Bear Grease - Ep. 393: Render - Wolf and Buck Show-and-Tell

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

In this episode of the Bear Grease Render, host Clay Newcomb is joined by Bear Newcomb and Josh “Landbridge” Spielmaker along with special guests, Backwoods University’s Lake Pickle, wife Lacy Pickle, and US Navy pilot Forrest Teeter. The room is filled with antlers as trophy bucks are compared. Clay reveals the furs from his Alaskan wolf trapping expedition. Lake and Lacy talk about wrapping up their pheasant hunt and the drama that ensued leading to This Country Life’s Brent Reaves coming to the rescue. 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. It's just awkward.

It's like bear and a grown man. This is great. And then Josh Mashburn walking behind looking at the camera. The worst part of it all is that he's got a fanny pack on. So we're talking about the viral Moultry Trail Camera image that I put up last week of Bear.

It wasn't trying to be cute. they were just walking over on my hunting land. So that wasn't staged at all. No, it's true. It's true. That's hilarious. And bears leading a mule with a grown man in the saddle. Like he's leading a kid.

Like a pony ride. Yeah, like a pony ride. And then behind him is our friend Josh, who was just with him and, you know, just walking behind him. And he kind of like looks at the camera. He's wearing a fanny pack. And then you think it's over. and then like three seconds later,

here comes our squirrel dog coming through. Yeah, the video has exceeded my expectations and its impact on the planet. Welcome to the Bear Grease render. Man, I'm really excited about everybody that's here. We have many special guests. I will start with Lacey Pickle.

Lacey was invited all the way from Mississippi. Really, she's the only one that's supposed to be here. But Lacey Pickle, wife of Lake Pickle of Backwoods University. Great to have you guys. Yeah, happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Josh Landbridge, Spillmaker, Bear John Newcomb. He got a huge story.

And then Forrest Teeter. That's right. My old buddy. Forest Teeter. Man, yeah, Forest has got, it's like show and tell a little bit. Did y'all bring anything? I went to go to the truck. Lake brought that mustache.

Blake brought, he did bring a mustache. Lacey loves it. I got to give you a little introduction to Forrest. So Forest is, we've been buddies for a pretty long time, lives here in Arkansas, but you are pilot in the Navy. That's right. Which has always been very confusing to me and to my young children. Forces in the Navy. Oh, yeah, boats.

No, he's a pilot. Not at all. He flies. But you're on just on a leave, a short leave in Arkansas. you're stationed where? In Hawaii right now. And what do you do in the Navy? I fly the C-26 Metro Liner as of right now.

Which is a... It's a twin-engine turbo prop kind of transport plane. We do a little bit of radar stuff too. So kind of a jack-of-all-trades in that plane anyway. You're a pilot. That's right. Man, to be a pilot in the military, you've got to be like... Yeah, I think I found a loophole.

I don't know. I don't know. Now, you were on the render one time before, like maybe three years ago? I think twice before. It's number three. Okay, three. And last time you were here, you were flying like a $60 million plane? Like a $500 million plane.

Are you serious? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Wow. Now, what was that? That's where I got confused because you said Metroliner. That's the San Antonio. Yes.

They call it the San Antonio sewer pipe and a lot of other things. They're, yeah, not too friendly. This is not a well-liked plane. No, not at all. But the $500 million plane that you flew. Yes. For four years. That was in Oklahoma Station.

for four years flying that plane. What did that plane do? So it was a communications relay aircraft. We had a five mile long antenna that we would string out of the back of that thing, go take off, fly over the ocean, and communicate with submarines. And basically, if we wanted to launch some nukes on somebody, they'd say, hey, launch those nukes. They'd send that message to us. We'd transmit that message through that wire to the submarines and say, launch those nukes.

Hopefully it's not that easy. Why wouldn't you just call them on the phone? I said the same thing. And they said, you're going to put us out of a job if you do that. So I said, okay, I'll keep my mouth shut. I'm trying to figure out what y'all asked me to be here for. I can't compete with that. Yeah, so, Lake, what are you been doing?

I don't fly a $500 million plane. Well, I don't either anymore. And I've never seen a five-mile-long antenna. Yeah. Lake would like to have that on his garment to track his brother off. Yeah, no doubt. I could call some buddies next time you get one loss. We'll fly over.

Yeah. You told me, can you tell me, you could give like an abbreviation. The other day I asked Forrest, I said, man, like you fly in a plane like that, you're in charge of a whole crew of people. It's not like one guy flying a $500 million plane. Like, you're in charge of a crew. Right. Am I right? Yep.

That's right. And you said in all your airtime, one time you had a pretty big scare. I mean, can you just like in like a minute tell me kind of what happened? Sure. Yeah. We were flying over by Charleston, about 20,000 feet. And had some guys in the back, just call up. basically over the intercom and say, hey, we got smoke smell back here, told my flight engineer to go

drop down in the kind of lower compartment of the plane. He dropped down in there as full of smoke. About that time, we started smelling it, started coming up into the cockpit. And the scary part about it is you really don't know what it is. So you have to assume it the worst and then execute like it's the worst. And so just ended up getting on our oxygen masks and asking for vectors to Charleston there and brought it down safely, thankfully. But, you know, when you don't know what it is, then And for all you know, the wings burning off, you know. So you emergency landed the plane in like eight minutes. Yes.

So you're flying, like have no intentions of landing. Correct, yeah. You could have been over Bermuda. Sure. You could have been over the ocean. Yeah, that's exactly right. But you smelled smoke. Yeah.

Something is bad wrong. That's right. In this plane, smelling smoke means something is bad wrong. Absolutely. You should never be smelling smoke for sure. And so. And so you all just, you called the, called the guys at Charleston.

You must have them on speed dial. Yeah, just tuned them up real quick and then said, hey. Hey, boys. Go a mile long one. Get a call in quick. Did you figure out what it was? So, yeah, it was just one of our communication cabinets. That plane being communications aircraft just had racks and racks and racks and racks of communications equipment.

And one of those, just a cannon plug in there, was not operating properly, kind of shorted out and just smoke checked itself. And so, again, in 1,500 hours of being on that. plane that's the only time anything like that happened um but you know total crew effort when that kind of stuff happens everybody has like a role to play so far in a way not just me up there doing stuff but um flight engineer all the other guys too so you know that's it's all it takes to get to well that's a lot of trust that they put in i mean we all put in any pilot that would get on a plane in but in an old redneck yeah okay show and tell though uh we got we got a lot of work to do here today um show us this we got that we got all wrapped up here okay tell me about that buck so this buck this is from

when i lived in oklahoma i'm going to give you all the the short version here because i'd go on and on but uh basically in 2020 i found out i was going to be stationed in uh Oklahoma City I was stationed in Corpus Christi for flight school at the time found out was going to be stationed Oklahoma City started looking at property found a 40 acre piece down there that was reasonably priced land was a little more expensive or a little more affordable back then rather and uh dad went looked at it said it out real nice and I just bought it without ever having been there. So when he went there and we closed on it, uh, just virtually, he went out there, put a feeder out, put a camera out. And really, only one deer showed up with any regularity going into deer season that year. And it was this deer

right here. And he was probably a 120 inch three and a half year old deer, eight point at the time, but had this real characteristic kind of drooping left main beam. And haven't been to flight school the last two years. I hadn't had a lot of opportunity to hunt. And I was like, man, I'm going to go up there open weekend of musloader and hunt that deer if he keeps showing up. So I drove up there from Corpus Christi and wouldn't you know it right before dark, here he came. And we had done nothing this property. I was literally just sitting in the woods out there by the feeder. And man, he came in just before dark and got kind of in some thick stuff. I tried to force a shot and ended up smoking a tree and off you ran. Didn't cut a hair on him. When he's three and a half. When he was three and a half.

That's right. So fast forward the next year, I've moved up to Oklahoma by that. By the that time and one of the first deer to show up in the summer started running cameras again he had grown into probably 140 inch nine point which again a deer I would have been tickled to death to kill I mean far and away and man he just was never super regular in the daylight he'd show up in the morning sometimes coming back to bed passed through my place I'm talking like the first 15 minutes of daylight and then other than that wouldn't see him and would start showing up a little more regularly in the late season getting into December and I had an encounter with him one time that second year winsworld never saw him again he ran off so 22 he blew up into he

would have been five and a half at this time and now he's six yep so he's six here so 22 he was five and a half and he was a probably 150 inch deer at the time nine point mainframe nine still with some but some trash now and um more the same man show up in the morning's kind of early season and the problem was i just didn't have any way to hunt this property in the morning it was pretty much an exclusively evening sit type place, you would just blow all the deer out getting in the day access was not good for the morning and didn't have any encounters with him that year. Now going 22 to 2023, Clay, I don't know if you remember this conversation, but you and I talked ad nauseum about this buck over the course of these years trying to be like, how do you do it? Like what do you do differently?

And you said, man, what you need is a blind, like a scent tight blind that you can get in there and spend some time in and maybe get a little more aggressive. And I said, man, that's exactly right. looked at how much those blinds were and I said oh my gosh I cannot afford that and so I talked to my dad and he was like well let's build one so sure enough and I had had a food plot built on the place the first year now so had a blind that my dad and I went in there and built and just made it a scent tide as we could make it you know just totally sealed up the corners and gaskets on the windows everything I mean very much a redneck type deal but it but it was what we had done the idea was well I'm going to spend the night in the blind.

So I'm going to catch him, come back, because that was the only time that he would ever really daylight with regularity was coming back in the morning. So going into 2023, I spent waiting on the right weather, of course, but would spend four or five nights over the course of that early season

in that blind and nothing, man. I mean, just like he knew, like these deer always do. You know, it's just like they know. And finally going into kind of late November, I believe it was, the rifle season, spent the night in the blind again, and then 30 minutes before daylight,

I wake up and I look outside and it's big, bright moon, and there he was. I mean, 20 yards away, even without binoes, without looking to the rifle scope or anything, I could just see him there. And I was like, man, I hope he sticks around. And about 10 minutes before, legal light, just walked off.

I was just like, well, I'm sure that won't come back to bite me. So after that, I had to deploy. Like I was telling you all earlier, it was about month-long deployments for me at the time kind of non-standard. I'd be gone for a month and home for about three weeks. And I was on deployment getting into December, it was about mid-December, and he just started daylight in the evening, just showing up those last five minutes of legal light. And my dad

is, of course, on all my cameras and stuff. And I said, Dad, it's going to be us or it's going to be the neighbors. And I wanted to be us, you know, and so I told him, go in there and get him. Dad went and sat first evening and sit. He went in there and killed him. In the evening. In the evening. In the evening. Yeah, built the blind, kill him in the morning, and ends up shooting him in the evening. But Forrest's dad is a really veteran hunter. He killed a lot of big deer. But I thought that was pretty cool. He had hunted that deer that long.

He gets deployed. And then has the call-in dad. I blame the U.S. For the record, I was number three on the list. If dad couldn't have made it, it was going to be. Well, Clay, man, I'm sorry. I'm over here fighting a war. I need you to go take care of this buck.

There was a short list of guys that I would have. I was going to send in on them because I was like, it's just hard to watch them just walk around like that, you know, and know that you could do something. Obviously, I couldn't do anything about it at the time, but you were on the short list there. 160 and 4-8s, I think that's what we came. Wow. Look at that. Man, I bet you were going insane seeing those pictures. It was horrible.

It was so horrible. But, you know, the decision to send Ed in there was not a hard one. He'd obviously put me in position to do it many times over in my life. And so, jeesh, man. That's cool. That's a cool story. Sorry, I said that was going to be short.

That wasn't short at all. It's a good story. It was entertaining. Well, to change the topic to small fish of the Gulf, Lake. Yeah. What a segue.

That was subtle. Man. So Lake on Backwoods University, his podcast that's on this feed, he hit a real home run that was all. Yeah, like investigative journalism. True investigative journalism that became really relevant. So you did a podcast on Men Hayden, which none of us knew we were interested in.

I didn't even know what Menhaden. Were you interested in it, Lacey? At first, I was just like, you're going to have to tell me what this is. I've not even heard of it before. Yeah. So my mother who listens to everything I put out, she called me. And she was like, I don't even know what a Menhaden or a Poguey is. but now I care about it

Yeah Well So the If you haven't listened to the episodes You can But it gives just like a I mean like a minute 30 Or you know 30

Just a short story But I want to get to where Your podcast and your name Came up Right Yeah So Minhaiden fishing And Minhaiden is a small

Like it's like a bait fish Pretty much I mean if you've fished any on the Gulf, you've probably seen them. And if you didn't, you've probably seen it and just didn't know you've seen it. I mean, they're very common. And they've been a commercially harvested fish since like the late 1800s. And they're used for cosmetics.

They're used for human supplements, like fish oil pills that comes from menhading dog food, all kinds of stuff. Where it comes in now is basically this practice has been outlawed, almost everywhere in the coastal waters of the United States, with exceptions of Virginia, I think that's right, and then along the Gulf Coast. So Mississippi has some menhaden fishing. Their laws are a little bit more strict than Louisiana's are. Texas along the eastern coast of Texas has menhaden fishing, but they have very strict

boundaries. Louisiana has the most kind of, I mean, it's not free for all, but as far as menhaden regulations goes, they have the most liberalized regulations. I mean, they can go almost anywhere. So up until two years ago, these commercial fishing vessels, which if you've seen, we have videos of them, I mean, it's a large operation. They have spotter planes in the sky.

They have a huge vessel, and then they have two small, two to three to four smaller vessels. You could, yeah. Forests could, if this Navy thing didn't work out. Go on. You can fly one of those small, yeah. But they, so they, they go after these fish. And it gets the, you want me to help.

on the controversy of it or... Yeah, this is good. So these fish, they stay in mostly shallower. Let's see if he starts getting boring, just kind of bumping. Pull your mic out just a little bit. And Forrest, put yours a little closer. A little closer. Yes, sir.

Kind of like a orchestra master. So they go in and they net these fish, but the men hayden, they school up and they stay shallow. So the problems come in is twofold. One, when they go after these schools of fish, they have to go. I mean, sometimes, I mean, like water that, shallower than 10 feet. I mean, very, very shallow water. Huge ships with very long drafting nets. So when they go and net these huge schools of fish, they're tearing up the bottom of the ocean or the ocean, you know, the water bottom right there.

Two is the controversy with recreational fishermen. There's viral videos. People probably seen them. They allegedly went in on some people that were fishing tarpun. Tarpen ended up in the net. You know, if you're fishing, you know, again, they're targeted as forage fish. So a lot of times, folks are catching redfish or tarpins because they're feeding on these schools of menhaden. Well, those folks come in and net those menhaden while your fishing's done, you know. And so this has been something that has been ongoing for years. The controversy's picked up. And it's huge, huge bycatch.

That's what's controversial. Is that like, you can't even kill a tarpon. I mean, am I right? You can't kill a tarpon. And then there's, these guys are like killing tons of tarpins. The one that got the most, probably the most presses, redfish because you know that's like the big game fish in louisiana people go catch bull reds and the first time in 30 years louisiana had to change their limits they had to change the

slot limits of what you can keep and then used to anglers could keep it was two redfish over 27 inches then it was one over 27 inches now if it's over 27 inches you can't keep it at all because that's your breeding size redfish well typically when they're netting those menhaden the redfish that are getting netted and killed are all over 27 inches yeah so in that bycatch study that the TRCP did, there was 22,000 breeding size redfish that got killed in 2024. Yeah. Wow.

And so you did this podcast. It was really good. It was really cool. It was, he interviewed a lot of different people. And it was, you know, kind of like, he's like the Geraldo Rivera of the Bear Grease feed, you know. For those of you, over 45. Yeah.

But so there's the, but in the, what, what was. It just happened that the podcast came out right before a big decision was made in Louisiana, and they brought up the podcast in the Wildlife Commission meeting. And I would love to say that I timed it that way on purpose. I did not. I saw the article from TRCP come out. I was very interested in it. So I went and chased down this episode.

I interviewed Chris McAluso who works for TRCP, and then I interviewed a couple different charter fishing guides. And the guy was like, Wednesday's going to come out. I said, well, probably be, you know, last week in November, I think it was. And the week after it came out, they had a Wildlife Commission meeting in Louisiana about changing the regulations for menhaden fishing. And the episode came up in the meeting. They called out the show by name.

One of the commissioners, one of the guys that had the vote called out the show and said he'd listened to it because he was trying to, he was a Louisiana guy, obviously, but he lives more inland. So the coastal stuff he was trying to learn. Yeah. Which I thought was really cool. And he said the podcast was really good. Yeah.

It was flattering, man. It was cool to hear. What did you think, Lacey? I mean, it was great feedback. And obviously, proud of him for doing so well with the podcast. But, um... He's awfully proud that you're proud. Oh.

If Lacey's proud of me, then I'm good. There you go. That was good. Yep. Well, that's, that's pretty cool. Yeah. And y'all been, uh, y'all are coming back from... Okay, to now switch to invasive birds.

Y'all been hunting pheasant. Invasive. I mean, am I wrong? So you're not wrong at all. Well, you're right on. Ironically, the next backwoods university that comes out is on pheasants, and I'm focusing how they're the most beloved non-native wildlife in the country. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And the biologist that I interviewed, he goes, I really want to hone in on that there's a difference between non-native and invasive. Yeah, it's like the pheasants didn't like just take over on their own. We've kind of like made them feel comfortable here. George Washington's tried to introduce them in the 1700s. Wow. Wow. Spoiler alert.

Spoiler alert. Did he try to introduce anything else? I don't know. That's a good question, bear. Like, could he be responsible for like haunts or something? I smell a rat. I smell a rat. You know what mule people say?

George Washington was the first one that ever brought mules over. He brought in Jacks from Spain and was using those fancy mares from France. Makes us feel real good and real American. I think you need to double-check your facts. I think, man. I think anybody that has anything that's kind of like little, like non-mainstream, like mules and pheasants, you're like, well, George Washington brought him in. I mean, it's like, you can blame him for anything.

George Washington brought brown trout from Germany. Right after he chopped down that cherry tree, he said, you know what? what? Fasants. It's a good idea. I've been kind of trying to figure that out in Hawaii, too, because Hawaii's funny, obviously tons and tons of non-natives, some invasives. I'm trying to navigate that landscape myself right now because, like, one of the first

days I kind of went up in the mountain scale hunting up there, an owl, like, flew up and sat on a log, and I was like, there's just no way that evolved here, like the same way it evolved somewhere else. And I look it up, and it's like, the Hawaiian owl, but I'm like, but it can't be. I was like, I don't know, it's just in disbelief. A native owl. So they call it the Hawaiian Alas, the Pueo, which is awesome, by the way, awesome bird. But they were brought over like 500 years ago on ships.

So there's like this window where it's like, I've been here long enough. Like you've earned your keep or whatever. So you're not the invasive. So that must fall into like that non-native thing. But they call it the Hawaiian owl. So there's a few different species that are kind of like that every time I have to check them. So were you like really, really here or just like kind of a year a few hundred years ago? Yeah.

There's nuance, man. I talked to a guy. It was the most, it was controversial for me. I was talking to him about pheasants. And because, you know, wild turkeys, y'all know how I feel about wild turkeys. Originally, like, their historic range, they were only in 35, or that may be right, 30-something of the states in the United States. Now they're in all 49.

And I had a guy tell me, he's like, you know, putting turkeys in all of the, you know, all of the 49 states was a big conservation flop because we took, I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. George Washington. He once wrote that he wished there were birds on the Pacific coast. The point he was trying to make is we put all our conservation focus on turkeys, and there's native birds like grouse that are struggling, and we don't put, that was the point he was trying to make. But I was like, hey, man, turkeys are cool.

He outpickled you. He did. He did. You got out pickled. He cornered me. Yeah. Okay. Josh, narrate what's happening here.

I'm going to bring something back into the shop. but you need to talk to them while I'm doing it. Stand by. Stand by. Clay Newcomb has a very special, very special thing to share here that probably most of us have never touched. Last time he did this, he brought in like a 40-foot vine. You remember us? It's not a vine folks. It's not a vine, folks.

I can tell a story about a vine. Wow. Whoa. Oh, I know what that is. That right there is a beautiful. Alaskan wolf hide. So I have a... Look at the dark.

I actually have three, but I just got these back from the taxidermist. And these are Alexander Archipelago Canis Lupus. So it's a... George Washington, bring those two? Washington put these on the islands in southeast Alaska. Oh, these are the wolves that we trapped with David Bennett's in southeast Alaska on the the meat eater film. Isn't that incredible?

That's big. It's unreal. They're so big. When Clay holds that up, I mean, it's a full arm span. I put my finger in the tip of the nose and I can barely get its tail off the ground. Wow. And, you know, I'm 6'3. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls

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

I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out prime cuts at Phelps game calls.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. No, I was really proud of those.

The guard hairs on that wolf is over five inches long. Holy spots. That's cool. That would make a beautiful fly. That is. fly fishing. Keep your hands off, Josh.

Yeah, so wolves, bear, why don't you show us what you brought? This is a show until I feel underprepared and I'll hold it off to you, right? Do I need to get...

Well, we've got... This is what I brought. Okay, bears got a, about a 65-inch seven-point rack. That fits... Well, I killed this like three days before

I killed the big one. So he killed that on public land. In his last, last time or last render, we talked about bears deer camp, which has like 25 people. And we coined, bear coined the term, we are the hunting pressure. And we did in fact execute on that because we got this and forky and a dough. And a little berry It's small dough

And the smaller End killed by my son I'm calling him out I'm laughing Because when I came in I saw those there I thought bear Was gonna do one of these

So this was the first buck I ever killed And then here That's the one You killed two days before I'm just as proud Of that one As I am

With this one I mean Six seven Six seven I guarantee you That one was harder to kill Oh yeah I mean

I hunted this one Maybe five or six hunts. That one, I walked two miles like a week in a row and eventually this dude ran by. Yeah. But anyway. The bear had sitting with him, a guy who had never hunted,

so like witnessing this deer getting killed. That's cool. The small public land deer was a guy that never hunted. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so that was a cool deer. But then Bear has in his hand a 155 and 4 eighth inch buck. Yep, there he is.

So this is the buck that was on the deer stories episode that you heard Bear talk about. Yeah, when I told the story, I had the deer. Yeah. Just like this. You know, this episode was pretty cool because we told three, and I don't think we've ever done this before.

We had three stories that were fresh. James Lawrence's story was a buck that he just killed, just the other day. Yep. And Bear's story was a buck that he just killed. and then Jason Kailer's story that we started off with, the 155 that he killed while I was at camp with him. So that was pretty cool that they were,

a lot of times we're telling like old stories, you know. But it was pretty cool that these were all just like fresh. And what nobody knows is that I killed a deer, Lacey, on the day he killed that one. Oh, really? Nobody, you didn't know that, did you? I did not. Yep, it was overshadowed by that one.

I didn't even tell anybody. Would y'all like to congratulate? It was a nice buck. Oh, thanks, guys. No, I was in Oklahoma. I was in Oklahoma. We'd been there for four days, had Isaac Neal with me. He was filming.

And we had a great hunt, but hadn't seen any big deer, but just felt like it was going to happen any day. I mean, we were seeing a lot of deer, even though the place we're hunting had changed dramatically because they bulldozed a bunch of it for, cattle. And anyway, at 315 on October the 10th, a deer comes by, and I'm like, that's him. Shoot him, get out of the tree. Basically, I mean, the deer falls within sight. We get to the truck, and it's starting to get dark. It's about the time we got, I hunted for a couple more hours.

I was going to shoot dough. Could have shot a doe bear, by the way, but didn't. because I thought maybe a buck was following it. I had the big dough come in, and I could tell there was deer behind, and so I was waiting because I had two buck tags. I was like, man, I'd be bummed out if I shot that dough and it had a bigger buck behind it. Anyway, get to the truck, and my phone rings,

and it's like right at prime time, and it's bear. And bear doesn't call his dad that often, just a chit-chat. And I knew that he was hunting that buck, and so I just picked up the phone, and I said, did you kill him? And he said, I killed him, Dad. He was in that whisper yell.

You know? Like that whisper yell voice. And I was driving Isaac Neal's truck in the driver's seat. Did you hear me? I started banging the steering wheel, like uncontrollably. Just going. Yes, he got him. And Isaac actually put his hand on my shoulder and said,

don't, don't hurt my truck, Clay. You thought I was going to break the steering wheel. He said the steering wheel was doing like this. I was like, sorry, man. And I put Bear on speakerphone and we talked. So we just threw the deer in the back of the truck. We couldn't bring the deer back to Arkansas because of the CWD stuff. Oh.

And we were going to process it and debone it. And I was like, we don't have time. We got to get back. And so I dropped it off at a processor that we just drove up, found a processor, had a walk-in cooler, you know. Yeah. And so we just like,

yeah, so the deer completely overshadowed the deer that I killed. I mean, it was almost that big. But no way it wasn't. But cool. Awesome, deer.

Yeah. Well, okay, Deer Stories episode. Was there anything else we were supposed to talk about? I don't think so. I don't think so. Lake, was there anything, Lacey, anything else?

Non-deer, because most of we start talking about deer stories were like off to the races. Lacey shot good on her pheasant hunt. That's what I heard. Yeah. It's the only other thing I think to add. She shot really well. Thank you. So how many, so tell me like you, you were using your dog.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Now, is he pointing or flushing? Flushing. Oh, he's flushing. So he's-loves it. He just has to stay close enough that if the bird gets up. That's the, yeah.

That's the desired outcome. I tell folks, I mean, because I tell folks, I'm like, I have a pheasant dog, but he's a Mississippi resident. Normally, this is his average. When we go pheasant hunting, he normally takes him about a day to get tuned in. And then a trip, if I'm up there for a week or more, he's going to have at least one, usually one, maybe two of like, uh-oh. And this trip, he didn't have a single mess up until the last evening. and all of a sudden I see like three roosters get up 80 yards away. There are more than that.

Well, some of them were hens. Three of them were roosters. And Knox got a little far out there. And I was like, okay. So that's what a mess up would be. He got too far out. But you didn't see him get that far? No.

Well, I was trying to film her and walk behind her. And I normally would notice him getting that far out, but I did not. And I was not happy about that. But I was like, well, that's your one mess up for the trip. And then he was fine. But she shot really well. I mean, did you kill? Three.

Three. Yeah. Okay. Now you're a duck hunter too, though. Yeah. Now I am. Yeah. After this past one, I could say that I am.

Yeah. So you're a wing shooter. I suppose so. Old wing shooter. That's it. That's what they call me. Call her the old wing shooter. I can get behind that.

I mean, we may want to change the old to something more, you know, softer. I'll let you work on it. Let me know. How about just the wing shooter? Okay. That's it. The wing shooter.

It's been decided. A quick story about the first duck she shot is late season. And this group of like a 12 pack of mallards just falls out of the sky like they just had to land where we were. And I tell her to shoot and she pulls up and boom, boom, shoots twice, two ducks fall. I send knocks out. And I'm like, yes. And she comes back.

She's like, is that okay? And I'm like, was what okay? And she goes, I shot two. Can I do that? And I was like, yeah, the limit of malage is four. She goes, well, if I didn't know that, I'd have shot three. That could have kept shooting. That's funny.

That's good shooting, though. Yeah, she's good. I heard a story this week about somebody, and I can't say their name. But they shot, I can't tell the story. Never mind. It was about shooting one over the limit But it was an accident And it was a younger person

And they kind of got excited But I can't tell that story I don't know what made me think of it could I got one more thing to add Before we go to Deer Because it's worth Since I'm sitting in his chair I got a Brent Reeves

I have to shout out Brent Reeves So driving up here I had a vehicle failure In Arkansas So, I mean, my truck's loaded down with stuff. I'm supposed to be in South Dakota because the first week I was up there was for an on-X thing. And anyway, I'm in a bind, right? So I have to get, limp my truck to a dealership and try to figure out,

got to get a rental, all that stuff, and sorted. And I'm like, Brent lives close to here. I called Brent, told him what was going on. It wasn't 15 minutes. Here come a pair overalls coming across that parking lot. Is that right? Oh, yeah. He broke down right in his town.

And he come, pick me up, loaded me up, took me up, took me up. me to the car rental place. Yeah. Yeah. That's what we were joking. It's like someone ought to queue up that Tracy Lawrence song. What song is that? To find out who your friends are a song.

Oh, okay, okay. I got it. Yeah, did you get your truck back? I got, we have to, when we leave here, we have to go through Little Rock, through that dealership. You got to stay at night there? Oh, no. No.

Oh, no. We'll make it home. It'll just be late. But you can pick it up at night. Okay. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah.

Well, good job, Brent. Good job. What a man. Brent saves the day. He did. He did. He picked me up and gave me some moose sausage. He did, yeah.

Wow. Just a heck of a guy. Also. Wow. Moose sausage. Did you save me any of that? Yeah. You said you tried to save me some.

Look how that went. Anyway. Dear stories. Forest, what stories stood out to you? Oh, the Gary Newcomb one. No, no doubt. That was just imparting chaos into the deer hunting universe. With no bad intentions whatsoever, just be like,

now, would that have surprised you about my dad? No, I don't think so. No, I don't think so. That was just so funny, man. Well, I said it in the voiceover, but they called my dad back in the day Tinkerbell. Because he liked to tinker with stuff so much, his bows,

his stands. Again, another life, dad would have been like a product designer. He was designing tree stands and having them

custom fabricated back in the early 90s and late 80s. We've got some of the prototypes of the, he had one stand that he called

the contraption. And it was, for the time, it doesn't build a whole lot of confidence when you're getting in it. It was made of aluminum and it was like

just, specked out to just the nth degree with what he wanted had a big seat it was collapsible and so imagine a stand built with one inch aluminum and he

took a he took a drill and drilled out hundreds of holes in the contraption to less make it way less and that stand is still usable to this day

I've got some sticks that he's giving me that are just have an unbelievable amount of old drill in him. And I'm just like, is this even still usable? Yeah, like, is that not going to just bend on me when I step on? As the recipient of many Gary Newcomb hand-me-downs and, I mean, in all honesty, things I've just stolen from him when he's not looking. Yes. Yeah, there's a lot of jury rigging in there. I feel like he missed, like, the saddle hunting generation. He would have thrived.

because it's all like gadgets and stuff. It's like, oh, Prusick, not, no, I use the aider and all that. Oh, yeah. He missed his window there. Well, he, and he, you know, he's not hunting really much anymore. Part of the, the, it's a little bit of a bummer to me. I wish Dad would have not declared that he wasn't hunting anymore, but he kind of made a declaration like, hey, I'm not really hunting anymore.

And so that's why he's sold some of his stuff. That's why Dustin Craig had one of his old stances because he sold some of it. I mean, Dustin showed us that it was a platform for a saddle. And that platform was just bolted on their completely upside down. And Dustin didn't know any better because he's not experienced with the saddle. But he's like, man, this thing is just not working. Destin's a really good deer hunter too. Yeah.

If he said it was a nice buck, it was. He guided out west too, didn't he? I think so. Yeah, he did some guide and elk. So Dustin's, I got to say that I said it in the VO, but I'll say it again. One of the best deer stories that we've ever had told, in my opinion, like if I were, one day we're going to do a compilation of the best deer stories because we've done them long enough that we probably have 40 or 50 deer stories.

And it's not, if you've ever been the recipient of me or Josh calling you asking you for a deer story, we're not just calling everybody in the world. No. We're trying to find like really specific style stories and they're harder than you think. Yep. People that have hunted their whole lives sometimes maybe don't have, I mean, I've only got a couple of stories maybe that would fit what I'm looking for. And but, but Dale Craig, Dustin's dad is a, I mean, just has stacks. He's one of these guys that just has stacks of horns, just like out in a barn that just, you know,

I mean, he appreciates him, but there, he's just an old mountain hunter, hunt in public land. And he told the story three years ago of seeing a buck. He's way out in the mountains. He's a buck on a steep hillside, looking across a big holler over to a deer over here. He grunts back, grunts at this deer. And he had just taken a bite of him.

an apple. So he had the apple in his right hand. Grunt Collins left and he had apple in his mouth when he saw the deer. He sets the apple down on the ground so that he can put his grunt call and grab his gun. And when he sets the apple down, he's getting his gun up and he hears the apple start to roll. And he said the apple just starts kind of slow and he just cringes. Just like, oh, dead, you know, the steers just like, Right there. And he said that apple started rolling, and it just started getting higher and higher.

He said it was bouncing four feet off the ground. And he just thinks it's over. Well, it was the perfect decoy. Because that buck heard a grunt, and then he hears what he thinks is a deer running. And the big buck, it was a big mountain buck, comes just storming in there with his hair all bristled up, just coming in for a fight,

and just runs up right in his face and, you know, 50, 60 yards. Yeah. He kills the deer. That's Dustin Craig's dad. Okay. So, but anyway, yeah, that was a great story. That was a great story. Blake, which one stood out to you?

Man, there was two of them that, because Lacey and I listened to it together, and I'm not going to steal yours, so I'll go with the other one. The recent one with your buddy when he was trying to. to get up the tree. Jason Kaler. Yes. That's just, I mean, it's one of those things. It's like the Apple story you were telling just a second ago. It would have been a good story regardless because it's a great deer.

But you throw in the fact that, you know, he's like, oh, my gosh. And he's not even hooked to the tree yet. He's still hung from a lineman drope and having to make it go together. I mean, that's just, I really enjoyed that because it's relatable. I can't relate to a deer quite that big, but just something where you have to make do because stuff's happening and you're not ready yet. Like that's a... I would...

What wasn't portrayed in that story as how hard it was to do what he did. I think one in 40 guys probably would have killed that deer. I mean, because he had his bow on his back. He had his release on his hand, which I never put my release on before I get in a tree.

Really? No. I just don't. I'm released on from the truck. Are you really? Yeah. I always do. Oh, yeah.

Okay. Well, maybe... Okay, one and 20. Each of them. I'd have killed it. Y'all two would have. But he didn't have his bow on a rope, which I always have my bow on a rope. He had it strung over it.

And he told why he didn't have it on the rope. But then the deer pops out and he's, you know, when you're judging yard is just by just your eye, yard, you know, it makes a difference even just a few yards. Oh, yeah. So he guessed it at 40 yards and just 10 rings. That was the most. of the most impressive parts to me. 100% yeah.

It's happening fast. And it's so, when you're in, I mean, assuming he's in the woods, you know, I don't know how dense the timber was, but it's so easy. I mean, that just shows that he's been doing it a while if he guessed it that good. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's a, he's a kid. He's a good hunter.

Real good hunter. That was a good one. Lacey, which one did you like? The guy that hunted with the family and the brothers and he took his dog with him, it's just there was so much chaos. But it wrapped up so perfectly. And most good stories have a little bit of chaos, and his was just full of it. Yeah, yeah.

It was so funny. Gary Farmer. That story cracked me up because he was like, just tell me where you want to drop the tailgate. Cracked me up. Just the scene of like the two brothers are fighting a third brother pulls up and just when we heard it, Lacey goes, it sounds like something that would happen in an Andy Griffith episode. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like with the Darling family or something.

Yes. It's just perfect chaos. That was the vibe. That was the vibe. I thought it was funny that Gary's laugh. Oh, yeah. He's got a, he's got like a really contagious laugh. When he laughed, you just can't help but laugh with him.

Yeah, that was good. Now, so Gary Farmer is the one who told the story last episode about the mule bucking him and Teddy the lines off the mule. You know, and he, so. you know it's so interesting you go to these guys houses and i didn't know gary that well but i mean just a just killed more deer than i've probably seen uh and those are the two stories he tells me you know and and maybe i prodded him for you know like do you have anything funny but also was like just tell me your favorite deer story those are those are two he told me some other ones but

those were those were two that he told and um yeah a lot of the guy a lot of the guys around here had dog hunting stories. You can't, up in the Ozarks, you can't dog hunt anymore. Down in the wash stalls, you still can. But that was a good one. That was a good one. Mayor, what was your favorite one? Probably the Gary Newcomb story.

Yeah. I think that I told you right before that's something almost identical has happened to me. We borrow and Paul Paul's stuff. The first time I ever used a saddle was some of his stuff. And I don't remember exactly what happened, but I get way up the tree and the platform falls out from under me. Just like, you know, that same platform he sold. Yeah, probably was. Probably was an upside down platform.

But anyway, I like that one just, I mean, it just kind of speaks to the chaos that can happen while you're out there in the deer woods, the unpredictability. The fact that it lasted two full hours and then just like out of the blue just dropped on them was, I mean, I mean, And right as a deer was coming, it was just unbelievable. Yeah. I thought that was a good story. It scares you to death when the stand moves. Yeah, whenever you're in the saddle,

and it just, like, as it's settling in, you know, that drop? Oh, gosh. Last week, twice. I mean, I've been sitting there for a long time, and my tether just kind of resituated just because I went too far one way or the other. It just dropped you. I mean, probably that far.

And your heart about drops out of it. chest. I can't imagine a platform actually falling out from underneath you. Yeah, you'd have to clean the bridge. I think you're about to, you're about to die. Do you have that moment when you're like fully entrusting your life to your tether? Like after you've unhooked your like linemen at the very top and you go,

all right, it's clipped and here we go. And you just like leave back and you're like, I'm alive. All right, cool. It's always that moment. Coming from the airline pilot. I used my saddle for the first time.

week before last and I have to be honest and say I left my lineman on just oh yeah my dad's still to this day he doesn't send me he's like I'm not taking that thing off I was like okay well I I do something that I don't I think everybody ought to do it I after the linemen after you get your tether on and forgive us for those of you who don't saddle hunt um but when you have your tether on and you you know, right when you take your, I undo my lineman and hook it back onto itself. Oh. And make a long loop.

Like another tether. Like so if your tether failed, you wouldn't fall to the ground. Right. You would be dangling. Right. Five feet. But it's never got in the way. Never got.

Do you understand what I do? Yeah. It's a backup. I mean, you'd never go climb some big. or as I understand mountain climbing you have you know

duplicitous safety what do they call it there's a redundancy redundancy you'll have a lot of redundancy it makes me feel good

I've never thought about doing that yeah and it can hurt you if it's too tight you lose some but if you get it long enough where it's drooping long enough you can have your full range of motion

and it's just clipped back in you know So it's a few more cord, you know, ropes hanging around You get tangled up in, but it sure makes me feel good. Yeah, yeah, sure. You can't. I mean, I had to, talking about saddle stuff, I had to film a guy in North Dakota last week,

my buddy Ben Brettigan, and I have this thing about hunting in stands that I didn't hang myself, you know, just because you know what's there. And anyhow, I go to the top of this stick ladder, and I do have my linemen on, so I'm good. But the very top of the ladder, and he had a lock on up there,

and I was, since I was filming, I was just hanging my saddle above it, and so I'd be above him, you know. But I don't know what happened with that top ratchet strap for that ladder, and it didn't go anywhere, but talking about your heart stop, and it had just enough cinch in it when I grabbed it,

it gave about an inch, and I was like, good. Ben got up to the stand, he's like, what happened? I was like, the strap wasn't completely. You were like, I nearly died, Ben. Yeah, exactly. He killed a deer that morning,

so it worked out. Yeah, y'all killed him. Nice deer. Yeah. North Dakota? He, yeah, North Dakota, he had a rifle tag and was prepared to shoot all distances that, yeah, I mean, he had seven PRC, and I saw him shoot with it before. He was good.

And then that time of year, he rattles, we rattled three times that morning, and every time a buck came in. Really? But the third time, it was a big, mature buck, and he shot that deer at 20 yards. Wow. It would come out of a thicket so we didn't see it. But he rattles and then turned around to hang his antlers up. So he's facing me, you know, because he's hanging the antlers up.

And I'm like, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben. They're just walking right towards us. And by the time he was like 50 yards when I saw him, but by the time Ben slips the rifle off and gets to us, I mean, he was literally 20 yards. Wow. On blood trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker.

I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. And there was a pool of blood. Oh, my God. He doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors. Where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't.

This season, we're going deeper. From cold case files to whispered suspicions. From remote mountains to frozen backwoods, each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season two of Blood Trails premieres April 16th.

Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you can. at your podcasts. That's an exciting thing, man. It was cool. It was cool. Hey, I've got to tell one story about a tree stand incident. And it's associated with Gary Newcomb because it was when I was a young man and I was using his stands.

It really wasn't his fault. But I kind of blame him. People say that a lot. It really wasn't Gary's fault. I mean, it's a butt that comes after. I mean, it really wasn't his fault. But I was using a loggy, loggy bayou tree stand. You remember that?

I do. Loggy Bayou used to be like the El Primo climbing stand. And they had a, so imagine the old like API style or, you know, just like regular style like climber. But it had a big metal band and on the back of the metal was a little rubber piece that gripped the tree. And I remember I went hunting. and when I left town, it was real cold, and the tops of the mountains were kind of in the clouds. And when I got to the top of the mountain,

I was going to, there was frost and ice all over the north sides of the trees. It was like a big front had come through. So all the trees had half of them covered in like a half inch of ice. And I was like, man, this is going to be good. And I took that climber, and I was going to a spot dad had found, and he told me where to go. and there was a good buck in there, good buck in there.

And put the climber on the tree, and like it never occurred to me, this is a bad idea. There's like half of the tree is covered in a lot of, maybe a quarter inch of ice, a lot of ice. I start climbing up in that rubber strap when it would get on the ice, wouldn't grip very good, and it would kind of bounce around a little bit. But I went straight to the top of this big, big pine tree. You know, one of these pines that didn't have a limb for, you know, 30 foot. I mean, I was well over 20 feet up in this tree. And when I, when I get turned around to sit,

I take my weight off of the bottom platform. And this is where, this is Gary's fault, is there was no string attached to the top platform to the bottom platform. And when I took my weight off, and that Loggi Bayou, Yeah, it had just a seat that just like strung. You know, and when I took my weight off of that, that thing just went, and just went straight to the ground.

I mean, 20 plus feet up, and I'm just sitting here just like this with my feet back. And the base of that thing is all the way down the ground, and there's ice all over the back of this tree. and I just sat there for a minute I'm just like, it's before cell phones I didn't have a cell phone or anything, you know,

and it's in the evening, so it's, you know, going to get dark here in a couple hours. And I'm just like, dang, what am I going to do? And I eventually, I figured out a way to get turned around

and I would hug that tree with my legs like this and just, and I would have my arms right here and just with all the core strength I could muster, I would just, like, lean,

forward and put the pressure off of that thing and it would just like, chunk, and then I would pull. And it would hold on with my legs. And I went all the way down that tree, gripping it with my legs and just pulling up and getting, you know, just going like four inches at a time. And I made it to the bottom of the tree. And now this is what I also give credit to Gary Newcomb for. I got the bottom platform and I went straight back up that tree.

and hunted till dark. I did. Did you kill a big deer? No. I also blame Gary Newcomb for that. I think every 90s and 2000s climber story that I've heard has to do with it not being tied to the bottom.

Yeah, it's true. It's true. Everyone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's probably like a... Everybody, everybody that's like my age or older would have been like seen that one coming. Like, it's losing the ball.

bottom of that platform. I bought a climber this summer from Clay's father-in-law, and that was the first thing I checked before I left the house. I hope this thing's got a rope on it. It's got a string. Yep. Yep. Josh, which one stood out to you?

You know, I really liked the story about the brothers, but I have to say I got to be there when James Lawrence told his story. And anytime you get to interview a live member of the Bear Grays Hall of Fame, you got to count yourself lucky. and just spending time with James Lawrence is always a treat. He's such a great guy. I mean, just not, you know, Clay has said it a number of times, but getting to spend time with him there and seeing his walls with all his antlers

and the bottom side of his porch with all the antlers hanging out there, he really is as good of a mountain buck hunter as there's been. And he's not, he's not, he's not, he's honed. humble, he just does it because he loves it. And so just hearing him talking about hunting that deer this year, you could just see the twinkle in his eye. He's an old man now, but you can just see the twinkle in his eye. It light up when he talked about that buck coming in and just lifting his antlers up.

And yeah, he was, he was just absolutely tickled to kill that buck. It was a big one too. Yep, yeah. Mainframe 12 point. Yep. Yeah, man. I was glad to see him get that deer. He's been needing a big one.

He kills, I mean, he kills pretty good ones every year. It's been a while since he killed a really nice deer. Yeah. But, yeah. Well, I say that. Now I'm remembering one he killed two years ago. You know what? Maybe he didn't deserve that.

He's still on top of his game. If you see his walls, there's no shortage of big deer there. He's still on top. He can remember, he can remember everyone up. He does. He does. He does. He's got these.

I mean, just you can point out a little bitty rack and he'll be like, man, I killed that on Sugarloaf Mountain. I've got one of his racks on my wall right there. One day I walked in there and I said, James, I said, this may be a little funny ask. I knew exactly how I was going to go. But I just said, can I have one of your deerheads? I want to take it and put it in my office. And he said, pick out whatever one you want.

He would have given me the biggest one. He actually, when I picked that one, he said, why don't you take that one? And he pointed to the biggest one. He said, you can take that one. And I said, no, I said, I don't want to take your big one. I said, I just want like a classic, you know, Wash-Tal Mountain buck. And so that one has like nine-inch brown tines at eight point over there for us.

You see it? Man, up there coming off the angle. Yeah, yeah. That's a James Lawrence buck. That's a hammer. Just a buck. You just sawed the horns off of, you know. But, yeah.

Yeah, that was cool. Yeah, so that's a picture of James. Lacey, that's James Lawrence in the 70s. How old is he now? He's late 70s. Yeah, he's pushing 80, I think. Yeah. 78, probably.

Probably. He's the same age as my dad, I think. Dad's 77. Yeah. I think James is probably 77. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what else do we need to talk about?

The Meteor Live Tour, there's still some tickets. Yeah. Birmingham, Nashville, Memphis. No tickets in Fayetteville. Dallas, Texas, Austin, Texas. Christmas tour. Going to be big. You're going to go to one lake?

Yeah, we'll go to the Memphis one. Nice. Yep. Nice. Forrest? you got to Hawaii it's fire me up a Hawaii date why don't you just fly your big

$50 million plane you might be on something there now you could be swiped the credit card on the gas you could land at Dallas airport how fast could you be from Hawaii to Dallas Dallas uh in the previous plane probably eight hours holy smokes

that's crazy it's a long way it's a long way to Hawaii the first time I flew to Hawaii in that big plane and that was the first time I'd ever done even like partially trans-oceanic anything and like we cross over California and I'm like looking out there I'm like man the ocean is big

it really is big I've been to the ocean but you hadn't seen it from like that perspective for right and like two hours later I'm like the ocean is big man like we just keep going I'm like it's unbelievable how vast it is like you just go and go and go and go and go and go

going you know 600 knots 550 knots just going how fast is that miles per hour 6.50. 550 would probably be about 650. 650 miles an hour and you're traveling for hours over the ocean. From the coast to Hawaii at like airliner speeds probably like four, four and a half. I think it's 3,600 miles from the coast. Man, it is so far. It's crazy.

Wow. It's like traveling the United States again. The little plane on flying now is just like inner island stuff. It couldn't make it to the mainland. It doesn't have the legs to make it to the mainland if it wanted to. Have you ever flown around the world? No, no, I'm not. I've been, like I said, Hawaii went to Bermuda, not landed Bermuda.

It's funny when you mentioned Bermuda, I literally, the only other time I had like a smoke scare in the plane was like over Bermuda in the middle of the night. Bermuda Triangle. I almost fell victim to it. I was like, oh, you're kidding me. I was like, you can't be serious. QuickSand, Bermuda Triangle, and the Loch Ness Monster. Yep. Those were the big ones

Bigfoot. Big three. Big four. I mean, Bigfoot's kind of been forever. He's stood the test of time. But you know, you don't hear much about the Bermuda Triangle,

quicksand, and the Loch Ness Monster. Yeah. Terrified. What are kids even afraid of today? Wi-Fi going down. We had a whole section on the Bermuda.

I remember learning about the Bermuda Triangle and I was in third grade. Went home and talked to my mom about it. It's like, what are we going to do about this? Someone's got to put it. to stop to this. Something's going on. Even June,

can solve the world's problems. Yeah. Yeah. What did she say? She's probably, I don't know. I wish I could remember. I feel like that was like in our history books, though.

Oh, for sure. That was like the first, I don't know what you would call that. It's like, it's out there. Just so you know, it's in third grade. I remember it like vividly.

I don't know why, but I do. The Bermuda Triangle. Yeah. Scary stuff. Oh, man. Killer sharks were pretty big back in our day. Jaws, the movie Jaws.

Yeah. I'm still scared of that stuff, man. The beach is right on my back door and I'll go through about right here. No further for me. Quite a bit of shark activity in Hawaii. Yeah, we just had a guy. I live, so I live on Kauai,

and we just had a guy get bit surfing like two weeks ago. Here he lived, thankfully. But, man, it happens. It happens out there. Wow. Yeah. Well, speaking of the movie Jaws reminded me of it, the bear that killed the guy here in Arkansas is still on the loose.

I mean, so we talked about it in depth a month ago. There were two bear kills, two human fatalities from black bears in Arkansas. First time since 1892, I think they said that a bear had killed a person and that two of them happened in the same month. and I was just by happenstance able to be involved in the investigation and then the killing of the bear that we thought was the one that did it. And then when the DNA tests came back, we hadn't talked about this on the podcast, when the DNA test came back,

so there was DNA on the man that was killed, bear DNA. And then, you know, we killed a bear that they sent to, the crime lab, and it wasn't the same bear. So that bear is still out there, which is pretty wild. Somebody made reference to the movie Jaws. Is there a plan to... I mean, is there anything they can do? No, not really.

Because they basically they had surveillance of multiple, multiple cell cameras overbate and traps at Sam's throne since that day, since October the 2nd. And the only bear, the only black bear that showed back up at the sight of the kill was the bear that was killed. And it looked like the one...

And it fit that, yeah, yeah. So it was really interesting seeing the response to the public to that. Just absolutely ridiculous ignorance. I mean, it just kind of blows your mind. I mean, the amount of people that were like, oh, you should have tranquilized the bear, sent the DNA in,

then decided if you were going to kill it. Well, you also can learn, like, you look at that example and the response, and you start to understand how misinformation can spread so quickly because people in those comments are like, can't believe it, you know, y'all are killing bears like this out of season. And you're like, they killed it during season.

Yeah. And didn't you say, like, the quota hadn't even been met yet? Yeah. So it's like they didn't harm anything. even if it was. It was like totally within the purview of the AGFC would be like, yeah, they're a bear to manage. But for them to, I mean, for them to tranquilize the bear,

DNA test to just prosecute them. There were many people that said the bear should have been tranquilized and the GPS collar put on it. And then once we got the DNA test back, we tracked the bear down with the collar and then, you know, kill it if it's the one that did it. So like intelligent, seemingly intelligent people said these things. and I usually don't go on the defensive on social media,

but I did defend the game of fish and the Newton County Sheriff's Office, Glenn Wheeler, my friend, who was heavily involved in the deal because there was a human fatality in it. And I mean, they did what every agency in the country should do if they wouldn't have done it, is they pulled every possible stop to kill the bear that did it.

And they did what was right. They put out a bunch of traps. They tried to catch it in a, in like a tube trap and then a snare trap a bucket snare. They had those all over that place. And three days

after the body was discovered. So the man was actually killed a couple of days before the law enforcement showed up and found him. So the bear had potentially not been there for three days. It was all discovered. They put out traps and cameras

and and a bear shows up three days. after that on October the 5th. And that's when we got the call said bring dogs. And from that day on, not a single bear came to Sam's throne.

So, I mean, I guess it's possible a bear showed up but wasn't on camera, but highly unlikely with all the bait and different stuff. I mean, I don't know what else they would have done. I mean, it's safe to assume

that would be the bear. Yeah. But I mean, I can't draw up anything better for them to do than what they did. No. I'd bet my whole paycheck. That would have been just, I mean, like, a reasonable person would say, yeah, that's probably him.

Yeah. Well, it was a, it was a, I'm going to say, juvenile. I mean, it was a sub-adult male. It weighed 175 pounds. So, I mean, it was close to, I mean, it was, I wasn't a cub, but it was like a two-year-old, two-year-old bear that was killed. And from the photos, we knew that it was a young, juvenile male. And so the bear that we killed did, all of us were like, man, he's bigger than we thought.

Like that should have been Misty queued in onto that about how human bias like we see sometimes what we want to see. Sure. Because when I told her on the phone, on the way home, I said the bear was a little bigger than we thought. She was like,

really? It was a little bigger. All you guys that look at bear pictures like every day of your life for the last 30 years, about 20 years, since there's been trail cameras. and she didn't say much about it, but I was just like, oh, it's a bear. It was him.

I was like, I bet my pickup truck that is him. It is an older truck. But we all knew it was the bear. Sure. And dad, gimme it wasn't a bear. But it's interesting to think right now there's a man-killing bear out there. That is one. You remember, speaking of the social media outrage and stuff,

there was that guy a few years ago that killed that he was a hiker or jogger killed that 40-pound mountain line with his bare hands when it attacked him and people on there on the internet were just like that's a small one I do remember that my head almost exploded when I saw people talking about that I'm like have you ever like tried to hold a house cat that didn't want to be held it's just all you can do to hold on to it literally yeah it's all you can do to hold on to it yeah that was it all credibility lost on the internet from that day forward.

Could you imagine trying to make that argument? He killed that line with his bare hands. Yeah, but it was small. It was a small mountain line. Yeah, that was the day I lost faith in the internet, I think. He lasted longer than me. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, well, hey, thanks everybody for coming.

Forrest. Thanks for coming, man. Dude to be here. Lacey, thank you so much for coming. I'm glad I can make it. Yes, yes, glad you could. Like, good job. on the men-haden podcast.

Keep stirring the pot, brother. He has fun doing it. He does do that. Our very own, Haraldo Rivera. That's right. Horado Pickle Rivera. Mayor,

pick up that buck one more time. He picked up the small one. Shoot, man. I want to get a replica made of that deer so I can put it in my office. Yeah, man. you don't think Bayard let you have the real thing? Well, he's not like James Lawrence yet.

Problem is, Clayd called out a 145, this is a problem. Man, I'm off my game. I'm a, I am an official boot and crockett score. There was a time in my life when I would have put myself up against anyone, anyone about looking at a rack and guessing it's score. Because I scored a lot of deer. The last 10 years, I have not. scored a lot of deer. I'm an inactive

Boone and Cricket score. And so, but the good news is, is that my judgment is calibrated low. Yeah. If you're going to be off, he won't be better than being, oh, that's a 165. Because everybody does that.

I mean, I talked to one of my good buddies this week and he said, Clay, people all over the internet talk about passing 140s. And he said, there is not, there are a few people on planet Earth that would truly pass a 140.

I stand by that. Even Midwest guys. I know the deer. I've been in the camps of the deer that you pass that were 140 and you kill the 130. I mean like a 140 is a giant very few people.

Now there are people. Grant, there are guys that absolutely are. Not me. Below 1%. Would you think that's right? Totally. Totally agree. Totally agree.

Yeah. That was a little bit of a Rant. Yeah. No, I like it. Get fired up. But I think most people are like, man, I passed 125-inch deer. No, you didn't.

There's just no way. You passed 115-inch. I told Clay we're going to get him some flashcards so he can review. And nobody steal that idea out there, actually. Someone's going to steal my idea. Forrest sent me a picture of a deer that his brother killed. And I hate it when people do that because I don't want to be the guy that says, oh, that's a 160 and then it's not.

I'm usually the one that puts their feet on the ground. I'm like, yeah, I bet that's 130-inch deer. What did I say? 135? I think so. I think we're in the 130-starting. I was 157. I felt bad.

I think I sent him another picture. I gave him like a chance of redemption. I said he was like, 137. And I was like, oh, that's a cute. You saw the picture. You would see it. I'll never forget. Gary Believer Newcomb,

I'm taking the knees right out from under me one time. I don't think, Dad, I love you so much. I would say this to your face. When I killed that deer right on the wall that scored 169 inches, I remember I brought it to him, and he just looked at it and he went. First time he'd ever seen it, I brought it the rack, just like that, down to the management area where we're hunting at deer camp. I killed it on the 18th, and we went to deer camp the next week,

so brought salt off horns, pulled him out of the truck. I remember where we were standing. It was dark. I could take you to the spot. and he goes where does it I mean where does it get its inches

I mean he didn't he didn't go wow that's incredible he said I mean basically it was like

he was like it doesn't look 160 you know you sure you wouldn't just try to take you down if you know I mean

you know I and I was trying not to do that with bear because I was the one it was like man

that's that's a an incredible deer bear. I bet it scores 145. That's what I told Clay when I looked at the pictures. I said, I think it's 1445. Well, before we before I killed them, the pictures, I guessed 148. Yeah.

Well, these tighter rack deer just don't have the quite the wow factor. Yeah. But that deer had on that right side, it's got 22 inch main beams, 4 inch G1, 9.5 inch G3, 2,

10 inch G4, 7 inch G4, 7. it, three, and then a seven-inch G-4. I mean, that's a lot of inches when you start adding it up. But it's only 15 inches wide. What do you think, Lacey? I think that is an excellent, dear. That's right.

Proud of you. That's what it boils down to. Thank you. Yeah, I agree. All right. One day, Gary Believerillard will have to defend himself. In the meantime? we'll just call him out.

No, I credit so much of the tenacity that I see in my young son bear here, bleeding right down through the bloodlines, starting to Lew and Newcomb. You didn't want to go bird hunting with Lou and Newcomb. He'd walk into the ground with no lunch break, you know. You would. He's looking at me. Yeah. It's like hunting with lake.

No, he's looking at me because of me. Are you the one who's wanting to go? No, the last day she fessent hunted, we got after one, she looked at me, I was talking about going another spot, she goes, I need food. I'm very food-driven. And you should fight for your rights.

You should stand up for you. You need an advocate. I've got it. He knows. Well, thanks everybody for coming. Appreciate it. Keep the wild places. because that's where the bears live and those big bucks live on blood trails the stories don't end when

the hunt is over they just get darker i've seen something in the road i instantly thought it was a sleeping bed and there was a full of blood oh my god he doesn't have a hit blood trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors where the terrain is unforgiving the evidence is scarce and the truth gets buried under brush and silence indications where he should be right there. But he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper. From cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwards. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being

on us. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, IHeart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.