Bear Grease - Ep. 492: Render - Lightning in The Hot Seat

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

Clay Newcomb along with Bear Newcomb and Josh “Landbridge” Spielmaker are joined by John Donovan, one of the guests featured on the “Struck by Lightning” episode of the Beat Grease Podcast. John elaborates on his experience being struck by lightning while descending from his tree stand just 9 months earlier. It’s an amazing story of a potentially catastrophic moment and how he was able to make a full recovery. Thank you to our sponsor, Tecovas. 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. Hunting season is right around the corner, and first light season opener sale kicks off August 18. You can save up to 40% site-wide, and this year they're rolling out new 24-hour daily deals throughout the sale. So it's worth checking back every day because those deals are going to change. There are also a few pieces I really like that are on sale for the first time ever,

including the 308 pant and navigator hoodie. If you've been waiting to replace some worn-out gear, fill a hole in your system, or just get ready for the season. Now's the time. Head over to firstlight.com and gear up for the season. 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. Brought to you by Tachovas Boots. I'm a cowboy boot man, and I've been wearing Tocobas for years.

the most comfortable boot I've ever put on. Good boots for good times. Welcome to the Bear Grease Render. Today, we've got Bear John Newcomb to my left, Josh Landbridge Spillmaker, and John Lightning Strike Donovan. Sitting in the Toccova's hot seat. This is, did you notice the boots?

I did, I did. I saw him in a couple old podcasts and saw him when I walked in. Yes. Well, you were in the hot seat last year. in your tree stand when you got struck by lightning. Pun intended. People, we've heard about this. We're going to hear more about it.

But because of this, you are going to get some Tocovas boots. Did you know that? I got spoiled by another podcast I saw one there. I mean, we give them away every episode. I don't know if it was everyone, but yeah, that's awesome. What if we had called you in and been like, man, we were going to give you some Tukovas, but we decided not to. Fine.

We didn't want them burn up. Yeah, no. I'd still be grateful. So we'll get you some Tacobos. And once you get your boots and you're swing by here and we'll brand them with it. Okay, sweet. I would suggest going to like Swepco or one of the electrical co-ops and getting some of their like this big like one inch thick rubber. Okay.

And having them sewn onto the bottom of the to covas. Does have rubber sole lightning proof. Okay. Yeah. They have some work boots. Yeah. And, you know, maybe it would protect you from lightning. And I'll take anything I possibly can.

You know what we didn't get into with our buddy, the outlaw meteorologist, Josh, is if rubbered-souled boots would help you in a lightning strike. I feel like they'd just, the lightning would just be too powerful. This wouldn't even matter. I feel like it wouldn't. Some company might find a way to market it and sell it, but. I mean, like, think of it. I mean, it can't hurt. I mean, think about like six-inch-thick soles.

Yeah. And what if that was your ad campaign? Like to protect yourself from the lightning, we think it couldn't hurt. Yeah. We're pretty sure it won't hurt. Well, we're going to get into lightning with John. You may notice if you're watching this online that there's no saddle here. It feels empty.

Colt George out of Wyoming G3 Saddley made me a custom saddle. A beautiful. It really is. And I keep it in here because it's so pretty. I use it all the time, though. I've got a story. No boy. So I sold Izzy, my meal, my good meal.

Sold her. She's been gone for two months. I thought I would miss her. Like I thought, I'm going to sell this meal and I'm going to regret it. You know, I'm going to wake up because I had this idea, Josh, that, you know, mules are so long-lived. I thought, how cool would it be if I was still riding this mule in my 60s? Right.

And I had this little dream spasm about that. And then about three months ago, I woke up and was like, that's dumb. I don't need to be, you know, have this like false loyalty to this animal, even though she was the first mule that ever trained. Right. This story's going somewhere, and it has to do with this saddle and why it's gone. and there's a there's a story so i sold izzie she was at her peak value peak age and i just was like you know what i'm not going to be attached to this animal sold her been looking for another one got lorry good lord lorry from evan falker good lord lorri is at a trainer whalen valines

being trained for 60 days out in newton county i decided to ride slow trap are you concerned at all about that brown recluse running across that painting right there. Right on the bottom corner of that. Stick your head down. He's right on the bottom corner there. Wow. Let's just keep him. Should I give him a headset?

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it's a brown recluse. Okay. So I go, I ride slow trap the other day, which is Bears Mule. How old is he? Four, three. Three and a half.

Yeah. And it's been a, it's been a little while since we've ridden it. and he's young and put the saddle on him and he's small enough we didn't really have the tack to fit around him real good and I was using my old saddle and I go riding him and he just from the beginning is just cantankerous just not wanting to I mean it was just like like he hadn't been ridden in a year right but I didn't really consider it dangerous just because he's small and he's just gentle as a dog. But before I got out of the yard,

he crow hopped on me and tried to bolt for about 20 yards. I mean, it wasn't even a, if you'd have been watching, it wouldn't even bliped as anything was wrong. But in the saddle, it was kind of like, whoa, what are you doing? Anyway, I keep riding him. And I go up a pretty steep mountain and come back down it. and on the way down a slow trap just explodes

into again if you'd have been watching it you might have just been like Clay you just fell off the mule like there wasn't he didn't really bucked I believe the mule really bucked hard and what happened was is he broke the cruper off the back of the saddle so we're coming down and a cruper is a piece of leather that goes around the tail

and keeps the saddle from sliding forward and I'm going downhill, the cruper breaks, and the saddle just slides right up to his ears almost. I mean, just slides way up on his neck, and it scares him. And he starts bucking, and I go over the top of him, me and the saddle. And when I hit the ground on my shoulder, I've got road rash and a big bruise right here. I am laying like this, and the saddle, is on my leg in slow traps right there. How did the saddle come off?

The girt strap stayed strapped, and it came all the way over him, over his legs, over his head. I thought the gert strap broke. Because I'm like, how did the saddle get off? And I flipped it over, and the gert strap was perfectly still tied.

So the saddle... Just because he's constricted and it slid off. He had his head down, and he was bucking, and that saddle can right over. the top of them. And that's, ladies and gentlemen, is why I wear a britchin. He's a britchin. Yeah.

Well, it was actually your cruper that was on there. That's good to know. Yeah. Just, I mean, if you're going to get all virtuous about your britchin, okay. And it was your cruper that broke. It was the ring that the cruper hooks to. Oh. Broke off that saddle.

So the next set. So I was pretty discouraged. And I probably discouraged. a little bit because I'm like slow traps he's in bad shape I wrote him the next day with Colt George's saddle okay that's why it's not here and I got a good britchin

tightened it up got everything fit really good and wrote him my britchin yes and it was he was gentle as a dog and I worked with him in the round pin and like I mean he was just flexing and turning and backing up and just the tack was the difference he's just young and we'd laid him off for maybe a month or two he's needed a little warm up yeah and and anyway that's my story that's why that's not there so goodness gracious i hope that was

worth the first eight minutes of the podcast um bear what do you uh what what's what's what's coming up on the bear grease youtube channel well this week i uh i did three hunts with with my self-bow. The premise was trying to catch breakfast, lunch, and dinner using only a self-bow. So I went squirrel hunting in the morning, bow fishing midday, and frog shooting in the night.

Huh. And, yeah, it was actually, the, I'll spoil it a little bit. The bow fishing, my neighbor Seymour and I shot a really nice gar. We took my canoe down a river, shot a nice car, cooked it up. But it was a pretty cool video.

I think that it's got a lot of action. A lot of squirrel misses. That'll be out by now. Yeah. By the time this comes out, that's out. Yep. Okay. A lot of squirrel misses, you said?

Christy and I have been watching a lot of alone lately. There's a lot of squirrel misses on there too. Oh, really? That's a hit. That the new Australian one? We haven't watched that one yet. We're catching up on some old seasons. I got my wife into it.

She's watching that when I'm at work most days. Alone. Yeah, she's getting a little baby watching it, getting ready for the outdoors. Nice, nice, nice. Okay, so that's what we got coming up. Yep. Good, good, yep.

Arkansas bear season is right around the corner. Bear season's all over the country. Right on the corner. Bear season's already going in some places. So have you seen this? I haven't obviously seen the Acorn Grunner. Yeah, so. But not that pretty wood.

Phelps is, this is not officially what they're doing, but it's actually what they've done is put the Acron Grunner in new wood every year. So the first year it was in White Oak. And this is our inhale, exhale, dough bleat, buck grunt. call and the first year it was in white oak and uh i actually liked the white oak the best other than the wood was unstable and it would it it could get loose unless you had a little o ring that they sent you the the second year was oh sage orange and that probably it would be hard to be this year this is a paduke this is a This is a Brazilian, Brazilian wood.

It's pretty. I thought it was an African wood. Jason said, he told me he was Brazilian. But, oh. But Acre Grunner, Paduke will be on. But that's, I really do like that deer call. It's got a dough bleat and the buck grunt in the same, in the same call. Does that, uh, I do a lot of wood turning with Paduke.

And it has one of the strong. smells of any wood that I've turned. Like it's stronger than sassafrouse, I'd say. Really? Smells really good. Does that smell? No, it just smells like varnish. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's available on... Where does someone get one of those? This Phelps website. Mead eater? Yeah. You get that at the meat eater store?

Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. John, have you, you're deer hunter, right? Yes, sir. Yeah. That's what I pretty much grew up on.

My dad got me into hunting as soon as I could legally hunt. I lived in Maryland. I was born in New Jersey. I grew up there for about five years. Moved to Maryland. East and Shore of Maryland. And there, I think it's only if you could sign your name. So, you know, my dad's hand was on top of mine, and I was in the stand as soon as I could.

And, yeah, mainly White Tail, grew up hunting. I think I shot my first deer when I was six and a half with a gun, dough and then just fell in love with archery my dad mainly hunts with a bow and did that from yeah six until today it's been a big part of my life um did you say your dad fell out of a tree stand yeah so uh that's the key word fell i claim i got shot out of a tree so i don't so it's not doesn't run in the family but uh yeah so it's probably early two thousands i was don't even remember it i was baby but um he was hunting and it was one of those days where he had uh he was a safety freak as well but a storm came in the night before and there was a limb right in his prime shooting lane and it was

just out of reach and he made a mistake that he regrets but he unclipped thinking he just could get it and the beam that he always used to support on also snapped which he didn't see and it just went and he went about 30 31 feet out and he just fell and it was I mean he could it's a two, three, four hour story, but the short version is, I mean, he definitely should not have made it as well. He had the good lord looking over him, and he had to drag, you know, a quarter mile out of the woods. So it broke him up. Oh, he, I mean, his foot was backwards. His hand was hanging on by nothing, basically.

He bit his tongue, and he was messed up, popped both its hips. What year was this? I'd be lying to the exact year, but it was definitely, it was before, it was right around probably 2000, 2001. Because I was born in 97. 20-plus years ago. Yeah. Yeah. My sister remembers it. I remember him being in a wheelchair after it, but I mean, I was maybe three to four years old, so I don't really remember it. But my sister, older sister remembers it more. And my mom obviously remembers it. But he was really messed up. And he, yeah, he was on private land and let out like a death cry. And the owner of the property's daughter who never takes the bus ended up taking the bus that day and like got nervous. And then she called his dad, her dad. and he knew, okay, that must have been Matthew.

And then he... She heard this like death cry roar. It was my dad. She was waiting on the bus. When she got off the bus. So it was like that perfect timing from the bus into house. A kid hears someone scream. And then we're in a small little town where, I mean, our fire station has like two volunteer

EMTs at the time. And one of the old ladies called out sick that day. So one of the firefighters, you know, subbed in. And then they ended up going there, got him in the ambulance, brought him to the hospital. And he always remembers. they had a bite down on a belt because they didn't want to risk losing any blood flow to his leg

and he said he just watched the doctor snap it back in the place but he was really messed up I mean probably six seven eight months of rehab and did it impact him beyond that like after he got he played major football

he was a linebacker for Yukon so he really yeah he already had a beat up body and but he was it definitely has caused long term effects he's had I want to say two hip replacements. Maybe he had one twice. He has eight pins in his ankle. So he definitely

got messed up from it, but he's a tough guy. I mean, he's got nine lives, and he definitely got lucky there. But yeah, it definitely messed him up for years and years, but it didn't keep him from out from hunting. His buddies, I think it was that next season, or even later that season, would have

made a ground blind for him and actually wheeled him out in the wheelchair and let him sit because he's, he's obsessed, which I'm glad because it got me into it. But yeah. You know, I've heard that like a high percentage of falls over 18 feet, you die. Yeah, no, he got very, very lucky. Because he used to always go really high because he grew up hunting in upstate New York. And a lot of it was, you know, small little suburban permission pieces.

And he used to just love taking a climber getting real high. But now he doesn't get too. I think he's actually, he just had shoulder surgery. So he's not climbing a tree this year. But up until, I think he's 67, he was getting up in a tree. but now he stays right around that. He's a climber. Is he a climber now?

No, now we mostly used. He never got into saddle hunting. Probably when I was a teenager, he stopped doing actual climbers. And now he just basically does lock-ons. And with the back in the day, or he used to do the screwing pegs, but now he does all the climbing sticks pretty much now. And then with some of the permission pieces we have back home, we just use ladder stands, typically. But he loves ground blind hunting as well.

Kind of depends on the piece of property and what the terrain is. Hmm. Man, I think probably one of the most dangerous things that we do as hunters is climbing trees. Yeah, and I, because of his experience, I felt like I had a step above the average hunter because I didn't see it firsthand. I was a baby, but I mean, my dad harped on it nonstop. And we were. Safety belts. Yeah, my mom basically put bubble wrap on us on our first few times going up there.

And I always knew those, I forget the name of it. I think they're called like the safety line where it tethers to the body. bottom of the ground and you clip in and you're basically covered the whole way. Yes. Because a lot of times, even I do it as well. I think I'm young and Superman. I'm like, oh, I can get up the ladder without falling. Yes.

But that's usually when it happens, which is what happened with me. But yeah, so we always double safety in pretty much, which I'm glad and I'll continue to do that. But I've never had a close call slipping or anything, but I could definitely see, you know, hustling up a tree, hustling down a tree. And then a lot of those straps, I sometimes cheap out and buy like a cheap. ratchet strap, which now I buy the top of line stuff because I don't want to risk one of them popping off another time I'm climbing up. Well, I mean, that's the wild thing about what happened to you is you had a, you had a

tree stand accident, but I also got struck by lightning. Yeah. I mean, it's a, and I'm kind of fixated on just falling out of a tree stand. I've never really fallen out of one. my the most dramatic thing that happened to me and it ended up not being dramatic

but I was climbing up a stick ladder that I'd kept for a couple years on the same tree just went in the first time that year shine my light in the dark up this you know just aluminum stick ladder from Walmart you know like 16 feet and it had all the straps on it

and I was like well it'd be fine and I just start climbing and I get probably 10 feet maybe 12 my feet were probably close to 10 feet up and I grabbed one of the the handles and it the stick ladder just starts coming backwards and basically one of the top ones came undone and I just hung on to the ladder and it held on a ratchet strap below my feet so the ladder just bent and I fell that probably 10 feet from the bottom of my feet, but from where I was, it felt like really high. And I just rode it down to the ground and landed on my feet. Like Batman. And the bar, you know, the stick bending slowed the fall just a little bit, even though it felt like a free fall.

But when I hit, it, you know, it scared me real bad. And I got a picture somewhere on my phone of that last. in the dark, bent in half. But it's, I read something this, or heard something this week about how the older you get, the more cautious you become. And that may seem like just like a rational thing. Just like, well, of course. But there's some psychology behind it.

Basically, your perception of life begins to change. The older you get, and you're more, you're more risk-averse. And it was actually in relation to flying. Okay. They said sometimes people in middle age all of a sudden become fearful of flying whenever before were you afraid of it. And it's because the older you get, you've seen more things and you naturally become risk-averse. And it's the protection mechanism because you're not as bouncy as you once were, not as resilient. No, it's true.

And I feel that because when I send bear out on a tree stand, I'm like, man, be careful. This is the most dangerous thing. you know and and I would have just scrambled up at no big deal. When I first started hunting solo, I got obsessed over this one buck on a new permission piece back home in Jersey and I was working on a lumber company and I saw an old stand that someone probably had 10 years before that and I just grabbed some two by fours and screws. I was just so focused on killing that deer.

I didn't even think about safety. But then my dad saw it before I went up there and goes, no, no, no, we're not doing that and we made it a little bit more safe. But yeah, I could see with age, definitely. now with the baby and being married, I definitely don't take too many chances for wildlife anymore. But I think you just understand the fragility of life, too, the older you get. I mean, you see that it's just the difference between a lot being alive and being unalive is very small. It's a thin, lucid line.

Yes. That's the one interesting thing with my story where I tried a Monday morning quarterback it, you know, weeks later. And I was thinking, what could I have done? could I've done this, could I've done that. And I really followed all the steps. I'd check whether, if a hunter didn't go hunting, every time there was a 5, 10, 15% chance of a pop-up storm, we would maybe hunt two or three days a year.

So at first I was kind of mad at myself, like, could I have prevented it? But then I realized I did do all the steps. I told the people my location. I, you know, I practiced getting in out of a tree. I used my equipment. So that also made me think that there can just be freak things, like a one in 600,000 or one in a million chance of getting hit. So you had unclipped just to get and climb down.

Yeah, so it's, I basically just have a rope around the top of the base of the tree where I sit in a ladder stand and it dangles maybe four feet. And then I'll do roughly 10 feet up. I clip in and then I'm tethered in and then I sit down and then I'm hunting. But the way the stand is angled, it's just an old stand. I really didn't have the ability to put one of those full tether systems. And again, it's 10 feet, you know, looking back. Maybe I wish I had it. But so, yeah, I'm tethered pretty much.

The whole time I'm actively hunting. I'm in a safety rope with my full harnessing. But it's just that first 10 or so feet getting up, then I clip in and then sit. And it's that last 10 feet getting down. Yeah. Yeah, that's like totally reasonable. Yeah. I think anybody would have that, you know, especially with a ladder stand.

I mean, I know a lot of pretty safe hunter. that wouldn't even put a belt on ladder. I'd be lying if I said I've never done it. I forgot my hardest once and it wasn't. I shouldn't have done it. You got rails around you. Yeah, but I was like I can handle it. I pulled my bow rope up.

I felt like I had two or three way or was point to contact. Point to contact, yeah, going up and down. So I felt safe. But now I definitely will try to be tethered in as much as I can. Yeah. Because especially when I client, like when I use my climber on public, I always get paranoid of. that bottom falling out. So I sometimes put two extra ropes on that because I know I would be dangling.

I don't know how long I could hold on to that for out there. I'm Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, Encore. Check out our brand new episodes featuring music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak. Heated rivalry. Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together. I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man, wolf parades, I'll believe in anything, and tattoos all the things she said, and how they all a part of this global phenomenon. Stream encore on IHeart Radio, crave, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Meat Eater's season opener sale is live. And if you've been waiting to gear up for your hunt, now's the time. Buy one, get one free on all Meat Eater T's and hoodies. 50% off select game bags and deals on gear from some of our favorite brands. First Light, Phelps, FHF, Moultry, Yeti, and more. And for after the hunt,

We have a limited time offer to save on our most popular seasonings like backstrap brew, campfire crust, and backcountry bar. Or get the six-pack to try them all. Our favorite time of year is right around the corner. Head over to the meat eater store.com to check out our season opener sale. Didn't you lose the bottom of your chestnut? Yeah, I was going to say that probably was as sketchy as anything. Yeah, one time I was using a loggy by you. If you're my age or older, you will remember Loggy by you was like the premium climbing tree stand.

They had a metal band with a rubber strap with a rubber overlay that was the back. And one time I climbed up really high in a straight pine tree and got all the way up, I mean, 20 plus feet. And the bottom fell out and just ratcheted down the tree all the way to the ground. and I was sitting there with no platform for just a few minutes, just like, man, what the heck am I going to do? This is before cell phones and stuff. And basically I turned around in the tree, and I would wrap my legs around the tree,

and then just like crunch my ab muscles and just kind of like lean forward. And it would drop about four or five inches. You know, you'd kind of take the pressure off. And I made it all the way down. and got it and uh and climb back up then hunted and one time it fell well oh that's the same story it fell because of ice there was a half inch of ice on the backside of the tree yeah so bear have you ever fallen out of a tree sin and not told me i've not fallen out but i've i've you remember that time i went up on a leaning red oak which has real slick hard bark on icy morning so it had ice on

side was leaning on and I got up there a little ways and I lost my bottom and it slid down and I had to call you at like six o'clock in the morning to come bring some climbing sticks. Oh, the ease of this generation to have a cell phone to call their dad. One time, probably the sketchiest tree stand event that's happened to me, I was using some of Pop-Baw's climbing sticks and he just had them all. Always a mistake. He just had them all janky and modified. The hole drilled in them.

And I remember I was like climbing a big pine tree trying to get way up. And I was getting real frustrated because the, I think the ropes wouldn't clip in good. It was like those muddy sticks that you don't really tie knot. You like run it through the little clamp. And I couldn't get it. And I get up to like 20 feet and it's taking me like 45 minutes. and I was getting pretty mad and I get to like a fork in the tree

or a branch or something and I had to unclip my saddle and I was standing on a stick and I was unclipped and the stick just slid right out and I grabbed around the tree and just hung on and tried to and manage to

bring my rope back around and clip in and then slid down to the next stick but yeah it was pretty I always bring like a little hook just in case even if I drop a grunt crawl or something but the one time I almost lost my bottom platform. I was thinking I could probably at least be able to get it with some sort of latch device or some hook where.

Yeah, that's a good idea. You know, Paw Paul is Gary Believer-Nook him to bear as Paul. He always takes a lot of flack for his gear. On one of our Deer Stories episode, Dustin Craig, my friend Dustin Craig had bought a platform from Dad and went and used it. And the first time he used it, he he claims and tells it for truth that he set it up the way it was supposed to be

set up but dad had you know rearranged how it attached to the tree and it failed on him and fell but he is he was tethered in in a saddle it was a saddle platform and so he tells the story and it's like you know my dad had uh had had sold him this thing that was broken essentially. Have we given Gary an opportunity to rebuttal? Well, I talked to dad about it and he's like, Clay, Dustin was using that wrong. He didn't, that platform as good as new. He just didn't know how to set it up. And I said, well, I mean, do you want a chance to redeem yourself? I mean, you can come on the podcast and tell everybody that Dustin was wrong. And he was like, no, I don't, I don't want to be that way. It's okay. You know, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't

don't want to be. So Dustin, if you're listening, my dad thinks that it was operator error, which I'm not sure if it was or not. I'd say it could get 60, 60, 40 that Dustin was right. Maybe 70, 30 percent chance that it actually was completely practical. You guys are predominantly losing saddles these days, right? Your climbing? Yeah, man, I hadn't sat in a tree stand in a couple years. My buddy Landon's trying to get me to make the switch, but I just like the climber for now. not just easy on my back, but I'll probably will one of these days. I like the climber a lot for... It has its pros and cons.

Yeah. Yeah, it depends on the situation. Like, if you're packing way back, it's hard to be saddle. I have one of those super lightweight ones that I kind of like, but I think I'll make the switch here eventually. It'll be my next little hobby to get into her. Where I'm going to bait, I think I'm just going to put lock on stand up and just use it. If you have the time, I like doing that easy end up.

Have any of you all ever... found the perfect tree. You had a climber, but there's some limbs sticking out. Mm-hmm. And so you climb up, and then you, like, latch on your top and you stay on the limb

and you lift up your bottom. Yep. And you, like, might jump, like, three or four limbs to get up. Yeah. It's a lot of work. If you have a saddle, you don't have to do that.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. True. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just pretty much exclusively use a saddle anymore, but,

um, speaking of lightning, what do you think about this idea, John, of if you've been struck by lightning, that there's a greater chance that you'll be struck again. So my wife doesn't like that idea because she'd end up, she got on Google and stuff about that, and she read that. Would this have been the first time she'd heard that was on the podcast? No, she Googled it.

She'd heard that before? Yeah, she looked it up a couple months after the accident. Because I used to make some silly jokes about stuff whenever there was a thunderstorm or she would text me if I'm out or doing something. And she's like severe thunderstorm warnings, you know, get home soon or stuff like that. She definitely was a little more nervous than me. But she read that. I haven't really done the research.

I do know probably three months after I got hit right next to my house got hit. Because I remember my propane tank had some issue with it. And we smelled a weird smell in the house. And then the propane company said it most likely was. And there was a lightning storm going on. He said there probably was a close proximity lightning strike to it that caused some issue. You think the lightning was looking for you? I think so, yeah.

Now, when I was listening to the podcast, I think I made a bad joke. You said someone was hit six times. I was like, let's see if we can beat that. But no. I haven't really done the research. I haven't looked in it too much. But what you were saying about how outdoorsmen, obviously, statistically, if you're in the outdoors more,

you have a better chance. So probably something she'll worry about a little bit more than me. But for now, I'm kind of... I think you're in the clear. Yeah, I think I got my one, I don't really deserve it again. I think it's the perfect, this idea that if you get struck by lightning, you're more likely to get struck again. I think it's got all the ingredients for a really great wives tale.

Yeah, yeah. Because when something happens to somebody, even like our beloved Spence, which he'll probably be listening to this, if you get, if something happens to you, you're all of a sudden hyper aware. and he wasn't saying that he was joking. Right. So he doesn't, I don't think he actually believes that he has more of a chance.

Yeah. He had heard that. Okay. And then all of a sudden he becomes aware and he's like, man, I was out the other day and I felt like it was after me. You know, like, you kind of just become hyper aware of it. So anytime lightning strikes close, you might be like, yeah, it was, it was, you know, because I've been struck before. Well, I had buddies and family asked me, like, are you, do you have, like, nightmares? or when there's a lightning storm, do you kind of shelter in place?

And I haven't had any of those experiences, thankfully. And like I said before, it kind of was just one of those perfect storms, wrong place, right place at the right time, whatever. So I try not to think too deep into it. Because you could probably just overanalyze everything with that. And then anytime, like I said, there's a 20% chance of lightning, not leave your house or not go hunting. But I just keeping God's hands again and hope for the best.

And maybe I took it for many generations. so all my kids and grandkids are safe. Yeah. Have you ever talked to anybody else who's been struck by lightning? No, but a kind of connection was my dad's client and one of his close friends back home. It wasn't lightning, but he was on an electrical pole doing some sort of work and got hit with a bunch of volts. So when me and him were able to talk about it, it kind of was helpful because one of the weird parts right after it happened was, I emotionally, I'm not afraid to cry or, you know, I don't care if I cry about stuff, but I couldn't even get two-thirds of the way of the story or even, you know,

halfway through the story, I would just start, you know, breaking down. And I couldn't figure it out. I didn't really talk to anybody about it. And then when I was back home for like a little family reunion, probably two or so months after, he brought it up to me. And that was super helpful because it kind of made me feel like it was normal and it wasn't just like a me thing. So no, it would be.

Same thing was happening to him. Yeah, he couldn't tell anybody the story. He would close, close family would take a while because, I mean, you can cry a little bit more in front of family. But like just people, I mean, everyone wanted to hear my story and everyone wanted to hear about his thing. And he just could not get a lot of, he would just get choked up. And the same thing was happened to me. So it was nice hearing that because it kind of made me feel normal. And then hearing a little bit of Spencer's story made me some of the same things that he encountered or experienced.

I experienced. But no, I haven't like been in a room one-on-one with anybody. were really seek to try to find anybody. I doubt there's any like Reddit. It's pretty interesting when you look at the statistics of one and 600,000 Americans will get struck by lightning. Like that kind of checks out. I mean like the broader, you know, northwest Arkansas area where we live maybe has 500,000 people. Yeah.

And so, you know, it kind of seems reasonable like, yeah, maybe like one, two people in this region could be struck by lightning. well, I know two of them. Now, I wouldn't have known you probably if you hadn't been struck by lightning. I mean, that's kind of how we connected. So it's a little bit of an observation bias there. But my neighbor got struck by lightning. So it's like, surely y'all aren't the only two people. Yeah, there's got to be a handful up here.

So it feels like that one in 600,000 could be low. But I was talking to somebody yesterday about this. They called about the podcast Lake Pickle. and I said, do you know anybody that's been struck by lightning? He's like, no. He said, I know people that know people. But like in arms reach of him, he didn't feel like he knew anybody that had been struck by lightning. But I can't think of anybody before y'all that I would have known.

No, like, Remy Warren's been struck by lightning. Oh, really? Remy Warren. Yeah. But if you think about it, I mean, the people who are getting struck by lightning are the people who we would be around a lot. Yeah. Just like outdoorsmen. Well, I might be off by the dates exactly. I can't remember if it was right before.

I know the Everglades one was after, but we talked a little bit about this. The two young men from North Carolina that were killed, I believe it was in Colorado. Oh, that's right. I want to say it was a few days leading up to mine. It was early September, Elth season. Yes.

And then right after mine, I saw a news article, a family member sent. It was, I don't exactly remember if they were fish in or anaconda hunting or whatever, or python hunting, but a couple people in South Florida got hit and killed with a dog. So that all happened the same week, and that's when my mom was really nervous. Yeah. Because you hear, you know, death, death, live, death, death.

But I never even really thought, I grew, I mean, I was in Key West Florida for five years, so there was always pop-up lightning storms there, but I never really even thought, again, back to the one a million, because I would definitely, I'd be out in the water, and, you know, storm would get close, try to get a couple extra casks in, because, you know, you think what are your change? chances, but, but yeah, back to the... According to Joshua Wiseel, your chances are pretty high if you're on the water. Okay.

The boat. You're the highest thing on the water. But like what you were saying, if you're around the community of outdoorsmen, your chances of hearing somebody. Because when I run into people, either at the gym or someone and they ask about my back life or some way it gets brought up, they're always, you know, wide-eyed shock. Like, oh, I've never met somebody. But in your case, what you were saying with being in outdoors and a lot of hunters is probably

slightly better odds. Okay. Speaking of being at the gym, at the gym the other day, I meet a guy, a Mexican guy, and he asked me what I did, and I just kind of like,

ah, it's hard to describe, but it got a podcast, oh, and he asked me about it, and I was trying to give an example of the kind of stories we did, and I told him, I said, for instance, were doing an episode on lightning.

And I said, I know a couple of guys that got struck by lightning. And he just, his eyes widened. And he says to me, he says, my grandfather grew up in old Mexico, rural, rural, like central Mexico. And he said that their Aztec, there was fragments of their Aztec religion

that was still pretty prevalent, in rural Mexico, and that his, and they believed that if you were struck by lightning, that you all of a sudden had powers to make it rain for crops. And his grandfather, I almost interviewed him. I actually got his number in my phone because I was like, man, I may call you. And I think that kind of, he was like, hold on, bro. I mean, I'm not, I'm not wanting to be that good friends with you. and well if I could I would we were in a hot tub which might have made it a little more awkward

I mean let's just be honest about it but he told me an impassioned story about his grandfather who who who and I said so your grandfather was struck by lightning and he was like oh yeah wow and in his village he was considered the rain man yes the rain doctor and I was like do you do you believe that to be true? And he was like, ah, not really. He said,

he said, we talked about it for a long time. And I actually had his number almost interviewed him for this episode. But speaking of people that you know that have been struck by lightning, like the one person I told about this podcast before it came out was like, oh yeah,

my grandpa got struck. Wow. You know, you just. Yeah, I don't think growing up or, I've met a lot of people, I've never heard a story or anything, so I guess it's kind of random, but... I bet that I wonder if it's possible if Lightning and Strikes could come in and out of awareness.

Like, for instance, the history of Lightning and Strikes in the 40s, like 400 people. Like today, 25 people will get killed in the United States by Lightning every year. In the 30s and 40s, it was like 400 people a year. I mean, so like, a thousand times more of the people, more than a thousand. That's crazy because now there's more people. But are we out? But there were more people on the land. Right.

There were more people probably actually in the fields doing agriculture. Yeah, I think we're out of the elements a little bit more. We're more in cities and shelter during most storms. Yeah. Because I did have a few family members reach out and they're like, why would you even go out when there was weather like that? But then back to what I said earlier. earlier, like you would never really be able to hunt. Yeah, you can't live in fear.

No. Yeah. Bear and I almost got killed the spring. Yeah, y'all had a close call with lightning. Yeah. Maybe we got a stop talking. It was 30 yards, 40 yards, maybe. I mean, it was like right in front of the truck.

Yeah. And we had just been there two minutes before. Well, that's what got me worked up because right before I got hit, there was one, because I was contemplating whether I should get down and move, and then there was one right below me in a creek. And that's when I, I've never been that close before, except for maybe once on a boat and that's when it really got me going i was like okay this is i got to get this severe like i need to get down yeah even just this morning in my local news feed was a video of fort smith with just just a

few miles down here at these two police officers on the side of the road and lightning strikes 15 feet from them geez oh really yeah didn't you didn't hurt them no no nope i mean they're standing by their cars and it hits the ground okay i've got a question that i wish we would have asked the weather guy. If you're on a boat in the water, or even if you're in the water, in lightning strikes a boat on the water. Does the, like, if you're in the water, do you get zapped?

That's a good question. I think it would, you'd feel it for sure, but it would probably absorb some of the voltage. Like if the lightning bolt struck near your boat? Like, no, if you were in the water and, like if you were swimming, and it hit a boat. Oh, and it hit a boat? I mean, because if wouldn't it hit the boat and stuff?

If you're swimming around your boat, theoretically. If you're swimming around your boat. Yeah. And it travels. I mean, I think it would probably have to do with just the electrical current probably would go in all directions and just how far you were away. I mean, if you were 10 feet from a lightning bolt to hit the water and you were in the water, I would say that you're in trouble. Why are you considering like if there's a thunderstorm jumping in the water? No, no.

I was just wondering if like it was dispersed like that. Because the other day, I've been in a handful of pretty good lightning storms where it's been striking all around me, but the other day we were bow fishing, and we just had a troll motor. We were on the other side of the lake, and a storm came up real quick,

and we were like right in amongst striking all around us. And I was like, what are we going to do? Because, I mean, the boat only goes like two miles an hour with that trolling motor. And so we quit shooting that fish. I told the guys that I was with, I was like, we just need to get back to the boat ramp. This is not a good situation.

But I was wondering, like, if it would strike, if it hit the water, like 200 yards away from us, would it hit us in the boat? Probably not. Probably not that far. But now it sounds like it just go straight for the boat.

I think it's not a, for certain that it's going to hit the boat, but it definitely has a high, likelihood of being hit if it's higher than the water. But it is good kind of thinking what to do because like you said, I think in one of your experiences, you laid flat and that's actually not the proper thing to do, which I kind of think anytime I'm in a situation where get low and get, you know, down. But I guess, yeah, I guess standing would be the best place away from high trees.

If you're out in open and there's a lightning storm, I think the only thing you can do is put your head between your legs and kiss your butt goodbye because you're gone. Well, but I think the most practical The most practical info On the podcast for like what do you do in the lightning storm? It's just move as quickly as possible to shelter And maybe that shelter is your car And you definitely would be better in a vehicle than just standing out

I was trying to get to this little rock Not really a cave with like this little ledge that you could kind of Because I was also being a baby about the rain I was like I didn't want to get soaked and sit for another six hours so I was going to try to get there. So that was my plan. I don't know if it... Which seems like it would be better.

Yeah. Yeah, because I would have been kind of... I would have been out of the elements only by a few feet with a basically that's a little shelf over me, but I just thought that was like a smart thing to do, just hunker down. Because I saw that the storm wasn't going to be this two or three hour storm. I knew it was just going to roll in, roll out. Yeah. Because you were saying you were hunting the same day. Yes.

We were. And our storm came through at a different time. Okay. It was later because it was like the last hour. hour of dark daylight yeah that it kind of it messed up our hunt because we got down early yeah we got down early on that day yeah I remember that storm because there were acorns the trees were full acorns and whenever the gust front came through it sounded like it was hailed at bear camp yeah and and it hailed like crazy over there for 20 minutes you know little right pee to dime

size hail oh hmm lightning wild I thought it was interesting the statistics about lightning that more people get struck in Florida like that's for sure more people die more people get struck in Florida but there's more lightning strikes per square mile per year in Oklahoma okay yeah I didn't know that about Oklahoma

I always knew Florida was like the lightning capital well but my interpretation of those statistics tells me that really Oklahoma is probably the lightning capital. More people just get killed in Florida because it's flat, a lot of agriculture, a lot of, I assume just a lot of people out doing stuff and boats and, and it's, it is really flat. I wonder how many of those people in Florida are on the water. I bet there's more people on the water. Yeah, there's a lot of ag in Florida, though.

Yeah. I was thinking about watermelon, big watermelon patches and different. workers out in fields and uh but yeah um it could be water related activities too i bet it is but i thought it was interesting that 90% of the people who get struck live i wouldn't have expected that yeah i didn't i always thought it was you're you're a goner if you get hit yeah yeah yeah me that that was interesting that was interesting i think it was interesting when when spence was talking about when he got hit And when he kind of roused up that all those chickens were dead around him.

I mean, that's got to be a rude awakening, you know what I mean, to see that. What year was that that he got hit? That was just this spring. It was last spring. Yeah. Yeah. I guess a year ago. A year and a half ago.

Yeah. A year ago, like February. The spring before you got struck. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It was a, that was a crazy day. I went to see him in the hospital after he got into the emergency room.

I mean, to all outward appearances, he was more or less fine. His feet were burned. You know what I mean? But he was joking. And, you know, I think he went home a couple hours later. Zach and Jessica were there. And Christy and I stopped to see him. Same thing happened with me pretty much.

Invites you front row for Iheart Live at the Horseshoe with Brent Smith and Zach Myers of Shinedown. Hear acoustic performances of fan favorites, second chance, a symptom of being human. and the brand new single Young Again. Plus, Shannon Burns sits down with the guys for an exclusive conversation about the music, the stories behind the songs, and what's next for Shindown? Search IHart Radio, CA on YouTube,

and stream the full experience today. Meat Eater's season opener sale is live, and if you've been waiting to gear up for your hunt, now's the time. Buy one, get one free on all Meat Eater T's and Hoodies. 50% off select game bags. and deals on gear from some of our favorite brands. First Light, Phelps, FHF, Moultry, Yeti, and more.

And for after the hunt, we have a limited time offer to save on our most popular seasonings like backstrap brew, campfire crust, and backcountry bark. Or get the six-pack to try them all. Our favorite time of year is right around the corner. Head over to the meat eater store.com

to check out our season opener sale. Once I felt safe and I got all my fluids back in and all the tests came back normal, I was kind of my jolly self. Just a little, my speech was like a little slow. So that's been almost a year ago. Yeah. Do you feel like you're 100% now? Yeah, I definitely got humbled with trying to get back into working out and training

because I just felt like I didn't do anything for multiple months. I just felt really weak in the gym and even just like normal walking. was like a little bit more of a chore for me. But overall, like actual, like heart issues, many brain issues. Nothing, nothing major. Just some minor, I definitely bruised my ribs because I kind of landed like this. Messed up my wrists, but no breaks. My wrist was sore for probably two or three months.

My ribs were bruised for about a month. My eye was. Yeah, John showed me the picture of that. Well done his head. It's unbelievable. It was. Oh, yeah. That's what, yeah, because part of the story.

story is when I finally got to the hospital. My wife still didn't know what happened. She was kind of putting the pieces together, but she saw the head, and that's when she tried to compose herself because she didn't want to freak. That came from an impact. I had a rock. That wasn't like, no, yeah, no, I had a rock when I landed. Yeah. And that's what, like, really made her realize, okay, this isn't just like a small fall, like, because it looked really bad. I mean, it was probably a baseball size coming out, and it was black and blue. And then all the swelling, went into my eye the next day. So she, that's, it was definitely a hard fall right onto like a little rock in the ground.

Were you, were you in pain whenever you were crawling out of there? Or was it, was adrenaline covering it up? Definitely took over my body. Initially, it was the breathing and like the shock and like the ringing and the white. I wouldn't necessarily classify as pain, but I knew something happened. It wasn't a normal body feeling because there was a split second where I just thought I fell. And I was like, finally catch my breath away. Maybe I could get back in the tree and ride this out. But then that's when my hat was all messed up. I didn't know about the head yet.

And I just nicked my head. And that just, that was like the first time I felt real pain from it. And I started getting nervous. And I said, okay, I got to get in the woods. But then going up, getting back to my truck is when my body just started feeling like I was like, almost like losing control. and it wasn't like a pain, but it was just weakness tingling. Like I lost the feeling of my left leg, my left hand. I couldn't even grip my bag or bow. And then my vision was just starting to blur out. And that's when it wasn't.

That was the electrical. See, it was either that or I hit my head here. So it either had to do with the hitting of the rock or. Because if I try to figure out where I don't think my body got hit. I think it hit tree, absorbed the, went to the tree, went through the stand, and then through my body.

And that's what threw me. I mean, I'm not a tiny guy. It was, I mean, I landed from here to bear a little bit further away. So if I just was to fall, I probably would have fallen back,

but I got shot or propelled out. And the way I landed was like this, but my arms here were bruised. And my sister was at PA school at the time, and the way she figures it out is from my muscles being clenched, and that's the lightning went through my arms, and that's what caused the bruise.

Because I didn't land like this, so I don't know why this arm was a bruised. Oh, both arms were bruised. Yeah, because I was tensed up. The second it hit me, that's what she kind of thinks happened. That's why there was mild bruising on my arms, because I didn't land like this.

If anything, I would have just been bruising on my side. So you were holding onto the stand. Yeah, I was getting... Probably would have come down. Yeah, right through the stand through, like, my arms and chest. But pain, back to the pain, really nothing until... I knew I definitely didn't feel good, but the adrenaline was definitely taken over.

I kind of was just out of it. And I was just so focused on, you know, getting back up and moving and getting to my truck and eventually getting help that I really probably didn't even try to focus on the pain. The pain definitely the night I got home and then for weeks later, it was just, I mean, it felt like I was back playing football again, just bruising and, you know, couldn't even. If someone tried to hug me, I was like, no, no, no, because it was just, everything was sore, like my full body. but and then the head just kind of normal the brute like the the the welts size went down right away but

I mean it looked like it was actually embarrassing going out in public because if you see someone the bruise eye black eye you kind of think they got in a fight but I got in a fight with lightning so like I kind of won didn't win maybe a draw but but yeah it wasn't the pain was definitely days and weeks after just like your normal body soreness and then the wrists I couldn't really do a lot with it, but no major, like, luckily, because if I, if I fell and wasn't out, I probably would have, I mean, definitely at that height in my size, I felt like I would have shattered, you know, an ankle like my dad did or shattered my wrist or something. So I don't know. Kind of just fell limp, literally fell out. Yeah, just got propelled out. Wow. Because naturally,

you, you would try to brace your fall, even though it's not this morning. You didn't perceive, like, just like a clap of thunder and a lightning bolt. It was kind of just like, you just like, it's blacked out. Yeah, it was seconds. I just remembered, like, time when you're going through those things, it's hard to go back and remember exactly. But I saw, I shot a couple text messages to my buddy, like, hey, what do you think? And check the cell.

And then when that lightning and loud thunder was two, 300 yards below me, that's when I was like, okay, instant, just kind of got into survival mode. I was like, okay, let me get down. grab my bow, or have my bow still in the stand. I actually left my bow, because my bow got shot out, had my bag. So your bow wasn't in your hand? No, my bow got shot because when I would climb. So you weren't holding your bow and... No, no, no.

My bow was on one of those little, you know, cheap screwing. It hit shot off the tree. Yeah, my bow, I'm trying to recreate. I'm trying to recreate the room, but like where your two hides are there is where the tree. And I landed here and then there's like a trail and then the bow was basically where your computer is. So that's when I was, because at first I thought I slipped. And that's where I'm trying to like gather and, you know, piece together what happened. You're like if that bow was on the hook.

Yeah. Like, because I was contemplating, which again, back to safety, which wouldn't have been safe. I was contemplating climbing because I didn't have time to get my bow rope out, you know, carefully put my Matthews in, lower it down. So I was like, let me just leave it. Um, but I, I did consider grabbing it and then kind of going down with one hand, but I didn't think that was safe. But no, I just had my, my bag was already at the base of my tree. And I just started going down. And then, yeah, when I woke up the bow, um, and then my arrow was, my, I, I should, I kind of play around with, uh, arrows, but I was using a beast broadhead. And that actually opened up. It was on the ground. Um, but yeah, it was, yeah, my bow was probably 10 or so feet from the tree. Hmm. Was the tree messed up at all? No, and that's another unique thing.

Maybe a little bit at the tippy top. It's kind of a dense canopy right at the edge of this little opening. And then the stand was slightly shifted. I don't know if that was my body pulling it or I think it was more so my body pulling it possibly from holding on. I don't know if the lightning pushed it, but didn't look. I've seen a couple trees that have been hit where there's kind of like a damage to the bark, but there was no true damage. I've only been back to the area twice, so I'm going to do a better look over it.

What was congruent with both of the stories we heard is Spence really didn't know what happened to him either. He just like all of a sudden was just blacked out. And it kind of makes sense, and we talked about it on the episode, about how lightning is traveling faster than sound. So it's going to strike you before you hear it.

Now, the flash you would see, because the speed of light would be as fast as, you know, I mean, so like perception of light seems like it could be something that you would see. But yeah, like, he just is like, just like out on the ground, like trying to figure out what happened. Yeah, because I was just, I was actually mad at myself for a second. I was like, how did I fall? Because again, you know, three points of contact. And I was like, there's no way I fell. I was almost like mad. I was like, how the heck did this happen? And then I just started putting two and two together. other. Yeah. Because again, back to falling, you typically would fall either straight back, like in a

cartoon, or to the side, but I was definitely more than a body's length over. So it was definitely projected out. And the way, and the angle of it, it wasn't just a natural climbing ladder. It was, I got shot this way in a sense. Wow. You think you were out for how long? Um, I would say north of a minute, max two minutes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm glad, like, I was kind of, trying to remember time, not for the podcast in a year, but kind of just for like safety-wise, like how long was I out? And it was roughly like 315, 3.30 when I realized I got hit. And then I got back to the truck right before, right after four, and then made it to the hospital right around 4.30. So it was, yeah, I definitely wasn't out for, you know, 20 minutes, 10 minutes, but it was enough to,

enough yeah it was at least two minutes okay how big was this bear you were after pretty big um i would say if it's not it's north of 350 probably right around that three is he coming in pretty regular he was on a rope i was just telling bear before we started i mean i i could basically tell you like hey i'm going to get a multery notification within the next five minutes and then i'd show you my phone it would pop up but then so the opener was 17 i got hit the 18th so it was probably the 15th. Have you got a picture of it? Yeah. You can show me? Yeah, I left my phone over there, but I'm actually thinking about starting

a new business that I'd like to share with y'all. It has to do with this. Okay. The most asked question that I get on any social media platform is people sending me their bare pictures asking me how much they weigh. How much it weighs? Yeah. And I'm just going to start like a cameo business

where you pay me like $5.99 for like a 30 second assessment of your animal. great I mean and I would just look at it and just make a little video and just be like man that's a good looking bear you know it's hard to tell without a structure in this is what I would say 90% of the time it's pretty hard to tell with one photo the size of this bear especially if there's no barrel or anything but I would say that bear is between 200 and 230 yeah thanks man ching little debit would go into my account With a tip option. With a tip option. Yeah.

And I'd bump up a little bit from what I actually thought. Really, it was 180, but I said 200, 230. A little bit. Yeah, hype them up a little bit. Y'all think that would work? Absolutely. Well, the bear I grew up being around in New Jersey, or typically bigger than the average Arkansas bear I've seen so far.

You also can't hunt directly overbate. You've got to be, I think, 300 feet from the bait pile in Jersey. So I've never, I didn't grow up doing any of the barrel hunting where, you know, you put the feet in, but that's a good way to kind of try to figure out the size of it. But he's big, because I've seen a few other ones that are probably 150, little less than 200 pounds, but he's got that big belly that drags, and he's got a pretty good size head. Because I think up in Jersey, someone taught us, like, the smaller the ears, the bigger the bear. I don't know if you've ever heard that because it's a bigger head, but there's some real big ones up there.

So when we used to see them bears, they were killing a 500-pound bear wasn't a crazy deal up in Jersey. Yeah, there are big bears up there for sure. Yeah. Speaking of Moultrie, did you have any pictures of you falling on the tree? No, I thought about that after my buddy asked me. My one friend was like, I wish you had like a GoPro strapped to the whole thing. Yeah. Because that would have been a cool clip.

But no, the way the angle was, yeah, I never really have gotten into filming or anything, but I kind of just have the one angle right towards the bait barrels. And I was kind of parallel with it behind it kind of. but now that would have been nice mm-hmm mm-hmm mm-hmm well

pretty interesting bear what's one thing did you learn anything about lightning just from Josh the the outlaw meteorologist I mean

yeah I mean I did not I would have thought if you had a metal if you had if you're carrying around a gun you'd have a better chance getting struck so that was the other reason

why I left my bow I was thinking the same thing I just remembered that I was like let me not have something in my hand. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I haven't thought about that this whole time, but that just clicked. Yeah, I would have thought if you had some metal, it would have got you. But I'm going to go, me and Josh, the outlaw meteorologist, next time there's a lightning storm, I'm going to say, hey, go stand out there with this metal rod. Yeah. If you're so confident in this, I still am not sold on that. I believe it's true. I'm torn on it because you're not, I'm not walking across the field.

You always hear a thing about golf courses because you always have a club. So you always hear about, I think there's a caddyshack, maybe there's a funny clip where the guy gets hit. He has like the best round of his life and gets hit on the 18th hole or something. But I always connect things to like, okay, don't be near metal, don't have a metal pole, don't have a efficient. Like you think like fishing rod, bow and arrow, a golf club. But yeah. But yeah, now, I mean, I didn't. Well, it also makes sense for that to be a great wives tale that people, like, where are golfers?

Yeah. They're out in the open. Exactly. out in the elements. And so like the golfer getting struck and he might have a club in his hand, but maybe it has nothing to do with the club. But to us,

because metal is a conductor of electricity and we know that, that it just makes sense. Well, he got struck because he had a golf club. Yeah. Yeah, and I thought about my turkey story of being in the lightning storm with a gun,

and my instinct was get rid of the gun. I threw the gun, you know. I don't think my tree got hit because of the stand because I was also thinking like, oh well there was two barrels 20 feet away there was the stand but i just think it was it's probably if it's not the biggest tree it's the second biggest tree in the area so maybe that had to do with it but at first i was thinking uh it was like oh it's because of the stand was attached to the tree that brought it there but i don't i don't have any actual evidence to that yeah so okay so that's

what you learned where yeah and then and then that it's likely to hit the highest the highest thing which makes sense and that it makes me not want to go get under a tree. Yeah. And that's why the hot tip for lightning is just whatever it takes, just get into shelter. Yeah. Like if you're, yeah, I would have thought if you're a mile away from your cabin, well, let's say half a mile. You're half mile from your cabin. Lightning Storm comes.

I would go shelter under a tree in the woods. I would have done the same thing. Yeah, me too. But I think the answer is forget that. Just keep moving. Keep moving. Even if you're walking through the middle of the storm. Yeah.

Because I can't remember. Did Spence say he definitely knows it hit the henhouse or he assumed? I mean, he killed the chickens in the hen house. Okay. And he was standing right by this hoop house that is at least 10 feet tall or 8 feet tall. Yeah. So. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So that's what you learned. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Josh, what did you learn? Did you learn anything from Josh? I think it was the not sheltering under things, like a tree or something.

Because that's always what I would have done. And yeah, just, I mean, it's so random. I mean, you can't really predict it. And that's why, again, like back to the question you asked me, that wasn't in the podcast about, like, are you doing any measures? You know, are you afraid? Are you going to go hunting again? You're going to hang it up?

That's why I keep going back to that story because I, in my mind, I did everything right, per se. I wasn't, you know, so crazy after this bear that I drove into the storm knowing it might happen. And I really, like, precaution-wise, maybe what I'll do now is I might get an extra set or like a garment. It's another way to have communication. Yeah. And maybe send out a couple more pins. of people, but I'm not going to like completely let it change the way I hunt or, you know, think about going outside whenever there's a storm.

You know, these guys that are getting struck out west, that's tough. Like if you're on a backcountry hunt and you're on top of some mountain, then a pop-up storm comes up. Well, those guys from Colorado, that's basically what happened. When they first found their bodies, they didn't even connect the dots to lightning. They thought it was hypothermia. Yeah. And then later, I think one of the doctors just saw a slight little sign that it was lightning.

And then they connected all the dots and realized it. Well, tell me what you said, Josh, about climbing the peaks out in Colorado. Yeah, when we went to go do Pikes Peak once, and they tell you, if you're doing a mountain, like there's lots of 14,000 foot mountains that you can climb in Colorado. They tell you that almost every day there's a pop-up thunderstorm afternoon. Wow. And so they tell you, if you're going to summit, when you're going to. you get above 12,000 feet, there's no trees because of the air's thin. So that last 2,000 feet you're going to be climbing, you're going to be out and open. And so they tell you, if you're

going to summit, you need to summit in enough time to get back down below the tree line by noon. Okay. Hmm. Hmm. Interesting. Yeah. One time, David, your son and I, we were in Colorado, and we were going to climb a big, I think it was like 13,500 foot mountain. And some guy, some hippie in a van, was like, yeah, man, be careful going up there. Every day around 2 p.m. There's pop-up storms.

And we were just like, oh, cool. And we went and did it anyway and got to the tree line about 2 p.m. And a big pop-up storm came. And we were going to, we didn't go, we stopped there and we actually just hunkered under a tree. because we were like, boy, was that a mistake? Exactly.

I think the pop-up storms are probably more dangerous. If I saw on my radar that morning, 100% chance in lightning, I wouldn't have went. I would have waited for the next day. So I think the pop-up concept of storms can make it more dangerous because you're not really thinking about it possibly happening. And the life lesson from that

is always listen to the hippies. Yes. Speaking of hippies, I just noticed, Josh, you have a beautiful bracelet. My wife had that made for me for my 26th anniversary. Oh, nice. Really? Mm-hmm.

It's copper and turquoise? Copper, turquoise, and there's some Alaska. Does it have any of these, you know, it's got electromagnetic benefits or anything? It's got organite in it, so it keeps my chi in the line. No, I'm just kidding. Man, speaking of hippies, I was in California the other day surfing. What, wait?

Oh, wow, that is a great story. And some guy, some guy comes up to me. And he has, and he was telling me about the power of his bracelets. And, like, he did it, he's like a surfer and he, like, made us all do like a test where, like, you sit on one foot and he, like, pushes down. I've seen something like this tip over. And then he, like, sprays this water on your hands. And then you don't tip over. It was kind of weird.

Did you pray after this? Yeah, I was going to say. I mean, I just, I've got power over anything like that. I'm not too worried about it. Okay. Your bracelets give you that power? You have bracelets too, buddy. No, I thought it was funny, though, because we were like...

It's just turquoise. This just makes me look super cool. It's working. It does, Josh. It does. It looks good. Yeah, we didn't know what the deal was, and he was like... We're like, how to...

What's the deal? And he was like, well, it's these bracelets right here. Hmm. What were the man out of? It was like silver or something. Oh. I can't remember. Or maybe you said like silver shorts out your body.

I can't. I remember. Man. It was, I'm low on jewelry except a wedding ring. I don't have any other jewelry. I was with Clay the day that he lost his original wedding ring, trying to pull an armadillo out of a hole. True.

Yeah, my original wedding ring is out in the Ozark National Forest to this day. One day, archaeologists will dig it up. And they'll be like, who was this? And they'll get leprosy from it from the armadillo. Maybe. well this has been exciting uh very electric this has been an electric conversation definitely uh anything anything else john anything else appreciate you sharing your story man i appreciate it yeah yeah i'm excited for another bear season hopefully get some redemption are you going to bear hunt this year yeah

i'm gonna um when are you gonna start baiting it's next week tuesday yeah tuesday okay yeah because i'm a little funny thing that happened in the hospital. My phone finally started working. The service came back and everything was working, and I just kept telling Chelsea, my wife, I was like, can I have my phone? Can I have my phone? And she's like, oh, don't worry, don't do anything.

Like, I'll call your parents. I was like, no, I want to check my trail camera. If that thing came in, I'm going to be very, very angry. It didn't. He didn't come in. No, he never came back, daylighted the rest of the season. So I technically didn't. Was he there the day before season?

The 15th was the last. And the season started on the 17th. And this was the 18th. Yeah. Yeah. That was, that's basically what happened to our bear this lunch. It was a big tease. I mean, I wasn't getting too arrogant with it, but I was like, okay, this might be the year.

And, but maybe it's this year. Maybe if I put less effort into it and think about it less and obsessed. This is the year. Yeah. This is the year. If not. Got a good season opener. No lightning.

It's a good year, I guess. Just getting back out in the woods and having fun out there. You're going to be in the same spot? Pretty much, yeah. Same tree? Yeah, I think I'll. Lightning never. Strikes the same tree twice.

Yeah, so I'll stick with the same tree. You could ride out of thunderstorm. Unless it's the tallest tree and... Yeah, I might chop the half top. Man, I would... I would be willing to bet my life that you could ride out a thunderstorm in that same tree. Yeah. No, I think I will.

I think he'd be willing to bet his life. Well, I said my life, but I want to be afraid that. I'd be willing to bet your life that you could do it. I'll probably won't even get down next time. Yeah. Oh, you should get down, John. You should get down. You should get down.

well all right well uh this was a fun a fun little yeah thank you for having me fun little deal here I learned a lot about lightning um man

who knows what's going to happen next on bear grease but I continue to build out all my stuff for the book book is rapidly progressing we're working on the cover

we're working on blurbs getting people to there's a whole bunch of stuff that happens after you're finished that's interesting so it's coming up i'm going to talk about it yons futelis tells me to talk about the book every episode so american bear coming out february 9th 2027 february 9th that's the release date sweet i'm gonna get two copies i'm gonna get one for my son there you go hunter matthew born a father today really yeah just recently yeah mm-hmm Hunter Matthews. Oh, that's great, man. Cool.

These are a little blessing. Yeah. Yeah, we didn't even talk about you hearing the baby crying. Yeah, that was a cool, kind of an interesting part of it, because I sometimes get emotional with it. But, yeah, it was like five days later, I just remember it was like, what was that? What woke me up? And, I mean, you got kids.

That distinct, like, newborn cry, it's not like what you see in the movies or when you have, like, a six-month-old cry. Yeah. And, yeah, we were kind of, I don't want to say battling infertility, but it took us around 10 months. And it was a little frustrating and a kind of stressful time in our life. And then, yeah, so September 18th, it was like early October. I remembered about the crime, I didn't really think about it. I had a brother that passed as a newborn.

And my mom's always said, like, he's with you and he's always, you know, watching over you. So I kind of thought maybe it's my brother. But then she called me frantic. She's like, we're pregnant. and we did like three or four tests that day. And then I remember... This is like a couple weeks after. Yeah, so it was right around...

Yeah, the first week of October we found out. So there's a chance she was pregnant, you know, at that actual, you know, September 18th, or it was pretty close after that. Because I made a crew joke, but I had to cancel a mule deer hunt for October 1st. And I was like, if I can't go on this hunt with my buddies, we're going to try to get this baby thing going. but yeah so then you know fast forward like I have family and friends make a joke that you know the lightning kind of got me uh riddle again and maybe I can write a book about you know wise tales of lightning strikes if it doesn't make you be able to call down rain maybe it fixes infertility

well yeah it sounds like it then yeah father's day she goes in the labor and that um the nurses kept asked me like oh you queasy around blood and everything and I'm like no no like I've you know been around it and then but that moment he came out and I heard that cry. It just sent like chills down my body because it was like the exact distinct newborn cry. Because I've never heard a newborn cry. My first kid, I don't have any nieces or nephew. So it was a cool part. I don't really know all about it. I mean, I believe in a higher power, but it was definitely, maybe he was looking after me. So yeah, yeah, it was pretty cool. That is awesome. That is. All right. Thanks, everybody. Keep the wild place as wild because that's where

the bear's believe. Awesome. Thank you for having me. Hunting season is right around the corner, and first light season opener sale kicks off August 18. You can save up to 40% site-wide, and this year they're rolling out new 24-hour daily deals throughout the sale. So it's worth checking back every day because those deals are going to change. There are also a few pieces I really like that are on sale for the first time ever, including the 308 pant and navigator hoodie. If you've been waiting to replace some worn-out gear, fill a hole in your system, or just get ready for the season.

Now's the time. Head over to firstlight.com and gear up for the season. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.