Bear Grease - Ep. 325: Render - Stone Points, Big Game Tattoos, and Pablo

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

On this Bear Grease Render, host Clay Newcomb, Dr. Misty Newcomb, and Josh “Landbridge” Spielmaker are joined by Bear Grease podcast featured guest Pablo Esquivel. Pablo gives more details of what it was like growing up in Costa Rica, some of the culture shock of moving to Alabama as a young adult, his passion for deer hunting, love of finding stone points, and laid-back attitude about his big game tattoos. If you have comments on the show, send us a note to [e-mail] 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 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 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. So there's been some emails floating around.

This is the Bear Gries Render podcast. The Bear Gries Render is where we gather up a group of people, and I'm going to introduce some esteemed guests in just a minute, but I feel like this is pertinent right now, is there's been some emails floating around from the powers that be. Mean-spirited emails? Well, no. No.

Okay. Just business emails from meat eater. Okay. Of the render was never videoed. None of this was ever videoed, but we've been born into a time where things rapidly moved. So all of a sudden we needed video, which is great. So we film here in my office.

This is the global headquarters. At one time it's the global headquarters of Bear Honey magazine. Now it's the global headquarters of Bear Grease, also been called Meat Eaters South. And there's been a couple of little clues popping around in different places in my life about this office and the way it looked. The first clue was there was an article that was written about me in a Farm Bureau Magazine and Insurance Company's magazine.

And this guy came here and interviewed me. And we had just a great time. I love the guy. The first paragraph of his introduction to me is he basically says... In three different ways. He says... I'm standing in Clay Newcomb's cluttered office. Which is like the man's mind.

You know, I think he was trying to pay me a compliment, but I was just like... Sounds a little backhanded. I was like cluttered. And I was like, this office looks exactly the way I want it to, okay? We're getting to what you now miss because the office has been a little decluttered. Well, not long after that article came out. You're welcome, Farm Bureau. Not long after that article came out, the powers that be at Meat Eater may not have said,

the office looks a little cluttered, to which in my heart I replied, the office looks exactly the way Clay wants it to. I believe the words that I uttered for you were that Clay. like has the office exactly. Yes. And it was beautiful, Pablo. It was perfect. I know.

It was like a museum. And here's some of the things that we cleaned up. Like a small town museum. Yeah. And you'll no longer get to see this anymore. Like if your hoarder great grandma had a museum. This deer horn was once on display right up there. Yep.

Okay. And there was an episode that we did a few. a few episodes back called The Bird Hunter. And it was the story of Lew and Newcomb. And at the end of the story, I told about the last hunt of me and Lou and Newcomb. My grandfather went on together. And I picked up this shedhorn while we were hunting. And I showed it to him, and I just rode on it.

Soon after that day, I wrote Clam Papp's Newcomb, Bird Hunt, 2002. I didn't know that would be the last time I'd hunt with him, but it was. So that's what you're missing. You missed it, Pablo. That's a shame. Okay, that's one thing you'd miss. The other thing that you'd miss was at one time I had my collection of baculums right up there in the corner. This is not all the baculums that I've collected, but this is a lot of them.

There are raccoon baculums, and I have a raccoon baculum that ought to be. I know what it is. I have a raccoon. I have a raccoon bacculem that ought to be in the Smiths Sonian. Look at that. It was broken and reheeled. Do you see that?

Yeah. Now I know what it is. Nature finds a way. See, look, that's the way a normal raccoon baculum looks. That one has been broken and healed like a collarbone that wasn't set right. And a baculum is. A baculum, you have to look that one up of what it is. Yeah.

But it's a bone. And these are black bears. No kidding. Yeah, these are black bear bones. Two of these came from Roy Clark in East Tennessee. First time I hunted with Roy Clark, one of the Bear Greas Hall of Famers, Plot Man in East Tennessee. We killed two boars in two days. And right before I left, he had been whittling on two baculums and he gave them to me.

This one came out of the Boone and Crockett Bear that I killed. There's a correlation between baculum size and... Skull size, I'd say. But that's what they're missing, the people, because I had to declutter my office. What is clutter to begin with? Clutter? No, it doesn't even exist. Exactly.

Hold on. And then the other thing that you would miss is my stone point collection, which I'm very proud of. Most of these stone points I found in my yard. And turns out, Pablo, who I'm going to introduce, is a big stone point man. Oh man, it's awful. Yeah, once you get into it, it's over with. Yeah.

But those are beautiful, and we're missing the display. Yeah, you would have seen them. I wouldn't have dug them out, and they're just all... A Ziploc bag. Look how sad they look in that Ziploc bag. Yeah, no, no. They do look sad. Can you tell that that is a celebration of life?

No. No. Because, you know, there's a lot of great stuff in there. I mean, I can show you all the points. Right now. You know you look like a kid with a bag of marbles or something. Yeah. Some of these I found when I was a kid.

This one right here, I have written on it Blue Bucket Howard County. It's okay. There's nothing there to see. Y'all can all go there. I picked that up when I was a junior in high school after I'd shot a spike buck with my bow, was blood trailing the deer, and picked up. up it's it's a broken fragment and then this one uh it's it's it's come off but i found this stone point when i was trailing a hog when i was a junior in high school i dug a big hole in the ground

poured some corn in the ground skipped class went no trail cameras or anything don't listen to this kids but it was like a couple of it was a couple of days after i had poured corn in this hole and i had I had put it down and like the, it was like a big river bottom and there was a floodplain where the topography just dropped off. And so basically it's flat

and then there's like a 10 foot drop and then it was flat again. I put the hole like right over the lip down in the second flat part. Okay. And then I scratched out the leaves for about 30 yards back. I

skipped school slipped in there, walked on my leafless path, and popped up over the rise, and what would you guess happened? There was a giant hog with his head in that hole. And there's clay with his bow. 17 years old, Matthew's High Country, Excalibur. Does Gary know about this?

65 pounds. He told me I could go. I got permission. Wow. That's good. Yeah. He told me I could skip school. and I draw back and shoot that sucker right in the shoulder,

and he literally shrugs it off. The arrow falls out onto the ground, and the hog runs off. While I do my due diligence to try to find the hog, and I mean, he was not to be found, you know, and I found that stone point. All these memories lost. Yep. All these memories resigned to a Ziploc bag.

Yeah. Welcome to the bearerese surrender, though. I have, is that the first time you've ever been told that you are somewhat cluttered? Think, think, think smart. I mean, I don't know if it's the first time. It's kind of like, you know, what Gandalf said on Lord of the Rings. I hate to quote Lord of the Rings, but it's a great movie when he said, a wizard is never late.

He arrives exactly when he wants to. I think that there's been a lot of conversations in the Newcomb home about Clay's propensity towards clutter. And I have always received the same message. This looks exactly like I want it to look. You know, this has been a topic of conversation. It sounds like my wife going into my shop. Well, listen, there's actually, I recently read some interesting studies. I don't have much value to add to this podcast.

But I think it's interesting. I think it could help you have better, stronger marriages here. If we were less cluttered. Well, it might help you know they actually did cortisol tests, like the stress hormone. They assessed this, and they found that clutter in a home actually does produce more stress on average in women than men. What if we have designated spots where we can just keep our clutter? Yeah, I've got no problem. It was fun, though, to watch Clay read that article because, you know, it wasn't a total surprise.

I've told me that someone wrote that. And I think your office is beautiful, a great museum. I love to take people in it. But when Clay read it out loud, I could see his face just kind of drop. And he's like, what? And then he read that, because it wasn't one time. It was in the first three sentence mentioned a couple times, different ways of saying it was cluttered or kind of haphazardly put together. And Clay was just astonished.

It was a great article. First time it ever entered my mind. but Michael Lewis says that the reason great writers are great is because they don't care about the reputation of the person they're writing about. Like if you wrote an article about yourself, Pablo, you would kind of, you probably wouldn't do anything detrimental,

but it also wouldn't be as interesting to the reader, potentially. But if the guy that wrote the article about me wrote an article about you, he might, he would like tell us the real stuff, that we really want to know. That might be, you know, and Michael Lewis says that's the key to writing. It's like, he's like, hey, I'm going to interview,

but I don't care about your reputation. He's less concerned. Pretty risky. Yeah. So, welcome to the Bear Gries Render. We have a very esteemed guest from the state of Alabama. Roll tide. Roll tide.

We've got Pablo Esquivel. Sweet. Yes. From Alabama. And you guys, would know Pablo from the last Bear Greece podcast. And, man,

thank you so much for coming to Arkansas, man. No, man, it's my pleasure. It's an honor to be here with y'all. So I really appreciate this opportunity. Yeah.

So we were walking down the road and our neighbor, me and Pablo walked down the road to move the mules. I got the mules grazing that on some leads. And we met my neighbor who within like 30 seconds. 30 seconds of meeting him. greeted him warmly in the way we do here. But then she was like, oh, I see you're an Alabama fan. I'm sorry.

Yeah. So I just politely reply, he happens. He said he became an Alabama fan in the Nick Saban era and got used to win a national titles. And then now. Yeah, because here's the thing. When I came in, my step that was like, you got to pick up a team. Alabama. in Alabama.

Yeah, it's like Alabama or Auburn, which one you're picking? And I was like, well, let me watch him playing. Within the first season, Alabama is mulling everybody on the SEC and winning. And I was like, it's no-brainer. I said, roll tie. And of course, you know, I fell in love with the team, you know, like every Alabamaian does. And you have Nick Saban right there. So we're just winning championships.

left and right, and suddenly it's over, and I realized how is Paul I've been for the past, what, 10 years, 12 years? Now you feel like the rest of us. Yeah, and now I'm like, oh, man, this is what Alborn fans feels like. I'm like, now how long has Alabama not been like dominant? Just like two years, the last two years, have not been that good?

Yeah, I remember we lost a championship against LSU, again, somebody up north that I can't even remember. And then the past two years, it's been kind of like a bone dry. Okay. You know, and... I always thought it's interesting. Maybe, probably some of the states with smaller populations would understand this.

But like, in Arkansas, we have one high-level Division I school. So whether you're in the southeast corner of Arkansas, the northwest, anywhere you go, there's this unifying factor of your Razorback fan, like without question. Even though there's a lot of colleges here, there's smaller Division II and even lower-level Division I colleges here. But those guys are Razorback fans. I mean, you know, like, we're all Razorback fans.

Go to Alabama, which Alabama has a lot more people than we have. Al-Ease they do. There's like $5 million, something like that statewide? We've got about three. Okay, so just a little bit more But still But you got to pick a team When you show up

When you get your card in Alabama They're like pick a team Pretty much Yeah You gotta pick a team Yeah, it's like So what do you cheer for And I don't know

And now, yeah I'm Die hard with Alabama That's it Yeah, you can't You can't be a fair weather for you No I ain't doing it

So Yeah Do you know the Roll Tide Willie guy Have you ever heard that? Okay. Eric, he's on social media. It's called Roll Tide Willie.

And he's an Alabama fan. And he's a, he's a, he's, he's, he's, Willie's probably like late 50, 60 maybe. And the story is like a Cinderella story of social media influence. And I was sucked in from the beginning. And there's a few, there's a few, qualms that I have a lot of alcohol which

I just you know I'm not I'm not into as much alcohol as they promote on them right I'll just say that at the beginning yeah but basically there was this guy that videoed

Willie who was just a guy in Alabama barefoot sitting in the front of this old Alabama gas station and and this guy pulls up and videos Willie who's in like cut off shorts, barefoot. And I think they knew each other. They knew each other, but I don't think there was a plan.

Yeah, they knew each other, but I don't think there was a plan for them to become well-known. No, Willie was just a big fan, and he just pretty energetic. He was just this guy in rural Alabama, and Chad goes, hey, Willie, how about that game tomorrow? And Willie just goes, oh, Alabama, we don't care about nothing but the tide, roll tide, and he starts stomping around and yelling. and the video goes viral and long story short, like three years later, they have a pretty big social media presence. It's pretty funny most of the time.

From redneck to influencers. Yeah, yeah, I like those guys. Not from too, but just going to stay in steady plus. I'd have Willie on Bear Grease if we could get him up to him. 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 bag.

And there was a full of blood. Oh, my God, he doesn't have a head. 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 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. So I've got to give credit where credit is due. listening to the Southern Outdoorsman podcast with Andrew and Jacob. Yep. And it was back a couple of months ago, and I just clicked on the episode that was up. And it had your name in the title, which, you know, it didn't register that that would be significant.

Just I remember seeing Pablo, which that's not a name you often see in hunting here in this country. Yeah. And I start listening to it. and pretty quickly, Pablo starts telling his story. And I was just like, this guy's hilarious. And you described it to me today

because everybody would have pretty much heard the stories that you told on that podcast. They pretty much heard on Bear Grays. Just kind of like your life story. You started by saying, I was born in Costa Rica, and we did all this stuff with slingshot. and shooting birds and you started telling your story.

And then, you know, anyway, I just was like, we got to get this guy on Bear Grays. Yeah, I was pretty cool. The opportunity with Andrew and Jacob. Even though we live within a couple, at the most, an hour and 20 minutes, they're like, we got to do a podcast. And I was like, yeah, yeah.

It took like two, three years, you know, timing-wise. And that day we did it. And we're done it that day. Jacob gave me, he gave me a hat from Southern Adoresman. It's an orange hat. I was going hunting next day. He said, keep it up with you because that's the lucky hat. Well, I kind of like superstitious with this hat.

My wife bought me an orange hat about 12 years ago on Walmart. He's the same hat. He's destroyed, but that's my lucky hat. That's the one that I wear. So I put the other one inside of my pocket. pack. I go hunting next morning. I kill the biggest bug that I ever kill in Alabama.

That's 620 in the morning. We're wearing a southern outdoorsman hat? No, I had it in my pack. Okay. Yeah. Okay. You had it in pack. And wearing my lucky hat with the other lucky hats.

Double look. Yeah. And I text them and I was like, bug down. They're like, no way. And I said, I was with a guy. And I send them a picture. They're like, no way, you know. So it was, it was pretty cool.

It was a pretty good kind of like a. experience back to back. And here we are. And here we are. And actually, before I forget, you just mention it. Oh, look at that. That's the mightiest. Look at that.

That's the mighty presentation. Okay, so this is a slingshot frame made out of a coffee plant, right? Coffee plant. Yes. I did this thing when I was like 16 or 17 years. years old. Oh, wow.

The tape is the one that it wasn't there when I could. So that tape has been there for like 19 or 20 years. And man, you feel how light it is? Yeah. Now, try to squeeze that. I'm afraid I'll break it. No,

it won't. It's semi-flexible, but yet sturdy. Stirty. That's what coffee it is for. So guys that are making slingshots where there's coffee plants, they know this is a good plant. Yeah.

It's good wood. Yeah, it is very solid, very light, solid jet flexible enough nice for it so what would you put on the so if you haven't listened to the episode Pablo he he made his I was going to say make his living

that would be metaphorical they were slingshot masters you said that you said that guys could like shoot like 40 50 yards and hit an aluminum can with rocks now I wasn't one of them but I have friends they were unrealistically It's just pure talent. Like seriously, pure talent.

I was good, but those guys were like best. You know, when you told me that story, it made me think about, I do instinctive shooting and archery. And me and my son bear are fixing to go to Alaska. And we're using these primitive self-bows that he made himself. And you're shooting them instinctively, you know. Just releasing. And it's hard. to be accurate but I would imagine if ever since we were born if that's the only thing that we

could harvest meat with and we'd shot bows our whole life our whole life and there was that much at stake we would be in a whole different category of archers I mean I just think about like you guys you told me you know you didn't have guns you couldn't even shoot BB guns and all this stuff in Costa Rica. And I mean, these guys were just, I mean, every day. That was it, pretty much. Every day. Yeah, you keep a bag of rocks.

Like, the ones that you wanted, this is going to sound crazy, but not all rocks are equal, right? Like, I'm speaking maybe like in a molecular level. Some of them are denser than others. So the ones, like the smallest one, the most round and heavier, those were the ones that you wanted. Like, you will just walk the cricks. picking, picking, picking, which is.

Cherry pick your rocks. Oh, yeah. And then, man, you get very good consistency with him, you know. So, I mean, you can throw anyone, it's not going to fly the same way.

You know, that kind of makes sense the story in the Bible of David killing Goliath. And, you know, there's like this spiritual component to it, but I've always thought about it from a natural sense as well is that David, this shepherd boy,

now he was using a sling. Not necessarily a sling shot. Yeah, just a sling. It was like, yeah, there was no wood. But he had just like incredible confidence in his ability to just hit something about that big, you know, a head. Yeah. He knew what he was like you guys. And it says he went and picked his stone.

That's what made me think of it. That's what he said he picked his stones. So he, you guys were vibing. Yeah, he knew. Because here's the story with this one. I want to say I was 16 or 17. My little brother and my mom were in Costa Rica or about to depart back to the state. And it was for Christmas.

I didn't have anything for my little brother. So I said, I know I'm going to make him a slingshot. So I went in him pick this one, which, you know, this is the base of the coffee plant. Then this is going to split back again. She's just going to keep splitting until it's like a bush. So it was a younger plant because they can get massive. Anyways, pick this one up and I was like, look, dude, what I got you? He was like, what?

Like, what is that? And my heart was broken. I was like, man, that's a perfect slingshot. Anyways, I was talking to him one of these days. And he's like, oh, man, let me show you something that I got. Now you got to keep in mind he's 23 now. Okay. And he goes and open a couple of cats.

having it and pull some stuff that I gave him when he was a child, like a letter, you know, when we were apart and I used to write him letters. We're like, man, you got to stay strong and this and that. And I was like, man, that's so cool. These letters dating back to like 07, 06, a big brother riding to a little brother, right? And then he's like, oh, look what I got to. And he pulled this out. I don't forget about it.

Oh. That one? Yes. So you thought he didn't care anything about it. No, I didn't even know where it was because of it. God. Like I said, this thing is like 20 years old. And I say, Indian gave her, you know. Yeah. And I said, no, I'm keeping it. He was mad. And he's like, no, I'm going to call mom. And I said, call her. You know, so mom came, you know, and she's taking everybody's point of view. And I was like, mom, I cut it.

Oh, this is like, serious. This isn't a joke. Like, he was really upset. Yeah. And I was too. Because I was like, how come that's been inside of that cabin instead of being on display? You know? So my mom is like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.

You hear that, folks. If you're listening to this by audio, that's all the stone points that you're not seeing anymore. There's no such a thing as cluttering. That's right. It's always display in memories. Anyways, my mom is like, yeah, you know, they're going to have to settle it. And I said, I'll let's flip a coin. And I said, let's flip a coin.

And if I, if you flip head, I, I, you'll, I'm going to have to settle it. I win If I fleet tails I win And he went for it He doesn't pay attention You know what I mean Oh you said

Both ways you win Yeah pretty much He's like okay And we're flippers Is he just finding this out now No he knew right away And my mom was like You should don't pay attention

When he was talking Oh Mom was like She was like I'm not getting in between this You know And it came home with me And he's on display

On my room Like this. Yeah, just laying right there. Wow. Yep. So crazy. I want to remove the tape, but at the same time, I just don't. You know, like I said, it's been here for so long.

Yeah, I wouldn't. It looks like you put it on there yesterday. Yeah. And, man, I mean, if you peel, you can see, look. You see how easy. Yeah, it'd be easy to peel. How easy she goes is just toast it. Don't do it.

Now, Pablo in Costa Rica, you said you've worked. worked on a coffee farm for a little while? Yeah, that was usually like summertime. High school and school and all that stuff. You go to the coffee fields and work out there. What do you do? You're picking coffee? Yes, picking coffee.

Green, they're green beans. No, red, you want the reddish and kind of like a no more than 50% green on the bean. Okay. So you can get. Did you have a sense of where that coffee was going that you were picking in Costa Rica? No. I mean, you just get it. And you imagine that this is kind of like for national consumption, if we can say it like that, but some of that coffee gets exported.

Is coffee big in Costa Rica? Oh, yeah, absolutely. You know, and especially with the altitudes and all that stuff, you get this really rich, bold, like, Arabic flavors. It's really good. Why Arabic? I guess the seeds. That they came from. Maybe.

The Middle East? Yeah. I have no idea. if he has to deal with a location kind of thing or with a strain. Okay, I've got a little, I know you're not a coffee guy, but I'm going to bring this up because I've just never around people that have been around coffee. So you're the closest person to receive this. No, I drink coffee every day. Anywhere that they make coffee, they always make it sound like it's something special, just like a vineyard.

Like, if you ever hear somebody talk about a vineyard, they're like, oh, this is the nicest vineyard in Italy. And it scales, though. It comes down to like, this is the nicest vineyard in this county. And then it scales to, this is the nicest vineyard in this neighborhood. I mean, like, people kind of carry a chip on their shoulder. I feel like regions with coffee do the same thing. Do you feel of me? No, it's always the best of something.

I want to say, I'm almost sure Brazil is the number one in quality, I mean quantity worldwide. but I want to say I'm almost positive because Costa Rica is the number one in quality. Really? Yes, I want to say that. Like a very expensive coffees. Okay. Wow.

The Razorbacks are the best college team in the world, you know? And even though they're not... I don't think that can be quantified. You can look that up on Wikipedia. No, I'm just kidding. Hey, so you told us about Costa Rica to some degree in the podcast. But not a lot. So you lived in Costa Rica until you're 21 years old.

Yes. Describe like the topography, the vegetation. of Costa Rica, like how big is Costa Rica? Costa Rica is, I want to say this, I want to say we have to check this fact again, but I want to say it's 51,000 square kilometers. Okay.

51,000 or 52,000 square kilometers. How long does it take you to drive across the island? Well, it's not an island. It's a country. Like, it's dead on the middle of the continent. So Puerto Rico is an island. Costa Rica is not an island. Okay.

Yeah. So if you're traveling across the country, if it was a straight shot, probably like three hours. 51,000 square kilometers. So 19,000 square miles. So it's tiny. Yes. It's like 19,000 swan miles. Alabama's like two and a half times bigger than Costa Rica.

And they have the same population. So about five, six million. So that goes to show you there's more people per square mile than what we have here. Right. But yet you have these vast areas of no population, and that's due to the terrain, right? So you're going, like I said, if it was a straight shot, about three hours on a straight line. Okay. But you're going through all these different habitats with altitudes, increases, decreases, valleys, rivers, and all that stuff that they travel, some areas, you're doing like.

It's mountainous and they have, you have a volcano, right? Yeah, there's like seven. volcanoes like active volcano so it's like rainforest though it's the tropics you're gonna go from like dry from like dry Arizona looking like forest

you know to the rainforest back down to maybe Louisiana muggyness looking like swamps to the Caribbean side and back down to the jungle on the south end of the

country and then you cross into Panama. So you, and that's without talking about the volcanoes and the hot springs and all that stuff. Wow. Yeah, everything is. It's like a, like I said, the place has 2% of the world diversity. Just biodiversity. Biodiversity.

Yeah, on 19,000 square miles, 2% of the world biodiversity is located in there. So you can imagine that the flora and the fauna is going to be really, really, really. What kind of big game? Are there any big game animal? I realize they're not hunting them there. Yeah. That was part of his story is that there's no hunting in Costa Rica. Yeah.

It's illegal. Legal. That doesn't mean that it's none. I'm just kidding. Okay. But there's some white tail? White tail, deer? Yes.

Which would be invasive? I guess. I don't know. I mean, white tails are. And there's pigs, you know, feral pigs. As you cannot run them off. They're going to be everywhere. Jaguars?

Jaguars, of course. there's also this creature i don't know what's the name on english but we call it danta she's like like go ahead and google it so you can maybe describe it but she's a big old like a bear looking like creature with no long hair and her nose is going to be long like a taper it's like a taper a taper that's what it is there's those all over the place all over the no no let me take the back not all over on the south of the country. There's tapers. Yes, tapers with jaguars.

Have you ever seen the jaguar? Yes. Have you really? Yes, down there on the south. It's called Corcovado. I mean, not in a zoo or something in a wild. Tell me about, I mean, like, how do you see a jaguar? Well, how did you see the one you saw?

That's on the National Park. It's a reservation. So this is crazy, but the wildlife is used to the people. Like, not messing with him. So as long as you don't do any kind of like a stupid, subtle movements, they're going to behave natural. And now, they're not going to come up to you, right? But they're going to keep a fair distance. That time, I remember we were walking towards the beach because we were going to do some snook fishing right there on the shadows, like on the sandbags.

And my body screamed jaguar. And when we look up, he was on the go. like he was moving away from us, you know, maybe about 70 yards. He probably saw us walking to him. Seven yards? 70. Oh, seven yards? Oh, seven yards?

No, then, uh-uh. And he was on the go. And even though he was that far away, man, you know, the presence of those cats like that, being that big, especially like mountain lions. Yeah. I know there's some mountain lions as well. Not as many. Puma.

Yes. Pumas. Yeah. And those are going to be, I guess, like the Florida. Panter. 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. in 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 Phelpsgamecauls.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. Yeah, I think the, I think the mountain line here, Puma Concolor, it's the same cat that is, there's different subspecies, but it's the same cat that's like in Montana that would be down in Central America, as I understand it.

Yeah, it may be different, different subspecies. It's the same, but the genes are going to be a little bit different. It's just like the white tails from the south versus the one in the Midwest. Just a little bit smaller, just the same overall stuff, you know. Yeah. Have you ever seen a black jaguar? On pictures? Never on person.

I've noticed that there appears to be a jaguar tattoo on your hand. A puma, yeah. That's a puma. Yeah, that's what it is. Really? Now, what's the significance of that? Nothing I just like. It's a good-looking puma.

Yeah. It's a good artist there. Yeah, I got that puma. Man, I got like a bunch of North American and American kind of like animals. So I got a Puma. I got a deer right here. Oh, really? Yeah.

What else do I got? Is it like a big buck? Yeah. I mean, can you pull your arm? Oh, you're going to like that one. Oh, wow. Oh, he's got a bison. On his forearm, there's a bison.

Yeah, so there's a bison. There's a bear. And then there's that bug right there. Oh, look at that, sucker. Red tail hawk, somewhere in there. Holy smokes. Now, okay, I see, let me see that buck again. Like that.

Pull your shirt up a little bit more. Okay, now the tattoo artist that did this, I noticed there's a forked G2. Yeah. I'd say that's an unusual characteristic for a white tail. I know. Did you request the fork G2? No, I was like a, that looks like a mule deer, but I mean, here's the thing. Did you want it to be a white tail?

No, hold on. It looks like a white town. Yeah, but let me explain. I think there's a story here. Yeah, let me explain. Everything that I have is hand draw. Like, I usually request my body mass shift. That's his name.

I know him for several years, 10 plus since I came to the States. And every time I'm like a math, what if we do like a Puma? So he will sit down. So was all that done at separate times? Yes. And then he will draw by hand out of his mind. Right? Like, will he like sketch it on your arm and pin or something?

Depends, yeah. Sometimes he will do it on his tablet, get it all done, or sometimes he will do it directly on my skin, right? Depending on what he's 40. Anyways, on this case, I said, Matt, I want to do it like a buck. He said, what are you talking about? And I said, just a big buck. He's like a white tail there.

And I said, yeah. So is this guy, this Alabama dude? Or is he from somewhere else? He's an Alabama dude, but he's a non. hunter and he doesn't go outside as much as we do, right? So here's the thing. He's like, I look some reference points and a few pictures of deer. Now, why tell or nothing?

This is what I came with. And I look at it and I said, that's a meal deer. But we're here right now. I'm not going to tell him nothing. Oh, no, I said, Matt just put it in there. He said, oh, you like it? And I said, yeah, put it up there. So just like that.

You know? So it is a mule deer. Yeah. Okay. But you didn't need a white tail, though. It don't matter. It could be a white tail for me. It's up to interpretation.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. He can't see it with his eyes because he's on the back of his arm. Now, Pablo, I think that you've got the right to be, like, pretty picky about which reference drawing they make if they're doing a tattoo on your arm. But on the, on the, throughout the years, the relationship that it goes past client, tattoo. tattoo artist and he just becomes a friendship, right? It becomes a friendship. Life lessons with Pablo.

Yes. So is this, would this be like, so, okay. I mean, I'm not, I'm not seeing it, but, uh, I would tell him. Trust your, you just like, I mean, were you going to hurt his feelings? No. But it was like going through the process of like, oh, he has to draw it again. Yeah. So I said, you didn't want to inconvenience.

No, no. I said, just put it up there, I gotta go. Yeah, I'd hate for the guy to spend an extra 30 minutes on it now. I'd be like, that's a I, double G2. It's so good. Fork G2, baby. Yeah, I say, it's super fine. If it's a white tail, I'm a sucker for a fork G2.

He's an incredible artist. I mean, that's. Yeah, he does pretty good. Hey, have you ever, you got a bison on there? Have you ever read Steve Ronella's American Buffalo book? Uh-uh. If you're looking for a good book to read, you ought to read that. Does he has that one on Audible?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's on Audible. I want to say it. It's truly one of my, I mean, it would have to be in the top books. Yeah. And I'm not just saying that because we like Steve. He signed your check.

Yeah. Whoa. He does not. Thank goodness. He does not. Yeah. But it's a good book. Yeah.

Definitely. I want to say like I'm almost. 100% I got that book on the playlist on audible. But he has to I will show you because I know it's going to be like

oh yeah right after we told him suddenly he got I will show you all later on. Yeah I'm going to need to see that. It has to be like yeah I swear I swear I do I believe you.

It was him or somebody else but now I'm hold on a second hold up let's just go ahead let's keep it rolling We believe you I will pull out that phone later on

And Steve Rinella If you're watching this I'm going to prove I'm going to prove this Well You know the coolest thing about Your story that I learned on the Southern Sportsman's

Hotdoorsman podcast And what we heard on Bear Grie's Yeah Was that It's really cool how you You got into hunting and if you hadn't listened to it, you got to go back and listen to it.

But, I mean, he just started from like zero when he got here. And you're, like, becoming a really good hunter, whitetail hunter. Man, I wouldn't say like a really good, I will say more like a very persistent and stubborn hunter, you know, they keep making the same mistakes two to three times

until I learn from him. It's like, no, no, no, it wasn't me. No, no, it wasn't me. And then it's like, okay, it was me. It's time to make a change. But, yeah, like I said, the progression has been steady, slow, but, you know, step by step, but it's been steady. And I was talking with Clay about this, that everybody wants to go and kill a 150. We all do, right?

But in my case, man, I started from, like, not knowing how to hunt these creatures. to where I'm at now. So I've been following a process that it has to be respected because I feel that if I rush it, I'm going to take away all the fun and all the joy that I have now. If I kill a 150, thank you God. It will be amazing. But if I don't, it's not going to take the slip away from it, right?

And then I'm not going to be passing on the small bucks that I shouldn't be passing because I'm waiting that 150. and the only thing that I'm going to be thinking of is it's a different level. And I respect that position from the guys that live that kind of like a hunting life. But in my case, my particular case, Pablo's life is a process. And that process, you know, just takes time and it cannot be rushed. It's just what it is. I'm being honest.

I'm not ashamed to say like a man, if, I'm hunting and sometimes it's a bad day to be a spike. Just like that. It happens. Yeah. It happens. Like, it happens. Like last year, listen, last year, it was the best year ever.

Kill the biggest bug that ever killed in Alabama. Kill a buck on this particular WMA. I've been hunting seven years in that area without being able to kill a legal buck. everything is within less than a week time frame and then the fourth day no the fifth day of consecutive hunting a cow horn looking like a spy comes up

and I was like boom tag down season over yes and everybody's like you gotta be kidding me I was like what do you mean this is a huge accomplishment they're like a how big is the spike and I was like it's like a full long

no it was a good one that's always funny how people talking about It was a big spike. I mean, it's like as if you, if two spikes walked up and one at three inch, one at four, you shoot the four. This one is a good one. Yeah, this one is a good, like, cow horn looking like a spike. Oh, yeah. I can't get enough cowhorns back.

So I was like, what a better way to do it than going back to basics and pull the trigger on the spike, burn attack, and be done in Alabama. And everybody's like, okay, so. did you just graduated from the Spike Management University or you're going to keep doing this? And I was like, I don't know. We will find out next season. So I went two weeks later to Mississippi and killed a buck. And I mean, come on.

You know what I'm saying? That's a great year, man. Yeah. Killing the best buck on the state. Killing a buck in a WMA that took me seven years to do that. Tagging out. It don't matter what do you tag out, but you tag out. Yeah.

And then on top of that, kill an out-state book, it doesn't get no better than that, right? That's a big year. It's a good year. I've got a question for you. So because you came into specifically white-tail hunting so fresh with such a clean slate, like you didn't have any cultural baggage. Like, anybody that's raised, I mean, almost in America, I mean, deer hunting is so big in America. I mean, unless you're just like from like the inner city and your family's big. in there for like generations.

There's a good chance that you have some connection to hunting. Maybe it's your grandfather, maybe it's your uncle, your cousins, like somebody to hunt our way back. And you come with this baggage of the way that you're supposed to hunt. Like whether it's, whether it's bow hunting or whether

it's doing drives or whether it's hunting with deer dogs like it is down here in some places, whether it's bohunt, whatever. I think that in today's like oversaturated white-tail world that's so commercialized and it just is I mean you know I mean the company I work for we try to sell hunting products I mean that's kind of what makes the thing go around I don't feel bad about

that but also in like the media space in general it's like we need things to talk about and so it's almost like hunting gets more and more complex like if you were just starting from scratch like when my dad started hunting back in the 1970s I mean it's like you needed a bow and a flannel shirt you know and maybe a baker tree stand that you could climb up and probably die. Those things, they call them widow makers. Yeah. But today, you might get the idea that you got to know about all this different stuff. You're an interesting case study because you do know, I mean, you've kind of, you know a lot of information.

You've just been a sponge and learned about thermals and learned about feed trees and learned about funnels. and like he's a student of deer hunting, you know. And so here's my question. Go ahead. All that to say, what really are the limiting factors of killing a deer where you hunt? Okay. Because it could be somebody might come into hunting and think it's camouflage pattern, which we all know is not true.

But what do you think the limiting factors of killing deer? Based on what I believe personally, pressure. I believe pressure is a big thing. Also, on this particular WMA, tell me what you mean by that. Like, interpret that, like, hunters per square mile. So you,

so for you to be successful, you go where there's not pressure. Yes. Also, on this area, where I hunt, the deer population is very low. The habitat is pretty, well,

it's pretty much the same block. Yeah, like a monoculture. Yes. So there's different areas where I can move and go and kill a deer, right? It might not be the greatest, but it's going to be a deer. And I could be pretty successful about that, but once again, there's going to be things such as pressure. To me, that's the biggest thing in Alabama. So when you say that to me, I hear you say, if I was telling a new hunter what to do,

I would say, go find a place that doesn't have a lot of people hunting, and you could be, you could not have knowledge and kind of not know what you're doing, but maybe still kill a deer because they're unpressured. No. Now here's the thing. That's kind of like a different question. I'm going to answer in a different way. But I think to me, my blessing, because it was a blessing,

was that I learned from all school guys, guys that didn't have social media. Shoot, man, they had paper maps. That was the way for them to scout the areas and all that. stuff. So that was my principle. That was the foundation of where I'm at right now. Everything else, I don't pick it up throughout the seasons and you learn a little bit more about this and about that. If somebody asked me right now, based on what I know, I'd be like, okay, the best way to try to seal the deal is to figure out when is the rut.

When the route is on the pig, so you're going to find them cruisers. And go ahead and put yourself nearby, creek crossing or a bluff gap. Okay. That's what I will choose. Like 100% especially So, so, so understanding

like when the peak times are and then understanding topography. Yeah. So in that way you're going to get the most daylight movements and the most exposure, you know, because love is in the air and they be goofing around and, and I'm, yeah, you know, and they expect.

expose themselves in ways that they never do. Yeah. I've been winded before, but bugs, they're just like, man, I have got, it's crazy, but I have got encounters with big deer last season. I bumped a monster. A monster, and I called my buddy, Daniel Williams, and I said, Daniel, I just bump a monster.

It's like 2.30 in the evening. What do I do? He's like, oh, don't worry, you're going to do this. You're fixing to kill him. And I was like, no, like, he's gone. He was like, no, do this, you're fixing to kill him. And I didn't listen to him. And I think that I should have done it.

And I might have kill him, you know? But I was like, no, no, hold on. I'm going to try to do this. Well, he was recommending me was like trying to circle hook that book. But I just couldn't avoid it. And I did the opposite. And just kind of like straight up chasing, climb a tree. And I was like, he's going to come back.

And I bet you he went around. But he was a monster. bedded on the wide open. Yeah. The crazy thing is I stopped and look at a tree. I came out of the thick. Stop looking at a tree and I said, this is a really good transition area.

This is the climber. And the trail comes right here. Yeah, I like it. And I did one step and he bumped about 20 yards. Oh, so you were right. Yeah, I was right there, but he was already there. Yeah. You know, I used to think about bow hunting if somebody would have seen me killing deer

and would have been like, oh man, you're a good hunter. I would have said, I don't know, I don't really think I'm a good hunter. I think I just go a lot and I'm really persistent. Yeah. So what I saw people do is like learn a lot about hunting. and this is kind of a fictitious scenario, but like learn a lot about hunting, try to find the right time,

like basically find the right scenario, and then they would go and not be successful. And maybe they even knew more about what was happening than me. But I was, I just went more, stayed longer. Yeah. And ended up killing deer. And in the process of that, you learn a lot. I mean, so I think the thing that I would say to people is just go.

Yeah, absolutely. Just go climb up in a tree. and sit there. Or on the ground. And when you don't see deer, you're going to learn something. You're going to go somewhere else. When you do see deer, you're going to be validated, and you're going to watch how they use the terrain, watch what they're feeding on, watch the direction they come.

When you get winded, you're going to learn, oh, dang, I need to be on that side of the funnel and the thermals are going to suck my wind down into that draw. I mean, you just learn so much about being there. But as opposed to, and I guess I'm kind of combating what you and I talk about. about earlier today about how complex sometimes. Yeah. Like the more, the longer we do this whitetail hunting thing, the more fine-tuned it becomes and kind of the more complicated it becomes in a way.

And it's so many, remember, technologists, so many technicalities and things that, it seems like we're speaking about like outer space kind of stuff. And it just takes the whole, the fun away. What's the last whitetel podcast you listened to, Ms. Nukum? When was the last time you did a Dear Stories podcast? Oh yeah, you know what's up. Does that count? I was going to ask if I felt the same way.

Well, I was thinking it kind of reminds me, you know, Shep always, our son Shep always talks about luck favors the people who show up, who are there. And if sometimes he'll hear you and Bear talking about whether you should go or not. And if you don't, he's like, oh, man, they might have missed their lucky day. It should have just gone. Powerful quote. Love favors, the ones that show up. Yeah. That is so truth.

Yeah. That's so good. Yeah. No segue into this. Pablo told me a quote earlier today that I was like, hey, that's really good about nostalgia. Oh, yeah. Let's hear it. Because, you know, here's the thing.

I was talking with Clay and I said a lot of times I get very nostalgic when I think about. Talking about Costa Rica. Yeah. I get very nostalgic. And it happens. But I said, nostalgia is the greatest liar that there is, right? That's a good quote. And that's because it will bring you back to these really, like, cool moments and great memories

while hiding the real reason why something ended or something was done for good, right? That's good. That's good. Yeah, it's really good. So what I get is all these reals of high moments of my childhood pretty much. in my teenager years, which I had the greatest childhood ever, man. You know, you can try to put in context like,

oh, there was some limitations or whatever. Well, I never felt, you know, I was a happy kid with what we had. And the greatest thing, we didn't have internet and we didn't have cell phones. That was the two greatest things ever, you know. So we grew up, everybody in the neighborhood in my area, pretty much like that, like wide open on the woods, you know.

So you cannot be asking for anything better than that. But I get nostalgic. It's normal. And especially when I think about fishing, I'm like, oh, my God, man. Oh, my God. You know, 45 minutes away from the ocean or something like that. And then you start recalling, okay, what was the reasons why we left? Or what do we move for?

Yeah. This and that. Then you start realizing like, oh, yeah. That's why. You know, so yeah, got to be careful when you get nostalgic because you can be impulsive. Okay, tying this back into deer hunting. Yeah. Have you deer hunted long enough for you to be nostalgic about deer hunting?

Yes, absolutely. About a place and a specific. Yeah. This area where I used to be the one that I think that shot on that big deer, I don't want to get into a lot of detail of the place because I will give it up. But the place was, it's no longer available. And that was my honeyhole. And I hunted it hard, man.

Every moment, every day that I had, I was on the same tree, the same suite come about this big. Because it was the only one that you could climb on that swamp. And now I go by the place, even though that it's not huntable, you can go by. And man, sometimes I just kind of like. Like I stayed right there and I'm like, man, I wish that I could hunt this place back again. And even though this nostalgia is like legit, like there's not such a bad reason for it.

Like it was out of my control. Think about all the days you sat there and didn't see anything though, Pablo. Yeah, but how much I learned and how much I did. Because there was so much wildlife on those swamps, which it was incredible, man. I got to seeing otters. I got to see beavers. All kinds of ducks. Coons,

bobcats, just walking by me, minding their business, and as quiet as you can stay, the more you're going to learn. I learned that with deer as well. The first time I've seen a dog with triplets,

that doesn't happen very often, but it happens. Well, it might happen more often than what I think, but the phones were like literally underneath me. And I was like hugging the tree, like, please go away. And they're doing their thing.

And mama was like 40 yards away, ears wide open and scanning. She knew something was off, but she couldn't figure it out. So I was listening so carefully because there were so many vocalizations going on between and back and forth. Then it was just an amazing experience. And they end up just walking away. But I was like, these are the days that really make the difference when you learn and experience a little bit better, you know. behaviors or things like that but yeah yeah that place right there and there's also the one they got away the one that could never recover you seen that book yeah he was a good one

too i show it to you later but uh he was a good one and then what else like seriously i can be thinking of a question you might have for him anything josh you too got do you have any questions Well, I just, I enjoyed listening to your story for the podcast. And I think, I think your passion for the outdoors surfaced when you were so little. And I, I, I admire your, your passion when you got to the United States of, you know, learning that you could hunt. And does that, I guess my, my thing is, is like, what is that, what is that done to you? filled you with more passion? Are you still just as excited about it today as you were then? I'm actually, have you, have you, like, has that branched out into other areas of hunting? Yeah, it's, well, to start the question, it's like, it has, I'm actually hungrier than what it was before. And the reason for that is because now I understand what I'm doing. And now I can actually understand why am I doing the things. So it has driven me like,

crazier than what it was before, right? Because it's like, okay, now I have no excuses. Before I could have the excuse of inexperienced, this, that, like now there's none. Like now I'm, I should be good to go. And yes, absolutely, man. I was, remember, I was this close to be turkey hunting today. Oh, yeah? I never done it before.

He turned down a turkey hunt to come. With Mr. Jamie McKay in Alabama, he was like, we're going to go turkey hunting. And I was like, Mr. Jamie, I can't. I got to go with Clay. I said, we wait until, I said, we wait for next. year because I never done it before he was gone you know so want to do some turkey hunting you know of course fishing all the time deer hunting and man everybody i mean i don't know somebody doesn't say like elk hunting or any other game like that yes i would love to venture into that but i guess

that's going to come with time when when the time is right i guess yeah but uh yeah now i'm more that before because now I understand what am I actually looking for. Man, you've had some incredible mentors, all the guys that he mentioned. I mean, when I heard his story, that was the thing that stood up to me is that all the, all the people that just brought him in to kind of their inner circle. And that's a, it's honestly a testament to them, but it's also a testament to you. I mean, sometimes I think people talk about. maybe not being able to find mentors.

And really a lot of times the fingers should be pointed back at the person that they're not reaching out to the right people or they're not respecting. I mean, I don't know. It can be hard to break into. Let me tell you how this started. Well, first and foremost, Mr. Tony, right? But then I spoke with Josh about this. A friend of mine, Parker McDonald, he has a YouTube channel, right? Yeah, yeah.

So years ago, it was called South. Ground Hunting. Right. Now is Southern Collective. Anyways, he put up there on social media. I'm looking for an interim for Southern Ground Hunting. So I email him and I said, I have no experience with a camera. I don't know anything about electronics.

I do not on a computer. I'm technologically slow, but I have a good attitude. And if you put a camera on my hands, I would love to go out there with you. I said, here goes nothing. And I send the email, right? Literally that I know he texts me back. Well, he emails me back. Hey, this is my phone number.

Give me a text. I was like, do what? Well, Mr. Tony, don't talk to Mr. Michael. Mr. Michael saw Parker somewhere and talked to Parker about me. Parker's like, hey, Michael talked to me about you. Do you want to meet in this place and we talk about it? we talked a little bit and we became friends and next thing you know I was out there hunting with Parker there was no inner spot I would just with him he started teaching me as well while he

believed it was the the best approach for me while being double-checked with mr. tony mr. Jamie mr. Michael mackay and then Daniel Williams came along the road and he's like okay now you're jumping on this truck and we're fixing to move along and this is when you're going to start learning about topographies and learn about this Wow, this is like a class It's like a college class.

This is the best of the best. Everybody has a very strong like a subject to each other. Yes, that everybody like Mr. Michael Bluff Gaps and Creek Crosons you know, Mr. Tony Myers, feed trees.

Feat trees. Yes, he killed a state record on a field tree. Mr. Michael killed the Monsal-Lotor state record not long ago, like a 198, the one was it, like a... Yeah. And after that, the place looked like a punking patch. You know, like, opening there, yeah, nothing but

orange. Yeah, it was just an awful. You know, I was like, yeah, it's over with. But something I have learned is that the pressure goes up and then the next year it will kind of like a dive down. Then a couple of years we'll go back up. Anyways, Parker is

all about access. You know, how you access. Right, right. He's using kayaks and stuff. Mr. James is about travel corridors. Like, where do you find them cruising? So I've been picking the best out of the best, man. And I got a feeling that this will pay sooner or later will pay off.

And if it doesn't, it don't matter. Because I have got the greatest time ever with these guys. And just being able to learn from them is a luxury. Like, what a. luxury do I have to mention that, oh, yeah, I've been scouting with. Well, you know what? I tell you, I guarantee you that you are, well, just from being around you today, you're a great listener. It's fun to teach somebody that's passionate. Yeah. It's fun to teach somebody that's appreciative. It's fun to teach somebody that is taking what you, what you

teach them and doing it. And actually, I mean, so my point being, those guys are incredible. tip to every one of those guys. You're doing some stuff right, too. Yeah. I mean, just in the fact that you could gain these guys trust. Because that's the biggest thing. I mean, it's like, you know, kind of like throw your pearls before the swine. I mean, it's like, if I'm going to invest in somebody, I want to know that it's going to be,

there's going to be a return on that investment, like in their life, because we all have invested in somebody that kind of squandered what you gave them. And you kind of learned from that. You're like, well, I'm not going to invest my time in that anymore. You know, my thing, I would say the biggest thing for me was that you have to be aware that these people's time is very valuable. And the experience that they have gained throughout the years is priceless. Like, seriously, man, they have spent years of their life up in that mountain chasing these creatures. And suddenly, if you're here for a free ride, that's going to throw you off the door right.

the way. Like, you see what I'm saying? What I want to learn is how you do what you do, not where you go to do what you do. You know, like, so I don't know. I guess it's the will, your attitude, perseverance, you know, how good you're going to be able to face the challenges that they throw it at you maybe. I don't know. Yeah. Just the blessing.

Overall, that's what it is. Yeah. Good Lord looking over. There's nothing you can do. about that, right? So it was good. Did you have a question? Well, actually, my question was,

how did he get his mentors? That was actually what I was curious about. Yeah. I haven't listened, you know, I haven't heard the whole story yet. Right, right. And so it's kind of hard because I actually have a lot of questions, but I feel like it would be repetitive.

They're probably answered in the, like, how did you get here? Yeah. Yeah. Is it how did you get here? It's like, it cannot be this close. Let's just kidding. Let's just kidding.

So, real quick, met this gentleman. I was doing some work outside of his house. They took me on the backside. My step dad did, well, he had giants, state records and all that stuff, everything from public land. I was like, oh, my God, got his name.

A few years went by. I'm striking with no luck in public land. three years without seeing a deer without seeing a deer three seasons hunting no deer I'm desperate and I spoke when I step that and said do you remember that gentleman he said yeah is this is his house he's like I don't know I said does he still lives in there he's like I don't know so I said something is going to happen I'm going to get shut or I'm going to find mr. tony but something they were doing concrete work this guy's house the stranger's house saw his trophy room and then a year later he goes back an hour.

It was three. Three years later. Yes. Oh, wow. Yes, three years later. I went back to Mr. Donis. Anyways, I said something's going to happen. I'm going to get shot or I'm going to find them. I saw the con.

I was like, that's it. That's it. You know, that's the one. Knock on the front door, nothing. And I said, here we go. You just got to roll the dice. And I walk on the back. Like on the back of the house. If you knock on my back door, you're getting shot. Yes, and I knocked here.

Miss Donna came out, and she's super sweet and kind with me. She says, can I help you? I was like, hello, you know, like, it's me. Very safe. Yeah. I said, don't let the stereotypes guiding you to this because I'm fixing to get shot. You know, I have an accent and a bunch of tattoos. It's not what it looks like, you know.

I was like, it's not what it looks like. Just bear with me. Let me explain myself. Please. And I said, Mr. Tony home. She was like, no, he's hunting. I said, I'd be back. And so I came back that evening.

I said, Mr. Tony, he was like, hey, buddy, I remember you. Okay. Just like that. Okay. That's how that started. Wow. And then he took me under his wing. He's getting closer to retirement.

He's a legend, man. And then he's like, I'm going to talk to some of the guys from the same generation. so they can kind of like a steel help people a little bit and all that. And that's how the ball went down. Eventually all the way, like I said, Mr. Tony, Mr. Jamie, Mr. Michael, Daniel Williams, Parker McDonald, Nick Brennan, Brian Prozzer. That dude, man, that guy, Brian Proser, he's like, this is the crazy thing on public land. He's able to pinpoint a specific individual.

and do a lot of effective prayer that that buck is going to live until he's like four years old. They even knowing that he's been shot since he's like six months old. He's like, God, please don't let him get killed this season. And somehow, this guy is praying for a specific year. Yes, somehow this year end up being like on the 120s, 1 30s. Next thing, you know, they jump from that to like an upper 140s on public, on the same place. Then he prays that they die. And he does that.

He kills them all the time. Like, last time that I was with him, he takes me, hey, I'm going tomorrow. And I was like, ah, good luck. It's the only day that I have, I gotta go.

He was chasing a giant, 154A point, double brow time. Mm-hmm. So, it takes me about 7.30. he's down and I was like there's no way I go in there retrieving that bug with him

my goodness man talking about popcorn all kinds of stuff I should picture later the deer came in and the deer saw him drawing back on his bow so he said the bug stop and turns looking at him like that

and right when he's about to go he releases so there it goes through the deer nose out in the jaw into the neck area. And he clipped an artery. Wow. He was able to kill him. On the picture, you see like a cross

right here on his nose. And then where it was. But yeah, every year he does that. And he's one of the guys, like I said, everybody else. Actually, my buddy, Nick, I was with him last season. And we're hunting on this area where I see the triplets.

I heard first thing in the morning, I said, man, he got one. Up top of that ridge, we have reception, and Nick is like, hey, man, I shot a big old pig. I'm going to go retrieve him, and then, you know, we're going. I said, cool. Well, I didn't

hear anything else, and like three hours later, I see Nick limping really bad, heading my way, and I was like, what happened? He said, man, that dang pig, he wasn't dead. And he roared me off. Yeah, like the pig was inside of a

ticket. So Nick goes into the thick looking for him because the pig was wounded like really bad and he thought that he was done

and as soon as he got to him the pig just jump and he charged at him luckily didn't hit him with the tusk

but he hit him good enough on the leg that he was like he was in a bind and he was about a mile

away from where I was so to me there was no way to tell that he would have been hurt you know

right so I said okay next day I go in and they're in there at night so I pull up my phone

and start recording because they're squealing like really hard and I got a green light. Next thing you know, one of them is charging at me. It's like 4 o'clock in the morning. So I just jump in a tree and hail like that. And I was like, well, until the sunlight comes up because we're fixing to settle this down, you know? So I climbed that tree. So unlike came up, took a shot.

Surprisingly, I missed. Oh, the pigs were still there. Yeah, no, they didn't go nowhere. Apparently I'm not the greatest shooter, which I thought I was, but I am not. and I hit him. I know I hit him, but I didn't hit him right. And then I'll start chasing and running behind it and just shooting lead like crazy. I bet you everybody in that management area was like, what's going on in that holler?

Boom. A couple more steps. Man, yeah, it didn't recover. Wow. Just to make it short. Yeah, it didn't recover. Just to make it short. Yeah.

Not good. Yeah. It happened. Here's the thing with my right. rifle. It was a gift. First gun that I ever owned in my life. Remington 77306.

My stepdad and my mom purchased that gun for me. There you go. You have a gun. You have a rifle. Never have one before in my life. So. Because in Costa Rica, you really couldn't have a gun. And calvors like that, I don't really. Yeah. You know, I don't really think that they even provide those things. I know pistols, yeah, but like hunting like

that, Calavers like that, no. Yeah. Well, apparently you got to side the thing. I had no clue. I just went hunting. So it had a scope on it. Yeah. And I just went hunting.

And then never cited it. No, years ago, a couple years through, no, yeah, about three years ago, Daniel asked me, because I shot and I missed, man, here's the thing. It was a mistake, but it's the middle of the road, right? There's a biggest crib, and I was like, oh, right here, right here, it's hot, climb up a street. And about, I don't know, two hours later, five doves, man, come in, and I was like, dough, boom! And she hunched over, and I was like, yes, got a deer.

So I text Daniel, and I said, I just shot a dough. He's like, what are you doing? It's the rot. What are you shooting those? And I was like, dang it, man. He's actually right. You know? I say, God, Amarly, well, I mean, it's a next thing I know, she stands up.

And I was like, oh, no. And, well, I guess the adrenaline, man, I end up sending 12 shots. Like, I run out of ammo. Like, boom, boom, reloading four more. And, well, man, I got down and went up there closer to the scrape where I shot her looking for blood. And I turned my headlamp. And there's a book literally on the scrape. looking at me.

And I was like, of course, you show up now. It's dark. I got no ammo. You know, and I said, well, I didn't found it, though. You know, like, she was gone. Like, she's just gone. I bet she wasn't even mortally wounded. But anyways, then he was like, when was the last time you cited your deer?

And I said, what do you mean? He's like, when it was last time you shot 2A target? I said, do you mean like, a deer? He was like, oh, my God. No. I said, I never done it. Never cited it in. No.

He's like, you got to be kidding me. He's like, when it was the last time you cleaned the rifle? And I said, what are you mean? Dude, when we look at the barrel, it looked like the entrance of a coal mine. I mean, seriously, he was blacked out. And then, like, you can see the strips on the barrel. Then it was like, what? Which is crazy.

Like, how good. these things are, you know, because with a bunch of neglecting, they still functioning just perfectly. Now, now I'm cleaning it, you know, here and there. The only thing that I got to do is just get a scope because the one that I have, well, apparently I didn't know that the price is correlated with how good the scope it is. And I was like, 99, 99.

I said, that sounds like a deal. And if it's not like 1 o'clock in the evening, foolish, then you're going to see a thing through it, you know? So I was like, that is fun. So you never sided the gun in. After that, I did. Yeah, yeah. And after that, I went to a range.

And I was like, so this, he was like, yeah. Like, what's wrong with you? That's hilarious. And that thing was way off. I wasn't 100 yours. I wasn't even hitting the paper. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's funny. And then we start dialing in. And of course, that rifle don't hit the ground of you. times with me, like more than a few times. I dropped him from the tree the same as I did with my bow. And he was loaded and he fell with a stuck down on the mud and just stuck up like that. So I was repelling myself on the other side of the tree. Like, oh boy. And I was able to get it off. I wish some little guy had been floating around in the woods with a camera videoing you with all these situations.

A lot of, man, a lot of times I'm like, a guy, please don't let nobody be right here. Yeah, for some reason, a lot of times I encounter things that normal people won't do. Like with the rattlesnakes. I have one. It's not that big. It's about that long, but it's not that wide. That's a big old girl. Yeah.

Anyways, I've seen it, and I was like, man, I got to take it home. Now, you got to keep in mind. I don't have a firearm. I have a machete and my walking stick. which is the bottom part of a surfing rod. So out about a mile and a half from the truck. And I said, you know why, let's roll the dice. Let's see what happens.

There's no cell phone reception to. So I said, let's just see what happens. Not a good thing to start. Yeah. And this is a caveat for working with the snake. This is the best way that I like to describe myself as a hybrid, right? 50% Hispanic, 50% redneck. Do you know what I'm saying? It's just a hybrid.

It's a dangerous combination. Yeah, you don't know what they're capable of. You don't see them all the time. So I was like, all right, let's go. And we started going. She immediately knew what was up. And she coiled up and got on the striking position. I whack her, pin it down, reached down, stretcher, step on the tail, pull down my macheteen.

When I'm going to strike, she comes loose and a strike between my legs, full force. So I jumped back and I was like, all right, let's go ahead and do this again. Then start running. She tries to flee, like take off. And when she did, I just reached down, which she was pretty stupid and pulled her from the tail. And as I pulled her back, because she was going on the bluff, as I pulled her back, she came back striking. Man, as where her mouth went like this, like in a slow-mo, full wide open. Wow.

And I was like, ah, I'm fixing two, getting, get in trouble. Group myself back in, back again, you know, and start going at it and whack her again, pin it down, pull it, step on it, pull my machete, boom, cut the head. And I was like, gotcha. Put it on my pack. Continue with my day. Now, she's not rattling no more, but, you know, reptiles that will be moving throughout several hours. Made it home, and my wife is like a how-to-go. And I said, good, but something has been buggering.

me on my backpack. She said, what are you mean? I said, I don't know. I got something here. It's kind of weird. She's like, well, check it. Keep in mind, she's in the kitchen, fixing lunch. And I just grab my pack and flip it upside down and let it open. And that thing fell

on the floor and started moving. She was jumping this high, man. That would be a bad move. That would be a bad move. Not wise. And my dogs were like, whoa! And he's got Pit Bulls.

Yes. Yeah. And she got so upset. And I was like, it was a joke. It was a joke. You know, like, I'm sorry. End up picking the snake out. She was like, get that thing out of the house.

You get out of the house. No more lunch for you. I was like, I apologize for my behavior. I said, it was a bad joke. But yeah, she still don't enjoy that memory from that snake, you know. Oh, that's funny. Well, hey, man, it's been great to meet you. Great to have you on the podcast.

really appreciate you coming up here. Man, I appreciate y'all. I seriously do. People like you guys are the reason why, you know, most of us do what we do because y'all have the right approach and that means a lot to me. So thank you so much.

Thank you so much with this opportunity. Yeah, appreciate it, Pablo. Yeah, we'll be, I'm sure we'll be here and frame you in the future. I want to be getting some pictures of some big bucks. Yeah, man. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see how it's going to go. Yeah, definitely.

Yeah, yeah. All right. Keep the wild place is wild because that's where the berries live. And you might find Pablo there. You never know. Hey, just a matter of time. Just a matter of time. First Light's fieldware collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day

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