Bear Grease - Ep. 232: Render - Backcountry Law Enforcement

Episode Date: July 17, 2024

In this episode of the Bear Grease Render, retired US Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer, Joe Liles joins Clay Newcomb and Render crew members Brent Reaves, Misty Newcomb, Josh "Landbridge" Spielmaker, and Bear Newcomb. Joe's career with the Forest Service overlapped with the end of Russ Arthur's and he confirms the legendary stories told on the Bear Grease podcast. Bear shows off his latest self bow, Misty talks farming, Brent explains what nets to catch catfish with, and Clay even permits a little fly fishing talk. Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights fieldware collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days and real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware Gear at firstlight.com. My name is Clay Newcomb, and this is a production of the Bear Grease podcast called the Bear Grease Render, where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes of the actual Bear Grease podcast. Presented by FHF Gear, American Made, Purpose Built, Hunting and Fishing Gear that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. Bear, show me your bow.

We've got a Osage Orange self-bow. This one is kind of snaky. Like you can see the grain on the actual stave is real snaky. And so we like that, right? Yeah, I mean, it makes the bow look a lot cooler.

It's a little character. It's not necessarily the most functional and it is really hard to make it actually work. Yeah. Because of the snakey? Yeah. And this one in particular, it's just like covered with knots and it's pretty hard. Does it bend pretty evenly?

Well, that's what I'm working on now. Yeah, it's not finished. Work in progress. Yeah, yeah. So right now it's like probably 65 pounds if you were to drop back all the way, which I haven't. Because I only want it to be like 48. Let me see it. Now, this is a stave you got off our.

property, right? Yep. Actually, David Albright got it off our property like two years ago. Oh, and then he gave you the dried it and then gave it to me. Yep. Boomerang. What percentage done is that bow? Probably. I like the recurve on it. You got a little recurve on there.

He put that on there. I know. I like it. He bends it and then heats it. Yep. One of our guests today is my friend Joe Liles. Joe, you're old recurve hunter. I am.

I started recurve hunting in 2017. 2017. Yep. And sold my compound. You might need to pull that back from your lips just a little bit. How about right there? Perfect. Okay.

We're good. When did you start trad hunting? 2017. Yeah. And I had a compound and started hunting with my recurve and haven't looked back since. Yeah. And really enjoy it. Have you shot a self-bow?

I have not. Not like that. I've never hunted with one. And the one I have, I've got a blackwooda, a 40-pound black wooda, and it shoots really good. Yeah. I really like it. What's the difference between a self-bow and a long bow? Well, a self-bow is, it's a terrible descriptor.

I want to talk to the guy that name these self-bows. I think the definition is self-bow relies on itself for strength, like one piece of wood. Wow, bear. So, like, if it's like, sinew-you-backed or something, if there was, it's not. a self-off. 50 different ways to name this and the components and the physics and the dynamics and the spirituality of the flight of the mystical arrow. I would not pick self-bow to describe this. I would call it a long-made boat.

Yeah. Home-made? Okay, that would be a logical description. I would call it a one-piece bow. Like, it's just one piece of wood. That's dumb. They do make two-piece. Single-safe.

We would call that a two-piece. No. With fries. No, this is the most primitive type of bow. But a self-bow is one that's made from a single piece of wood, just whittled down. And so like a long bow like I have over there, the modern longbows like Joe, his black widow, would be a laminated bow. So we'd have multiple different tops of wood, fiberglass, different, you know, different material in it. Right.

But this is the way that, I mean, the Native Americans would have made both at one piece, most of them. Yeah. This doesn't have much to do with nomenclature, but it does have to do with Osage Orange and Bear. When Bear was a little boy, words that had three plus syllables were a little bit tough for him. Yeah. I mean, he could pronounce him fine, but he was really intentional about it. Pretty good. But this was one of the words, Osage Orange was hard for him.

So he would say, bulldozer. he'd say bulldozer, strawberry. He would like really put the weight on the second syllable. And Osage Orange was... So how would he say, O'Sage Orange? He would say, O'Sage Orange. And every time I hear O'Sage Orange, I hear it in Little Bear's voice. How would he say it?

O'Say George. Orange. He always put the in-this-in-this-on-a-old. And now he's got a dog name O-Sage. Yeah. Too-solable. Dog, I thought about bringing the dog in. It's going to be a tree and feist.

It's going to be good. She's good. Well, Bear eventually is going to make me a bow. Yep. Bear made a bow that he donated to the Meteor House of Audities, auction house. And it sold for $1,000, didn't it? I think so.

Dang. Yeah. And that one was straight. What percentage of that do you get? I got public land access. Oh, good. All good there. Boat ramp.

Yeah. Boat ramp named after you. The bare newcomb. Yeah, yeah. No, that's cool. That's cool. I was actually going to show my bow. It's very similar.

Very similar. Did you whittle that? This is the fanciest bow I've ever had. Machined it out. This is, I've never owned a fancier bow with the back stabilizers, front stabilizers, and then the adjustable site there. This is a miracle of mine. Joe, I'm going on a mountain goat hunt in Alaska in a month.

That looks complicated anymore. I look at that stuff and then compared to just my recurve. I know. It's complicated. I know. It is. How much does it weigh? Four or five pounds?

Oh, more than that, probably. It's pretty heavy. I actually don't know. But I, you know, I shot Trad exclusively for seven years from about 2013 to around 2020. Like, that was my primary weapon. And it's funny how people in the Honeycalfe. community treat that they're like when they see you they're like surprised that you would have a compound bow or they're upset with you for having a compound bow and uh i've always just kind of gone

back and forth and you know just there's there'll be times when i want to focus on trad and then times when the focus of the hunt is more on something else like actually harvesting an animal like the limiting factor like with a mountain goat man oh gosh it would be very difficult like a short shot It would. It's 40, 50 yards. A short. That's what I'm told. And a lot of steep angles and different things.

So the reason I have all this is I'm going to, you know, trying to extend my effective range by cheating. Yep. Yeah. I would be too. So what I want to each hand. What do you feel comfortable shooting that bow at? Well, I can, I can shoot a group at 70 yards, you know,

my best group out of three groups. groups is going to be about six inches at 70. That's pretty good. And I'm shooting a pretty heavy arrow, cut on impact broadhead. I mean, I don't want to shoot a one that far, but in that game, that's just kind of the game. Wind up there, too. Yeah. Yeah.

But I have a secret weapon. Yeah. I can't talk about it. Boys and bods. Yeah. Brent, you've been commercial fishing? That's all I do, man. You're a commercial fisherman.

Have you caught some fish lately? I actually have. Yeah? Been going good. 91. 91. When, geez? A couple weeks ago.

91 what? In one setting? Catfish, yeah. Are they all catfish or you get other stuff mixed in there? Cropian stuff, you know, they're piled up. We just throw them up on the bank. No, I'm kidding. We hadn't got one sport fish, one game fish.

You know what I mean? Catfish is. Now, you put them bait in these nets. Catfish is classified as a sport fish and a commercial fish. A rough fish. But, yeah, we've caught a few buffalo. I called a big old drum. I put a hoop net out, man. It's a four-foot hoop net.

You could catch that bear but sit behind Joe in it. I caught one buffalo and one drum in it. That's all we've caught so far. So the hoop net thing is kind of escaping us. Oh, now, what kind of nets are you using? We're using wire nets. We're putting some kind of bait in there? Yep, cheese block.

It's like a size of a block of velvier cheese, and it's cheese and soy things. Yeah, four fish. We cut and knock them in half and put them in our inside the throat of the fiddler net, and then the fish went up in there and go to chomping, and then we catch them. But the hoop net's a little tougher. Hoop net's just catching fish, like, in current, just kind of... Yeah, it's tougher for folks that don't know what to do, and we're just learning. Yeah.

Do you bait those two? You can, but we hadn't been. Okay. I'm surprised to hear that fish are not dairy-free. They're not dairy-free. Yeah, I'm surprised to do they say cheese. Could be. Well, they nurse off their mothers when they're young, so they probably have taste.

That's probably what it is. That makes zero sense. Who invited him? Yeah, yeah. Josh, you caught a big brown trout yesterday. He caught a nice brown trout last night. He kind of saw around the room here catching up. Yeah, one out late.

How big was that fish? It looked big. It was probably 18, 19 inches. When Brent saw it, he said, what did you say? Look at that stick of it. butter. Big stick of butter. Big stick of butter. Beautiful fish, beautiful night out on the cool river and the heat. It's like nature's air conditioning. Was it a good night? It was a good. It was funny because I was fishing with a buddy of mine and we fish for probably close to two hours and caught

like one fish each. After dark. Well, no. No, this is before dark. We started fishing about 5.30 and man had just been trying to hone my guide skills and prospecting on different flies. And, and and went through probably a dozen different flies and finally found the light switch. And in the last hour and a half, we probably caught 20 fish. You done that big brown one? You done any mouse and yet? Not yet. I've got another buddy.

I don't know that there's a time of year, but I think you can do it pretty much all year round. But I think it's better in the fall and winter. Okay. But I've got a buddy who's been tying up a bunch of mouse patterns and we'll go out at night. At night. mice at night you know stripping a mouse that's where you catch the big predatory browns really yeah they'll eat a there's a six i guess a live mouse would just cross a river yep that's a bad decision yeah there's a there's a film it was shot in new zealand uh once in

a blue moon or something i can't remember the exact name of it but you could see it on youtube Was it that film that the Yeti did? I don't think so. They may have, but I don't think so. They may have done one. The one I saw was like in New Zealand, and it's very, I don't even know if there's any words, and it's just, it starts out of this guy's in this cabin, and he sets his camera down, he's this little mouse run up on the counter.

I mean, you set the stage of what's going on in the area. Personally, I would have lit a railroad flare and dropped it in the bedroom and walked out of there because I don't dig rats. Not a big rat guy. No. And but then he starts, you see these humongous brown trout eating these mice when the moon's full. Oh, really? And it's just pandemonium, man.

It's a really cool, really cool shot. A lot of slow motion stuff is really cool. When a mature brown trout reaches 18 inches, its diet switches from primarily bugs and, you know, small, crustaceans in the water to other fish and a mature brown trout will eat another trout up to two-thirds of its body length. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. So they become serious predators when they get that big. Wow.

So if you want to go fishing with Josh, your guide, guide here in Arkansas, the beaver tailwaters, northwest Arkansas. Josh Lambert Spillmaker. Yeah. But y'all can talk about that on your own podcast. We don't talk about fly fishing here. Just kidding. Just kidding.

Y'all are all fly. Bear is a big fly fisherman. Brent's fly fisherman. Bear is one heck of a fly fisherman. Is he really? He is a natural. Like he has a natural instinct. Do you think it's his hair?

Probably. Yes. Probably. I want to cut a lock of it and tie a big streamer out of it. Joe, do you fly fish? No. And that's what I was telling Josh. You know.

Joe, let's move that out just a little bit more. A little bit more. How about right there? Yeah. And no, I used to a little bit. it with Duane Heda. Duane Hada was my art teacher back in 1985 at Meena High School. Now, is he the famous fly fisherman you were talking about?

Yes. Really? And he was my art teacher. And we used to actually go down to Albert Pike and fly fish a little bit. But since then, no. You know, haven't fished anymore since then as far as fly fishing. Yeah. And I don't fish much at all anymore.

I used to a lot. Yeah. And, but like I was talking to you about motorcycles and stuff like that, I got to riding a little bit of motorcross, and since then, you know, no, I haven't, no hardly fish at all, mainly just hunting. Yeah. You talked about tying flies out of bear's hair. Those two flies up there. I tied out of Saskatchewan bear hair hair. Oh, man, I love it. Yeah. That's right. If you come in here and one of those is missing, it wasn't me. Okay.

We've got some specialty Tim the squirrel dog hair flies at our house bear. Bears experimented quite a bit. What have you made flies out of them? I made the fly out of my own hair. Made flies out of pieces of turkey beard, Tim hair, mule hair. Really? Mule hair? Yeah.

You start talking to me before you start pulling hairs out of my mules. Where'd you get the turkey beard? Turkey. You did. Do you kill a turkey last year? Yeah. Oh, yeah, you did. Sorry.

Is that the Mississippi one? I mean? I killed two. I killed one, Tennessee one of Mississippi. there you go. Yeah. Brant calls them both in for them. Over the phone.

What else? Mule. I think that's all that I can really remember. Well, and then all the normal stuff that you would use, like pheasant tails and stuff. Yeah, yeah. All the normal stuff. Yeah, but it is kind of cool to use stuff that, like, you've killed.

Oh, and I have, I made some out of my blonde Montana bear. Oh, yeah. But, yeah, and then turkey feathers and just. Have you caught? fish on these flies? Yeah. I love it. Cut one on a

clouser out of my hair. Clouser bear. How does Tim, how does Tim here do? It does pretty good as kind of like the whiskers

on a crawdad. Not like the antennas, but like right at the mouth, you know, just tie like a little... Are you plucking these hairs out of your dog?

No, I just call up and he just kind of stands there and you just nip them. Got a bald spot Well, we have a couple of corgi So if you need hair We need some corgi hair

Yeah, we got it I got a lot of it Yeah Well, okay So I've kind of gone around the room here Tell us about your garden, Miss Newcomb Oh, how nice Well, I got sweet corn out of it this week

Which is pretty exciting Yeah I think we're going to have a big year for tomatoes I've heard it's not great Everywhere else But it looks like it's a big year for us I've had two really great strawberry years. I like kind of like

subtly like taking the knees out of other recreational farmers of the region. Our tomatoes. I have a big goal this year. I really want, and I've wanted this for the last couple of years, but each year I've run into a problem. I really, really, really want a big pumpkin.

Like one of those, I mean, you have to devote your life to it if you want a competition level pumpkin. I think you just got to use Seven's vest. We have really bad squash bucks here. And yeah, really bad. And I keep thinking I can get around it in natural ways and I can't. And my friend Jessica went to the farmer's market and she just kind of assumed that everyone there was like organic farming. And she asked the woman and the woman was not a, she didn't really understand what Jessica was saying.

And she wasn't a native English speaker. And she looked at Jessica and she just said, seven, seven. She finally started to figure out what she said. And Jessica's like, doggone it. Everybody's using seven's dust. Maybe for pumpkins. I don't know. I'm starting to waver.

You know, my... I noticed the... The apple trees are like... They're incredible. Yeah, we have an incredible apple year. It's an incredible apple year. And we had a real early spring, and this is not interesting to most people, so this is a bad deal that Clay asked me this question,

because I could go on and on. A big farmer. But we had a real early spring, and usually when you have an early spring, the apple blossoms pop out, and then you have a frost, and they'll die. And this year they didn't. So I think we're going to have apples in July. I mean, I really think. I'll be making apple butter in August.

Oh, good, because I'm out. Apple butter. What? I'm out of the good stuff. Oh, oh, you're out. I thought you were, you didn't want it. No, no, I'm out. I need them.

I met a guy yesterday, Willard Blinds in Newton County that still makes his own sorghum molasses. He grows a big patch of sorghum and has a mill that he runs with mules. Oh, my gosh. And makes sorghumylase. There was a guy down the road from. where we lived that you'd go by and he'd have a mule out there going around in that sorghum mill oh really yeah he'd sit there in a bucket and every time they'd come by he'd lean over it'd go by yeah you know the big pole he had that he had the mule hook too going around in circles

I don't know that I could identify sorghum if I saw it I grew it one year and it grows every year in my compost bin now because I got rid of some of it and the seeds are pretty Oh, we drove by a patch the other day. Yeah, yeah. It's hard for me to tell the difference between young corn and sorghum. But it's the same kind of plant, you know, kind of a taller plant with big wide blades like grass, you know. Interesting. Yeah, one day.

Sorghumalilil. This reminds me of Lambert's home of the throat roll. You guys ever eat? Oh, yeah. It's a lot of fun. Yep. Yep. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls

in building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? that's who I listen to.

I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did, and you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises

and getting action. well man this this podcast was a good one we went uh the reason joe is here is that joe's a retired force service law enforcement agent how many years does you work for the forest service i worked for the forest service for a little over 22 years 22 years in patrol yeah and so several years ago when i did the louisdell and charlie edward's series series, genuine outlaws, which is to this day one of my favorite series that we've done, truly was. We got to the second episode, and I think it happened pretty quick because we had to go real quick, Joe. But Joe called me or I called Joe, and he said, hey, I know the guy that worked Louis Dale Edwards undercover.

I know him. He's retired. He's in Tennessee. And I was just like, really? Because all these guys had talked about, it was just so interesting from a journalistic standpoint, because I'm talking to, Lou Delle and Charlie had passed away. They weren't alive at the time. But I'm interviewing their family and friends and Andy Brown and all these different people.

And they all told stories of Louis Dell believing that he had entertained an undercover wildlife officer. But it was never, nothing ever came of it. Like they didn't get him, you know. And, but they told the story just as if it was 100% true. Like, they knew who he was. But, but still, I think over the years, it solidified more into certainty. Probably at the time they were kind of like, I think that may have been a undercover. Is that kind of the way you, do you think that, do you think Charlie or Louie Del really knew Russ was an undercover agent at the time?

At the time, no. I really don't. Yeah. Yeah. And especially talking to Russ after the fact, no. Right. So at the time. I think it kind of came out later.

And then it solidified a little bit more into like that he did know. But he probably didn't. Well, so Joe goes, I know this guy. And I contact him. And me and Joe jump in the truck and drive to Cleveland, Tennessee. Well, not quite to Cleveland. but drove to Tennessee and met Russ Arthur and then he told the story of working Louis Dell and Charlie Edwards

and well primarily Louis Dale and it was fascinating I mean if you hadn't listened to those episodes you should turn this off right now and go back to those episodes we're back to Louis Del and Charlie that was one of my favorite episodes and so Russ

while we were there Joe he told I don't know if you remember, but he told us the story of getting run over. But real brief. It was just kind of like after the fact. And he told me the story of getting run over and basically a really abbreviated version. But I was like, man, that is a wild story. And I knew that at some point I was going to go back and talk to Russ. And then he told me another wild story that I can't tell you because it's the next episode.

But I'm telling you, it's as good. That's going to be a good one. It's as good or better than this one. And, but now, did you work with, did you know Russ pretty well when he was in Arkansas? No, when he was in Arkansas, I was too young at that time. Oh, okay. And when I started my Forest Service career, Russ was already in management. He was in a supervisory special agent at that time.

But we had lots of interaction together, you know, through, he was our fitness coordinator. So, you know, I contacted him all the time. We always had in service together, so I seen him a lot during that time. But growing up as a kid, you know, in later teenage years and stuff like that, I heard these same stories that you've heard too. And not until I got to know Russ and talk to him and actually get the stories in. Yeah. Well, what's so cool about him is he told two turkey stories too,

but Russ can't tell the story without talking about his dad, you know. I really appreciate that. You know, he, you could tell just how much he appreciated his dad and how influential his dad was. But this podcast kind of started off and ended with his dad, you know, just the history of his connection to the land and stuff. What did y'all think of it? What'd you think of the story, Misty?

You wouldn't have known anything. Misty came in completely cold. She just knew I was talking to Russ Arthur. Well, I remember the. rainbow people coming to Mina. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Do you remember that?

Oh, I remember it well. And I remember being excited, and my brothers and I most definitely got my brother's car, and we were like, let's go check this out. Where were they? Oh, did you have to work them? I worked for the sheriff's department at the time as a reserve. Okay. And, oh, I remember it well.

Yeah, it was exciting. They were on the head of brush sheep down by James's house. Okay. Where a lot of them stayed during that time. Oh, yeah, it was quite the adventure. Wow. Did a bunch of them come? Not like a regional or a national gathering, but there was a lot.

Yeah. There really was. I didn't realize as rainbow people were still active. That's probably the thing that people have most contacted me about is talking about their interactions with the rainbow people. And a positive or negative light. Just like, just like, Russ said it well. I mean, it may not have been like, can we make fun of hippies? Or is that not okay?

Like politically correctness? Oh, of course you can. Okay. Russ was like, Russ was like, it was kind of a freak show. Yeah. That's the way every single interaction I've had about the Rainbow people has been. People message it and being like, man, it was weird. We had one.

One guy wrote me. Oh, my gosh. I got to read this. I won't read his name. I don't want to embarrass him. You got to hear this. This guy, this guy, I'm pretty sure this guy is a officer now. He said, funny, the rainbow people came up in the latest episode.

When I was four or five, my parents followed the movement and would go to gatherings in such and such state. I vaguely remember the naked people, drug use, and other things. Fast forward to 2008, and I was assigned to work. He's an agent now. And he said I was assigned to work on this WMA where they were. And so he worked them. And anyway, we had a funny little deal there. I said, anyway, I called his parents hippies.

And he laughed and he said, yeah, they were. So anyway, that's the kind of messages I've been getting. Well, I just... I'm endeared to hippies. I love hippies. It just was kind of funny because there's some... I do, I mean... It's not, it's a...

You know, Clay's life goals, Swiss Family Robinson. Like, that's what Clay's life goals was he wanted to have that kind of life side. Swiss family, are you sure that's the right one? No, wilderness family. You were Swiss family. You were Swiss family. He was wilderness family. He was wilderness.

family, yeah. And he wanted like pet raccoons and stuff. Let's get our American literature. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I was like, my whole life flashed before me and I was like, I wanted to be what? I mean, read their book. He wasn't even in it. Anyway, and there's, there's a fine line between hillbilly and hippie. I think it's like a very, I think it's a very fine line. So anyway, point being, I was, I was just trying to figure out why this mean squirrel hunter was hanging out with the rainbow people. Like, why was he at that checkpoint? He was going to just see him.

Just see the site. Just check them out. Okay. That's the way I understood. It may not have been real clear. That's what it sounded like. Because rainbow people were usually pretty, like you would go to the zoo to see animals. That's what he was doing.

Well, when Russ first started telling the story, it was, he spent more time than is on the episode talking about the rainbow people. And I thought it was going to be them that tried to kill him because I knew where the story was going. I knew that he got run over. I really didn't know exactly who did it. And so when it wasn't them, and, you know, they were gathering to pray for world peace. Yeah. Which, uh, I saw them piled into Mark Twain National Forest one time. I was me and a buddy of mine was up there, turkey hunting.

He killed a turkey and we cleaned it and the remnants of it. We chucked in the dumpster. Next afternoon we'd go by there. There's a guy cooking what's left of that turkey in a pot. No way. Besides the dumpster. Really? Oh, yeah.

Like gizzards and... Bone, had a whole... In a big pot was bald. It was bawling the... He was hungry. He was hungry. We stopped and gave him a sandwich. Are you sure?

This was a rainbow person or a homeless person? No, rainbow. Man, it was everywhere. Brent's got a big heart for the hippies. Oh, he was hungry. I think that maybe the rainbow movement kind of makes its own gravy. Like, you know what I mean? Like...

I know what I mean? I know when they left. If you went and asked a bunch of people, like, are you a member of the rainbow living of light group? I mean, they would be like, no. And then you might be asked those same people, have you ever been to a rainbow living of light meeting? They would be like, I mean, some percentage would be like, well, yeah, we went up there just to kind of see what it was all right. I know when they left, it was trash everywhere. Really?

Yeah. I heard that. I heard that from a couple of my comments. Now, they met here on the Ozarks in about 03 or 04. They had a gathering here. And I don't think they like coming to Arkansas too much. Oh, yeah. During the summertime, you know, ticks, chiggers, a lot of humidity.

Yeah. And the Arkansas law enforcement was not on their side. Really? So. I was afraid I generalized them. I actually didn't research too much. I was just going off what Russ said that they typically want to protest. the government is that what you understood they did not like buying their permit okay yeah a large

group gathering yeah you know and you know how they are now you know I've been out of it so long my last gathering that I went to was and he was as a participant we can get into a lot of stories so sometimes it's better to just listen than talk I was in Ocala Florida and this would have been, gosh, 2003. And it was a regional gathering because I remember there was a few oranges left on the trees. So it's been. Now, why were you working down there? That was, it was a detail.

So they sent you. We were detailed there. Okay. And that was a regional gathering. And for the Forest Service Law Enforcement part of it, you know, it's pretty intense at times because they're not friends with the Forest Service law enforcement. and you see a lot, you interact with them a lot, and there's a lot of good people there,

and then there's some that they don't want to see you at all. Lots of drug use, doctors, lawyers. Really? Oh, yeah. People from all walks of life. All kinds, yeah. Been to a few of them as far as, but that was my last right there. Yeah, that was your last rainbow gathering. Am I hope?

Have you ever been to a rainbow gallery? And working wise, no, that was my last. Yeah. You know, there were some things I couldn't take, and that was one of them. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you never got past. I asked you what you thought about the episode.

Well, I mean, and it's really hard not to like Russ Arthur. Like, just to, he's kind of like good guy, salt of the earth. Just as you listen to him, I think he probably gives a very great, a wonderful reputation to, if every law enforcement officer you met was like Russ Arthur, he just seems to, very respectful, very, even respectful of, I thought, the way he described the rainbow people and kind of gave a little bit about their, I just, I just liked them. And I thought the story was cool, and I thought it was, I enjoyed hearing him talk about him going to college to become a law enforcement office, a wildlife office, yeah, forest service, and his dad's response to that.

And I, I just, I enjoyed the story. I heard somebody else chuckle at that. Was that funny? Misty was I was watching Misty while she listened to it. She had her earphones in. And I just happened to catch her kind of chuckle a little bit. And I went over and like, hey, what did you laugh at? She was like, I don't even know. I wondered what it was. I actually think it might have been that part because that's what I was listening to.

That's what high level podcasters do is we put people in glass booths and have them listen to the podcast. Yeah. And then we watch and we watch their internet. They're like wince or. fall asleep or laugh or punch the glass. And you're taking notes. It's difficult to be married to a high-level podcaster who's doing that kind of stuff, you know, like just watching your every move and taking off your earwis.

What did you have? You do the same thing with Alexis, don't you? And taking notes. Yeah, and taking notes. You do the exact same thing. She'll end that sentence at, it's hard to be married to Brent, period. Nothing to do with podcasting. That's where she'll end the sentence right there.

I feel like you could do that. Okay, but to me, the story just was layered with twist and turns. I mean, didn't that what you said, Bear? Yeah, it was just like, it was like a movie, you know? Like, they were just every single time you'd think that the story was like over. Like, there would just be another one. You're like, this is, this is it. This is the story.

His bosses would come out of the woods with shotguns. Some guy, like, some guy came and told him that he knew where the guys were and that he'd like, you know, kind of negotiate and get him out. Yeah. Then whenever they found the, you know, marijuana farm out there and he didn't recognize anybody and then like right at the end, the guy, the squirrel hunter walks out, it was just like, it was,

there were so many twists and turns. Yeah, yeah. You know, Russ is, I've heard him tell a lot of stories. he this is what I think I think that was an exceptional story number one but number two I think that he pays attention to detail and is an exceptional storyteller too I mean really he's a great storyteller he he knew it was his job to pay attention to detail and tell the story because he is the witness to what's going on and he's got to convey what happened there Joe'll tell you that was before body cams down on

piece of paper and then he's got to present it to folks that have no zero have zero knowledge about anything or anyone that's going on and he's got to convince them this is what happened this is what they were doing yeah so yeah of course his detail is is the big thing yeah yeah yeah what'd you think about it brent oh it's good man it was just i mean i could see it coming progressing you know because somebody made the statement maybe and you it may have been russ himself some folks are just mean, you know, and they don't think about things. And going to prison or going to jail or the repercussions of something is immaterial to what the message or that they're trying to send or the act that they're trying to do.

They don't care about that. There's no, they're not worried about anything. They're not worried about how's this going to look on my resume, you know, because that's not their deal. where they're big in their community, that might look good on there, give them some street cred or whatever you call it. They don't think about what's going to happen the day after.

And then when you do, when they act impulsively, or they premeditate something and do it, then whatever repercussions they received from it, it wasn't their fault. That guy made me mad. He made me do this. It's his fault, and they get madder.

Yeah. You know, they just have a warped way of looking at it. Did that surprise you the way? No. See, that's what I just don't. It didn't surprise Joe. It wouldn't surprise anybody. What type of crazy person would do that?

Well, I don't know that they're crazy. They have a different value system. And they don't have to be raised in a poor, they don't have to be raised in a poor place to be there. They can be it from the nicest part of town. The most successful parents, it's just whatever, how they perceive their perception of reality or their perception of right and wrong. You can teach.

I mean, my parents and grandparents were just as poor as you could get. But their value system was, you know, impeccable. Money didn't have anything to do with it. Their raising didn't have anything to do with it. Once they were shown something, they could see, ah, this is the way to go. this is the way to do this is the way to operate this is the way to be a productive member of my community and be a good person and some folks is like eh i do what i want yeah i'm not a sap i'm not going to do that i'm not going to you know i'm i don't have to respect you but you got

to respect me or you'll pay the consequences wow you know so do you jo when you heard that story, do you think those guys were on drugs or somehow inebriated? Oh, without a doubt. And just all out criminals, you know, probably have been career criminals since they were young. And specifically, I'm talking about when they ran over Russ Arthur. Because there's a, there's a, I was thinking about it because Russ didn't know and he didn't really speculate. I asked him one time, I said, were they on drugs? And his answer was, well, we'll never know because we didn't catch them until three days later. But they were going through a DUI checkpoint and there's one way out.

I mean, so they had to go through this checkpoint. And so if they were inebriated, they know they're about to get caught. Yeah. Odds are, yes. Yeah. And during that time, you know, Russ grew up in the marijuana cultivation. That was a lot of his career. Things have really progressed now to where it's methamphetamines.

And that's what a lot of my career was, is meth labs still the marijuana cultivation. but what they're seeing now, the officers, is fentanyl. Right. You know, it's eating this country up. Yeah. It really is. Yeah. My middle daughter is, she's an RN just over here in Oklahoma, and she deals a lot with seeing a lot of fentanyl overdoses.

Mm. And it's right here. And going back a lot of what Brent says, a lot of people just don't like the law enforcement. They don't. No, they don't respect, you know, it's, they have a authority to say they're, Yeah. Ain't their deal. The authority's not my jam.

Yeah. On blood trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bed. And there was a full of blood. Oh, my God. He doesn't have a hit.

Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors. Where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets a big. buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper. From cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left

behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable. of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Talking about the body cams. That's a game changer right there. Yeah. When I first got a body cam, oh, I hated the thing. You know, you were scared to say anything because you didn't want to, well, you knew all this was going to be in court. But then after you wear that thing for a while, you get used to it, and then you wouldn't work without it.

Really? It becomes a safety net for you. Absolutely. You know, I got to where I would not work without it. Yeah. Because when they realize it's on body cam, no, games over then. Really?

You think it influences the way people react to you. Oh, absolutely. I would set mine on, you know, there's different settings on them. I would set mine on vibrate and where it had an audible tone to where they knew. They knew they were being videoed. Wow.

Because all that, you would see, a lot of times that people break out their cell phones. And, you know, I just tell them, you know, well, hey, I'm recording it too. Yeah. And they know. Yeah. Did you have people pull out a cell phone? Oh, yeah, you see that all the time.

You're going to be there, you're going to unjustly treat them in some way. Oh, yeah. You see that all the time, especially. I guess that kind of bothers you when that happens, though, right? Not when you're recording it to. Just, yeah, you get used to it. It's just like anything else. But it gets to the point where you would not work without it.

Yeah. And I would not be a law enforcement. officer in today's time without a body cam. Yeah. And I don't see how they do it. Yeah. Because you're not going to go out there. It makes you a better officer.

It does. It's just accountability. Absolutely. And my last few years, I was a field training officer. And that will also make you a better officer. When you've got someone else in there that you're trying to get them into some type of case or something, it just, it makes you a better officer. Yeah.

It does. To go back to what you're saying about how the. The enforcement has shifted because the actual drug has shifted. Like back in the 80s, 90s, yeah, growing marijuana was the thing. I was talking today. I almost felt the need to explain that, especially for maybe younger listeners. I mean, like, you can't drive 10 miles down the road in a lot of states without seeing a marijuana store. Yeah, dispensual.

I mean, so, but back in the day, so, I mean, you know, we're like desensitized to this idea of marijuana being like a hard illegal drug used by, you know, sold by, you know, criminals. But back in those days, it was very much so that. I mean, like, marijuana was like the drug. And it was being grown. I guess it probably shifted some from being grown off the forest and then to grow houses and stuff. Would that be true? In private land. We would see a lot of it on private land.

Yeah. And it's talking about that. I spent a lot of my career in the summertime, you know, flying in helicopters, you know, looking for cultivation. And I know it's never worth a darn at it. But some of our guys that I flew with, they were really good at it. You know, they could spot a single plant. Really?

Just a single plant. It's a different color. It's just. It's a different color. You've done it too, huh? Oh, honestly, it's a beautiful plant. It really is. You get the sunlight, you know, high on, you know, bright days, it just stands out.

You know, it does. Are people still growing marijuana in National Forest? I mean, I know you can't answer that, but it's not like that's the thing anymore. Am I right? No, they're growing in their backyard. The laws have gotten so liberal. Why drive, why spend the money? They're just growing up to the backyard.

Well, that was the thing about it, you know, when it got cheaper to bring it in from Mexico than it did to take the risk of growing it and get caught with it. Just like methamphetamines. You know, once the pseudo laws changed, you know, the, meth, you know, it just all comes out of the super labs in Mexico. You know, it's 99% pure math. You know, Russ's story in a way was kind of dated because, I mean, like setting up surveillance on a huge patch of marijuana, 1,500 plants and National Forest and guys coming in, you know,

it's like, yeah, I guess my question is, does that happen? Like that? Yeah. Not anymore. You know, they'll set it all up, you know, cameras, MO cameras, sell cameras. Yeah, it's all done remote. We used to have a camera that we would use, and I can talk about it now because that technology is so outdated,

but it looked like a log. Remember those long cameras, Joe? It looked like a log, man, and it took a battery. You had to go and dig a hole and put a car battery in it. We would carry a car battery. Yep. We would know what. Put it in there, and you're having to cover up wires

and make this thing look natural, and it was absolutely like dealing with atom bomb. You probably thought it was high-level technology At that time, it was high-level technology. At that time, it was very much so. It was high as it gets. I mean, it was... Is that why you put that log in my front yard?

Don't worry about that. There's no more what we're talking about. Don't look at that antenna coming up. I found this nice log. I think it would look good. I think it would look good right here in front of your door. But yeah, that was the kind of stuff you had to deal with. And now that technology is so...

Antiquated. So, past a million. and miles by just a regular sale camera. Yeah. Because this thing was like trying to hide that saddle. Yeah. And it was like this bigger round, about that long. Huge.

Wow. Did you do a lot of marijuana? A lot. Like when Russ is telling that story, you understood. There's a lot of sentences that could be taken out of context here. Did you do a lot of marijuana a lot? The enforcement. The enforcement.

Yeah. Yeah. I went to several schools. I was a certified spotter, aerial spotter. We did. Were you good at spotting it? Yes. Were you good?

Let me tell you what it is. You get to looking for shapes. You're flying along and you're looking at God's random order of plants and animals and objects. Then all of a sudden there's a neat little square down there. And then when they figured out, you know, the square being the plants, all planted in a row. So then they're like, ah, we got to break this up. We've got to do this random. I don't care how much you try.

A human cannot plant something without being something symmetrical. It just cannot replicate nature's randomness. Interesting. And it was always that and the color was the easiest thing to find. That is interesting. Or the trails leading up from behind the house. The garden hose leading to the house. Everything else is dead.

But that's not. Yeah. Yeah. Wild. We pulled, we had the record for a while. It was broken later, a couple of years later. We pulled 17,756 plants in one day. 17,000?

Mm-hmm. You pulled them? Yeah, in Bradley County. In South Bradley County, it was on timber company land. Wow. Yeah, that's a lot of work. Yeah, it's not fun. Yeah, that's what the guys in the helicopter,

which I was that day, and it's smoking hot, man. I mean, it is humid. And the ground crew is going out. We're directing them in by radio, you know, forward, left, right, whatever. And they get in there. I remember this one time, this guy, they get into the patch that one guy breaks in there. He comes out of the thicket, and all of a sudden he's standing. You see him, he's looking around all this marijuana.

All of a sudden, he just starts doing, he's swinging his arms and kicking and juck him and bucking, doing all this kind of stuff. And the guy in helicopter says, man, it's a yellow jacket swarm. He's got nowhere to go. So a helicopter pilots just go down and they, I mean, they are blowing air all over the sky. And knocked the yellow jackets off of him enough where he can get out. But it was like he was doing a karate demonstration. And the chopper pilot had the wherewithal to be like, I'm going to blow those yellow jackets.

Another of the spotters said, that's yellow jackets. And they just lowered that Huey right down over the top of it and blew the yellowjack. That's hilarious. That's awesome. And he was getting eaten up. So what kind of, and you can cut this off your podcast if you don't want this intel going out, but what kind of conditions do you need for marijuana? It's a weed. The gardener.

Well, I'm just trying to think if it's in the national forest, is it, it grows fine under tree cover? It's a weed. It needs to grow it or to spot it? To grow it. To grow it, you can do it. You need water and a soil. But it doesn't need full sun? It does.

It needs sunlight. Sunlight. There's got to be in the open. And it can grow. It just grows in the warm temperatures, just like it's frost, intolerant probably. Yeah. Arkansas is a perfect place for it. Can you not smell a patch that big?

Absolutely. Yeah. Can you? You can fly right? You can smell it from a helicopter. You can smell it. Absolutely. And, you know, interviewing some of the people that were really, you know, long-time

cultivators. They wanted it to frost on it. And, you know, we'd see those plants and the buds would be, you know, like that. And they'd be just laid on the ground. And that's what a lot of them wanted that last frost to hit it. And then that's when they'd harvested. And there's nothing more frustrating when you had all your equipment set up. They harvested it.

And something went wrong with your equipment. Yeah. And you missed them. No cameras. Oh, you didn't get any documentation of it? No. Yeah. And you may want to cut this one out.

But we worked a case in Oklahoma for 10. I bet I won't. We worked it for 10 years before the people that started, you know, working it before me. And we worked this case for 10 years. And we let them have it, you know, during that length of time, because during that length of time, you're not going to make, you know, we're talking, you know, several hundred plants up to 1,000 plants, but that's not going to make any difference to people.

You know, so we'd let them have it. What do you mean to make any difference in the court? Oh, well, that and, you know, You're not going to make any difference in the amount of marijuana out on the streets. I see. We wanted to catch them. You know, we weren't in the, we were in the business to catch them. So we'd let them have it.

And they get a little bit more comfortable. We worked this case for, for 10 years in the, let me think, early February of 2012. We knew this guy would come in and he would start his plots. and he would come in and get everything ready in the night, even during that time of the year. So he'd ride a horse. That's how he tended all of his stuff. So we went in in February and set our cameras. And just to get him prepping the sides, got all of our stuff set up.

And we came back probably two or three weeks later and walking into that plot, I'm like, oh, my gosh. because I set my camera up and like part of years I buried part of it and he came in at night and he took a chainsaw and he cut that tree down and well it was a big bush and my camera was just right he cut the tree down that the camera was on absolutely it was a bigger type bush but he came in and cut it down

and if it would have been during the daylight he'd have seen everything oh wow and but he came in at night on a horse and we didn't know who it was. So we worked that all summer long, and then August. And why we left this equipment on that one patch, I don't know, because it'd already burned up. He came in the daytime. He had a veil on, he had a mask on, just a handkerchief.

He got hot, we just don't know. But just the day before, I'd service that equipment. So I knew it was good. He got in there messing around, and he got hot and he pulled it down. wiped his face with it, put it all back up, and we had him. Ten years later. Really? Wow.

Ten years. And so you had all this evidence of him growing, growing, growing, growing, growing, growing, and growing, and growing. And then finally, you got a picture of the guy. Ten years later. Now, how were you able to, all the evidence you'd gathered all those ten years, even though without photo evidence of it being him, were you able to put that on him? We were for the previous year because he had rode a horse in. We knew enough about the case that we were able to prove it all and link it all together. Wow.

And we actually, you know, the smallest pieces of evidence, we picked up a little piece of a tarp that was in the patch because he would, he would pile it all on this tarp. And he ripped off part of this little blue tarp. I'll never forget that. And that was actually at his house, the tarp that all the marijuana was still laying on. And you were like, blue tar. And that was 2012. He's since deceased and spent a lot of time in prison. But when we served that warrant, we never told anyone where we were going, not the sheriff's department, nothing, until the morning that we were headed to his house.

Just because you didn't want it to leak out. Even with the local law enforcement, the forest service kept it so hush, hush that we never. never told them where we were going to, we were on our way. Wow. And did you have problems with that in the past? Yeah. With leaks? You just didn't know.

There had been so much and we knew how violent this person could be. And I can remember my captain at the time, you know, when he was, he loved to be the first one. And, you know, he had a lock gate, you know, with those with our patrol vehicle, he rammed it. There was no. Is that right? There wasn't time to get out and unlock gates because it could, the potential could. go south real bad. Really?

And we had the entry team. The sheriff's department had an entry team. When they approached the house, he's got a Glock laying right there by the bed. And we knew there was a window there where he slept. And that's where, you know, the first guy went up there to. Through the window? No, just right there at it, you know, because. And then the entry team made, you know, entry into the house, but he had a gun, you know,

laying right there on the nightstand. He was caught. Oh, he's caught. Yeah. There was no way out of that. Wow. And lots of good cases like that. But there's tons of them.

Yeah, I bet so. Interesting. I just think about the adrenaline and the, I mean, you have to have a special personality to be able to, or chemical makeup even, to be able to work undercover. The lion for a good cause. like I think about what that would do to your psychology well now there was no undercover official undercover

it does this team second but I was just thinking like how hard it would be I was I was thinking about the case with Louis Dale and Charlie oh right and with Russ and just the challenges that that would

present to do that I don't know and just to hearing that story just thinking about the just the I don't know That's got to mess you up a little bit. I mean, you seem to be really healthy and stable. Just as stress out. So does Brin.

I pass too psychological. It just like you've got to have some type of special composition to be able to do that. Seems like it's a duplicitous life. It would be hard to go like to your kids baseball game afterwards. That's what I think. It's like how could you go from that to like your kids baseball game? Well, you missed a lot of them. You did.

You missed a lot. and you compartmentalize a lot. Okay. And these jobs, which, you know, he can also talk about, you see lots of violence. Yeah. Tons of death. Yeah. And you compartmentalize it.

You just, you don't go there. Okay. Because your mind will, your mind will go there if you let it, but you just think about something else. Yeah. This segment brought to you by BetterHelp. There you go. BetterHelp.com for all your, therapy that you need.

Do your organizations provide that kind of support and training for how to do that? Absolutely. Is that part of the? Okay. For sure. They do now. Yeah. It seems like that would be super important.

Yeah. It does. Very much so. Josh, what stood out to you? What was your favorite part? You were there for the whole, Josh was with me when I was at the rest of his house. You know, he told so many great stories, but that story of, you know, that we've,

affectionately titled Runt Over. I think hearing that story, it's almost unbelievable. And I think the thing that really got me in that was when he got in the ambulance and recognized the guy that he had in federal

court and he's telling his, don't leave me. He never said if the guy left him or not, though. Well, he said he stayed with him. I felt like he stayed with him. Okay. But I think Russ just even in how he wrote the guy a ticket. He's like I wrote it for the least.

You know what I mean? I appreciated the fact that in all the time we heard Russ talk, that there was never a sense of compromising standards, but at the same time there was a compassionate aspect of who he was as a law enforcement officer. And I have tremendous respect for that. when I've interacted to law enforcement, you know, there's been, I've had good experiences and I've had bad experiences. And the good experiences that I can recall are when I see someone hold a standard at that, yet be kind and compassionate in there. And I really appreciated that about Russ.

So what bad experiences have you had, Josh? These handcuffs are too tight. Oh, they all say that. This is my fault. There's all sorts of stuff coming out today. Very interested here. I've actually had them say that. These are not my pants.

Off a checkpoint. Pull some dope out of a pocket. Oh, these aren't my pants. Joe, I remember coming through a checkpoint on Forest Service one time where you were there. Did you remember that? I did. We'll talk about that later. Just where he hud.

I was baiting bears. And at that time, I didn't know you that well. I mean, we, but I, no, I just remember just coming around the corner of National Forest and there's a bunch of trucks and the roadblock. And I thought about busting through it. What was that? That was just a regular compliance checkpoint is what that one was. There were a lot of people in the forest at that time.

Yes. And since when Russ was talking about it, they could probably call them roadblocks, whatever they want. We had to write them up as a compliance checkpoint. There was only certain things you could ask for, driver's license and insurance. And that was it. That was it. But with just those two questions you can see so much. I mean, just like somebody doesn't have insurance.

It's all the time. Where does it lead, though? Like usually when we pull that vehicle over, you know, if they don't have one of those, just don't you pull on over here. And at that point, you can ask them more? You can start asking more. But that's your first initial questions. it has to be stated on there what you're going to ask for the exact location of the of the checkpoint you know it's very systematic what you've got to ask for and we'll just leave it at that but once you pull that

then it's what what you can see we had one one time this lady pulls up in a station wagon and she's mad at the world and I said man I just need to see your license and registration please and boy she is hot She's mad. She's cussing me and cussing everybody else for being there and being in her way. She's in a hurry. Her and her husband been fighting and she's leaving him. I said, wow. I said, let me, just let me check your tags on the back of the car. And I'll be right back with you, and you can get on your way.

And she's still cussing me like the dog that I am. And as I'm walking back to the back to check her license, I just shine my light in the back. And there's like 18 marijuana plants still in the pot, just laying across. all her clothes on the top. I walk back up there. She said, giving my license, I'm leaving. I said, we've got a few more things to talk about. I said, is everything in this car yours?

She said, yeah. Except for those marijuana plans. So did my husband. Are you serious? Exactly. Do you think, I mean, she knew they were back there. What made her thing? She was mad.

That's why she was. They were his. And she took him to spite. And she left, and she was going to be. bifle and she had them in the back but she was she were her demeanor went from yes everything's in this car is mine and she realized and she said except for the marijuana place those are my husband sir wow well too bad he ain't in the car how were you able to to verify that they were his you said they actually turned out to be his no I'm sure they were his but she's the one they got

in she she was in possession yeah wow oh you see all sorts of stuff you know because story on that we were we're in muddy creek and we had a checkpoint. Same situation rolls through and you could just smell it. You know, that car ended up having 17 pounds in it the best I know. A lot of marijuana. And but you just see,

and like I was telling you the one where he said, these ain't my pants, you know, you can smell it rolling out. You know, get it out of his front pocket, the best I remember. And he said,

man, whatever you do, don't call my grandfather. First thing, well, what's his phone number? You know, that's the first person you call.

Don't call my grandfather. That's what he said. He said, he'll beat me to death. Well, That's the first person we called. And he was not happy when he got there. Wow.

So Brent, you'll like this. My daughter's probably going to kill me. But my youngest daughter, she's been driving for a couple years. She's 18. And she's, both my daughters tend to have a little bit of a lead foot.

And my youngest daughter's never been pulled over. So she's never had an interaction with that. Well, she's on the interstate coming out here the other day and gets pulled over. Right, you know, about a mile before the speech. limit switches from from 65 to 75. And she thinks she's in the 75.

So she's driving 80. And she gets pulled over. Which we do not have. Two lane divided interstate. She sees the, she's in the left lane. She sees the blue lights behind her. And where does she decide to pull over in the median? In the median.

So he gets out and he walks up to her and he says, he says, can I see your license? She gives him a license. He says, who's your, and we have, we have an, we have an. insurance company. We have our our insurance on our phone. And he says, who's your insurance provider? And she goes, my dad. He goes, no. I mean, what company do you have that's good? Yeah, that's a good one. My dad is my insurance provider. You do. Oh, that's funny. That's funny. Isaac, did you like the podcast? Yeah? He's paid to say that. Camerman. Caraman I always say that.

Absolutely. Yeah. I'm going to repeat everything you're saying. Okay. Go ahead. In the words of Isaac Neal. The disparity of the guy who runs him over. The disparity of the guy who runs him over.

And the two family members who did. And the two family members who did the right thing. The dad who said, I'll go get him. The dad who said, I'll go get him. And then the relative who called him up to be like. And the relative who called him. them up. How does that happen?

Yeah. To be fair, the dad said, I'll go get him at our illegal hunting side. Yeah, exactly. As long as you guys don't shoot it. You know, I should have asked Russ, it made it sound like it was an illegal camp in the great Smoky Mountain National Park. Yeah. That's the way.

Is that the way you understood? I mean, he said in the smokies. And for it to be an illegal hunting camp, I mean, if it's national force, they could have a hunting camp. I mean, assuming it wasn't like some. like permanent structure or something. Like they could have a camp way back there. But apparently it was in the park.

And he did right where it was at. Yeah. Yeah. The dad knew right where it was at. Coincidence. Yeah. Not his pants. Yeah, there were so many parts of this that could have been in a movie, you know?

Yeah. I was flashing back. I think a lot of my youngest, like, I was like a little fledgling chick. It was just really imprinted by Sylvester Stollone in the late 1980s, early 90s. But when Stallone, that's a little different with Russ and Stallone, but when Rambo was in prison and there was only one man for the job and his old boss, Colonel Troutman, calls him, gets him out of prison to go do the job, the recon job in Vietnam.

Yeah, this comes up every week. So when Russ moves back to Tennessee and he gets a call from his old boss that needs him back. I could hear the music. Russ was not in prison. I could see the movie. You know, Russ is back. Just mad at his own business, just back in Tennessee.

I don't want anything to do with those guys over in Robinson. Planned corn. Yeah, planting corn. Planting corn, plowing with a mule. And then he has to go back and bust these guys. Y'all think that Clay's just doing this to be entertaining. But in reality, just the day-to-day routines of our life, Clay will bring up Rambo quotes when River was about

six years old and lost her first tooth. We were pulling it. She's tearing up and he said, River, Rainbow was taught to ignore pain. Bear, was that a little bit of the tenet of your upbringing? Oh, yeah. I mean, it wasn't a joke. Oh, yeah. That was like a saying that was like constantly going

through my mind. You didn't know that came from a movie, did you? Well, not until you know, I got old enough and then you showed me all the Rambo movies. All the Ben thought Rambo was his uncle. He never met. He was still in prison.

He was watching him. He was like, Chuck Norris for me. It was Chuck Norris for me. Chuck Norris. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's pretty helpful.

I would advise parents to teach their kids that Rambo was taught to ignore pain, not acknowledge and bow to it. I mean, there's certain things that they need to be attended to, but most of them can be ignored. Am I right, Bear? Yep. Is that the way you're going to teach your kids? Yep.

Yep. That's right. Good. Good, good, good. No, it was, I really like these just kind of monologue stories. It's like one person telling the story, you know. It's kind of... I'm excited for the next one. It's going to be awesome. Yeah, the next one's. I already gave, you know, some foreshadowing that it's an illegal Elkhunt in Yellowstone. I mean, I got gay. I told quite a bit, actually. Have you ever referenced that one outside of? Because for some reason I feel like Not when you told you about it. You've told me about it before.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's going to be good. It's going to be good. What else, guys? Brent, what's going on with this country life? Man, all good stuff. We're talking about, let's see, let me do the math here.

This one comes out. We'll be talking about heroes. Heroes? The Friday? Rambo. after this one comes out. And Rambo's not in it. I should,

maybe I can do that a part two. Just about Rambo. Just a single episode devoted. But we're having, it's fun. You know, this is a, I like to talk about the stuff that I'm doing.

And right now I'm trying to hunt the shade and stay cool. But we're, we got some good topics coming up, I think. Good. Folks are enjoying it. Get lots of good feedback, getting lots of good stories,

people sending stories in. Good. We got a project, Corinne and Reeve and I are going to be working on. It's later on it's going to be good, I think, with the stories that folks are sending in. Yeah, good. Good.

Well, I've got two sales pitches that I'm excited about. Meadeter experiences is this deal where people can book a trip and go with some of us on a team. Me and Brenner are going to be in Venice, Louisiana in October, October 10th through 16th or something. Something like that. Yeah, we're going to be down on the coast of Venice, Louisiana, red fishing. And people can come.

I mean, it's not, I'm not going to tell you it's cheap, you know, which is unfortunate to be nice if it was like $200. It's not. But people can book, and it's like booking a guided four-day, something fishing trip,

you know, lodging, food, everything, but we'll be there. And there's other, and you're also doing the Kansas his waterfowl deal. Yeah, I think it's called Fowl Plains. I'll be up there in January. And Duck Huntington should be phenomenal during that time.

It's a great place. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Second sales pitch is for my pants. Bet you weren't expecting that. You can buy his exact pants. I'll take them off. And send them to you.

No, this is first slice new 308 pant. Nobody told me to do this, but I literally wear these every day. I've noticed. I wore a mule riding. yesterday. I got them on today. I just kind of cleaned them up a little bit.

But they're like, I mean, they're a hunting pant. You can hunt in them. Yeah. But I wear them to church. You can hunt in a dress, but.

I wouldn't advise it. You had a bad experience. Oh, man. My bear had fell off. But no, they just, they just dropped these. They call them 308.

308 being the rifle caliber. Did you get it? Did you get that when you first saw? Yeah. I didn't. I did not. I can say I did not get that. 308.

I think that's the caliber. Didn't James Lawrence use the 308? Oh, yeah. Is that what he used? Yeah, he's got one. Hey, he says it's a lever action, the best I remember. Yeah. Lever action 308.

Yep. I think that was a popular caliber back in the day when he was arising. It still is. Yeah. Running it's suppressed. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well.

Good bridges. Great. Well, Joe, thanks for coming up, man. Absolutely. I've got one more thing to say about Russ. I talked to him the other day. He said he wanted to make sure that everybody knew that his dad had money saved up for him to go to college. And this story he told me just the other day.

He said, I forgot to tell Clay this. So he said, and you'd be sure and tell them that my dad offered me this money, but I turned it down. He said, I just wasn't going to go to college, and I was going to continue to lay brick. And he said, I got to thinking about that later. And he said, my dad had already spent the money, but he wanted to make sure that you knew that he paid for his college himself. and that his dad had offered to pay for his college. But he ended up having to pay for it himself. He said, but he wanted to make sure I told you that.

About a half a pallet of bricks would convince me to go to college. Oh, absolutely. No doubt. No doubt. Yeah. And he said that, you know, his dad had had this money saved up. But, you know, he went ahead. He was going to pay for his college.

Love it. Yep. Me and Russ talked a little stone work. Yeah. You know, Russ laid stone, too. And I showed him a picture of my magnificent. them open. That's everybody. That's everybody you know. It's now seeing a picture of it. Yeah, I wish I had a picture right. I wish we could take these cameras out and I could show you my, Joe, I have to show you my stone chimney.

He mentioned he wanted some more pictures of it because he's going to build ones. What he said. Yeah, yeah, he was, when he saw it, he was like. As hunting cabin. He wants one. Yeah, he could build one. Now, there's another, there's a couple more guys that you really, you should talk to as his supervisors. Those are the ones that can give you a lot of stories on him and they're all retired. So Russ is a, hoot. I mean, comical and just all the time there was something going on with Russ. Yeah.

So I'll get you fixed up sometimes with them and just hear the funny side of Russ too. Yeah. He's very comical person. Yeah. Well, perfect. Perfect for Bear Grease stories for sure. Great guy. Well, thanks everybody for coming.

And thank you, Ms. Newcomb for being here. Good luck in the garden. So welcome. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called Prime Cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen.

But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling. contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out prime cuts at Phelps game calls.com. I think you'll be glad you did and you'll find out that the Steve Rinella cut is an easy to use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. This is an I-Heart podcast.

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