Bear Grease - Ep. 508: Render - Whitetails, Woodsmen, and The Way We Used to Hunt

Episode Date: September 30, 2026

It's Whitetail Week at MeatEater! Host Clay Newcomb is joined by hunting icon of his youth, Aaron Stanphill. They talk about growing up hunting whitetails in Arkansas before trail cameras, feeders, and the technology that has transformed deer hunting. Aaron and Clay reminisce about learning to read the woods, studying deer sign, hunting public land, and figuring things out through trial and error. Aaron shares the story of finally killing his first Pope & Young-class Arkansas buck after 30 years of hunting, along with some of the legendary characters and lessons that shaped him as a deer hunter, with no shortage of additional entertaining stories to boot. The conversation turns back to the Bear Grease Con Man series on Asa Carter, exploring the contradictions of a man who could write with extraordinary empathy while also becoming one of the most notorious voices of segregation in the American South. The crew shares their opinions on questions like: What does it mean when a person changes? Can a man's later life tell us anything about who he really was? And don't forget to check out the Ultimate Whitetail Giveaway. Go to the Meateater store and sign up to win a pile of amazing gear along with a hunt with Mark Kenyon and Jordan Budd. 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.

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Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned about your gambling or that of someone close to you? Visit connectsonterio.ca. Meteeter and bestselling author Brian Burrow present Gunfighters, a new podcast series about the American West and the violence that made its most legendary figures infamous.

Davis Tutts staggered forward, shouted, boys, I'm killed. Healed over dead. Listen to Gunfighters, starting on September 15th on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 tocova's boots i'm a cowboy boot man and i've been wearing tecova's for years they're the most comfortable boot i've ever put on good boots for good times welcome to the bear grease render we are a light crew today but

Not in the spirit. We're not light. We're heavy. When you have a guest like Aaron Stanfield, you don't need more people. You just need a bigger microphone. He's got enough personality for three guests. Well, it's not personality. It's just gravitas.

Jinks. I don't know what I've got to offer this podcast. Gravitos Stanfield. You guys are blowing me up. It just means you're big on the inside. No, this is our guest, Aaron Stanfield. He's sitting in the, you're in the Tocovas hot seat. Do you know this?

I did not. Do you see the boots right here? You see the boots on the chair? So you are in the Tukovas hot seat, and because of that, you're going to get a free pair of Tukovas. Did you know that? I had no idea. You had no idea. That's good.

That's always a good surprise. Thank you very much. For real. Josh is going to give you. We'll get you set up to get a pair of Tocovas. You can get a pair of cowboy boots, you can get some clothes, or you can get a new. pair their new line of work boots. Or you could see in that you're a blue-collar hard-working man.

There we go. Or you could buy your wife a dress. Hey, that might work too. That could be good. Some brownie points. I'm needing them right now. Yeah. The brownie points are the boots.

I'm needing brownie points every fall. Okay. I've got to put Aaron in the context. First of all, Aaron is a very accomplished, incredible whitetail deer hunter. but even more important than that is the way that he was introduced to me. The way that you meet someone is often important. Like if you thought someone wasn't very substantial, like if you perceived them as not that substantial,

for whatever reason, I don't mean that derogatory, but just, you know, just like, but then you got to know them and they were in fact substantial. It would be different than if they were introduced, to you as incredibly substantial

and then they actually were. Oh. So here, so young Clay Newcomb put yourself into the scene. Young Clay Newcomb at the University of Arkansas. I am 21. Oh man. And I am working with Scott Brown

at the produce department at the Fayetteville Walmart Super Center. And Scott Brown is like, four years older than me, maybe three. But when you're in high school, three or four years is a lot. I mean, the difference between a freshman and a senior is just, I mean, you just look up to these people. And Scott Brown was from me in Arkansas.

I would have been a freshman, I believe, when he was a senior. And he was like the ultimate white tail hunter. He still is. Yes. I got a story about Scott Brown later, too. I do, too. We sure talk a lot about Scott Brown, but we will never have him on this podcast. We need to have Scott Brown on the podcast.

Scott's a busy man. So I'm in college. I'm working with Scott Brown, a very good deer hunter from Mina. And Scott just like takes me under his wing. And it was like big grasshopper, little grasshopper. And Scott Brown, I just listened to him talk for years. Tell me stories.

And he talks. talked about the standfields like they were bigger grasshoppers than even him. So imagine the little grasshopper is me. The big grasshopper is Scott. And Scott Brown, I say this, and it's become more and more clear over time to me, his influence. Just like it, just the right time. Scott taught me how to love a particular place. It was interesting because we weren't in Mina.

We had moved away from our hometown. Sure. We were both from there. And he, the way he talked about the mountains and the hunting and the people back home was really significant. I actually think it was more significant that we weren't there. And so he really loved the mountains, and he could describe them, and he understood mountain hunting for deer and turkey. cardinal directions.

Every story told by Brown is going to include multiple cardinal directions from every direction. Yeah. Like when you're walking to the truck, back to the truck, cardinal direction is going to be stated. This is a long introduction, but just hang on. Just hang on. So Scott, he did that, but Scott Brown also taught me how to tell a story. And I wouldn't have known it. But he was a master storyteller.

And he came by it honest because he. His dad is Andy Brown. The Andy Brown. Aaron, I would jump on an airplane today and travel across the country if I knew somebody else like Andy Brown. Absolutely. I'm serious. I do that. That's what I do for a living.

And I've yet to find anybody that could tell a deer or turkey story quite like Andy Brown. It's true. And Scott is a first runner up. Yes. Scott takes a little bit more to get going. I've learned. He does. So, 21-year-old Clay Newcomb, under the tutelage of Scott Brown, and they're talking about the

Stanfills who live over Madison County. Mythical Stanfills. The mythical Stanfills who are deer-killing, white oak acre and finding deer hunters. And me and you go hunting. So one day Scott goes, we're going over to the management area. and I get to come along and he goes, we're going to ride with Aaron.

Do you remember that? I do. And I was just like a little peanut in the back of the truck, just like a little kid. And we drove to the management area and we hunted together. And y'all dropped me off

and then y'all went off somewhere out. Do you remember that? I'm sure we put you in a garhole somewhere. I actually could probably take you almost to the tree of where I hunted. I remember it. But, no, so you and your brother were, we had met Scott and he's got this group of guys from Mena and just were big deer hunters. Yeah, and we've reunited just the last few years.

As a matter of fact, last fall I got to go down and camp with them for a week, and it was fantastic. Had just a great time. But, yeah, they were great guys. I met all of them guys in Fayetteville, probably about 1997-ish. Yeah. I'm just guessing. Yeah. Yeah.

Fine people. Some of my best friends in the world. Now, where did you, what town did you grow up in? Green forest, Arkansas. Green forest. Mm-hmm. Which is Carroll County. Carroll County.

Not Madison County. Yeah. My dad, him and all his buddies kind of cut their teeth hunting on some public ground over there in Carroll County. There wasn't a lot of deer back then. And the only place there was any deer was over around. what you were spring so yeah um we started hunting over there as kids and uh there was a lot of deer that's what made us good was there was a lot of deer it wasn't because we knew anything about anything we were just the only guys that were hunting over there i think so uh you give me a lot of

credit we there wasn't a lot of pressure and there was a deer behind every tree it seemed like for a few years there so yeah it was good times a lot a lot has changed since then but uh We weren't trophy hunting whatsoever. We were just happy to kill a deer. Those are the best times of my life, looking back. I wish we could go back to those days. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Did your dad bow hunt? Or did you and Aaron just get in, or you and Andy get into it? No, dad didn't bow hunt. I think he tried a little bit, but back then it was just hard. Bowes were terrible, arrows were terrible. Broadheads were terrible,

and he just, I don't think he had time to really, you know, pursue it like you needed to. They were big rifle hunters. They'd go for 10 days. I think season went open on a Monday, and they had about 20 guys, and they'd go over there and just have a big time, you know. Did they run dogs? They did. They ran dogs.

I think they outlawed the dog deal. In the 90s. Was it in the 90s? They did run dogs. They made drives. They would just go sit on their, they'd get up at 4 a.m. and cook a big deer meat and egg breakfast, and then, hunt till 9 or 10 and come back in

and then run dogs and then all go to the stands of an afternoon too and if they didn't run dogs they'd just make drives for each other you know push them out and bark like a dog yeah yeah and everybody had their own bark

you know so yeah I kind of got in on the tail end of that we just got to run dogs a few times but it was fun yeah yeah what's you killed a bunch of

Big deer around here. I mean, I'm kind of going for the jugular vein, like a throat punch. What's the biggest deer you've killed? 179. Was it in here in Arkansas? No, I was in Kansas. In Kansas. I shot a, it's crazy.

When you're young from Green Forest, Arkansas, you grow up, you watch these real tree videos, you know. Yeah, Chess. All we had was cassette tapes, and you would watch these people shoot these 150, hundred and sixty, a hundred and sixty inch deer. And that was an unachievable goal where I grew up. I had never even seen a deer like that.

And, uh, I hunted 30 years. Shoot a Boone and Crocket dealer. And I shot one in 2002, uh, in Benton County. Um, scored 174. Holy smokes.

And, uh, 30, I hunted 30 years to kill that deer, you know. That was the, that was the, that was the deal.

kid as a trash. And that was in Arkansas. That was in Arkansas and then 13 days later, went to Kansas and shot at 179 and just, you know, he killed two and two sits. 30 years. After 30 years of not killing one. Yeah. It's just a number, but it's a, it's something to a deer hunter, you know? Yes. All you ever wanted to do was shoot a Popen Young Whitetail for so many years. And I don't know that we had a, it's a deer hunter. You know? Yes. Um, all you ever wanted to do was shoot a Pope and young whitetail for so many years and I don't know that we had them and if we did have them I didn't see any I just I just just wasn't around them you know we all of those deer you're talking about that made me so famous were 90 inch eight corners and do's and lots of doze button bucks that was the king of the button bucks

yeah we were not we weren't big some trophy hunter uh special you know specialty but hunter but deer hunting has progressed with technology and the way that we pursue white tails here now has totally changed the game. Good or bad. I don't think there's a right or a wrong way. It's whatever you enjoy doing. We went from hunting ridges and guessing,

scrapes, rubs, saddles, to running cameras and cornpaws. And when you do this, that, the size of your deer is going to go up, period. And for lots of reasons, a lot of guys are running a lot of cameras, and they see what's on their camera. And when there's 130-inch or 150-inch or they're letting the 130-inch deer walk, and he's getting bigger.

So although we're killing bigger deer, I think that there's a lot more, there's a lot more bigger deer around because we're letting him get of age, if that makes any sense. So I've killed a lot of Pope and young white tails, but most of them have been on a corn pole. And it's just the way it is. I'm not not proud of it. It's just a different way. It's just a different way. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's a lot of work. I was just talking to Josh about bear hunting while I go. It says, man, that's the hardest part of the whole deal. Yeah. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, going from, well, what kids today might not have, not all kids wouldn't have it. But if you were just introduced to deer hunting just on hunting a corn pile, it might be different than what you and I both grew up hunting. I mean, there were no trail cameras. and there was no feeding deer. It was actually legal

for a long time but just no one, I didn't know anybody that did it. It was unheard of and I worked at a feed mill. I bagged corn all day every day. Range cubes and I didn't even think about dumping any on the ground.

Yeah. I would have not, I'm so glad that I was raised like I was. Like you learned about deer and that's what I learned. I learned from hearing Scott talk about y'all and Scott was really good at at terrain features I mean master at terrain features deer sign using this landscape to kill deer just on natural patterns on public land I mean and that's what y'all are doing and he's the best I've

ever been around yeah without a doubt yeah but that's what we were doing the exact same thing Yeah. It had to be a woodsman. Yeah. Had to figure it out. And you figured it out by trial and error. You just failed a lot. Yeah.

The more you failed, the better you got. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I miss it. All of my best stories and best times were from those, you know. Yeah. It's struggle. Technology is a struggle.

It's in the fishing world as well. You know what? I would support today if it became completely illegal debate, deer. Without a doubt. And take forward-facing sonar away from bass fishermen. And what? Take LiveScope away? Absolutely. It's the same thing. That I wouldn't have as much, I wouldn't have as much insight into, but I hear people say that.

Yeah. It's kind of the same thing. Live scope is the corn pile of the bass fishing world. Is that what you're saying? Live scopes, the cell camera. Cell camera. Live camera. Yeah. That makes sense. And there's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing wrong with it.

It doesn't belong at the top end of our sport, for sure. In competitive fishing, it doesn't belong. Now, can you use it in competitive fishing? Yeah, oh, yeah. Locally, for sure. Yeah. It's such a big controversy right now. They're going back and forth and the professional levels, whether you can or can't.

Some you can, some you can't. Some do half the tournament's with and half without. It's just... Really? You know, the worst part of all these debates and talk about the ethics of technology or the legality of all these things is really someone's perception of what someone else thinks about it. If I mean, like, I've killed plenty of deer over a corn pile. I mean, and it's ridiculous for someone from some other place that can't bait deer to

look at people wherever you can bait deer and be like oh those guys don't know how to deer hunt trust me we know how to deer hunt and we want if you want to kill a big deer it's a very good way to do it and it's also very hard and i mean it's it's i you know there's all these trolls that would that would have no experience with it right um but if we didn't know any different I mean, it's still an experience with a wild animal in a wild place. And Daniel Boone was probably having similar arguments with people about technology back in the day. I mean, I think it's a never-ending cycle that's kind of increased like with this, you know, with technology. I mean, when we went from single-shot muzzleloading rifles

to like automatic, you know, a repeater, a gun that would shoot multiple bullets without you having to reload. Guys were sitting around going, man, these young guys, they don't even know. Yeah, I think it ought to be illegal to use an automatic rifle. That will shoot a bullet one after another quickly. I mean, you know, like there's this unending. But at the same time, there's got to be a limit to it.

Or maybe there's not. I don't know what the limit is, and I don't know if it's right or if it's wrong. I think you just have to... I think it's just up to each individual guy. If you're enjoying what you're doing, keep doing it. But doesn't that give me the right to ridicule and berate you

to make me feel better by the way that I hunt? There's no doubt that if you're not baiting white-tailed deer and you're killing giant white-tailed deer, even if you're not killed. Who cares about the horns? If you're not baiting, I think it's more rewarding. Here's the problem, Clay.

If you went out today and just set out there on a persimmon tree and a 100-inch six-point walked up, when you have your compound bow, are you going to shoot him? Probably not. Why? I'm not going to.

Why? Because I'm trying to kill a bigger deer. I would. I would. that's great great we need more of that because I don't have a wall like this

but in saying what I just said I wouldn't either because I want a wall like that I get it and I hate to admit it but I will I don't think I can go out there and kill a 150 inch deer

in the woods right now just sitting on a persimetry or scrape and if I can it's going to take me all season. Yeah. Yeah. And I think our time today seems more important and more restricted than it ever has been. And people seem busier.

Maybe it's because we were 18 and all we had to do was go to a class maybe or maybe not and then go to go hunt. But it seems like we have a lot of obligations now. A lot of that depends on, too, where you're from. So much of our whitetel, our understanding of the whitetail world comes from, media produced in the best places in the world to hunt a white tail. Absolutely. We don't live in the best place in the world to kill a white tail. To kill big white tail.

I mean, like, if we were, if we owned 400 acres in Iowa. Sure. I mean, I'm not saying that's easy. I'm not taking anything away from people in prime country in the Midwest. But without a doubt, just as certain as you say, and it's more rewarding to kill a deer out in the woods than on a corn pile. It is easier to kill a big deer in incredible big deer country. Yeah.

So you could go to someplace like that and kill big deer. I know for a fact you could. Absolutely. They're there. Absolutely. It's different here. The guys that are killing big deer here in the woods, your buddy Moe, these guys, man, hats off to them.

There's just a few of them. It's hard. Thermals, the mountains, the whole deal is, it's hard. Real hard. It just makes it easier. Technology makes it easier. Yeah. And corn piles makes it easier.

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Must be 19 years of age or older to play. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned about your gambling or that of someone close to you, visit connectsonterio.ca. It's Steve Ronella here, and it is Whitetail Week at Meat Eater. That's right, the most anticipated week of the year. Whitetail Week at Meat Eater. are open, bucks are making rubs, and all week we're going deep on the most hunted big game animal in America.

We're also running the ultimate white tail giveaway. The sort of the premier part of this package is you win a hunt with Mark Canyon and Jordan Budd at Jordan Budd's family ranch in Nebraska, where I have hunted. Jordan is cool as hell. Her family's ranch is cool as hell. It is great hunting. You're going to have a blast. Plus, you get gear, free gear, from over 20. brands.

So keep an eye on meat eater channels all week and head to the meat eater store to sign up. No purchase necessary. Get all your rules at the meat eater store. Yep. Well, if we haven't said it yet, it's Whiteale Week. Yes. It's Whiteale Week, Meat Eater. My best radio voice.

Yeah, they're doing the big ultimate White Tail giveaway, which has a huge prize package, including a hunt with Mark Keny. and Jordan Budd on her Nebraska farm. Yeah, it's a pretty incredible list of gear. What kind of gear have they got? Packs and rifle and all, I mean, just anything you could ever want, clothes from First Light, I mean, everything, everything. I mean, you could be a non-hunter,

and all of a sudden have the gear of Clay Newcomb, basically. I don't have that great a gear, Josh. Compared to some. That's true. That's true. Yeah, Whitetail Week. at meat eater. Check it out. The ultimate white tail giveaway,

you can go to the meat eater store and sign up. You don't have to make a purchase. We're adding to that package, a hunt with Aaron. In crappy woods. You can't kill a big deer in. Yeah, Clay's backyard. Yeah.

Oh, man. Now, I did, so Aaron and his brother told the story, or maybe it was just your brother. I can't remember if it was both y'all, but your brother killed a two. 220-inch deer. Holy.

How big was it? 203, I think. 203, up in Kansas. Giant deer. It wasn't very wide. Maybe 14 inches. No way. It was like this wide.

Monster. But it had bases as big as Coke cans. That's right. Coke, you hear, they hear the room of the stories about. It had bases like Coke cans. It really did. Wow. That's unbelievable.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Year of a lifetime. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Was it over a corn pile? It was. Yeah, you can hunt them over corn in Kansas.

A lot of deer in Kansas get killed over corn. Missouri can't bait. At all? Even on private land? Yeah, you can't bait at all in Missouri. Yeah. Yeah. But Kansas, you can.

Kansas, you can for sure. Well, shoot. Tell us your favorite story, Aaron. I remember... Pretend like we're in the truck with you. Well, and we're 21 years old. Listen, he's already told this story, but one of the funniest stories, and it has a touch of crassness to it,

but the kind of crassess that would be acceptable on the Bear Grease podcast was... And this story probably was funnier coming through Scott Brown about Aaron. But do you know what story he's talking about? There's so many. Well, this story was, it was, Aaron was sitting in a tree. I mean, I think he's literally told us on this podcast, sitting in a tree. And he was watching a deer, a doe deer feeding on acorns. And an acre would fall out of the tree and hit the ground and make a noise,

and that dough would just go right to those acorns. And you started noticing when acorns fell, she was following the sound of the acorns. And so what did you do? It was actually a button buck. And he was even better. A mature button buck, right? 50-pounder.

I don't know. I can't believe we're even talking about this again. You want me to finish the story? You can just correct me? Yeah, go ahead. Okay, so Aaron's watching this button buck, and it's hearing Akron's drop. and going to acre and after acre and all of a sudden, and the deer's out of bow range,

and Aaron needs to pee. Okay, now this is where, it's not crass, but, you know, I mean, you don't talk about urination often and mixed company. But he, and so Aaron's like, man, I got to pee. And so he was like, I bet if I, I bet if I just kind of let a little bit out and kind of pinch it up, squeeze it off. Well, the thought was it wouldn't spook the deer.

I don't, I don't think it first. You weren't trying to call a, no, I don't think it first I was trying to call the pea- no, that's not. Looking back, I was just trying to go the bathroom. And I went a little bit, but I didn't want to go, you know, the whole street. I thought it might scare the deer, so I just went a little bit.

And he just threw his ears up and just started coming to me. He thought it was like a rain of acres. A bunch of them fell off that limb, you know? Yeah. So I just kept doing it a little bit. Just br-br-br-dr-br-d-you- And here he comes. Yeah.

I called him right underneath the tree and shot him. So I don't know. I'm sure that's been done before, but. I'm trying it. Yeah, it worked. I've, I've... I mean, look, just try to find a real smart button box I'm wearing it. Well, you know, I mean, the strategy of,

carrying a handful of acorns up in a tree and dropping them out of the tree. See, I wasn't even smart enough think about that. I mean, I'm not saying I would have been either, but I've done stuff like that before. Yeah. And I mean, if you're in an area with limited acorns, sure, when they're hunting them like they're doing that, which they do. I mean, you can hear an acorn fall for a long ways. They're doing it right now. And I mean, you know, they're just out of bow range or something and drop an acre.

Man, I was out on Saturday. A piece of gravel. And I set up right beside a gigantic white oak. And it just rained acorns the whole evening, and I didn't see Jack nothing. Well, it's probably because there were every white oak in the country. Was there any deer sign under your white oak tree? Well, it looked beat down, but I didn't see any scat or anything. I was kind of in a hurry to get in the stand, so I didn't go to my ideal spot that I had to go.

grew up. Gary Believer Newcomb taught himself to bow hunt in the 1970s when archery equipment came out, became kind of commercialized and people started buying compound bows. And everybody, I mean, just without fail, everybody before that time period, they were gun hunters. And now, obviously Fred Barron and the Pope and Young guy, there were some elite group of people that were using traditional archery, but it was a very few, so few people. And so in the 1970s, I believe it was a Jennings compound bow that was one of the first that it was kind of mainstream and hit the market. And guys started shooting compound. And compounds were easier enough that it was like accessible to the world.

And so technology. Yes. And so dad grew up bird hunting quail with my grandfather and had one time went hunting with somebody of his and killed a forked horn. with a shotgun, I think, in front of a dog. Like in the early 70s, late 60s. So he had killed one deer. But he started bow hunting. And he said he started going and asking people, you know, like,

how do you kill a deer? And he basically found out quickly that nobody knew how. Like these gun hunters had just kind of, he said they just kind of went out in the woods and did drive. and all this stuff. Sure. And there was one guy in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and I've forgotten his name.

He had a nickname. Might have been bear. I can't remember. But this guy took him out and taught him about just the simplicity of just what deer sign was. And Dad didn't even know what a deer track looked like. He saw a calf track out on public land

where they're free range in cattle. And he called the guy over. and said, I got a deer track, and it was a track of a calf. And the guy was like, that's not a deer. Anyway, he told dad about deer tracks and about deer droppings. And he showed him a pile of deer droppings. And it took some time, but dad was like, well, I guess deer every day are going to, you know, leave droppings. And wherever they leave droppings, that's where they're stuck.

when they do it, I bet if I found a place that had a lot of droppings, that that would mean that that deer was spending a lot of time there. And, you know, it was just like this equate, you know, this monumental equation. Like, he'd never read about it. He'd never seen a video. And he just starts going through the woods, just looking for deer droppings. And he finds a white oak tree that was rain and acorns in the midst of a ecosystem that was basically a pine plantation regrowth ecosystem with hardwoods left in the creek bottoms. So there was limited amounts of oaks. And he talks about, you know, he could tell the story to you, but he talks about finding

this big old, beautiful white oak tree that was just rain and acorns. And he said, he starts looking and he says, I mean, there's so many piles of deer droppings, he can't even count them. and he goes and gets his ladder stand, which was a aluminum ladder, like that you buy at the store, that he had built a platform that went up against the tree

and carries it in there, sets it up like 10 feet off the ground in this pine tree out in the middle of all this, no cover. And he goes, and it was in a place in Arkansas called Hollywood. He talked about going down to Hollywood. Hollywood. And so he climbs up in this ladder stand for the first afternoon hunt. He's found it

this morning. He's like, I mean, I guess there's a lot of deer here. There's deer droppings. And they're fresh. And he sets in that tree and he talks about just deer after deer, after deer comes to this white oak tree and he misses. I can't remember the details. I think he missed one. And then he finally ends up killing one and it just clicked and then Gary Newcomb credit to him for being a survivalist if he was like a if he was a species of animal that was on the landscape that just had to figure out a niche to survive in he would have done it because he that's all he did for the rest of his hunting career to this day he doesn't look for buck sign he doesn't look for tracks.

He doesn't care about seeing a deer. He could be driving down the road and see 30 deer jump the road, and he'd drive right past that spot and go where there's acorns and deer droppings. And my whole life as a kid, we walked around the woods looking for deer droppings and acorns. Acorns and deer droids all we wanted to do. That's how I grew up hunting. It works. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Yeah. Yeah. I think somewhere in the progress of deer hunting, guys went from trying to kill deer meat, put food on the table, to it being a sport. There's a major difference. You know, when you're making deer drives, you could care less what deer are doing or where they're at. You just want to see one and you want to shoot it. When you start archery hunting like your dad, you're making things more difficult because it's a sport. It's a challenge. And when you start doing that, you've got to try to figure it out. You know, it's much harder. So, yeah, credit to him. Yep.

Well, times have changed. Times have changed, but there's still a lot of young people learning about deer and doing it the right way. Maybe not a lot. I got a story for you. I was in Walmart on Saturday. and I was standing in the hunting section and I had this 15-year-old boy come up to me. Clearly, clearly had, you know, kind of grown up in town

and never hunted. And he came over to me and he goes, what do I do for killing a deer? And I was like, and I kind of like, what do you mean? And he goes, he goes, what do I do to kill a deer? Are you speaking in dialect? He was a Hispanic kid. And I was like, first of all, I was proud of the kid for coming up to me and asking.

You know what I mean? And I had just gone. He saw that mustache. He's like, this guy knows how to kill him. Well, the funny thing was, I had just worked out. So I was just in my workout clothes. I didn't look like a hunter per se. And I said, well, I said, do you have a hunt license and a hunter education card?

And he goes, no. And I said, well, that's what you need first. So let me tell you how to do it. And so I told him that he's like, okay. And then I said, then you got to get some kind of weapon to hunt it with, you know, a crossbow or a bow or a rifle. And then you got to find yourself a piece of land. But I was just proud of him that he kind of put himself out there to say, hey, I'm going to, this guy's standing in the hunting section. He must know something.

And I'm like, I'm like, I don't know what would be in this kid's world that would make him want to hunt. but I was just excited to see this. Did he get any information from it? I mean, did he have any connection to it? I should have asked him more questions. I was in a little bit of a hurry, but I wanted to give him the resources that he needed to at least get started.

You know, he told him he could do his hunter education card online. But I was, yeah, I was excited to see an interest. Something must have piqued his interest about it for him to stand in Walmart and ask some stranger how to do it. And it was, I loved the innocence of his question, too, like, how do I kill a deer? You know what I mean? Not like, what do I need or what kind of bow should I get? But you just like, I don't know anything.

How do I kill a deer? How do I kill a deer? So it was a neat interaction with this kid. Ben LaGrone, I'd ran into Ben LaGrone, who's been on the render. And we both kind of educated him as quick as we could there. Oh, Ben was standing there, too? Yeah, I'd run into Ben in the hunting section because his daughter, journey was getting ready to go hunt and she killed a deer.

but we both talked to this kid for 10, 15 minutes and just kind of helped him out. But that was encouraging to me to see interest from a kid who clearly didn't grow up in a hunting family, you know. Yeah, yeah. Instant gratification has changed humans entirely. And I think now when you take a young kid hunting, their opportunity for success is so much better than it's ever been. in. So, big difference in hunting and killing. I mean, kids have got an excellent opportunity now to go get in the woods and kill

a deer. And that's what they're after is instant gratification. So the technology's made it that way. And I hope that there's a lot of kids out there now that are hunting. I don't know the numbers. But I do know you could take a young kid that's never hunted before and in one afternoon probably get them to harvest a deer of some kind. And that was just unheard of when we were kids. Yeah. Absolutely unheard of.

It's probably hard for people to understand. But when I was in high school, I was the only kid in my grade who had killed a deer with a bow. You know, when I was 15. Sure. And it was a big deal. Big deal. I mean, I was kind of a big deal. I felt like a big deal.

Absolutely. You know, that I'd killed a button buck with a bow. when I was 15. Yeah. And I think today, I mean, you know, there are more kids hunting, I think. That would have been like mid-90s? Yeah, 94. 94.

That's pretty wild to think that you would have been the only kid. Now, there were other kids that had killed beer with rifles. But I was the only kid in our grade that had killed a deer with a boat. Was there a bow shop then? Oh, yeah. In Mina? Yeah. But just young people weren't out there bowhunting.

Well, people were bow hunting, but it was just hard to kill one. You know, I mean, nobody was hunting over a corn pile. I mean, we were just hunting public land just hunting them. And I mean, I would hunt all season with dad, you know, hunting every weekend from October until gun season. And I mean, maybe have one interaction with a deer within bow range. That's pretty much the way our hunting was. Absolutely. Hunting, hunting.

And, you know, we weren't hunting during the week. We were hunting just the weekends. We didn't hunt on Sunday because we went to church. Not that we thought it was bad to hunt on Sunday, but we just didn't very much. So, you know, Friday and Saturday, Friday afternoon, Saturday, maybe one afternoon during the week we'd go. Yeah. And if I had one interaction with a whitetail deer in Bow Range during the entire season, from the time I started hunting, which, you know, I was pretty young when I started hunting,

but it took several years. How old were you the first time you hunted with a bow? Fourth grade. Okay. So I was 11 years old. I could pull 40 pounds in the fourth grade. See, I don't think I hunted with a bow until I was 16 or 17. Really?

Yeah. And then you were already a legend by the time you were 21. Well, that's what I was getting at. I mean, you, you shoot 480-inch deer, and then you're a, you know. That's a hundred, that's a legend. 240-inch buck. That's a 240-inch buck when you had them all together. Yeah.

Yeah, they were making me a lot bigger deal than I want us. But we did get on a roll. We did get on a roll over there for several years. It was a lot of fun. And when we finally got climbing tree stands, it really changed the game that were good. And you can move around. Oh, that really changed it. Yeah.

Yeah. We had climbing tree stands before, but they, they weren't very good. They were them old metal ones and loud. That first, first deer you killed with a bow, was it on the ground? Shut it off the ground. Yeah. You two? Or was it from a tree stand?

Tree stand. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Shot mine off the ground. Had a Carol intruder. P.C. Carol intruder. Really?

I've never heard of a Carol intruder. Yeah. That's what it was. What did the Carol stand for? I don't know. Was it a girl's bow, Aaron? I mean, it may have been. Not that there'd be anything wrong with a girls' bow.

It was a Carol intruder, and I shot a PAPES, yellow, and pink-fletching 2413 camouflage area with a Terminator 125 or Broadhead. He bought Walmart. Had serrated blades on it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yep. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Deer killing machine. Oh, it was. Yeah. Yeah. Good times. Good times. My first bow was a bear white-tail two. Yeah. Aluminum riser, fiberglass limbs.

Never killed anything with it. Squirrel. I think I killed a squirrel with it. My first bow, I got it for Christmas. I got it on Christmas morning. And I never forget, I got it on Christmas. We had a video cassette playing there. My mom was recording us, and I went over and got that bow, you know. I pulled an arrow out of the quiver, and I have no idea why I had no was. three-blade broadhead in it. I took it out of the quiver, and for some reason, I want to take the broadhead off.

Oh, it just come loose, and I still got a scar out there. Oh, do you really? Gash me wide open, went to the emergency room, Christmas morning, got like eight stitches put in my thumb. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny.

Yeah. Speaking of, I thought you were going to say you drew it back and something happened. I have a story. So my brother, when he got a, he got a pierce son bow. I remember what it looked like. It was gray. I don't remember what it was the name of the model, but we were in the house, and you know, it's like, dad's like, here's son,

here's your bow. And he was like, well, can I draw it back? And dad was like, yeah, just put an arrow in it, you know, because you don't want to dry fire it. I mean, it's kind of a catch-22, but we're in the house and he didn't want him to dry fire it, and so that we put an

error in it. Which was a good idea. Well, I'm going to I'm going to draw this back. I don't think my dad was there. Big difference here. Yes. Now that I'm telling the story, I'm like,

dad wasn't there. It was me and Zach, but the bow was new. The bow was, in fact, new. And, you know, we're just like checking it out. And he was like, I'm going to draw it back. And maybe it was me that said, well, you better put an air in it because you don't want to dry fire it.

And we're in a... Just in case you let the street go. We're in a room that is, you know, has three sheet rock walls and there's one window in the room, one single window. And he draws it back. And I don't know if it was his idea or mine, but it just felt like the right thing to do to point it towards the window. Because we sure didn't want to shoot the wall on accident. God forbid that there be a hole punched in the piece of sheetrock.

And he draws it back and just a feel of it. And it's pointed right at that window and releases the arrow. And the arrow just got that shit. sadly. I've never heard that story. It almost seems like a dream, but you need to ask my brother about that next time you see him. Did that just happen?

I mean, it almost seems unreal, but yes. How was that received by the upper management? I don't remember. I don't remember dad being too worked up about it. I mean, it wasn't unusual. You know. I mean, he was upset, but I honestly don't recall. so that must mean he handled it pretty well.

That is funny. But he shot right through the door. Like in the living room? In our bedroom. It shot right through the window. Yes. Who had to tell him? I don't know.

I don't even remember. I'm sure Zach did. Because if he was the one that released the arrow, I'm like, hey, brother, this is all on you, man. Better a broken window than a shattered bow. Gary'd probably be more upset about the shattered bow. A dry-fired bow. Maybe.

Maybe. Well, hey, we probably don't do a great job of telling what the Bear Grie's podcast is all about and the structure of it. People that follow along every week probably understand we produce a documentary style, hard-hitting history, audio journalism podcast every other week. This is the Bear Gries Riehrys. render on the bearerous render we talk about the idea is that we talk about the podcast that happened before and so for the last two weeks like well two bear grease two bear greases yeah we went back to a

series that we did in 2023 april of twenty twenty three called the con man series on a guy named asa carter phenomenal series and yeah we I just I wanted you know I was in Alaska and uh

but also it's sometimes when you move so fast producing content some of your good stuff kind of gets left behind and we played it yeah

and I listened to it for the first time in a couple of years and it was almost like I'd never heard it before fascinating story though very very complex What a interesting individual. Yes. It's so complicated.

I don't even know. I don't know if he was a madman, if he was just crazy, if he was a genius. I don't know. Very interesting man. Yeah. Yeah. I remember what stood out to me about the production of the Con Man series is that I remember being hesitant to play the the clip of George Wallace.

Like to actually play it when he said segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever. Yeah. Some version of that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, just like that being such a, the rhetoric of that and the history of that and the ripple of that through America. I actually called Steve Ronella. And at the time, Bear Greece was, I mean, we'd been going for a couple of years,

but we're still kind of like finding our place and voice. And I was like, hey, man, would it be like, I mean, this is a hunting, we're a hunting conservation company. And Bear Greece is kind of, we're just kind of trying to figure out what we are. And I'm like, hey, can we play a clip of George Wallace saying like the most wild racist stuff in American history? And Rinella was like, I don't know why you wouldn't. I mean, you know, essentially it was like, you're a journalist. Yeah. If it's relevant.

And so we played that. And I think it was powerful in the story to hear this guy after you've learned about this book. And I stand behind that the book is phenomenal. It really is. I haven't read the book. I haven't either. I need to. Well, his writing stood out.

You know, I read several excerpts from the book. book, especially in the first episode. In the first episode, I started off by reading an excerpt from the book that described him and his grandfather, this boy, Little Tree, and his grandfather setting up a turkey pit trap. Basically, they dug a hole in the ground, put corn, put corn in the trap, and we're trying to catch turkeys. And he describes how they built it. And then he describes the, they were out there before daylight and he describes the sun rising over the Appalachian Mountains

and melting off a frost. It's as good a piece of writing about the natural world as there he is. Period. Like it was brilliant the way he described it and the way he described how his grandfather interacted with this moment in time

and you can just feel time elapsing. He talked about how as the sun rose the shadow of the the valley you know crept down and the armor of the frost lifted and I mean it was just like this really timed you just feel it and the reason I read that was just to show how what a powerful writer this guy was and how he had he didn't watch that happen on a movie Asa Carter the real Asa Carter whoever he was knew what it was like to stand on a ridge in the Appalachians and watch the sun come up. He was very talented. As a writer.

And so to know that he wrote this and how deeply empathetic it was towards all these different groups of people, do you remember in the section where Grandpa is talking about Coon Jack? I read this section, and Coon Jack was a Civil War veteran. Native American Civil War veteran and Coonjack had the key to the lockbox that held the songs for the church and someone tried to take away that from him and Coon Jack got incredibly angry

and like threw a fit and Grandpa came to the defense of Coonjack and said hey just let Coon Jack be in charge of that Little Tree sees this and it's like, wait a minute, Grandpa, everybody knows Coon Jack's crazy. And you're defending Coon Jack. And Grandpa goes, hey, let me tell you something. You're right.

Coon Jack's kind of crazy. But Coon Jack, you know, he's had a rough life. He fought in the Civil War, and he lost that battle. And then his people had to move to Oklahoma, and he didn't go. And he had to fight the people here to stay. All Coon Jack's known is fighting. The only thing that he's got is the songbox and the key to it. That's all he's got.

So I'm on Coon Jack's side. I mean, it was deeply empathetic, deeply empathetic towards a flawed person. And just so many things go on in this book. It's just pretty masterful. And then again, the whole question that we, we, keep bringing up with Steve Ronella and then Dan T. Carter, who was a really interesting guy to talk with, is somebody can't talk about that stuff unless they've experienced it. Yeah, it was a fictitious novel. It wasn't real. Like it didn't happen. But that's why novels and fiction are interesting.

It's because the author, the person that created this would have gone to. through these things. He understood it at like a very deep level. And so then it raises the question, well, who, if this guy was a vehement white supremacist, which it's not, we don't speculate about that, we know that based upon his longstanding radio program and his literature, the stuff he wrote as Asa Carter, speech writer for George Wallace. And then, but undercover, he ended this pen name, Forrest Carter, he's writing this book that's like deeply empathetic very insightful into human nature it's it is a wild story it was really good you did a great job it was very interesting very interesting i don't i don't even

know how to describe uh the podcast i don't know if i liked the guy or didn't like the guy or yeah i don't know yeah it's it's just you you end it and you'd have no more answers than when started because a lot of times in these well one one story that is interesting to me just in life is somebody that changes like someone that maybe started off really bad and then change and we have so many examples of that one of the examples we did on the podcast and and we don't have a ton of information about it but the author of where the red where the red fern grows he what's his name? Oh gosh.

Wales, was it a... Look it up, Josh. You got it? He basically wrote this incredible children's book full of moral principles of life and integrity and this coming-of-age book that really... Wilson Rolls.

Wilson Rawls. And, you know, back before the Internet and you could get quick access to someone's life. Like, Wilson Rawls was a convicted, he'd been to prison. Yeah. And then wrote all these children's books later in life.

And he had this really rough life and all this. And so the question was, was he a changed man? And this book was him kind of writing his childhood, you know, like re-scripting his childhood and kind of making up for some of the mistakes? Or is that looking too deep into it? You know, he went to prison for like stealing children. chickens. Right.

Which sounds pretty crazy, but that was, that was what he went to prison for. And it's like, you know, you just wonder, where was this guy at the end of his life? Right. So, yeah, when you see Forrest Carter, you wonder where he was at the end of his life. And also, George Wallace, the face of racism in the South and the 60s segregation, the voice of it. later in his life he went on a reconciliation tour across the south and was like i'm so sorry i was wrong right and does that count i mean it's it it has to count for something you know what i mean it doesn't necessarily absolve someone of all their misgivings but i mean if we're

looking at scripture i mean if we look at the life of paul he was basically a racist I mean, attacking Christians, you know what I mean, maybe not a racist, but a... Sure he was. I mean, and he was killing people and had a massive transformation in his life. And God counted it. And God counted it. So I think there is, I think there is a, you have to, you can't just discount that. You know what I mean?

Only God knows the heart. You know what I mean? So I can't vouch for the heart of, of, uh, George Wallace, but I mean, the fact that the man decided to go on a reconciliation tour, I mean, does that mean you have to become a George Wallace fan? No, but I think it's the right thing to do. You know what I mean? If you have a change of heart, it's the right thing to do. You know what I mean? Be vocal about it, be public about it. And so I think in a sense that's commendable. But looking at Asa Carter, I mean, it's hard to know whether he was, I don't get the impression that he was,

just doing it for the money or the recognition. I mean, there has to be an aspect of that there's something deep inside of there that that flowed out of. And whether or not he could reconcile that in his own mind and in his own heart, we may never know. But I think that it had to come, it's too genuine in his writing for its, to not come from a position of understanding that deep inside. I also think that we don't know what his life was like growing up. You know what I mean? I think there are things that were probably maybe traumatic.

Maybe there were things that people did to him. And, you know, I think that there is a position where, you know, if he had been wronged, if he had been cheated, if something traumatic had happened, and there was a deep position. You know, hate comes from unforgiveness, and unforgiveness will fester in your life and destroy you. And maybe later on in his life there was something that he was able to deal with that allowed him to get beyond that.

And the only way he knew to kind of change who he was was to basically do a complete identity swap. You know what I mean? Who knows? It's hard to know for sure. I also do think there's some clear mental illness issues there that plagued the man, you know, because he was hateful and vile and, you know what I mean, the things that he talked about, the positions that he stood were, it was hate speech.

I mean, it was, but you see something totally different later in his life. But then, you know, the reports of him toward the end of his life of being hateful and. Yeah, yeah. Seems like he went the other direction. Yeah, I mean, it was definitely a swing there, which would probably point to him being bipolar, you know? Who knows? This record is on.

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Stream Miley's new album, Bass Persuades, today. It's Steve Rinella here, and it is Whitetail Week at Meat Eater. That's right, the most anticipated week of the year. White Tail Week at Me Eater. Both seasons are open, boxer making rubs, and all week we're going deep

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You know, the, I've got something to say about IQ. I don't know a lot about IQ about actually what it tests, but I mean, clearly it's designed to test human intelligence. But IQ, you know, doesn't necessarily mean that you're like good at math or understand history, but it's about your ability to assimilate information and knowledge and use it in functional practical ways. Y'all may know more about it than me and and basically triangulate knowledge and information and and make sense of it like quickly um misty was talked to me the other day about IQ and and she was saying she was she was she was actually

with a young a young kid she's in education and they in their class would listen to newscasts or podcasts, like high-level stuff from, you know, mainstream media. And they should have discussions with the kids. And one particular kid just, like, stood out. She said she just was amazed at their ability to assimilate this information and ask really intelligent questions. And she was like, that kid has a really high IQ. Let's go to Forrest Carter.

He did have an incredibly high IQ, 138 is what Dan T. Carter said. Right. And he. Isn't it like 120 is genius? Genius level? I think so. Yeah. Yeah.

So, I mean, like, the guy was exceptionally smart. So his ability to do all these things that we've been talking about in this book, like, show the steps of this empathy and just like get deep into human nature and come to all these like really beautiful conclusions may have been a masterful display of IQ. You understand? I mean, like he had seen these. things this whole life understood them could articulate them could write about them but never really lived them because IQ wouldn't equate to the status of a human heart like really what you wanted for people or or for your family you know like you can spit out a bunch of words that are smart I hadn't really thought about that until I listened to it the second time

yeah I also the the question of like do we read this to our kids. And I really liked what, I think it was Steve Ronella that said, talked about a song, like listening to a song. The song means what it means to you, not necessarily what the artist wrote it to mean. Because I can write a song that means something deep to me that you'll never understand. So why would I expect you to take it the same way that I would? And, you know, I think that you could read this book and have you, not necessarily your own interpretation of it, but it could mean something to you that's valuable for your life. And I think as mature,

responsible adults and people who care about being good citizens and good people, can access and extract things out of stuff like that that would be beneficial. And so, I mean, I think it's, I think read it to your kids. You know what I mean? Yeah. I don't have a problem with that. I was actually surprised, like, listening to me. myself three years ago, I was surprised how hesitant we were to say, read it to your kids.

Like, I was like, yeah, of course you'd read this to your kids. That's what I thought. What'd you think? You don't have to tell them. Yeah. Just read to your kids. It's a great book. You don't have to tell him that he was a con man or anything else. Yeah. They would never even ask about the author probably, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So just let it be what it is to them. and then maybe when they're older this story comes out and it's it informs them about life in a unique way yeah and then you know i i've got so many books i need to read

i may not do it but i wanted to go back and read it again because it has been three years since i read it it it really is good it's not very long either i mean it's kind of it's it's uh yeah i'd say it's an easy read in the sense of it's it's just written in kind of plain prose that you kind of can just flow through. Kind of like where the red fern grows. But has some, yeah, I wouldn't have been trained in the ways of understanding political rhetoric. Like when Steve was like, hey, this book is chocked full of anti-government.

You know, which was so masterfully put in there. You know, because you just implicitly trust Grandpa. Like, in this book, Grandpa is just like the most reasonable person you've ever met in your entire life. Kind of naive about the wider world. And then when he starts talking about, you know, the whiskey tax and, you know, the government going to come and take this kid and put him in a public education because he's not getting an education. I mean, you just see the... Right. You're just torn.

I mean, it's really cool. Oh, Issa Carter. He died at 54 in 1979. Wow, I didn't realize he was that young. Yeah, 54. Interesting. Yeah, young. Complications from choking.

Sphyxiation. I don't know how he died. I actually, I regret to say, the details of his death is in Dan T. Carter's book, the unmasking of a clan's book. And he said something about, imagine Canaan Abel, correct? Yeah. Whatever.

I don't know if his brother, I don't know. We should look it up, Josh. See if the, if now, see here, talk about corn pile. You know what the corn pile of the intellect is? The internet. Chat, GPT. Yes. So you should go buy Dan Carter's book.

Do you think that we'll ever be able to kill big bucks? Off a chat, GPT. Just order them? No, just be like, hey, you think there'll be a big buck over behind that tree this afternoon? Well, based off of... Be there at 3.38. Type in the coordinates? Don't laugh. It's probably coming.

Man, what if there was a foreign satellite company? There will be. That had detailed enough video surveillance from space that they could spot a big buck, score it, find the landowners send notifications to the landowners there is a big buck at this GPS location on your land if you would like

for to sell this deer or if you would like to kill it yourself or you pay for a subscription it's probably going on already Clay okay here's what here's what I've found out in a quick search he died in 1979

Abilene Texas but he's buried in Alabama. So they took him back to Alabama. Annison. Said Carter was living in Texas, was working on another book when he died. The initial public reports described as death as a heart attack. A later account from the Texas handbook, however, gives a substantially different version. Carter had been involved in a fist fight, suffered an injury, and choked on blood and food afterward. The Encyclopedia of Alabama provides an even more specific account. According to that, account Carter had been drinking, stopped at his

son's home near Abilene on the night of June 7th got into a fight, fell, and struck his head on a counter, and was subsequently found dead. Emergency personnel reportedly concluded that he had choked on his own vomit. Asa Carter. Brutal end to his life. Wow. Wow. Wow. Well, we've been going for a while, hadn't we? Yeah. Well, this has been good. Aaron, thanks so much for coming, man. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I don't know how much I had to offer, but I, really had a good time. I appreciate you all having me in here. Oh, hey, just you be in here is all we needed, man. And, man, you're going to look good in the pair of Tacos. I can't wait. I'm so excited about that. Thank you very much. Do you ever wear cowboy boots?

Yes, I do. My back's so bad. I have to be careful how much I wear. Oh, really? You don't like it? I mean, it hurts your back? I love to wear them, but they hurt my back. Oh, really? Well, like I said, they got some work boots that are nice and they're super comfortable. They will have a soul that I can wear that will be fantastic. Yeah, they have some of the shorter soles. And they have, you know, they have some work boots that don't have big heels at all.

Cowboy boots. They're really comfortable cowboy boots. Or I would love, I would love having a pair. You could get that red dress, red denim dress for your wife from Tukovas. How long have you been married? 26 years. 26 years. Got married in 2001?

2000? 2000. 2000. What day in 2000? October the 14th. You've been married exactly one month and four days longer than me. October, it'll be 26 years here in a couple weeks. My anniversary is October 10th.

I'll be 28 years. Yeah, yeah. Good. The finest woman I know. Oh, I have no idea why mine has stuck with me this long. She's let me play a lot. I've never did grow up. so I sure did good with that.

I do have a deer hunting story that I want to tell, but we can edit that out. I want to hear the deer story. What if, okay, if the, if this is all going to be edited. The video cuts off right now. The video cuts off right now, and then we can edit this out, okay. Our mutual friend Scott Brown, him and his buddies, they camp down in southern Arkansas every year.

They've been asking me to come to deer camp forever. and I never had the time or it's just volleyball, the cross, whatever we had going on. Last fall, I finally made my way down there. And I give credit to Scott. Scott, he took his whole week and just basically catered to me like he was a guide. I mean, just, he just waited on me hand and foot, you know. So the first night before we, before our first time the next morning, they're all sitting around, you know, the campfire.

like, where are you reckon we'll put a Stanfield, you know, and they're all talking, this and that. Scott goes, I think I'm going to put him over at Corn Dog. Corn Dog. Yeah. Another old guy, Tim Clark, he's like, yeah, yeah, the wind ought to be perfect for Corn Dog in the morning, you know. We ain't been in there in a while, you know. It'd be good. I was excited about Corn Dog.

So we get up double early. Those guys, we got up. I don't even know what time. It felt like it was 3 o'clock in the morning. We get a, of course, Scott has to drive me in there, and then he has to go on. So we want to be sure we was in there early enough. So he says, all right. He said, he stopped the truck.

He said, all right, you're going to walk right there in the dark. He said, you'll see my taxi. He said, just walk, keep walking. He said, when you get out there, you'll see the tree. He said, skipping that tree. He said, he tried to explain what I was going to see, you know. Dark, no moon. I walk out there, my old climber.

I get in the tree. I start climbing the street. tree, and I'm climbing and I'm climbing and I'm climbing and I'm like, I wonder how high I am. There's no limbs. Like, you know, my 10 feet and my 30 feet. Right. I just kept going. I kept going. I was like, gosh, you know, I turn my little headlight on. I barely see the ground. I've got to be high enough, you know. So I'm sitting there in outer space. That's just stars and it's just pitch black. I don't know. I don't know what's below me. I don't know if there's a bluff, if there's a field. I I'm trying to imagine what, you know, what's going to happen when I can start seeing.

What's going to look like? And you're in there an hour before daylight, probably. Oh, it just felt like eternity. So I'm sitting there, sitting there, and it starts breaking daylight. And I'm just trying to see, you know, and it's, I realize that I'm up above the canopy. Like I'm, I'm so high in this tree that, I mean, I'm 30 foot. I'm like, yo, I've got to come down, you know. So I go down and I feel like I'm in a good spot, you know, and it's perfect.

Anyway, I'm sitting there. And Scott texts me, he says, let's sit in here at 11 o'clock. I'll meet you out the road at 11. Okay, I can sit in here at 11. So about 10, 15, I hadn't seen anything. And I'm sitting there. and I me back up

I'm in my climber API Grand Slam Supreme that my brother bought for me for my wedding gift in 2000 I've had it 25 years I don't know how many deer I've killed out of that thing but anyway it's got a rail in the front you just lay your bow across it

I always take a screw in peg and I hang my backpack up to my right shoulder so everything is right here so my backpack is mounted it's right here I'm sitting there here's something coming to my left and I look and it's a doe

and she's running this is the 20th of October-ish no I don't somewhere in there she's running for no reason coming right behind me I'm like

she comes right behind me just keeps going not flying but just moving I just stood up turned around put my release on my bow string and I just I just had the feeling. Anyway, I look and I see a buck coming. He just got his

nose down. Just br-br-br-b-b-b-d-h. Just coming. So I turn around. So now I'm facing the tree. I'm facing the tree. And you've kind of got to make your mind up if you want your arrow on the right side of the tree or on the left side of the tree. Well, she was going right to left. I picked the right side of the tree. So here he comes. And he kind of gets in there behind some stuff and I can't really shoot him. And I'm just thinking, man, I need to shoot that deer right there, but I'm just going to wait and let him get on this left side of the tree.

So he comes to the left side of the tree, and he kind of gets right in behind the tree, and I don't know what he's done, just sniffing, sniffing around. So I pulled my bow, my arrow, over the left side of the tree, and so now my cam and my bottom limb is wedged into my backpack. And I have it just resting against my back. backpack. He just steps out right there at, I mean, point blank range, five yards, tops,

four, straight down. I just pull my bow back and settle in and just let it go. And I don't know what happened, but my bow just smokes my backpack. I mean, just, and the arrow just sticks in the ground. I don't know if I shot under it, over it, just sticks in the ground, and the deer just kind of hops and just moses on out through there. am I? There's no way I miss that deer. There's no possible way that I miss that deer. I was so sure of it.

And I watched him walk off. He didn't know he was hit, you know. So I have a carabiner on my pull-up rope. Let my bow down. So you think you've killed it? I'm pretty sure I missed, but I had to go. I had to know. Okay.

I couldn't believe it. I mean, it's by far the easiest shot I've ever. had that I missed. I climbed down. Go grab my arrow, my bows hanging over there or laying over on the ground, and it's a carabiner on it. And I pulled the arrow

out of the mud. And I'm like, I miss reality set in. I miss this deer. I'm just standing there. I'm like, gosh, it's 10, 25. Scott's going to be here 11. I'm sitting thinking all these things like, I mean, I just need to load up and walk out to the road. I'm

over this. Well, I mess this whole deal up. I'm standing there holding that arrow and I hear something behind me. And I turn around and look and here he comes back. And he just got his nose to ground. And when I see him, he's 17 yards and closing. He's coming right

at me. He's not even paying attention. And I'm standing there with an arrow. He gets in there about 10 feet and just he just locks it up and we just had this staring. I'm like,

you know, he's a big, big, oh, wide eight-pointer. Just a beautiful... Oh, is a good buck? Oh, 120 incher. Big, old wide public land eight-pointer. Dad gum. We're just staring at each other,

and I'm like, oh, I can't believe this is happening. He just, instead of just bolting, he just kind of put his head down and just kept going. Just like, I don't know what you are, but I'm after this doe. Really?

Just on down through there. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. And I see him go down there and he's just going in circles, just looking, just trying to find her. Just, it's everywhere. I thought, you know, I think I can get back up in this tree and kill this deer. I'm not sure he's on. So I just start going back up the tree, going on. And as I'm climbing the tree, I can hear him.

He's just down there like 30, 40 yards. No way. This is going to happen. So I get up back up the tree. I don't know how. I didn't get as high as I did the first time. Right. Right.

And I look, and I'll be darned if he ain't coming back. And I'm just looking at him, and I'm trying to pull my bow. I grab my rope, and I'm like, and I'm pulling, and I can't pull my bow up. I'm like, what is going on? And I look down there, and I let my bow down in a green briar bush. Oh, no. Now the arrows are turned like this, and I'm just trying to pull my arrows up through the greenbriars. And it's just not happening.

And here he's coming. He's coming back. He's closing the gap. I'm here. I'm just yanking my bow rope as hard as I can't. Finally, I'm like, all right, one last, I'm just going to, I'm going to break this rope in half. So I just, boom. And when I do, my whole quiver just goes, phew.

My quiver just flips sideways. But it, it broke free. So now my quiver's just hanging sideways. and I'm pulling my bow up, pulling my bow up, I can hear him walking, you know. I get my bow all the way to the top, and I grab the cam to pull it over my rail, and my quiver falls to the ground. My quiver just falls to the ground. It just, he goes, ding, ding, ding, ding.

And he's just standing there, like 20 yards, you know, just looking around. And I'm standing there with the bow on my hand. and I just watch you walk off I sent Brown a text said get me out of here come get me I'm ready to go to the house oh man so you can hunt your whole life

and and you have a morning like that where it's just like I've never been hunting before my whole life you know everything in the world went wrong anyway I bet you had a good time telling all those guys that too oh it was great yeah

they loved it I bet And I loved it. I mean, at the time, you just can't believe that that's really happening. But looking back, man, that's what it's all about. It's so much fun. So was there, like, a sanctioned moment that night when you, like, told the whole group the story? Or did it just kind of filter through as you, as you, like, talked about it. I don't even remember, Clay.

I don't even remember. He's blacked it out. I've kind of blacked that out. I have a lot of unsuccessful hunting trips. I have a lot of. Now, this wasn't in the original legend. The original legend was there's not a deer that's ever walked past Aaron Stanfield. He didn't kill with a bone arrow.

Back then, I was just too proud to admit that I'd messed up 10 times that morning before the 11th deer walked by. But that was good. Yeah. That actually is a great intro to our Deer Stories episodes, which are coming out. So the next episodes are, you know, our Deer Stories episodes, where we travel across the country to get the best deer stories we can find, stack them all into one place.

So that'll be what you hear next. It's deer stories. Episode gazillion and 10. Yep. Some of the best stories are unsuccessful. It's true. Absolutely true. I do a lot of those interviews,

and that's what I tell people all the time. I'm not here to just get your big buck story. I'm here to get a good story. and most of the really good stories about the ones that got away. Yeah, yeah. Well, thanks, everybody. Thanks for joining us. I hope you enjoyed the Acer Carter Conman series.

And, man, we've got a bunch of good stuff coming up. Yeah, we do. We actually do. I'm really excited about the lineup of Bear Gries, which is going to start with Deer Stories, which is always some of my favorite. It's just fun. It's fun to, it's pretty cool to cherry pick. from someone's life history, like, the best they've got.

It's pretty cool to just be like, tell me your best story. And usually it's the second or third one that's the best. Yep, absolutely. Many times somebody, they might think that the best is maybe the biggest buck or for whatever reason. And maybe it's my or our perception of what's interesting. that's different. Sure.

You know, so maybe to them, the story that they say is the best, is their best. But often I find it's the one that, so many times, I've said this so many times. There's something to be learned here when you're trying to extract information from people, which is a big part of what human existence is, really. You think about, like, concrete sales or landscaping or if you work as a banker or if you're in the IT industry, I mean, like, you're dealing with people. and you engage with people, usually trying to get something from.

I mean, it may be friendship that you're trying to get from. It's not necessarily bad, what I'm saying, but you're trying to extract something from people. But in this world, a lot of times, so many times people have told me stories, and it's been like, all right, man, it's great. All right, thanks. Shut the recorder off.

Take the headsets off. And they go, man, one time. And they start telling me a story, and I'm like, that was the best story of the whole day. Why didn't you tell me that when it was going on? Well, I didn't think that. You need to get down there to that camp. The stories that I heard last year at that camp were absolutely irreplaceable.

You wouldn't believe it. Between Andy and Scott, Tim, Luke, those guys, Kevin. I mean, they had just the best stories. Well, great camp. I have wanted to go to that camp for the last 20 years. It's phenomenal. And one of these days, you can do it. Are you going back this year?

I'm not this year. I've got a Kansas bow tag bar in a hole in my pocket as we speak. So I'm going to try to go to Kansas and get in a hunt up there. But I will not get drawn for Kansas next year, or at least in the past. I only get drawn every other year. So my plan right now is to go down there every other year. Really? Okay.

So maybe next year. Yeah. Well. Yeah. I owe Scott And not that Well, I owe him two favors If I go to his camp

But you know Scott helps River my daughter Track Track a bear one night Y'all may not have talked about that the other day Yeah she killed one the other day Yeah she did She did Incredible

Yeah they had a good hunt They had a good hunt But So anyway Oh Scott Thanks Aaron Thanks Josh Thanks Josh

Keep the wild place is wild because that's where the bears live. It's Steve Ronella here, and it is Whitetail Week at Meat Eater. That's right, the most anticipated week of the year, whitetail week at Me Eater. Both seasons are open, bucks are making rubs, and all week we're going deep on the most hunted big game animal in America. We're also running the ultimate whitetail giveaway. The sort of the premier part of this package is you win a hunt with Mark Canyon and Jordan Budd at Jordan Budd's family. ranch in Nebraska where I have hunted. Jordan is cool as hell.

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