Bear Grease - Ep. 362: Render - Live from the Lonesome Dove Cabin

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

On this episode of the Bear Grease Render, host Clay Newcomb is joined by Bear Newcomb and Josh “Landbridge” Spielmaker, as well as good friend Justin House and Marshall Bryant of Kicking B Wildlife as they record live in New Mexico from the original ”Montana log cabin” built for the famous Lonesome Dove film series. The crew discusses the Evan Felker Bear Grease episode, their current bear hunt, as well as Marshall’s extensive work with wildlife including on location of the TV series Yellowstone. Special thanks to T/K Land & Cattle for use of the Lonesome Dove Cabin. 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 and real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware Gear at firstlight.com. My name is Clay Newcomb, and this is a production of the Bear Grease podcast called the Bear Grease Render, where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes of the actual Bear Grease podcast. Presented by FHF Gear, American made, purpose-built, hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. We have a very unique episode today. I'm going to tell you what we got to cover.

There's some stuff we've got to cover, okay? I'm going to introduce my guest in just a minute, but we are going to be talking about the podcast that we did with Evan Felker. We did a whole Bear Grease podcast on Evan Felker. And if you're new to the Bear Greas render, which is what this is, this is where we talk about the documentary style Bear Greer's podcast. podcast. So we're going to talk some about Evan Felker and episode we did with him, which I was, it had such a good time doing. That's number one. Number two, we're going to, we are in a

historic building right here, a very historic building. I'm not, we're going to go into it pretty quickly here, but we are in the log cabin that was used in Lonesome Dove. We're going to talk about that. Number three. There's more? Yes. Well, there's, well, there's, four. Wow. We're going to introduce you to my good friend, Justin House, from deep in the heart of the Ozarks. Newton County.

Newton County. Yep. So we're going to introduce you to Justin. He's never been on the podcast. And then we're going to introduce you to the one and only Marshall Bryan. Oh, man. Marshall is, oh, my, I don't even know where to start. If I were introduced to Marshall, I would say, Marshall, tell them what you haven't done.

That's the way I would start. That's where I would start it out. Just a mass. But then I've got Bear John and Josh here. And we're in New Mexico. We're in New Mexico. We're in New Mexico. Black Lake, New Mexico.

Black Lake, New Mexico. Yeah. And we've been, we're here, bear hunting, bear hunting with hounds. We brought our mules all the way from Arkansas. And we've been here two days. Well, we've hunted two and a half days. Amongst thunderstorms. Yeah.

We had some challenges. It hadn't got a bear yet. Got one day left. We just came out here for a quick trip, but it's been incredible. Had some incredible meal rides. It's an amazing country. Beautiful country. Yeah.

Just incredible country. But Marshall, tell me about what this is. Where are we at? Well, we're on John and Charlotte Kimberlain's ranch up here in Black Lake, New Mexico. And I run a ranch that we have this country. And I run a ranch down the road. And we're basically an elk hunting operation, meal deer hunting operation. And I line hunt quite a bit.

And we're trying to bear on it. But, yeah, just a really historical, cool place, like on Lonesome Dove, when they get up to Montana, they come up over the hill with the herd of cattle. And there's the cabin on the beautiful lake and stuff. That's the cabin we're in right now. This is it right here. This is it, man. So at what part in the movie do they move?

make it to Montana. Like how long, it's been a while. Me and Bear I'd say it's, you know, I didn't finish it. It's two-thirds, three-quarters away through the movie, probably.

And so in the movie there, it's confusing because in the movie they're in Montana. Right. But actually, it was shot in New Mexico. And this structure was built for that.

Yeah. This was a movie prop. Right, right. Yeah. And then the Kimberlins came in, modeled it so, you know, people could come stay here, experience the ranch,

kind of deal and yeah it's just an awesome place tons of history this is the old Hat Creek ranch that we're on historically and it's just a just a cool place what year was all the Lonesome Dove stuff shot? Do you all know 1985 I think Jamie

Can you pull that up? I knew there was going to be something I knew I wouldn't have an answer to it Lonesome Dove Okay so you know what Dale Brisbane. I was with Dale Brisbane the other day. Oh, yeah.

And you're originally from Tech. World's greatest bull rider. Yeah, yeah. And he gave me a hard time for not knowing a line from Lonesome Dove. Yeah. He was making fun of my mule or something. Yeah. And I just, I want to ask Dale if he's ever been here.

I don't think he has. You know, he's welcome any time. He's welcome any time. Don't invite Dale. He only lives. He only lives 20 minutes down the road and has never invited me. over there raising bucking horses. In Texas, not here.

In Texas. My place in Texas, yeah. Yeah. But what year? 1989. 89. So shot three, four, five years before that probably. Yeah. So you were like, what, negative 11?

I was 97, so negative 12. What year were born in? 97. Crazy. Wow, you were, you weren't even. If you listen to the podcast this week, you know that Clay has a fascination with knowing how old. Yeah, I heard that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You shouldn't ask your buddies that. You shouldn't ask you, yeah, Evan Felker didn't think so. You don't ask them how old they are, how many cows they got, or how many acres they're on. That's right. Well, now, I know that about the cattle. Yeah. But, like, age, I don't have a problem.

I don't have a problem. I don't have a problem. How old am I? Well, you already, you already told me. Oh, okay. But I'm afraid. 29, right? 29, right?

29. There's 19. There's 19. I'm about to be 41. 41. Not to be 41. Just a kid, just a pup. Just a pup.

Well, Marshall has, so you run this huge ranch. I mean, this is like, this is a big ranch. And you, I want to talk to you about several things. Well, shoot, how should we do this? We got so much good stuff to talk about. It's a lot. That I kind of want to jump in with him, but I'm afraid if we do, we'll never come back. We'll never get out.

If there's one thing I've learned about Marshall is once you get in there You're in there You never come back out Because he's so entertaining He's always got something to say We're going to talk about the podcast first then We're going to talk about the podcast first

You should I mean why wouldn't you podcast about the podcast first So we No I think it's fitting for us to do the Evan Falker thing here Because you know Evan lives in Oklahoma Got a cow ranch there

He's he's Raising and training some really good performance horses he's really trying to he's really trying to make some good horses out there and I think they are I there's just something about a guy like Evan that is you expect something different but in by different I mean you expect somebody to kind of be aware of you know being well-known having this great music and Evan would just be a guy that would just kind of, I mean, he's just a humble guy. Essentially, that's what I'm trying to say.

He'd sit right in this room with us. Yeah, a humble guy. And he, uh, and been through some hard times and not afraid to talk about it. When I first kind of reached out to him and I went through actually Steve Ronella and I said, do you think Evan would talk to me about all that? And he was like, yeah, yeah, he would. And he did. But I want to just ask you guys.

So Bear, Justin, and John. I'll listen to it. Bear, what stood out to you? Well, I mean, like you already said, it definitely you could tell just by listening to him that he was just a real humble, down-to-earth guy. I mean, like, he's had a lot of success in the country music world,

but I thought it was really cool that he's still breaking horses and is still, like, doing all the same stuff that he would have always done. Like, he's not necessarily let it go to his head. But I thought, I thought that the podcast was really cool. Because I listened to the Troobadors quite a bit,

and it was pretty interesting to see his, like, process of songwriting. Just because it made sense. Like, everything you were talking about is kind of the reason that I feel like a lot of people like the Troobadors. It's because it's, like, really personal. Like, he puts in, like, these little details that are, like, like, a mid-July white tail and velvet. You know, like, everyone can imagine that scene. But, yeah, I thought. it was a really interesting podcast and an interesting look behind the scenes.

You know, I think it's appropriate that this comes out this week because on social media, there's been this big thing with Charlie Crockett, who's a country music guy, kind of an outsider, never really liked Nashville, and he took a shot at what he called Bro Country this week. I love it that I know this. Y'all should think I'm very cool. That's the first bro. I don't even know what you're talking about. That's the first bro you brought the heart.

Clay Newcomb is in on the country music drama. Because Charlie Crockett made a post, like maybe specifically calling out a couple of like bro country, which would be like kind of the Nashville radio country music guys. Maybe one, yeah, I'm not even going to say any names. And it was just this like firestorm. And, well, it was Adcock, a guy with the last name Adcock. Gavin.

Gavin Adcock. The kids are listening to him. And Charlie Crockett, and they got in this little internet spat, and Charlie Crockett sent Gavin Adcock a dozen roses in the mail. And then Adcock gets on with a dozen roses and says, hey thanks Charlie really appreciate the roses sorry that you had to go get a smaller venue because you couldn't sell tickets and we had uh it just it was like going back and forth but the whole point of all that is that the guy like evan falker is like he's he's just kind of unfazed it's just kind of the real deal like you would never i don't think evan's going to let me down here you would never hear evan falker in that scenario like he's just he is he kind of doesn't care and And, but he is not bro country.

No, he's not bro country. Yeah. And it's even, it's even like, his music is country, but it's different. Yeah. You know, I think, I think, you know, Bear was talking about, there are people who can describe things very eloquently. And that's, that's one thing. You know, you get people who write books and that kind of thing. I don't know.

Evan has a, has a way of describing something so well and putting. a picture in your mind with a sentence. Very quickly. Just all of a sudden and not just paint the picture, but associate feelings to it. And it's amazing. It's not like him trying to describe like something big. It's like square hay on the meadow second cutting of the year. It's like it's light enough still at the foot of the hill we could kick up a single or two.

You know, just like every. song has got just like some something that kind of paints the picture for you you like the tributors oh yeah turnpike's cool yeah i don't know if those other two names are going to make it on my playlist but yeah there's a little turtike on there here yeah yeah um barry did you think it was funny when i thought uh evan feldker's dad was dead and i was like tip going around it yeah what did it come across is funny were you like man i got a cool dad i mean i just i just thought it was funny Yeah, he was just like, yeah, man, you know, he's, yeah, he did a little cowboy in some day working. He welds down there at the reverse city.

I said, he's still alive? Like, yeah, he's still alive. Oh, yeah. Well, that's funny. Josh, why's it out to you? What, what did you? Man, I love a good redemption story. You know, I think, I think that the fact that he was able to go through that.

you know, it sounds like he was confronted, got the help that he needed, but he wasn't defined by that. And I think he's learned how to live his life with that being in the past, you know what I mean, and not carry it with him. And you can tell, you know, you can tell the things that are valuable to him now is, you know, his family, his music is valuable. And I also, I was actually kind of impressed by the way that he, address the crowd during the live session. Oh, yeah? Yeah, it was very personal. You know what I mean? And you could see the gratitude that he had for people who listened to his music. And I, you know, I've been to, I've been to concerts and stuff where the guy singing couldn't care less about the people in the audience.

And he just seemed to have just a real appreciation for liking his music, you know? And I think that's, I think that's a pretty cool thing. I like people who recognize that it's not just them, you know? So, anyways, I was real impacted just about the story of him. You know, I liked what he said. You know, he's like, well, you know, that's fine for some people, but I can't do it. You know what I mean? That's not, you know.

And you can tell about with the resolve in this voice that they'll never touch it again, because he recognizes it destroyed his life. And he had, it sounds like he had a window of opportunity and he took that window of opportunity. and all those things that he had lost, he got back. And that means something to me. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What about you, Justin?

What's stood out? I thought it was really good. Just the fact that he came from small town, Oklahoma, and I think that's a lot of the reason he is the way he is. Mm-hmm. He's just an old country boy that grew up like that. I don't think he set out to be what he is as far as the fame goes. Mm-hmm.

But he got that and he never drifted into, I'm too good to be here in Oklahoma anymore. Yeah. I'm still, still this guy that wants to run a ranch, ride horses. I think it keeps him humble. It's really good to see him be able to confront and talk about the situation that he had. It takes a lot, especially when you've got the spotlight on you like that, to be able to talk about that publicly. Yeah. Yeah.

I think it was great. I was a little bit disappointed in how he responded when you asked him about the alcohol, like with his kids. Right. When he talks about how much better his life is now that he's not a part of it, he talks about how much more productive he is. I mean, I just feel like you might have a little more to say to his kids and to his friends. But I understand, too, the world that he's in. Yeah, yeah. It's personal choice.

We talked about it. I might have been a little surprised at what he said, too, just in, because I, you know, he was an alcoholic and it kind of wrecked his life, you know. And I said, what would you, how do you think you'll talk to your kids about alcohol and stuff? And I was, I was, it was, it was an interesting answer he had, because I think I would have thought he would have been like, I'm going to tell my kids never to even touch this stuff. That's the thought I had. You know. And, yet, I mean, he had. as a, I mean, what you tell somebody and what you do with your life is, it's more important

what you do. So as kids are going to watch him grow up and not drink. Yeah. You know, I mean, so even what he tells him, I mean, he's now, you know, I mean, he's going to be living by example. But, yeah, I was kind of, I just wanted to see what he thought about it, you know, because I grew up in a world that was very, very conservative with alcohol. Just like, this stuff's dangerous, man.

Yeah. wreck your life. I mean, to the point that some of it was kind of fear mongering. But at the same time, it's, I mean, the stuff's wrecked a lot of people's lives,

so you can't mess around with it. Total just happened to be, but I literally lost my best friend last year that dealt with alcoholism and stuff. Yeah, it's a dangerous drug, man. Yeah. I've just never been a big drinker,

but, you know, he did. We were best friends for a long time, but just it always come back to him. Yeah. Always come back for him. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, it was, it was really interesting to hear his songs. And he sings about it, too. One of the funniest things I ever heard on Turnpriced Trubdoor social media, when the song on the Red River came out, this new album. Right. One of their songs went pretty high on the country chart or something. and Turnpike Trudeauers posted a screen clip of their text thread, like on the band.

And somebody said, hey, on the Red River showing up on the country charts at whatever number. And Evan Felker writes back and he says, nothing says hot country like obscure dog breeds and generational alcoholism. I thought that was hilarious. I showed that to this. It is good. That's funny. Because he, you know, again, going back to the specificity inside his songwriting, he talked about the cattle dogs that he has.

And he has a bunch of cattle dogs. I didn't really get a chance. I talked to him a lot about it's cattle dogs. He's got a yard full of bird dogs and cattle dogs. Nice. And he works those cattle dogs. Quell dogs or like labs? Yeah, quell dogs.

And shoot. Retrieving dogs like duck dogs. But he's got a hanging tree. Oh, yeah. Cattle dogs. That, man, they worked. He had one border collie, but one hanging tree dog, which was neat. Have you ever heard of hang?

You know hanging tree dogs, don't you? Yeah. Yeah, they were cool. But what's hanging tree dogs? It's a breed of cattle dog. It's like a border collie. What does it look like? To me, it looked like a cur.

You know, I believe, and don't quote me on this, I've had a few hanging tree dogs. I was never that much fan of them because they didn't have enough bite for me but I believe it's like a border collie I believe it's a border collie a healer and maybe like some kelpie or something in it yeah kelpie I want to say

it's crossed up cow breeds basically a guy came up with and I've seen some guys with some great ones for sure yeah I just I never got into them but you're cool dogs You've caught wild cattle and done a bunch of that kind of stuff.

And I've always preferred Catahoulas. And part of that is probably like he said, just my demographic. I just, I've always loved leopard dogs from hog dogs to blood dogs to everything. I just, I always had luck with Catahulas. I always got a lot more handle out of them than like a blackmouth cur. Blackmouth curs are awesome dogs, a lot of guys. But I found Blackmouse to be like coyotes trying to kill. catch them and handle them and actually get a handle on them.

I always preferred cattahulas because I could move them around. You know, I had a good handle all of them. Now, tell me about a situation where you'd be catching wild cattle. Like a big ranch, has cattle get loose and they hire you and your dogs to come in there and catch them? Yeah, I mean, I did some contracts for like a – I did one for like a municipality that a guy had a bunch of cattle on a place. He had like 7,000 acres almost. He sold the place. Fences were tracked.

His cattle just, he left them there for the new owner. They'd gotten out getting in cornfields, getting in wheat fields, destroying crops. And the people had already paid, I think they'd find the guy like $150,000 for crop damages for these cattle. So basically they came in and we're like, hey, we're either hiring somebody to remove these cattle and you get nothing or you can hire this guy and he's going to catch him. He's going to haul him to market and he gets half. So that's the deal with a guy catching cattle as you get half the price up. Yeah, if I'm going to go clean a place off, and don't get me wrong, there's a lot of guys go do it for $200 a day, and that's cool. But if I'm going to go on a cleanup job, and I'm going to have to bay cattle up, dart them, lead them out, maybe winch them in the trailer.

You know, sometimes we have to go dart them in helicopter, neck gun them in helicopter. There's cost in that. So I can't do it for $200 a day. So that's if I go catch wild cattle I do it on the halves I catch it if you have to hire me to catch it or some of a guy By no means in my top hand or nothing But if you got a high no super puncher I'm not a super puncher man I ain't got the big buckle or nothing else

But you had a pretty big buckle Yeah But no that you know that's kind of the rule of thumb Like if it's so bad that you just want it gone It shouldn't be a problem to pay me half You know, I mean, just the drugs to dart, the cattle are expensive, the darts are expensive, the manpower's expensive. Oh, yeah, and it's super dangerous and you've got to be highly skilled. I mean, to me, that's what comes to my mind.

Well, and you've seen the horses we ride. Yeah. Like, we show up with some horsepower, you know, and go out there and do the deal we've got to do. And, I mean, a mediocre horse is $10,000 now in the ranching and rodeo world for a good, a good, like, solid ranch horse, you know, that you can go do that stuff on. on and not run into problems. But you look at guys like Derek Begay and stuff that are going out there and catching wild cattle on reservation land and public land and stuff like that. I mean, that's 100% pay right there.

You get to keep them. Like, that's a sweet trip. Well, okay. So we started in on wild cattle with you. But if you met somebody in the store and they said, young man, what do you do for living? What would you tell them? I'd tell them I'm a jack of all trades. the master of done.

Mm-hmm. No. But what, what, what, describe your career path that got you to where you're at? Just like quickly. I mean, you don't, I know. I mean, I've rodeoed my whole life, roped. I fought bulls for a long time.

The three things I'm most passionate about is, is hounds picking up Bronx and bucking horses. And, uh, I mean, I don't know what the third one would be. Maybe I should have said my top two. Well, helicopters would be my third one. I love helicopter capture work. What are those three? Hold on.

What were the three? Dogs. Hounds. Probably hounds horses, helicopters. Hound's word. That sounds like my buddy's like three-year-old son is really pumped about. Yeah. Hounds, horses, and helicopters.

That's going to be the name of his memoir. He writes his memoir. No, that's super interesting. Tell me how, now, what are you doing with helicopters? Well, the helicopter deal started, you know, I've been guiding all kinds. White tail hunts, turkey hunts, bird hunts, duck hunts. I had a bow fishing guide business for a long time with airboats.

And I was literally on a ranch one day catching cattle. And that helicopter pilot said, hey, man, like, you think you, you know, you think you'd want to catch deer with us? And instantly, I'm all in, you know, let's do it. And so I went on a few catch jobs with a capture team. And, man, it's been a pretty cool experience. Big Horn Sheet, Mule Deer, White Tail Deer. Who are you working for when you're doing that? You know, I worked kind of for like three or four different companies.

There's Bob McCoy. He's down in Santa Fe, Texas. So these are companies that are like wildlife. Well, like. They specialize in capturing and releasing wildlife. So Bob's like lots of helicopters. he flies guys from his own airport offshore to the offshore drilling rigs, and he hauls those guys back and forth.

And he's got some like MD 500 helicopters and stuff that are, you know, what's used for capture work. So he gets government capture contracts. Okay, that's it. That's what I'm looking for. Government capture contracts. Yeah, like, you know, we went and called her to a bunch of big horn sheep in Washington State and just all along the Columbia River there.

and you were he told me he was mugging big horn sheep oh yeah tell us what that means so basically we would fly around we'd find big horn sheep that fit the profile with the biologist wanted us to call her

and then we kind of push those sheep away to an area where it was just safe for us to get out because obviously it's rough rough terrain and we'd single that sheep out shoot it with a net gun get a net over it just to kind of slow it down and get as close as we can hop out, tie it, take the net off, put the collar on. We'd get a hair.

The mugging it means you're just like. You just get on there, yeah. You just manhandle this big hornshed. Oh, yeah. And get you a blood sample, hair sample. You measure some different glands and some different measurements. And then we swab them for pneumonia. And basically the collars have a big number on them.

So if we go back and say pneumonia is really affecting, you know, that specific. herd of sheep, then they'll come back in there and coal those sheep that come back positive for that pneumonia. So basically grab it, tie it, take the net off, do your whole work up on it, let it back up. I mean, how many times have you done work like that? I want to say that job we call it. I think we colored 150 Big Horn up there, something like that. And it was 100 and something mule deer also on that project.

We were up there for about a month. we had a lot of bad weather days usually it's just boom boom boom 50 head a day or more I mean catching whitetail and stuff and exotics in Texas you know I mean we had 100 animal days you know yeah and there's guys that do more than that

you know 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 win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen.

But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out prime cuts at Felps. I think you'll be glad you did.

And you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. So helicopter work. You don't fly helicopters. No. With wildlife.

But you specialize in wildlife. You are a wildlife manager that has managed a bunch of different ranches. Yes, sir. And that's why you're managing this ranch right here. Yes, sir, yes, sir. This is too confusing. This is going to have to be a three-part series on Marshall

because we hadn't even got into the Yellowstone thing. Oh, man. Oh, we've got a lot of ground to cover, folks. Okay, but you did wildlife management for a bunch of ranches. Yes, sir, yes, sir. I'd come in. Some ranches would just have me come in and something as simple as predator trap.

or call some stuff that they needed to get rid of or capture it and sell it to another ranch or whatever. I'd buy those animals, mark them up, sell them just like any product, you know. And so I did a lot of that. All in Texas. Yeah, all in Texas. And some stuff in Oklahoma, too. And, you know, they'd call me in. Sometimes I'd just go to a high fence ranch that was, things just weren't working for them.

They didn't have the right management in place, didn't have the animals that they needed to have. In that business, there's a lot of ranch managers where ranches have these assets, these animals. And for some crazy reason, these animals seem to leave the ranch in coolers, but the ranch doesn't get paid for it, which really cuts into profits. So you get a lot of guys that their business is just not being run properly. And I could come in there and figure out what the problem was, figure out while they're not making money, kind of get them going in the right direction, find them a little bit of clientele, find them the right guy to guide. And then just kind of step away from it and sell them animals, you know. Hmm. Texas is a wild place.

Texas is a wild place. Okay. So, but a lot of your career has revolved around wildlife management. Yes, sir. So you did outfit, you did, you've done a lot of outfitting. Yes, sir. But you've also done like, held contract helicopter work, you know, which. And then managing these ranches, which is what you're doing today.

That's the reason we know you. Yes, sir. And, uh, and, uh, and, uh, and this is. hands down the best job yet. I mean, it's... Managing this place. The Kimbrose, the family that I work for, Tim and Kim. It's easy to remember.

But it's TK. Landed Cattle and they're just the nicest people in the world. And just their dream of what's going on here is like every outdoorsman's dream. So it's just, it's so cool to work for somebody that's like got the same goals in mind. It's like, you can't. There's no goal you can come up with different than theirs that you're going to like better. Like it's just kind of the perfect plan. You know, we're starting a horse program, starting a cattle program.

It's all coming from scratch. This will be the first full elk season here for us. It'll be the first meal, deer season here for us. We might be the first people running hounds on this place in a decade, you know. And just clarify, you're not guiding us out here. We just came. You invited us. We brought some dogs.

Yep. We've been just hunting with you. Yep. No, it's just friends having a good time. And that's what they're about, you know, like we're not a big commercial hunting operation. You're not going to see us trying to sell hunts all the time, anything like that. Like, it's a friend's family business kind of deal. And, you know, y'all are friends.

Now you come hunt, you know. That's just kind of how it goes. Yeah, yeah. And so it's really cool for like, always in the hunting industry for me, it was wake up every morning and hustle, hustle, hustle, just to make sure you had a trip that week. Right. Like there was weeks bow fishing where you blow the motor in the airboat, and it's like you'll almost go stand on the corner with a cardboard sign

trying to sell some bow fishing trips to get that U.S. What did you had 156 days. I did. One year I did 156 bow fishing trips in a year. Yeah. Which is a lot. There's so many different things, just being here with you for a couple of. days that I've learned about you. Tell us about working on the set of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone was super cool. Like what did you do? What did you do? I just kind of had like a wildlife position with them where it was cool. I'd get to go scout ranches and find like places for scenes for them working for locations. This guy Dustin Daniels and Will Aanks. They were super cool. And so I did a lot of like ranch scouting for them. And they'd be like, hey, we need a river crossing that's This deep, this wide. We need 30 horses to be able to cross it. We need a sandbank on the other side to slide down. And I would go look on these ranches and be like, what about this spot?

You know? And it was just really cool, man. Before they'd ride horses through pastures or gather cattle, I'd go out there horseback and make sure there was no like hazards or snakes. You know, a big part of what I did there was snake wrangling, man. That's crazy. We caught a lot of rattlesnakes, a lot of cradlesnakes, a lot of copperhead snakes. So when you caught a rattlesnake, it had to be by the book. By the book. We would catch the rattlesnake. We'd put the rattlesnake in a good safe container that met the requirements. And then we would film and stuff. And then we would take that snake and put it exactly back where we found it. One thing I will say about that whole production, the movie business is not for me. I won't be doing it again. Way too many people for me. But I was blown away by how respectful they were to the

land and to animals and stuff. Yeah, they really were, man. I mean, and I mean, some of the stuff I did was stupid, you know, hey, we're going to use this old building, but there's a skunk that lives there. We need to trap that skunk, you know. We're going to put him right back. Yeah, it's never been in my, uh, roll-a-dex to go ahead and release the skunk, you know what I mean? I got to do what? So, like, you know, and nuisance trapping and stuff, it's like, you just eliminate it, you know, but I was blown away by how much care they actually had on that stuff. And it was a cool group of people. It really was a cool.

The coolest thing about it, I want to say the crew was 300 people plus every day. Like it was insane. And every person knew your name, it seemed like. Every person would come over there, have coffee with you. I mean, even Tim McGraw, Sam Elliott, Faith Hill. I mean, they just all just, hey, how's your morning going? you know, just the kindest people in the world.

And I never saw an argument. Yellowstone, 1883, Bass Reeves. Like, I never saw it fall apart. That's interesting. It was pretty impressive to see that many people from that many different walks of life and that many different, there was everything you could imagine works there, buddy.

Yeah. And it was just never big, nothing was ever, there was just no big confrontations, no big nothing. It was pretty incredible just how grease that wheel was. I mean, it really went well. So, yeah, it was cool. I did it for a while, and I just got burned out. It was seven days a week, 14, 15, 16 hours a day.

Lots of time just sitting in the truck waiting on the next thing, waiting on the next thing. And my ADD just runs rampant sitting in the pickup, man. You tell me you're going to pay me to catch snakes. I'm going to go catch some stakes, you know what I mean? I just hated sitting in the truck so much. I hated just waiting. The waiting game just killed me on it. Yeah.

Man, what a unique experience, though. And y'all have any, y'all have, I mean, I'm kind of just like, we're just like hitting the hits with Marshall Bryant here. The worst part is you don't have time for your friends. You don't have time for your hounds. You don't have time for your horses. You don't have time for your change of oil in your truck. Like, it just consumes your whole life.

And my cow business got rougher. My dogs weren't as good. That was a big part of it for me was just, it took all your time. Yeah. Yeah. Man. I think that that is a very niche job. You know, there are a whole lot of guys that have a job like that.

I had a question about, oh, how did you get that job? Just a random phone call. I thought somebody was messing with me. Some people called me asking me if I could catch a rattlesnake in Weatherford. And I was like, Like, I do, like, helicopter capture and stuff, not really snake stuff. And then a few days later, my buddy Brandon Bearden called me that works for Taylor Sherrod. And he's like, hey, man.

Like, we need somebody out here to look for snakes, like, for real. Like, you should call this guy back. And I called him, and next day I was there. And it kind of turned into this. Yeah, it turned into, like, helping locations. So how long? I mean, do you do you do for, like, six months or something? No, I did it over a year.

Over a year. About a year and a half probably, maybe a little longer than that. It was, I did a few episodes of Yellowstone. I wasn't like up in Montana and all that. I just did Texas stuff. But spent a lot of time on the four-sixes, which was really cool. I met some cool people out there. Joe Leathers caught me picking up shed antlers out there one day.

He just gave me a dirty look, though. I was lucky to get away with it. But I think I got like three antlers off the four-sixes, which was a good find. But yeah, so I got to spend some time at the sixes and stuff, and that was cool. And then his place there in Weatherford, been around it quite a bit before too. And, you know, he did major things out there and it was cool. And I guess if I did it again, I would go work for locations. I think locations has the coolest job.

What's that mean? So, like, locations is like the guy that goes out and is it like, hey, we love your place in Arkansas. We'd like to use your place in Arkansas for this scene where this gunfight and this and that and whatever. And it's crazy. They'll come in there and move everything you own out of that house, film there for 24 hours straight, and move everything you own back in that house, the same spot. You never even touch a cup. It's the craziest thing you've ever seen in your life. But those guys, they go out and find the ranches, find the locations. It's just a cool, it's scouting. It's like what we like. to do you know you just go scout country and that's just they had a pretty cool gig they had a pretty cool gig but they also had a ton of headaches which is why i'm not going to be doing locations in the movie world wow man that's wild man that is wild jeston bear any any any any thoughts questions what what okay there's just like i've got two other things at least that i want to talk to Marshall about, but you've been around him for a couple of days here.

Anything you want to ask him about? Or just what people, what would be interesting? I'm trying to think because it seems like the whole time we've been here. There's like never ending. The stories never stop with Marshall. Hey, a lot happens when you're trying to get in. If we weren't in the Lonesome Dove Cop Cabin, we would name this episode, the stories never stop with Marshall Bride.

But since we're in the Lonesome Dove Cabin, we got to say something. You don't have a bunch of stories. You're not having enough fun, man. I've worked hard my whole life to not have to work hard. You know what I'm saying? Well, Marshall, I had a question about your job here. What kind of things are you doing to, like, tell me about what kind of wildlife you have here on the ranch and what you're doing to manage them? Yeah, we've got a really, really healthy elk herd.

We've got a ton of mule deer. Generally, we have a lot of bears. I try to kill one. it's just we've got a ton of wildlife and kind of my everyday deal is uh start in the morning and i just kind of the place is so big you just kind of have to pick an area and say hey i'm going to concentrate my next four days on this area i'm going to get all our stands and stuff right i'm going to trim trees on that section of road i'm going to bring an excavator down here and get these big rocks out of the road uh i'm going to build a new

road from point A to point B. You know, that's another great thing about this job is the boss man comes out. And he's like, man, I sure would like a road to up there. And it's so cool because you're like, heck yeah, go walk me out of road. I'm going to go build a road up there just like I want to build a road up there, you know. And then to see them show up and use that road. And they're like, oh, man, this worked. This is the exact road I wanted, you know.

And that's just, that's super rewarding to me that I don't have to answer to 100 people. I don't have a bunch of micromanagement. It's just like, hey, man, I'd like this, I'd like this, I'd like this. And you just kind of go make it happen. He understands the place is big. He understands you can't just take the piece of equipment. I mean, the highway washed away today. We might not even be able to make it into part of the ranch, you know.

So he understands. I think that's why we hadn't killed a bear. The logistics are tough. But I just, I pick an area, I build roads, a trim trees, you know, just all of it. everyday ranch stuff, you know, just it's, I guess I have manager on my title, but I'm just a ranch hand, I guess you'd say. I'm a ranch hand that manages wildlife, you know, and guide, you know, guide friends and family and all that kind of stuff. I mean, in the, in the, in the elk hunting in this part of New Mexico is about as good as it gets. It's ignorant.

I mean, it's pretty amazing. I'm super pumped for my first full oak season up here for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Incredible, man. Now, but really what you're maybe most passionate about in terms of hunting is line hunting. A thousand percent. That's it, huh?

Yeah. So you have. If I could not do anything else the rest of my life, I'd get up every morning and a light hunt. No doubt. And so you've got, you got a bunch, how many dogs you got right now? I got about 10 dogs right now. Yeah. Yeah.

And do you have a line dog right now that? that's is I mean do you have one that all that that that one is the best dog I've ever had do you have mediocre dogs I got two of the best dogs I've ever had right now uh my red and white dog Dan that y'all saw the bob tail you know not the short bob tail but the medium bob tail um he came from a buddy up in montana and he is just a jam up line dog I mean he he'll grind it out he'll take his time uh you know he's just he's patient he's young Which is just, it's cool to have a four-year-old dog that's just on top of his game, you know. Probably my second best dog is that timber dog, which is the red dog. Oh, Clifford, a big red dog. He's got a bad knee here and there, but he's four, and he's a phenomenal dog also. I may have only got that dog because of that bad knee now that I look back at it, because that definitely wasn't spoke of first, but phenomenal dog.

I wouldn't sell him for the world, you know. That brings up an interesting question, selling lion dogs. Mm-hmm. Give me a spectrum for how much a good, I mean, a great dry ground line dog would go for right now in 2025. It's honestly, depending on the dog, I mean, you can almost name your price. I mean, these people, horses, hounds, and mules sell and stuff, like, it's gotten crazy. I mean, and so... What's naming your price mean?

I mean, there's... You hear rumors of guys paying over $100,000 for just top-knots dry ground line dogs. Are you kidding? $100,000. I'm talking about you don't have to do anything, but open the dog box and stay out of his way. Go down there and get him off the tree. Like, dogs like that, I mean, if you find a dog like that for less than $20,000, $30,000, you're doing the deal. Like, so...

If somebody gave me a... If somebody, if I priced a dog like that and somebody gave me, you know, hey, man, I'm asking $40,000 for him. Like, I would not be blown away. I'm not saying I would go spend that. I'll give you $25,000 right now for your best dog. Done. No, no, no, no, no. No, I was kidding.

That was a joke. Sounds good to me. I wouldn't really sell him, but I just want to see if you're bluffing the dog. I was bluffing, buddy. Now I know how to play cards later. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, my question, though, was, would you sell your dog for $25,000? Or is he worth it?

Maybe he's not worth that? Yeah, I mean, he's worth it to me. I guess is the best way to say that. My thing is, I could sell that dog for $25,000, but I'd have a hell of a hard time replacing him for that. Yeah. You know, that's my biggest deal. I don't have a half million dollar budget to go blow on line dogs, you know. Yeah.

I got two really nice dogs. I got one that I just plumb lucked out on that made a dog. and then I've got some really nice young dogs coming up. And to me, I like watching a young dog progress so much that I would almost sell my top dog every year. If I didn't have to breed my, like, that's my thing. Like, I want to be in a position where I don't ever have to buy a dog again, you know. You're just breeding them.

But what I always had, you know, it's like I had lion dogs, sold them all, took a different job, bought lion dogs again, sold them, got a different job. You weren't able to keep your line going. Yeah, so I wasn't able to keep my line going really on lion dogs. Like, I kind of started over like three times. I got you. And these are hands down some of the better ones I've had by far, especially Dan. But, yeah, it's just, you know, if a guy's got a bunch of money, he can have a wicked set of lion dogs.

See, the thing about a lion dog that's different than the bear dog, and tell me, Justin, if this is right, and you two, Marshall, you can, you need, you need. about to come out here and to be successful, you probably need 10 to 15 dogs to be a good to catch a bear. Self-sufficient bear hunter. Yeah, at least. At least. Because 20 dogs. Because.

Well, just, hold on. Let me just say what I'm going to say. To be a, to come out here and to be a successful lion hunter. Just assuming that you know, I mean, I'm not calculating the skill of the hunt. and knowing where to go and being here when it snows. Right, right. But in theory, you could come out here with three or four really good line dogs. And catch a line.

Sure enough. Catch lines consistently all season. Especially in wet ground. With three or four dogs. Why? And so we're going to answer that. I need to know. But the point is that's why a lion dog is worth so much because you go buy one, man,

you pretty much got a pack. I mean, one real good one with some backup dogs. If you take one good one, and you've got three that'll go with him and just push him, you're good. Yeah. The bear deal, you got to have, you need to be putting eight on the ground over the day. You got to have a lot of dog power. And then you got to do it again tomorrow. And them eight or ten years a day, they're smoked.

Yep. That's kind of what we've run into. Yeah. I mean, I brought seven. And the pads of their feet, their knees, their hips. I mean, it takes it out of them up here. A lot of people do not think that terrain is like this in New Mexico. And it's like both of y'all today, it was.

funny, I told you riding around with you all at two different times. He said, if somebody just dropped me off in a helicopter here blindfolded, I would think it was Montana. Yeah. And it was funny because 30 minutes later, I ride with your dad. And he's like, you know what? It's just like the Rockies. And it's so, it's so true. Like when you're up here and it's like beautiful hayfields and a lake and ducks and geese everywhere, and then you go 100, your more yards. And it's like, all right, we're in the foothills. there's meal deer this is cool and then you go over that hill and you're like wow big mountains that's a half of a rock face what's our elevation right here 8400 feet oh yeah we're

little over 8000 just right here yeah so i mean you're starting and it feels like we're at the bottom of the mountains we're in the valley yeah we're in the valley we're in the valley we're 8400 feet yeah josh here's your answer here's your answer the answer you've been waiting for is that not very patient when you turn when you turn loose the line dog you're turning him on a track that that line has made maybe the day before, maybe the day before that. And he's, most of the work that that dog is doing, he's trailing that line while that line was hunting and moving. And that line doesn't even know it's being tracked.

Yeah. And that dog's got to catch up with that line, which could be miles. Oh, yeah. Of trailing. And then when the cat actually perceives that he's being chased by a hound, he doesn't really run that far. Right. Once you got him jumped, you're, once the, once the,

Once that mountain's laying on a mule deer kill over here with a full belly, and he doesn't know it, but for the last six hours, there's been dogs six miles away that have been trailing him through the mountains where he walked last night. When he hears that dog, he jumps up, and he runs about 300 yards, and those dogs start catching up to him, and he goes up a tree.

A bear is, you might cold trail a bear for a long time before he knows he's being chased, but as soon as he's jumped, as soon as that bear goes, oh, there's dogs left me. That's what it really starts. He turns on the afterburners, and he's got more horsepower than your dogs, usually. And your dogs have already cold trailed him, and then they've got to catch him and pressure him enough to go up a tree.

And sometimes a bear won't even go up a tree. That's what we ran into on the first day, just a walking bear. A bear that had no problem with the dogs just kind of yapping. Panetic. Right. I had a problem with it. Covered a lot of country to just watch him walking around.

How far do you think you rode that day? When you looked at my tracker, what was it? It was like 23 miles or 27 miles or something. And we'd already traveled, what, 11 miles is a group, horseback, you know? And then we kind of had a split deal going on. And my good two best dogs went after the walking bear over there, so I had no choice to go. You know, I went and went and went and went, called a neighbor, went through their place, went and went and went called a neighbor, went through their place, went and went, went back of a neighborhood, walking down the public road, you know, my horse tied to a gate four miles back. I mean, it's just, when a bear goes, a bear goes.

Yeah. And it's just. So that's why you need a bunch of bear dogs. And not to say, I mean, a really top-nosh bear dog would be expensive too. Right. But I think a lion dog would be more expensive. What does a truck to tree, no questions asked bear dog go for? It's a good question.

Ain't ever seen one? I've never seen one. Yeah, we have no idea. Do they generally sell bear dogs as a pack or do you buy individual dogs generally? I think it would be. I think I would be lying. But from what I know or what I've seen, it would be as a pack. Yeah.

Like them guys on the East Coast and I'm sure there's going to be some. And it's like, no, we would sell one dog, you know. But I think it's sell by the pack. And it's not anything like the price of these lion dogs. Right, right. I mean, I think you can go find a jam-up bear dog for $8,000, $10,000. Yeah. I mean, turn him out, look at him at the tree.

Yeah. So really, for as many dogs as you've got to have, really a set of lion dogs and a set of bear dogs kind of evens out. You're just less dogs more money. Yeah. And just the truth of it is, bear hunting is, is more dangerous for the dogs. Oh, bad.

That's why I went ahead and went the extra 17 miles check on my dog. It's pretty, pretty rare for a hound to get killed while you're running a lion. I've only lost one ever, and we got on a cliff and went over the rocks. I've never had it like a lion kill a dog. Yeah, yeah. Man, all that is just so, it's fascinating. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps. game calls and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts.

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

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

Bear, tell us about your mule. well i've been trying to slow trip for the last two months started riding him within the last month and before i even got on them i think like a month ago you asked me if you want to take them to new mexico in one month i was impressed by the 30-day mule man i was blown away yeah i started working on them pretty hard and got him riding it's like the last two weeks i've doing quite a bit of trail riding with them. But we took them out here and just rode them around with all the other mules and horses.

Oh, I mean, we went on a wild ride that first day. I mean, that's kind of what I was getting that. You went further than us because you went after your dogs, but we easily went 15 miles in rough country. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was the roughest stuff. Slow trap was right on our heels the whole time. And it was also the fastest stuff I've done with him.

Like, I've gotten them to trot, you know, just down like a straight stretch. We were trotting a lot more than, you know, like with this style of hunting, we were going a lot faster. So he was trotting and got him to a little bit of gallop. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But he saw the truck and trailer.

Yeah. He was getting tired there on the first day, the last couple miles. And whenever we came down in the valley and you could see the truck on the other side and he saw the other mules running, I just had to give him the slightest cue. And he just took off all the way across. Well, it was for us. there's a lot of fun bringing that mule out here and it's fun for me to see bear i mean he was riding that thing in a 30-foot diameter round pin you know like three weeks ago i mean for real yeah and uh i mean just in the last month he's taking it out by itself on solo trips and kind

of national forest in arkansas yeah and uh and uh yeah but i also didn't really have any doubt that it would do good i mean the mule's done so good and bear's yeah bear got some help from a friend Justin and I is a guy named Elvis Middleton, who, uh, Ozark Mountain Mules. Elvis, Ozark, just Ozark Mountain. Ozark Mountain Mules. Ozark Mountain Mules. Gotcha, got you, gotcha.

Ozark Mountain Mules. Yeah, he's, uh, a phenomenal trainer at getting him started. And, uh, we went over there for about really a full day with Elvis. Yeah. Before, yeah, and I've been messaging him quite a bit. But yeah, he's showing me a lot of the groundwork and just kind of how to, go about it. But it's been a really interesting process training a mule.

I was kind of just wanting to do it at first just for the experience. But now that I've gotten into it, you know, I had like one from like start to now using. I'm, I'm, I think I'm hooked. I think I'm going to get another one. Yeah, yeah, we're working on one right now. Yeah. Yep. So.

And then Josh, you did it great too, man. Well, thanks. So Josh is about as good a mule, about his new a mule rider is slow trap. Yeah, I mean. Josh is like a 30-day man. Yeah, he hacked out. Yeah, he hacked out. Yeah.

So, yeah. But you put on some miles. We probably rode, I don't know, we rode eight miles today, didn't we? Ten. We rode ten miles that he tracked us today. Yeah. And that mule did good. That's a big boy to carry around over there.

That's a big boy to carry around. That's a whole lot of country on top of a mule. mule right there is i want to know marshal what are your feelings about mules oh i knew y'all were going to do this i knew y'all were going to do this they're cool mules are cool i will say that a thousand percent i i think they definitely have their place like i get it i do get it today i rode betty bay up on our big old boulder you know and like that's cool i would no question jump my horse any of my horses up on that rock but I don't know that turning around and coming back off of it

would have been near as graceful as they were on that mule. So, like, I do have a huge respect for mules. And I told you I had a huge respect for mules before just from seeing the things that people do on them. It's just, it's not... You're a cowboy. You're a rodeo guy. I think the question is, like,

let's talk about how the endurance of a horse and a mule that I've been hearing about. because I don't know. I covered a lot of country and I still could have run a five-mile race when we got back. Man, yeah. Hey, Smurf. Oh, Smurf. We called him old blue.

Oh, Smurf. Dead, gum. That's a beast. Marshall has an incredible animal. I mean, it's... And that horse is part of our horse program here at the ranch. Tell us about it. Tell us about it.

He's just a five-year-old blue horse. Is he 15-1, 15? He's probably 15-1, 15-1. 15. I bet he weighs 1,300 pounds, though. At least, yeah. He's a big stout horse. So, like, Betty Bay weighs 1,050.

And that's a good-sized mule 14-3. Yeah. I bet that horse weighs 1450 probably. He's a big stout horse. His rump is, yeah, two and a half foot. And he can run. And he's got, and that's, man, I'm lucky on horses, man. Because, I mean, the Bay horse, the black horse, the blue horse, the gray horse.

They're all great horses, and they'll do that right there every day. I mean, they, you know, and that's another thing, you know, I think a lot of the horses that mule guys compare to are guys that a lot of guys work all week, go grab their mule, go coon hunting, go squirrel, go do whatever, and they ride that mule once or twice a week. And I think, you know, what y'all's mules did on a schedule versus like, if you're going to do that on a horse, you got to put a lot of miles on a horse. Like you got to keep that thing tuned up You know if I only rode my horse Once a week there is no way My horse could have done all that You know

But you know you keep them laid up You keep them in shape You know I do understand it does It is a lot more maintenance My one horse probably ate more hay The last three days than four of y'all's mules You know

But you know When you've got a sports car You gotta put a lot of gas in it Yeah And it was man It was impressive Now I can't say I've not trail road.

Did Dale have a better horse than that? No. Not even close. No, Dale Brisby didn't have a better horse. If Dale will come kill a line with us, then I'll even let him ride a good horse. Basically, so what I just heard you say is, you know how Evan Falker talked about alcohol? Like, I'll never do it. That's basically what Marshall said about mules.

Someone else can do it. I'll never do it. I like mules. I don't care with other people, but they're not for me. Yeah, I'd like to have a pack meal just to have a meal because I do think they're cool. Yeah. But I'm going to have a hard time walking past my horses to ride a mule. Well, but you're not the average horse guy either.

Yeah. I mean, you got a pin with what you got going on here at the ranch. I mean, you got a pin full of horses that are top end performance ranch horses, rodeo horses, cutting horses, rain and horse. I mean, pretty incredible animals. Oh, yeah. I mean, I got my two pickup horses and then my cow horse and they, I mean, there's big, stout, athletic horses.

And then the ranch has some really nice horses. And we've started getting some brood mares to raise our own horses and stuff and just kind of barely getting into the horse program here. And, yeah, it's just, there's nothing better than riding a good horse, man. I grew up riding junkie horses. And it was like, I didn't really make it. But as soon as I could afford a luxury item, I went and got the best horse I could get. And ever since then, you know, my buddy.

Bobby Hainland always says, like, life's too short to ride a crappy horse. I don't know. Can you say that on here? Yeah. But, yeah, life's too short to ride a sorry horse. And he, like, converted me completely. Because I used to just have a bunch of horses, you know. And he's the one that, like, fine-tuned me.

He was like, dude, just get rid of those three and get one so we can actually, like, go get something done, you know? Like, pull up on something you're proud of, you know. Yeah. And ever since then, it's like, now I've got a, I don't know, Ferrari budget, or I got a Ferrari Dreams on a Volkswagen budget, I think is what they say. There you go. But, yeah, I'm very blessed to have some awesome horses here at Duranche.

Yeah, yeah. Big news. What's that? I bought a meal. Oh, yeah. Josh is a meal owner. Mule owner. Is this the last time I have to rent out Merle?

We'll see how this meal goes. I might be running back to come get Merle. It'll get hired. So, yeah, well, tell us about your real. Well, she's big girl. You've never ridden her yet. I haven't ridden her yet. I've seen her once.

Mistake number one. Let me just say, let me just say it was a total impulse spy. Well, it was your buddy. Yes. It was impulse spy from a buddy. So I haven't ridden her yet, but she's a big girl. She's 16 hands. So hopefully she'll be stout enough.

to carry a big boy. So I'm going to braid you a rope ladder take with you so you can get on it. Yeah, you're going to need it. A stools that rolls down to a stools. A collapsible bucket. That's what you need. That's going to be tough. So we'll see how we'll see how to us.

We've got another horseman in our presence. Justin, he's bought two pretty nice roping horses in the last two months. Bought two sold one. Bought two sold one. Do you keep them in the same field as your mules? I do. They're not allowed to be in the same fields with my. dad and stepmoms because they're in the same mentality as Marshall here and they're fire breathing dragons

going to kill somebody what do you mean mules can't be with top-in horses really they're afraid to hurt them oh yeah for real oh yeah bad deal now just i don't know this may have been a private conversation we had that you don't want to share okay go ahead when you said like your your roping horses they they get hurt easy you can't hardly ride them out of the pen I mean, there's different levels. But, yeah, for the most part, you're not going to take a single horse that you've seen at Guthrie to roping and come out here and do what we did. Not a chance. Would you agree with that?

Oh, yeah. 90% of the horses those guys are going on can't do a quarter of what that blue horse did. Yeah. 85% of them have never done anything outside that arena. Yeah. That's a part of why I have bought a second horse and sold the other one. The first one, which he was fine for what he was, but you wasn't going to do anything

but rope steers on him in that arena. And I'm no big cowboy, but if I want to do something on one, if I need to go catch steering pasture, if I need to go trail ride, if I won't go down in Buffalo, whatever I want to do, he wasn't doing it.

Yeah. And anyway, the second purchase, he's a lot nicer horse, well-rounded horse. More of a ranch horse. Yeah. More ranch.

I mean, he can rope on him and do our stuff, but you can also go. You can do anything you want to. I wouldn't be scared a bit to, bring him out here. Really? Honestly,

I wouldn't, no. Yeah. But he would not be a top-in seller so somebody's want to go headsteers. Yeah. He's, he isn't a finished, you know,

he ain't an open horse by no means. How old is it? He's seven. He's a nice horse. Nice horse for me. And I'm curious, if you, I see way more horses

that are really nice outside can just go in the arena and dominate. And there's so many horses you see do incredible things in the arena that it takes three people load them in a trailer, get them down the alleyway. You know, some of those barrel horses you see, like, it's ridiculous, man. Like, we have bucking horses that handle better than some of them in the alleyway, it seems like. I mean, them girls, they got a halt when they, when they come down there, you watch some

of those high-end barrel horses. Oh, I mean, they'll kill you. They'll kill you. Stepping around before the, before they run through the line. Yeah. Yeah, it'd make me nervous if my mule was doing that. That's, uh, yeah. My grandpa always said, don't date a barrel racer because you're going to have to deal with their horse.

That's what he always told me. Dealing with them is tough. Dealing with their horse is almost impossible. Yeah. Now, that is a tidbit of wisdom. So I got me a great girlfriend that's not a barrel racer. Okay, okay. She was on that mule today, too.

She did. She wrote her mule today. And we go a lot of miles out here on horseback, too. She loves it. We pack mineral in and do all that. She really liked that meal, though. She really liked that meal. She would write you a check for Betty Bay right now if she had my checkbook.

No question about it. Is it at the house? Can we get it to her? No, I keep it down there to Texas place so she can't get a hold of it. Okay. Okay. Well, I mean, we've covered quite a bit pretty quick. We have.

Yeah, what else do we? I mean, we've, I wanted to talk to my. Marshall about line hunting, wildlife management, the ranch, his horses. I mean, we hadn't even got into the part of his life when he had. How many hog dogs did you have at the same time? At one time, I had 60 finish hog dogs on the chain, plus puppies, and I had a few females. I mean, you were like big time into hog hunting in Texas for a while. I was pretty heavy in it, yes, sir.

Yeah. Yeah, everything from like, legitimately imported dogos. What I was doing was taking, I was basically taking a cattahula and coming up with a dog that was a half cattahula, quarter blue tick, quarter dogo. That was my poison.

And they were just really, really rough dogs. I ran all running catch dogs. And I had tons of them. I was guiding hunts five, six nights a week, and you go through a lot of dogs. I mean, just like the bear deal. If you're going to go every day, you've got to have a bunch of them. Did you wear them out?

Yeah. I mean, I probably had 75, 80 dogs at one time. But 60, sure enough, put them on the truck, go catch pigs. Wow. For sure. I had six sets of those kennels and then about 30 chains. And, hey, you take really good care of your dogs. I take huge pride and take care of my dogs.

You have clean kennels. Your dogs are hell. They get out of their kennels twice a day, every day. Kenzie helps me with it. And we clean their pins twice a day. I mean, these dogs. Who's your buddy that makes those pins for you? Domingo Lavendere.

Yeah, he's going to send me a full set. Built those kennels. And he builds awesome dog kennels, y'all. And I know he will just be absolutely ecstatic that he gets a shot. No, they were not. I noticed them right off. Yeah, they're nice. So Clay Newcomb, I already gave him some kennels.

You're going to have to divvy up. He needs two sets. We need one. We need our... And Domingo runs hog dogs and stuff. That's why he started building kennels. He's another guy from Weatherford, you know. But yeah, he builds awesome kennels, dog boxes, all that stuff.

So, yeah, he'll dig that. But I don't know. To me, I've gone and looked at some nice dogs that I wanted to add to my pack. And sometimes I'll go up to a guy's place, and I just look at the place around him. And I know he doesn't take as much pride in his dogs as I do. And I have a hard time purchasing a dog from somebody like that. Like, when I show up and there's 10 days worth of stuff in there and everything else, it's just, to me, it's, did he get lucky?

Because he's not working hard enough to make a good dog. So, like, I'd love to make every dog I have, but I don't have the genetics here to just raise all my puppies. Like, there's, I mean, if Warner Glenn calls you Thursday and it's like, hey, man, I'd love to sell you these things. six-month-old puppies. Like, I'd tell him yes while I was driving through my gate. I wouldn't even get out to unlock it. You know what I mean? Like, there's people I'd love to get hounds from,

and the best ones you can't get. And that's the hardest part, you know? Yeah. So when I go over there, like, some of these guys got a bunch of money and everything else, and they got somebody else who goes, and I'm not going to say any names, but there's a guy in Texas that lives like the dream life, man.

But he's got guys to take care of his dogs. he's got guys that hunt his dogs he's got guys that to me like where's the fun in that just owning yeah he just pretty much can you imagine if I had like Jeffrey over there

cleaning my pins out put my dogs in the truck like y'all wouldn't look at me it's a houndsman you back oh there's a little rich Marshall he's got they're going to go load his wagon check the air and his tires

you know it's cool I don't know disrespect like I wish I could I wish I could do that, yeah, but I just, like, I enjoy my time with those dogs every day. And if you want a good handle and you want to be able to call them off and you want to be able to do those things, it's like I can tree a line and take a picture and do my deal and look at it and be proud of myself, proud of my dogs. And I can whistle and walk out of there and I don't even need carry a leash. There's, you know. And, but that comes from spending time with them every single day.

no matter what rain snow sleet hail we've had all of it since you've been here but uh and I mean I just I have a huge admiration for guys that really take care of their dogs yeah well I noticed that right off I really did

I did for sure it's a nicest thing you've ever said to me maybe maybe so man hey this has been really good here we are at the lonesome dove cabin. We're going to have to show people on YouTube the outside of the cabin somehow.

But yeah, man, they were right here. This is where they shot it. Yep. So pretty crazy. Pretty crazy. Justin, what kind of hatch got on there? Dog and hunt supply. Equipment, Arkansas.

Equipment Arkansas. Summer Reynolds, any dog and hunt supplies needs? Call her. She hooked you up. Yep. Had to give Marshall a long-range antennaeater. Guess they don't have them in New Mexico? No.

You can order them at Quitman. You don't know there and get one. I'm going to have to. Oh, yeah. They're... They're... They're well known. Oh, yeah.

They're going to carry a full line of first light gear. Sweet. That's what I heard over in Quipment, Arkansas. So I can get a long-range antenna and one of them best in the same places that you're telling me? That's right. Yep. Yep, man. Wow.

That's right. That's right. I have to go to Arkansas. There you go. You'll come up here. We'll go hogging. Yeah. I'm in.

I'm in. Do I have to ride a mule? Yes. That's the only way you can come. You got to ride a mule. No, we got to ride one. You have to buy one. You have to buy a wheel.

Oh, man. You can ride my big 16 hand wheel. That sounds like that. I just got one else sell you for $800. I'll tell you what, I'm going to make you ride that blue horse. I'm going to ride your bull. Hey, I've got to. Before I leave, I've got to ride that blue horse.

You need to. You need to ride the little black horse, too. Oh, Taco. I'd like to. Taco's a sports car down there. Yeah. Clay would be in the dirt. I probably would be, dude.

And it's crazy. It's crazy because you only have to hold the reins with one hand. So you got like a free hand to do stuff with, talk on the phone or whatever. Just because they're that, they're just, they got that kind of hand along. Yeah. Yeah. We call out that Bobby Hainline's my buddy that trains horses. We call that, oh, that Bobby Hainline chocolate.

He puts that chocolate on them. Makes them sweet. Everybody, after, he's the only person I've ever met that literally he can, he'll say, hey, can I see that horse for a minute? and he'll get on him and go do his thing for 30, 40 minutes, and he brings that horse over there. It's worth $2,000 more dollars as soon as he steps off of it. That's just the way he is, man.

Incredible. Well, Marshall, thanks for having us out here, man. We've been having an incredible time. Thank you all for coming. Y'all are welcome any time. Well, anytime. Really been good. I want to see Bear come back with that handmade bow.

Oh, yeah. So you've made your own bow, your own arrowheads. What do you do for the string? You make the string? Yeah. You make the string too. Yucca or sin you? Yucca.

Uh-huh. We read, uh, we read the other day. I think you should come kill, I think you should come kill a cow elk or lying with it. I think it'd be cool. We read just the other day and some historical archives where they were using twisted bare gut to make boasting. Can I have to try that. Yeah, taking the intestines, drying them out and twisting it.

Because I've used squirrel guts for. That's a business. Twisted gut boasting. There you go. There you go. Twisted butt. thing you need to do is get a bear. Okay, Josh.

It's been a tall order this week. Time to wrap this up, I think. Yeah. Well, keep the wild place is wild because that's where the bears live. And we don't know how to find it. 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 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. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.