Bear Grease - Ep. 275: This Country Life - Four Bit Bobcats and Taxidermy

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

From flea market fur to Alaskan moose, Brent's talking taxidermy this week. After visiting with his good friend and local taxidermist, Corey Eisenhower, Brent's offering up some tips on proper field care of your trophy. He's got a story from his childhood of how he got his first bobcat hide and later got skinned in a game of Blackjack. Lastly, you'll hear how a mediocre buck can be the most prized possession of all. It's all about taxidermy this week on MeatEater's "This Country Life" podcast.  Hurricane Relief: https://www.redcross.org/donate/cm/onxmeateater-pub.html/ Subscribe to the MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Connect with Brent and MeatEater MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop This Country Life Merch Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

First Lights fieldwear 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 in 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 fieldwear gear at firstlight.com.

Welcome to this country life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves. From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living, I want you to stay a while as I share my experiences and life lessons. This country life is presented by Case Nives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcasts that Airways have to offer. All right, friends, grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some stories to share. Four-bit bobcats and taxidermy.

Taxidermy is something I've grown up with and is a part of my culture. It wasn't until I started seeing other parts of the world and comparing them to mine that I saw a stark contrast to my own in several areas, having dead animals in the house being one of them. I'm going to tell you all about it, but first, I'm going to tell you a story. The first mounted animal I ever saw was a moose. in a friend's house when I was in the first grade. That thing looked big as a dinosaur. It hung over the mantle of the fireplace,

and I couldn't fathom how big the rest of that Joker must have been. I think back now and I can see it clear as a bell. It reminds me more of bullwinkle in the face, but the antlers seemed massive, and when my friend told me his dad killed it in Alaska, he might as well have said he killed it on Mars. How could anyone go to Alaska from right? rise in Arkansas and come back with a moose.

It made me want one of my own. And if not a moose, a deer, or a squirrel, or maybe even a coon. Now, the first time I actually bought something and possessed something in the taxidermy space, if you'll allow that stretch, was a bobcat hide that I bought at a flea market. It was in Pine Bluff, and I couldn't have been more than six or seven when we walked past the table that had a bunch of stuff I wasn't interested in. till I spied that hide hanging on the side of the booth.

Dad, what is that? That's a bobcat. I want it. You ain't got no money. How much is it? He said, why don't you ask the man selling it? I did. The man looked at me.

And he asked me how much money I had. I told him I didn't have any, but my dad might have some. He said, well, I don't think your daddy is interested in buying it. That was the same feeling I was getting when I looked up at it. and he wasn't making any attempt to dig in his pocket for the folding money. I said, well, how much is it? The man said, oh, I'd probably take four bits for it. Four bits?

What in the world was a bit? And where was I going to find four of them before somebody else came along and recognized the beauty of this magnificent bobcat hide that I was now holding in my hands, feeling the soft fur on one side and the aluminum-like texture of the other that had been dried to the tensile strength of a stretched piano wire. Needed to act fast.

Dad, you got any bits I can borrow? They both busted out laughing, and then I learned that four bits was 50 cents. You might be interested to know that the term originated from the Spanish dollar that was divided into eight parts or bits. The slang term was then a problem. applied to the U.S. dollar. Mildly interesting to me now, but at the time not even remotely. The only language I was interested in was hearing that man say in English,

sold to Brent Reeves, Celine River Fur aficionado, and spendered of bits. Well, I handed him 50 cents that my dad gave me and walked away. I had that hide hanging on my wall for several years, and I'd look at it and tell my friends when they were over at the house, wild stories about how I had captured it after it had attacked me and I'd killed it with my bare hands and I skin it out. They had hung there until I lost it in a game of blackjack to mine and Tim's middle brother Chuck. A game in which he was the dealer and I'm quite sure was rigged from the start because we only

played one hand. He always wanted that hide and asked for it. I wouldn't let him have him. But that day, he specifically wanted to play for that hide since I didn't have any money. And so I bet my bobcat hide against $2, just knowing I was going to win. And he drew a blackjack. What a coincidence. Tie watch probably still got it.

I was out of bobcat hide, but I learned a lesson. If you gamble, be prepared. to lose. If you gamble with your brother, you're going to lose every time. And that's just how that happened. Taxidermy has been around for a long, long time. In fact, modern taxidermists can trace their history back 2200 years before Mary surprised Joseph with the first Christmas present. Ancient Egyptians were the first known taxidermists, and they started developing methods of preserving animals. They used spices and oils and injections and other embalming tools to preserve animals. They'd mummify the pets of Egyptian royalty and bury them in the tombs when they died.

The Egyptians died, not the animals. The Egyptians preserved techniques were not intended to make the animals look natural or for exhibition. Instead, they were meant to satisfy the traditions of the time, which I assume was to look like dead animals. I've seen pictures of their work from the tombs that have been opened, mission accomplished. All those animals looked like was dead. Nothing like what we have now or are supposed to have. Sometimes it turns out like that, but if you take your time and do your due diligence and scoping out the right taxidermis for what you want, you should be good to go.

My buddy, Corey Eisenhower, on top of being a Marine Corps veteran and a North Little Rock fire Department, Captain, is an accomplished taxidermist in his own right. It owns Ike's taxidermy. Corey specializes in deer and ducks. We were sitting in a shop one day, and I asked him for some pointers to relate to anyone out there that would like to decorate their homes with dead animals that, unlike his Egyptian counterparts work, don't look dead. Corey was quick on a draw and said, the first thing you need to do, now this is important

now, but you need to have a plan together before you pull the trigger, which is a little odd to me since I never planned for anything. I used to train a lot. For different events, most of them scary, but seldom have I ever planned for anything. It drives a lexas crazy. I'm a go-with-the-flow kind of fella, and as long as the bullets ain't flying in my direction, I feel pretty good about what's taking place. His advice made sense to me. Last May, when I called him from Dolphin, Manitoba, Canada, excited about the bear I just poked a hole in while hunting with Craig and Melanin McCarthy. I said, Corey, I just smashed a big color-faced black bear. You want to mount him for me? Corey said, man, that's awesome. Congratulations. No, I don't.

Huh? I was surprised. He said, brother, I like deer and ducks. I was 57 years old when I learned that not all taxidermists like mounting all game. Now, I knew there were folks who specialize in certain animals and mounts and have a neck or a particular skill set that sets their work apart from others, but what I didn't think about was the familiarity that enhances the animals that they work on. I met Corey several years ago when I answered an ad that he had on hunting for him about bear hunting bait, and my brother Tim told me about it, and I gave him a call. We hit it off immediately.

We've been friends ever since. I've been to his shop countless times and we've hunted together. He helped me with some logistics from Claybow and I were filming the Mississippi River Expedition film. I helped him drag a deer out of the woods he shot with his bow last week. He's my friend. And he just told me no. And for good reason, he don't work on bears. Could he do it?

Absolutely he could. But bears ain't his thing. He likes to hunt. hunt on him, but he don't like to work on him. I like to shoot guns. I don't like to work on them. My brother Tim likes to do both. It's the same thing. So I ask him to help me with this episode and shell out some advice for the folks that are looking to decorate their homes with dead stuff. Let's break down his first piece of advice. 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 back, 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 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 two of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have a plan. While you can't always have a contingency plan for everything, like when you're going to get the trophy you won't mounted, you can contact the taxidermers prior to your trip and discuss when you're going, what you're going after, the style of the mouth that you're looking for, estimated cost, to feel care of the animal, which is head and shoulders more important than any other step, according to Corey. You can have a plan in place.

You can have a deposit ready to put down for what you won't mounted should you be successful. You can plan down to the most minute detail, but if you don't do proper field care and getting your animal from the kill site to the shop, you have done hold the wrong row. Now, the creatures we pursue are gifts to us, and as they're stewards, it is our responsibility to care for them to the best of our ability. If we choose to have them immortalized by the artistry of taxidermy, we need to present to the artist the best items with which to work. And that starts when the last breath of air leaves that animal.

Now for deer in the south for sure, time and temperature are not usually your friends. I was deer hunting yesterday morning and at 8.30 it was 64 degrees. Not exactly good conditions to keep an animal from getting a little spicy if you don't act fast and using the proper techniques to delay decomposition. Our friend John Hayes at Hayes taxidermy in Libby, Montana, who does a lot of our mounts, doesn't have a lot of issues with heat this time a year. I actually just checked the temperature there, and if it drops one more degree, John can make ice cubes on his patio. But down here, it matters. Speaking on large animals, Corey says you need to get the guts out of them

ASAP if the weather is the least bit warm and if possible, get bags of ice placed in the cavity to speed up the cooling. Now, we have several ice chests at Bear Camp every year packed with ice solely for the purpose of getting those rascals cooled off as fast as possible. We're hunting in September

and it can get super hot some years and we're usually only hunting in the afternoons. Last light is normally when we shoot one, so by the time you get that bear located and drug off the mountain, a significant amount of time can have transpired. Having ice in camp has saved us more than once, especially when we're so far from any place to run to the store and buy some. Folks out west where there are hours and hours and miles and miles further away from the convenience of being close to a store already have a plan in place, where they should, which is gut, skin, and pack out. But temperature isn't the only thing that matters. How you get that animal from the kill side to your taxidermist is just as important.

Big deer camps, especially the ones where I grew up, would have a walk-in cooler. The deer would be gutted and hung up before being processed. Now, obviously, not everyone's going to have this luxury, but for the folks to do, Corey says it's absolutely his preferred way of receiving an animal that he's going to work on. I said, frozen? You'd rather have them frozen than fresh? He said absolutely. He also said that every taxidermist is different,

but he likes them frozen, especially deer, mainly because of ticks. It's a separate issue that those folks have to deal with that I hadn't thought about. Now, I know I've been skinning deer and coons and squirrels and whatever and seen ticks and fleas crawling off of them, but to have a large number of them brought into my workspace has never been a problem.

I get it, Corey. Now, even how you drag the animal out is an issue. You never go against the grain. Always drag the animal head first if you can't carry it or use a card or in my hillbilly friend's case, a mule as your conveyance. Using a sled or a drag tarp will protect the side that's being drugged from scar and or losing hair. If none of that's available, pick out the side that's not going to be most prominent in the

out. You're supposed to have already chosen that, remember, and let that side sustain the damage. Dragging a hide the wrong way will have the hair looking like the head of that singer from the band flock of seagulls. Trust me, you don't want him to look like that. Just Google it and see for yourself. There's a ton of how-to videos on Cape and idea for the taxidermist available to watch at the University of YouTube. However, there's more than one way to scan a cat. Now, that analogy has never been more fitting. So, talk to your taxidermas first and let him tell you how he wants it done. Corey says you need to be wary of meat processors that offer caping your deer in addition to cutting up your meat.

Some are good and others, not so much. It's really not on them, he said. They're in the meat processing business, not the taxidermy business. Your local taxidermas can help you navigate that if you're not into processing you're on meat. Most of times I am, but sometimes, especially if I'm doing a lot of traveling, I'll drop it off and get back on the road. Just make sure they know how to properly cape your animal before getting it done. Measure twice and cut once has never been more true. As you may have heard, my brother and I used to be waterfowl guides.

Now, we had clients from all over the country coming to Arkansas every year hunting ducks and geese, and I guess probably 20% of them wound up wanting to take something back home to mount. Now, it was standard operating procedure for us to poke the ducks in a panty hose, all for that specific purpose, I might add. Head tucked under one wing and wrapped in newspaper, then taped up and frozen. I'd always been told as the way to do it, and I told Corey, that was what we did, and he goozled chopped me out of my chair. He didn't actually do that, but I think he really wanted to.

He said newspaper sucks all the moisture out of the skin and will freeze or burn a duck faster than a wren can poop. Now, that's fast. He said the only reason a newspaper should be close to a duck is if he wanted to read it. Panty holes is good to keep the feathers in line, but it's not necessary. And he said, tucking the head under the wing deserved an additional googly cheque. shop. Here's how Corey, the birdman Eisenhower, says to do it. He totes plastic bags he gets from the grocery store with him in his blind bag or his pocket. If he gets a duck or a goose that

he wants to mount, he doesn't let the dog retrieve it. He doesn't let it hang on the neck from a lanyard, and he absolutely don't ring its neck if it hasn't quite flown over the rainbow bridge. There are several duck dispatcher tools that he said that you can hang on your lanyard or keeping your pocket that won't damage the bird and they're easy to use. But most importantly, it's a very quick and humane way to send them across the river. Corrie says to hang them upside down for the group pitcher, but be careful how they lay against other birds. Then, once the pitcher is taken, lay them head backwards on their back, place them in a couple

plastic bags, and freeze them. Why not tuck their heads under the wings? He got the goozell chopping look in his eye again and said most of the bleeding comes from the head and it'll stain the lighter colored feathers normally found under the wings and on the belly's the birds. Well, now that would have been good information to have, say, about 40 years ago. Fish are almost always replica made now. So if you're going to have one of those done, it's imperative that you discuss with the taxidermis, what photos and measurements he needs to get you an accurate,

reproduction of your catch. People are quick to hate on folks that don't just catch and release fish. Now, I'm a strong advocate of catching release, especially when the release isn't into peanut oil. It's about 350 degrees. Here's a quick way to judge the talents of a taxidermis if you're not as fortunate to have one as a friend like my buddy Corey, or get acquainted with them through work like John Hayes' studio in Montana, or have the good fortune to have a strong reference

for the ones like authentic taxidermy in Manitoba where Patrick Fercallo and Kenton Wallman are working on my bear. I can't wait to see that rascal after the first of the year when Craig and Melanie bring it down when they come visit. Ask your friends, do some legwork of your own and go visit the shops and see for yourself

what they're turning out is what you want to hang on your wall. Now, good taxidermy ain't cheap and it shouldn't be. But bad taxidermy, can be just as expensive. It pays to do your homework. It's an art form all its own. And the folks that I know that are in the business take a lot of pride in what they're turning out. I look over my right shoulder at the first deer I ever had mounted. It's a nine point that would have to turn in a book report for extra credit to be much more than 100 inches. My son Hunter killed it with a bow when he was 14 years old.

I filmed it from start to finish and it's a day that I'll never forget. I couldn't afford to have it mounted back then so I traded out some video work for the mount and I got a 50% discount. I should have gotten paid because the quality of the video work was far superior to what's hanging on the wall behind me.

However, when I look at that mount, I don't see the seams that weren't sewn correctly or the pose I specifically didn't ask for. I see the delight and the wonder of an aspiring bow hunter who practiced all summer from a tree in our backyard. I see us checking trail camera picks week after week and him helping me decide which tree he wanted to eat. I see all the times he jumped out of bed

when the alarm went off to go hunting, the same bed that Alexis would have to drag him out of to go to school. I see his face the morning. he forgot his safety harness and we turned around and went home because that was an unbreakable rule. I see the disappointment in his eyes when he went back that afternoon and checked the camera and there was the buck that we were after, just like he dreamed he'd be. I see the look on his face after he made the shot a week later when he turned to me looking for reassurance that he'd done just what he thought he'd done. I see the realization that all his

efforts had come to fruition when he laid his hands on the antlers of his trophy. Mostly I see my son and a million moments that we shared in relation to a white tail that most folks wouldn't give a second thought to. It's not taxidermy. It's treasure. I hit the jackpot every time I look at it. Thanks so much for listening. Check out the second season of the Meat Eater Kids podcast.

It's now on its own channel, so you'll go over and subscribe to it to hear it. It's really good, and the young and seem to really enjoy it. You'll hear some familiar voices on there, too. The Big Black Friday sale is going on at the Meat Eater Online Store, and all the meat eater brands, some of it as much as 50% off, is going on until December 2nd. I hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and until next week, this is Brett Reeve. Sounded all.

Y'all be careful. First Light's 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 fieldwear gear at, firstlight.com.