The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 019

Episode Date: October 1, 2015

Napa Valley, California. Steven Rinella talks with Janis Putelis and Mike Washlesky from the MeatEater crew as they answer frequently asked questions from fans. Subjects discussed: eating groundhog; hunting in Texas; Bryan Callen exposing himself to the crew; Steve's desire to audit the overall expenditures of hunters in order to prove that they have plenty of money for hunting trips and gear; Aldo Leopold; wild game meats that are off limits to the crew's wives; whether or not a woman should take her husband's last name; Sasquatch; eating roadkill; and the kind of 'tattoo' Steve would like. $5 off any volume on MeatEater VHX = MEATEATERPODCAST Connect with Steve and MeatEaterSteve on Instagram and TwitterMeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YoutubeShop MeatEater Merch Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. You might not be able to join our raffles and sweepstakes and all that because of raffle and sweepstakes law, but hear this. OnX Hunt is now in Canada. It is now at your fingertips, you Canadians. The great features that you love in OnX are available for your hunts this season. Now the Hunt app is a fully functioning GPS with hunting maps that include public and crown land, hunting zones, aerial imagery, 24K topo maps, waypoints and tracking. You can even use offline maps to see where you are

without cell phone service as a special offer. You can get a free three months to try out OnX if you visit onxmaps.com slash meat. This is the Meat Eater podcast. We're broadcasting. We're not broadcasting. We're recording in Napa Valley, California, where I'm drinking a Coors.

Drinking a Coors in Napa Valley, California, where I'm drinking a Coors. Drinking a Coors in Napa Valley, California. But I'm here with Giannis Patel, who's drinking himself some red wine. Is that the fancy red wine we just got? Yes, sir. Drinking very fancy red wine. Mike Walsh-Lesky drinking very fancy red wine. Last night, he was drinking beam and coke it was very not fancy no he's now drinking fancy red wine we're in Napa

because we're hunting this isn't what we're talking about tonight but we're in Napa because we're here hunting turkeys and this morning I killed the world's most biggest, cagiest, wiliest, unkillable turkey to have ever graced God's green earth. Would you agree with that, Giannis? Yes. For Rio Grande turkeys. No. Cagy turkey. Cag for Rio Grande turkeys no

cagey turkey cagey Rio Grande turkey this turkey I don't know how much I want to get into this just so it was a cool turkey hunt oh it's

it's textbook it's what you want we didn't get to Walt's in there call him right in off the roost. We had to set up on him three different times. He gave us the old loop-de-loop.

We decided to change positions. Next time we call, he gobbles from literally probably standing where you were sitting, next to that tree. Yeah. I keep trying to prevent myself from getting into talking about this turkey too much because we're going to talk about something different. But this turkey man, I was calling him, and every time I'd call, he'd just gobble. And that gives you a power trip as a turkey caller

because turkeys, all they do is manipulate you. And when you realize that you're manipulating a turkey, you can't help yourself but not do it. It'd be like if you pushed a button, you know, and some machine, I don't want to say filleted you, but some machine gave you a back rub, right? You keep pushing the damn button. And when you got a tom that's just gobbling like mad every time you call, you call too much. So we finally decided to move and maybe we can call him in a different direction or maybe there's something hanging him up that we can't tell what's hanging him up. And we move and that prevented me from calling for 15 minutes.

So I'm silent for 15 minutes. By the time we move and get set up again and I call, that gobbler calls from probably right where I had been sitting the whole time because he got to be like, I can't believe that hen gobbler or I can't believe that hen turkey is ignoring me, and he went down there. So then I proceeded to call to him again too much, and I eventually started checking my watch and trying to make myself let 10 minutes go by without calling, and then that turkey showed up,

and he got shot. Big old long spurs. One of them was busted off. Giannis was jealous. Inch and a half plus. Thick bases. He was a warrior. We're joined by Mike Wasileski of the Texas Coal Hunters Association.

I know so little about Texas hunting that I thought that was a real sticker. No. Yeah. I mean, it's a real sticker. It's a real t-shirt. Explain. Try to explain why that's funny. The Texas Cull Hunters Association is a, I mean, I got it from a buddy of mine who I go hunting with.

And by hunting might means sitting in an apartment on stilts. Yeah, drinking beer and, you know, showing up at the appointed time. And, you know, seeing what shows up. So, yeah, you know, I mean, that's what's afforded to me, so I take advantage of it. And so the Texas Coal Hunters Association is, it's not really an association. It's more of a response to all the guys with pickup trucks that have these stickers like, what is it, trophy hunting.

There's the Texas Trophy Hunters Association, which I might go speak to. Yeah, well, I'm sure there are a bunch of nice guys. But it's more about the, you know, you can't eat the antlers. And it's a response to the fact that, you know, some people hunt for the meat. And even though we do it, you know, in our luxurious. You guys pride yourselves on coal hunting. Yeah. Well, I mean, it is.

Yeah. You know, it's for us and where I go in Rock Springs, Texas, it's game management, and, you know, it's not. I'm not allowed to shoot the bucks that show up. So it's just this giant tease. You know, they're constantly rolling in there, and it's just like, wow, that guy's going to be great a couple of years and that guy's really great. So how can you determine who's a coal buck?

Well, it's based on the biologist comes out to my buddy's place who has a share in this like 8,000 acres. Let me interrupt you. I just want to bring people up to speed. Okay. So let's say you i just want to bring people up to speed okay so let's say you got a chunk of ground you're trying to manage it because you want big huge bucks on it right um

so you you tell dudes who are hunting out there not to shoot the box because you want them to grow to be big but a coal buck and i buck, and I understand this a little bit, but Mike's going to explain in great detail. A coal buck would be a buck that you're selecting out. You're doing selective breeding like a farmer or a rancher might. Yes. You got a buck with bad, some kind of undesirable characteristic. Right, like he'll have not a symmetrical rack,

or he could be five or six years old with only two forks, like thick base, but just like nothing that's special. And they hang a tag on these ones or something. No, no, no, there's no tags. Nobody's actually tracking the animals. The biologist does a flyby and he looks at the health of the herd and stuff.

He's like, you need to take this much from this parcel of land as far as like this many does. And so I'm not a family member, so I don't get to hunt the bucks. They get to, you know, they get to, you know, if they want to, they can go out there and throw a lot of just based on the population, you know, you can take this many mature bucks. And so they, you know, that's for, you know, their family, you know, I guess, higher level family friends and, you know, that's for, you know, their family, you know, I guess higher level family friends and, you know, family members and stuff. But so I say. Not low level family friends. No, I mean, I go out there and I help work the land and stuff and I get to take, you know, my allotment of does.

So. Yeah, but this year you're sitting out there and shot two oddhead. That's different property. Oh. Yeah. That's, that's my dad's friend's place in Junction. And that, that is And that is entirely different. I mean, that guy doesn't even hunt.

It's just go out there and, you know, see what kind of wildlife is around. Gotcha. But, you know, the part- So you're able to make the call on what's a coal buck. Well, I mean, there's- Like they trust you to be like, oh, that one's not symmetrical.

Well, they have game cabs and they're like, well, this guy right here, look for this dude. You know, they're like, they're kind of inspecting them and stuff. And they're like, and, and I'm terrible at, what is it? Aging on the hoof. Right. I mean, is that the term? Which is way difficult. And I feel, right. And so I feel, you know, I, I never really feel, you know, comfortable. I'm like, cause you know, I'm like, well, that guy, you know, he's the wrong shade of Brown. I should probably shoot him. And that's not necessarily the right thing to do. So, you know,'s the wrong shade of brown i should probably shoot him and that's not necessarily the right thing to do so you know i always feel really just real tentative about even doing that and i

had an opportunity this past year and then three elk run run in and scared everything away the one i was about to take yeah yeah three they were yeah and they thought that they had gone off the property but they i guess there's a you know flourish not i wouldn't say flourishing but a small population that is starting to grow so they're trying to help them out so yeah those are definitely off limits yeah but um so how many deer to shoot this year in texas uh i think three does in november but i have a feeling though just to speak to this Coal Hunters Association, that it could help you get more hunting rights or access at some point, right? Yeah, man. It's like those dudes at backyard boat. Your name gets passed around.

They're like, yeah, this guy likes to just come out and shoot does, loves to meet. Yeah. Someone might say, oh, well, nobody in our family does that. Right. Well, I mean, my buddy, he was like, I'm tired of having to shoot all these deer and clean them myself. And so he's brought his friends out for the past couple of years.

And so I help with taking care of the water. And we build rain catchment systems for the livestock or the ag exemptions and stuff. And kind of take care of the animals and what we can do just in general to help them out throughout the year. And especially they've had a really bad drought for the past couple of years. So they're just getting kind of hammered

and just helping them with protein and stuff like that so that they can sustain through the really hard times. So in that situation, he just got tired of being the only guy in his family that really hunted and had to manage the property because the rest of his family members just come out there and they're just like, oh, yeah, that buck right there.

And bam, you know, as opposed to like, you know, putting the time in through the rest of the year to, you know, do all the, the hard work, you know? And so, you know, that's kind of where, that's, that's what I do. I mean, you know, it puts meat in my freezer and, you know, we don't, we don't walk anywhere. We take a Polaris and roll up there and roll up there. Dude, listen, man. I'd do this. I'd wind up doing the same thing, man.

It's definitely, well, into the- Yeah, like if I live somewhere and the guy's like, hey, someone's gonna shoot these deer. Yeah. You might come shoot them and have them. Right, yeah. And that's, I mean, I don't own property. And so that's, I don't have a lease.

And so that's how- Not landed gentry. Remember that term from history class? The landed gentry. This is like passed down through generation, right? Yeah. And that's, and I don't, you know, I'm not afforded that opportunity.

So, you know, sure. Yeah, come out and- Yeah, poor Mike. He spends a lot of time running around the woods in army surplus. Dude, definitely don't have a big old ranch. Definitely don't, yeah. You know, Yanni's idea about, you know, still, this still isn't, you definitely don't yeah you know yanni's idea about that you know i still this is

this still isn't you still don't you listeners still don't know what this podcast is about because it's not about this but yanni had an interesting point where texas coal hunters association would be a way you'd get in on hunting and it reminds me this dude i know and this isn't what the podcast is about either but this dude I know who has started this group called Backyard Bow Pro if you like you got all these people in suburban environments right like bow only areas you know where you can only hunt with a bow like for instance like most of Long Island New York right that's not where he's at but it's a place like you can bow hunt, but you can't gun hunt.

So he started this group where the group, you become a member of Backyard Bow Pro. And to become a member of Backyard Bow Pro, you got to go through a background check and you got to pass an archery proficiency test. So mugs who have problems with white-tailed deer in their orchards or in their gardens, whatever, and wish they could get rid of some whitetail deer, call Backyard Bow Pro and get teamed up with a dude who is like a reputable guy

who's demonstrated proficiency with his bow. So he's been vetted to take care of the awesome. And they crank it out on deer hunting permissions. Another thing they do is they got people who don't hunt and won't hunt, and they'll go out and get the place, right? The permission. Hunt deer, cut up some of the deer, bring the landowner venison to try. Then they use it also for fundraiser stuff. They keep some, they give some to food banks, but they'll bring in like, they don't bring it. They'll go get the stuff processed and bring ready to eat processed meat to places, you know, and give it. And then

they've had people who are like, I've always hated hunters, you know, blah, blah, blah. I can't like, I never knew I'd be in this situation. And now like they're eating venison off their own land.

That's great. That's cool. How long have they been around? Years. Really? Yeah. I don't think a decade, but I mean,

I've, I've, I've known him for several years. He's been doing it and he was doing it when I met him. That's interesting. That sounds, I mean, that's just a good idea, idea man yeah cool this dude's name is joe lasher he's out of north carolina awesome nicer now on that note before you tell the listeners what the podcast is going to be about let's take a quick break hey folks exciting news for those who live or hunt in canada and boy my goodness do we hear we hear from the Canadians whenever we do a raffle or a sweepstakes.

And our raffle and sweepstakes law makes it that they can't join. Whew, our northern brothers get irritated. Well, if you're sick of, you know, sucking high and titty there. OnX is now in Canada. The great features that you love in OnX are available for your hunts this season. The Hunt app is a fully functioning GPS with hunting maps that include public and crown land, hunting zones, aerial imagery, 24K topo maps, waypoints, and tracking. That's right.

We're always talking about OnX here on the Meat Eater Podcast. Now you guys in the Great White North can be part of it, be part of the excitement. You can even use offline maps to see where you are without cell phone service. That's a sweet function. As part of your membership, you'll gain access to exclusive pricing on products and services handpicked by the OnX Hunt team. Some of our favorites are First Light, Schnee's, Vortex Federal, and more. As a special offer, you can get a free three months to try OnX out if you visit onxmaps.com slash meet. onxmaps.com slash meet. onxmaps.com slash meet.

Welcome to the OnX Club, y'all. Yanni's so good at announcing those breaks. You're back with the Meat Eater podcast. What we're doing, this is the second one of these we did, and people liked it, man. It was popular, and I liked it because it brings up a lot of great things to discuss.

Because of the TV show Meat Eater and various other things like web stuff and social media stuff, there's questions that come in all the time where guys have questions about hunting, and they're varied. It's everything like, have you ever eaten a koala bear to these like really deep ethical questions and um and it's funny because you see the same ones come in versions of the same ones come in over and over and over again so it gives you like a really targeted way, us, you meaning me, a really targeted way to have a discussion about hunting that is specifically addressing questions that people have all the time. I got this gigantic list of questions. For instance, there's two people

have asked. I'll just give you, for instance, what kind of questions flow in. So just recently, two different people, I'm assuming they don't know each other, wrote in to ask about eating groundhogs. So for whatever reason, eating groundhogs is on people's mind. I've never eaten one. I've killed a couple for the bounty, meaning bounty, like when I was a kid, I would do some contract,

I guess almost like contract assassinations of animals. People would have problems with an animal, and I would charge them to go get it. Damage control, animal damage control. And I remember one time I did a groundhog and got 15 bucks for it and took it out camping. We were going out sucker fishing and camping and I took my groundhog with me because I thought we'd eat it and we never ate it. And I'm ashamed to say now that that groundhog went to waste. I just got my cash for him and left. You guys never eaten groundhog? I have not.

Never? No. There's no reason. I'm just going to dispatch a bunch of these questions right now and just say, like, people are like, people always ask, like, is blank edible? The answer is yes. I don't think there's any. There's no bird that's not edible.

There's no inedible bird. I don't think there's an inedible bird i don't think there's an inedible mammal is there anything that's poisonous like i don't know i don't know what people mean when they ask if it's edible they want to know if it tastes good yeah is it good is it is it worth but that's not what i think when i think edible like somebody might be like hey how's that new restaurant maybe like oh it's edible that means like the restaurant sucked or it was mediocre. But when people say like, is a groundhog edible, are they saying, is it delicious?

Or will you die after eating it? Yeah, you know, that's a good point. It might be one of each. If we have two questions that came in, one person might be asking about the taste and the other might be asking if they're going to die if they eat it, if it carries diseases. I think that's on people's mind a lot of times

with the wild game. There's that stigma of like, hey, it's wild. Could have some bad stuff going on. A groundhog's a member of the squirrel family. I've eaten other members of the squirrel family. There's nothing going to be wrong with a groundhog. But you just have to ask yourself, if you're going to go eat a groundhog or a skunk or a fox or whatever, what are you hoping to get out of it? If you're hoping to get out of it that it tastes food in a popular restaurant,

if it's going to be that good, you've probably heard of people eating it to a degree. If you mean good as in, will you be glad about the experience and having satisfied your curiosity and having a sort of enhanced understanding of food and wildlife and having a sort of enhanced understanding of food

and wildlife and all that kind of stuff, then yeah, it's going to be great. It's like, what's the worst that's going to happen to you? It's just, you don't like it. Yeah, it's like, so you cook the groundhog up and then you eat some and you're like, eh, that's about as bad as I think it could get.

All right. Well then, but I feel like a lot of people listening to this are probably saying in their heads or out loud that groundhogs, you know, those big colonies, what do you call them? Big groundhogs? No, you're thinking prairie dog colonies, man. Oh, so they're thinking like groundhogs, like woodchucks. Gotcha. All right. But let's flip it over. You're going to have a pretty healthy meal. Let's flip it over to prairie dogs. Oh, so they're thinking like groundhogs, like woodchucks. Gotcha. All right, but let's flip it over.

You're going to have a pretty healthy meal. Let's flip it over to prairie dogs. I cleaned a prairie dog once. Right, but they're known to carry the plague. Yep, so a squirrel. So a squirrel. So you just got to cook it, right? Yeah.

You're not going to get the plague from eating it. Well, do they carry the plague? You get the plague from handling it. The fleas that are on it. I wouldn't sleep with it under my covers. It's dead carcass under my covers, so all of its mites are jumping off and making homes in my hair. No.

If that's what you mean by edible, no. No, dude, seriously. The groundhog thing. I've eaten. Remember that movie Unforgiven yeah in the end

when Clint Eastwood's character is going to kill little Bill and little Bill's like oh you're just you've been killing women and children

and Clint Eastwood's like you know I've killed everything that's ever walked or crawled I've eaten most everything that's walked or crawled

somehow I missed I haven't I haven't eaten a groundhog yet. Well, now I'm curious. I'm telling you exactly what it's going to taste like, man. What? It's going to taste like

a I don't know. Beaver without the caster. It can't be too far from beaver. It's going to be like beaver, but sometimes beaver meat, which I'm a fan of and which is good, very edible. It's great. Who was just raving about that?

That you'd serve it to your mother-in-law. Brian Callen. Brian Callen. The funny Brian, the very funny and beautiful Brian Callen, who, how do I put it? I just, I saw him in his fullness in the act of urinating. We all did. I didn't know where you were going to go with that.

I thought you were going to plug his comedy show, but that's not. No, he was in the middle of urinating and came up to show me. Let's go on to the next question. Showed us all. Gianni, you grab a couple that you like out of here. I will. Oh, here's one. This kind of stuff comes in all the time.

Not to belittle it. It's not belittling it. It's complimenting it. I've been looking to take my son on a hunting trip and was wanting options on it. I'd like to take him either bear or moose hunting. But he'd have to mortgage his house to afford it. Could I recommend an outfitter

that's reasonable in price? Or where would you go on a public hunt? You know, I can't recommend you an outfitter that's reasonable in price. The outfitters that I'm friends with, the handful of outfitters that I'm friends with, and the handful of outfitters that I would say like, man, you ought to go hunting with that dude,

are very, very, very expensive. They're very good, and they're very expensive. And I think I kind of know them and become friends with them because maybe I have friends that admire them or I admire their work ethic and their skillset and their knowledge and what they bring to it. And all that stuff costs tons of money.

I don't know. No, the guys I know are just super expensive, but it's like they're super expensive I don't know. No, the guys I know are just super expensive, but it's like they're super expensive because they're so good, you know? And there's people that do cookie cutter stuff. Like I think if you want to go on a cheap bear hunt, you go to these sort of almost like black bear hunt factories up in Canada where they're running a bazillion bear baits,

you know? And they'll load up like a van full of hunters and take you all out and drop you off at this like spacing on crown lands, government lands. You know, they drop one of you every five miles and you go in to hunt a bear bait. And then when you get done, you walk out to the road and you might be sitting there two hours

while they come and pick you all back up again and bring you back to eat spaghetti and meatballs. Those are cheap. I would just do your own hunt, man. Because it's like you want to go on a hunt with your son, which is fantastic, man. But I bet your kid would want to get something, but your kid also probably wants to be with his old man in like a comfortable environment, you know? And if you're going on an outfitted hunt that you don't know what's up,

I mean, you don't know what kind of environment it's going to be for your kids. That's what I would think with my son. Like if my son's four and a half, so he's old enough to fish, but he's not old enough to hunt, you know? And I just took my son to my brother's to fish. And I took my son out to Mile City

to fish with my brother where my brother lives. And this isn't like a big romantic hunt. We're fishing small, smallmouth, catfish, small walleye, sauger, right? A four fish day is a good day. He caught four fish one day. He caught a couple another day, caught one the other day. He had a couple another day, caught one the other

day. He had a blast because he's with me. He's with my brother. Everyone around him loves him. We go at his own pace. If I'd have flown him somewhere and speaking of fishing, I'm like, we're going to go somewhere and catch a blue marlin. I don't think it would, I don't know what it would have meant to him because little kids, I don't know how old your kid is. Yeah, I was going to say, I was just looking at this question. You think he's older? He might be 30 for all we know. Yeah, I'm answering it because I'm so myopic, man.

I'm only answering it from the perspective of having a little kid. But if you're looking to take him hunting, he's older than mine. But the point being, I guess part of the point being that i think kids feed off your own excitement yeah you know and they could tell when they're being they could tell when they're being bs'd you know i got an answer for him he's in iowa he's not that far to drive out west you're giving a real answer yeah moose is definitely to be more expensive than a bear hunt. You know what? I want to interrupt.

Go ahead. Put in, what's not expensive is like, if you're in Iowa, put in for a couple of the Western state moose hunts or put in for the main New Hampshire moose hunts. Yeah, it's too much of a long shot. Okay, never mind. I recommend, he's talking about talk about how to mortgage his house you don't really have to you just have to plan like we've like you said it before it's what's important everybody you know can find money in their budget to go hunting if they want to plan

a hunt five years from now hopefully everybody's still able enough to go hunting and do that hunt and put away whatever it takes, 500 bucks, you know, a hundred bucks a month for the next five years. And you will be on a fantastic hunt, I bet. Yeah, that's true. That's the, I'm going to start a business where I come in and audit people's life in order to find them more money to go hunting with. I just come in and look at how you spend. You know?

What would you call that? Needs a catchy name. Steve's money finding service. Steve's hunting money finding service, maybe. You got like a pool, a backyard pool. I'd be like, let's sell, let's fill that pool in. Get you some hunting money. And I feel like as far as, I worked for a couple of different hunting money. And I feel like as far as I worked for a couple different outfitters,

the elk outfitter that I worked for, we had a very affordable hunt, I felt like, especially for the quality that they got. I don't know if that's the norm out there to get the quality of cooks and guides and service that we gave for an archery hunt for $2,800. But I feel like outfitters, if you're trying to get a bargain, you're probably going to get that in return in the service that you get. It's going to be a little bit of a bargain. You're not getting the top quality stuff.

So if you're going to drive out for a moose hunt or a bear hunt, again, save just a little bit more money. And do some research. It's not that hard these days. The internet, call references. Call people that have been there and hunted. Get some names and numbers. Ask about the guides.

You know what else would be a good idea? Ask yourself if you're interested in hunting cow moose. There you go. You might wind up getting a way bargain, a way bargain deal, and you might be able to go at an off-season time, or if you're willing to do a spike hunt. There's a lot of moose hunts that are like,

you know, they're like, in a term Mike would understand, they're coal hunts. Right. Go out and do spike, you know, spike fork moose, do a cow hunt. Because a lot of times when you buy, when you do a hunt, like a lot of times when you see an expensive hunt, like for instance, it's a dream of mine to go hunt stone sheep someday. You see stone sheep hunts are 50, $60,000. What you're paying for is this tag. Because the guy, the outfitter,

gets like two or three of these tags every year. So if you want to go on a stone sheep hunt, you're not paying for the guiding service. You're buying a tag from a guy. That's expensive. When you see a $20,000 elk hunt, it's not that the guide is like giving you massages and stuff. It's like you're buying a very expensive tag, kind of.

That's a way to think about it. So if you're willing to go and hunt in an area that doesn't produce big bears, it's going to be cheaper. If you're willing to do a cow hunt or a spike fork bull moose hunt, you're going to be saving all that tag money. You know? All right. What's my take on environmental issues?

I'm an environmentalist. I mean, generally, I'm always on the side of the environment. That's why I'm a political eunuch, man. Because I feel like we have one political party that seems willing to piss away certain hunting rights and piss away gun rights. And we have another political party that, in general, seems willing to piss on our hunting and fishing lands. It's hard, man. Yeah, I'm an environmentalist. I don't want, and it's not,

now it's like you're painted as a radical if you want clean air and clean water and good hunting and fishing lands. It's like, oh, these radical communists who don't think we should poison the water. I'm just like, yeah, I like clean air, clean water. I like wildlife. I think that wildlife is worth being, it's like worth enough to warrant being inconvenienced by. I remember, I just recently reread Elder Leopold's Sand County Almanac.

And he has a line in there and he's talking about, and this guy wrote this book in the 40s. He has a line in there where he's talking about that the country's become like a hypochondriac where we're so worried about our economic well-being, we're so fearful of our economic health that we've become incapable of being healthy, you know, like a hypochondriac. They can't be healthy because they're so worried that something's wrong with them, you know. I don't think that the right answer is always what's best

for the economy. And I also am a little bit, and I know and I'm familiar with arguments about arguing the economic value of hunting and fishing, which is tremendous. There's a tremendous economic value to hunting and fishing and a tremendous economic value to wildlife. And I can give that argument, I can make that argument, but I also realize that it's a bigger issue than that. If I need to sell you on having healthy wildlife and having clean air and clean water based on just financial matters, based on economics, I'm going to lose my own argument. It's way bigger

than that. It's way more important than that. No one ever said to me, if you take good care of your kids, you'll make a lot of money. No, taking good care of your kids costs money. Have I ever crumbled across a game animal? What was that one? Sorry. Oh, here's a good one. How do you deal with really hardcore anti-gun people?

We were talking about this today. It depends on how hardcore. I don't argue. I'll have conversations with, but I don't argue with vegans because you're not going to change their mind. If someone comes to me and they says like, I'm absolutely adamantly opposed

to any ownership of firearms whatsoever, I don't know where I'm going to get. I don't know where I'm going to get. I have some luck having this discussion with people who have very hypocritical perspectives on guns. Being like that the guns they like are okay, but the guns that other people like are not okay. That's easy to combat.

But it's funny because I'm not put up against it as much. Do you guys spend a lot of time having arguments about whether it's okay that you have a gun or not? No, but I feel like I definitely try to defend just general, like any kind of general gun ownership. When people say, all right, well, you have a hunting bolt action rifle. Why should we let anybody have like a rifle that can shoot, you know, have a 50 round clip on it where you can just shoot away? Yeah. That's like, I used to struggle with a lot of these questions like that.

And there's a couple of points people made to me that helped me kind of understand the issue better, is that the Second Amendment has absolutely nothing to do with hunting. Like, when they drew that up, they weren't thinking about protecting your right do with hunting. Like when they drew that up, they weren't thinking about protecting your right to go hunt. No. It had nothing to do with hunting. But then like some guys are real critical of hunters.

There's even a term like a FUD. A FUD, it would be a dude like you and me that just hunts with a bolt-action rifle. It's like you're behind the times. You're like Elmer Fudd. I think that's kind of what that means. Another thing was if people would say like, oh, you shouldn't have a high capacity,

you shouldn't have an assault rifle, right? But then other people would look at the rifle i have and say well is it okay that you have a sniper's rifle and it is man it's like i have rifles that are capable of shooting a thousand yards in the right hands so it's like you got an assault rifle you got a sniper's rifle. It's like, I think you can paint all this stuff in crazy ways. So it's hard to answer the question,

but yeah, it's something that I think about all the time, but I don't, it just doesn't come up in my life that I have arguments with really hardcore anti-gun people. I remember like, kind of like how to dispatch. A friend of mine was relating a story where my friend's wife was with a friend of hers and her friend said, I would never let my children go play at a house

that had guns in the house. And my friend's wife said, well, you better not let them come play at my house. You know, that's probably like the extent, I house. That's probably like the extent of the conversation because I just don't think you're going to win it. Maybe someone who's really good is going to win it, but this question is really hardcore anti-gun people. Well, I think some people have misconceptions about firearms in general, and that's kind

of what we were talking about earlier today is, or what we were talking about as far as hunter education and how that kind of can dispel the myth as far as, you know, just knowledge in general about firearms as they are. And I think a lot of people are like, oh, there's guns in the house. So they think that they're hidden under the couch, you know, fully loaded in cabinets in a cereal box, you know, and that's not where it is. That's the thing I always think about where I have, yeah, like the way I store my firearm, the way I store my firearms. It's like, yeah,

if someone said, it'd be like, that guy has thousands of rounds of ammunition stockpiled. Right. In a closet full of weapons. Right. I don't want to be like, well, yeah, but I mean, you got to come look at how it's set up. It's not like what you're describing. Yeah. You know?

It's like, oh, there's guns in the house. And there's handguns under cushions. And it's just easily accessible. And it's not how it is. That's one thing I would like to see um we're talking about it's funny because people ask like how i have these conversations we actually had this conversation yesterday or today one thing i'd like to see the gun industry i'm not saying they don't focus on it but i'd like to see a more focus on teaching people how to safely store firearms in their home,

which is something I never thought of until I had kids. Right, yeah, absolutely. If you don't have kids, it doesn't, you know what I mean? As a kid, we had a gun cabinet but it was different because because this was like i'm 41 and my but my dad was like the age of most people's grandpas because he had me and he was really old you didn't touch that far the gun cabinet because you he'd kill you right i probably had just like the little key right and it was like if he came in and you were messing around in there, you were dead.

Yeah. I don't have, I don't like inspire that kind of fear out of my kids. So I've been lately now, you know, as they get older, I'm lately now always trying to make sure that my storage technique is way advanced beyond their age, right? Like a one-year-old is like, okay, you can't really stand up yet, so I know how to keep stuff away from him.

Now that I got a, my kid will be five pretty soon. So now I'm getting into more like actual protocol because I'm not just worried about my kid. You know, even if I didn't instill that level of fear that my dad instilled me about not touching stuff I'm not supposed to touch, I don't know that his friends have learned that level of fear.

Right, and they might not know anything about it and they'll be curious. They're like, oh, what is that? Because they, you know, they come from, you know, maybe a household that doesn't have that kind of you know education behind it in that kind of you know environment that they're raising and stuff they're like oh there's a you know what's that right there i want to go play with that that looks pretty cool yeah because they've they've fetishized they've like some people like accidentally fetishize guns right you know like my kids already not my

youngest two but my four-year-old i've already met we go out and shoot his bb gun this is the muzzle this is the trigger this is the safety never do this never do that so if somehow he was inspired to like somehow whatever there's a lapse and he was able to get access he has in in his head the fundamental don'ts. You know? And I think that this sort of thing like, guns are bad, I don't even want to know how they work, is ridiculous.

Right, it's respect and knowledge. That was the point we made today, is that education, just a little bit, would go so far for so many people. And I don't look at it any differently than teaching my kids about the car. You don't let your kids mess around with, like, keys and the ignition and start jacking around the, you know, shifter.

Bad things happen when kids do that, you know? Nobody lets their kids do that. It's dangerous. Yeah, you're not like, no, don't even look at that, son. This is a dangerous machine, this car. Right, yeah. You're not allowed to touch the, you know? You're like, hey, man, don't be touching this. Don't machine, this car. Right, yeah. You're not allowed to touch it. You're like, hey man, don't be touching this.

Don't be touching this. If I'm not in the car, you can't even be up in the front here, but this is what all this stuff is. Don't touch it. Oh man, I got a story about that. It's related to that. Me and my buddy back when we were,

I think we were five and we were at a 7-Eleven parking lot and it was sloped and his dad went inside and he had a standard. And so my buddy hops up front, and he's like, I'm going to drive, and hit the clutch and essentially put it in neutral and dropped the parking brake, and we just went straight backwards, two five-year-old kids in this car just like right out into the street.

Did you get in a crash? No, we didn't get in a crash. Didn't get in a crash because we probably rolled back about 15, 20 feet, and we just freaked out. And so as soon as he had his hand on that parking brake, he threw that back, and then his dad just burst out that door, and we got it. We got it.

Never did that again. No, no, that never happened. So now we have education and respect for the parking brake. Question number 16. 16 on my list, not 16th one we've answered. What would your wife not eat? I like that. Dude, my wife eats more wild game

than 90 some odd percent of the guys that hunt that I know. She don't care. She doesn't like to hunt. She likes to go fishing with me. She likes that I take the kids fishing. She's been out hunting. She's not like, she never doesn't self-identify as a hunter. She has no real desire to go hunting, but she eats all kinds of wild game. What I like about her too is, she'll even say like, yeah, I know it's whatever you want to tell me it's hypocritical that i like to eat meat but i don't want to kill the animal sure if that's what i am that's what i am she loves that i bring home wild game to eat you know i do

know there's i think i believe there's one animal that's on the the no cook list right now for no it's back on the list is it my wife's back on? My wife had put a temporary moratorium on the consumption of black bear flesh. Didn't even last a year. No, no, it didn't last. Listen, she's happy. I cook in our family. If I'm home, I cook.

I like it, she don't like it. So she'll cook if she has to, but if I'm home, I'm like, why suffer when I want to do it? There's no way that, like, if I cook stuff for my wife, she was down on black bear meat just because we, me and, well, everybody sitting at the table, Mike, Giannis, Giannis' brother, Madi, and we all got trichinosis, which I've talked about a great deal for eating undercooked black bear meat. And my wife kind of overcorrected and said that I was, not that I wasn't allowed to eat it,

but that the kids and her weren't eating it. But I've given them black bear meat since then. My wife's grateful, man, that I cook. If I cook, she's going to eat it. She might say that something tastes like a little bit off, or like if I'll cook, I'll probably have some salmon. You know, like we'll go up to our cabin and catch a bunch of salmon.

And then, you know, it's great for a couple months. Then you kind of get in that borderline area. It gets a little skanky. She might point out that the salmon's a little skanky. She might point out that something's a little bit tough. But no, there's no way if I cook dinner for my wife, there's no way that my wife would like not eat it. Unless perhaps it was a person. for my wife, there's no way that my wife would not eat it. Unless, perhaps,

it was a person. But I sat down and ate a meal of domestic dog with my wife. Really? Yeah. So what's her favorite game? Does she have? Elk. Is it elk?

Yeah. It's understandable. You know what she raved about? She didn't like the burger off it. I don't know why, but she raved about she didn't like the burger off it i don't know why but she raved about that white some of that white tail you sent like oh really off that white tail that's awesome oh no kidding yeah that's great her only complaint about the burger was it was like very mild yeah i think she's a little bit used to but then we did like a roast and slice it thin ate it cold and she loved it. Oh, that's great.

Loved it. Oh, that's fantastic. But yeah, she likes elk meat a lot. Trying to think of some things that she hasn't been crazy about. Dude, she'll eat squirrel. She just doesn't care. She doesn't care. You guys should answer the question.

My wife came from, she met me, was a vegetarian. Really? Yeah. Had been for how long? I don't know, over a decade. Is that right? For what reason? Ethics?

Yeah. Grew up in North Carolina. Yeah, but grew up in a hunting and fishing family. Hunting and fishing family. Hunting and fishing family. But it was, you know, yes, but they didn't really do it that much, especially in later years, you know, high school, college, whatnot. And North Carolina, a lot of pig farming. And what she saw in that industry turned her off to meat.

Is that right? Now she's eating a lot of meat, a lot of wild game. The one animal that still I get the no way on, which is a bummer because I really enjoy pork. Not often, but every now and then, love my bacon, love some sausage of some sort. And she just can't do it. She often tries and just says,

man, there's something about that. Really? That extra greasiness or the flavor or whatever. So that's kind of on the no list. So can you cut your wild game sausage with pork fat or do you got to put beef fat in there? I haven't made much of my own, but any of the stuff with pork fat, no, she won't eat it. What about like wild hog?

Will she eat that? We haven't. Yes. She will? Yeah. So it's just domestically raised swine but it's a way different ball like wild hog is like it's not i mean it's like it has as much to do with deer as it has to do with hog yeah wow okay well yeah yeah all right but no but psychologically if her deal is like she's just seeing stuff she doesn't like. Yeah.

You know? What about your Mrs. Walsh-Lesky? She changed her name when you got married? Yeah, she did. Man. My wife keeps saying she will, but she said she'll do it when her passport expires. I got to wait like five more years.

But the other day, she thought she lost it. And I said, so you're going to change your name now? She just doesn't want to have to go down and renew her. Are you wanting that for tradition's sake? What do you feel like you could gain out of that? Well, I'll tell you what I can gain about it. I have to say, let's say someone, let's say I'm RS, like, let's say someone, well, let's say I'm saying, yeah, I'd like to be able to say like,

oh, the Ronellas are coming, but I can't. Like the Ronellas are coming and Katie, you know? Or we'll be staying in a hotel. We'll be staying in a hotel and she'll go in and do all the signing up. Well, if you just want one family name, why don't you take hers? Then I'll call down and they'll be like, oh, Mr. Finch. You know, that's why.

Yeah, it's just confusing. You guys need to. It's confusing. I just want to get everything cleaned up. I just want everybody to have the same name in my house. So Stephen Finch. No, I'm not going to do that because that's like not what people do. If that's what people did, I would do it.

If it was like the typical normal, in some ways I'm deeply establishment. Sure. Like I'm anti-establishment where I think it matters. And all the stuff that doesn't really matter to me, I go establishment. Okay? Yeah. Because why have all these extra fights in life? Sure.

It's like, I just want us all to have the same name. It's just like people have been dealing with that problem. It's just, they've just done it this way. It's not like I have like something like, this is my last name and it's important You know, right? Yeah, it's just like it's just how it goes I don't care if it was traditional if I lived in the country if there is one where I like the dude takes the girl's Name I'm like fantastic

But I just not like interested. There's I buck all kinds of trends. I admire people who don't play by the rules, but I admire people who don't play by the rules that I think are worth violating. When people just do stuff because they want to have attention or they want to make a statement for the sake of making a statement, for the sake of looking contrarian.

Right. It just, it annoys me. Well, for, yeah, I mean, for us, it was a statement, for the sake of looking contrarian. Right. It just, it annoys me. Well, for, yeah, I mean, for us, it was just like, you know, whenever we were getting married, it's like, do you want to do this? She's like, yeah, sure. So she did it. Well, my wife said she wanted to do it.

She said she wanted to do it, but she didn't want to have to renew all of her stuff. And she didn't want to change her work email because she worked in publicity. And she's like, the only thing I have going for me, to be honest with you, this is not true, but this is like she has a lot going for her, but she was to make a point. She's like, when I call, they pick up.

When their assistant says is blank on the phone, they answer. Yeah, that makes sense. Because we have a rapport, and we've known each other a long time. Right. So for my work stuff, it's going to be real difficult. Hey, folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. And boy, my goodness, do we hear from the Canadians whenever we do a raffle or a sweepstakes.

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Welcome to the OnX club, y'all. You know? It doesn't really bother me. It bothers me a little bit. When I go to hotels, they call up and say, Mr., you know, that bugs me. Like in a manly way. Here's a question.

Well, hold on, hold on. Let me answer the question as far as the... Oh, yeah, what your wife don't eat. Sorry. My wife, well, no, her favorite, what she won't eat or her favorite game? No, it's What your wife don't eat. Sorry. My wife... Well, no. What she won't eat or her favorite game? No. It's what won't your wife eat.

Oh. Well, you guys definitely... I'm not going to answer that question because I don't have anything to say. I thought it was like, what do they like to eat? Yeah. No. Well, no. How could you...

This is impossible to not be able to answer. Oh, I thought we were talking about... What will your wife not eat? What will she eat? As far as game? Person? Well, yeah, okay. She's not going to eat a human.

What about wild game? No, I don't think I've brought home... I haven't brought home anything as exotic that you guys have that would have a... Would she eat the muskox? Oh, she's had it. Would she eat the oddhead? We haven't had that yet. No.

We'll see how that goes. This is a question I don't really understand. It says, ATV, raft, jet boat, float plane, or Super Cub? I guess they're asking what you recommend would be the best vehicle. I'm going to answer this and just say what I like to be on. I'll do it in the order of, in descending order of likeness. And there's one correction because a Super Cub can be on floats, but we'll just say he means like a super cub on. So it would be a raft, super cub, float pane, jet boat, ATV.

I'm with you. Yeah. I'm with you. Would you walk away from a gut shot animal that has expired without someone, I'm cleaning this up a little bit. Let me just say, he's asking, let's say you're out hunting and you find a gut shot animal that someone else didn't find.

They either couldn't find it or they found it and didn't want it. And he's saying, what would you do? Would you walk away or would you keep it? How about fresh roadkill? Then he goes on to say that he faced this situation and hung his own tag on the animal. Yeah, man.

It's like if I found a gut shot animal that was perfectly fine, I'd want to keep the meat, but I would probably try everything possible to not put my tag on it and keep it still. I remember one time I was hunting in Montana, and we found an antelope that someone had shot and dumped. We just trimmed all the meat off of it and kept it, which was illegal, right, because it's hunting season, and you can't have meat from an animal.

You can't have untagged carcass. But I was prepared. It's a little more complicated because it wasn't antelope season. Season was open, but I didn't have, I shouldn't say that. I didn't have an antelope tag for that unit. But here's where we were hunting deer.

Here's a dead antelope. We took all the meat off that thing. And I was prepared to, if I got checked by a warden, I was prepared to be like, yeah, man, it was dumped. I'll happily take you up and show you where it was dumped. I committed the grave sin of having taken the meat off the carcass. Like, let's go down to court and I'll explain it to a judge. Well, unfortunately though, it would be left up to him to decide if he was going to believe your story or not.

Well, you can't argue with, it's like, unless I had done it a week ago, you're not going to argue with the condition of the animal and where it is. In this case. Well, no, but. In this case, the thing had clearly been there a while. Who's to say you didn't poach it? Days earlier. Yeah, sure. Yeah, no one. That's what i'm saying i'm just telling what i did i'm not recommending someone do this i'm saying what i did was faced with the thing like spirit of the law

letter of the law i opted in this situation to go a spirit of the law, kept the meat, and was prepared to face the consequences if someone had checked me. I would have said, here's what happened. Here's what I got. I'll show you where it is. This is what I did. If I'm in trouble, I'm in trouble. So how long, like, how did you estimate

how long it had been there? I mean, like, what is your test for it? It was cold. It was cold okay cold out okay but you can tell by the way the hair's matted on it just all kinds of things like you know what's been gnawing on it it's positioned like this is the look to it you know you know it was cold as hell but there's just like a look to an animal that's been laying there a long time okay dumped off the side of the road. It's like, that looks fresh. It's okay.

Yeah. You know, the eyes start sinking into the head. We kept, we got the back straps and four legs off it. Didn't take any rib meat or anything, you know. Back strap and four legs off it. Big chunks of meat. I'm telling you, man. Legs.

Yeah. Whole legs. How was it? It was great. It was fantastic. I would still, I'd like to find a guy that did it and dump his body on the side of the road yeah so what do you think the situation was that put the animal there was it just like the guy just lost it on a trail or i guess it was

it was dumped oh was it it was you know how we found it a bunch of rafters right and we just you know like when you see a ton of rafters swirling around, you're like, what do they got going on? And went over there, and that's what it was. Two years ago in Colorado, I came across a spiked bull with brow tines that was clearly perfectly shot. Probably didn't go more than 50 yards after the guy shot him. The guy saw brow tines, usually a legal animal in Colorado,

but they weren't five inches, and he had spikes. He was an illegal bull, and just walked away from him. You walked away? No, no, no. I cut him open, but he was stinky. He was green, slimy. Yeah, it was pretty gnarly. It was a bummer.

I've done that a handful of times. I used to take roadkill illegally. I lived in a state where you weren't allowed to take roadkill. But again, I would take roadkill deer and cut the prime cuts off it as the act of civil disobedience. Now, I'll point out, it's now illegal to take roadkill in that state. One time out when I was a little kid, we went out. My old man shot a deer with his bow. Got a bad hit on it, as happens, bow hunting.

He got a bad hit on it. We trailed that deer until one in the morning, never found the deer. We're driving home from tracking it in my dad's 1979 Jeep Grand Cherokee and hit another deer with a truck. And there was no tracking job on this one. It's just like, bam, right out on the road. And I was riding shotgun, my two brothers in the back seat. And you got the back, like we call it the way back. And my old man goes around and opens the back up and throws the whole deer in the back we start on down Ryerson Road and all of a sudden my brothers are screaming in the back and that deer is just standing up

in the back of the Jeep Grand Cherokee on its feet. Holy shit. So my dad slammed on the brakes, went around, opened the back up, drug that deer out into the road, cut his throat with a knife, loaded the back of the truck, and we drove home. And the next day, he called the police, and they would come out and give you a permit, a roadkill permit. Another time, I had this old guy, my old girlfriend from high school. We're staying in there at my mom and dad's house where I lived because in high school. And I see a deer out swimming in the lake, which wasn't an everyday occurrence. And I see the deer climb up in Bob

Starrett's yard and run up through Bob Starrett's yard. Later run up through Bob Starrett's yard. Later that day, we're walking down the road and here's the deer stone dead in Bob Starrett's yard because it went to duck the pipe on a cyclone fence and snapped its neck on the fence. Wow. And they gave me a roadkill for that. What's a cyclone fence? You know, like those fence with the wire like this? Chain link, right?

Chain link fence. That's what I mean. Chain link fence. He like ducked his head. You know, the pipe. They always put like a pipe on top of that. Yeah. He ducked his head and put like, it looked like you just threw a basketball 200 miles

an hour at a chain link fence and just laying there with a snap net. Oh, so he ran into it. Ran into the fence. Okay. You know, the pipe on top. Yeah. Like it was like he tried to like, it. Ran into the fence. Okay. You know the pipe on top? Yeah. It was like he tried to, instead of go over the fence, tried to go under the pipe.

Yeah, he wasn't walking around. I mean, he was running. Scared to hell. And I remember when we saw that thing, there was some people out chasing it in a paddle boat. The deer's out swimming in the lake, and there's people out kind of like, oh my God, a deer in a lake,

and they're chasing the paddle boat. Another time, another deer swam in the lake in the other people out like kind of like oh my god a deer in the lake and they're chasing the paddle boat another time another deer swam the lake in the other direction going north and got hung up in another neighbor's chain link fence snapped his leg we kept that deer and they gave us a roadkill permit for it these aren't even roadkill deer it's just like a way to make it legal for you to utilize deer that are dying around you. Okay. I guess unnatural causes, human-made causes. I'm not going to answer this one. Hold on. I have one last note on that. I feel like I used to be

a little more emotional about it. I used to feel really bad for that animal if you found him and it's like, man, the meat did not get used. I don't feel that way anymore. Because there's nutrient recycling. Exactly. It's going, it's just all part of the- Back to the earth.

Yeah, back to the earth and whatever. I do still dislike the guy that did that to that animal. I'm with you. I'd kick him off the side of the road, kick him in the nuts. You know, he should be beaten. You know, he's a piece of shit. I don't do it.

Like I'm not so adamant about it because I don't believe in nutrient recycling. I believe in nutrient recycling. Yeah, it goes back. It's made up of elements that go back into the earth, and they'll find new. They'll come back. And a bunch of critters are going to eat that animal. Yeah.

It's more like I'm trying to remedy a wrong. Yeah. Trying to right a wrong. When I say go to waste, i guess what you're really saying is i guess it gets super like um it gets uh it's not being enjoyed yeah it's like it's like ethereal it's like you're you're it goes away in the human sense or something you know i mean it goes to it's like yeah it doesn't go to waste in this sort of grand scheme of things sense,

but it just goes to waste in a human sense. Because vultures and coyotes don't care how it tastes. It's just getting consumed. Yeah. That's a good point. I don't want to answer, I'm going to answer this one, but I want you guys to answer. I'm curious what you guys think about this.

Sasquatch? Yetis? Yetis? If either of you guys has... No. Okay. No, no. Did you see who sent that one in?

No. Oh, never mind. Wait, who sent that? Cody Lujan. How did he get out of this list? Ah, Cody. Never mind, no. Because here's the thing.

I'll just say it real quick. At a time, Florida was down to 47 Panthers, mountain lions, you know, Florida Panthers. They were down to 47 Panthers, yet every year, many of them would get hit on the highway by cars. If you have this stable breeding population of primates that have been here longer, the story goes, people who are into this stuff,

that they've been here far longer than Homo sapiens on the continent. It would just wind up that you're going to have a carcass. You're going to have a carcass. I know, oh, they bury each other, all that kind of stuff. And there's a conspiracy and all that kind of stuff. But at some point, you would just have a dead body. And I'm not talking like some hair

or like a weird footprint. There'd just be a dead one laying there. After 15,000 years of us being here and hundreds of years of us driving to extinction, small little creatures that would fit in the palm of your hand, we would have by now had a dead one. You just would.

I think, I just re-read Cody's question again, and it just says Sasquatch, Yeti, or Stink Ape, he just wants to know what you call that critter. I don't call it any of that. I call it a Bigfoot. Dumbass. Cody, don't ask any more questions. This is for real questions from real people.

Well, this is what, I have one thing to say about that. So if there's a population of Sasquatch, this is still on this topic, right? A breeding population? Right. Okay, they've existed completely undiscovered. Nobody's ever really seen them. They don't make any noise, or supposedly,

where they make, it's not a call. Yeah, they bury their young, they eat watermelons. Right, and how big are they supposed to be? Eight feet tall. Eight feet tall, right. The size of the crap that an animal that size would leave throughout the forest would just, it would be there. And you would step in it all the time.

It's a lot of time. Look at the size. I mean, we're just out on a property with cows. I mean, those are massive. So it'd be like, what is that? I mean, you're walking around through the forest. You could say, oh, look, somebody took a shit here. Somebody took a shit here.

I know what this is. I know what this is. It would be monster. I mean, you know, whenever you're walking through the woods and you come across man leavings, you know what that is. Yeah.

And I can read signs. I think that the Bigfoot has like special crap that it evaporates in minutes after they crap it. Oh, they got a story for everything. Yeah. They go like, well, how come you don't- Well, they bury that too and then they light their tissue paper on fire too.

You know the comedian, the late great comedian Mitch Hedberg was saying that he doesn't think that it's the photographer's fault that Bigfoot's always blurry in pictures. He thinks he just is blurry. Unfortunately, we're at the... No, I got one more because there's one more i'm interested in um he's talking about when you're deep in brown bear country you guys seem to sleep in tents that look like a bear would have no problem getting into them like how can you sleep in a nylon tent?

I guess I can't. I don't live in fear of bears. No, the chances, I think I have a good analogy. The chances of a bear coming through one of those nylon tents are less than you sleeping in your bedroom on your normal residential street and having a car drive through your bedroom wall and drive you over. Yeah.

Or having some kind of insane man come in and chop you up with an ax. You guys have been around this for a while, so this is all new to me. And so let me just, I have something, I've got at least insight from a a novice to like camping out. Mike actually doesn't sleep, it sounds like, when we're out there. No, well, the one reason I go to sleep is because I'm so exhausted from work

every single day and the amount of hiking work that we do. So it's just like, I don't have a choice. It's just, I got to go to sleep, so I'm going to pass out. But that fear, you know, is slowly diminished. But it was the first time I was there whenever we went out with Rourke. I mean, I was like, okay. I was like, I'm literally a baked potato

and he can just open this thing up and just like get to the soft, creamy center if you wanted to. I mean, that's what I felt. I was like, because, you know, that was a legitimate experience. You guys are all, whatever, you've been around it for a long time.

But for me, it was just like, I'm sleeping in just like a diaper, essentially. Yeah, but picture that you had grown up on a, picture that you'd grown up in central Bolivia. Sure. On a river. Okay. Yeah.

In the jungle. And you came up and we took you down a highway in a car. Sure. Can you imagine what that would feel like? Well, absolutely. And, you know, I'm slowly, you know, now that I've been to Alaska several times, I'm sleeping intensively. It's like, okay.

No, I'm only, yeah, I'm. No, I'm not contesting your point. I'm just saying I get what you're saying. Well, what made me feel better is the fact that it was just like the luck of the draw. I was like, well, all these other guys are sleeping in tents too. So I've got a one in six chance of being eaten in this tent. And especially because my team was next to me. I was like, all right. Well, I was like, which tent looks more delicious? I was like, I mean, his is pretty sweet. like all right well i was like you know which tent looks more delicious i was like i mean his is pretty sweet so i think that

right there says it all which tent looks more delicious yeah bears don't cruise around looking to eat humans yeah right they just don't no i get that i get that but whenever you've never done that it seems ridiculous and now i now i know and i'm not the way that bears are um you know described uh especially grizzly bears to people yeah it's like all you hear about you know is the one bear that charges not the other 10 bears that we saw that ran away as soon as they smelled us and well yeah but i mean being out there and stuff and just having them roam around was a new and terrifying experience to a certain degree. And it was new.

But now through knowledge and being around that and knowing that that's not the case, it's just like, yeah, it's okay. That's just part of the wildlife that lives out there. And to answer that guy's question, I don't know what you could take out there to sleep in that would help you out. Yeah, that's kind of what I was wondering.

Yeah, I don't know. Like a bear-proof thing. This guy that asks this question should watch that movie about the dude who tried to make the grizzly-proof suit. There's a guy who got mauled by a grizzly and tried to build a grizzly-proof suit that he could wear and go out and get mauled by another one that wouldn't be able to hurt him. And he built this suit and it would go around trying to just get mauled by a bear, but he

couldn't get mauled by a bear. He did everything. Like they took a horse up in the mountain, shot the horse, waved the bear, started getting it. He'd come up and try to like mess with the bears, but they would, they would never attack him in that suit. He even had his buddy run him over with a truck wearing the suit. This suit was badass. But yeah, he had a hard time getting a bear. Once you want a bear to attack you, it doesn't happen. I want a bear to give me a giant scratch

from here, all five claws, that starts here on my upper left shoulder and extends down around to my right hip. Like that. Like people get tattoos, they think they're like a bad mofo, right, for having a tattoo. You know?

And really I'm just like, well, he's got a tattoo. I mean, anybody can do that. But if you got like a big scratch from a grizzly, that'd be sweet. That's hard to show at bars, though. I mean, especially if, I guess not. Maybe you have to take your whole shirt off and everything. No, I just act like, oh, man, I got like an itch, you know? And I don't put my shirt up.

Just like, oh, man, it's getting hot in here. My God, what is that? I'd be like, oh, man, I just got scratched up by a grizzly. Were you saying we're done with the podcast, Yanni? Yep. You know why we're done? We're getting up in the morning going turkey hunting. Crew hunt.

Crew hunt. I'm not hunting tomorrow. I'm not hunting tomorrow. Yanni and Mike here are hunting tomorrow. I'm napping. Well, who's going to call? Well, you just have to wake me up every 10 minutes to call. Okay, I'll do that.

All right, thanks for listening. If you have questions, go, a couple things. Go to themeateater.com. Go to themeateater.com. Go to themeateater.com. There's like a contact thing there. Just take a look. I've never actually done it, but it's there. Go there and drop in some questions.

Or hit up on Facebook and stuff. We'll try to get to them. We get a lot of questions, but send it in there, and maybe we'll answer it. I like to answer these questions, actually. And then you can always go. It's not better than the Meat Eater podcast, but it's different, is the Meat Eater television show.

You can watch it on Sportsman Channel. We air 8 p.m. on Thursday. Or go to, if you don't want to do that, you can stream them or download them at meateater. Damn, I can't remember how to say it..vhx.tv. That's what it is? Meateater.vhx.tv. And there's a promo code. Meateater.VHX.TV. And there's a promo code. MeatEater.

Nah. Just go there and pay regular price. No. I think. It's MeatEater podcast. Is that what it is? Oh, man. One second.

Oh. We're way too busy. I don't know. We're way too busy I don't know we're way too busy chasing turkeys just pay it's just it's like five bucks off

try putting in meat eater podcast or go to you know do this look in the notes underneath this podcast and the right coupon code will be put in there

you do this Helen will do that for us go to themeateater.com go to contact code will be put in there. You do this. Helen will do that for us. Go to themeateater.com. Go to contact. Ask a question. And then say, by the way, what's the thing? Get the thing.

Go to meateater.vhxtv. Put in your promo code, you cheap bastard, and you will get $5 off any volume. And just watch it whenever you want and you could show your friends. All right. Until next time, wish us luck. We're going to sleep for six hours. Stoked.

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