The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 593: Patience is a Good Hunter, with Will Primos

Episode Date: September 2, 2024

Steven Rinella talks with the one and only Will Primos, Janis Putelis, Seth Morris, Randall Williams, Cory Calkins, Phil Taylor, and Corinne Schneider.  The importance of the attitude; zero negativi...ty; crooked pinkys; prophylactics; the size of the pallet; the time when our very own Cory Calkins guided Will; Steve’s belief in being able to train up wildlife cinematographers on hunt acumen; patience is a good hunter; if you know you oughta do something, don’t; Will’s new book, “Straight Shooting for Hunters”; the nuances of shooting things flying through the air; the eye trick; when the hammer falls, the dragon breathes fire; don’t keep an eye on the bead; gun fit; shooting too hot; a shared love of "Jeremiah Johnson"; and more.  Outro song "My Dogs" written by Ron Boehme, host of The Hunting Dog Podcast, and sung by Michael Daggett. Connect with Steve and The MeatEater Podcast Network Steve on Instagram and Twitter MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YoutubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 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
Starting point is 00:00:37 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.
Starting point is 00:01:14 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. apparel to support every hunter in every environment. Check it out at firstlight.com. F-I-R-S-T-L-I-T-E.com. I normally, when we start the show, I normally introduce, I find myself, I introduce guests like I'm dealing poker. Clockwise. I'm going to do it counterclockwise because I want to end on a finale.
Starting point is 00:01:46 Giannis is here. Seth is here.-hmm. I'm going to do it counterclockwise because I want to end on a finale. Giannis is here. Seth is here. Corinne. Dr. Randall. Corey is here. And Will Primos. Nice to be here. You're one of my...
Starting point is 00:01:57 I don't want to get us off on the wrong foot by overdoing it. You're one of my communication heroes. And let me tell you more about why that is okay um you've been making products for hunters for your whole life yep eye to eye you don't talk down to hunters you don't talk you don't criticize you don't talk negative you have an infectious enthusiasm about the hunt you have an infectious enthusiasm about wildlife you have an infectious enthusiasm about wildlife. You have an infectious enthusiasm about your family, about the people around you. You celebrate everyone around you. You don't bring people down. You've been doing this how many years?
Starting point is 00:02:56 I'm 72. I started the company in 1976 when I was 24. I've never heard a single person say a single negative word about you. Oh, my gosh. Okay. That's awesome. Let me tell you something. That don't happen.
Starting point is 00:03:13 Yeah. Well, one time I killed this big deer, really big deer in Mississippi, and my wife goes, have you been on the internet? Have you seen what they're saying about you? And I'm going, no. And she says, well, you ought to. I said, it don't matter. What are they, what, by the way, what are they saying? They said, well, you killed it in a pen. You raised it in a one acre pen and then finally killed it. I said, okay. She says, you're not going to go and answer that? I says,
Starting point is 00:03:38 no. No. Cause Will Primo's don't do that. Yeah. It don't exist. So I ain't worried about it. and it goes away, but you know, I'm sure somebody says something bad somewhere, but you know the you know, the camera doesn't love everybody and I didn't want to be I Didn't want to become some unknown hunting person. That's not wasn't my goal My goal was to make a living my goal was to share My love of the outdoors with others and get them to love it and hopefully want to protect it because if you protect what you love yeah so if i can go out there and share elk hunting and share waterfowl and in the green timber just wherever we are turkey hunting uh you know just whatever it is if i can share that and you can fall in love with it
Starting point is 00:04:22 then you'll want to protect it and it's all about about habitat. If we don't have the habitat, you ain't got the critters. They take, each animal takes a certain quality of habitat to thrive. And so that was kind of my goal. And as I went, as I began to go through it and began to get a little bit of wind in my sail and understand that I might be able to make a real company out of this thing i was trying to do uh i came on a realization that if you can let people have the opportunity to know you then you have the opportunity for people to like you now you're you're gambling because if they don't you've really you've really kind of hurt yourself and so so the key to that is to keep your ego out of it and that was the secret behind primos when we hired people and we had people and it was all about them and because everybody got to hunt it wasn't about will primos everybody got to
Starting point is 00:05:19 hunt when we went up we went we went i would hunt usually, and I didn't wait for the biggest one. Did I? Nope. Well, for folks not watching, Phil just gestured to Corey who, sorry, Will just gestured to Corey. And you guys have hunted together, which we'll talk about. Yeah, we have. So anyway, you can't wait for the biggest one if there's somebody behind you and you only got five day window to try to fill tags. And so I wouldn't, I'd kill the first thing that was decent and let the next person hunt.
Starting point is 00:05:53 Yeah. Yeah. I'll never forget. I forget what year the fire was up there at the CA. 2001 or 1999 or somewhere. 2001, I believe. We were hunting. I believe his first day was September 17th.
Starting point is 00:06:08 We were hunting the Bar Nun, which was next to the CA. And an early snowstorm came. We were staying in the old schoolhouse on the Bar Nun at Ted Turner's place. And so we're staying there, and it was 17 degrees. And my wife says, I'm not going. So we got in the Suburban with our special tires that we had put on for all our rental cars and went up the mountain and got up there, couldn't find an elk. Brad Ferris just said, Will, I'm going to hunt first,
Starting point is 00:06:34 and I'm going to kill the first thing I see so that you can have the rest of the time to try to kill a big one. I said, okay. Came finding elk. They've left. There's so much snow. There's two feet of snow. We're pushing snow in front of the vehicle.
Starting point is 00:06:47 We're coming down, and I see this elk, and he's bent over, feeding on something in the snow. You can see his head down, and he's about 150 yards away. And the windshield wipers were on in a minute, and they went, choo, choo. And he threw his head up, and I went, oh, my gosh. It's a big elk. said okay buddy look look nobody they didn't nobody saw him he he got spooked and went down and went as soon as he went down i said
Starting point is 00:07:12 bail let's go we went after we got over there he's going up a hill he's about 400 yards away so i'm i'm running the camera so i sat down with the camera at the same time i got on the hyper lip yeah yeah he turned around and started coming brad's scrambling he's putting his release on he's getting ready so this elk comes up there and brad won't shoot he won't shoot so i got my rangefinder out my vest and i arranged him i said 55. the elk stops turns around and walks 60 60. Brad nails him at 60 yards. Brad turns, he runs about 25 yards and falls over dead and says, hmm, you think you'll go 330? I said, Brad, you just killed a 400-inch elk.
Starting point is 00:07:57 He goes, are you kidding me? I never saw an elk the rest of the trip. So Brad was going to kill the first one he saw when he did. But, you know, it's not about you. It's about sharing. It's about being there. It's about loving it. It's about teaching people how much fun we can have out there being a part of what God created and watching elk be elk during the rut and watching white tails do it and watching turkeys do it and watching ducks in their in their migration and
Starting point is 00:08:25 just being able to be enthusiastic and share that and and help other people get to that spot some are more talented than others some have whatever might keep them from being as successful but you don't look down on them you're right you just you help them rise up yanni uh tell will you what you used to tell me about uh the the truth video series i don't know how it was hugely influential you're talking about going down and checking at walmart to see if they were out yet oh right pre-internet yeah yeah i would go to the walmart every two or three days you got them new truth videos yet You know they look at me like the what?
Starting point is 00:09:09 You know we were in Avon, Colorado I don't know if you ever passed through there that's where the Walmart was there in Colorado But oftentimes that department might not have somebody that actually knew anything about elk hunting. I'd be like yeah, it's about this big Kind of green it's to say the truth on it Can you call me when it gets here? Yeah, yeah Let's go back to the beginning In the beginning, you were born with very crooked fingers
Starting point is 00:09:35 My little pinky fingers Yeah, show those off I don't know, but from my mother's side of the family There's an extra bone in there shaped like a triangle From south, right? Huh? South, from? Huh? South. From the South. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:45 Yeah. Where's my mother? This probably is from her Irish side of her heritage. I'm 50% Greek. What? Yeah. Oh. That's where Primo.
Starting point is 00:09:55 Yeah, Primos. I guess that makes more sense. That's where Primos is coming from. My daddy was half French and half Greek. Okay? Yep. He was a freak. That's what he said. That's what he said.
Starting point is 00:10:06 That's what he told me. My daddy just passed away at 98. World War II vet. Hell of a guy. I'm telling you. No kidding. No kidding. He was a wonderful man.
Starting point is 00:10:13 And your mom's still alive. Yeah, she's 97. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. But anyway. A lot of turkey meat or something. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:20 A lot. So you were born out with crooked pinkies. Yeah. But they don't get in the way and I don't worry about them. But some people have to know all about them, like people like you. First thing I asked you. That's right. When I meet someone, I always check to see if they've got ten fingers.
Starting point is 00:10:36 There you go. And in my account, I was like, well, he's got nine, he's got ten, but that one looks a little off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Type, and I've got to use this thing. I figured you slammed it in something. No, I've done that too. Yeah. So did your dad hunt?
Starting point is 00:10:49 My dad was a, he was a depression child. You know, he went through the depression. He went through World War II. He was a navigator in the Pacific and never had a dime and was always working to support his family and take care of them. So yes, he hunted, but it was very limited. But I'll never forget, I was six years old, double barrel, side-by-side Fox that he paid $10 for used Model B Fox. Double trigger.
Starting point is 00:11:18 I'm not familiar with that gun. It's a side-by-side made by Fox. But anyway, we walked out the back door and we went squirrel hunting i was so excited to go squirrel and my daddy sees a nest he goes let's see if there's a squirrel in there they go red squirrel comes flying out of that nest dead as a hammer uh that was a fox squirrel yeah no yeah this is just a little joke with us because uh in the south like we have a red squirrel in the north a pine squirrel okay and in the south they confuse you guys confuse yankees because when you tell yankees that you got a red squirrel i'm picturing
Starting point is 00:11:56 what we call a red squirrel with the tail or out with that no with his tail he's i don't know how long is the pine squirrel well the same little pine squirrel that runs around out west it's the same one that we have the one that gives me away when i'm sitting there calling yeah yeah like he's always chittering at you like that's a red like we'll hear red squirrel so when you guys from the south are getting red squirrels and you're talking to yankees yankees are thinking that you're getting little. Our squirrels are twice that big. They got a big white face. Yep. That red squirrel.
Starting point is 00:12:28 Yeah. That red squirrel. So did your folks, your folks were U.S. born though? Oh, yeah. They're U.S. born. Yeah. Got it. And he would do some little bit of hunting?
Starting point is 00:12:42 Oh, yeah. Squirrel hunting, hunting take me duck hunting duck hunting on the river we didn't do any serious waterfowl hunting that was left up to my uncles my uncles were all interested in playing i had four uncles and they were awesome and um they they took me serious waterfowl and when i was 11 years old that's the first time i stood in 12 inches of water in green timber and watched 200 matters come down through the trees and you know I was I was I was I was it so you had some serious experiences oh yeah young yeah yeah well do those guys make calls like how did you get interested in
Starting point is 00:13:18 making calls so my uncle Gus was a great caller and he blew a Jake Gardner signal read call a guy from Arkansas who was friends with chick majors famous call maker and so I took that call and my daddy had a lathe and I just tried to copy it and that started my game calling desire to figure out how to make things that made sounds when you say you took a lathe like explain that to people that might not well it wouldn't lay you you chuck a piece of wood into it and you turn it to shape it like you want and then you drill out the center uh you've got to make the soundboard you've got to figure out the curve and
Starting point is 00:13:55 how how to make the cork hold it in place well the cork is a wedge that holds the reed to the soundboard what's the what's the reed going to be made out of? The reeds are, in the old days, we were very limited in the products. But when I started in 76 doing stuff, we were borrowing from the medical industry and the automotive industry any technology that we could to build it into game calls.
Starting point is 00:14:24 So Mylar became the reed of choice. Mylar. Yeah. For reeds. But you have a spool. So most people think, well, you would stamp the reed out with the length of the spool. Well, if you do that, there's a huge curve in the reed, which totally changes the sound. Oh, you'll never get that curve out of it.
Starting point is 00:14:44 That's right. So you've got to stamp it crossways. And then if you stamp it on the outside of the spool, there's a slight bow in that reed. And if you stamp it out of the center, where it's coiled up in the center, there's a much tighter. That totally changes the sound of the call. And you can't press that bow out of there by getting a little warm or something you can try but i was never able to do it and whether it's upside down or right side up on the soundboard makes a huge difference too yeah so can you nowadays get it flat i i don't know i couldn't do it no couldn't get it flat um when you were doing that why did your dad have a lathe he just had a woodworking shop he uh he he was turning and building wood just as a hobby building stuff all the time
Starting point is 00:15:32 he built tops you put them in a box and tie a string around and pull a little top go around and bounce around and knock stuff over he's always doing stuff like that god who'd you sell your first call to uh buck dearman i don't know who that is buck dimmer was a friend of mine he was encouraged oh it's a buddy of yours okay yeah and he uh he he encouraged me because the calls he had the turkey calls he had were falling apart and he said look you can do this i said i can't do that i don't nothing about making no turkey call. He goes, yes, you can. So I went to work and built one.
Starting point is 00:16:09 Box call. No, mouth call. Oh, you did? That was the first one you made? It was a double reed. It had two reeds stacked on top of each other. The reeds were an eighth of an inch apart. And you made that before you made a wood call?
Starting point is 00:16:23 That's right. How'd you build that? you made a wood call that's right huh would you would you how'd you build that how'd I build a yeah you just went and got like prophylactic latex and well you'd go back then we called them rubbers they weren't called prophylactics because that word didn't exist we're kids that word existed yeah and so we go to your toothbrush your toothbrush is a prophylactic yeah it's a disease prevention I understand that but anyway so we'd go to the service station because you could not buy them in a drugstore they weren't on the counter yet they're only given like a prescription so you you weren't allowed to buy so you go to the service station and you'd buy whatever they had and most of them were lubricated yeah would you go be like hey i don't want you to get the
Starting point is 00:17:03 wrong idea i'm making turkey calls here we're not there's a story about that okay so finally i went to daddy and i said daddy i finally figured out which one of these rubbers works the best and it's not lubricated and i need to order them from the pharmacist but i'm only 17 or however old i was i said would you call mr parkin the's Pharmacy and order me a case? He said, I'd be glad to. So, okay, so they called me and said, your
Starting point is 00:17:33 rubbers are in. Okay. I went down there, walked up to the counter, Mr. Parkin put them on the counter, and my counselor from high school, Ms. Breeland walked up. He knew knew her he knew her you know so he looked i mean he looked at her and he handed him to me and he goes you can pay the girl up front and i went okay so hey miss raylon took off what up front this little blonde headed blue eyed girl up there he had a little job as a cashier
Starting point is 00:18:00 i put him on the counter there and she looked there and she goes we're having a party at the grove tonight and i went i said you don't understand i'm making turkey calls out of these and she said you can come anyway that's a true story how long you been married i've been married 34 years it's a second marriage for mary and. We have no children. What do you mean a second marriage? Oh, you haven't been married to the same person twice, but you've been married. Oh, I see. I was married once before. Didn't work out. How long were you married the first time?
Starting point is 00:18:33 14 years on paper. That's a good chunk of time. Yeah. By then you knew it wasn't right. Oh, I knew it long before that. Yeah, that's an interesting way to put it, on paper. Yeah, that's a qualification that goes long before that. Yeah, that's an interesting way to put it on paper. Yeah. That's a qualification that goes a long way.
Starting point is 00:18:49 Yeah. So this guy asked you to make him a turkey call. Yeah. And you get your rubbers. You get some aluminum. I got some beer cans. You get some duct tape. I got some tin beer cans.
Starting point is 00:19:02 Okay, walk me through it. Cut them out. Walk me through it. Well, first you got to shape it. You got to decide. Everybody's mouth is different. That's one of the problems with turkey calls. Some people have very narrow palates. Some people have very high palates.
Starting point is 00:19:12 Some people have wide palates and low. So the mouth is huge. So I can look at somebody's face and have a pretty good idea, but I'll have them lean back and open their mouth and look at their palate because they tell me they're having trouble that gag at this some people have a short throat short palate hmm and that those people gag a whole lot more than the people that have what I call a normal palate so so you can eyeball someone's palate and then make a recommendation yeah yeah and so so then
Starting point is 00:19:41 you start trying to get that to fit so that that call becomes the roof of the mouth. And once you can seal that there and pass air through it, it's all about your jaw. It's all about how you move your jaw and how you use your lips to be able to call turkeys. But explain back in those days what you got together to make a call. Well, I started out with an adhesive. It was kind of like a contact cement that I would coat onto these aluminum frames. Well, yeah, aluminum out of beer cans. It was really tin.
Starting point is 00:20:18 And you would get that on there. Then you'd get the right stretch like you thought. You'd put it down on the frame. What part of the beer can? The lid? Sometimes the lid. The lid was usually too thick. But that had worked
Starting point is 00:20:33 because it helped separate mine a certain distance. So you use different stuff. But then I went to aluminum and then I built a die. I didn't have a punch press so I went to the die maker and said here's what I want here's the shape here's what I want and I want to feed the strip of aluminum through there and I just want to hit it with a sledgehammer because okay so we
Starting point is 00:20:58 still have it I mean it's it's still over display it's a it's got big legs and you fed it through there put the aluminum put it on there and tickled sledgehammer bam there's your piece bounced on the concrete and the cardboard you know and you get you get a piece a whole lot quicker than i could cut them out but the real secret was people in pennsylvania figured out how to make what's called a crown frame where the outside edges of the frame pinch the reed so So you stretch the reed, insert the frame, fold it over, then have a tab that helps seal it. So that became a lot more efficient and a lot better. That was a Pennsylvania innovation.
Starting point is 00:21:35 Yes. As far as I know, that's correct. So when you sold that first call, were you just off to the races then, or was it slow? You know, I charged him $20 you know and he was thrilled and that was 20 bucks in 19 probably 75 or so how many calls did you give him for 20 bucks one one mouth call wow wow yeah i wasn't gonna sit there and do all that i mean that was too much buck understood and he said i want you to i want you to make me more uh How many could you make in a day? Who asked that question?
Starting point is 00:22:06 Seth, I don't know. It was usually a night because I was working in the day. Yeah, yeah. And I'd get home sometimes 11 o'clock at night. I was in the restaurant business with my family. Okay. And so I might work two or three hours, and I might make six or ten. It took a while.
Starting point is 00:22:20 If I had the parts done. Yeah. If I had the – So would you go through and make all the parts and then and then have a night where you just went through and finished everything i ended up using double-sided sticky tape rather than a glue and that worked pretty good oh yeah so that would put it on one side of the frame peel it off put the latex in place and then seal it then stick to it gotcha is it safe to say that if you hadn't discovered making calls you'd have been restaurant
Starting point is 00:22:45 business for career no no i i didn't i didn't love the restaurant business it was too confining i just i just couldn't work in 12 14 16 hours a day six days a week most of the time and part of the seventh day i just it just was it didn't work for me what was the family restaurant we had five of them my grandfather my daddy's daddy immigrated at eight years old from greece in 1908 came through new orleans of course he was uneducated didn't know anything couldn't speak english and his mother the turks killed his daddy his mother lost their property to the turks and brought him over to the united States for a new life. New Orleans, restaurant business, all Greeks become restaurateurs.
Starting point is 00:23:31 And he learned how to bake and how to bus tables. And he was very smart. He ended up building quite a business. But he wasn't building Greek restaurants down there. Say it. He wasn't making Greek restaurants, was he? It all had Greek flares to it. Greek salads.
Starting point is 00:23:47 It was steak, steak houses, different. Everything had something very Greek oriented about it. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I sold my interest in the company.
Starting point is 00:23:57 I own stock in the, in the company family, five restaurants. And there were huge. Some of them were huge. One of them was 400 yards long had 13 banquet rooms had two restaurants inside it she's absolutely huge wow 350 employees is huge damn it's huge but uh i sold my stock back in 1988 and told daddy that i can't do it and because you
Starting point is 00:24:21 want to plow that money into your business. I didn't have any money, but I wanted to put my energy into business. Yeah. Yeah. Um, at what point did you know that you were just, that you had established yourself and you were going to be making calls the rest of your life? In 1990, I had a million dollars in sales and, um, the CPA told me I made money. I said, show it to me. He said, it's an inventory and it's in receivables. I said, and now you owe this much in taxes. I went, well, where does that come from? He said, I guess you go borrow that too.
Starting point is 00:24:58 Oh, I got you. How many people did you have at that point? Oh, probably 18 or so. When I sold the company, we had right at 200. Right shy of 200. What year did you sell Primo's Game Calls? 2006. Hey, folks.
Starting point is 00:25:21 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 high and titty there,
Starting point is 00:25:39 OnX is now in Canada. The great features that you love in OnX are available for your hunts this season. 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,
Starting point is 00:25:56 24K topo maps, waypoints, and tracking. That's right. We're always talking about OnX here on the MeatEater podcast. Now you, 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.
Starting point is 00:26:15 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. Welcome to the OnX Club, y'all. Yanni wants to ask you a question.
Starting point is 00:26:54 About voiceover. Yeah, man. We had a little content summit with a bunch of our creators just earlier this week and Steve talked about his approach to voiceover. And that was really a hallmark, I felt, of the truth videos was your narration.
Starting point is 00:27:13 Talk a little bit about that. Why did that end up being the way that you guys did those videos, where it seemed like you sort of recorded them, but there wasn't really too much story on camera. It was really your voice that then narrated and drove that story. Well, it's really hard to keep the camera running 24 seven, so to speak, and capture every moment and every word. And then back then when we were doing it, we didn't have the audio capabilities we have now. You didn't have the wireless mics. Right. So the mic was on the camera.
Starting point is 00:27:46 So you had to tell the story to bring the viewer into place somehow. So what would they do? They'd edit it. The editors would edit it on Avid edit systems the way they thought it ought to be. And then they would write what they thought needed to be said.
Starting point is 00:28:12 And then they would bring me in and I would watch it and look at their words and change it to my lingo, to my words. Because I became the voice. Man, I didn't realize, but we really just stole Will's system. That's kind of how it works. I feel like we owe you some sort of payment for having accidentally stole your methodology you owe me nothing uh you got you remain like a very staunch supporter of a bunch of conservation or i shouldn't say a bunch but i know you're heavily involved in conservation groups yeah who do you like to i I know you help out NWTF a lot. Who else do you get involved with? Well, there's so many out there, but those that are so connected to being able to
Starting point is 00:28:54 double and triple the money that they get through grants. Those are the ones that I'm right now most interested in. Help me understand that. So if you give Ducks Unlimited $100,000, there's a good chance they can turn that into $300,000 or $400,000. But I don't understand. They apply for grants through the federal government typically. To do matching campaigns? Mm-hmm. Matching in Dublin and Tripland.
Starting point is 00:29:22 Okay. Meaning if they're able to demonstrate citizen corporate sponsorship, that somehow can lead to more? Yes, it can. And so what I center in on, all of my interest goes toward habitat protection and restoration. So that's where you personally like to invest? That's where I personally try to put all of my energy. Like into the ground, on the ground. That's correct.
Starting point is 00:29:47 Yeah. Yeah. So I'm just now engineering a situation. I have got a set of Purdy shotguns. Purdy is a London-made side-by-side. That's the P-U-R-D-Y, right? P-U-R-D-E-Y. D-E-Y, okay.
Starting point is 00:30:05 Purdy shotguns. And so I have the only consecutive set serial number Purdy side-by-side hammer shotguns ever made. 410, 28, 20, 16, and 12. And so I've been collecting these for about, I don't know, almost 20 years. And I reserved, when I ordered my first one I
Starting point is 00:30:27 reserved all the serial numbers and so the guns cost somewhere through my through my years of buying them somewhere around a million to mm-hmm and to accumulate the collection to get the Yeah. And so I'm now giving those guns to conservation. And the Congressional Sportsman's Foundation, which a lot of people don't know about, is a fantastic organization that helps to protect all of our hunting and fishing rights, habitat restoration, habitat protection by state and federally. And they're out there fighting, making sure the states pass the right legislation, making sure the federal government passes the right legislation.
Starting point is 00:31:10 And so I chose them to head this project up. And so Rock Island is the great auctioneer of high-end guns. And they're going to auction off my guns. Can I tell you, that's how that pump gun out there we bought from Rock Island. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So they're going to auction the guns off and the money is going to be divided between certain
Starting point is 00:31:35 conservation organizations that protect or restore habitat. Are you guys fixing to auction them as a block to a single buyer? Because people don't want to break them up, right? I think that if you, right now we're about to make that decision for sure, but more than likely they're going to be sold as a set only, because if you buy a single gun, the set's not worth as much. What do you think it'll go for? You know, it depends. If you find the right guy who realizes that anything over the appraised value, and I'm not sure what they'll appraise for. They could appraise for a million. They could appraise for a million and a half. I'm not sure. You can't build them anymore. The 14 and 28 will never be built again.
Starting point is 00:32:16 So that person could come in there and say, well, look, anything over and above that, I get to write off because all this money is going to conservation yeah yeah so it might be two million five million ten million maybe stephen ranella will jump forward and do something with all that money that's under his hands i don't think he will i don't know i don't know that he will so anyway it's all about habitat it's about restoring i I love the grasslands and just to think about the world that I read about in your book in the Buffalo your unbelievable book I just couldn't put it down but the story of of all of that that was buffalo and the animals before them in the grasslands and the tall grass and the short grass and the prairie chickens and they were they were thick like mosquitoes and
Starting point is 00:33:03 and the fact that we've lost so much of that, we've got to keep that. That's the heartbeat of the United States. When's that auction going to happen? Probably December of 25. You've got to remind us when you do it. Okay. I'd love to. Maybe we can do a little thing where it follows along.
Starting point is 00:33:22 Sure. When that auction happens, it's like a pretty discreet period of time, right? It's not like open for bidding for months or something. Rock Island is the masters at that. And I'm not going to run their show. They know exactly how they're going to go about doing it. Yeah. If you remember, let us know.
Starting point is 00:33:36 It'd be fun to do a little something about that. Have you shot most of those guns? Oh yeah. Yeah. I've killed white-tailed deer, gauge buckshot you know rough grouse sharp tails you know you name it turkeys ducks i've shot them all that's cool that you used them actually and put them in the field i got a phone full of gorgeous pictures when you kill a mern's quail in arizona and you put that male merns right next to those hammers,
Starting point is 00:34:07 the hammers have pretty dragons on them. When the hammers fall, the dragon breathes fire. It's cool. So, Corey, talk about your experience, how you know Will. Well, let's see. I landed a job on an elk hunting ranch north of town here um back in 2014 and uh was offered to guide the next september and growing up always watched primos the truth big bulls one through 14 or whatever we were at that year and yeah was offered to guide will's uh friend that was coming
Starting point is 00:34:46 along mike ellig who used to own black gold archery sites i got to guide mike i think we got a nice bowl on day no you don't think you know he scored 363 he was an 8 by 10 i think i got one it was a beautiful bowl but then your guide had to do something the next day, and I was offered to take you out, which was kind of a dream come true, honestly. Oh, man, we had fun, didn't we? We did, yeah. I think we hunted that afternoon. Was he whining and moaning the whole time? You know.
Starting point is 00:35:17 Talking bad about everybody? We had a big bull on a ridge above you, and I tried backing up as far as I could and tried calling them in. And the bull had 40, 50 cows with him and never, never would leave his cows. And I remember after this, I think it was after the sun went down, it just,
Starting point is 00:35:34 you know, never didn't work out. The planets didn't align. As I like to say, you came back to me and you said, no, you should have done this instead. And,
Starting point is 00:35:41 you know, learn from your mistakes and definitely learn from, uh, those who have done it. Do you remember what I told you you should have done? It was something with a bugle. Like I, instead and you know learn from your mistakes and definitely learn from those we've done it remember what I told you you should have done there's something with a bugle like you grabbed the bugle from me it was still around my neck and you said you should have wailed on it like this because I think I might have been being a little too soft or some less aggressive I mean we were both
Starting point is 00:36:03 fired up yeah that it yeah didn't work out adrenaline was still rolling and then i remember we had a pretty solid hike back up to the truck after that yeah and that's your day with will primos well and then the next day we went out and by 8 30 in the morning had a nice six point down oh really yeah you guys got together yeah yeah it was pretty cool that's fun mary and i got to do the calling we backed up about 80 yards my wife is a really good elk caller and one time she called this elk up and my friend brad farish killed it and i was 150 yards above and i'm watching her i'm going i just shut up and let her do it and she was throwing rocks down the hill and doing all kind of make it all kind of
Starting point is 00:36:41 racket and and then she'd get on that dead gum uh that that open reed hyperlip single yeah yeah yeah what the heck is that and that elk came in there going crazy and brad shoots him at 10 yards he walls over there and falls dead i walk up to mary i said mary what did you say to him? And she said, well, I know what y'all are thinking. You know, there's like this thing, like this little rule for getting along with people socially. You don't talk about politics.
Starting point is 00:37:19 You don't talk about religion. You're pretty open about your spiritual life. Oh gosh. I love the lord i love i am i am i'm a believer in jesus christ he is my he's my rock he's my god um and there's just no way that wasn't going to be part of your public persona because it can't be separated i mean god knows i know you i mean you know what what lightning is? He knows I know better. But you live by your walk, you know,
Starting point is 00:37:49 and not everybody you meet is a Christian or wants to be or is inclined. That's fine. That's their choice. That's what God gave us was choice. But I'm good. Yeah. Yeah. Never any hesitation.
Starting point is 00:38:00 None. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What year was the first truth truth the first truth that he ever made 86 87 and when when you guys decided to make that was it like we're gonna see what happens or was it oh heck yeah all in just no let's see what happens we don't know what we're doing yeah yeah the equipment wasn't good we had a back we had areel. You had to set the thing down on the ground and get it going.
Starting point is 00:38:27 We had a wire and had a camera. The stuff wasn't in the camera. It was on another backpack. It weighed about 85 pounds to carry all the equipment, and you had to get to where you were going to go and set it down and get ready and hope the turkey was still around by the time or whatever. And then climbing a tree you know we could always just for what did you guys hire like professional camera guys no no no no no no we
Starting point is 00:38:52 hired hunters you've got to have a hunter behind that he's got to tell that story through that lens and only a hunter can do that music to seth sears yeah listen man this is like you're touching on a thing that we've that yannis and i have spent an incredible amount of time discussing is um and this is a real riddle i appreciate that you feel like you got the code cracked but i don't know i think that this might be one of those areas where you and i don't necessarily align okay you're wrong and I'm right, but that's okay. You can teach a hunter to be a cameraman, but you cannot teach a cameraman to be a hunter.
Starting point is 00:39:39 That has not necessarily been my finding. Okay. Okay. We agree on this. In the best case scenario, you have, in the best case scenario, you have a lifelong cameraman who's a lifelong
Starting point is 00:39:58 hunter and observer of wildlife. Everyone would agree. Okay. Everyone would agree. That's the best case scenario. Okay. Everyone would agree. Everyone would agree. That's the best case scenario. I have found examples of both. There are really good cameramen. The kind of cameraman you'd want to call a cinematographer. Who never can get used to animals.
Starting point is 00:40:24 They don't know how to behave around animals. They can't get used to animals. They don't know how to behave around animals. They can't get used to animals. But there are some individuals out there that I've worked with over the years, and I gotta say this, because they probably won't listen to this, but in case they do. Rick Smith. Chris Gill.
Starting point is 00:40:42 Mo Fallon. Garrett. Garrett Smith. Garrett Smith grew up on. Yeah. Yeah. But not like, not like we did. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:51 These are some examples. These are outliers. Perhaps these are examples of people who came to the, their world of, of, of cinematography being a DP director, photography, camera guy whatever they came to it
Starting point is 00:41:07 from a world of appreciation for like appreciation for the arts being very schooled in cinema history getting formally educated in camera work and like majoring in that stuff in college and after a short time in the field, got it. Okay. Like when you say, if I go, don't move, these guys don't move. Okay. Man. They at least understand. I have had to sit with, this is something I've literally done. I've literally sat with the camera guy before turkey hunting,
Starting point is 00:41:42 and I'm going to go like, I'm going to show you, I'm going to sit here and I'm going to show you what not moving looks like. Cause apparently, apparently there's different understandings of what not moving looks like. And I'd be like, this is not moving. That's not moving. You think not moving is this i get it not moving is right and it can be learned and i think but what at the same time you could grow up being a great hunter like okay or just let i don't want to say great you can grow up being an avid hunter because i want to be able to roll myself into this without claiming to be a great
Starting point is 00:42:28 hunter you can grow up being an avid hunter uh i still this is not a joke i would not know how to turn this camera on i honestly wouldn't know how to turn it on i probably wouldn't either yeah um i've done it but i probably wouldn't know I took when I was in regular college I took black and white photography one black and white photography two and struggled I know how to wield the English language
Starting point is 00:42:57 I do not know how to work with images right so in answer to all that bottom line line, we had a trademark. This ain't Hollywood. So we're not trying to win a cinematography award. We're trying to share with the public what happens in the problem you have with people who aren't hunters is they can't anticipate. Yes. And if they can't anticipate, they're going can't anticipate they're gonna miss something that really needed to be seen by the viewer but okay it's good we're good no we're good but but i don't
Starting point is 00:43:32 want to i don't want you to think by me using the term cinematography i don't want you to think that i'm talking about people who are trying to arts stuff up if you talk to these guys they don't talk about um they're not like oh it's not beautiful it's not they talk about coverage right like you could be trained in in photography trained as a camera guy whatever that that doesn't mean that you're like focused on um that you're focused on that you think you're going to set everything up with the setting sun and the fog, right? It's like coverage. Did you get coverage?
Starting point is 00:44:10 Meaning, can you fill the scene out, right? And they have a people, like these guys with the right training and right experience, they understand, they can picture, you're going to get out of your truck, you're going to walk in the dark, you're going to kind of arrive at a place, you're going to hear a gobble, right? You're going to find where to set up, you're going to get set up, you're going to not like it, you're going to get set up again, you're going to get your stuff out, you're going to, right? And every little single part of that that they got a part of it when you're watching something that's that's not great maybe you got like the lights coming on when you open the truck door and the next thing there's a guy sitting on a tree you missed a bunch yeah
Starting point is 00:44:58 because you didn't get coverage yeah and that knowledge of coverage i just don't want to be hacking on i don't want to be hacking on. I don't want to be hacking on. I get it. I get it. I once was listening to an interview with Ralph Stanley, the bluegrass musician. He won't play with college kids. He says college kids don't understand bluegrass.
Starting point is 00:45:17 He doesn't want to play with college kids or something to that effect. And I'm like, you know, that's funny hacking on college kids. But there's some pretty good college kid camera guys out there. Oh, yeah? Yeah, I get you. I do agree with you. Take that, Will Primos. Anticipation.
Starting point is 00:45:32 I film with Steve a bunch in the field, and I'm to the point now where something changes with him where I'm like, okay, I need to get ready to get some sort of shot here. There's also a part he didn't mention. Like, okay, I need to get ready to get some sort of shot here. You know? Yeah. Well, there's also a part he didn't mention is that I have to look at him to see if that was actually a gobble. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:53 So Brad Ferris was the master at being able to anticipate and get over the shoulder stuff. Yeah. Absolutely magical. I like your word choice anticipate yeah but but one time the outdoor channel we were the rated number one on the outdoor channel and they came to see us they came all the entourage about four of them came to our office and sat down and said okay y'all got to change some things let's look at this footage look so that right here you've got to change that airplane has no business being in your footage here what airplane this airplane flew oh just some random airplane
Starting point is 00:46:32 yeah okay and the gobbler was gobbled and got shot while the airplane was flying over and then we looked at him we go just reshoot it and get some other ambient sound and edit the airplane out okay and look i don't think we're going to be number one much longer we're going to keep doing what we do because of the feedback we get from the public that says thank you thank you for not reenacting scenes gotcha you know and the first time I saw a guy kill an elk on video that was reenacted, he walked up with the camera here, the elk in the middle and the guy walking up and finding the elk. You didn't like that.
Starting point is 00:47:18 That's BS. They all knew it was there. It wasn't original. We won't, you don't do that. You get behind the guy and you, you, you get what you get. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:30 You, you, you fill it up with what really happened. I understand. And if you fall down, you show it and you get to laugh. Yeah. Which I've done, which we've, you're going down a steep embankment and end up with your self in the water and all messed up and, know you show it it's fun yeah yeah hey what do you think makes a good hunter what makes a good hunter yeah not nothing to do with camera guys but what do you think makes a good hunter oh somebody that realizes what patience is and giving things time to happen not trying to force it yeah yeah do you do you you subscribe to that turkey hunting philosophy,
Starting point is 00:48:06 if you think you ought to do something, don't? That's 50% of the time. That's what you should do. But 50% of the time you do do it. Yeah, you do it anyway. But you like the idea that you should at least double, like, question. Yes. Question the impulse.
Starting point is 00:48:25 Yes, sir. 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 a high and titty there, OnX is now in Canada.
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Starting point is 00:49:23 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. Welcome to the OnX Club, y'all. What's your favorite thing?
Starting point is 00:50:01 You know, is turkeys your favorite? I always think of you as the, I imagine you like turkeys the most. Turkeys and elk, I'm glad they don't come at the same time of year. But in this stage of my life, upland hunting, that's what got me into the shooting of sporting clays. And I wanted to get better at shooting upland birds. There were certain crossers that I would not shoot. Will Primo's, if that dove or that duck was coming left to right, because of the way the wind had to set up and the way the wind was on the blind or whatever, I learned not to shoot at them.
Starting point is 00:50:34 I wasn't going to hit them. Yeah, well, what the hell? You still got to shoot. You know, I mean, 30, 40, 50 yards. Like you just sit the shot out? I mean, I just wasn't going to shoot at them. I wasn't going to hit them i was i wasn't gonna hit him and so i i went i thought of shooting sport and clays because i wanted to go to these people who knew how to shoot this stuff and teach me you know yeah this is good can we this is a
Starting point is 00:50:55 good chance to talk about sure so kind of the reason i've i've always wanted to have you on um and we've talked about having you on over the years for various things but what what allowed it to happen now what the reason you're sitting here is you sent me an email about um a book you worked on i'm sorry i'm not uh can you pronounce your your partners your buddy's name anthony matterice matterice so will send me an email about a book he's got um that's available now, Straight Shooting for Hunters, A Champion's Guide to Using Shotguns in the Field.
Starting point is 00:51:30 And it's by Will and Anthony Matariz. And the significance of that is here we have a lifelong hunter who knows the challenges of being in the field, knows the challenges of making real shots in the field on stuff that you've got to not just nick but kill. Yep. And Anthony is a competitive shooter. And a hardcore hunter.
Starting point is 00:51:53 Also hardcore. He lives to duck hunt. Okay. So the premise of the book is to take technical shooting expertise and the do's and don'ts of shooting and apply it in real world scenarios so that when you sit there like you're saying and the wind's blowing left to right and the birds coming right to left that doesn't mean that you got to not shoot yeah the nuances of the game of sporting clays is incredible by by sporting clays i mean shooting stuff that's flying through the air okay for instance I'm behind a setter a pointer German short hair their own point and
Starting point is 00:52:31 I'm moving up to the side of the dogs the dogs got a view of me where you hold that gun where that gun starts from because you're gonna be low gun you're gonna have to mount that gun and within where your eyes are, your eyes can come back to focus 100,000 times. I forget what the exact number is, but let's just use 100,000 times faster than your eyes can go out to focus. Hold on. Keep back up. Say that again.
Starting point is 00:52:57 Your eyes. Corinne brought this up. I'm on a thing. I'm on a kick in life where when someone tells me something I don't understand, instead of going, uh-huh. That's great. I go like, no, I don't understand. And that doesn't mean they need to re-explain it okay so but it allows room for explanation the quail are right here at this door which is approximately 10 feet away from me okay and that dog's pointing right there well rather than look
Starting point is 00:53:20 right there i want to look over and beyond at about 50 yards in in soft focus so you know like you know the bird's there because the dog's telling you and instead of staring through the brush like you're going to see it here so the quail could be here here here here it could be anywhere because the dog's got the scent and you don't know if they've run off and stopped again or what you don't know exactly where they are but you know about so don't try to look and see the quail and see where they're going to come from look over them and beyond them say 50 yards well if you're not looking how you ever going to just hold them right out of the bushes all right smarty so your eyes come back to focus so much faster than out to focus so if i'm looking in soft focus and the quail rise,
Starting point is 00:54:07 my eyes come back and see the flash. My eyes come back and grab the flash. Now I don't look at the quail. I look at his beak. I look at his head. I look at you can, some, some guys are really good at being able to shoot only male bob whites rather
Starting point is 00:54:22 than just 50, 50 because they're looking that intensely and they pick out that bird and then your hands your eyes tell your brain where your hands go it's no different than than baseball you don't look at the bat you look at the ball and that's all you look at. When you're throwing a football. Yeah, that's a good point, man. Yeah, when you're throwing a football and the guy's running, you're not looking at the ball.
Starting point is 00:54:51 You're looking at the runner, and you're deciding how fast you've got to throw it, how far you've got to throw it, at what angle you've got to throw it, so it will drop into the receiver's hands. Your brain calculates all that. And through repetition and practice, which is what Sporting Clays gives you, you learn to be able to execute that subconsciously. And so you become subconscious when that quail is down there, your eyes look out that you're ready and you move and shoot. And you're much more effective. And there's different techniques. Let's just say it's dove hunting or duck hunting. You've got what's called swing through.
Starting point is 00:55:25 And here's kind of you start behind the bird and you move past the bird. Your brain, you match speeds with the bird. Then you move your gun slightly ahead to the lead and your brain tells you that's it. You pull the trigger. That's technique one. Yeah, that's one. Yeah. And then you've got maintained lead because of how far it was, whatever.
Starting point is 00:55:49 You mount in front of the target, match speeds with the target, and then pull the trigger. That's my technique. Is that bad? Not necessarily. But if you can learn all three techniques, if you can learn how to swing through, how to maintain lead, and how to mount on the bird and stretch it, all three, you will be a much better shot because they all come at different times that you should apply, depending on distance, angle, and speed. So how far it is, how fast it is,
Starting point is 00:56:16 and the angle. Is it a quarter? Is it straight away? Is it going straight up? What is it? So, I mean, I've gotten crazy about this game. Anthony Matariz helped me tremendously. I went up there and took lessons as part of this book. I took lessons from him. And Kerry Luft, our editor, stood behind me and videoed everything that was
Starting point is 00:56:35 said. I've got the videos of Anthony saying, Will, you don't trust yourself. Will, you're not, look, you're stepping up to the plate and you've gone to the prom and you've got a date. She's what you got. You know, you ain't going to find another one. And it's just amazing the analogies that he used to be able to help me understand how to properly move a shotgun. But I've made friends with Gavin Miles from Arizona and his wife, Karen, both world champions. Bill McGuire from Tennessee, world champion. I mean, these guys are so much fun and they're so great and they're all very accomplished.
Starting point is 00:57:12 And when I went to Anthony, he wrote a book called Straight Shooting, $100 coffee table book. And I went to him and said, would you sign my book? And he said, Will, I'll be glad to sign your book. I went, how does he know my name? Turns out he's a duck hunter and all he uses is the winch. Oh, really? Yeah. So he and his brother are big winch callers.
Starting point is 00:57:32 They live on Delaware Bay on the river there, and they hunt every day. They're crazy. And so he called me the next day. I said, how did he get my number? You know, kind of deal. He actually emailed me and said, how did he get my email? You know, kind of deal. He actually emailed me and said, how'd he get my email? And he says, call me sometime. I emailed him back.
Starting point is 00:57:49 I said, is now a good time? He said, sure. I called him. He said, let's write a book together. I said, okay, what are we going to write a book about? He goes, about you learning how to shoot. You know that eye trick? That's great.
Starting point is 00:58:03 I never heard that eye trick with birds like i am absolutely try dissecting the sagebrush or whatever being like i'm gonna see that i'm gonna see look for that sucker what are your eyes doing in the duck blind oh well it depends on whether you're the one who's controlling the blind or not if you are not the caller that's gonna call the shots you're not doing the calling you're looking down hopefully you're seeing the reflection in the water maybe. You're watching the caller. You're hiding. That's the worst thing waterfowlers do is they don't hide.
Starting point is 00:58:34 And the ducks see something they don't like, maybe circle one more time, whatever. You know, you got to hide. So you're content to miss the show if you're not the caller. Oh, you have to be if you want to get good shots. Okay. Because you'll screw up putting your big old white face out there. We wear masks and stuff like that, but they see movement. It's best to have something over you.
Starting point is 00:58:55 So when you go to make the shot on a mallard, you're looking at a part of the mallard, right? Oh, yeah. It depends on the shot. If he's coming in the decoys i'm i'm aiming at his feet okay because he's coming down if he's lent and now he's rising you know i'm i'm just mounting right on the duck and moving my gun slightly above his head just like maybe an inch trying to shoot him right you know just as he moves it depends on the state whether it's a teal that's real fast and rising. If the duck's crossing, it depends on the speed.
Starting point is 00:59:29 George Digweed is the 28-time world champion from England. He's won the world champion. Anthony's won everything. George has won the world, especially in Hungary and in dubai and all over the place uh and i just went to england and took lessons shot a day with george digweed and the guys he he doesn't know what he does he's so good he's incredible he he's incredible he he primarily uses swing through he starts behind the bird gets perfectly on line and comes through the bird um and for 95 percent of his shots but there's just so wonderful studying this and understanding but
Starting point is 01:00:13 writing that book you know with with with carrie and anthony was incredible because i have now i now don't have any excuses that's the deal, yeah, because now you wrote a book about it. Yeah. It's going to be embarrassing when you miss. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I want to tell you the worst shot for me.
Starting point is 01:00:32 Maybe you can tell me what the problem is. Docs come in, you know, whatever. They're coming in decoys. Everybody shoots. And then you get the one that's like, he's leaving. He's going up. He's going right or left., he's going up, he's going right or left, and he's going over your shoulder.
Starting point is 01:00:53 So from my perspective, he's going, okay? That's hard. And then sometimes maybe he's already been hit a little bit too, so you especially want to get him. Here's the duck. Okay, go in this. Mount right behind him and follow his line and when the gun passes his beak pull the trigger the speed of the gun will give you the lead mount on the duck come right through him that gives you the line and move right then and look at something on there
Starting point is 01:01:19 look at his beak look at his feet do something don't look at the duck and do not look at the gun it's just like when you hit a baseball and do not look at the gun it's just like when you hit a baseball you're not looking at your bead at all no no now the only time you would do that the only time you would do that is if a low-flying bird is coming in and he's close to the ground your gun your brain will confuse the dark color of the, you see the gun in your periphery. I'm going to use this analogy. It's like, it's like merging into traffic. You're not looking at your hood. You're looking at the traffic. And so you're timing your speed of your vehicle to either merge in front of a car or right behind it. That's what you're doing
Starting point is 01:02:04 with a shotgun. You're taking your gun and you're matching speeds with the bird and then slightly moving the head to pull the trigger. That gives you the lead. All these analogies you're using, like when you throw a ball, you don't look at your arm. When you're driving your car, you don't look at your car. Right? No, listen, when I got to shoot a little bit with an instructor in Latvia
Starting point is 01:02:23 a couple years ago, anytime a little bit with an instructor in Latvia a couple years ago, anytime I've shot with an instructor, and the first thing I'll tell him is, well, I'm not that good because I'm left-eyed dominant and I shoot right-handed. And this guy, he looked at me and goes, oh. So I was like, well, so sometimes I like to close my left eye. It helps me line everything up. And he goes, oh, do you play basketball at all? I go, yeah, decent shot. He goes, do you close one eye when you shoot your basketball i'm like no you know no i just that's such a funny point yeah yeah so very very few people are a hundred percent
Starting point is 01:02:58 left or right eye dominant and there's a there's a test to do that and we show it in the book so not this one so if i'm looking at you you know no not that that only shows you which is okay because this is a audio thing there's a video component which you can find what's our what's our on the uh meat eater podcast network on youtube make sure you hit subscribe there's also from the ever since i was a little boy i want to tell what yanni did when i did like my dad would say as probably 90 of dads in america would say to their kid if this question comes up they'd go when they're trying to ascertain if their kid is right or left eye dominant they go like okay aim your thumb at me close your eye and aim your thumb at me right and i close my right eye and i aim my and i take my left eye and aim my thumb at will and then they go left
Starting point is 01:03:57 eye dominant left eye dominant yanni did uh he made a little he put his hands together and made a little diamond between his What do you call that the crook your thumb out though? That is like a like a An arrow pointing up. Yeah, make the make it inverted I love make it as small as you can look tighten her down down down to you got a little aperture there and Then aim that someone yeah That tells you which are you're most most likely to use okay but the real test is like like like right now i am going to point at your right eye
Starting point is 01:04:32 okay okay and i want you to look and see where my finger is and lined up on my eyes where is it oh huh what where is it where is where is where is my finger in relation to my eyes? On your right eye. Okay. Where is it? On your nose. Will's kind of, can you imagine Will yelling at you? As you begin, that came very naturally. If you told me to get off his land, I'd probably get off his land.
Starting point is 01:05:04 So what you're doing is you're establishing how much dominance. Do it to me because I don't understand. Do the same thing to me. I'm trying to understand what he's seeing. Okay, so I'm going to point. You're trying to tell me. You're trying to tell me
Starting point is 01:05:14 which one of my eyes is dominant. But I got both open. Oh, yeah. You're supposed to. Okay, go ahead. I am too. So I'm going to point my finger at your right eye.
Starting point is 01:05:22 Where does my finger line up on my face? A little bit that way of center. What's that way? To the left, Steve? Right eye. Will's right eye. I'm looking at you dead on with both my eyes.
Starting point is 01:05:35 It's on the bridge of your nose. My finger should be lined up with my right eye. It's not. Right there. It's dead nuts on the bridge of your nose okay now now you got two you got two left eyes now now i'm pointing my finger with both eyes with my left hand now it sits that way so what you're doing you end up you end up establishing somebody can be cross-eyed dominant and they get their butt if So if it's on the middle of your bridge, you're seeing with both your eyes. So that can be very hard for a shooter because the brain doesn't know which eye to tell the
Starting point is 01:06:14 hands where to go. So when you're dominant, you can be 80% dominant, 90% dominant. I see. So it's very important to establish that. So you should establish that. And one of the things you could do, if you wanted to, you could put a dot over your glasses. We talk about that in the book. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:06:32 To barely obscure your dominant eye a little bit. Yeah, I've done that. Yeah, so that it makes your other eye, your said left eye, your left eye is dominant. Can we establish like a very basic thing? This is true, right? When you're wing shooting, there's no reason to be closing any eyes. Well, I was going on that,
Starting point is 01:06:57 and we got distracted a little bit. So if the bird is low to the ground and coming in close, coming in right at you, the brain can confuse the barrel. You're seeing the barrel like the hood of your car. It's in your periphery. You don't really see it, but your brain is going, well, and you think you're on the target and you miss. Well, that's a spot shot. That's a spot on aim shot. You point it like a rifle. So for a coming straight at you, a lot of times in
Starting point is 01:07:24 sporting clays, I will shut my left eye because I want to make sure my gun's pointing right at that. There's no lead involved. Got it. Then you're aiming it like you're shooting a turkey. That's right. So there are instances, and Anthony talks about it in his book, Straight Shooting. He was a young guy. He was doing really well. He was down in Florida shooting in, Straight Shooting. He was a young guy. He was doing really well. He was down in Florida shooting in a major tournament. And I believe he shot, he tied for sixth. But he was winning, and he got to the station with that low-incoming bird.
Starting point is 01:07:55 And Dan Carlisle was an Olympic champion, bunker trap and other disciplines. And he taught Anthony never to close the eye. And Anthony went back. He was tearful. I believe he was like 18 years old. He was tearful. He was going to win this tournament. And he tied for sixth. He went home and thought about it, thought about it, went back to his hotel, thought about it, thought about it. And the next day he shot a hundred straight. He figured out that he needed to squint an eye or close it a little bit on these incoming straight birds to be positive where his brain was being told his gun was pointing. Hmm.
Starting point is 01:08:34 So there are disciplines and nuances within the game for different stuff. Just like you said, that's the way I shoot. You shoot maintain lead. If you would mount on the bird on some of those and barely move in front of him, it gives you the line. You're not when you mount online, you're taking out the fact that I'm too low or too high. You start right behind the bird and move straight through. So you're in line with the flight of the bird. And that takes out 50 percent of your error over and under.
Starting point is 01:09:03 But Steve, that sounds exactly like what you've told me in the past when you've taken me out. You're like, imagine a paintbrush and you're painting beyond the bird. I don't think you told me to keep an eye on the dot. You're like, you're going beyond the bird in front of it from the beak, and that's where you're shooting
Starting point is 01:09:22 because the time that, you know. Okay, so there's a lot of things in life from the beak and that's where you're shooting because the time that you know okay so yeah there's a lot of things in life where we tell people to do the thing and you find then you catch yourself not but yeah like in my you know and then in the heat of the moment or whatever you just wind up not doing there's certain things you don't do you know but i i've done enough where i can try different not as disciplined as you are but i've done enough where I can try different, not as disciplined as you are, but I've done enough shooting where I know that in some instances this, in some instances that, but you're talking about a very,
Starting point is 01:09:53 you're talking about really major shifts in strategy based on situations, and I think most shooters are not consciously. Yeah, thinking about it. Not consciously going, I'm going to use this method now, I'm going to use that method on that shot, I'm going to use this method now. I'm going to use that method on that shot. I'm going to use that method on that shot. That brings you to understanding gun fit. So gun fit is not the number one thing.
Starting point is 01:10:16 But once you get to shooting a little bit, gun fit is major important. Because when you mount that gun, when you mount that gun, I should be pointing at what I'm aiming at. So when I'm helping somebody, I'll let them hit the gun, show me it's unloaded, then I have them mount it and point it at my right eye. And I can look down and see exactly where their eye is looking so I can tell if there's too much, not enough comb height, the comb height's too low, it's too high, the pitch is wrong. And
Starting point is 01:10:46 women are different than men. They're built different. So the heel to toe of the butt plate and how it's angled can hurt. And it also, if a gun hurts you, it doesn't fit you. If it hurts your face or your shoulder, it probably doesn't fit you. And everybody, most everybody, shoots too hot of shells. They shoot way too much. Hotter's not better? No. No. News to me.
Starting point is 01:11:13 I can show you right now, George Digweed shooting clays at 130 yards with not too hot a shelf. I can't even picture that. Did you see the video? You're kind of like lobbing it in there, man. You're holding for drop. Yeah, he is doing that too, but it's incredible. Are you ever holding for drop on ducks? Only if they're 75, 80 yards or further.
Starting point is 01:11:39 Okay. You shoot slightly up. So that's not a thing. No, you don't shoot out on that far. Yeah. You don't shoot out on that far. No. Here's one thing a thing. No, you don't shoot at them that far. Yeah, you don't shoot at them that far. Here's one thing I'd like to ask you. A lot of times I've heard
Starting point is 01:11:49 from waterfowlers that a good way to know if the duck is close enough to shoot at is when you can see their eye. Yeah. You've heard that? That's really close. That's good. That's good. That's good. But I mean, is that mandatory? Or do you feel like, oh no, I could easily shoot when I can't make out the duck's eyes?
Starting point is 01:12:07 Oh yeah. You can see the color of the head. You can just, mallards are great because you can see the green head from the hen. You've got something to focus on. But typically you learn like bow hunting. Before range finders got so easy to use and so forth, if I can look at that tree and I can see the distinguishing mark bark on that tree with my 2020 vision, 2015 vision, when, if I can see that, I know that that tree is 35 yards or closer. Hmm. That's a good little trick.
Starting point is 01:12:38 Yeah. But you've got to know your eyes to be able to do that. That's a great trick. And here's, here's, here's a perfect example to kind of help you put some of this lead and so forth. Let's say that bird's doing that. Okay, he's flying pretty fast and he's... I'm just shooting as a way to say goodbye. 30 yards high.
Starting point is 01:12:55 Okay. So what you do is... I'm ushering him out. Here comes the bird over your head. You mount right behind him. And when you move straight down the line, your hands, your gun will hide the bird. But what you're doing is if the bird's flying at 20 miles an hour, you want to move your gun at 21 or 22 miles an hour. So you combine.
Starting point is 01:13:19 And when you combine, you keep moving your gun and you bend at the waist and you pull the trigger and he will crumple when you pull that trigger are you already pulling the second shot no okay you're not like because he knows he's gonna hit it no this is not i don't know if this is a, this isn't, uh, this isn't, this isn't a wing shooting question, but, uh, in your mind,
Starting point is 01:13:49 what's a far away Turkey? What's a far shot? 40 yards. Okay. I won't shoot one past 40. Okay. Just because it's not the game, right?
Starting point is 01:13:59 And it's not the game and it's not fair. There's too many little things that can go wrong. Okay. Uh, but it might be 45, but I misjudged the distance. Really? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:14:08 I shoot TSS. Yeah. I shoot a 20 gauge youth 1187 with a silencer. What do you use for, you use an optic or you just shoot? So because the silencer is a big can, I had to put a,
Starting point is 01:14:24 I put a Bushnell hologram kind of sight. It's kind of weird. No matter where your head is, as long as the dot's on there, it kills it. Dude, I was into those. Well, no, I wasn't. I was using those for my kids, the red dots. Okay. I was putting red dots on a break open 410.
Starting point is 01:14:41 Okay. Because it's just easy to explain to a kid. Yeah. I shot red dots last spring on turkeys. I'm done. I'm a bead guy on turkeys. If I didn't have my silent shirt, it's beads.
Starting point is 01:14:55 I'm done with that crap. Yeah. It's fun, but it's just, it's just another thing to think about, man. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:14:59 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's another thing to think about. Shoot a shotgun, you know, and I've gone to the silencer because of my ears. Sure.
Starting point is 01:15:06 I noticed you got the hearing aid. I got hearing aids. Do you think you blew your ears out of your head over the years? Look, I was a marksmanship instructor in the Air Force. I taught people how to shoot M-16s and 38s and 45s. So if they got shot down in airplanes, they could protect themselves. Yeah. And they didn't tell us to protect their ears.
Starting point is 01:15:23 They gave us some earmuffs in Lackland where I trained, but they didn't tell us we had to use them. And then I shot skeet. I was the Mississippi State junior skeet champion in 1964 at 12 years old. Nobody entered but me, and I won by default. I never forget my locutor cup. I'm standing up. I won.
Starting point is 01:15:45 Isn't that something? But I didn't wear hearing protection. So now I've got, you know, I've got hearing aids. And I got high frequency back. I can hear high frequency. I can talk to a child now, whereas I couldn't for a long time. And, you know. Did it bring the gobbles back?
Starting point is 01:16:01 Yeah, for a long way. You know, Grace started with it. She came to see me. Oh, sure, dude. She's a dear, precious friend of mine. Oh, yeah. And Grace is meeting with me, and she looks at my chart, and she says, Will,
Starting point is 01:16:12 you need to be wearing hearing aids. I said, I don't really want to wear hearing aids. I'd do fine without them. She said, Will, the first thing that somebody who's lost the kind of hearing that you've lost is going to get is dementia. Your brain quits using that part of the brain. And somebody who's lost the kind of hearing that you've lost is gonna get is dementia your brain quits using the that part of the brain and so i said okay i'm in so she sent a lady who calls on
Starting point is 01:16:33 you to your house i got these hearing aids i'm learning to use them i walked outside one morning it's it's just barely getting light it's still dark then a winter oak tree is birds singing up there i went holy crud i've never heard that bird before. That is incredible. I went back inside, got my binoculars. I went to see what bird it was. Bird wasn't there. I'm standing there.
Starting point is 01:16:52 Start singing again. I run in the backyard. There it is. Put my binoculars up. Here's a robin. I ain't heard a robin sing in 25 years. I'm headed that way. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:17:04 You will not regret it well the the gobbles are getting hard i always talk about this all the time but like my kids there's one i'm like no it's not shut up i mean just like seth and i have fish shacks next to each other i'll yell something over that seth and he'll yell back i'll be like now look at my kid he said this like i don't know what you tell what he said look when i'm sitting at the camera man i mean what did he say yeah yeah that's what he said what'd you say what'd you tell now i can hear what they say i i got these here and they're they're they're incredible or even in the boat my daughter will be in the boat and it's that little bit of background noise of the
Starting point is 01:17:45 motor running. Not even bad. She'll be looking out the front of the boat, talking. Everybody in the boat. I'm like, what's she talking about? I'm like, Rose, you got to turn around and look at me or come back here, but I can't hear you from one end of this 18-foot boat to the other. Well, it's a pretty good test that I can hear everything you say in this room because that
Starting point is 01:18:02 microphone is in front of your lips, and I cannot read your lips. Reading lips is a big deal when you start losing your hearing. Yeah. Hey, folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. And boy, my goodness, do we hear from the Canadians
Starting point is 01:18:17 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.
Starting point is 01:18:39 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 you were always talking about uh we're always talking about on x here on the meat eater podcast now you um you guys in the great white north can 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 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
Starting point is 01:19:09 to exclusive pricing on products and services hand picked 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 on x out if you visit
Starting point is 01:19:29 on x maps.com slash meet on x maps.com slash meet welcome to the to the on x club y'all i try so hard not i I really try to enforce the hearing aid stuff of my kid my kid had these on the 4th of July we had to buy all the fireworks you know and my kid had these kind of like souped up
Starting point is 01:19:58 snappets that came in this plastic thing and he decided to try to open that package with his teeth that had his ears ringing oh blood lips all bloody because he bit into one of them snapped it snapped a couple of them because then it detonated its neighbor and um he's like my ears my ears and i'm like damn it man now he's gonna be like me and a half deaf you know um and i had the we keep teasing my wife about this because uh she had probably the best mom quote of all time she says she's all mad and uh so the kids always tease her and i do
Starting point is 01:20:31 too but she goes that's why fireworks should be for professionals true but can we're gonna bring in a professional to light this black cat the professionals will be here at nine to throw our snap pops that sounds horrible uh anyhow i don't yeah we were so stupid i mean listen i never not that i wasn't aware of what they were sitting in duck blinds we didn't hunt out of blinds but duck hunting as kids hunker down make it yeah we make blinds whatever duck hunting including like belly crawling up on ducks in a pond and give them the old one two three with your buddy's shotgun like like three inches from the side of your face i would people didn't even bring they didn't even
Starting point is 01:21:27 leave hearing protection in the truck like you simply did not own it you gotta own it like i don't when i i don't mean own it like how people use it now like you gotta own that you know it's your responsibility i mean own it like they didn't possess I got you and it was just a part of the deal that some guy would light one off next to your head it's just like there's that old feeling I know somebody who wanted to be funny and he had a few too many beers and he had a stick of dynamite and they were trying to make it blow up in the air and he held it. The fuse got just the right length
Starting point is 01:22:07 and it went off right there. You got to see his hand, his ear. It gives me a sickening feeling now thinking of all that time, all those times when I would just be like, for two days, knowing someone touched one off next to your head. Yeah, but look, the foam earplugs are inexpensive.
Starting point is 01:22:27 They usually give them away at gun ranges. And if you know how to use them and you squash them down and put them in your ears and then hold it in there until they swell up, that helps tremendously. That's all Anthony uses. Really? That's it? Grace Sturdivant makes fantastic. And he just uses the old foamies.
Starting point is 01:22:43 Yeah, the old foamies, yeah. Better than nothing. And I'll tell you what, when you're young, you can't picture it. If someone had told me, oh, later you'll have hearing problems. And I don't even have real hearing. I have kind of hearing problems. You can't hear bugles like the guy next to you can. And the worst is not hearing gobbles.
Starting point is 01:23:01 I have to look. When I'm hunting with Seth, I just have to look. Like, will crow call or whatever? Well, I just have to look, like we'll crow call whatever, in my case, blue jay crawl. You know how. We'll make a noise. We'll make a loud, disruptive noise. And I'll have to look, I'll listen, but I'm also
Starting point is 01:23:15 looking at Seth to see if he raises his eyebrows or some indication that something reported. Like an alcoholic, the first step is admitting you have a problem. You have a problem. Uh-huh. You have a problem. With crow calling. Yeah, crow calls and hearing protection.
Starting point is 01:23:32 Yeah, that's my two primary problems. You and I are both big fans of... Oh, Jeremiah Johnson. No better cinematography, no better... There's that word. Yes. You think that was a hunter? Well, let me ask you this. You think a hunter, you think a hunter shot that movie or a camera guy? I think it was a camera guy. Hey, well, can you get a little closer to your
Starting point is 01:23:53 microphone, please? I'm sorry. I think it was a camera guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Will brought me a gift. Um, the position of this suggests that you're trying to take credit for writing Jeremiah Johnson, but it's just your email address up top. That's correct. It's the entire script for Jeremiah Johnson. So the VO, there's a little VO, there's a narrator that has a couple lines in there, up top and at the end. Yep. Discreet.
Starting point is 01:24:23 And then it's every word and then including the parts where he can't tell what anybody's saying. Well, the reason... Not that he can't tell, but it's like, it's one of those things
Starting point is 01:24:33 where people debate what's said. Yeah, so what inspired me was when Dale Gue has come up on the Indians after the Mormons buried him in the sand and he got dug out. You know, not the Mormons. Twert Mormons. Twert Mormons buried him in the sand and he got dug out. Not the Mormons.
Starting point is 01:24:45 Twent Mormons. Twent Mormons. But anyway, he finally gets there and he goes in there to kill him. He starts screaming as he's going in to kill him. And I'm listening, listening. I've listened to it thousands of times. What is he saying?
Starting point is 01:25:00 With the hearing aid? Everything. I just can't understand what he's saying. So I went and researched and found finally and you can read what Dale Giewitz said. I will,
Starting point is 01:25:10 but I want to, did you, once you found out what it was, did you then watch? Yes. Okay. And you're convinced
Starting point is 01:25:17 that this is what he says? Yes. Okay. Now it made sense. It's kind of like a song that you can't really understand, but once you read the lyrics and listen to it sung,
Starting point is 01:25:25 oh, that's what he's saying. In case there's any idiots out here, in the listening public, there's a movie called Jeremiah Johnson. It was directed by Sidney Pollack. It's set 1836. So what?
Starting point is 01:25:40 The movie is set in... I believe it's set in like 1860. Was it that late? No, he was coming out of the... Spanish-American War. Yes, that's later. 63. No, not 63.
Starting point is 01:25:54 Somewhere in there. Okay. Robert Redford plays the character Jeremiah Johnson. He's coming from war. He's coming from the Spanish-American War. Not the Spanish-American War. Mexican-American War. He's coming from war. He's coming from the Spanish-American War. Not the Spanish-American War. Mexican-American War. He's probably late 1840s. No, I don't think it's that late.
Starting point is 01:26:10 Yeah, it is, man. He just missed the fur era. Yeah. Type that up, Randall. Dr. Randall. You know Randall's got a PhD. In what? History. Alright. Not turkey call. Alright. That's all I got. So, he's going to apply.
Starting point is 01:26:26 Watch. You're going to see a PhD historian apply his training, and he's going to tell us what year that war ended. Watch. He'll find it. Go for it, Randall. I got to double check all these sources. That's true.
Starting point is 01:26:37 He's going back to the primary source work. Okay. Jeremiah Johnson is the Mexican-American. What the hell's the name of the war, Randall? Mexican-American. Following the Mexican-American War, he wants to go and be a mountain man, but he arrives and he arrives in the Northern Rockies and the heyday's over. The beaver trade is wound down. He just wants to be largely left alone.
Starting point is 01:27:08 He encounters a number of these great characters. He sort of acts very accidentally against his better judgment. Starts like a little family. He winds up. Not accidentally. Against his wishes, he's thrust into a position where he has to adopt a young child yeah also against his wishes and against his better judgment he's thrust into a position where he has to become married that's correct so now he's like has a wife that he didn't
Starting point is 01:27:36 want he has a child that he doesn't want and he tries to establish a life for them spoiler alert uh they're killed um and it sets him on a quest for vengeance and through time his thirst for vengeance is sated and and he's just now like a a sort of ghost of a man yeah and living and living alone in the mountains and i will say that the vengeance in this case was really the crows because he made his amends when he went and killed the people that killed his wife and his kid that's true but he left one and that one then reports back to paints his shirt red which is the head guy, the head of the tribe. And he says, and the strength of them is built on one warrior. And so they send one warrior at a time to kill Jeremiah.
Starting point is 01:28:34 Yep. And he is able to kill everyone that he sent after him. Okay. If I may interject, there's no specific year that's pinpointed in the movie. I know that. If there was, we wouldn't be arguing about it. I'd be holding it right in my hand. That's fair. Because he was a veteran of the Mexican-American War, and he's still wearing his cavalry pants
Starting point is 01:28:57 when he went into the mountains. Mexican-American War, 1846, 1848. Okay, I didn't know it was that early. That's good. He encounters a man. He's out in the desert. And he encounters a man buried to his neck. Just his bald head sticking out.
Starting point is 01:29:14 No. He had hair at the time. No. He was bald. Bald at the time. Oh, yeah. And he yells something. He says, I am Delgu.
Starting point is 01:29:23 I can whip my weight in wolverines. Now, everybody knows that. What they don't know is this. Straight through a crab apple orchard on a flash of lightning. I never knew that.
Starting point is 01:29:41 Until last night. You've stolen my pelts and die you must. I already knew that until last night. You've stolen my pelts and die you must. I already knew that. Straight through a crab apple orchard on a flash of lightning. In the old days we would have called this whole episode that. There you go.
Starting point is 01:29:58 I like it. Well we can't anymore. Trying to get more serious about what? SEO? I don't know what the hell we're trying to get serious about. Search engine optimization. No one's searching that because they don't know that that's what he says. It would get SEO zero. No one's searching that today.
Starting point is 01:30:18 Straight through a crab apple orchard and a flash of lightning. Well, I love the movie most because of the end. So, we're going to go to this. Is this an episode of Steve Reed's movie script so you don't have to? Well, what about, are we going to skip over the part where he's running into the house? The part that Will didn't know what he was saying? Now we know. No, this was not in the house.
Starting point is 01:30:44 He, he's, the Indians house he he's the indians are sleeping so yeah they attack them so the young boy that he's been forced to take on as a son and jeremiah have found del gu buried up to his head and you know ask him he said engines bury you here twerp marmins so dig him out. And now the search becomes to go find these Indians. And they were black feet, I believe. And to find them. And Dale Gugh is going to kill him. Jeremiah doesn't want to kill him.
Starting point is 01:31:21 He just wants to be left alone. Yeah. And that's when he's yelling that part.'s charging in that's what that's when he's charging in one of the delightful characters he meets is bear claw chris lap lap um and he chris lap begrudgingly saves his life and gives him his initial education in mountain living. How to stay warm, how to get food, and all that. And then Chris Lapp leaves him. In the end, Jeremiah Johnson's way up in the high country.
Starting point is 01:31:56 He's cooking a rabbit. Now, one problem. The one problem in Jeremiah Johnson. There's one distinct singular problem in the whole movie. One imperfection. He's roasting a rabbit on a stick. The end of the movie. It's just sad.
Starting point is 01:32:14 Everything's sad and depressing. He's way up in the high country by himself, bundled in his furs. He's got a little fire going and he's cooking a rabbit. The one problem in the movie, Randall, what is it? Do you know?
Starting point is 01:32:26 Oak beagles. Nope. When he goes to pull a leg from the rabbit and it comes off as though it's tender. It's like it's been pre-sliced. It's no way. They almost got to the end with that. If I would have been there as a consultant,
Starting point is 01:32:40 I would have said, he needs to really try to pull hard and can't get it off and eventually tries to cut that leg off because i don't care how you cook a cocktail rabbit on a fire it's gonna be like rubber that ain't gonna happen so you think it was a uh uh like it was pre-cut or was a farm-raised rabbit reaches out bearclaw chrisapp pulls up. Asked him. Everything's unspoken in this movie. Asked him what's on the spit?
Starting point is 01:33:11 Chris Lapp asked Jeremiah Johnson what's on the spit? In particular? Jeremiah Johnson says no. Who asked what? Chris Lapp asked Jeremiah Johnson what's on the spit? Grown particular? And he says to him, he replies, have you grown particular?
Starting point is 01:33:26 And he says, only about the company I keep. But he removes the ham. He says, not about my feeding. Just the company. Just the company I keep. But he's willing to come talk to Johnson. Johnson then removes the leg of the rabbit and it's just too easy. It's always tripped me up.
Starting point is 01:33:47 Maybe he had an Instapot in his saddlebag. Yeah. If he pulled it off an Instapot, I'd be like, yeah, this looks great. There's a movie. I want to get into subtlety. We're nearing the end of the show here, Will. Okay.
Starting point is 01:34:04 There's a very good movie called you can count on me. Okay. And it's about a brother and a sister who are orphaned. And then one of them becomes like a family person. One of them becomes an addict and wander. And the whole movie, you never know why the movie is called. You can count on me.
Starting point is 01:34:18 No one ever says you can count on me. Nothing. And the end of the movie, um, the, the brother and sister try to come together but he's too messed up and he the what the sister doesn't want the brother around her children so he's got to go away and one of them says the other one do you remember what we used to always say to each other
Starting point is 01:34:38 and you're thinking well here's the part where someone's going to go, yeah, it was you can count on me. But he just says, yeah, I remember. Never said. No one ever says the words in the whole movie. But you know the name of the movie is the answer to the riddle. Right? Jeremiah Johnson. Nothing said in the end of the movie.
Starting point is 01:35:00 But it's this. Jeremiah Johnson wants to ask Chris Lapp, would you happen to know what month of the year it is? And Chris Lapp takes a stab at it. March, maybe April. March is a muddy month down below.
Starting point is 01:35:19 Some folks like it. Farmers mostly. I hope you will farewell. No, you left out, he says, they speculate about what month it is and they don't arrive at an answer. Right? It's just left as an open question. They don't know. They're so out there now and so removed from anything.
Starting point is 01:35:39 What's he say? March? I don't believe April. Yeah, he goes, March maybe. I don't believe April. Winter's a long time going. Stays long this high. March is a green, muddy month down below.
Starting point is 01:35:52 Some folks like it. Farmers mostly. Then he says this. Then he changes the subject. It's a non sequitur. You've done well to keep so much hair. When so many's after it. When so many are after it.
Starting point is 01:36:04 I hope you fare well. End of movie. No. No, then the voiceover. Yeah. Then paints his shirt red. Says his piece. Doesn't say anything.
Starting point is 01:36:16 Doesn't say it, but he says it. Says it with his hand. Yeah. Wow. Thanks for that. I need a really long hallway because I'm going to frame
Starting point is 01:36:23 this whole thing, but I need a hallway long enough to... We've got that. Yeah. I need a really long hallway because I'm going to frame this whole thing, but I need a hallway long enough to. We've got that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not too surprised. I'm going to go to the frame shop and be like, do you have any really long frames that are 11 inches high? To me, to me, paints a shirt red and Jeremiah's ending scene is about forgiveness. Yes. It's a, it's a, it paints a shirt red that offers the sign of peace. Yeah. I shouldn't leave that off.
Starting point is 01:36:49 And then when Jeremiah gives, gives, when he realized what he reaches for his gun at first, cause he thinks he's going to go again. And then he realizes it's paints a shirt red and he realizes he's offering the peace sign. He cannot stretch his hand any tighter yeah you know he goes and then he goes higher yeah it was like after trump got his ear shot fist in the air defiance
Starting point is 01:37:13 yeah but it's not it's a piece he stretches it and then he like strains to get it higher and instead of mittens he's just got rags wrapped around his hands well i'm telling you it's been wonderful to meet all y'all and to be here. It's been absolutely great. And as far as the book goes, you can pre-order audio right now. You go to Amazon and just type in
Starting point is 01:37:32 Straight Shooting for Hunters. Audio? Yeah, the audio version and the book version. So the audio version will come out first. And the audio is read by me. It's my voice. You let some idiot read it.
Starting point is 01:37:45 Yeah, so it'll be Straight Shooting for Hunters. You type in Primos or Mattarese and you can pre-order the audio is read by me. It's my voice. You let some idiot read it. Yeah, so it'll be Straight Shooting for Hunters. You type in Primos or Mattarese, and you can pre-order the audio. And that'll do you a lot of good riding your car, listening to it. But the diagrams that are in the book are very visual. That's why when you said audio, I was like, eh, eh, eh. When you go to talking about pointing at the eyes and establishing how dominant you are in either eye it's in there and then the swing through the pass through the maintain lead you know all that is in the book straight shooting for hunters a champion's guide to using shotguns in the field anthony madaris correct and uh jack will primos jack big jack jack big jack oh big jack sorry i'm little And Will Primos. Jack. Big Jack.
Starting point is 01:38:26 Jack. Big Jack. Oh, Big Jack. Sorry, I'm Little Jack. Will, thanks for coming on the show, man. It means a lot to me. Like I said up top, I'm going to end it the same way I began it. I've always admired you and your positivity and just like euphoria for family, wildlife, friends, being in the field.
Starting point is 01:38:51 It's just good, man. I've garnered a whole lot more respect than I deserve. But let me thank you because you've taken up the torch. And the work that you do and what you do with your team and sharing with the world what meat eater is all about and what loving outside is all about and hunting and fishing is awesome. Good job. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Good job. Keep it up.
Starting point is 01:39:15 Thank you. Good job. Thank you. Thanks, Will. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. It's early in the morning and I'm dropping the game Go to my boys, it's getting late
Starting point is 01:39:36 My dog, I'm running with my dogs. I've got a black, flat blood hound of mountain cur. Any kind of game, feather or fur, I've got my dogs. And I'm running with my dogs. Well, first light at midnight, it's all the same Me and the dog, we're after the game Wetlands, uplands, mountain views We get to choose Oh yeah Well it's early in the morning
Starting point is 01:40:41 Bout to drop the gate Come on load up boys It's getting late the morning, about to drop the gate. Come on, load up, boys. It's getting late. I got my dog. I'm going hunting with my dog. I got a blue tick, bloodhound, a mountain cat. Any kind of game at all, feather or fur. I got a dog. I'm going to hunt with my dog.
Starting point is 01:41:14 Well, if it's first light midnight, it's all the same. Me and the dog, we're going to go get us some game. The wetlands, the wetlands The uplands Or just some mountain hues You know we get to choose Yeah Yeah My dogs
Starting point is 01:41:44 I'm hunting women Dogs What do y'all feel like today? Go after some birds and call a little bear? I don't matter. I'm going somewhere with my dogs. You know I love my dog. Running with my dogs. Hey folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada.
Starting point is 01:43:00 You might not be able to join our raffles and sweepstakes and all that because of raffle and sweepstakes law, but hear this. On-axe hunt is now in canada it is now at your fingertips you canadians the great features that you love and on x 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 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.

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