The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 598: MeatEater Radio Live! Eating Beaver, Mystery Meat, and Duck DNA (Who’s Your Daddy?)

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

Welcome to our brand new MeatEater Radio Live! podcast. Join Steve Rinella and the rest of the crew as they go LIVE from MeatEater HQ every Thursday at 11am MT! They’ll have segments, call-in guests, and real-time interaction with the audience. You can watch the stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel, or catch the audio version of the show on Fridays. Today's episode is hosted by Brent Reaves, Seth Morris, and Max Barta. Guests: Jake and Riley DeBow of New England Naturals and wildlife geneticist Dr. Phil Lavretsky with the Population and Evolutionary Genetics Lab at the University of Texas at El Paso. Connect with The MeatEater Podcast Network MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YoutubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

without cell phone service as a special offer. You can get a free three months to try out OnX if you visit onxmaps.com slash meat. Smell us now, lady. Welcome to Meat Eater Trivia. Meat Eater Podcast. Welcome to Meat Eater Radio Live. It's 11 a.m. Mountain Time on September the 12th. And we're live from Meat Eater headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. I'm your host, Brent Reeves,

and joined today by our colleagues, Seth Morse, senior photographer, and Max Barta, videographer. On today's show, we'll talk to Jake and Riley Debo about trapping and cooking beavers. Then we'll have a segment where we put on blindfolds and try to guess what kind of wild game Max has brought us, followed by one-minute fishing at an undisclosed location with our colleague Corey Calkins. And if that ain't enough, then we'll have a hot tip-off where, and after that, we'll get a tour of Dr.il lavretsky's evolutionary genetics laboratory in texas and finally we'll pitch indefensible hunting and fishing laws that

seem like a good idea but probably aren't boys guess where i was last weekend well judging off of uh your instagram content i could take a wild guess. Something to do with squirrels. Man, let me tell you. It was in Springdale, Arkansas, the World Championship Squirrel Cook-Off. Reva Hansen and I went down there. My wife, Alexis, and daughter Bailey came up along with about 3,000 of our closest friends. That's awesome.

How long has this been going on? I think there was some time during the COVID dilemma that, you know, that they shut it down. But it's been going on for several years now. I can't, like, 10 years. And I may be, that may not even be close. But it's been going on long enough that now it's more like a family reunion than anything else. And it just keeps getting bigger every year.

That's fun. What's your favorite thing about that event? Yeah, walk us through like a day. Is it a weekend or just one day? One day. It's on Saturday. And I don't know if they got the date set for next year, but it's one day.

It starts at 9 in the morning. Teams get there at like 8.30 to have a meeting, and then they commence to cooking at 9. And the public is welcome at 9 o'clock and it goes to five and it is just all you can eat squirrel and anything else you can imagine during that period that time period and it's just there's kids running around it's pretty nuts huh oh it's wild it's yeah it's acorn nuts how do they get all those squirrels just people donating them? A lot of folks bring their own There's a long list of very regulated criteria

Of what the squirrels have to be The condition they have to be in All inspected Everything is good to go But now they will supply squirrels To folks that don't have them There was a team last year From Alaska

Alaska? Yeah Oh yeah, they're not bringing squirrels They're not bringing squirrels So They're not bringing squirrels. Fly one of those on a plane. So a bunch of squirrel hunters killed a bunch of squirrels, and they have them there for the squirrel skinning contest and all that, so they let them have it.

Man, that sounds like a blast. It is. I've got to make it down there one of these years. How many people is there total, and how many people are traveling from different states? There was folks there a couple of years ago from, I think, New Zealand, maybe. Oh, wow. I didn't know this was such a big thing.

From England. I talked to people from all over the U.S., man. Oregon, Wisconsin. I mean, in any direction you want to point from Arkansas, and there was folks there from it. That's cool. All having a good time. Are you going to compete next year?

No. What about Clay? You know, he was going to compete in the squirrel skinning contest this year, and he bragged all year long. He said, you know, I can take it if they let me use my clippers, and they would have. But Dadgummit, when he got there, he said, I forgot my clippers. Chickened out.

Sure, Clay. I'm going to tell, when he got there, he said, I forgot my Clippers. Chicken dough. Sure, Clay. I'm going to tell you now. I'm sure he did. Clifton Jackson is the guy that has won it for the, I think, since God was in junior high school. Clifton has been taking the trophy every year. And he had some good competition this year, but he smashed it. Well, I think Clay Newcomb should practice all year. Yeah.

And get in there and whoop some butt next year yeah put his skint squirrel where his mouth is yeah there you go come on clay all right now on to our first guest joining us on the line first are jake and riley debo from new hampshire they are founders of new eng Naturals, a company that sells a variety of beaver based products. Jake and Riley, welcome to the show. How's it going guys? Hey guys. Yeah, this is awesome. Jake, Riley, y'all give us a rundown of what's going on and what you guys are doing as far as trapping beavers and how y'all use them, what y'all do with them. Sure. Well, right now it's all prep work.

So, you know, it takes a lot to lead up to get towards trapping season. So we're dipping and dyeing traps, making sure everything's tuned up. But come October 15, our beaver trapping season opens up. And so from then on, we do take a break during deer hunting season to dedicate our time there. But we'll be chasing beavers open water in through the ice of course we're using the fur from them but we're also harvesting a lot of meat so beaver meat makes up about 50 of our annual meat consumption really uh and that's i don't know why if we trap more for fur or food it's kind of hard to parse that out

sometimes how'd you get how'd you get where did this come from do y'all come have a background in an eating wild game and trapping i wouldn't say that we have a background in i mean i grew up hunting right so venison your white-tailed deer kind of classic uh table fare but as far as beaver we got into trapping kind of together when we first got married and we didn't want to waste the meat and we tried it one night in a stir fry and that just changed our entire perception on this meat and since then we've been just trying new recipes trying new cuts and just getting more and more people comfortable with eating beaver meat jokes aside um it's it's a great, great resource. If you could compare beaver meat to a different kind of meat, what would you compare it to? You usually say beef, like a really rich beef, but I compare it to lamb a lot because it's really, really rich in color.

It's a very dark colored meat and it doesn't have a distinctive taste I don't think maybe it may be closer to to beef but I think when you're looking at it it looks a lot like a lamb what's your guys go to with the beaver meat like what are you doing with it steaks man steaks are really our beaver steaks are something that we don't share I mean those are those are in the freezer and those are just for us year round um but beaver legs we make a variety of different crock pot dishes out of. Or we used to make beaver grind. We actually have some. We're going to a family event this weekend where we need to bring a dish.

And so our go-to is a barbecue pulled beaver. And the timing of this just happened to be that we've got some here that we can show you guys. Can I show you? I would love to. Can I show you? I'd love to see it. Yeah, let's see it. All right.

In the first shed, on the skinning table. We don't usually cook in the first shed, but, you know. Oh, I can smell it from here. This is what pulled beaver meat looks like. And it's really, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a pulled brisket. Yeah. Serve this on some Hawaiian buns with a little bit of cheese and maybe some coleslaw if you have it. And it's to die for.

Wow. That's fantastic a few years ago uh steve and i made a bunch of um italian sausage out of beaver and it was fantastic um and yeah i just need to start exploring more with some beaver meat i think about all the years my brother and i've been trapping beavers and all the groceries that we wasted just by getting the beavers out and all the groceries that we wasted just by getting the the beavers out and selling the hides that is because you can tell them look at by looking at me that i like to eat going back to trapping um what's the largest beaver you guys have ever trapped we saw it last year yeah we caught our personal best last year was 60.6 pounds it was a big female so we've been flirting we've had you know quite

a few in that 58 59 but we just couldn't break the 60 pounds we finally did this last year that's cool you guys uh i've been watching on on instagram and you guys have that tail wall right yeah yeah it's actually right can you give us a little sneak peek of that yeah this is where so essentially any beaver that's over 50 pounds makes it on the wall cool and we'd like to you know show it off because you can see all these nicks and and different uh i gotta get my coyote fleshing board out of the way all the different you know wounds on these beavers in different sizes and that's cool the story of each beaver so what we're looking at for the folks that can't see it or not watching, they can't see the video, is Jake and Riley have made an outline of the big beaver tails that they've caught.

What's the requirement to get traced onto the wall, Jake? It's got to be over 50 pounds. Over 50 pounds. And there's like a whole wall. Yeah. There's a bunch of beaver right there. That's awesome um is there you can make a nice print for like a shirt to have a bunch of beaver tails on it oh yeah that'd be cool yeah call hunter spencer uh i'm kind of a rookie to trapping but is there

is there a limit on beavers in the trapping there's not in in this area they're regulated by the length of the season and that season's really long but the majority of the season there's ice and so it's hard to catch beavers and so kind of by conditions and length of seasons how the official wildlife agencies you know monitor that but we've got an extremely robust beaver population that's good i'd say we're we're kind of saturated as far as habitat goes. And so they start popping up in roadside ditches and stuff like that. But yeah, so there's no limit and there's also no shortage of them. Very cool.

I remember last winter was my first time ever experiencing it with Seth and Steven. I just thought it was so cool, the bubble lines underneath the ice. Yep. Learning how to read the sign. Yeah, that was the coolest part, I think. How many beavers do you guys take in a year on average last year we caught 90 um the year prior to that i think we were in the the high 60s and we've kind of been inching our way up cool we'd like to see like see triple digits next year if we can there you go something to shoot for yeah no doubt what about uh you

getting your y'all are getting ready now tra Trapping season opens next month, if that's correct. That's right. Tell, what are you doing with your traps to get them ready? Yeah. So the biggest thing is just, you know, so this is a brand new body grip trap. So it's silver, just fresh metal for those that can't see. And it needs a couple of things. First, it needs a trap tag. So that's an identifying tag that attaches you to it. We actually add two inline swivels to our body grips. That's not a legal requirement. It's just something we like to do. And then we dip them. And by dipping or dyeing, it's turning them black. And so I don't know if you can see it well, but that's protecting it from rust and protecting it just and also you know helping to camouflage it but you know these traps are equipment that are used outdoors during rough

conditions interacting with animals and they they take a beating so each year before the season we got to go through every single trap and make sure it's functioning properly and we're also prepping our bait we're using the beaver caster that we harvested from last year to make the bait that we're going to use or the lure that we're going to use this year to catch more beavers. Interesting. Is it a fact or fiction? Do you use beaver caster or do they use beaver caster in like vanilla abstract or like perfumes and stuff? Yeah, they do.

Expensive perfumes and vanilla extract but i think the vanilla world is moving a little towards other sources that are cheaper um to to use for the artificial vanilla smell but beaver was used for a very long time to have that smell huh very cool um what else you guys targeting throughout the year so we'll start with raccoons so we actually are kind of annual thing is raccoons from October 15 until deer season and three weeks of deer hunting and then that usually ends the first couple days of December and from December until April 10 it'll be mostly beaver but otter muskrat rise we mess around muskrat over the last couple years and getting better and better at

that a little bit of mink trap mostly water critters cool any no coyotes at all or anything or fox not yet i mean i'd like to get into that i've messed around with some canine trapping in the in the past but the reality is best three weeks of coyote trapping are the best three weeks of deer tracking here in the northeast oh yeah hey tell me now you you caught 90 beavers last year. What'd you do with the hide? So we sent them all out to the tannery. And so they're going to be back here hopefully in the next week or two. And then we make them into finished products.

So we also have a furrier shop. We bought a fur sewing machine and we make mittens and hats and we can make blankets and all sorts of things of that nature. So we're, we're making final products with the beavers that we're catching that's cool y'all are they're using everything on the beaver except the chewing that he does that's awesome that is awesome that is cool uh one one valentine's uh what one year on valentine's day i got my girlfriend a pair of beaver mittens really yeah oh i bet you like that great gift and y'all are making those there i'm y'all are making those there in-house there at your place oh yeah yeah start to finish from catching the beaver to

shipping out that final package we're the only ones handling it besides the tanning that's a whole other well and this all started because when we first started trapping together the fur market you weren't getting a lot for each pelt but we were putting in hours and hours of work not just trapping but also skinning and fleshing and putting up that fur so um we sold our pelts into the market for one year and then the next year we said we got to do something different because we put so much work and love into this just for a tino be shipped out for a very small uh price so that's why we started experiment actually it was during the pandemic that we um we bought a fur sewing machine and just started teaching ourselves because there's not a lot of resources online for teaching people how to sew fur um which is part of the reason we're creating content to

try to reduce that barrier to get more people involved and comfortable with fur products. Oh, that's outstanding. And they absolutely have one of the most, Seth, you and I were talking about it earlier. You guys are running a school on from start to finish prepping for, until the finished product of anything to do with trapping and fur. And it's really good. It's something that is much maligned. The low-hanging fruit is when people want to start working anti-anything into the message boards.

The trapping is always first. But you guys have got to put in a really good face on it and, uh, and explaining the conservation end of it, which is so important. And it's really good. Yeah. On, on that note, guys, this is, this is Phil. I'm the, uh, the audio engineer over here. We have a question from Nate who is asking, this is kind of putting you guys on the spot, but, um, he, he asks, as trappers tend to be under fire from animal rights activists, what groups can they follow, invest in, in order to help? Do you guys have any sort of conservation groups that specifically are beaver or trapping oriented?

To start, join your local trappers association in your state and then join the one in the neighboring state and the neighboring state. And the National Trappers Association, Fur Takers of America, they're really on the front line. And beyond that, there's all sorts of great organizations that we're seeing on social media right now, like CRWM and Howl for Wildlife. So follow along on those social medias, help spread those messages. But also, you know, we need our local trapper associations, they need money. So they need your, you know, donations and your annual fees. And they also need numbers. It really helps for them to be able to stand up at the state house and say, Hey, we have, you know, 2,500 trappers behind us that all agree, you know, this bill X, Y, Z, whatever it may be. So join your local organizations. Very good advice. Very good advice. All right. We, where can we find you guys online? Where can folks find y'all?

You can find us that new England naturals on Tik TOK, can folks find y'all you can find us at new england naturals on tiktok instagram youtube but then you can also find our products on newenglandnaturals.net that's awesome jake and riley thank y'all so much for being here thanks guys thank you all right we are on to the next segment, and it's called Mystery Meat. I don't know. I don't know. Oh, I don't know. What is this meat?

Is it goose? Is it white tail? I don't know. What is this meat? Another fantastic jingle. Yeah, very good. Very good. All right, Max.

We haven't done this before On Mystery Meat I cooked a piece of meat Which Seth and Brent will blind taste test And then they'll guess What kind of meat it is We got our blindfolds Yeah so put on your blindfolds You might have to take off your glasses there

So yeah This is going to be very interesting And hopefully they'll like it your blindfolds, you might have to take off your glasses there. So, yeah. This is going to be very interesting and hopefully they'll like it. Oh boy. Hopefully this isn't a trick. No, this is not a trick. It's not Beaver actually. Keep that off the list.

Put it in my hand? Yeah, we'll just go ahead and do one of these. This is the dumbest thing I'm going to do all day. Is this a toothpick? Should I not eat? Where's my mic? Here we go. Don't eat toothpick.

Don't eat toothpick. Go ahead. I'm going for it. Yeah. It's tender. Okay, what are first impressions here? What do we get? The initial notes.

What do we have in the bouquet? Texture doesn't seem like an ungulate. Just my opinion. Interesting, interesting. So, cooking this. Phil, can we see some photos? Oh yeah, let's bring up the photos here. Sorry, I'm chewing right into the mic.

So yeah, for those of you who are watching right now. This is fantastic. There is a picture of the meat on the cutting board. And what I did, I did a little trimming. Armadillo. No. Yeah, I did a little trimming, just cleaned it up a little bit. And then I just seasoned it up.

I call it my holy trinity salt pepper and garlic pretty easy those are fighting words to uh someone from down the bayou yeah uh but yeah then i just uh threw it on the grill um just cooked it both sides and is this something uh that you got yourself max uh i don't know if i should answer that all right okay just keep thinking well um it's tender it's got a i it's hard for me to distinguish it doesn't taste like what i would think or what i remember waterfowl tasting like okay um Or the texture. But I think that's what I'm going to, I think that's what I'm going to,

I've got a guess. I have a guess based off of just me knowing what Max likes to do. Okay, before I say you guys give your guesses and then before you reveal Max, I'm going to list off kind of what the most popular guesses from the audience are here.

I'm not telling them what was doing on that. I don't want their, I don't want the audience's guesses to influence them, so how about we hear from Brent and Seth first and then we'll bring up some. You guys want another one? Yes. No, I'm good. Alright, Brent, what do you think the mystery meat is? I think

the mystery meat is Canada Goose. Okay. Seth, what do you think? Max's mystery meat is Sandhill Crane. Alright, what do you think? Sandhill crane. Mystery meat is sandhill crane. All right. Well, we have people guessing goose. Brett in the audience says goose. Sled Saint says crane, crane.

Someone said kitty cat. It's a lot of geese and crane. Those are the popular answers. I saw diver duck. Yeah. Hunter Spencer says speckled belly. I don't think it's diver duck. I'm not getting a fish taste.

All right. Well. I've already guessed. I'm not getting a fish taste. All right. I took my mask off, Seth. Oh, you did? Okay. Seth is going to keep his mask on the whole time now. If you give me one sec here, Max, I can cue up a drum roll. It's going to be worth it all this time. Hold on here.

Okay, I'm going to give you a drum roll, and then I would like for you to reveal the mystery meat. Sounds great. Are you ready? It's really good. Oh, it is Sandhill Crane. Woo! Hey! Seth has had it before.

I was out, just out of town here the other day. I went out to look at some elk and saw some out there, and everybody always describes them as being the ribeye in the sky. Yep. That is, I would have never guessed that. That's fantastic. Have you had it before? No, that's it. That's the first time.

You can have the rest of that then. I'm taking it home. That is, man, that's good. They're kidding. I always think something's over-exaggerated. For years and years and years, I mean, all the time i was in the guiding business folks that would hunt with me would say man you got to go out and shoot these sandhill cranes yeah rabbi in the sky and i thought after all these years i'm going to eventually eat it and go

that tastes like spam yeah which is also good no i mean they're great to eat and they're super fun to hunt too um last september i drew a tag for out here and, um, ended up shooting a couple and, um, yeah, it was a great time. Like watching decoys is so cool too. They're such a big animal. Now, will they come to goose decoys or you got to have specific decoys just for them? Growing up in North Dakota, I never really hunted them. Um, but they would come into the goose decoys, um, just as long as like they're

feeding in that field. Uh, but last, uh, fall I hunted them over Sand goose decoys just as long as they're feeding in that field. But last fall, I hunted them over sandhill decoys. Yeah. Well, they're a lot bigger than I thought they were seeing them. Oh, they're huge. Yeah. 50 yards, 100 yards out in the field. I've multiple times been like, oh, there's a deer over there.

And pull up your binoculars like, oh, that's not a deer. Yeah. Sandhill crane. And they also, like retrievers, they'll put safety goggles on retrievers yeah so uh last fall when i hunted i made sure they're dead and dispatched and uh then i sent my dog after him because i didn't have goggles so yeah brent we have a very um direct message from an alexis reeves saying you're not allowed to bring anything else home we're running out of room. It's funny.

Oh, that's good. Yeah, that was fantastic. That's good. I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. Yeah, now I've got another reason to come back. Hey, folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. And boy, my goodness, do we hear from the Canadians whenever we do a raffle or a sweepstakes.

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

24K topo maps, waypoints, and tracking. That's right. We're always talking about OnX here on the Meat Eater Podcast. Now you guys in the Great White North can be part of it, be part of the excitement. You can even use offline maps to see where you are without cell phone service. That's a sweet function. As part of your membership, you'll gain access to exclusive pricing on products and services handpicked by the OnX Hunt team.

Some of our favorites are First Light, Schnee's, Vortex Federal, and more. As a special offer, you can get a free three months to try OnX out if you visit OnXMaps.com slash meet. OnXMaps.com slash meet. Welcome to the OnX club, y'all. We're moving on to the next segment, one-minute fishing. Do I feel lucky? Well, do you, punk? Go ahead.

Make my cast. All right. Our next segment is one-minute fishing. It's one-minute fishing is where we go live to someone who's fishing, and they have one minute to catch a fish. And if they're successful, we'll make a $500 donation to a conservation group. This week, our angler is colleague Corey Calkins, who's the content coordinator here at MeatEater.

If you saw the Buffer Zone elk episode elk episode on uh it was last season's meat eater show you would have watched him on the screen i think you're looking good right now right now i wish somebody else read this because i want another bite of that right now he's on an undisclosed river in montana and he's fishing for a donation to back country hunters and anglers cory are you there hello you look taller must because uh my feet are missing in the water there you go all right man you get looks like you got some good weather is this on a scale of one to ten is this where are we at on fishing weather ten being the best you know it's been super hot now as of the

last 24 hours it's dropped 20 degrees uh so not ideal but this heavy overcast could be really good i uh fished my way down here with a little white streamer and wrecked them uh but you know what they say when in doubt nymph them out so i got a little bobber going now what's on the end of the bobber i got a couple little nymphs got a little uh frenchie tungsten bead head mainly to help my little size 20 pheasant tail get down and deep right where i need it well cory is uh he's an experienced fly fishing and hunting guy, too. So, really, if he doesn't catch a fish here, it's nobody's fault but Corey's. That's a true story. Corey, what's your confidence level?

Scale of 1 to 10. You know, I'd probably give it a 9. Oh, I like that. So, go big or go home, right? All right. Are we ready with the clock? Yeah, I think the clock starts. I've got some've got a i've

got some music that is exactly one minute long it's fairly epic so corey you're gonna have to live up to this orchestration here but when the song is over that's your one minute and uh we'll see how it goes you ready i'm ready all right let's see it okay i that's a false cast oh he's going he's in there tight loops he's got it in the water he's beating it out I'm hoping you guys can see every move

oh yeah we're watching it he's casting again and cast is out he's got it riding us in oh I'm waiting Casting again. And cast is out. He's got it right in the center. Oh, I'm waiting. Ending it back. Stripping.

Another cast. Another cast. Got to be getting close. Come on, Corey. Come on, Frenchie. Oh! Oh! Last one.

He missed it. That was a hook set. Come on. Yeah. What do I got on the time, boys? Keep going. We're just going to wait until the song's over. Catch a fish.

Oh, you're on. Five, four, three, two, one. Oh, no. Go. Okay. Awesome. I tell you what I'm going to have to do. That was giving it the old college try if it ever was one did you catch one no well thanks cory uh drop me a pin

before you leave there in your top secret place it was uh that was a good effort my man so yeah did you have a pretty good strike i did yeah bobber went down uh had to admit a fish set the hook and he wasn't there who knows i'm fishing barbless size 20 nymphs so it's easy to unhook themselves it wasn't one of those rock fish was it i don't think so man if it was he was a big one hey you know what they say hook sets are free that's right yeah all day yeah i fished last year with uh cory on the yellowstone and me and chili and he knows what he's doing so it ain't it just it ain't that easy it's a lot of you got one minute you know it's not a lot of pressure you're literally on the clock yeah literally yeah for sure thank you brother and

i get back to work yeah you, you got it, guys. I'll see you in the office soon. Go catch some more fish. See you, Corey. Phil. Yes, sir. Have we got any listener feedback that we can... We do, yeah. Let's take a few here. Here's one from Mogor.

I'm not sure how to pronounce his name, but he says he'd love to see the whole crew after a no-shave November. I would still be the same. Yeah, me too, Max. I just kind of wanted to pronounce his name, but he says he'd love to see the whole crew after a no shave November. Oh. I don't know. I would still be the same. Yeah, me too, Max. I just kind of wanted to, like, Seth, you've had the mustache for as long as I've known you. Yep. Have you ever gone, like, full goatee, any sort of beard action?

I mean, I have in the past, but, man, I haven't. The longest I let it go is when I spend two weeks in Alaska every summer. I don't shave that whole time. Other than that, yeah. Max, this is an incredibly open question, but you can kind of tackle it however you want. But Jacob's wondering what your main strategy hunting ducks in southwest Montana is. My main strategy is scout, scout, scout. Even before the hunt starts, that's where all my preparation goes into. And I typically don't like hunting

if there's not going to be any birds there. Yeah. So. But that can go over, it can change overnight too. Yeah, for sure. But yeah, I scout my butt off and I think my wife will say the same thing.

I spend more time scouting than I do hunting. Oh, yeah. And watching the weather. Yeah, in the weather some too. Yeah. But yeah, scout, find some open water. That's what I have to offer. Sounds good.

Spencer chimed in when we were talking to Jake and Riley and said they are so cool. I agree. Oh, no doubt. I agree as well. Those two seemed awesome. And on that note, this is more for Seth since Jake and Riley had to run, but how does one get started in trapping? We have a plethora of beavers

in the creek we irrigate out of and the old man asked me to manage that. That's a question from Brett. Well, nowadays you can kind of go to any sporting goods store and pick up a couple traps. First off, check your regulations in your state. See what's legal.

Different states have different regulations for what you can use, what you can't use, jaw size, that kind of stuff. But, yeah, just go pick up some traps. There's a lot of resources online these these days especially jake and riley they they have um a good instagram channel where uh instagram page or and youtube and stuff where you can um learn a lot about trapping but um yeah if you don't have a mentor um go online try to find as much information about as you can and um that'll kind of get you pointed in the right direction. YouTube University, right? Yeah. Jake always has a premium choice in headwear

anytime I see him on there. Yo, the Bear Grylls hat. He's always wearing the Bear Grylls hat. He's wearing it today too. Yeah, for sure. All right, yeah, I think that's good for Q&A right now. If you guys have anything else for the end of the show, please go ahead and ask or comment in the chat.

All right, next segment, hot tip-off. Hot tip-off time! We've got two hot tip-offs today. And after we play them both, we're going to weigh in about what we liked and who had the hotter tip. Then we're going to declare a winner and vote on which one we think is better. Phil, hit us with that first tip man all right for my hot tip this week we're going to talk about a rear rest a lot of folks take a tripod in the woods with them but they just use it for glassing

so how many times have you come up over the ridge and there's an elk out there and you want you you found like a tree limb to set your rifle on or in some some cases you're hunting egg, there's a fence post, just something to get the front of your rifle on, but you still feel wobbly. If you're gonna have a tripod with you anyways, you might as well use it as a rear rest. So what we did here, this is just like any tree. This is just, imagine this is a tree limb coming out.

You throw your bag down or a puffy or whatever, you set your gun on it. What you're gonna do is you're gonna take your tripod, you've already got it with you, you already glassed up an elk with it you're going to bring it in here parallel with the target the front two legs your right arm is coming in in the tripod here just like this coming around to my grip and then i'm going to take my other hand and come in here this is a little lighter caliber right this is just a 6.5 creedmoor but it works really well with with

bigger calibers so i think this one's um shooting like right around 2,900 feet per second with our new uh sig ammo we came out with them um so you get in behind the gun left hand here right hand on on target and this should be as rock solid as prone just, frankly, there should be no wobble in the crosshairs. Roll the bolt. This target is right at about 400 yards. Wait for the ding. Called it. The long-range cowboy, Garrett Long.

Yeah, that's our colleague, Garrett Long, who's the vice president of content here at Meat Eater. For some reason, was that you in the background? That was some handsome stranger. I was going to say. I was distracted. I'm not exactly sure who that guy was, but, boy, he looked really smart. I like that tip.

I could have used that last fall. Yeah, and he showed that to me out there last year when we were out there doing some shooting. I had never done that before, but he ain't kidding. It's rock solid. What's the next one? Phil. Next one is from, hey, it's from Corey Calkins, who bill next one is from hey it's from cory calkins we

just uh failing to catch a fish in one minute but he's i hope this is how to catch a fish in one minute yeah how to catch a fish here here we are here's cory i'm cory calkins and i got a hot tip for you i'm out here scouting for elk just before montana's archery opener also trying to get the kinks out make sure i'm dialed with my gear and just realize my wind checker bottle is totally out must have poured it out or something last year so instead of going back to town to buy another ten dollar plastic tube of windicator i'm just going to refill this i always have some gold bond or some foot powder with me so i'm just going to refill this i always have some gold bond or some foot powder with me so i'm just going to use this pour it onto a piece of paper piece of cardboard whatever you got some hot regulations it looks like a little fun robot catalog

it's going to get a little messy. Ideally, you'd have your boots underneath here. Yeah. Catching your extras. Oh, that's a little tip right there. Yeah. Two hot tips. Works great. Oh, look at that.

As a wind checker. Wow. Yeah. I like that tip. Plus, midday, boots are soggy from sweat, perspiration. Here it is. Crossing creeks. Pour a little bit of this onto your footbed hot tip is there nothing that guy can't do oh i love it what a stud for real i love

it on the loose all right max you got i think i'm going with c's tip. All right. Don't tell me yet. Don't tell me why yet. Seth? Man, it's a tough one. I'm going to go with Garrett's, though. Okay. You're the side factor. I think I'm going to go with Corey's. Tell me why you think.

So before you even get a shot, you've got to make sure your wind's right, right? So that's step one. So that's where I'm at. Okay. I like Garrett's. Number one, I just love shooting rifles. Right. And I just think a lot of people take some sketchy shots,

leaning off of fence posts and whatnot every year, especially like during antelope season is kind of when I see it the most. Yeah. And, you know, if they just did this little, little simple thing here, they would have a solid rest and they would either hit their animal, not wounded or, uh, they won't miss. So. Right. Okay. I'm.

They, they're both really good tips. Yeah. I absolutely agree. Then they apply, but Corey's had had an extra had an extra little caveat that you could use it not only with hunting but taking care of your feet yeah you know because like they say in the army you take care of your feet your feet will take care of you multiple use is big out there in the back country yeah yeah yeah so you're not toting a lot of a lot of different stuff but like garrett when i were out there talking the other day you know if you're

if you're rifle hunting you're probably glassing from something. You're probably going to have a tripod out there. So if you don't have a tripod with you, get a stick, get something, you know, and try to do as well as you can. Try to do what he was doing there. But I've done it, and it's rock solid for sure. We have a, Scotty has a question in regard to Corey's hot tip asking if flour or fish batter would work because they always have fish batter in the camp kitchen.

It might get a little depending on humidity it might get a little cakey in there. Yeah. We've got Ray saying that he uses cornstarch. Cornstarch. That's a good tip too. Yeah. That's what the gold bonds are. A lot of people saying Corey on there.

Corey, Corey, Corey. Corey, Corey, Corey. Okay, so really quick, we're going to try something right here. I don't know how it's going to work out, but we have a surprise call in. One sec. This is live. Just have some beer with us. We need to see people.

I'm going to keep eating this crane here. Yeah. Yeah, you should since i was since you already gave it to me you should just keep eating it over there max i'm not getting my that's a tender one how big's the breast on them santa el crane canada goose bigger yeah it depends um I feel like, um, I mean, obviously like anything there's adults and, um, juveniles. So like juveniles are probably pretty close to your hand, I would say. Okay. And then, um, your adults can be just slightly bigger than a goose breast.

Okay. Ruby have any trouble retrieving them back? I mean, they're so long. They are super long. Um, and like, I mean, mean, they're just a big creature. Yeah. So, yeah. Hopefully, through the modern technology, we'll be able to pull this.

Yeah. I don't even know what's going on here. If anyone can do it, it's Phil. Yeah, no doubt. You can read everything from Morse code to smoke signals. There's another hot tip from a listener. If you want deer hunting access in a country, trap beaver. Oh, yeah.

That's a good. It's a good way to get on ranches. Yeah, for sure. Especially out here. Or just put your foot in the door. Yeah, a lot of livestock, you know, livestock growers and stuff out here. Yeah just put your foot in the door. Yeah. A lot of livestock, you know, livestock growers and stuff out here. Yeah.

Have troubles with coyotes and whatnot. I've done that before coyote hunting too. Before I asked permission for waterfall, it's just like, Oh, I'll hunt coyotes here for a year or two. Hello? So.

All right. Korean's got somebody. Yeah. Hold on. Now's it. Hold on. Can I, how do I put into a microphone? Well, if you just want to hold it up to the mic, that's got somebody. Hey, yeah, hold on. Now's it. Hold on. Can I, how do I put him to a microphone? Well, if you just want to hold it up to the mic, that's the thing.

I wanted some more, some professionalism in this, at this media company, but that's okay. We're all in trouble. It's better than nothing. Phil's the man. He's nothing but the best. All right. All right, you're on. Hello.

What's up, guys? Who is this? Who's on the phone? Tell us who it is. This is Steve Rinella. Never heard of him. Why are you talking so quiet? Because we're on our call now, dude.

Steve, how's it going so far? Not yet. And we lost him. I take it not so good. All right, we should tell what Steve's doing right now. Steve's out hunting. We lost him. Yeah, he's up in interior Alaska on a ridge right now calling moose.

Now, I assume the same places where he and and clay have been hunting yep same area i would assume same area it's a different different spot from where clay got his but not far okay and it's i mean it's about as remote as you get it's it's way back under yep yep get there by plane. They drop you off. Well, it's kind of amazing that we were able to get that much out of it. Yeah. That was a nice, good little surprise. The excitement of live television? Yeah.

It's weird you're way in there, but you get a little bit of AT&T service. Yeah. Well, we might get them back in. We'll see. But until then, we have another guest coming in, Brent. Okay. Hey, folks. Exciting news for those who live or hunt in Brent. Okay. 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 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

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You can even use offline maps to see where you are without cell phone service. That's a sweet function. As part of your membership, you'll gain access to exclusive pricing on products and services handpicked by the OnX Hunt team. Some of our favorites are First Light, Schnee's, Vortex Federal, and more. As a special offer,

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Joining us on the line next is Dr. Phil Levretsky, a biologist, geneticist, and a duck DNA researcher with the University of Texas at El Paso. He was on episode 490, Are Wild Ducks Really Wild? of the Meat Eater Podcast with Steve. Professor Phil, welcome to the show. Hey, how are you? Oh, we're good, man.

Tell us about what you got going on at the Duck DNA Lab. Yeah, so here we are in uh in the lab right here um i'm gonna switch over the uh the camera here if i can i guess i can't um so we're right here we're gonna kind of showcase to everybody that of um what we do here if you're a participant of duck dna if you're part of uh uh the federal or other agencies that we work with, this is simply the process that we go by to figure out what is it in your unknown meat, I guess. So if you're a DuckDNA participant, you might have noticed the same thing right here. Your stuff comes in. We take it over over here.

Now, Dr. Phil, let me stop you there. How are you getting the Duck DNA? Is this a program that you guys are sponsoring? Yeah, that's right. We're in our second year. I was going to talk about it in a little bit. We are taking participants right now. It's a program with Ducks Unlimited called Duck DNA.

You can sign up super easy on duckdna.com. You can go on it right in there okay you just click on a button apply right now we've got 700 of these kits this year to go out it's sort of like a Western big-game draw Oh depending on how many people apply you know those are your chances probably better than drawing for an elk somewhere all right let me ask you this let me ask you this why does this matter you this. Why does this matter? Why does duck DNA matter? I mean, we're not trying to solve crimes here. Tell me what it

matters. What we're trying to solve and understand our wildlife at the molecular level, sort of the foundation, right? Understanding what are we working with? Do we have a lack of genetic diversity on this mountain with all these sheep versus this mountain? Do we have a lack of genetic diversity on this mountain with all these sheep versus this mountain? Do we need to move individuals? How is it occurring for the ducks? What we're trying to figure out is, you know, why are certain species moving certain areas? What is occurring on the landscape? Why, you know, if you're interested in hybrids, where could you go to find a hybrid? And part of that is really starting to track at the national level what's happening to our mallard populations. If you went and listened to that podcast or any other ones

I've been on, we're starting to build this story where game farm mallards, which are a domestic type, sort of like your dog versus a wolf, are being released. And they're interbreeding with our wild populations. is interbreeding actually causing our populations potentially to decline because we now know that they they have an effect let me tell you let me interject something right here uh 20 years ago i was duck hunting in the green timber of arkansas and i killed a banded mallard duck with a green leg band from a duck farm in Maryland. Oh, really? Yeah.

Wow. I still got that band on my lanyard, but I smell what you're stepping in, Doc. Keep talking. Yeah, well, that individual going all the way to Arkansas is potentially the problem because those are the individuals that are what we're showcasing, making babies that are not as fit as a wild, wild parent. And those proportions are increasing in the Great Lakes region, northeastern area of the Atlantic Flyway.

In fact, we're starting to see that trickle into the prairie potholes and into the pacific flyway for whatever reason so we're trying to get um the hunters out there to be those citizen signs so we can monitor this at the national level uh across the uh hunting seasons so doc um this is gonna be the second year correct like this fall that's that's right so we are just about to pick our well we just picked our first cohort uh we got 700 uh kits i think we picked 150 just now cool another 100 in a couple weeks and we're going to go from north to south because hunting seasons start you know earlier in the north and then they uh later in the south for sure uh what'd you guys learn um from last year like anything cool or anything that stuck out yeah so a few a few of the things that we immediately learned is that um the prevalence of uh mallard uh game farm hybrids

out there is increasing across the flyways especially atlantic and the mississippi in particular but it is very specific to areas that you are so for example in montana where you guys are very low prevalence. And if I did find a hybrid, it was already way back crossed into it was mostly wild, right? Just a little bit of that game farm in them. So we're trying to understand that dynamic across them. The other thing that we immediately learned, though not not a ton of hybrids yet is the Brewers duck, we actually found where the gadwell so Brewers duck, you don't know is a gadwell mallard yeah pairing and we always thought it'd be a male mallard with a female gadwell and we're able to figure out that parentage

and we found it both ways where it was a male gadwell with a female mallard and vice versa with a male mallard with a female gadwell so now we know it actually happens both ways. And now we're trying to figure out how often do those hybrids, those first-year hybrids, can they mate? And how prevalent is that? And whether it's always with a wild mallard or do game farm mallards now have a consequence to these other species as well?

Well, in the Drake gadwall's defense, a female mallard and a female gadwall's defense um a female Mallard and a female gadwall do look pretty similar so how did this start what what prompted this study and this investigation if you will yeah so what prompted this was um the findings that my lab were starting to come out back in 2019. We started publishing on the game farm mallard problem. We first were looking at it as a mallard black duck, and then we understood that this was really a problem for our wild mallard populations. And, you know, just having a good conversation with folks in Ducks Unlimited, Dr. Mike Brazier

specifically, we sort of started to put together this brainchild of asking the question would hunters be interested in being that hunter scientist conservationists out there to be able to start you know tracking this and other other aspects of our wildlife migratory behaviors and others would they be interested in in participating and so far it's been overwhelmingly yes which I'm super excited and happy about. Very cool. That's awesome. I know I participated in this study last year.

First tell us what you did to participate. Oh, I signed up. But what the study is, is you you harvest a duck a mallard and then you cut a sample like a quarter inch sample off their tongue okay put it in a little test tube send it over uh to these guys down in texas and then they'll do all the dna research and then after the fact um a couple weeks later they'll send you a certificate of what your duck is that you sent in. As far as the species and the percentage of wild? Yeah, the percentage of wild versus game farm or if it's a hybrid, if it's like a black duck or a Mexican mallard or something like that.

And you get all that stuff is through that kit that Dr. Phil's talking about. Yep. So, um, last year, a cool thing was my, uh, buddy shot a band in Mallard.

So we found out, uh, where it was from, how old it was. But then I cut a little piece off and really, uh, dug into its background and figured out where this Mallard came from. And he ended up being like 75% wild Mallard.

And then, um um the other 25 black duck so and you killed that here in montana uh he did yeah okay yeah it was cool dr phil can you show us around the lab there where you're doing your work and we're going to try to describe it we got to describe it to the folks or if you will what you're showing us because there's some folks will be listening to this that can't see the video. That's right. And we did a little video test before the show today, and the video was crystal clear. It's a little clogged right now.

It's a little fuzzy, but you sound great, and we still get a general vibe of the lab, Phil. So if you just want to walk us around, that'd be great. Yeah, sure. No, again, that little kit that Max max was talking about it'd be something like this it comes with some vials instructions and so forth we've updated that so uh those folks that uh will be lucky enough to participate we'll get the updated uh version of that soon and so yeah your your samples or any other the samples that we're working on again we work on waterfowl but we do

whatever the state federal or private individuals need work done whether it's on other birds bear whales we've done just about all of that work and so over here your samples would come in and the first thing we would do we would extract the DNA good yeah hi my name is Daniel Wilson I'm a NSF technician working here at Dr. Redsky's lab. So here I'm doing the first step of DNA extractions where you separate the DNA from the matter. And this is like the most critical step to assessing any living organism's ancestry. Yeah. And then what we do is we walk over here. We're going to put it on what's known as a gel to see, did we get any good duct DNA? So, hey, y'all.

I'm Lauren McFarlane. I'm a PhD student in Luretsky Lab. And here we're going to be illuminating a gel to see if the DNA shows up and is good for sequencing or not. Lauren's from Baton Rouge. They have a terrible football team. That's right. It's hard to see, if you if you look in there We're looking for these nice little bands telling us yes, there is good DNA or no

There is not interesting and now what's gonna happen is that we'll move that DNA over anything good To our PCR station over here My name is Kim I'm an NSF technician also working in the labrescu lab. Right now I'm at the PCR station where we amplify the DNA so that we can properly sequence and analyze its ancestry. I thought this job was cool. Yeah. And then the way we amplify them, we're going to use those little bad boys right there that

they're called thermocyclers. They take care of uh temperature gradients in a specific way where we can amplify that dna basically you know who's your daddy kind of thing uh uh same exact thing same exact process and then in the end we're going to put them into long-term storage in these minus 80s uh So all the duck DNA participants, all your DNA is there for future generations to work on. I know you guys talked to Colossal and Revive and Restore folks about biobanking. This is essentially biobanking the genetic diversity of our waterfowl populations, right? So for future use, if something terrible happens, we're going to have the genetic diversity of redheads and canvasback and blue-winged teal cinnamon teal mallards gadwell everything so in case we got a bioengineer something

we're gonna have it so again your samples are not only important today but into the future yeah go ahead go ahead one last one last station we're gonna is where we actually analyze your ancestry. Okay. Hi, my name is Victoria, and here's where we clean our DNA sequences so then afterwards we can analyze it and see what we got. So, yeah, the old AGCT craziness over there. And there it is.

Confusing. That's what happens to your DNA. So once we figure all that out, you get a certificate, like Max said, saying congratulations, you harvested a whatever it might have been. So cool. Can you give me off the top of your head the most unique discovery that you all have made in the lab associated with DNA? Oh, the most unique.

I mean, I would say the Mallard. One hybrid, maybe? One hybrid, yeah. So we all know that Mallards can interbreed with just about everything. We did pick up actually a couple now, Mallard wood duck. Oh, so cool. We also picked up Mallard muscovy out of Florida.

Really? Those things are so genetically different. I didn't expect them to make any babies. Now the question is, is that baby a mule or is it viable? Yeah, is it going to be sterile? Who knows? But we know that that does happen now. The other cool thing is that we now actually have some brewer duck females, right?

The hardest thing for all of us is to identify hybrid females because they look the same, right? So the whole question is, oh, are all hybrids males because females are not viable or not? Now we know for sure they're out there. And so now we have techniques to actually be able to figure that out. So cool. That is awesome. That's crazy good. Anything else for Dr. Phil, Dr. Phil,

anything you want to cover in 30 seconds that, uh, 30 seconds. Yeah. I just want to say go tigers. There she goes. She's fine. Uh,

anyways, no, uh, yeah, no. What I wanted to cover is I hope folks can get online, uh, really quickly get on duck dna.com

put your names in there so we can see you know participation keep going up make sure that this uh this program goes on uh you know into the future folks have uh the ability to participate we know we had some uh folks come in and say hey my kid wouldn't go out hunting unless he could you know he she uh could put their duck into duck dna so we know this is a great recruitment tool um it doesn't have to be some you know cool duck and it could just be your first duck which is awesome yeah right just send us in send us whatever you want and we'll do it we'll make it happen um to the oh no we lost him no that's okay he was we were right at the end there.

Oh, that was good. Oh, he's back. Oh, he's back. He's back. I'm back. Hey, video looks better too. I'm in and out. Also, if you're ever interested in learning about waterfall ecology management,

we have an online course that we're going to be teaching. You can look it through UTEP that I'll be teaching that you can get a certificate or credit or anything like that. So please look that up, but otherwise, yeah, keep participating and, um, thank you for all the hunters that have and will participate. So thank you guys. Thanks, Dr. Phil. Thank you. Yeah. I think our Phil, uh, put some links in the comment section and, um, I know you can find out more information on, uh, Ducks Unlimited, their their big partner in this yeah um so run over to their website and um yeah so apply and um like i said this is a super cool project to work on thank you all the folks there in the lab thank you all very much thanks guys thanks guys thank you see ya all right we're on to our next segment which is Thanks, guys. Thanks, guys. Thank you. See you. All right.

We're on to our next segment, which is the indefensible law. A Korean made it in there. Korean, what key were you in? Give me an R. Alright. This is indefensible law is where we pitch hunting and fishing laws that are

indefensible. But we'll try to convince each other why it's a good idea anyway. I'll go first. I got to think about it yesterday. I am not. I know I'm going to get some hate for this, but muzzleloader season. You got muzzleloaders, and then you got inline muzzleloading rifles.

Now, to me, that's not a muzzleloader. A muzzleloader, I looked in the dictionary, a muzzleloader is something that you load from the same end that the bullet comes out of. So my idea would be that if you have a muzzle loader season, you should be shooting a muzzle loader, and inline rifles don't count. Changed my mind. Max?

I don't know much about it, so you're going to talk to Seth about that. I grew up in a state where flintlock hunting was king, so I'm there with you. And that's a primitive weapon. Primitive. Now, in Arkansas this year, they included straight wall cartridges in the muzzleloader season. And I thought, well, that's not a muzzleloader. So what they did was they changed the name to alternative weapon, which that's exactly what it is, an alternative weapon there. But as far as muzzleloaders go, in my brain, as small as it is,

I picture a muzzleloader as you pour the powder, the wadden, and then the bullet, and then you either fire a flint to ignite the powder or you put a primer cap in there. That's my indefensible law right there. There you go. That's a good one. Yeah. Maxie?

Oh, so mine is going to be geared towards hunters that use dogs. So before hunting season, obviously you buy a license, right? Yep. My law is going to be I wanted to create a license option so you can buy a license for your dog. Okay. So you go out in the field, whether you're upland hunting, duck hunting, squirrel hunting for you, you get a limit, right? Yeah. But with that second license, your dog also gets a limit.

They're doing all the hard work. Hey, now, in Arkansasansas years ago if you had a hunting dog he had to have a hunting license oh really so he should have a limit too yep that that's gone away but my dad uh would be right here with you right now because he was running like 10 or 15 walker dogs at a time you know coyotes. And he had to have an individual license for each one. So it can get expensive. Yeah. But I see what you mean there.

I mean, they're doing all the hard work, so why not reap the reward a little bit? So what do you think, Seth? Well, I think there's going to be a lot of people in the comments arguing with the other one. Population. Namely a bunch of game warriors. Yeah, maybe. I do like the license for with the population. Namely a bunch of game wardens. Yeah. I do like the license for the dog idea. Yeah.

Riley says that, what does he say? Oh, dog. That's not what I wanted to press. With the God, with having a license, I feel like people

would take advantage of that with like 10 dogs. That's true. Yeah. See, this is why we're just making this up.

You could take some puppies out there. Yeah, that'd be a lot of dead ducks. Yeah. Maybe we shouldn't do that. dogs yeah that's true yeah see take a whole litter of puppies making this up so you could take some puppies out there yeah that'd be a lot of dead ducks yeah yeah maybe maybe we shouldn't do that but well it was it's in the it was a good thought that's the that is defensible there um mine is well a couple that was about a month ago i was out fishing and uh came back to the boat ramp to pull my boat out of the water and head home. And some guy backed down the ramp, was taking his time, slowly got his boat put on his trailer. And then it's a one lane boat ramp.

He decided to pull his boat up and stop about halfway up and continue to put all his rods away and make sure his boat was covered and it should be illegal to block a dang boat ramp hey a boat ramp is there to back down put your boat in or back down pull your boat out yeah do it quick and there was a there's about 10 people behind me waiting oh and this guy's watching though yeah, he's taking his time. He just didn't care. I mean, he knows that y'all are there and he's just doing his own thing. Yeah, just doing his own thing. So, you should get

a ticket. You should get fined if you're blocking a boat ramp. And other fishermen should be able to write those tickets. There you go. Yeah, I can't argue with that. That just goes back to you can't legislate manners, and you ought to be able to.

You know, you got to look out for everybody else. We're all in this thing together. Yep. And I'm sorry I didn't see you. I really wasn't paying attention, so I'll try to be faster next time. I thought it looked like you, Brent. Yeah, we should, did anybody come in with hot tips or indefensible laws in the comments section, Phil? I'm not getting any sort of original ones, just some.

West Slope Outdoors says, I'm with Seth. Yeah. There we go. Yeah, 100%. Then we've got Michael Hutchison saying that Pennsylvania people shouldn't complain about bad drivers. Okay. I drive just fine. It's New Jersey that's Ralph on drivers.

Yeah, I think you're right. What about any other listener feedback? Let's see here. What do we got? Corrine, we've got more demand for the Werner Bratzler. Where's a meat cutting test? They brought in mystery meat. Why not test it? That's a tender one.

It would have scored well. Yeah, it would have been nice. Let's see. Brian's asking if Max has ever shot a legitimate triple. Oh, that's a funny story. That is a funny story. One time I shot a triple, and I told all my hunting buddies i was like yeah that was a legitimate triple and there's this kind of a funny backstory and kind of had had to be their

moment so i got you yeah no one believed you no one believed me huh uh yeah we've got nick in here which i don't think this is that indefensible, Sunday hunting in PA. Oh, that should absolutely be a thing. It's crazy that it's not. Yeah, it's all about opportunity and folks have limited opportunities. I mean, that's an extra day right there that you can get someone who doesn't normally get to go hunting or kids

to get them in there. So that's 100%. West Slope also says that inlines should be allowed during rifle season only. I can't argue. I'm with you, brother. Yep. Yeah.

Anyway. Love it. All right. Good deal. Yeah. I think that was a good show, guys. A lot of fun. Learned a lot of stuff.

The Duck DNA thing and Jake and Riley up in New England. That's good stuff. All right. On next week's Meat Eater Radio, Giannis, Spencer, and Randa will be discussing Project Grizzly for the Meat Eater Movie Club. If you want to join in on their discussion, you can watch that documentary

on YouTube for free. That's it for live today. Thank y'all so much for joining. Later, folks. 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. 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

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