The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 486: Steve Finally Gets a Giant Moose

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

Steven Rinella talks to Clay Newcomb, Dirt Myth, and Seth Morris.  Topics discussed: At long last it’s here–watch MeatEater’s Season 12 now; our new “Complain About Dirt Myth Hotline’; audience edits on Steve’s saying about beans; Dirt and Clay; come out for MeatEater’s Live Tour kicking off in December 2023; write us and send your photo to [e-mail] with ‘TRAIL CAM MYSTERIES’ in the subject line; Clay’s “skill” at detecting American black panther prints; the Dirty Dozen 2024 calendar; Steve’s elk in the Yellowstone National Park buffer zone; the unanswerable riddle of why a raccoon and squirrel would run up the same tree; prioritizing opportunity over quality; how everyone beats Steve at ping pong; the 16.5 species that Steve, Kimi, and Cam speared in the Bahamas episode; the epic wetsuit black bear hunt; calling a moose in from two miles away; how a moose grunt sounds like the noise you make when you get a nut tap in the brush; the Champagne Supernova bull; and more.  Connect with Steve and MeatEater Steve on Instagram and Twitter MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop MeatEater MerchSee 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 meet. This is the Meat Eater Podcast coming at you shirtless, severely bug-bitten, and in my case, underwearless. We hunt the Meat Eater Podcast coming at you shirtless, severely bug-bitten, and in my case, underwearless. The Meat Eater Podcast. You can't predict anything. The Meat Eater Podcast is brought to you by First Light.

Whether you're checking trail cams, hanging deer stands, or scouting for elk, First Light has performance apparel to support every hunter in every environment. Check it out at firstlight.com. F-I-R-S-T-L-I-T-E dot com. to support every hunter and every environment. Check it out at firstlight.com. F-I-R-S-T-L-I-T-E.com. I'm going to have Corinne set up a complaint hotline where people can complain about Dirt Myth.

Oh, whoa. Dirt? Let me tell you why. This will be a short list, man. We... What are you doing? What do you got going on with your chest? It's hot.

Okay. All right. Just. So our plan a year ago, a year ago, to almost to the T, we recorded an episode traveling down the highway in Alaska in a van. Great episode. Great episode. Great episode, yep. A lot of energy.

Yeah, a lot of energy. Great episode. It was a little road trip. Very successful. I know where this is going. It was a very successful episode. Some people say the most successful episode. Really?

Maybe the greatest podcast of all time. I'm trying to make it seem like, you know, I'm really kind of like trying to build up. So people get extra mad at dirt. The plan was we're going to do that. The same thing, the second annual,

same stretch of highway, same time of year show. Uh, well, we get just getting ready to do it. now a little complication in the meantime is now we launch these episodes these episodes are available on youtube video and old dirt can't do myth it's never been mentioned says that it can't be done it can done, but not with what we got going on. What are you butting into this for, Seth? Well, I'm setting the record straight.

I've been watching driving scenes since Strange Brew. With a lot of gear behind that scene. There's a driving scene in Strange Brew. I've been watching driving scenes since I was a little kid. Scooby-Doo. Cartoon, man. Well, no, okay. Never mind that example.

Dukes of Hazzard. Dukes of Hazzard. I've been watching driving scenes my whole life. Somehow dirt says they can't be made. Not in our set. Not with the equipment that we have. So we're stuck filming. Not that I have any problem with this.

We're in a little bunkhouse. Pretty cool. Airplanes flying around. Static. We're going to make do. Thank you. I want listeners to know that the reason you're not getting served up another phenomenal Meteor Podcast Van Life episode part two is because of dirt.

Man. You'd get car sick if you watched that episode. It would be a little bouncy. I don't think that's fair. Have we told people where we're at? The general vicinity of planet Earth? We're in eastern Alaska. Yeah.

Go ahead. No, I just think that it's not fair to blame that on dirt. That this podcast isn't happening in a van because of him well what do you think the problem is well there's a lot more that would have to go into it to be able to film that yeah there would have to be special camera rigs set up and

send your complaints to media production yeah okay a lot of feedback were you there you know you weren't there we interviewed the esteemed historian elliot west no i wasn't there it was a great episode on that episode i debuted an old saying i came up with i'm trying to like get an old saying going like i made one up long time ago yep well i made up a saying it's new but it's like an old saying and it was what prompted it was uh like if you tell your kids to go out and

pick the pole beans and they'll you'd be like well how many do i pick i might pick all of them pick them all and they'll come in and be like i I picked them all. And you go out there and look, and they didn't get them all. No way. Or you say, someone's like, oh, go pick strawberries. I'm like, pick them all. And they go dig around in the strawberry bed, and you go look, they didn't get them all. So my old saying I came up with is,

a fresh set of eyes will always find more beans. And I'm like trying to get it going. I'll use that. People don't like it. I'll proselytize that. What people? Just the family? People wrote in.

My wife doesn't like it. She thinks it's stupid. That's important. Phil says it's got no like. It doesn't roll off the tongue. I mean, it could be helpful though because a lot of human life is spent looking for lost stuff I mean a fair I'd say 20% of life people wrote in with some

edits yeah yeah St. Anthony remember we talked about this yeah say that St. Anthony deal so we were losing stuff at camp yeah it's dirt knows this St. Anthony St. Anthony please come around something's been lost and cannot be found and then a bam and so say that Anthony, please come around something's been lost and cannot be found and then a bam

and if you say that while you're looking for something you find it and that's a Catholic saying yeah, it's a Catholic thing and Clay mentioned that he goes right to the big boss I said, I just go straight to the boss yeah, he cuts he circumvents, he goes around

cuts around the middle man yeah, that's right some edits came in it's getting better He circumvents. He goes around, cuts around the middleman. Yeah, that's right. Some edits came in. It's getting better. So what I'll say is it has applicability in finance. And someone even pointed out. Oh, bean counters.

For sure, like even bean counters. It has applicability in finance. Like you're looking for deductions. At tax time, you're looking for deductions. Fresh set of eyes. It's always like, hey, but what about that new wallet you bought? You carry work stuff in that wallet. That's a business expense. Count that beans.

So fresh set of eyes, always find more beans. I thought it had a lot of, Brody thought it had applicability in glassing. Someone's like, no, I glass that whole hillside. Nothing up there. And someone new sits down. Fresh set of eyes, always find more beans. There's a bowl. Right?

So edits came in. A new view gathers more beans no no a second look invested brings more beans digested i like the rhyme clever but yeah a fresh set of eyes will always find the prize. No bean mention. New eyes find new beans. Too boring. A fresh set of eyes will see where the

beans lie. My buddy Matt Dross wrote in. He said he said also this is a text message i got i appreciated the relatability of your made-up old saying about re-looking for beans whether it's beans pickles by which i think he means cucumbers morels or whatever one highly tuned in individual can always find more even after someone just quote pick them all maybe the saying should be a fresh set of eyes yields more of the prize that's pretty good i think there should be jack and the beanstalk somewhere in there that's not gonna work that's a magic bean, man. A couple announcements.

And Clay, you're going to be here for some of this. We have a live tour coming up. This is going to be great fun. Clay's going to be out wolf trapping for some of it. Me and Dirt. Oh, you and Dirt are going to be wolf trapping. Me and Dirt, we're like yeah clay's mud and clay dirt and mud dirt clay dirt and clay you get kind of dry clay kind of loamy yeah um better for some plants to grow in yep clay's working on a bear grease road show about uh

he's he's profiling a wolf trapper he's working on a bear greasease Roadshow about, he's profiling a wolf trapper. He's working on a Bear Grease Roadshow about a wolf trapper. So he's going to miss some of the live tour dates. Our live tour is going to begin on December 6th. Really would appreciate people really coming out. So the Latvian Eagle, Janis Pout putellis will be there for all the shows we're still putting everything together he'll be there for the shows um spencer newhart's gonna be there because all the shows are gonna have a local trivia component to them lots going on bunch

other people joining friends special friends special guests every night wednesday december 6th first show of the tour. We're going to be at the Mission Ballroom in Denver, Colorado. Let's go Denver. Yeah. December 7th, anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Kansas City.

Let's go KC. Foley Theater. Kansas City. We're going to take a night off on December 8th. I got to find something fun to do that night december 9 saturday december 9 davenport iowa you're about an hour from cedar rapids and about two and a half hours from chicago capital theater december 10 calamazoo michigan home field advantage for yanni i didn't grow up far from there my wife's from

there yanni's from there kalamazoo state theater we've done that place before as has bob dylan who got more views us yeah we sold way more albums. December 11th, my daughter's birthday. Royal Oak, Michigan. So greater Detroit area. Royal Oak Music Theater. 12th, taking off. Got to find something fun to do. December 13th, Cleveland, Ohio at the Agora.

December 14th, Munhall, PA. So the greater Pittsburgh area. Carnegie Homestead. Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall. Friday, December 15th, Glenside, PA. Greater Philadelphia area. Keswick Theater. Meteor Live Show.

Nice. It's going to be big, man. Laughs. Trivia. Prize winning. live show nice it's gonna be big man laughs trivia prize winning funny stuff another thing we're working on this this we need this is a listener we need this we need this listener help i've been thinking about doing we would think about starting a thing that'd be a part of the show which would be a dissection of trail cam mysteries because we get a lot of these where people send in trail cam photos like what the hell is that is that a mountain lion samsquatch ones too pray you know is that a sasquatch is

that a mountain lion why is that buck what's wrong with his eye i recently got one where buck's got one of that that there's a weird virus that deer get like a it's like a like a part of the herpes complex that makes their eyes get all this growth over them so someone sent that in right or someone might send in is that a bobcat or is like they're like is that an old naked hippie whatever and you can't tell what's going on just clay nuke them. Picking the beans out there. Fresh set of eyes. What we need are, we need your trail cam mysteries. And here's the thing, here's the brand

promise. When you send us a trail cam mystery, it winds up being like biological in nature or whatever. Like this herpes complex deal that blinds deer or cactus bucks, whatever crazy stuff from your trail camp or what is that? Is that a mountain lion questions we will get, we will go through our contacts of many biologists and experts and ecologists, disease specialists, whatever, hippie experts,

naked hippie experts, we will get you the answer. Then we will post, we will post your photo with the feedback and we will cover it and discuss the photo on the podcast

to get you a great answer of like whatever it is. From the experts. From the the experts you can't do this or whatever with everyone just the ones that need it yeah yeah well i what kicked us off is the other day i had a great trail cam photo from my otter cam where i couldn't tell if it was a beaver's butt or an otter's butt and it sparked a little bit of a debate about whether that's the butt of an otter or the butt of a beaver so that got me thinking that this would be a great service and i would have submitted my own photo to expert panel which i did because i just through professionally i know a lot of great

people oh yeah so i sent it to a guy that has handled thousands and thousands of beavers and hundreds of otters and ask them well whose butt that was right we will be able to provide this service for listeners who have crazy trail cam photos all you need to do is go to send it send your trail cam photo just put the title like crazy trail cam photo or whatever and send it to the meat eater podcast at the meat eater.com the meat eater podcast at the meat eater.com. TheMeatEaterPodcast at TheMeatEater.com. Also, complaints about dirt can go there as well. So do like complaint about dirt in the subject line,

or if it's trail cam, just trail cam. I could probably be of help. I'm not an expert at a whole of many things, but I am the world's expert, the best in the world. I'll debate anybody on this fact at identifying American Black Panther trail camera photos. You good at it? You send me a feline that you suspect is an American Black Panther,

I will 100%. And you'll take it to your father. Yeah. Well, I mean, I have people, but I get them all the time. As we're talking about this, I had a couple of trail cam photos come in on the cell camera. As we're talking. Any mysteries?

No, it's pretty straightforward. It's a white-tailed doe and a cow elk in the field together. Okay. Nice. So that's a service that we're going to provide and when when your thing gets selected you know we'll even send you some kind of present i'm going to regret saying that we're going to send you some kind of present if your thing gets selected we'll post the photo we will get expert testimony and we will have an actual debate and explanation

of the photo and if you watch on youtube we'll just have the photo up if you listen you can just go on social media to view the photo and weigh in on what in the hell you're looking at it's called i think we should call it the what in the hell is this thing for my trail cam simple yeah everyone wins in this it sounds something like that y'all didn't get the punch line to my black panther deal oh there was there are no Black Panthers in America. So the answer is always, no, it's not. Why did I buy that believer hat? That's not what Gary Newcomb says.

My dad believes him. Why do we sell a Black Panther believer hat? I mean, half of this country believes in him. And my dad's like the president. I once read, we've talked about this but i once read or someone said a black panther is a wet panther what do you think about that it's a wet mountain line i mean i hear you they could be it's definitely make them darker you don't think that's always the case no no no i think people are seeing uh they're seeing black house cats they're seeing labrador mixed breed dogs like flashing in front

of their camera and like a streaky photo that makes his tail look a little longer usually it is off-scale feline house cats that that just it looks big in a picture but it's actually not big or if you hear one that you think is a panther see people don't you know the vocalizations of mountain lions sure they vocalize but so do bobcats that's what i was thinking and so i think a lot of people mistake the the bark of a gray fox for some type of big cat god i mean gray foxes make a kind of a harrowing could you do that a little louder it's kind of like I heard that in college. It sounds like Clay drank too much drink last night. It sounds like someone throwing up.

Clay drank too much tundra water without filtering it out. It's an odd sound you wouldn't expect coming from a little gray fox. I think people think that's a panther scream. They want to believe that it's a panther scream yeah they want to believe it's a panther scream this is an announcement rich you're in an announcement rich bunkhouse right now

a new dirty dozen calendar for 2024 has been on sale at the media store go get one now or get five now so we do calendars years ago we did fucked up old deer stands great calendar yep and we fucked up old taxidermy phenomenal calendar but this year it just so happened that and this is gonna tie into something we're gonna talk about now it just so happened

that just so happens that you got how many months are in a year clay 12 12 okay hold that in the back of your head and try to stay with me 12 months in a year we are just now releasing season 12 of meat eater 12 years you've been doing it steve and the way we do it is a season winds up being a year's worth of episodes it It could be, you know, it could be in the old days we might have done 16. We might do six, whatever. But we do, it's like a season is a year's worth of episodes. We vacated our theme. I wanted to do fucked up old fish cleaning stations and boats and just

people. Fuck up all the individuals. But that whole franchise is on hold because of the fortuitous, like the serendipitous deal that 12 seasons aligns with the 12 months of the year. So we've made a very memorable calendar, a wonderful gift,

where each month is a year. So each month, January, is all behind-the-scenes photos, good times and laughing. This is all, January is all behind-the-scenes photos from season one of Meteor. Sweet. Guess what February is, Dirt?

Valentine's Day. No, second season. Oh. It's all behind-the-scenes photos from the second season. Oh, that's cool. So you'll see so many of your favorite memorable characters from over the years. Dirt's in the calendar. Clay's in the calendar.

Seth's in the calendar. Joe Dirt's in the calendar. Clay's in the calendar. Seth's in the calendar. Joe Rogan's in the calendar. Kevin Murphy's in the calendar. I saw the calendar. There was a lot of scowling Steve photos. We call it stank face. Yeah, there was a lot of like this.

I'm looking at the camera. A lot of this. Harkins back. Yeah, like Harkins back, too. You know what we didn't put in there is any of my hospitalization photos that came out of the show. Getting hospitalized. That could be its own calendar.

I should have thought of that to put some of that in there. So it goes back to when Yanni. So the calendar goes back so far in time that you'll see when Yanni was working for us but didn't realize he was getting paid. That's big. We hired Yanni to carry a backpack on a sheep hunt. He thought he was just going to hang out.

And then someone gave him his tax paperwork at the end of it. He's like, what's this? So you can get paid. Oh, I saw it. We were dicking around. What a guy. What a guy, that Yanni. Then went on to produce dozens of episodes.

Probably more than anybody. Yeah. That's so cool, man. So the calendar covers a great span of time. It's a really fun calendar. So check that one out. Dirty Dozen. Calendar. Sweet. a really fun calendar so check that one out dirty dozen calendar sweet a lot of seth's photos in there probably yeah a lot of seth's photos from season eight four yeah eight forward

my photos a lot of taking pictures when you're wiping your mom's nose that's right close close so check that out uh a lot of dirt's photos in there oh dirt's got photos in there so here's the other thing about this whole deal so if you're listening to this right now this all ties together. If you're listening right now, our latest season of Meat Eater, season 12, is out. It launched on October 12th on the Meat Eater website, so themeateater.com,

and on the Meat Eater YouTube channel. Wait a minute. Season 12 is where? On our own website. What date? October 12th. Okay, got it. Oh, it's going to be good. Yeah okay got it oh it's gonna be good yeah man it's gonna be good so if you're listening right now it's out right now october 12th meet your website on the youtube channel and it is like i said some days like a long time ago we would make 16. How many we got this year? We did six. Six.

Wait, October 12th? Yeah. October. If you're listening and it's past October 12th, then you can go watch it right now. Right now. Sweet.

We're rolling out an episode a week. Okay. So for six weeks starting October 12 week. Okay. So for six weeks, starting October 12th. Yeah. 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. And our raffle and sweepstakes law makes it that they can't join our northern brothers get irritated well if you're sick of you know sucking high and titty there on x is now in canada the great features that you love in on x 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 MeatEater 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 hand-picked by the OnX Hunt team. Some of our favorites

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onxmaps.com slash meet. Welcome to the OnX club, y'all. So I drew this crazy elk tag of Montana called the Buffer Zone. I missed that one. That sounded awesome. How was it cold? Oh my God. How was that cold?

Yeah. Cold. You went in November? Mid-November. Yep, and you're hunting like right on the edge of the park they give out five tags a year and you get this little shitting chunk of ground not very big you gotta hunt on and it's right on the edge of the park and you're catching elk migrating out of the park you know everybody thinks of migrations as going south in the winter but they're actually

in this place they're migrating like northward um just elevation change right so we got that coming out we got another phenomenal we took our buddy kevin murphy to michigan cottontail rabbit bonanza with rabbit beagles squirrel bonanza with squirrel dogs a raccoon that the dogs treat a squirrel try to try to picture this you got bit by a dog under this tree i did that dog you got bit by a bit at that exact moment. Yeah. He was fired up, man. And I had poison ivy, and I took a bunch of Benadryl.

I wasn't really thinking about it. And I thought I was aging. You're blaming it on age. I thought I was aging like I was in a time capsule. You had Benadryl poisoning. I couldn't. A squirrel got hung up in a tree, and I tried to climb up the tree, and I couldn't get up the tree, and I thought I was dying of old age.

And then it occurred to me that I'd eaten Benadryl midday, and it even affected my vision. I was so hopped up on Benadryl. They should have taken away my firearm. You're still plinking them squirrels, though. Yeah, because, well, that slows your heart rate down. It makes you a good shot. But when it comes them squirrels though. Yeah, well that slows your heart rate down. It makes you good shot. But when it comes to squirrels retrieving.

So we had a squirrel. You'll see this happen in this episode. The odds of this are so infinitesimally small. Where the dog treats a squirrel. A squirrel runs up a tree. And stops. Comes to rest. The dog trees a squirrel. The squirrel runs up a tree and stops, comes to rest. Was it 18, 20 inches?

Yeah. From a raccoon. That's just hanging out in the tree. The coon happened to be in the tree. This is daytime, yeah. The squirrel passed the coon up and plasters himself against the tree. So there's a squirrel and a raccoon

20 inches apart. You got double tap on that one. Which drew our attention to both the raccoon and the squirrel. I think that raccoon was on the ground when we set the dogs loose and he really caught them by accident in an area. Why would the squirrel be up that tree too?

Well no no I think the raccoon when we got out and set the dogs loose and they started barking or whatever if you recollect the tree that that raccoon was in, no raccoon would ever be in a tree like that. It wasn't a comfy tree. No. But why would a raccoon and a squirrel go up the same tree? No, I think the raccoon heard us from a distance and was like, I'm going to get up a tree.

This is the only option I have at the moment. There was a lot of trees in there. Yeah, but there was not a lot of big trees there. To me, boys. And it just so happens that the squirrel ran up the same tree. Let me tell you, I'm a squirrel and a coon hunter. Long time doing it since your mama was still wiping your nose. This is an unanswerable riddle.

Your mom wiped Dirt's nose. We go way back. Unanswerable riddle. mom wiped dirt snows we go way back unanswerable riddle yeah anyway it was you're stepping into the declare that no one's gonna know it was a club the sequence what anybody was thinking just you'd have to do exit interviews yeah yeah i like what you said if you looked at the tree that the raccoon was in you'd be like no way a raccoon is going to climb in that tree just to sleep for the day no it actually sounded like the start of a good joke raccoon and a squirrel in the same tree four guys walk up to the tree one guy says look at the coon the other guy says look at the squirrel the other guy says, look at the squirrel. The other guy says, that dog just bit me.

Who gets to shoot the squirrel? Yeah. The dog got so excited it bit dirt. He didn't know what to do with himself. Yeah, he was wound up, man. Kevin Murphy didn't even know. And he's the small game guru. Yeah, but Kevin Murphy says he's had it happen before,

which I'm like a slightly incredulous of. No disrespect. Seth, I want to a slightly incredulous of. No disrespect. Seth, I want to revisit something you're saying. What? I like what you're saying. Okay. It was a little, it wasn't a hemlock. Was it a hemlock?

I don't remember exactly. It was a clump of trees. Yeah, why did, yeah. if it was that that coon... Because that was not where a coon would just lay up for the day. No. Because he'd lay up where he could just get on a big old limb way up high. Yeah. Hey, guys, could it be?

Could it be that there was a concentrated food source there that the coon and the squirrel were hammering together? No. And then... Because that squirrel went a long ways to get there. Really? Mm-hmm. So just maybe totally coincidental. I think that it was one of the few conifers,

and they knew that that conifer would offer some protection. It did. But it's hard to picture that these two unrelated creatures of all the trees and all the woods, that these two creatures, unless they were hanging out, this would be a good children's story. Would have not only gone up the same tree, but would have gone up the same tree to the same height

and sat there. One of the great mysteries. But you got them and climbed up there and retrieved them. Or the coon. One of them fell out and one of them didn't fall out. I think the squirrel fell out. Go watch the episode and see what you think. Yeah, that's right into the Meteor Podcast at TheMeteor.com.

Yeah, we'll take any explanations. We'll just take them as fact. Idaho mule deer. Where you killed a giant. Yeah, I was on fire with tag draws i didn't draw anything this year i didn't draw any cool tags used them last year yep but i was on fire with tag draws last year i drew a i drew a deer tag down in idaho and got just a stomper if you want to see um it was just one of those deals it It's almost like misleading. And this happens on that.

Like, we have a lot of episodes where nothing happens. You get skunked, whatever. Not many. But it happens. It happens, yeah. And then a lot of episodes where it's kind of normal hunting or you got to grind it out. Just one of those, just one of those, like, just, I don't know.

It was just good. Stars aligned. Yeah, it was just like everything, like just box. You could go do that. And I've seen this happen because we've had some great hunts, then your buddies go back and they do it again and again and again, and it's never like that again. Or I've got spots we hit every year, and you're always chasing 10 years ago.

It was just something with just a ton of box, man. And then really good intel. Really good intel. On both on both those well no on one it was like i had some friends that had hit this area hard for archery and i had great they were like we saw a lot of action here like don't bother looking there so you kind of reduce this huge area down into a little area because they're like, yeah, don't waste your time, don't waste your time. Now up there, I would definitely spend some time,

and if not there, I'll go spend some time over there. So you go into it really armed, and man, we had a good time. I had more fun than anybody. The mule deer was like 180 plus. 190 plus. 190. Bigger than that. Dang. Was it a 200-inch mule deer was like 180 plus. 190 plus. 190. Bigger than that. Dang.

Was it a 200-inch mule deer? Smaller than that. 198. Smaller. It's 96. 95. Four. Smaller.

Three. Smaller. Yep. Really, 193. Two, I don't know. We didn't dry it out. 192 and some changes. Man.

That dried it. That's awesome. I dried it in a bucket of water water so it should still be the same. Put a stick in there. I aged it in a bucket of water so I don't think anything changed. That's in there. Your biggest

mule deer. No. For real? He's in the two-hundred and a half club. Did you kill a two-hundred and a half deer? I did. Was the Idaho one? I'm like a mule deer mad club. Did you kill a 200-inch mule deer? Yeah, I did. Was that Idaho one years ago? Two hundo?

He's in that book, was it Big Bucks of Idaho or something? Great Mule Deer Bucks of Idaho. Really? That buck will probably be in the calendar, I imagine. No, it's not. Really? There's not a lot of big old, there's not a lot of grip and grins in there. The Idaho buck is on the cover of this season.

This last season. Season 12. Nice. Oh, that new, yeah. But the old, the over 200 one is not in there. You know, it's a funny thing about, like, I've hunted mule deer in Montana for over 20 years. Yeah. Over 20 years.

Well, Seth's mama was still, Seth's mama was still wiping my nose. And when I started hunting, okay. And have covered a lot of ground and just hunted a lot of like a ton of public land mule deer yeah um in montana 20 years worth but when you go look at my like my wall where i have my like big stuff collection listen to this not one of

those boxes from montana really it's like you look like i've just looked looked looked looked like a decade whatever and you go to some of these other states to the south you know gangbusters other directions and you're like oh there's like more big bucks than I ever saw in 10 years of hunting. Yeah. It's just the toll, the toll of having like, of having these long six week rifle seasons that run through the rut. Yeah. that run through the rut yeah that it's just you just aren't making you know they're not the the state is not prioritizing i'm not critic i'm not criticizing for this they're not prioritizing they're prioritizing opportunity opportunity quality over quality but it's just

amazing that you can go you know utah colorado idaho new mexico and it's like amazing that you can go, you know, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, and it's like, oh, there's the muley. I've always wondered where they all are. Yeah. They're here. Yeah. Like, what happens when you don't just gun for them so hard? But with that being said, there are some running around in Montana.

For sure. I mean, it's not like You can take an empirical approach to it and just go look at Boone and Crockett entries. Yeah, for sure. They are there, but on public ground, I haven't killed a... I don't think I've ever killed

a muley buck on private ground. I've never killed a bull elk on private ground. I have a buddy that killed a 200-inch mule deer buck on private ground. I've never killed a bull elk on private ground. I have a buddy that killed a 200 inch mule deer buck in Montana on block management. Yep. I would count that as public. But it's just one of those things where right time. It was the rut and he probably moved off a piece

of private. He made a mistake. Yep. Suicide. So it can happen. So speaking of the live shows remember earlier I was plugging our live shows coming up years ago me and Yanni were at a live show I keep

seeing action out that window I'm looking for horns we were at a live show years ago and it's funny because we were at a live show I believe in Idaho we did a live show and or somewhere I can't remember where and a dude named And it was funny because we were at a live show, I believe, in Idaho. We did a live show. Or somewhere. I can't remember where.

And a dude named Richard Martinez came up. And he said to me and Yanni, you should come hunt turkeys in the Everglades with me. And he gave me a book. He brought me a gift and gave me a book about the Everglades. And I started at that time. Me and Yanni started applying for state game areas. And it took years for us to draw the state game area tag.

I think we were pretty consistent about our applications. Oh, I bet you guys were. So eventually we drew it because we wanted to both have it. So we were like party app, right? And we party apped and eventually drew our Everglades turkey tags and got to hook up with

this dude Richard Martinez. Passionate about it. Who's a very good turkey hunter. Yeah. Really serious outdoorsman. And what's funny about this, hanging out with this guy, we got a whole episode.

This is one of the guy just to return back this is one of the season 12 episodes where we go hunt Osceola turkeys with our buddy down there in Florida and how cool it was but it just so happened through some other work stuff I spent a bunch of time in Florida

and this is not to knock but it's pretty common this is going to really but like there's a lot of people like it's pretty common this is going to really piss a bunch of people off um and people that aren't pissed are going to wonder why this would piss people off but there will be some pissed people there are states where you where you hear a lot of unhappiness from hunters and anglers know, there's just like states that generate a lot of resentment. On how it's managed? Yeah, management, success rates, whatever.

There are states where you just get a lot of unhappy folk. And holy smokes is Florida one. I couldn't believe it. Yeah, which is kind of surprising. Some states you go there and here's the thing too. This is the point I make often times. Everywhere you go in the country and I've been

able to, I've had the great fortune over my career as a writer and doing TV and other enterprises I've been involved in where I've been able to just to go everywhere. Right. I've been, I've been able to,

um, I haven't hunted. I mean, I've been to all the States. I've hunted and fished in most of them. And I just get to meet and talk to a lot of people. And the thing that I've always marveled at and puzzled over was that everywhere you go,

you'll, you'll hear two stories, versions of two narratives. And these narratives could come from people who are next door neighbors. There's, there's this, there's narrative a narrative a is, uh,

um, all the good spots are gone. Everything got outsiders came in. The out-of-staters ruined it. The wolves ruined it. The coyotes ruined it. Fish and game

ruined it. Hopeless. It's like, I don't even go I oats ruined it. Fish and game ruined it. Um, hopeless. It's like, I don't even go anymore. I lost my spot. Uh, you name it. Okay.

And then next door, everywhere you go next door, not always next door, but I mean like... In the same... In the same universe. Yeah. The same is,

is you can't even scratch the surface. Yeah. I can't wait to get out of bed in the morning. That was Richard's show. You can't do it all. The question is, which one are you, Seth? So,

he's a can't scratch the surface. Yeah. So, this has always can't scratch the surface. Yeah. So, this has always been like a thing of mine. And it's funny because here's this dude that we hang out with who like is just a can't scratch the surface guy, man. But dude, he scouts hard. Yeah. He like, if he's not hunting, he's looking looking for hunting spot he might like scouting more than the hunt he works his ass off but he's just like in a place that's in a place and he he hunts a lot

of areas in a place where it's like just it just generates a lot of you know they got they got so many cougars now and deer populations are down, but here's a guy just consistently, consistently deer on public land, turkeys on public land, working his butt off, can't scratch the surface, can't get to it all kind of guy. Yep. I like hanging out with that dude. A little- Hard worker.

Behind the scenes of that Florida trip, off topic, pingpong I smoked you oh we had a ping-pong table that's right it was kind of a weird deal man like you were shook up about it well here's why I was coming in hot because it was like we had just got our kids. This little net you stretch out across your kitchen table. So for nights, dude, every night we ate dinner, we cleared the table, we stretched that net out and just played ping pong. He came in there thinking he was Joe Ping Pong. So I was pretty hot.

I was pretty hot, and I also felt because I was playing on a slightly smaller kitchen table. Dining room table, narrow. And our dining room table is one of those ones that looks like it was cut from one huge tree, so it's got curvy edges. And so if I was kicking my kids' butts on that thing, I thought I was going to come in and whoop you guys at ping pong because I'm like beating my 8-year-old, beating my 10-year-old, sometimes beating my 13-year-old. so i came in there like just ready to

mop you guys up man yeah and just everybody beat my ass dude i was coming in fresh off the home table but a thing i hadn't figured man is like this is an outdoor ping pong table oh there was some wind those are susceptible to wind drift yep and sun direction there was everybody was subject to the same wind drift yep but man just everybody yanni dude just beat my butt i bet yanni was good yeah oh yeah he's good he's got like he just seemed he looks like a dude to be good at ping pong yeah got my ass kicked at ping pong bad every night so when you're watching that episode and you've seen me having a good time turkey hunting i want you to picture me just getting my ass kicked at ping pong at night and taking it out on them osceolas baby you were the

first tag out no that was a good trip man what a cool space i was second to tag out. That was a good trip, man. What a cool space. I was second to tag out. Dirt, I was going to ask you, when did you start filming for Meteor? 2015, I think. So what season was that? Like season four or five? I thought you were in early, Dirt. Yeah, I was early. Yeah, probably four, season four.

Four, maybe. So you filmed four through 12? I'd have to look, but yeah, fourth or fifth season. Sometimes he'll get off on other stupid projects and won't work with us. It's not won't, it's can't. He's an international player. You've got to pay the bills. You've got to pay the bills.

You've got to pay the bills. How many continents have you filmed on dirt? Count North America. North America, South America. It's like 22 or 23. Countries. Oh, continents. Yeah countries is yeah a little over 20. you filmed in 20 countries yeah that's incredible my favorite is uh america yeah

hell yeah oh yeah brother i've said this quote so many times, but we're in Alaska right now, and it reminds me of it. One time a TV executive said, I don't want to say where, but a TV executive said to me, the only other country our viewers are interested in is Alaska. That's fair, kind of. Look at Europe. So there's that episode. Then there's a really, oh, you were on this one too, Dirt? I think I only missed those two bangers. Yeah, Spearfish in the Bahamas.

Oh, yeah. What a heck of a trip. You can swim too. Oh, yeah, Dirt's like a little otter. Oh, Sharkbait. I wouldn't say that. Dirt's the perfect cameraman. He's slicking the water.

Oh, yeah, Dirt's, if you need a backcountry cameraman. Well, backcountry hiking, hauling. He was hauling moose meat. Oh, you guys, come on. He was hauling, no doubt, a 120-pound pack. Yeah, a ridiculous amount of moose meat. Stomping me carrying probably an 85-pound moose. Yeah, you'd been butchering, though.

You guys have been butchering. He's a sturdy little feller. He is. Sturdy little feller. That Bahamas was a sweet. That blew my mind. When Guy was cutting that episode, he was trying to keep count. I think he came in that we had 16 and a half species.

Wow. Oh, nice. Because one of those fish came in just half of it. Yeah, that's right. The sharks. 16 and a half. The sharks were gnarly on that one. But, man, a lot of nice groupers, speared a lot of nice groupers. Look at the window, Steve.

Oh. Oh, nice moose. We're looking out the window at a guy putting a big moose rack in the back of a truck. Good for him. Wow. Seem bigger. You for him wow 16 and a half yeah is that counting the deep drop stuff oh yeah so we had um yeah so we were with kimmy uhner and Cameron Kirk Connell. Cameron Kirk Connell, for those of you who've listened to our show, our Campfire Stories series.

So one of the things we make is we make this thing called Campfire Stories. So we did Meat Eater Campfire Stories. It's an audio book. It's an audio original. It's not an audio book. It's an audio original. It's like very edited storytelling from from disparate voices and um if you haven't heard you should definitely check it out um and we had volume one close calls and then volume two was narrow misses and more close calls we have volume three coming up which is discoveries

so people find crazy stuff bodies money whatever just like crazy discoveries beans bodies means yeah i'm gonna do a whole episode on me finding more pole beans after my kids have picked them all after they've picked them all i'd want to pick 50 more um and uh but in in close calls cameron kirk connell we even ran it people will essentially know this because when we were promoting meters campfire stories close calls we promoted it with our cameron kirk connell story so cameron kirk connell um grew up in florida but spends a ton of time in the bahamas and he tells a story about when he was a tarpon guide it's if you listen back in episodes you'll find it he was a tarpon guide it's if you listen back

in episodes you'll find it he was a tarpon guy but went spearfishing one day and they were chasing after a kubera snapper and cameron kirkconnell's dive partner had a blackout so cameron kirkconnell is down deep his dive partner was supposed to be on the surface they're taking turns watching each other but the guy must seen something from the surface and went after it. So Cameron Kirkconnell's down deep, and here comes the guy sinking in a sort of upright crisscross applesauce,

formerly known as Indian style. When you cross your legs. Yeah, they don't call it that anymore. When you go to school, my kids, they don't even know what that is. They think it's crisscross applesauce. I'm like, what? How you said it? So crisscross applesauce, and he's sinking, passed out.

And Cameron Kirkconnell's going to shoot him because he's out of air and he's on his way up. And so he's like, he's at least going to try to shoot him with a spear shaft. So he can drag him back to the surface and save his life. And he's going to shoot him in the calf. Yeah. But the body's spinning. So he's already down on his way up and he has to go crossways

to get to him. And there's no way he's going to drag him up. They're both going to die. He spins and then his only shot is to shoot him in the thigh. But he's afraid if he shoots him in the thigh, he's going to bleed to death. So he lowers down and shoots him in the fin with his spear gun. Long shot, too. And there's guys on the boat.

So he gets up to the surface. He's like, pull, pull, pull. And they drag this dude up and resuscitate him he told it is just an insane story yeah did he tell yeah so that's how he and i became friends he's he's a guide he's got it all over the world fishing um and he's he's like he's he's a boat captain he's whatever like boat clap boat class. They do like... Oh, merchant, marine, right? Well, yeah, but they do...

You're a captain for whatever tonnages. He's a captain any class. Super dialed. So he could drive my Sea Ark 1660. That's what I'm trying to say. Wow. What about the bigger Sea Ark? Or a cruise ship.

Yeah, he could drive my Sea Ark. Maybe. My canoe, my Sea Ark 1660. Let him go, baby. He's got it. Or the Princess Ocean Liners. Titanic. No, man.

Watching you guys dive that stuff was amazing. So you want to talk about a good diver. And then Kimmy Warner's a phenomenal diver. So basically, it's like a show where you watch me get my ass kicked by people. Oh, you were crushing. Yeah. Well, I was doing good, but I wasn't doing as show where you watch me get my ass kicked by people. Oh, you were crushing. Yeah. Well, I was doing good,

but I wasn't as good as those guys. Those guys are good, man. God, those guys are good in the water. That recovery

has only been recent, right? After that, the hurricanes in 18 or something in Bahamas? Yep. Then,

then, there's more. Lastly, Alaska with Dr. Randall and Clay Newcomb. Oh. Black bears. Epic hunt. And that is the epic wetsuit black bear hunt. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

I hadn't seen it. I didn't show it to you. I don't know why I didn't show it to you. Usually I'll show it to people. You've never showed me a single episode I've been on before I came out. Maybe I'll say sometimes I show it to people. You've never showed me a single episode I've been on before it came out. Maybe I'll say sometimes I show it to people. I show it to anyone that asks. I'm trying not to be a pain.

Yanni, he always wants to see. He always got comments. Really? I didn't know that was an option. Oh, yeah. Yanni will get right in there. Because he'll be like, hey, but what about, remember that time we did X?

I'll be like, I forgot about that. Man, I would would not have yet to dig around and find stuff that we had forgotten about i've i've got middle notes like a elephant really oh well that's good to keep in mind because yanni would quite often be like but dude why why didn't they use the stuff about the whatever or whatever i'm just making that up and then we'll dig in there and find it is there still time on the last episode it's done so when we're working on an episode what we do is like we film we come back and first someone goes through and scours it for everything usable we do producer notes which lays it out i'll often have some stuff i'll talk about like well like this is the sort of the main thing we're after and this is all what i'm

interested in then it'll go to what's called a rough cut and we'll get the rough cut and it'll have like scratch vo and then i'll start writing vo yeah and we'll do like general like well this is kind of boring and that should be moved around yeah it's not really understand and what about the owl right that kind of stuff and then it'll go to fine and then usually at fine i would show it to yanni if he's in it or whoever then from fine it goes to pick lock and then from pick lock it goes to pick lock. And then from pick lock, it goes to sound and sound. And it's done. Color. Color correction.

I think, yeah. And then you don't want to dig back into it. Everybody gets riled up. Yeah, sure. Just one point back about the Bahamas. All the beautiful underwater filming was not me. That was Justin and Perrin. Kimmy Werner's husband, Justin Turkowski.

Yep. Those guys. And Perrin. Perrin James. Perrin. Kimmy Werner's husband, Justin Tarkowski. And Perrin. Perrin James. Those dudes are some little river otters. When they'd get the guns, they were smoking fish. Legendary underwater cinnies.

Very good underwater cinematographers, wherever you call them. Underwater camera guys is what I like to call them. That works. Yeah. So there you have it, man. Season 12. Gosh, that's going to be good.

Mm-hmm. October 12th. Good job, Dirt. That's when it starts. Dirt's pumping it up, man. It's fancy coffee. October 12th. From the Cenex.

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. 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 a 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.

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welcome to the OnX club y'all so Clay give us a quick wrap up of what we've been doing clay so we've been in we're we are currently in alaska we've been on our moose hunt our annual our annual moose hunt and um this year we were on a different ridge than last year and we i've never hunted the same ridge top twice twice yeah so we we came to a new ridge and and this kind of hunting you fly in there's a small airstrip that you're able to land super cubs you camp close to the airstrip and you you can only kill a moose as close as you can get the moose totem totem back up to the airstrip and you you can only kill a moose as close as you can get the moose totem totem back up to the airstrip we planned this hunt for nine days and planned the hunt so that it ended in

the latter part of the season because the closer you get deeper you get into to september the better the moose right's going to be guaranteed really anywhere and so we we started our hunt on september the 10th i believe might have been the 11th but 11th and and what we saw last year what we hear from people what steve's experience this is my second moose hunt so clearly i'm an expert now is that just every day you see the rut pick up more and more. And it's a calling game. So you don't have a lot of mobility. Like in elk hunting, you're moving around, you're calling.

You might see elk, two drainages over, and you figure out how to get over there. This is not that. You pretty much have a stationary place that you're calling from. And you're calling kind of long-term calling the way i think about it is there's a lot of calling that you get an immediate response and you know if you're calling was successful yep within seconds or minutes when you're calling that's some ducks calling ducks four seconds calling elk yeah if you like turks call a turkey and he gobbles back yeah yeah yeah so this is more like you're just feeding seeding calls into the into the this very vast landscape and if i want to point out if you don't call them you ain't gonna get them

that's right i mean it could happen but it's like it would not be a reliable strategy you're just gonna wait one's gonna walk by yeah and so you're we're hunting this like rolling rolling hills big bigger mountains and so what you can see is probably only 40 of what is actually there i mean you know rolling off into these big draws so you see one side of the hill but not the other right or your call is going down into this draw that you can't see what's going on down there and so we got into this spot the first day is this about the pace you want this story to go great job okay so we get in here the first day and the clouds parted we had a little bit of cloud cover i'm pretty sure the first day it got in there late in the morning and within 30 minutes we saw a bull within about two miles of where we're sitting this the landscape is willow flats spruce draws and patches and just tundra and so some of it you can't see real well but some of you can where we were

sitting we could see a big saddle between two ridges and we could but we could also see miles and miles away on these like high alpine tundra-y mountains that if we saw a moose there it really meant nothing to us other than just it was fun to see him. I mean, we were spotting moose five miles away. Oh, yeah. So the first morning within 30 minutes, we saw a moose two miles away, which is semi in play. Because potentially that moose could hear us and we could call him. And maybe two days later, he'd show up in our draw. We called one from two miles one day and he came

in in about over about the course of about an hour yeah past yeah and some it could even been we debate it was a minimum of two miles minimum that's impressive miles away they can hear and you can always tell when they can hear you because you have a, we've got a new call that we're prototyping from Phelps, and you moose call, and you can see the moose. They always, they'll turn and look at you and just stare if they hear you. It's like two satellite dishes, just be like, yeah, locked on. And they'll sit, they'll lock up just and spend minutes without moving

staring right in the right direction with them big old satellite ears out yeah with their horns so you can tell like if one's way out there you call and you watch him and you're like he can hear us and then you you measure your calling from that how much he cares is who knows but you know you'll know like absolutely he hears you a lot of times you'll call and you'll see him start raking a bush. They'll kind of be like, that excites me. Not going to come over there, but I'm going to rake this bush. You come here. And we're doing three types of calling.

Cow calls, bull grunts, and raking. So actually taking, Steve was using the scapula of a bull moose from another year and scraping on the trees and these are basically the three communication mechanisms day one we see a bull way off later that afternoon we spot seth spots two bulls we believe five miles five miles away first day three bulls second day we in, we're sitting in the same spot. We have this, we have a, in our, where we're hunting is a, again, a saddle between two ridges, and we can probably see out 800 or 900 yards in this saddle. Two big draws coming up from either side.

And second day, I believe it was like 10 or 11 in the morning we see a good bull come into our saddle we had no knowledge that he was really around he just appeared in our saddle had been calling all morning we've been calling all morning so possibly he was coming to our calls he he appears we start calling to him more aggressively try to get him in close he'll cut he came into like 675 yards locked up in a spruce patch bedded down well no you left out some prime detail i'm just okay grunting yeah thrashing brush yeah we thought it was on give us a moose grunt yeah you know yeah yeah you know like you're walking through the woods and you keep your get a little your little nut tap from the brush on yeah

yeah that's that's good so this was day two and, we believe, a mid-50s bull. So in the world of big moose hunting, like American moose are going to be smaller. You're going to hear guys in Montana, Idaho, you know, a 50-inch-plus moose in those places is going to be pretty big. Yeah, we have the Shire's moose. And then the Canadian moose is going to be smaller. In the big Alaska Yukon moose, which would also be in the Yukon,

British Columbia. I don't think it's... British Columbia doesn't have... Southern British Columbia is... Canada moose. I want to say the upper part of BC is probably Yukon, but I don't know. I don't know.

But a good shooter moose is going to be in the 50 inch range 50 inch plus top end would be like 70 inches and oftentimes people oftentimes the regulations go that um so like in the state of alaska they'll tweak moose regulations. Different units will have different open dates. Different units have different close dates. And you'll quite often see, it's pretty typical that a moose has to be 50 inch tip to tip. So 50 inch spread and or they'll specify how many brow tines it needs on one side. So he might be in an area that has a,

it's a three, what they would call a three brow tine unit. Meaning if one of his sides has three brow tines, he's legal. You could be in a four brow tine unit, where if one of his sides has four brow tines, he's legal, but he could have zero brow tines and be 50, or he could have no paddles,

but have four brow tines. be 50 or he could have no paddles but have four brow tines so it's either or right um and this bull would was plenty legal in both ways yeah he had a lot of brow tines was well over 50 inches wide and we felt like we were going to kill him on day two he bedded down we messed with him for several hours he was within 700 yards for several hours he bedded down we messed with him for several hours he was within 700 yards for several hours he bedded down three different times but the more we called to him the more he hung around the less he was interested and he fades off into the willow brush going away from us two o'clock that afternoon that was the last action we had on day two we go into day three we see nothing but a cow moose we sit on that hill for 12 hours so the sequence of our hunt is is that these are long days up here right now 12 hour days

and we wake up when the sun starts you know when the sky starts to get light have some coffee have a little breakfast head out when you can see good get on the side of the mountain and literally be there sit there for 12 hours if you really you could sit till 7 30 but you could still probably shoot till 8 30 but at a point you just got to be like at a point you've been there 12 hours yeah that's a long sit and so it's a long sit when you're not seeing anything so that that third day we didn't even see the far off bull so sometimes you're just entertained by watching through the glass these bulls way off and thinking is that the day we saw day three we saw the blackberry were ripping through yeah i think so yeah that was like the only thing we saw that day i think yeah we did see one black bear we

had a black bear tag but couldn't it just we just saw a flash of a black bear yeah day four so that was a tough day we all said that that was a tough day and the other thing about this hunt is that the temperatures seem like they're reasonable you know let's say mid-20s to mid-40s to mid-40s and it's like that's not that cold but man when you're out there for 10 days constantly battling that and wind and high humidity we were freezing to death we were just sitting it's so damn windy and you're just sitting yep so it's it's a real struggle to just stay warm even with good gear and like all the gear you need we were making little fires you can You can do it like, you can really get layered up and be good,

but it's just, you're just not doing anything to generate any warmth. Yeah. For, like I said, 10, 12 hours. Yeah.

Yeah. But, you know, but we talked about how much this, this type of hunting is so different than many other hunts. It's a, it's a unique hunt and you got to be in the right state of mind to sit in the same place for potentially nine or ten days for 12 hours a day and not be

validated by not seeing game yeah and a lot of whitetail hunters will say oh that's easy i do that all the time in november it's just different yeah i mean I've done lots of all-day sits for whitetails. It's different. Yeah. So day four, we didn't see anything either, did we? Mm-mm. Our neighborhood mouse. I saw a glimpse of a cow. Probably the same cow.

And those long bulls, I think you saw. Yeah. I picked up those long. Day four, we saw the bulls that were five miles away, or one bull five miles away, and a cow close. So that's two tough days and and it's it's taxing mentally and uh we're you know it is fun when you're with a group of guys though you're all talking the whole day and you're eating snacks whispering and and we we were all all of us were

calling and so we we named everybody has a little different tone and frequency and vibe with their moose call. We decided that Dirt probably had the best cow moose call. Seth was clearly the best bull grunner. I'll take it. And so on day five comes around and it's just a game of odds. I like a hunt that's just a game of odds. I can sit somewhere for a long time. I'll sit there.

And I like it when that's what you're working against. Yep. Like it doesn't take a whole lot of skill to just sit there. Tenacity. Just for days. Yeah. What'd you guys say? It's like there's physical suffrage and there's.

There's two ways to suffer hunting. Yep. There's more, but like. General just stuff that's physically taxing. Yep. It's like getting up and pounding it out and pounding it out and hiking back up the top of the mountain, hiking back up the top of the mountain, hiking through the swamp, whatever the hell it is.

And then there's just the mental... Patience. Just sitting. Yeah. Just sitting. And you're looking at such incredible, like it's being like, like a friend of mine who does it.

He's like, it's trusting the process that there are these things, they're called moose and they are going to get into the rut and they're going to start moving and they're going to be receptive to calling and you need to be there calling and they're going to hear it and they're going to come. And it might not happen until the last day. It might not happen for 10 days. One of the boys that's seen us when we landed today

saw that other moose head, and he's, oh, that's what they look like. They'd been out probably 10 days and not even seen a moose. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. So day five comes. We go to our spot we it's like you you feel like it's gonna happen but you never feel like it's gonna happen today yeah you know you're like i know i just feel like

we're gonna kill a moose we're doing the right stuff but it probably won't happen today that's the way i always feel it's hard but to have tomorrow it's hard to picture it happening yeah yeah but we did see a cow in that same zone that we had seen that bull on day two which was yeah we had a cow in our in our in our saddle that was kind of in our zone you know within 800 yards of us saw a cow and and again the moose rut's picking up and we we know that's happening not because of what we're seeing but just because we know it's happening and about 10 o'clock day five seth looks in a direction that we weren't focused on a lot of attention well he moved he had been glassing for four days from one spot he moved moved like six feet. He moved downslope to a spot he'd never before sat in. Wow.

Yep. Had a feeling. He moved downslope ever so slightly. And the minute he got there, that's the noise of him seeing a moose. There's a bull. He said, I got a bull in the spruce. And this bull was, would we say it was a mile away?

At least. I think it was a mile. I might be able to tell you how far it was away. It was close to a mile. Maybe I would have said three quarters of a mile away. I would say exactly how far away it was. Okay. And this was like 10 o'clock, right?

10 o'clock in the morning. And what we learned is on this landscape, let's just say there's three things going on.undra willows and spruce that's all there is in this part of alaska and we man the bulls just stick it's like a willow aspen birch mix yeah yeah you're right willows aspen birch yeah all looks fairly similar. Deciduous hardwood type. It's brushy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's small, the least of those is the spruce where we're at.

Yes. There's little draws of spruce. And anyway, Seth sees, Abul sees satellite paddles. And what you're looking for when you're glassing for these moose is not, you're not looking for moose, you're looking for paddles. Yeah, yeah. They're white. Big white white big white big white paddles sticking out but it takes you a while to understand the scale of what one looks like the first one you see every year you're like oh oh that's what they look like from a mile and a half and they're always smaller than you

think yep but when i see the one when i saw the ones you found seth five miles away they were bigger than i thought they would be. Yeah, I thought the same. But when the bull was in our saddle 600 yards away, he was way smaller than I thought he would be. It's like this game of scale, like trying to figure out what they look like. So he sees one. We rip a cow call and bam he he he slams our direction we know he hears us he locks in on us now all four

of us are looking trying to find the bull and we're like oh we see him there he is he's looking at us and then directly we see him moving our way and that's always a good sign when you get a quick response he he just kind of moving our direction, but we're not too fired up. He comes around the point of this, kind of on the spine of this little ridge. I can't tell, a mile away. Mile? Sorry. Mile?

Yeah, never mind. I can't tell. Okay. But in and out with the vegetation. Oh, yeah. You can't see him. You can't see him. So, but he's coming. We see him like't see him so so but he but he's coming

our he we see him like 50 yards from where he was and he's coming our way and then we get excited hit him again with the call and you're always trying to understand how much calling do we need because we felt like we might have over called the bull that was real close to us the other day and so you're like what what does this bull want to hear? You're like feeling him out. And so we noticed that every time that I called, he would start moving before the, it got to the point where he would stop. I would call, he would start moving towards me before I even finished the call.

And that tells you he likes it. And so we called a lot and just kind of trying to guide him in and then he got into the thick aspen willow brush and we could just see bits and pieces of him and the sequence from him coming to the spruce to coming within 300 yards was probably i would say a 40 minute ordeal 30 30, 30-plus. And we're seeing bits and pieces of him. And at first, Steve Rinella, I remember you said you didn't get the vibe that he was a real big bull.

I said, he's not a 70-incher. Okay. Okay. We can review the footage. I just remember, this isn't bad i'm just saying this is what you're going through i'm trying to describe like when you first see it well let me tell you why okay i was doing a okay here's where i screwed up early on i was doing a comparison of looking at the fronts and the paddles.

That'll get you on this one. And when you see this particular animal, you will understand why. Because you're like, why is he widest at his fronts? Yeah. Which led me to have, it just threw, it was throwing me off. Then later,

I was starting to get a, once I saw the extent of it, I was starting to get a much different vibe. Yeah. But early on, I was just, I wasn't like, it didn't look like sheets,

it didn't look like half sheets of plywood coming through the woods. Yeah. Yeah. So we need to wrap this up in five minutes. Yeah, we're running out of space on the card. Yeah, don't spoil the end. So the bull's coming in.

We're trying to – we know it's a shooter. It just looks like it. Oh, from the get-go. Man, I've learned with Moose, when I see paddles, no matter what distance, I'm like, it's a monster i'm just i'm just like you're rooting for it's inspiring yeah yeah but i when the first second i saw this moose all that i registered on my mind was i was like golly that's a lot of paddle yeah it just looked it was just a the volume of paddle was big. And man, the closer he got, the bigger he got.

And pretty soon, we're all getting really good looks at him. And he's just big. Huge fronts. And you're looking for brow tines on these bulls. And you're happy if you see one with four brow tines on each side. This bull's got ten brow tines on both sides. Just supernova. I think that should be its name.

A little champagne supernova. And he's loving your call. Yeah, yeah. And we're constantly trying to decide how much to call. Every time we call, he's moving, so we keep giving him what he wants. And he's not coming directly to us. He's swinging around trying to get downwind, which is what they typically do. But, I mean, we got him because he's got to cross through a big open area. Yeah, he's like, man, get downwind which is what they typically do and and but he i mean

we got him because he's got a cross through yeah he's like man i like everything i'm hearing i like everything i'm hearing but i just like to get a little sniff before i just barge i don't want to go barge in there without a little sniff yep like i want to get a lay of the land like who's up there what's going on is it a bull is it what yeah just a little sniff let's get sniffed is it tammy is it who is it yeah so but we gotta wrap this up pretty quick he doesn't desperately want to get downwind but he wants to get downwind yeah we feel like every time we call it he's just pulling a little bit tighter to us i don't know if that was true oh yeah i think so but we were calling a lot and you'll see this on the one day this will come out and you'll get to watch it and man i mean it it was that 40 minute sequence was as good of of a hunt as there is on planet earth i mean for real just

watching him come the excitement of trying to gauge how big he is, is he going to come, is he not? We've been here, we worked so hard to get here. This is a crazy place. We're cold, we're tired, and here he comes, and then he's big. And, I mean, it was exciting. One of the last things we witnessed him do

is he went to thrashing a tree and for some reason stuck his horn down in the ground like a spade shovel and kicked it through a cloud of soil. Yeah. And kept walking. Yeah. Like that ain't nothing. I know. Is he still out there? Is he still

out there? Or is he in the van? Y'all have to stay tuned. Is that the way we're gonna leave it? We're gonna leave it like this. Pew! Oh my gosh.

Was that a miss or hit, though? You don't know. Yeah. And one more. Yeah. Stay tuned. Nice. Oh, ride on, ride on, let it fly on. I want to see your gray hair shine like silver in the sun Ride on Ride on

Ride on Ride on Sweetheart We're done beat this damn horse to death So take your new one and ride on We're done beat this damn horse today.

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