Bear Grease - Ep. 375: This Country Life - On the Loose for Moose, Part 1

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

With Brent just getting home from chasing moose in Manitoba, Canada, he's sharing the overwhelming dream experience with us on today's episode. This hunt will be his first major film project with MeatEater, and there's barely enough time to tell even half the story here. We think you'll enjoy this context-setting lead-up to what will be the grand finale next week. Put your tray tables up! We're jet setting to The Great White North on this week's "This Country Life" podcast. Shop This Country Life Merch Connect with Brent and MeatEater MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips Subscribe to the MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop This Country Life Merch Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

First Lights fieldwear collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days in real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season. Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new fieldwear gear at firstlight.

Welcome to this country life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves. From Coon Hunting to Trotlining and Just General Country Living, I want you to stay a while as I share my experiences and life lessons. This Country Life is presented by Case Knives from the Storemore Studio on Meat Eat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcasts that Airways have to offer. All right, friends, grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some stories to share. The Luce for Moose, part one.

Who doggies have I got a tale for y'all this week? I'm sure some of you have seen on my social media pages that I was up in the land of hockey, chasing moose, the state bird of Canada. Well, let me tell you, I had more fun up there than a monkey could and an acre of grapevines. It's a long story and one that's going to take me a while to tell because it was so impactful to me. I'll go ahead and tell you now that we ain't even going to see it. a moose on the show this week, but I think you'll like the story that hopefully will paint the picture of what's to come. We've got a lot to talk about, so let's get to it. Brent, what's your dream,

hunt? That question was posed to me by my boss, Garrett Long. I sat back in my chair and kind of laughed a little to myself, and I said, I'd like to kill a moose in Canada with a boat. his response was the exact opposite of what I expected. He said, Okay, who you want to hunt with? Sir? Who would you like to hunt with?

You got to have a guide in Canada. I was staring in disbelief at my phone. My eyeballs was pegged out of my head on stems like a cartoon character. And I'm like, really? He said, Yeah, man. Start looking for an outfitter.

Let's meet back in a week and discuss what you come up. up with. I said, I already know. I want to hunt with Craig McCarthy in Manitoba. That was the morning of May 31st, 2024. That meeting begat another meeting, which begat another meeting, so on and so forth, until the morning of Friday, September the 26th, 2025, I stepped on a commercial jet in Little Rockbound for Northern Manitoba. My first dot would be in Chicago With a short layover And then on to Winnipeg Canada

Going through customs was a breeze into Canada The agents were beyond helpful And welcoming to me and the few others that I saw Who were visiting their country Shopping for the insides of animals To bring back to the States to eat One agent I talked to has a friend who lives in Arkansas What a small world we live in

And believe it or not, it was going to get even smaller before this trip was over. My friend Dave Gardner met me out front and helped me load all my gear into our rental that he'd already stacked cases of gear in to film this Canadian moose excursion to be released sometime next year. I see in Dave, who I've been on several meat eater shoots with, starting back a few years ago, kind of brought the reality of what we were doing home. This hunt, my first big solo project, would depend a lot on me. It was a task I hadn't taken lightly at any juncture of the meticulous planning and attention to detail that goes into a hunt of this scale. But the talking and the planning was over. From here on out, we would be reacting to whatever came our way. It's hard to script anything past deciding what the hunt will be.

we can only control so much. I'd practice for my bow the final couple of weeks to the point of being very comfortable to shooting anything out to 45 yards. I hadn't have all the confidence in the world that I could make a good shot and ethically punch a hole in a moose. I spoke with Craig and I asked him how the bulls were, how they were reacting, and if I was being wise to choosing to bow hunt instead of bringing a rifle. He was confident that either was a good possibility, but I was starting to feel the added pressure of all the things that can go sideways like what happened on my bear hunt a couple of weeks ago.

Now, I'm not going to take an unethical shot or take any chance that would prevent me from coming home with all the parts of the moose that tasted good or would look good in my new office. my freezer was my first concerned, and since this was my first moose hunt, my first big solo project, I opted to go with my rifle, and his fate would have it, I chose wisely. With our rented SUV loaded for moose, Dave and I headed north from the provincial capital of Manitoba. We had almost 500 miles, which I'm pretty sure equated to around 6 million kilometers, to go before we'd bed down for the night to rest for the early morning flight the next morning. Our jumping off spot would be a city called Thompson, but it was still hours away when we stopped in the community of Grand Rapids for gas. Grand Rapids sits about halfway from Winnipeg to Thompson,

and according to the interwebs, 212. folks call it home. There was also a lot of duking it out back in the day. Anytime the Hudson Bay Company and Northwest Company got in the close proximity of each other, both fur companies wanted to control the territory, and violence ensued on more than one occasion way back in the early 1800s. Dave was pumping gas and I walked in to pay for it. Walking back outside, I was reminded of that small world thing as I walked by a, you

young man who smiled and asked me if I was Brent Reeves. His name was Riler, and I was surprised to hear my name, but I just assumed he was just another cat like me from the States who was up there shopping in the meat section of the Great White North. Alas, he wasn't. Riler lives there and just happens to listen to the podcast. He recognized yours truly and introduced himself. I introduced him to Dave and the three of us had a great visit. just appreciating all the wild things Canada has to offer and it's always nice to meet others who appreciate the same things as you. I've said it a million times and a half million of them were on this show.

But regardless of where we live and call home, there's more of us out there with things in common than we realize how we act and the things we do say more about who we are than anything. And I could have stayed there all day talking to Riley, forgive me for barring a little Robert Frost here, but Dave and I had miles to go before we could sleep. That evening we rolled into Thompson, a city sporting 15,000 residents who if they followed the suggestions of the road signs we saw on the edge of town, all had winter emergency gear in their vehicles. I'm not sure what that emergency kit looks like, but if I live there, I'd get me one, because it gets

C-O-D cold there. And the last place you'd want to spend the night would be on the side of the road when the temperature dips below. I can't fill my toes for about six months. Thompson has a high school that offers classes in English, French, and Cree. Now, how cool is that? They also have two airports, one made from concrete and the other one mostly out of water. That was the one that Dave and I had a rendezvous with Destiny.

the following morning. Sleep would be sporadic that night, and I was going over and over my checklist for the trip, trying to anticipate everything we'd need to document the hunt while Dave did the same thing. Man, there was a lot riding on the outcome of this experience. After all, we weren't just hunting. We were telling a story with a camera about a hunt.

There are two totally different things, but each very enjoyable if you can separate the two. I haven't been on the other side of that camera, I think, helps me keep the line between the two clearly visible. I know that it was going to be my honor to shoot the moose should the opportunity arise, but I admit to being a little jealous of Dave running the camera. That's the role I played for so long, and I loved it. I swear, though, I always felt more pressure behind the camera than in front of it. After all, we were there to film the event, and the old saying goes,

If it didn't happen on camera, it didn't happen. That's the pressure cooker of filming a hunt. And normally on shoots like this, we'd have two cameras rolling, but due to the limited space and logistics of the float plane flying us and others into separately isolated camps, it was all going to fall on Dave's shoulders. Now, that's a yoke that he wears well. We've been running together through the mountains, the prairies, or river bottoms, and the rolling hills of the U.S. of A.

five years now and he always pulls his weight in more. But this would be a true test for both of us. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls in building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds.

that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps' cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts.

Check out Prime Cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did, and you'll find out that the Steve Rinella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. We were up way before breakfast the day we were to fly out and after a pot of Tim Horton's finest,

we headed out to meet the float plane. Now, if you're not familiar with that name, allow me to tell you what that is just briefly. It's coffee and it's good coffee. And I was introduced to it by a couple of Yankees. you boys on a Kansas deer hunt 10 years ago. It is my favorite and for some reason

it's not to be found in the land of cotton with any frequency. For the love of humanity, could someone please tell Mr. Horton that we'd welcome his company down here? Anyway, it was cool that morning. Like in the 40s cool

and a quick check of my weather app showed it to be twice that back in Arkansas. That's a shame. But everyone back there, that is. Our chariot was a Dehavelin, Canada, D.HC, three-oddor single-engine airplane that was floated alongside a dock that jutted out into the water. It had six windows running down each side of the white fuselage and was painted brilliant white.

It would be hauling five passengers for a total of six souls on board, counting the pilot, plus all the gear we were all toting. I learned a lot on this trip as far as what you know. need to take with you on an on an eight-day hunt i brought too many clothes here's what i would take as far as clothes go on my next adventure like this with similarly predicted weather now one good raincoat and breeches one cold weather jacket three pairs of hunting bridges two pairs of long johns two long-sleeve cold weather shirts one long-sleeve warm weather shirt four t-shirts four t-shirts four pairs of socks and just let your conscience be your guide on drawers. Unless you want to take a bath

in the lake with water as cold as a steel wedge, you're liable to get a little spicy before you get back to running water. Now, I highly recommend the shower-type wipes that you can buy. They work great and will keep your cabin mates from dragging you down to the edge of the water, loading you on to a hastily built wooden raft and sending you off in Viking funeral style for stinking up the place. I also took a pair of hip boots, knee boots, and regular hunting boots. Now, I could have left the hip boots at home on this trip, but there are times in that ecosystem when you're going to need them.

You just never know. I didn't take any crox, camp shoes, and I really wished I had. That was the only item I didn't take that I missed. Lesson learned. Anything else you take will depend on what you're hunting and, you know, how you're hunting it. And I hope that helps anyone who might be heading out on their first one like I did. This would be my second float plane trip. I flew on a much smaller one once several years ago in Alaska.

And I would see my first moose on that trip. It was a cow feeding in a grass flat across a big lake. Nothing struck me about the size of the moose because there was nothing to compare it to. There was just a long-legged horse for all I knew. I could make it out with my eye and that it was a moose and conformed. affirmed it with a pair of binoculars. That's how far away it was. I didn't know it yet, but I was about to get a lot closer on this trip,

and estimating the size of a Canadian moose wouldn't be a problem at all. Two other camps will be joining us on this flight, and it would take a couple of hours for us to get dropped off at all our different locations. We were the first to load all our gear, but would be the last to get off at the end of the circuit. The whole left side of the interior of that airplane was reserved for gear, along with the rear storage compartment. The right side had a single row of four forward-facing seats started behind the cockpit wall in the co-pilot's position. The seats were manufactured sometime between 1951 and 1967 when the airplane was.

They possessed all the engineered comfort of an electric chair. In both instances, functioned came both. for form. And since we weren't going to be in them that long, I assumed Mr. De Havillan figured if we looked out the window, it would distract the passengers from the seat. And he could put that money elsewhere, like ensuring all the engine noise was transferred to the interior of the aircraft. The headphones hanging by each window came in handy. Also, I suggest a course on lip reading and sign language if you want to communicate with anyone while traveling the friendly skies of Manitoba in an airplane named after a furbearer.

We chugged out into the big part of the river, and the Canadian version of Charles Lindberg showered down on the throttle, and after a few moments, we shed the earthly bonds of gravity and took wing heading evermore north. De Havelin was right. I forgot all about the Sears and Roebuck catalog of a seed I was roosted on and stared out at the heart in the Canadian Shield, with its glacier-formed lakes and, and the lake's and woods made up of spruce, pine, fir, birch, poplar, and aspen trees. Contrast in shades of green and gold looked like an inviting patchwork quilted wilderness,

which in a way I guess it was. But it was also unforgiving and a desolate landscape of everyday survival by its inhabitants. Moose, woodland caribou, black bears, wolves, and even polar bears were on this range, according to the map overlay, I was just perusing on the internet. That's doubtful you'd see in polar bears where we were because they eat seals. There ain't no seals there. But they're also in a fence keeping them from slipping over from Hudson Bay to see what a moose tastes like. I wasn't thinking about polar bears then.

I wasn't thinking about moose for filming a hunt. I wasn't thinking about anything. I was hypnotized by the beauty I was staring at passing under me at 130 miles. miles per hour. I think that's like six million in kilometers. Regardless, it was breathtaking and indescribable. It was a long, long ways from the Saline River bottoms of Cleveland County, Arkansas. I thought about that as we buzzed along at 3,000 feet. I think that's like 6 million meters. But I didn't want to blink. I didn't want to miss anything, and yet everything I was looking at looked the same.

Unnamed lakes, rivers, and streams that went on forever in every direction. My mind imagined how the First Nations people and the French explorers and trappers that roamed the land below me survived in that place that would have looked exactly the same as it does now. It would rain, frost, and get colder before we left, and I would travel well over a hundred miles and a little over an hour in that country by air. Those folks were paddling and portaging all their belongings and then building themselves a hideout once they found a spot they wanted to stay. Being a frontier trapper was a childhood dream.

I watched Jeremiah Johnson and the Mountain Men when I was just a young man. And that, on top of hearing my brother Tim talk about and long for that same kind of life was what I thought about most. Whenever I figured out that dream was just a dream, I knew that whatever I grew up to be, there would always be a mountain man trapped inside of me. I was seemingly in the middle of running my imaginary trap line when I heard the otter's engine slow down, and I saw we began to bank, descend, and make a small half-circle, lining up with the wind, to land on a big stretch of water that was formed eons ago, and as it was when it appeared,

nameless, it remains. The third of our passengers, we would drop off here along with all their gear. The hunters coming out of the camp they were going into would fill the cargo spaces and seats they'd just emptied. The scene was repeated as we took off and flew to the second camp, dropping off hopeful hunters in all their belongings and meeting their tired but talkative replacements,

telling their tales of triumph, or tribulation after a week of chasing moose and fishing. We took off once again. The last leg would be a 30-minute flight to mine in Dave's camp. I watched out the window, lost and thought as we logged miles further and further into the vast Canadian wilderness. I couldn't have been more excited or humbled to be there. It was 11.30.

We'd have plenty of time to land, unpack, and stow our gear and be ready to hunt. that very afternoon. The familiar sound of the changing engine pitch and the slow left-hand bank gave me a dose of adrenaline and I strained to contain my excitement. It wouldn't be the last time that happened on this trip. It'll be the last time I talk about it today. Now, Brent, that's a dirty trip.

You bumped your gums about anything and everything all along the way on this trip, and now we finally get to camp and you leave all these folks sitting on the edge of their seats. Well, at least that's where I hope y'all are. And honestly, I didn't plan it that way. I want to tell you the story of how we did and what we did that you can see in your head as I describe it

and see how it plays out next year and you see it with your eyes when the film was released. But fear not. Next week, I'm going to tell you the rest of this story. It's a special one, and I couldn't have given it the justice it deserves by condensing it all into one episode. Don't be mad at me.

I promise you're going to like next week. Tickets for the Meat Eater Live tour dip into the motherland are going quickly. If you have any interest in seeing a show near where you live, I suggest getting a hold of them pretty soon. It's going to be a fun time, and I look forward to seeing y'all out on the road. We're going to finish this moose hunt next week. And until then, this is Brent Reeve, signing off.

Y'all be careful. First Lights fieldwear collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days in real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season. Built to perform, built to last. Check out.

First Light's new fieldware gear at firstlight. com.