock outcroppings just to get a rest. There was a couple places I could have got a prone shot or use something. You had some shooting sticks that I was gonna use, but I was like, man, the wind's blowing like a sun bitch. Today was optimal. It got a little hot, but there wasn't no wind to be blowing. Ended up taking a close range shot, which we'll get to in a little bit. But, man, the thing about those things were you had your buddy in the back seat of the buggy, and he said, hey, man, Casey's gonna join us. He was there. I'm a mule deer hunt as well, and extra set of eyes, and Casey can really spot those things. Dude, we was cruising around, and the first evening, it was just you and me. We saw a couple. We was watching them, and I was like, man, this is gonna be real. It's gonna be real interesting. And all of a sudden, we're riding around. Casey says, hey, man, Mitch, pull over. Dude, a thousand, fifteen hundred. I'm swearing, dude. A mile away. A mile and a half away, Casey's just spotting these Damn antelopes. There's six, eight, sometimes 10 or 12, three, whatever. These different groups, most time I got a buck with them. One buck, not a couple. That's just what, Harem.

[Mitch Bailey]

Harem? Yeah, dude.

[Steve Austin]

He spots them things with the naked eye, and all of a sudden we start glassing them. I'm glassing the whole damn hillside or mountainside, whatever it is. I ain't found them yet in case he Saw the sun bitches with his bare eye. Then he sets up his spotting scope. I'm over in my binoculars, I don't know where the shit or wind my watch because those submits blend in, dude, I ain't used to that shit.

[Mitch Bailey]

No. And you know, a couple things are pretty funny when you're trying to guide the other guy into looking at him. You know, it's up on, it's right below that ridge. It's right below that knuckle on that ridge, look down to that dark rock just to the right, you know, and the whole thing, you still see your buddy waving his binoculars around. In your case, my brother in law waving his binoculars around trying to figure out exactly what we're talking about. So then you get out that high dollar spotting scope and you put that animal dead center in that spotting scope. Say, okay, look in the spotting scope. Now do you see them? And to my surprise, I don't see them.

[Steve Austin]

No, I don't see shit.

[Mitch Bailey]

They're still not in there.

[Steve Austin]

But you get. You and Casey got a good chemistry together.

[Mitch Bailey]

We do.

[Steve Austin]

How long y' all been hunting together?

[Mitch Bailey]

Gosh, we've been hunting together probably 15 years. Pretty much every hunt I go on, he's there and vice versa. We share experiences that way and we have a great chemistry. If I see something and he doesn't have it yet, all I got to do say a couple words and he's got it. He looks, he looks down my line of sight. I say something, he sees it and he's got it. He does it a lot better with me than I do it with him because his eyes are incredible and he'll see something out there. I'm like, man, I just can't see it. Kind of similar to you and I, how we were having a little struggle there. But you know, over the years you figure each other out and you get it dialed in and sure helps, sure help that extra set of eyes and extra set of great eyes what we had with him.

[Steve Austin]

Hey man, tell me the story about the antelope because they're native here, but I was reading do all the hunting stuff. Many, many years ago they got to as low as 20,000. Then all the conservation efforts, they're back over probably around 700,000. So there's plenty of them. Dude, tell me a little bit about the antelope.

[Mitch Bailey]

We have a great hollow hair and all that. As far as. What did you say?

[Steve Austin]

The hollow hair and all that?

[Mitch Bailey]

Oh, they're hollow hair. Well, you know, I even learned this in college in A class I took about, we brought in some hair samples from big game animals and antelope hair. When you, when you grab a piece of antelope hair and you float it in a bucket or a jar of water, it actually floats because it's straw like and it floats because it's hollow, whereas deer hair, any other hair will sink. So they have the hollow hair. It's an insulating factor. And it also keeps them cool in the summertime. That allows them to lay out in the middle of nothing on a hundred degree day right in the prairie and stay pretty, pretty, pretty cool and hydrated and they still need water and all that. Just like any big game animal. They do really well and they've adapted to the heat. As far as the population of antelope in our state, we've got a lot of antelope increasing numbers and increasing numbers statewide. You know, when I was a kid, we had a lot of antelope in the western part of the state. But they've moved and grown in numbers clear across the whole region. So you can get good antelope numbers all the way across Nevada from east to west and even down south. Very few areas in the state don't have an antelope hunt anymore, but most all of them have a good sustainable hunt.

[Steve Austin]

Dude, how important is it to take however many numbers that the Nevada Department of Wildlife endow says, hey man, this is how many we need to take here in the state of Nevada. How do they determine that?

[Mitch Bailey]

Basically, the department manages wildlife based on buck to doe ratios. You don't want to have too many does you got to have a balance. How many bucks do you need to successfully breed? The number of does that you have to maintain a scientific data based population of antelope. They do that with all species flying. They'll do it with, with flying and counting numbers. They'll do it with, with harvest data. The department in Nevada is very, very methodical in how they strategize hunting. They have questionnaires that you're mandated to fill out every year with how many animals you might have wounded, how many harvested, how many days you hunted, how many animals you saw during the hunt. And they use all this data, they put it all together and they come out with a quota so they know how many males they would like harvested out of an area to keep the balance. They know not everybody that goes out is going to be successful. So they figure the harvest percentage of successful hunters and that way they can figure, okay, it's going to take say 80 hunters to get the number of 40, what we really need harvested. And they do that off percentages, good data. They do that with all species. And Nevada is one of the best managed wildlife agencies in the country.

[Steve Austin]

It always kind of chaps my ass out. So someone says, oh, you're not out there hunting Bambi, are you? No, I'm out there hunting either a mule deer or whitetail deer or an antelope. Dude, the antelope that we ended up taking today on day three, I've gotten two front shoulders, I got the hindquarters, I got both back straps. I'm eating the entire antelope. So I'm eating the damn thing. So to all the anti hunters out there, it is what it is. I enjoy my hunting and I enjoy it very much. What would happen, Mitch, if they didn't say, hey man, we need to take out X amount of antelopes? Would they end up overbreeding or overpopulating, become a nuisance, die because there's not enough to eat? What would happen to them?

[Mitch Bailey]

I don't know what would happen to them in the long run. But habitat in this state especially, you see how dry it is and the climate and you know, we have the least amount of precipitation, annual precipitation, any state in the country. So you know, the habitat we have can only support so many animals. Some areas can support a lot more, some should support a lot less. These animals are in competition with wild horses, grazing from cattle, competition from other big game animals, and then you got the predator factor in it too. If we don't manage predators and big game and you leave it to themselves to manage, there's likely going to be nothing left. Predators will do really well and once they wipe out a species, they'll move on to another. So with predator management, which we have, and big game management, it allows, you know, the department to establish quotas like I was talking about and have a healthy population. If people that don't believe that that works, just look at history and see how close to extinction some of these big game species were. Nevada has more bighorn sheep, you know, as being reintroduced and man made guzzlers and water projects than likely any state in the country except Alaska. And that's all man efforts that did that. So it's critical. It's absolutely critical. And for those people who want to go out and look at the animals and don't want to hunt them, they can thank the hunters and the conservation group for putting it together for them.

[Steve Austin]

What was your basic strategy when you take a client out as far as Hunting antelope. Because I know, like today we were riding around. Yesterday we were riding around, and it's a spot and stalk. Is that always the method of operation, or is there any other way to hunt the antelope that you like?

[Mitch Bailey]

You know, spot and stock? You can, you can drive, you can hike, you can hike aimlessly hoping to find something. But as you've seen with these antelope, we're covering a lot of ground. I mean, we're, we're into that thing 30 miles deep yesterday. If you're going to do that on foot, what are you going to cover in this kind of country? A mile or two, you get out in your vehicle, you do some hiking like we did yesterday. In that heat and everything else, you, you, you glass different angles. And when you find an animal, you're typically got a mile or so to close the gap and get in position if you're fortunate enough to figure a way to get that close. So that's kind of our spot and stock on the antelope. That's very similar with all of them. Deer, elk, sheep. It's all pretty much the same. You know, you foot, you go on foot, or you use a machine to do your scouting, spotting, big optics. And once you've located an animal, then the work really starts trying to figure out how to make it happen. You can have a heck of a long hike trying to get in close with the big deer or sheep especially.

[Steve Austin]

Dude, we saw a really good buck yesterday, and we started walking up on them. And as we started walking up on them, they started walking away. And then we tried. Okay, we're gonna. How would you describe what we did as far as getting our position?

[Mitch Bailey]

Well, we, what we did was we tried to keep ourselves concealed by using the geography that we had, which was nothing but some rolling hills, cheat grass, and some rock piles. And you and I aren't exactly small guys. Casey isn't either. But you're trying to basically hide an elephant from somebody that's got some great eyesight, and you're trying to hide behind rocks that are a little bit bigger than a shoebox. So, you know, you use the hillside to conceal yourself. And, you know, just like yesterday, we ran out of ways to get any closer. And so we finally just exposed ourselves and hoofed it across that little valley a little, little quick and got to the rock pile. And sure enough, they saw us and increased the distance. So we had them at probably 7, 800 yards. We closed it to what we thought was 5, and they moved up the Hill, to put it right back to where they felt comfortable. They weren't afraid of us. They were just keeping the distance. And they kept it that way for quite a while until they finally lit out of there and we saw them do about five miles at 40 miles an hour.

[Steve Austin]

God damn. Pretty tough watching those things run across the dam. I don't know, mountain plain just across the way is unbelievable, man.

[Mitch Bailey]

You know what, Steve? As you saw today, their legs are about as big around as a broom handle down by their hoof. They have a wide hoof, but that leg bone is tiny. And you remember how fun it was walking across that spongy dirt with boulders in it twisting our ankles, you know, stumbling around in there and then stumbling back to have lunch and watching them run 40 miles an hour across that with all four legs flying, not even missing a beat. Pretty incredible stuff.

[Steve Austin]

It is. It's fun to watch those things. Yeah.

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[Mitch Bailey]

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[Steve Austin]

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[Mitch Bailey]

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[Steve Austin]

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[Steve Austin]

What's some of the craziest shit you've seen on like an antelope hunt or any of your hunts? Because you're hunting all the. You're hunting elk, mule deer, antelope, bear, mountain lion. Want to leave that bighorn sheep. What's some of the crazy shit you've seen out there? Because let me ask you this specifically about the antelope hunt. We were on a particular bluff or just this area that we were in. Casey was spotting. Y' all saw a couple of bucks, a big buck and a younger buck fighting. I couldn't spot them with my bare eyes. I finally, after 15 minutes, found them in my binoculars and we watched them. And then all of a sudden a buggy came behind us and they passed us. You knew them? They moved out. We moved out of the way. There was two other buggies out there and there was about those. Those two bucks that were fighting over a doe and these things are vicious, man.

[Mitch Bailey]

Are they ever.

[Steve Austin]

Dude, I never, I never figured that an antelope was vicious, man.

[Mitch Bailey]

So you know what that, like, like we were talking about earlier. I'm always surprised and I always learn something new. So we'd gone through that Valley first thing in the morning with three, three different people in ATVs behind us. We left that area because there was plenty of people in there hunting, which, you know, that's normal. You're going to come across other hunters, three day, weekend, etc. We went and did our thing and coming back, we rolled right through that same valley. We were going to look out over another side and darn, there's somebody over there. So we backed up, started glassing, and we saw the two hunters pressure some antelope. They blew out of there and it was a doe and a small buck running across there. Then that buck was. He was. He was trying to herd that doe up, round her up. He wasn't running away, he was herding her. And in that same valley with all that traffic, out from a tree comes a mature buck, beats the tar out of that little buck, steals the doe and then takes her right back in the trees to hide where we saw him and her standing there just like statues, where at least three or four other buggies rolled right through there, right underneath him at a couple hundred yards. Never even knew they were there. So. So that bucks able to keep his breeding ritual going, he's actually able to fight a buck and steal a doe right under the nose of four or five other hunters. We were just fortunate enough to see it from a distance because Casey managed to catch him up there on that side hill.

[Steve Austin]

My deal is, because I've always hunted private land, because I've been in South Texas, man, with BLM and all those buggies out there. And then a couple, I think, finally saw one or at least maybe the other buck. But they parked, you know, and they're pointing head on right into the action that we were watching from. Probably 400 yards away from them, probably, shit, 1200 miles away from the bucks. Dude, what is protocol? You guide this area. You've been doing this your whole life. So what is up? Because we were going down. I'll keep segueing in the story here. We were going down to our initial pass, so we're going way in the back, and we passed by three buggies and we were glassing. So we busted through them. We didn't bust through them, we eased through them. We waved at them and we went about our way. And you explained to me, like, Steve, we just can't sit here and wait all day. We've got to go because we're hunting way down here. So what is proper protocol? As you know, an awesome guide in the state of Nevada, what's up Because I'm trying to learn, you know, etiquette, protocol, and respect.

[Mitch Bailey]

I think it boils down to this. If you're on a road and you're hunting, expect to get past. You know, if you're on a little trail and you're. You're stopped and you're glassing something, and it's a rough trail or an ATV road or something that leads off into nowhere, and it's obvious you're looking at big game, the best thing you can do is just not bother the person that's in there doing their thing. But, you know, anybody that's on a road glassing and that can expect somebody to go by them, because that road leads somewhere. Just like yesterday, we weren't trying to get in front of those folks. We were trying to get somewhere 20 miles away. So we can't just sit there and wait for them. And we don't want to sit there anyway. We want to get on with our thing and get away from. Get some distance between us and hunt a different area. That's just kind of the untold, you know, I guess, rules of the game. But not everybody follows them. And sometimes there's altercations. I'll avoid an altercation at any time because I'm. I'm out there to have a good time, not getting an argument. So I typically be the guy to move off.

[Steve Austin]

What's the worst altercation you've had out there? Oh, in all your years, or just some of them? Random?

[Mitch Bailey]

Yeah, I don't know. I don't really have too many of them. I mean, I can't really think of any with me because I get out of the way. I'll let somebody go up the road. But it also works in your favor. I'll give you an example. Gosh, I guess this is probably a little over 20 years ago. I had a guy that had recently had some heart surgery. He didn't get around so well. And like, these big game tags, like we talked about, they're so special to draw. And he finally drew one, but he drew it eight months after he'd had heart surgery. Couldn't get around very well. And we went out to Ely, Nevada, on a big bull elk hunt. And we had spied some bulls and made our way up after him, and he just couldn't make it. It was too late in the afternoon to get up there. And so I thought, you know, we'll go in the morning, we'll go really early. Hopefully they'll be down a little lower, and we'll have Time to sneak in there and take our time getting him in a position to where we can hopefully harvest one of these big bulls. And got in there in the dark, started up the road, and another outfitter came up behind me. And I asked him, I go, hey, you know, would you mind not. Not pushing this, because I've got a client here that really needs some. Some time to get up there. And he goes, well, I have a guy that wants him too. I said, that's fine. Go ahead and go. And I turned around and drove back. And we. As we were leaving, I stopped and looked over a rock pile and I saw a smaller elk down in the low country that. That we might be able to go harvest. And my client agreed, okay, let's go try the low country. It'll be easier on me anyway. So we drove right down in there, got out of the truck, looked in the drainage, and he killed the biggest bull elk to date that I've ever guided anybody to. So sometimes it works in your favor to just not. Not deal with the hassle.

[Steve Austin]

Hey, man, I've been doing a lot of riding on my buggies, on my mules and my terrace and my horse four wheeler out there not too far from my ranch. And my nephew came down and we blew out one of the sidewalls of my Terex and I didn't have my plug kit. I could have swore when you and me went to Home Depot and bought all them damn tools. I could have swore we bought some plug kits. Remember that shit we left on the counter? And I had to go back the next day and get.

[Mitch Bailey]

Yeah, we went to Home Depot and bought all kinds of things and left half of them at Home Depot. Unbelievable.

[Steve Austin]

Well, dude, that's kind of an ongoing theme. I leave my rifle at the shooting ring. I leave all my shit at Home Depot that I already purchased. It'd be like going to Sonic and lady handing me my burger and me just giving it back to her and driving off. Dude, I blew two holes in my sidewall. I could have plugged them if I had a little air compressor. And normally I slam all my tires in Texas. We were out there today in the middle of nowhere. I was surprised we saw a couple of cats out there on four wheelers.

[Mitch Bailey]

Yeah.

[Steve Austin]

Way out there in that country where we was at today. We saw a bunch of people yesterday, but today I was surprised we saw even anybody. So when you go back here and you were making this. This conversation with Casey, you said, hey, man, you want to bring one of the buggies back here? Me and Steve are gonna be riding quads. And I just don't want to go back here in one unit because if something happens, we're gonna be screwed.

[Mitch Bailey]

That's right.

[Steve Austin]

So in your rig, what are you carrying with you? Because I know that I've got to rig up my Terex. I've got to rig up everything because I ain't gonna get caught my pants down again. Especially when you're out there in the middle of nowhere when your chances of seeing somebody are nil to none, man, you need a.

[Mitch Bailey]

You need a plug kit with lots of plugs. If you notice that rig Casey was riding in both rear tires. Probably 10 plugs in each one. There's just no way about around it in the country we're in. So plug kit, air compressor, a rope, something you can tow somebody out with yourself. A winch, possibly a belt, but. And some tools so you can at least do something. It's great if you have a spare belt, but if you don't have some tools, just take the COVID off to change it. Doesn't do you any good. I try to keep a little bit of everything in each one. Sometimes I forget, you know, sometimes something happens, you get it all out and you forget to put it back in its place. But today I knew how far we were going in, and we didn't make it all the way in because we were fortunate it. But the plan was to go in there about 30 miles or rough. That's an awful long walk. And I don't think I'm up for that walk, you know, after riding all day. And nor was I ready to spend the night out in that stuff either. So I figured you're pretty darn handy on an atv. I ride the atv. Casey can follow along in the ranger. We got the ice chest. We got everything to take care of the antelope. We got lunch. So even if. At least if two of us got a flat tire, the third guy can go back and get a new tire or something. So, yeah, I didn't want to. I didn't want to do any extra walking today like that. Especially as hot as it was, man.

[Steve Austin]

I hit my odometer, my trip meter about three miles into the ride. And I clocked us in at about 25 round trip. So we were probably close to 30. And like I said, we happened upon an antelope, which we'll get up to here in a minute. We still had another, what, 15 miles to go.

[Mitch Bailey]

Yeah, we did.

[Steve Austin]

So we was gonna be back here in the middle of nowhere. And so anyway, we ended up riding, riding, riding. And Mitch said, dude, this is nothing but black rock. And it's a rough ride, but it was rougher than you remembered it being because things have changed. And man, I'm riding along, Mitch is leading the way. And man, I will never ever not bring my goggles again because that stuff was so powdery. And you're like, oh, man, there's no more dust after we're about to get in the rocks. Yeah, well, if we go through the rocks, we go through some more powder. And I'm eating all that shit in my eyeballs. And I was going to bring my helmet, but we're just hunting, we're not riding at top speed. So I just figured, you know, I'll just wear my sunglasses and my baseball cap. I ain't never following your ass without bringing my goggles again. End of story.

[Mitch Bailey]

Oh, God, it's great to look back at you and you could pull up to me and wiping all that grime out of your eyeballs, coming out your nose, on your lips, you don't even look like you anymore. All of a sudden your beard gets darker.

[Steve Austin]

Dude, I'll tell you what, you told me it was gonna be a tough ride. And there's, there's a couple of pretty hairy, pretty technical spots there. And yeah, I wouldn't take a rookie back there.

[Mitch Bailey]

Oh no, Heck no. And you know what? Since you got to Nevada, you've went out, you've gone out with a bunch, with Neil, yourself, with me on an ATV ride and learned how to deal with these rocks and everything, which isn't something you were accustomed to in Texas. And it takes some skill and a lot of arm strength to push those machines through that stuff. And I'm glad you did it. I felt really comfortable with the way you ride. But I'm still going to take the lead every time because I know where I'm going and you don't. And so you get to sit back there and eat that dirt. And I have no problem with it. Honestly, it's kind of funny.

[Steve Austin]

I'll tell you what, I was riding a couple times. We got finally some smooth areas. I figured, okay, man, I can at least take my left hand off the handlebars. And boy, I hit a damn couple of rocks about the size of a football, maybe a basketball buried in the ground. And that some electronic power steering on this damn, you know, four wheel I'm driving. And that son bitch will damn near jerk that handlebar out of your hands, mister. So about the time you Think you can take it easy and enjoy the ride? You better have both hands on there. It's a come to Jesus meeting, man.

[Mitch Bailey]

Man, that or the one that's hidden in the grass you're cruising along. It just looks like a nice grassy road. And hiding in the middle of that grass clump is a nice sized boulder.

[Steve Austin]

Dude and I met that boulder right after about a mile after we went through that gap. I was cruising along, left hand on my leg, and I hit that damn thing. And I hit it with my right tire, my right front tire. And of course, when you do that, you know, it jerks the wheel, but also it puts pressure on the damn throttle. So you gas it at the last time, at the last minute, you need to gas it. You're on the gas. You're caddy wampus, and you're sideways. It's like, you stupid son of a bitch. So anyway, it was a lot of fun riding. And on the way back, we got to finish taking care of business. We'll talk about the business here in a minute. But I said, all right, man, you guys go ahead, I'll follow you. And you said, no, man, Steve, go ahead and take the lead. It's just one way in, one way out. Go ahead. So, man, I went ahead and I rode on all those rocks. I rode on that damn side of the cliff where the high side's kind of this way. So you're tilting downhill. One wrong move and you're a goner. You're gonna roll, shit, 900 yards down a hill. Pretty much on your four wheeler if you make one wrong move. Good stuff. Had a blast. And finally I got to an area, and I figured, well, on the way up, Mitch would stop every now and then. And I was right on Mitch's ass, you know, three or 400 yards back, Casey was behind me. We was all staggered out to not eat all that dust. On the way back, Mitch said, man, just go ahead and take the lead. So I'm riding around, passed by two four wheelers that were parked there. I know they were a landmark. I kept going. Saw two dudes on two four wheelers underneath the tree. One of them was having carburetor trouble. Because you stopped and talked to them. I just kept going. I didn't know what to say to them, so I kept on going. And finally I said, man, there's only one way in and one way out. But I ain't seen nobody in a long time. So I figured I'd just sit here and wait. And while I was Waiting for you guys. I was doing a photo shoot on my four wheeler for Kawasaki from a brute force 750. And finally I said, dude, somehow, some way, you must have taken the wrong turn because y' all wasn't nowhere to be seen. And I'd been waiting there for 10 minutes. But y' all had talked to the guys with the carburetor trouble, so here y' all come. And then I kept leading the way and I was going to take a right, right where we needed to take.

[Mitch Bailey]

That left you might possibly interrupt there.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Mitch Bailey]

You know, I saw you down there coming back up the hill to check on us because you were worried about us. Were you worried about us or were you worried that you were lost?

[Steve Austin]

No, I wouldn't worry about you guys. I was worried that I had taken the wrong turn and I was lost bigger than Dallas.

[Mitch Bailey]

And so like five minutes after you were done worried that you'd made a wrong turn, you went ahead and made a wrong turn. You were headed north instead of south. And fortunately you looked back and saw me wave in the right direction. And I did that. So I didn't humiliate you in front of my friend that Steve might be lost.

[Steve Austin]

No, that's why I look back.

[Mitch Bailey]

Good thing.

[Steve Austin]

And I will readily admit it. I, hell, I done told everybody I'm turning around out here.

[Mitch Bailey]

And if you were wearing your helmet, you wouldn't have seen me waving.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, but no, I was good with getting into directions. Here's my question. As I was sitting there doing my photo shoot with my Kawasaki Brute Force 750, the most macho four wheeler out there, I was waiting on you guys this plug for Kawasaki. Talk about your rig later. He's riding a Sportsman. Dude. If I'd have been lost and you guys went down a different road, There ain't no cell phone service out there. No, you hit a spot. We'll tell that story in a minute where you talked to my wife, your illustrious sister.

[Mitch Bailey]

Yep.

[Steve Austin]

All right. So if we hadn't hooked up and I'd been sitting out there in that damn hot ass sun with one road to go and then a T. Go right or left? If I'd have been lost, what would you tell me to do? How would we have hooked back up? We're just gonna sit there and cruise all the damn roads looking for my ass. A global icon and a national treasure. I didn't have one bottle of water with me.

[Mitch Bailey]

I would have just followed the ranger because it had the ice chest with the sandwiches in it. That's where I would have gone. You eventually would have come back if you'd have got hungry.

[Steve Austin]

No, that's why I came back. But then all of a sudden, I come up on you guys. Hey, let's talk about that buggy with all the food stuff in it. Because Casey was driving a rig. It's kind of like me and Krista was playing golf over there at the golf course with my nephew Neil. And the drink girl, whatever you call her, comes by and says, hey, do y' all want some beer this, that or whatever. So Casey was driving a honey wagon with all the food and the important stuff. And. And my wife had boiled some eggs the first day. And then Mitch had the big idea to put the eggs, instead of putting them in a Ziploc sandwich bag with salt and pepper, to put them in a jar of pickle juice. Man, those son bitches were good.

[Mitch Bailey]

God darn, they're good. You know, you take that, you finish off your jar of pickles, and everybody just dumps the pickle juice down the drain. There's so many good uses for it. And I learned this a long time ago. Peel your boiled eggs, throw them in the jar of pickles. The pickle juice firms up the egg and it kind of pickles that egg. Just like pickled eggs. Put it in an ice chest, bounce it around that water, the eggs don't get all busted up. You don't need salt and pepper. And I think we were almost ready to fight over those eggs yesterday.

[Steve Austin]

Well, and I wanted to talk a little bit about the protocol when you're sharing a jar of pickled eggs with your brother in law and his friend. Set of rules.

[Mitch Bailey]

Let's talk about that protocol.

[Steve Austin]

Talk about it.

[Mitch Bailey]

Go ahead and do that. Where did it go wrong, man? I was the first one to think about it's time to have an egg yesterday, if you remember. Right. So I got out of my grub box. It's in the truck wagon, as you call it, the ranger with the, with all the food and all the supplies in it. Get out a nice plastic spoon, make sure it's clean, open up that pickle jar, reach in there with that spoon and grab an egg and went over and hand it to my buddy Casey, who grabbed his egg and ate it. And we were raving over it. Steve, would you like one? Well, yeah, I want one. So served. You went up on that plastic spoon and you ate yours. You know, because you're out in the field, you're touching all kinds of things, you picking things up off the Ground, you're wiping the sweat off your brow. You're working the throttle on your machine, grabbing all your optics. Your hands aren't. You can't clean.

[Steve Austin]

Among many other things that you do when you're in the outdoors, amongst other things.

[Mitch Bailey]

Let's not get too nasty here. And so we all have our egg, everything's great. Next thing I know, you know, a couple hours later, we pull over to have a little lunch after our hike and everything. And I look over there and I can't believe what I see. There is no way this is humanly possible. Somebody with the size of your hands trying to get your big ass hand inside the pickle jar to get an egg. Squishing the eggs around, get your cleaning your hands basically in the pickle juice. And I look over and I said, really, Steve, we're all supposed to have an egg now after this? And you just gave the usual Steve Austin chuckle.

[Steve Austin]

I couldn't believe I was back here behind the rig and I was keeping it below the tailgate. I thought I was Kay Fabian. That's wrestletalk for keeping it a secret. I didn't think nobody could see me back there with my hands swishing around trying to pick up a God dang egg.

[Mitch Bailey]

Yeah, some.

[Steve Austin]

I couldn't get it out.

[Mitch Bailey]

Nobody can see you out in wide open. Hiding behind the ranger.

[Steve Austin]

I didn't even think to take my cold steel pocket knife, broken skull model and stab an egg and take it out that way. And that's, that's the method I was using today.

[Mitch Bailey]

That was what you did today because.

[Steve Austin]

I respected your sanitary conditions. Y' all don't want my germs. I mean, I told him it's. I mean, I don't want him reaching his big air ass dick beaters in a damn jar, pickled eggs, and handed me one. Here, Steve, have an egg.

[Mitch Bailey]

So you used your knife today, the same one you opened packages with. Clean rattlesnakes and everything else. I'll get them with this one. No, but the thing that got me the most was your solution to the problem. Just get a gallon jar of pickles. My hands will fit in there.

[Steve Austin]

Dude, it worked, didn't it?

[Mitch Bailey]

Yeah.

[Steve Austin]

So anyway, that's what happened. And I got turned around a little bit on the way back, but. So we was riding down today and this is my first antelope hunt. And I'm sitting there looking at all these animals at all these extreme distances and we made a real good stalk on a hell of a buck that we thought was a hell of a buck. Looking long range with some real strong optics. Using the terrain to stay lower than the grass. Going around these damn knolls, trying to get an approach. Trying to use a rock ledge as a rest. Trying not to be seen. And esan bitch is, like, looking at you. You're basically in their living room when you're hunting them. That's how well they can see, and that is where they live, and that's how they operate. So the odds are against you. Anyway, nothing happened. But today, before we got to our destination point where it was really going to get good, you happened upon an animal, man. And right now, it's the rut.

[Mitch Bailey]

It is the rut.

[Steve Austin]

And the rut is when, like, the antelope or the mule deer or whatever it is, that's when they breed. And I guess that's when hormones run wild, testosterone overload, and these bucks are fighting for breeding rights. There's one thing on their mind, and that's survival. Yeah, fathering, you know, the breed. And God dang, I'm riding behind you, and all of a sudden you know, shit. I'm usually riding about 2, 3, 400 yards behind you, depending on the terrain, how much dust you're kicking up. And I seen you kind of throw up a gun sign. I just figured you'd seen a herd antelope way up there. And I come up, you know, another 50, 60, 70 yards, and there's a damn antelope standing right there in front of you, man.

[Mitch Bailey]

You know, I don't know that. I don't know that anybody can say that. The. The bucks get stupid. They just get tunnel vision. They got one thing on their mind. And that whole being wary and hauling ass and running away kind of goes out the window. They got one thing on their mind. They've been fighting a lot. There's that buck standing there looking at us as we ride up.

[Steve Austin]

We.

[Mitch Bailey]

We pull up, we shut off. All three rigs are shut off. And I'm giving you that gun sign because this is a great buck. And I couldn't believe, you know, you got. You got your gun all lashed down, it's tied down. I'm like, man, you gotta get that gun out. Hurry up, hurry up. And this is a great buck. And I'll be darned if that buck didn't keep coming closer. I don't think he knew exactly what we were, but he wanted a part of us. And after, you know, we harvested him, you could sure see all the cuts and galling that he'd been taking from fighting other bucks. He Was definitely in the mood to fight.

[Steve Austin]

Dude, it was unbelievable how scarred up that buck was. And as it rode up on Mitch, he sees the antelope, I see the antelope. You know, this is my first antelope hunt. I'd been seeing him all day, the day before. Seen a couple before. We saw this one, and I'm sitting there thinking, okay, he throws up the gun sign. And then he yells back at me, he goes, let's take the shot, let's take the shot. But he didn't exactly say it exactly like that. So, okay, I shut my rig down. I turned the key off. Normally when I'm riding my four wheeler, I always ride with gloves. And these are, you know, like motocross gloves or whatever. So I don't even remember it. All I know is that I lost both gloves. So I can imagine when you told me to go into action when you're carrying out here, at least the way Mitch told me to carry was I put my rifle in a soft case. It's zippered up. I had a bag of gear on top of my. In the front of my four wheeler, and I had my rifle in the case, bungee corded down like a sun bitch. Because we're riding through all this crazy terrain. Leaning over to the side, rocky, you don't want to bump your scope. You don't want your rig to fall off. So all of a sudden, he tells me it's time to shoot, man. I start clawing at everything. I take my gloves off and I'm struggling with these bungee cords. And because, dude, I can see the buck, I'm ready. I'd been at the shooting range. I'm dialing in for a 300 yard dead on shot and looking to shoot 4 to 500 yards if the possibility presents itself. This is probably about 100 yard shot. This is the closest to an antelope I've ever been because all the ones we saw were a mile and a half away. And it made us stalk up to 500 yards. And the buck wasn't what we thought, so we didn't take the shot. So we'd been riding through extreme territory. I got a badass four wheeler with electronic power steering, and I was fighting that damn thing. All of a sudden, he tells me to get my gun, dude, I start fighting with these bungee cords and they ain't cooperating. I damn near pulled out my pocket knife, started cutting shit up, and the buck is still sitting there just looking at me. And he was actually approaching Mitch like he wanted A piece of Mitch because he was. He's ready to fight or do whatever or he doesn't know what we are. But it was just a crazy moment. And so Mitch is off to the left a little bit in front of me. The buck is off to the right and in front of me. So Mitch was not in my line of sight. Finally, I get through wrestling with that, both of those bungee cords. Then I grab my damn case, I zipper that thing down, and the whole time I'm sitting there cussing my head off underneath my breath. I don't want to scare the buck off. He's in rut. He doesn't really care what I'm doing. I finally get my damn gun out, and lo and behold, there's an antelope down on the ground.

[Mitch Bailey]

What a great shot. What a great finish to a great hunt, man. One thing I got to hand it to you sure know how to shoot your gun. And that's. That's just a blessing for us guides out there guiding hunts as somebody that comes prepared the way you. Way you're prepared riding your atv, shooting everything was just perfect. Nice clean harvest of an animal. Quartered them all up, bagged them all up, got them cooled down on the racks, and enjoyed a nice ride home with some memories made to last a lifetime anytime.

[Steve Austin]

If I'm going to take anything I don't to want, I wanted to suffer. So I want to do my part. I want to do my due diligence as far as being up to speed with shooting. I want to make sure my gun is sighted in. I'm not going to be an irresponsible hunter, and I am a proud hunter, and I'm going to eat every single bit of that thing. But, dude, it was a damn blast, and I had a good time doing it. And now the next thing we got is same unit for mule deer coming up November. What do you got coming up? You still on antelope or will you switch off or you got some sub guides doing bear hunts or what?

[Mitch Bailey]

Well, yours was the fifth antelope hunt I've done this year myself. And then I have. We just finished up two other antelope hunts up in the north country. I got some great sub guides working for me doing bear hunts. We are bear season open September 15th. We have 10 days of bear hunting right off, and then we'll go right into October where we have seven deer hunts and then yours at the end, which we like to save the end of the season for you and have a really great time hunting following that up with, we have two elk hunts and a late season deer hunt in November and December and just a busy year for us. And then we'll. We'll probably go into lion hunting sometime in January.

[Steve Austin]

Hey man. Casey and you took the biggest lion probably in years.

[Mitch Bailey]

Oh, it was, it was quite a. Quite a lion. He ended up with a lion last year. That was. We took it up here in November. It took. Gosh, I've been chasing that lion for a year and a half and finally I figured I had him nailed down and Casey and I hiked down in there with the dogs and caught that lion and. And he got it. He got it all mounted up really nice and take you over and show you that before you go home. But what a great line. £180. £185. Taxidermist that did it said it's the biggest lion he's ever mounted. And he's mounted hundreds of them.

[Steve Austin]

Them.

[Mitch Bailey]

Quite a representative of the mountain lion world, that's for sure, dude.

[Steve Austin]

But you. And you said mountain lion is one of your favorite things to eat. That there is.

[Mitch Bailey]

It is. So want to talk about that a little bit. I had a little game feed over here a couple weeks ago right before antelope season started up. Get everybody, all my friends and their wives over here and get them all primed up for hunting season. And you know, it's nice that the guys wives will come over and try everything at least. And I cooked up some mountain lions, some black bear, antelope, mule deer and frog legs, things like that. Some treats. Mountain lion is always the biggest hit. Everybody loves it and you know, just cook it up just like anything else. And it's just a delicious white. It's the other white meat.

[Steve Austin]

Mitch, where can people find you on social media, Facebook, website, whatever. I know your book. Solid.

[Mitch Bailey]

Yep.

[Steve Austin]

But you've been doing it so long. But how can people find you Nevada.

[Mitch Bailey]

Hunting services on Facebook, Nevada hunting service on Instagram and nvhuntingservices.com on my website.

[Steve Austin]

Dude, pleasure hunting with you.

[Mitch Bailey]

Pleasure hunting with you. Steve. Thanks for everything. Thanks for letting me be part of your hunt.

[Podcast Announcer / Advertiser]

From the mind of Martellis Bennett.

[Steve Austin]

Once you pass 21, your birthdays are done.

[Podcast Announcer / Advertiser]

It's revenge of the jocks on podcast one.

[Steve Austin]

Once you pass 23, you can't take.

[Podcast Announcer / Advertiser]

Me to Benihana's a no holds barred show about all the things that shape our world, world and culture.

[Steve Austin]

I want to go to Africa. I've never been. I want to go full Jumanji.

[Mitch Bailey]

I'm Robin Williams and Jumanji. I think that's like in South America though.

[Podcast Announcer / Advertiser]

Revenge of the Jocks with Martellus Bennett.

[Mitch Bailey]

It's like trying to have sex the first time and getting it all wrong.

[Podcast Announcer / Advertiser]

I think I'll keep trying on podcast one and wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Steve Austin]

All right, everybody, give me the Go home Q Stumble wrap up his podcast ride off in Sunset. Before I do that, I want to thank my brother in law, Mitch Bailey for joining me on the podcast. Man, we was dead dog tired from chasing all those antelopes and being out in the damn sun and man, it was a great enjoyed being in the outdoors and it was a successful trip and I had an absolute blast. So I'm looking forward to getting back to the broken skull ranch 2.0, getting some work done while I'm there already and getting caught up on everything before we have to head back to the mean streets of Los Angeles here in a couple of weeks. But I had a good time out there hunting with my brother in law and that's the bottom line. Hey man, I got a badass beer for you. I've been talking about on this podcast for a couple of years now. It's called Broken Skull ipa. Universally recognized as the best IPA in the United States of America. Universally recognized by yours truly, Steve Austin. You can find Broken Skull IPA at Whole Foods and Total Wines. If you live in California, if you ain't in Cali, you might be shit out of luck. I also got two badass pocket knives for you from Cold Steel. The Cold Steel Broken Skull knife and the Working man knife which can be found at my new Amazon store. Amazon got the best prices on both knives. Just go to Amazon.com shop steve austin or go to the Cold Steel Knives website. Folks, until next time, my name is Steve Austin and I will catch your ass down the road.

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