Bear Grease - Ep. 927: Brent's Manitoba Moose Hunt | 12 in '26

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

Join Brent Reaves and Josh Spielmaker in this Q&A interview to hear behind the scenes details from Brent's Manitoba Moose hunt that didn't make the film. Brent chronicles the trip from start to finish and shares some surprising insights gleaned from his experience. He also answers some viewer questions about the hunt. Watch the film now on MeatEater's YouTube channel. Presented by Can-Am: maker of the best ATVs, SxS, and Utility Vehicles www.can-am.brp.com Connect with MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and YouTube Clips Subscribe to MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Will the pasto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. We've been traveling for two days.

We're 154 kilometers from Thompson, Canada, where we're going to stay the night. In the morning, I'm going to catch a float plane out. with Craig McCarthy with North Mountain Adventures and we're going to see if we can't get a moose hemmed up here in northern Manitoba. It's a very remote place. It is as wild as wild gets in North America. It's hard to believe that this is really taking place and I don't know if I'll fully realize it until we get in camp. But I'm a long ways from home. What you just saw was a clip from Hunting Bull Moose in Manitoba, my 12 and 26 film sponsored by Moultry and Onakes.

And what we're doing now is the companion podcast that's going to answer some questions and maybe show some things that didn't wind up in the final cut. And I'm joined by my good friend Josh Landbridge Filmmaker. Well, I'm excited to be here, Brent. I really love the film. It was, it was, uh, did it. great job capturing not just the hunt but all the surrounding things to go with it the scenery oh man the camaraderie everything about it it was just it was uh information overload for a little while

i'll say i'll say but we're uh we're really excited to uh to do this podcast because we've got some great questions from some of the the viewers and uh we're going to give you an opportunity just to you know it's hard to catch a how long was the hunt total oh man we were there for like i I think the whole trip was like nine days. Okay, so it's hard to capture all that in 42 minutes. Correct. And so we're going to give you an opportunity just to tell us more than we could see in the film. But it's a pretty different kind of adventure for you.

Growing up here in Arkansas, early on in your career, you spent a lot of time documenting other people's hunts. And you kind of go into that in the film, but this time you're the guy carrying the rifle. So before we... We're going to, I've got a couple questions for you before we kind of dive into it. Okay. How did this kind of come about? How did you get, how did you like, hey, I want to go to Manitoba, huh? Man, it all started like in February a year ago.

Okay. And Garrett Long, my boss calls me and says, we need to come up with an idea for a project, some film projects that we're going to film throughout the year. and I need, what's your dream hunt? And I'm like, I don't know. I'll think about it. Oh, I got it. I mean, it was just, that, that's how it went.

I said, I want to go shoot a moose and in northern Manitoba with Craig McCarthy. And now the response I was waiting here was like, uh, how about we do something in Missouri, you know, a little closer to home. But Garrett's response was, okay, get a hold of Craig and let's start working out the details. and I'm like, say that again. And then from that, it just went from initial meetings with Craig and a producer, and we just started getting the ball rolling and making a plan and it came to fruition. That's incredible.

Yeah. What was kind of different about you? I know you filmed quite a bit in Canada, you know, not necessarily in northern Manitoba, but you've filmed a lot in Canada. how is it different preparing for this knowing that you were going to be the shooter? Well, to me, being a cinematographer, which I don't claim to be, I was a cameraman, and I think there's a difference, you know, but prepping myself to go film a hunt like that, I just had to get the mindset that I'm always working.

Right. That, you know, the hunt is not when you leave, walk out the camp door or the tent or whatever with a gun in your hand. when you're there to document the whole hunt, that's all of it. So you know, you've got to be on the ready. You got to, you're the first guy up in the morning. You're the last guy to go to bed at night. You're the last, most of your meals are going to be cold because you're

filming everybody else doing all that kind of stuff. So it is a totally different situation that, that you have to prepare for. So you just got to get your mind right that if it don't happen on camera, then it didn't happen. Right. You know, that's the way you got to look at it. And I want to think, I can't remember exactly Josh, but I think Dave Gardner shot like 26.

Dave Gardner was your cameraman. He was my cameraman on this. It was me, Dave Gardner and Craig McCarthy in this. Excuse me, videographer. Yeah, cinematographer. Cinematographer. Shout out to Dave Gardner. Yeah, for real.

And, but I think it's like 26 hours of video or film that he shot, you know. And they condensed that down to 42 minutes. I mean, that's, it's incredible, incredible. Well, that's awesome. Well, let's go ahead and dive into another clip here. Okay. Man, the amount of stuff it takes to do this is monumental, especially if we're trying to document and film like this. It's already going to be a good trip regardless, so a lot of folks ready to go, me include.

You're Arkansas We've big suey A long time, no seat Hey brother Good to see you You too Great, that's a great clip One of the things that I noticed right away

Was how remote Yeah This place was Flying in and out No road systems I mean you fly in Live out of camp And your boat

Becomes your primary way of getting around and then the whole process that goes into loading these planes and getting everything off. And what were the logistical, what was the logistics of putting together a hunt like this? I mean, you think about, there's always been in this business, and I learned it very early, that you're either hunting or you're filming a hunt. And that is two totally different things. if you're just hunting, you're just going to, you capture what you capture. If you're trying to tell a story, then you've got to film everything.

So there's going to be equipment and batteries and camera batteries and stuff that are going to take the place maybe of clothes of other things that you wanted to bring. I want to bring, you know, X, Y, Z, but you don't have room for it. And you've got to make a choice between clean underwear and batteries. Batteries are going to win every time. And you're just taking a bath in the creek, you know, and washing your clothes in the lake. And that's that, that kind of stuff goes into it. And it goes into the whole thought process of, okay, maybe I can wear a pair of britches for three days.

Right. You know. And I actually did a podcast about it about when I came back about the things that I would have done different. And I, I took way too many clothes. And I would take, I would cut that back and just, you know, wash in the, wash in the lake. rents off, dry, let it air dry, and then go that route. But you really prioritize the things that you need to document because if you run out of lens wipes or if you run out of batteries or if you run out of, you know, your B camera,

you got more than one camera there. If you run out of things to document that, I mean, it's not, you don't, you don't call up FedEx and have them ship you another one in. Run down to Best Buy. Yeah, because, you know, from where we took off there in Thompson, we were in that flow plane for another two hours before we oh wow oh yeah it was out there you know not in a straight line we went to several other camps and dropped some stuff off but it was you don't just if you don't bring it if you don't have it with you you don't have it right right so and usually one is none and two is

one so you usually you're doubling up right so you can be sure that you have necessities yeah so one of the things that i know and love about you brent is that you are you really value relationships tell us how you met Craig oh man I went up on a bear hunt with Craig and and his wife Mel and their their place remember that yeah North Mountain adventures there in I guess it's kind of in the bottom third of Manitoba there and um their family uh Craig Melanie Hayden and Kirsten they're just man they are just an ideal outdoor family they they they're they're the hosting that they have there and the places they have to hunt is just beyond anything. And they're just good down to earth people.

So we hit it off, you know, right from the get-go. Right. Our only difference is, you know, we talk different. And they have an accent and I don't. But we just became good friends. And then when this opportunity came up to be able to go on a moose hunt, there was one guy that I wanted to do it with. Yeah. And that's how it happened.

Oh, that's really cool. Yeah. That's really cool. So when you're when you're this remote, you said you're out there for nine days. What is a what does a typical day look like when you're out there hunting? Well, hunting moose, man. You get up pretty early. I mean, it's not like a duck hunt where you're two hours before daylight.

You get up right before daylight and kind of get a bite to eat. And you let the, you want to get some daylight where you can you can see the shore. You know, when you leave the camp, you get out and you go and we're going and we're going to different spots along. the shore and if weather's right and it's and and uh and you can see uh you know you may be able you may spot a moose before you ever set up the call one now we didn't we didn't see um uh the first two or three days we were there uh so we would just go to different spots along the lake and call and we'd set in one spot and i talked to even in the film you i'm talking to krag about it you know asking him how long he likes to stay in one spot after we do a call and it's right

I would think, you know, 45 minutes, you know, but he's like, no, two hours. And it's the way those, those bulls react to a call is just so slow and methodical. And they can hear it a long ways, but they're usually not just, okay, I hear a cow running over there. No, he's just going to start easing his way that way. And he may be a mile away from it or more. Right. And just start easing his way. And you were there what what time what time of year?

That was in uh late september. Okay is that is that like peak for the rut? I think it's the kind of toward the end of it. Okay. Because everybody I thought we were the last hunt uh for that, um, for Craig's outfit up there, his father's outfit up there. So anytime I was talking to someone they'd say, oh you're going to when you're going to hunt this moose and I'd say, oh we're leaving. I think it was like the 18th or 19th of January or September, something like that and they're going late i'm like golly that seems early yeah yeah but you take into account the

the weather up there and in october as opposed to how it is down here you know there's quite a difference so it was a tail end of the rut but bulls were really active and and as you can see it paid off yeah so um you you traveled with your rifle on several different airplanes there's a scene in the in the in the film where you want to go just check your zero on it. Yeah. What, what, uh, a lot of questions about what, what, what rifle you were shooting, what caliber and why was it important to you to check the zero?

So Sig Sour Cross and 300 PRC, which was the largest round I've ever shot, you know, in a civilian rifle. And when I looked at it and I thought, you know, that's probably a moose round. Yeah. As big as it is. Uh, but I cited. it in with my friend who lives here not far from my house here and he actually works for sig he's an engineer for sig here at the at their arkansas ammunition plant and matt burns who's a competitive shooter and

just a man he's just so knowledgeable about it so but he's got a little range at his house and we went there i went there and and cited that thing in and the whole time we were traveling you know from plane to plane i'm looking at the window and i'm watching them load stuff right i'm like that guy right there is not concerned whether no my rifle stays on zero or not but uh we got that was the first thing that i wanted to do once i got there and you can actually in canada uh in manitoba that is you can hunt the same day you fly in oh as long as you don't use that aircraft to you know spot anything which right we didn't see anything but you can uh it's legal to do that so as soon as we got settled in camp i mean day push record and we started we started we started hunting

right then awesome awesome where uh what distance did you have your rifle zeroed in at i sighted it in it was i could shoot out to 700 yards on on matt's course and we shot a hundred if it's good at a hundred matt said it's good at 700 and i shot both at his house and that was what we did there based on the ballistic calculator yeah based on all that we did it there once we got into camp and it was good to go awesome well that's cool um Let's go ahead and hit this next clip. We talked about this earlier, and I've heard you explain it to other folks or talking about going and calling and then, like, at night,

and then leaving and coming back to that spot. Is that more like putting bait out? Yeah, pretty much. Unless he's right there, you're not going to get him right away. But he could be two miles, and if it's dead calm and he hears you, and moose aren't fast, you know, when they're coming. and he'll start grunting and slowly make his way there. So we leave in the morning.

He's probably coming if he heard you. Right. And then when we go back in the afternoon or the next morning, he's probably like within a couple hundred yards of where you were calling from. What's your picture perfect weather for calling moose in the rut? What are you looking for? Below zero temperatures and dead calm.

Celsius? Yeah. So 32 or under? or under yeah yeah yeah now i don't i don't want to be presumptuous here yeah i've spent quite a bit of time practicing a turkey call and a duck call yeah and don't claim to be good at either one right i think i could get that one down i've got man i've got videos of folks with their kids blowing through a toilet paper right old like how's my most call on it it sounds good and Greg will be the first to tell you

it's all you got to do with a minimum amount of practice to call one up and it was the the thing that got me so much is something that I just keep beating the hair off of is it's like calling turkeys right now going back to camp going to bed and getting up the next morning going back and sitting by that tree and shooting him when he walks up I mean, it's just so out of the, out of the ordinary. That's what I kept thinking about. I mean, it's pretty amazing that you can put a call out. Yeah.

And 12 hours later that Moose is. Yeah. Yeah, he's coming or 24 hours. It was when we would leave and there's something in there. And I don't know if we, if we're talking, if we're going to get to something that didn't make it into the film that I wish would have. If this is a good time to cover it now. but one afternoon and I can't remember now if it was the day after I think it was a couple days after

that I actually killed a bull we were going down that river the same river and we just pulled up on the bank and Craig made a call and then we went on fishing down the river and as we left Dave's filming him and Craig says there'll be a bull here when we come back and we laughed Dave laughed. I laughed. Craig laughed. We went fishing and we came back and there was a bull there three hours later. Really? Yeah. We got some footage of him from the boat and but I wish that would have made it in Craig saying that but he because I mean you're like oh this guy's got a ESP. Oh that that's awesome. It was pretty it was pretty funny. Were there ever any uh, you know, when you're throwing these cow calls out there was there ever any before you saw one

respond to it like that? Was there any doubt in your mind that? You're like, well, I mean, you trust the guide. I was a duck guide for so long that I knew not, if I've got a client with me, I'm not going to tell him something that's not true. You've got to be honest. Absolutely. In the course of being in the wilderness, being outside dealing with nature, the truth is going to come out. Right. So I had to do nothing but trust what he said.

And, you know, I would be thinking, oh, we need to get up in. in my mind i'm thinking we should get up and move right the next thought would be i should pay attention to kregg because he does this for a living exactly and he gets this wrong he doesn't get paid right exactly so i mean it's you never guide the guide and that's something i always keep in the forefront of what we're what we're doing and i'm trying to learn man i learned so much from um you know being a turkey hunter or a white tail hunter you got to be patient a lot of times you know and but i learned uh patience from from him up there especially when you're making a call that could sure have an effect 24 hours later sure that was it was really cool to see so Craig mentioned you

know his ideal calling conditions were you know zero degrees Celsius 32 degrees Fahrenheit dead calm why those conditions obviously the dead calm makes sense I think it's the sound carries and it's they seem to be active during that time you know during with that temperature they're most active and obviously with the sound will go not just downwind but in every direction now was that from your first day hunting that was okay so first day was just call and wait yeah call and wait okay you're just kind of we we got there that afternoon we went over and across the lake we never hunted that side of the lake again because of the wind the we were facing into the wind there and we were right on the edge we had the lake

right at the behind us the edge we were calling across that tundra or whatever technical term that is for that that part of Canada there and they had you can see forever but I mean in that also in that instance I mean you can see that the wide open country but something big as a moose can just all of a sudden just slip up on you you know so it was now is this private land or public land it's all public it's all public land and i'm not sure if it's native land or whatever if they have a lease or

or whatever it is but it's like a concession that that they hunt up okay so i mean they're the only folks allowed in that part like give us an idea of how big of an area you were hunting as big as the world is as big as outside i mean there was thousands of acre miles of of what unnamed lakes and unnamed rivers and just wilderness, absolute wilderness. And from the time you left Thompson in that airplane, that float plane flying at little over 3,000 feet, once that's part of civilization got behind the aircraft, there was, I mean, there was nothing.

And it looked like it went on for absolute ever. I've not spent much time in the Canadian wilderness like that, but that's what everybody says is just it feels like you're, It feels like you are a million miles from home and really, you are. Like an uninhabited planet. Absolutely. And you're smelling, you're breathing air. It's never, nobody's breathed it.

It hasn't got to Arkansas yet. By the time it gets to Arkansas, they've been, folks have been breathing it all over the country. You're breathing something that's been inside someone. All over North America. And it's just a feeling. it's just all-encompassing really. It's a little, it's, if you like details, and I love the details in places that I go

and the small things, and it's overwhelming. It really is. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. Let's hit the next clip. Okay. Normal on a foggy morning, I just lay up until the fog clears. No, I think it's just,

It depends where you are if the bulls have cows with them or not. Okay. It's how moose hunting is. It's just like you could see nothing for days and then all of a sudden there's moose. Over the place, yeah. Famine to feast?

Yeah. It's just the way it goes. Oh Lord, he's seeing something. Wait, I think I see a bull. Look up in the green over there. See up in the green? A pie? Definitely a moose.

100% we're going in there yeah we got time oh I see him he's to the left of the tree down lower I'd stop since seven minutes yeah they just disappear now that was that the second day or was that that's the first day there the very first day yeah we were coming back uh from where we were set up across the lake and saw that he saw that most and it's hard to see it man I don't know that if you could even put a pause on it and zoom in on it on your phone or your computer, whatever you're watching on and see that moose. But he was there. And you could see the paddles on him.

And he had a cow up in there. Okay. And that spot right there where eventually I shot the moose from probably another. Oh, really? 40, 50 yards around that bend down there's where I found where we were sitting when I shot that moose. But something that impressed me about that was. was there is nobody within miles and miles and miles of where we are. And Craig says, we got seven minutes.

And buddy, in seven minutes, we were packed up and gone. Yeah. At five minutes till when we didn't have anything close enough, we were unloading and just standing there watching just to see what would happen. And there's nobody that would have known. Yeah. But me and Craig and Dave. Right.

But it's by the book, man. I love it. Yeah, that's awesome. it's there just got to appreciate guys like that absolutely i mean the integrity is what stands out yeah yeah yeah 100% of um i can imagine cruising up and down the lake there you're you're probably every brown spot is a every moose yeah i saw this there's one stump i tried to kill for six days up there that i kept seeing through those binoes and i that's got to be a moose no it's still a what's a legal bull is there a is there a size requirement i think it's got to have like

four on the fronts i believe okay And then I'm not exactly sure. I mean, we talked about it, discussed at then. I don't remember now what it was, but it was just incredible to be in those places and to be able to see that much. Right. And know that, you know, behind that ridge. How difficult was it to see one? Well, it turns out it got pretty easy.

As longer we stayed there, the more we saw. Uh-huh. And, but you just didn't see them like, described he said man we're allowed to come around a corner they'll just be you know walking up and down the bank right way down there uh you know across the lake you'll see them over there no when we start seeing them we just rolled up on them and there they were really yeah just as unconcerned with over the course of the hunt how many moose did you think do you think you saw oh i think we saw five different bulls including the one no uh been four bulls and then

one that had the cow with it. Okay. Okay. Now that's including one of the bulls that I killed. Wow. I would have thought you would have seen more, but that's pretty amazing to see those. Well, you saw what you see is where they were and fresh tracks and evidence of them. Yeah. And you really got to play the wind up there, man, because, I mean, one of the only creatures on the plant's got a nose bigger than mine and it's

they can, mine, I'm the other creature. Me and you. And you got, if you don't play the wind right they're gone that's what i was wondering too because was that something you had to manage 100% i mean you you look the wind direction we walked outside and we got in the boat determined 100% where we were going that day and it also the main thing it determines where we weren't going to go right we're not going to go in there and this dust this area was sent when we know that there's moose in this and we'll wait until was it pretty windy when you were there at times it was more than not okay more than not there was a couple storms that blew through and it was raining i can remember

i can remember sitting in the in the cabin and we had a star link system up there so i we could called home and i was talking to my wife on the and it was just raining man it's raining so hard water's coming in on the floor and we're picking stuff up and setting it on tables i told her i said it's coming a storm there's water in here my stuff's getting wet and I can't think of any place I'd rather be right now than right here. It was just that much fun. Yeah. You know, so yeah, but yeah, it was windy.

It was windy and it just played a lot. But you really had to be smart about and just take your time. You know, it's not a, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Right. And every day that, every day that you're there, you're learning more about the environment, more about what the moose are doing by the tracks we're seeing and just, you know, play in the hands that were dealt. Interesting.

As you, as Ty went on, you kind of picked, you, you, there was a scene in there where you talked about, is that a, you were asking him, is that a moose? And he's looking, he's like, I don't think so. And he said, it looks like two eagles. What, what was it? It was two eagles. Okay. And, yeah, eagles up there are buzzing around like hummingbirds here.

They're just everywhere. and it was way across the lake and they were setting close far enough apart from each other or separated enough that you thought it resembled paddles right because that's what you're looking for and you craigs you got to look for those paddles you see the paddles and then you'll see the moose so that was to my untrained eye that's what i was looking for and then we looked and saw oh that's uh those are eagles there okay and right after that is when we i think We first, yeah, we first got in there and saw where those moose were, eventually where I would wind up killing one. Okay, all right.

Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pesto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode eight before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything.

Hey everyone, big huge announcement. Me Eater Live, the Christmas tour is kicking off again this year for the Christmas season of 2026. This time we're hitting the Midwest. Me Eater Live, the Christmas tour kicks off in December across six Midwestern cities. We've got Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Madison, Des Moines, Minneapolis, and Fargo. Join myself, Janice Putellus, Clayneuke, and Brent Reeves, and Randall Williams for a night of laughs, trivia, free prizes, news, and opinions from across the worlds of hunting, fishing, wildlife conservation, and wild foods. Also, we're already stacking up some great special guests. I got my buddy Bubbly Doug making the appearance in Madison. Meat Eater Live is the best Christmas gift for any outdoorsman or woman in your life. tickets go on sale September 25th, but sign up at themeatheater.com slash tour and you'll get

pre-sale access to buy tickets on September 14th days before they go on sale to the public. We can't wait to see you there. And I'm telling you, go ask anyone who has ever come to one of the Meatheater live events and they will tell you, we laugh our asses off, we give away great prizes, we put on a solid show that I'm proud to be part of. All right, let's move on to the next clip. We've got a two-minuteer here, and I think it's a good one. Everybody found a comfortable place on the log and sat down. We were like a bunch of crows sitting on the light line.

And I had my ballistics calculated out on my phone. I was ranging different places and just really passing the time because I didn't figure we were going to see anything until late. And all of a sudden, Craig said, oh my gosh, there's a bull. How far? That's a shooter, Brent. How far is it? 460.

Winds right on pretty well. 2.3. You ready? Yeah. Hey him. Shoot him again. Oh, he's hurt. Where's he at?

He's, he's butt-facing. He turns one way the other I've got him. I can poke quartering, but he's hard quartering. Pretty sure you hit him. There's no doubt. Hit him again. He's going down. Here you go.

He's going down. Can't see him. Holy man. Weapons on safe. Oh, buddy. I think you put three in them. That's a good bowl. I love it, man.

I get to chills every time. every time I watch that. Craig was so excited and I was so excited. It was, uh, it was overwhelming. Yeah, 100% overwhelming. And that, that whole sequence there, when we got there, uh, it was early. It's like 2.30, 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And that, that's the same point you recognize from where we were the day before.

and when we got there, I said, you know, the wind's blowing and it was kind of warm. He said, they're probably not going to start moving until later unless they're following a cow. He said, but it may be warm enough that they want to come get a drink of water to cool off. So we just set our stuff up, got comfortable. Dave sat down with his camera. Craig sat right beside him and I sat down on the other end of this log and I've got that ballistics calculator out and I'm thinking okay if Craig calls out 500 you know I'm poking it in there and fine and and because I I messed with that scope enough Matt and gave me a crash course on it

and we shot round after round after round and he's calling out different distances and I'm doping it in there so I was very familiar with with the process and was very comfortable with And so I'm just sitting there for nothing better to do than past the time because Craig says, you know, you might see one, but it's probably going to be late, you know, when it kind of cools off. Right. And then all of a sudden he jumps up and runs by me and says, there's a bull right there. And he's a shooter at the time, he's running back over here to get his binoes and stuff. Dave gets his camera and stands up. I don't know what to do.

So I just kind of run around in circles there for a second. until Craig got back and we got on the gun and the rest of it was you mean you saw it happen and when there was he called out the distance to me twice uh-huh and because the first time he says 460 well i dialed it in and i said how far because i i get off the scope and i look and i can see him right i'm like just there's no way that thing's for it's way closer than that he's because it's huge you know I can see him and he said 460 twice is what he said 460 twice I'll never forget it okay I trust him you know and I got back on the scope and when I turned it loose it when I shot I thought I'll be able to hear it hit him I shouldn't be able to and it seemed like it took forever but wham you can hear it

you could hear it you can I felt like I could hear it on the video you could 100% you can and then if you look you can see it actually go through him Oh. And hit the splash of water on the other side. Okay. So he took the first round right in the boiler room behind his shoulder on the right side. And the other two, I wish we would have got a photograph of it. But the other two, you could have covered up with your fist.

Really? I mean, right into zero. Wow. And that's incredible. It was just like he didn't flinch. I mean, he just walked right up on the bank and laid down and died. Man, it was incredible. it was incredible to see that just that huge animal I was amazed that how little he moved after that first shot yeah I mean just like he didn't know what hit him but he wasn't too concerned about it at the moment he just soaked it up man yeah and he got two more and he I mean he didn't limp he didn't do anything I mean when it hit him he moved but as far as like shaking or anything like that he just he toted it all three of them

up, I just plumb out of sight. Now you, you spent many, many years in law enforcement, um, working with SWAT. What are, what's your background with firearms? Well, I was also a firearms instructor. Okay. I taught at the state SWAT school down at Camden when they would have special classes down there for SWAT personnel. So you're very familiar with long range shooting how to handle firearms.

I, somebody, uh, we had a guy that commented. hey I appreciate hearing Brent you know full of excitement but the first thing he says is weapon on safe oh yeah just letting everybody know yeah that's a that's a weapons instructor right there yeah I think that's just a force of habit which is a good habit to be absolutely um what were those feelings that when when Craig said there's a bull man it was just I mean I the whole time that whole hunt I was thinking about how you know it's a grand adventure for sure but it's also my work. There's a lot of responsibility to, that encompasses my portion of it, you know, that that's always why I talked about being the camera guy, you know, win or lose. If the camera, if the camera's

recording, I've got all the shots, whether or not the hunter misses or not. Right. Now I'm in front of it. Now it's all on me. Right. I know Dave's getting his part. Can I hold up my end of the bargain? And that's where the pressure comes from. And I mean, but it is part of the story. Had I missed him, had I made a terrible shot, and it had just been part of the story. Luckily, I did, and I put three good ones in him. And it was, it was absolute euphoria, really.

What, when did you see it immediately when you came around the bushes? Were you like, oh, there it is. When, when Craig said, there's a bull over there. And I'm sure you were full of adrenaline. Oh, yeah. When you walked around those bushes, did you immediately connect with him? Oh, yeah. I mean, you could see down the river from where we were sitting. I didn't have to walk out.

Okay. From where we were sitting, when Craig ran past me fast enough to set the grass on fire, you know, I didn't know if it was something after him or what. Should I keep up with him or outrun Dave or what's going on? And he said, there's a bull and, you know, a good bull right there. And I looked down there and immediately it was like a painting. Wow. He's knee deep out in this river and just slowly walking out there and the sun shining on him and the water, the ripples are lit up from the sun.

And this thing is, it looks like a movie. I'm getting chills now, Josh is just thinking about it. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I mean, the sky was blue. It was absolutely unreal. It looked like a, it looked like a film. Wow. Wow. And when he said 460, you immediately went into...

I got to trust him. Yeah. My first thing was there's no way. But he said it's 460 and I made him or I asked, you know, how far? I'm wanting him to, you know, to make sure that's what it is, confirm, you know, and he confirmed it 460 twice. And I'm like, well, that's how far he is. And I love that you kind of had more or less immediate feedback of whether that. that animal was down or not.

I mean, it was clear he was going down. Well, I didn't see it that way. Okay. Craig says, you got him. He's going down. And I'm like, bro, that thing was walking last time I saw him. Of course, Craig's looking at a lot of, he's looking at, he's seen moose move that are shot good. He's seen moose that are walking that are shot not good.

Right. But, I mean, his confidence was overwhelming, but it wasn't for Brent. Right. You know, when he walked out of sight, as far as I was concerned, that moose is still walking. Because you shoot a deer and you think, well, he's in trouble. You know, you can kind of tell. But I didn't know what to look for. And to me, it didn't like he was moving any faster or any slower than when he walked out before I ever shot him the first time.

Okay. So did you wait or did you guys go immediately after it? 14 days we waited right there in that spot is what it felt like. I think it was 25 minutes. Okay. Because I was checking my watch. Right. And we got in the boat and went down there.

And I, when he walked out of the river and walked up on the bank out of the river, he walked right past a rock that was sticking up. It was about the size of a basketball. Okay. But it was right on the edge of the bank, the flat bank where, and I think it was maybe two feet from the, from the edge of the bank down to the water and just a cut bank straight. And there's, that rock was right there. So in my mind, when I saw him, I logged that in there.

And I think that's where, that's the trail. I'll look and start looking for blood right there. Yeah. And we just started to float down there. Okay. And. Well, we've got it. We've got a next clip coming up.

So you sat there for 25 minutes. I can't imagine. It's the longest 25 minutes of my life. I can't imagine. Yeah. It was absolutely brutal. Well, let's watch this next clip here. He's laying right there right through here, Brent.

See the horn? 15 feet. Oh my gosh, he's right there. What an absolute monster. I don't know what to say. It is incredible. Absolutely incredible. Beautiful fronts on them.

There ain't nothing bad about it. Oh my gosh. I don't know what to say. I'm just thank you for the effort. Thank you for your friendship, man. Thank you guys. This is already a success. Absolutely can't believe it.

I just can't get over how big they are, man. I mean, I've seen pictures of Steve, one Steve's killed, Clay, and all, you see it, I've seen a jillion. Yeah. Pictures, I've seen the one that y'all have taken, but the body on these things is just the day that I can. killed a moose, I was absolutely not prepared for what that was like. That adrenaline dump was unlike anything I have ever seen because I glanced down the

river before I went back to get my rifle and I could see him standing in the river. And it looked like a dinosaur. It looked like a school bus with antlers. It was huge. awesome uh i'm no i'm no expert on moose but it looks like a bigan man i was looking the way he was moving when he stepped up out of the river onto the bank and i just seen his hind in going in into the bushes you know that was the end of it i'm expecting this thing not to be where he was because he was literally 15 feet from the edge of the water.

Really? Yeah, we- So he literally walked off and just collapsed. He walked up and just, and laid down and was dead as a hammer when we got there. But I was looking past him. I was looking over him. And Dave is sitting, if you can obviously see in a boat,

Dave's cameraman, he's sitting in front of the boat and he's facing back and shooting back towards me and Craig. Uh-huh. And I'm looking hard and Craig, says there he is well i'll i look over at dave's face and he starts smiling he looks back at these he's back on the camera so dave sees him i know i know i can i know d'i can tell he's like man we got him yeah and craig's like there he is and i'm like no he ain't i can't see him i cannot end this hunt until i can see this moose right and i'm looking further and when he said 15 feet i thought 15

feet and I looked down and there he was and the wide open how I could not see that moose I don't know must have felt a tremendous sense of relief oh gosh I mean you can see it on your face I mean you kind of you kind of gasp a little bit there oh I did 100% I did and you know it's that's one thing that I love about how we film these things it's there's no way I could recreate it right you know if if dave hadn't got it it wouldn't have gotten got right but he did and it really shows the raw emotion and just overwhelming relief that what we came there to do we did so walking up on this animal expectations versus reality i was not prepared i have killed deer before i've been after bears and when you get to him you're like ah

man, he's good. He's nice. I thought he was bigger. I thought he'd be a little bigger. You know? Yeah. You know, and no disappointment or anything like that. That thing got bigger the longer I sat there and looked at it.

It was not, I had no comprehension of it. I've seen Moose one other time. And I was in Alaska. And it saw him across a bay. So he might as well have been a horse in a pasture. Right. You know. So I had.

The I was not prepared for how big they were. Any idea like how much that thing weighed? Craig estimated him to be 12 to 1,400 pounds. Holy smokes. I know that when we when we skinned him processed him, I brought all the meat back. We stopped in a Craig's cousin. I actually got a place in, uh, outside of Winnipeg and we dropped the meat off there.

But I brought the backstraps home. Okay. And the back straps had two. soft coolers one of them weighed 51 pounds and the other one weighed my other one weighed 49 so i brought home with me a hundred pounds of backstrap of backstrap holy cow yeah it was over 600 pounds of processed moose than me and my neighborhood and family and friends are still eating on not your friend josh though you will before you leave here um so what what what You know, you could tell by the look on your face when you finally see it, just this massive sense of relief, excitement, elation, satisfaction, all wrapped up into one.

When you walked up on it, what were the top three things that you thought when you walked up to it? I was just grateful. Yeah. And that is that the top three things that I felt was grateful, all three of them. grateful grateful i mean it was uh from the opportunity that i have backed my way into for this career that i never would have dreamed of having to the people that made all that happen you know and it has been i pulled the trigger but i had the easiest part right you know um from everybody that that saw that film to the people that work in the retail stores that under this umbrella that we all

work for everybody plays a part in that yeah and i'm grateful for every one of them and it truly is a um a blessing to be the tip of the spear to tell these stories and but it all it's all possible because of everybody behind the camera that do everything yeah and it was an absolute physical and literal thought of while i was there you you kind of immediately express your gratitude to Craig and and the other guys. Why is that important to you? Oh, it's just important. This is never, I love being the center of attention and talking to a room and entertaining

a room full of people, but my least favorite subject is me. Right. I'm just, I'm blessed to be where I am and have this platform, but I think it's, it's not to tell Brent's story. It's to tell everybody's story. Right. You know, and everybody has a part. Everybody's got a story, and everybody's story needs to be heard.

And I enjoy telling my part of it, but my part of this story is just a part of it. Right. There's a lot of parts, and, you know, everybody plays a part in it. That's one of the things I really appreciate about you, Brent, is just your sense of gratitude, appreciation. You're a humble guy, and based on all the comments that, i've read on social media and youtube it's pretty obvious to everybody else so i appreciate you being a being a model of that so yeah what's it like processing an animal that pick took us two and a half hours to get him skint and quartered up uh which is you know fairly quick for something

that yeah big and the pack out like i said man was it was pick up a load of meat take four steps and loaded in the boat. Right. I mean, it was just so easy. It was skinning a bear, skinning a deer, you know, times 10. Yeah. Easy as far as how we handled the meat, how it is to skin one, you know, laying down. It's a lot easier skin of moose laying on the ground.

It is a deer to me. Oh, really? Yeah, I think so just because it's so much bigger. You got a bigger handhold. and between you know dave did some film and then he set the camera up and he jumped in there with us so it took three of us two and a half hours of solid skinning and then cutting to get it wow get it out and get it in the boat wow and i'm not sure i don't know what the next clip is but um the highlight of that whole thing or i wouldn't say the whole thing but one of the top highlights

of it was when we got that moose back in the whole thing or i wouldn't say the whole thing but one of the top highlights of it was when we got that moose back in the boat and we were headed back towards cabin as probably a mile and a half i think what time of day did you shoot it oh it was probably three o'clock in the afternoon okay so you guys are going yeah it's late into the evening it's late into the evening of time we get there so the time we get loaded and everything done skint all the rib meat neck meat everything cut off and loaded into the boat and left there we had our headlights on in the boat and we start heading we've got 20 minutes you know of motoring to get back to the cabin i turned my day of course he didn't he's filming i turn my light out Craig turns his light out and then it's too dark to film but the our way is lit up by the

northern lights and i was sitting in the back and dave was sitting behind it was sitting right there beside me in the northern you can see that moose the moose antlers and on the bow that boat up there and then the northern lights up above it and that's how we what lit our way back from where we skint that moose to our cabin and it was unreal it was so the emotion was i mean it brought tears to my eyes how beautiful it was to be in that place in a place like that with two of my good friends and do something like that and share that with them it was right man it overwhelming is a theme from the time i got there to the time we left and anytime i think about it and i'm not sure there has been a day go by that i hadn't thought about one portion of that

trip or the other i mean that not to put it cheaply but that sounds epic it is it was it was you know outside of something with my children or grandchildren it was the event of a lifetime for me that's incredible um is that the longest shot on game that you've ever taken a hundred percent you know growing up down here in south arkansas um you have a scope on a rifle but any place i we were hunting i hunt in the woods right you know and i don't um i never had a shot more than 150 yards you know and and i like to bow hunt so i hardly hardly ever ever hunt with a rifle anyway right and so that was by far and that's what was so important to me to be prepared when i got there is shooting with matt and getting comfortable and dialed in with

that scope and and changing distances that you know with a quick call out and swapping to different targets and putting the dope in the in the right in the scope and you mentioned dope a couple of times tell our our listeners and viewers what that means well it's just the you know those scopes they've got dials on them and turrets on them and they're numbered and for wind and for wind and then elevation you know left and right and up and down uh depending on what those factors are you can put that into a what's called a dope calculator on your phone an app you just put on your phone and then if it coincides with the turrets on the scope and it tells you where to dial them in so the you're shooting for distance and and wind correction.

Dope is a, dope is an acronym for data on previous engagement. So you're using correct. Ballistics. From a known target. From a known target. And, uh, you know, based on your round and your rifle. Yes.

The, the velocity of that bullet, you can calculate if it's zeroed at a hundred, you can calculate how far you need to click for elevation. Yes. Way smarter than me. And it works really well. And though, like I said, you know, I made three good shots on that, but I had real good equipment and real good information working in there. Yeah. Really all I did was control my, try to control my breathing as you can hear in that clip. I tried to settle down and take my time.

You did a good job because I was like, well, Brent's huffing coming around that corner. And then I heard you just kind of calm down. I just had to because he was dancing around in there like he was at a disco until I got it. What power scope is on there? Do you remember? Yeah, that is a, it was a 3 by 18 by 50, I believe. Okay, okay. Yeah, so it's pretty, pretty stout.

Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pasto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything.

Hey, everyone, big huge announcement. Meat Eater Live, the Christmas tour is kicking off again this year for the Christmas season of 2026. This time, we're hitting the Midwest. Meat Eater Live, the Christmas tour kicks off in December across six Midwestern cities. We've got Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Madison, DeMobile. Minneapolis and Fargo. Join myself, Janice Putelles, Clayneuke, and Brent Reeves, and Randall Williams for a night of laughs, trivia, free prizes, news, and opinions from across the worlds of hunting, fishing, wildlife conservation, and wild foods. Also, we're already stacking up some great special guests.

I got my buddy Bubbly Doug making the appearance in Madison. Meat Eater Live is the best Christmas gift for any outdoorsman or woman in you. your life. Tickets go on sale September 25th, but sign up at themeatheater.com slash tour and you'll get pre-sale access to buy tickets on September 14th days before they go on sale to the public. We can't wait to see you there. And I'm telling you, go ask anyone who has ever come to one of the Me Eater Live events and they will tell you, we laugh our asses off, we give away great prizes, we put on a solid show that I'm proud to be part of. Okay, we got another clip here.

Here it is. Oh, sweet. This is yours, Tim. I wish you'd been here with me. My older brother Tim took me hunting when he didn't have to, when I was more in the way than anything else. The only thing that would have made that moment better was to have watched him do what I just done.

It's a long way from the hayfield in Bradley County where I grew up to right here. It's a good place to be, man. Yeah. Thank you. Anytime. I put that in there just so you could get choked up. Trying to get me. Oh.

Man. Your brother Tim's been a real fixture in your life. Oh, yeah. As long as you can remember from the stories you told. Yeah. And that really comes through in the film. and the time he invested in you, mentoring you and hunting and as a brother and a friend and a hunting companion. And that was pretty meaningful to you.

What did Tim teach you that kind of came through in this hunt? Man, he has taught me so much stuff that comes in my everyday life. He's probably the most forgiven person I know. and he is he can look at a situation where I'm ready to grab a hammer and start tearing stuff up. And he's like, just sit back a minute. Let's reevaluate what we really need to do. There is no one that I know or have ever heard of that has more integrity than my brother. He's always doing the right thing, whether it's the easiest thing when it's not the easiest thing to do.

And he is, um, he is an example of what a brother and a friend and a father is. And he is, uh, he's a good man. And I, I, I, I talked to him every day. And I haven't talked to him today. And it's absolutely driving me nuts because since you got here is a normal time that we called back and forth. Right. So I'm ready for you get out here, Josh.

So I can, we can see if we could pipe him in. Yeah. Yeah. But he is. uh he is my buddy you know and we're tight what what would how would that moment have been different if Tim had been there it would that's the only thing that would have made it better I mean I was literally I would have loved to have seen him do that he is he's the guy he's eight years older than me and when I

was just little he was taking me everywhere and he decided when he was 16 and I was eight or 14 and I was four or six you know he's like I want to grow up and be a trapper in Alaska me too I wanted to do whatever he did you know and I wanted to put a track if I wasn't putting a track in my dad's tracks I was putting one in Tim's you know and everything that we just seemed to be so close and it would have been the culmination of all the things that I have I've been so blessed to do to be able to share that with him and watch him do that. That's the only thing that it had made it better. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, I think there's been opportunities. You know, I've talked about on Bear Grease just about I didn't grow up hunting. And Clay and Newcomb is the one who kind of taught me how to hunt and became a friend and a hunting mentor. Yeah. How valuable is that to take younger people or people who have. haven't had that experience it is it's the only way we keep this going that's how valuable it is yeah you know if it stops with one generation it's done forever you can go it's easy to go back and count the

generations that that got us to this point but the responsibility is only us now to keep it going and to show it to the next folks and there's i have always said you share uh a tragedy you with someone you can cut that sadness by 50%. You share a joy with someone and it multiplies it. There's no end of the number that you can do that it'll multiply. And that's what we got to do. Yeah. And that's how valuable it is and how important it is.

And we want to keep doing these kind of things and having these moments and sharing them. We got to share them. Yep. And sharing them with the folks that are not already exposed to it. get somebody else in a position to do the same thing and it's it's it's it's violent and i and as a kid i probably never thought about that sure as a young man i didn't think about as much but now it's at the forefront of a lot of the things that i do i think i think it it has so many benefits

you know relationally and you know just learning the sport and the ethics behind it but even just basic health being outside being in nature being in the sun i mean yeah there's so many benefits all the way around and if you can take someone and teach them that and teach them the value of hunting ethically and harvesting organic meat and i mean it that it pays dividends no we were watching uh we had a premier party i i actually saw the two rough drafts before the final version came out in the final version we waited until that night to watch and I watched it over friends of ours friends and family we all gathered up at their huge television you know like a movie screen and and we watched it but before we watched it we we had

moose chili oh nice out from that moose you know that's awesome and so it was that moose responsible not only for the entertainment of the evening but for feeding everybody at the table yeah you know so it was is it It was a very special day, a very special thing to see that come out. And to have the story in there showing my dad and my brother, it was a special, special moment. That's awesome. Let's move on to the next clip here. Mike Strap and Moose Heart.

That is the first combination of that I've ever had. Ready? There's so tender. Yeah. We've got some back straps too. Yeah, they're, I'll cook all the heart and then we'll tie into them. We'll have a picnic tomorrow with all this meat we got. That gum is good.

Well, let's go catch a fish. Heck yeah, maybe some walleye for supper. Oh, ho! You found one. There, little fella. out there to your grandpa that's a good one there he is it'll be a little treat for supper tonight I'm guessing him 15 pounds yeah right on odd don't you think 14 at least my fish I say how big he was that's right so I'm I'm a little jealous of that moose

me to look pretty tasty. Yeah. It was a heart good? Oh, fantastic. And I've eaten Deer Heart before. I had never eat a bear heart, believe it or not. And I may, if I'm fortunate enough to get one this year, I'll try it. But that Moose Heart, there's some.

How big was that Moose Heart? As big as about like a volleyball. Wow. Close to a volleyball. It was humongous. And I've got, I've got some photos of it, you know, of me holding it. And it's just unreal. how big that thing is.

Wow. But we, we, uh, I brought, I mean, I had to bring some of it home. We were there for, I think four more days, three or four more days where we could. And we ate from the time I killed that moose, that's what we ate, moose and something every night from then on. And we still didn't eat all that heart. Really? Oh gosh. Yeah.

It's huge. Wow. Absolutely. What did it taste like? I was expecting. And I like liver. I was expecting the texture of an organ like a like a gizzard or a liver, but it was just tender. It was absolutely tender.

And it was there was no people say, and I'm not a fan of the phrase game. Right. Something tasting gaming. I mean, Coon tastes like coon. Fish tastes like fish. Right. It tastes like deer taste like deer meat, you know. Beef tastes like beef.

They compare everything to beef, but it's, I mean, it is what it is. uh there was no there was no strong taste to right no iron taste like you would kind of get like you eat with liver sometimes you get kind of an iron taste to it it was um it was just really good man and did it compare to any other game that you've had um i don't know that i would be able to say oh that's moose heart right i took a bite and a blind taste test it just tasted like good seasoned fried meat for those who have never experienced it what's the feeling of eating meat that you harvested that day it's hard from that day it just it never gets better than that day it's like fish you know I'm not a I love fish I'm not a

big fan of eating trout they don't just don't I'm with you they don't taste that good to me but you catch a trout and you cook it on the bank of the river it's the best thing you've ever eaten. Yeah. And it's all got to do with the environment and where you are, you know, and who you're with. The experience. Yeah, the experience.

Okay, here's the big question. Fried fish or moose? Man, I asked Craig that. He said moose. And I probably have to tend to agree if it's fresh moose because of the environment, but you bait a trap with a fried fish and you will catch me every time. Did y'all, did you catch walleye? We did.

And that was one thing. We didn't, Dave was changing out of battery or something and we just kept fishing we're like Dave you're on your own we're fishing for supper buddy and we didn't get that or it didn't make it into the film but we did catch some walleye wallace great eating oh gosh yeah but the pike up there I mean that's the we call out a jackfish down here but the jackfish we eat down here ain't like those up there that cold water man good clean taste and it is so good yeah it's great oh that's awesome so we've we've got a couple comments I wanted or

comments and questions that i just want to kind of run by you here okay um we have i'm not going to try to say all of these uh names from people who made comments but aaron song three nine one three said i heard that moose is the most tender meat it doesn't matter how old they are or young they taste very tender i don't know how you think tastes tender but the was the backstrap tender yes it was and the longer it the longer we had it hanging in camp the more tender it got did you leave it up the whole week we did we left it up for i think we were there three more days after i killed that okay after i killed that moose and it got yeah what day did you kill it on i i forgot to ask that it was like the second full day of hunting but like the third day that we were there okay

and uh it was nice and cool there uh oh gosh yeah yeah okay yeah um Jordan Pallick, 9,004 said, only one question I got. Why are they putting quartered meat into plastic bags? That was to get it out of the boat across the sandy beach up to the place

where we had it laid out to cool. It didn't stay in plastic bags. All right. A few more questions. Did you like that style of hunt or would you prefer a spot and stock? You know, I would like to do the spot and stock. It would be hard to do that

in that country there because of the limited visibility. But that's, I mean, that's going to be my favorite because it's the only way I've done it so far. I've been on one moose hunting trip and killed a moose. So that was, that would be my preferred. Would I like to try it? Absolutely. And I'd like to try it my next one with archery. Okay. Okay. Um, Quinn Scott said, what's a big thing that you took from behind the camera? to being on camera. That's a great question. I think one of the things that I learned the most was patience.

Being a cameraman, you're always wanting to stretch that shot out as long as you can, you know. You think about a, like a white tail hunt. If you just showed the kill shot on a white tail hunt, like an archery hunt, that video would probably be, it'd be stretching to do 30 seconds. Right. You know, from Star- finished from the time you see him and as a cameraman you're wanting to milk that time out to be able to tell that story so i think patience is is an extra sense of of patience would be what i took

from behind the camera to in front because i'm i'm thinking about it but i'm also thinking about what dave's looking right looking at you know am i giving him time to get set and everything because he's i mean he's a professional he's he's two steps ahead of me where i'm at on on that part but it is conscious in my mind especially if you're filming a hunt the time that it takes to get it right right okay great answer um you know you've you've had that moose meat of quite a while now um Ethan Kenley said what's your favorite recipe you've made with your moose meat man we ground we have a bunch of it in burger uh we have made meatloaf and tacos and burghs and burghers and burgers and everything you can imagine, but probably my favorite is probably chili.

Okay. The chili is good. The steaks are great. I'm not saying the steaks aren't good. They are absolutely fantastic. You chunk it up like into stew meat? No, it's, or you grind it? Grind it.

Hide it ground like burger. Okay. But we did have some stew meat done, and I've done recipes with that. And I gave a buddy of mine, a try tip, and he fixed it. and off of that moose and he said it was unbelievably good and after he told me that i thought dang i shouldn't it gave it to but it was uh it's it's been really good there's been no way that we have fixed it that hadn't been good and literally anything that you would do with beef or deer meat you can do with this okay it's it's really good broad question here but um we got a

comment that says what's the best part about moose hunting i can only I can only attest to this trip because I've only been once. I was never a cameraman on another moose. I mean, this is my experience. And the best part about it was being there sharing it with my friends. It was, you know, on, when I go bow hunting, I'm usually by myself unless it's a filmed event. And I come back and I'm like, man, Josh, I wish you to have been there. Yeah.

And saw this. You know, it may have something not. even anything to do with the moose may have been two squirrels fighting it fell out of a tree but on that hunt and to this to this very moment right now i can pick up my phone and text dave or krag and say hey remember when this happened you know how cool is that so i think that's probably my best part absolutely well we've got one more we've got one more clip here we want to show i hope no one asked which had a bigger effect on me the moose or the lights as the answer might surprise them.

Quick clip, but the Northern Lights, you talked about there in that clip, don't, if someone were to ask, tell us what that meant to you. Like, what did it do? You talked about being on the boat and seeing that and that being your light that you follow home back to camp,

but it clearly did. something to you you know from a little when I was a little boy I was reading adventure stories from in seventh grade I was reading Peter Hathaway capstick you know death in the long grass about big game hunting in Africa and before that I was reading Jack London and adventure stories in Alaska and they talk about the Northern Lights and to me that would have been as foreign as listening to Neil Armstrong talk about about walking on the moon, something that I would never have dreamt I would have got to see.

And that has been over a lifetime. You know, I'm 60 years old. And I've been thinking about that since I was 10. And then to be there and to look at it with my eyes, there is no way Dave's camera could capture. Yeah. All the things that went into that. And it was an easy answer for me. The northern lights were a bigger, had a bigger impact.

on me than that moose did because I will eat that moose and it'll be gone. Mm-hmm. And then there will be no more moose, but those lights will be in me forever. And it was amazing to sit there and think that the same creator that made those lights made me. So it made a very significant, it was a very significant moment for me to sit there and see that. and it was it has been so good every every bit of yeah i think about them now and i can't quit smiling about yeah you know it was they were you ask a question we talked when you first got here about

a lot of the clips that you see of the northern lights are sped up so you can see the movement right you can see the movement in them if you're just sitting there staring at them but it is almost like you could hear them it is a overwhelming experience to sit there and see that it was for me you know and I'm a I'm a detail-oriented person where I try to pay attention to everything except when Alexis tells me to do something apparently I'm not very good at that but it was very easy answer that that had the biggest impact on me and it was all good man that's great any final reflect reflections on the on the trip

there was nothing bad about it. You know, it's hard going from getting all that stuff up there. And all the logistics that went into it, I can't tell you how many meetings we had, meetings after meetings after meetings on prepping and planning. And I knew once I got there and we got feet on the ground, why we had so many of them, because it is such a big undertaking.

but just the whole experience as a whole of i would there was there was no detractors even the long drive you know we dave and i flew into winnipeg and then drove like 10 or 11 hours to the northern part of manitoba to catch a float plane to go into where craig was so i mean it was once we got i mean it was katy bar the door you got to go yeah you know you got you got to load up and and and drive and then it was effort it took effort to get there but every bit of it was fun every bit of it was you know new and refreshing and i got to share it with my friends and it just made it so good it was uh it will be with me forever and i hope to get to go back and do it again soon you know with the in a different place or with craig or whatever i won't go with a bow and yeah and just get

that much closer yeah Well, thanks for sharing the film with us and talking with me today. I appreciate it. Thank you for being here, Josh. I appreciate it. Thank you all for being here. If you haven't seen it yet, check out the 12 and 26 Manitoba Moose Hunting episode that I did there on the meat eater YouTube channel. It's been an absolute pleasure to do.

And I appreciate it. And send your comments in. Anytime you see one of these, when we do one of these companion podcasts, your questions could get answered right here on the air. Thank you all for watching and y'all be careful. Thanks, everybody. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.