The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 663: MeatEater Radio Live! | 02.13.25 | Steve's Birthday, Leather with Heather Douville, and Grayling in Michigan

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

Hosts Steve Rinella, Brody Henderson, and Seth Morris celebrate Steve's birthday, talk fur and leather with Heather Douville, throwback to memories with Steve, and chat about bringing grayling back to Michigan with Randy Claramunt. Watch the live stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel. Connect with The MeatEater Podcast Network MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey American history buffs, hunting history buffs, listen up, we're back at it with another volume of our Meat Eaters American History series. In this edition titled The Mountain Men, 1806-1840, we tackle the Rocky Mountain beaver trade and dive into the lives and legends of fellows like Jim Bridger, Jed Smith, and John Coulter. This small but legendary fraternity of backwoodsmen helped define an era when the West represented not just unmapped territory, but untapped opportunity for those willing to endure some heinous and at times violent conditions. We explain what started the Mountain Man era and what ended it.

We tell you everything you'd ever want to know about what the mountain men ate, how they hunted and trapped, what gear they carried, what clothes they wore, how they interacted with Native Americans, how 10% of them died violent deaths, and even detailed descriptions of how they performed amputations on the fly. It's as dark and bloody and good as our previous volume about the white-tailed deer skin trade which is titled The Long Hunters 1761-1775. So again, you can buy this wherever audiobooks are sold. Meat Eaters American History The Mountain Men 1806-1840 by Stephen Rinella. Holy shit. It's me, Eater Radio Live, 11 a.m. Montana time.

That's kind of like mountain time. MT. Yep. Mountain time, Thursday, February 13th. It's my birthday. I turned 51 today. Live from Eater headquarters in Bozen, Montana, I'm your host Steve or known I'm joined today by Brody Henderson and Seth Morris and not I will point out By the man who's supposed to be here

I'm glad he's not Because I like Seth better and dr. Randall Now that you're a doctor too Do well, we've actually got Randall on the line. Should we talk to him? Don't say that because that's not a thing. That's not a thing yet. Nothing. Today's show we're going to check in with our friend and newly added meat eater colleague, Heather Duville, to see what sort of critter hides and first she's working on. We're going to take a trip down memory lane, do some throwback Thursday, and we're going to talk about some very exciting

news that a lot of people might not recognize as exciting. But we're gonna explain why it's so exciting is a, a grayling, an Arctic grayling reintroduction in Michigan. Pretty cool. No, it's super cool, man. It's super cool. We're going to get into that. First, we're going to try to hear what, why Randall couldn't make it. I called him earlier. He had no problem answering the phone. He's supposedly stuck in the snow, but here he is. It doesn't look snowy where you're at. Steve, I'll point out to you that I'm in my garage and there's, there's a fair bit of snow in the garage this morning.

We, uh, I was told we got up to 87 mile an hour winds last night in Livingston here. Yeah. Home. Every time you talk, I'm'm gonna make the noise that I hear when I hear that someone can't make it to Work because of the snow ready every time you talk. I'll do it Go ahead We got some good trips going. I, uh, why did I call that? Because you don't think because you didn't come to work because you chicken,

cause you got snow. Let me see. Well, so the snow, it's blown away from everywhere else, except for, uh, the driveway and the road. Let's see. So we got some good drifts here. This is right in front of the garage. Oh, wow. Look at that. Dang.

And yeah, that's what happens. Here's a looks like your truck is out. Well, I need a truck looks fine. And it looks like it's on the other side of the drip. The issue is There's a massive drift here I don't know if you can see the bend in the road out this way and I got the can-am stuck trying to plow that out so I had to get my truck out to pull the can-am out and, there's an excavator on the way, but it's got to take its way out here, so...

I'll just be here if you guys need me. You know, uh, Phil, can you... Oh, go ahead. I was trying to remember. I had to do one thing on here. Oh! Happy birthday to you! Oh, good birthday to you. All right, good talking to you Randall.

Phil, can you do Randall a favor and save that clip? Cause when we caught him loose and we fire him for not coming to work, he can maybe use that and try to get one of those jobs where you talk about how bad the weather is and you're like the weather guy. Oh, that's really kind of you to think of him after a few fires. Yeah, like, you know, there's a big snowstorm in Buffalo, New York, and then they send a guy out there with a parka and he's like, look at all the snow on these cars.

Yeah, Randall would be good at that. The wind's picking up. Yeah, great job for Randall. Oh, got some business to talk about. For those of you, I know that those of you in Michigan are already excited as hell about the Grayling reintroduction that's coming that we're gonna talk about. But if you're in Nashville, you might be saying to yourself, what could I be, what should I be excited about? Well, I'll tell you.

If you're in and around Nashville and or attending the National Wild Turkey Federation convention. I'm reading this and that's not a great way of putting it because it shouldn't say and or because you follow me? Yeah, I got you. Oh no, because they could be far away right now. So you say in Nashville and they're like, well, I'm far away from Nashville. But then you say, or attending the NWTF convention in Nashville, they might be like, oh, I better pay attention because I'll be in Nashville on Saturday. Right. Yeah. So yeah, if you're around

Nashville and or attending the NWTF convention and sports show this week, that's a hell of, I like that show. It's a hell of a good time. Our colleagues, Yanni, Yanni, the Lavian lover, O'Call, Clay Newcomb, Spencer Newhart are all there and they're hosting the Grand Slam after party in the Tennessee ballroom tomorrow night. Valentine's Day night. The event starts at 8.45 PM. Okay, this is for NWTF. Get your tickets for 40 bucks. Buying a ticket enters you to win

one of six dream turkey hunts. They're also gonna be raffling off a boatload of guns and a bunch of new turkey gear from First Light FHF and Phelps game calls. Plus Spencer's going to be hosting a meat pole style trivia. How meat pole works is you survey everybody that comes in the room and then you do a trivia show around. You do basically being asked trivia questions about the people in the room, percentages. What percent of the people in the room tonight blank, right? You got to figure out what they're thinking.

Yeah, like what percent P sitting down? I don't know, whatever the hell Spencer wants to ask him. And you can win stuff that way. That would be fun. No, I'd go if I was there. Where are we sitting right now? Oh, so we did Randall, my former colleague, Dr. Randall, oh, Spencer chimed in.

He says, I'm on a plane headed there now. Okay. That's great to hear. Safe travels. Doctor, my former colleague, Dr. Randall, and I did our first of our little mini tour, our mountain man mini tour, where we're going to colleges to give,

we're going to colleges to talk about the mountain man era. We did our first one the other night, which was very fun. We did it at Montana State University. We're going to University of Montana on February 20, and we're going to University of Wyoming and Laramie, Wyoming on February 26th. So go check those things out. Like they're supposedly sold out, but I gotta figure that.

I mean, they are, but I feel like there should be more room there. Oh, I'm supposed to look at the TV. My queue says, look at TV. Hey. Happy birthday, Steve Rinella. Man, we respect the heck out of you. Hope you have a great birthday.

I have not forgot that you don't know how to blow a crow call though. If you just put a little more, ooh, ooh, a little body coming from the chest right here. Ah, ah, ah, ah. It'll sound way better than that Blue jay call you make. Happy birthday. Oh hey Steve. Happy birthday. This is uh kind of awkward. Siku-wu-yagi, Siku-wu-yagi, Siku-wu-yagi, Siku-wu-yagi In Tlingit that translates to G year old!

This is a good birthday song. Happy birthday Steve, I hope you have a great day. Hey, happy birthday Steve. It sure inspired millions of people, including myself. It's almost as if you're getting younger. And yeah, it's really cool to see and keep as an example of how to live a life. So here's to another 50 years. Hey Steve, happy birthday from Minnesota. It has been just an honor to get to teach you how to bow hunt and fish.

You've been a pretty good student and I like that. So I hope you have a good birthday, buddy. Hey, happy birthday, Steve. Happy birthday, Steve. Shit. Happy birthday, Steven Rinella from me and my boy Mingus here. We're out on the Mountain Lion Mountain. No tracks today, but still a fine day. I was thinking for your birthday Radio Live episode You could do a hot tip for everybody on how to keep your head warm in these super cold conditions Especially when your hair is getting so thin

If you have to wear two hats or maybe put a hand warmer up there. I don't know exactly what you do. You can go ahead and say it. What a dick! But that's what friends are for on your birthday. You got so many friends wishing you happy birthday. I heard Cory Calkins had to give them all a first like gift card to make these videos, but it's all good. Uh, but in all seriousness, be grateful for what you do have on your birthday. That awesome family of yours. Uh, that's awesome thing called meat eater that you've created. Um, and, uh, as always, I'm grateful to call you a friend and, uh, let's get out here soon.

Look at him. Mangus come here. Come here. Are you ready to go? He's ready to go. This boy at him. Mangus, come here. Come here. Are you ready to go? He's ready to go. This boy's ready to get a lion for you. Let's go. Woof, woof, woof.

Yo, Steve. Happy birthday, man. Hope you're having a good one. Hey, buddy. It's Decoy Dave over here in Oregon trying to get over COVID. I just wanted to say happy birthday from me and from all of us at DSD. And thanks for all your hard work and inspiration in creating all this and hope that you and your family have a great one.

Happy birthday Steve from me and old Waley. I remember when I was 51. I think. All right. Thank you everybody. Happy birthday. Happy birthday Steve. What dirt didn't bring up. Oh, look at this.

Thank you Bill. There you go. That's so cute. What dirt didn't bring up in his message is me and him struck a deal where I gave him a brand new climbing rope and He was supposed to give me a little picture frame thing. Nothing. Haven't seen it hasn't happened yet No, very asymmetrical deal anyways, and I got screwed on it

Yeah, okay, that was the trim piece in your camper, right? Yeah. Yeah, I didn't want to confuse everybody It took me to it would take me too long to explain. It's actually trim piece for my camper but it's gonna look like a picture frame. It is, because I ripped out the microwave in my camper. Because any time you want to microwave something in my camper, you gotta go turn the generator on. So if you're like, oh, I'm gonna heat this cup of coffee up, go outside, turn the generator on, come back in.

By that point, I'll just heat it up on the burner. Yeah. It didn't make any sense. So I ripped it out, and we keep loaves of bread up in there, but I just heat it up on the burner. Yeah. You know, it didn't make any sense. So I ripped it out and we keep loaves of bread up in there, but I just don't like the way it looks now. It looks like something used to be there. Yeah. So dirt's supposed to be fine in a way where it looks like

God put it there that way, like it grew there, you know? Yep. All right, we're gonna go to Heather Duville. Heather, you know what, can Heather see us good? Not yet, but I prepared a drop for this, Steve, because I was told to prepare a drop. Oh, okay. So do you want to read what the script says? There's no script here. Number three buddy. Oh. Ready? Yeah go ahead. Next up we're going to check in with Heather Duville for a new segment we're calling Fur and Leather with Heather. I hope the fish is in the smokehouse.

Phil, that's your best one yet. That was the best one ever, man. You know what he did is he cut right to the good part of the song. Yeah, that's great, Phil. Glad you like that. Here's how I'm gonna intro the segment. Watch.

That was a total surprise. I did not know about the song over here laughing, but yes, that caught my eye. That otter sitting on your table. Phil, can I verify that what people can see? No, no, make it narrow again. Cause you're blowing the whole effect. Oh, sorry.

Yeah. Make it really narrow. I mean, that's a narrow. So is that way it looks for people at home? Does it look that narrow? Yes. Okay. Now check this out. Watch how long it takes for this to pass.

All the way? All the way through? Come on, we've only got an hour for this podcast. I mean, watch how long this takes. Oh, it's going over to the other you. Watch. Can you believe this? When we had those ladies on that were mauled by a river otter.

Wow. Look at this. And people are like, well, how could a river otter kick your ass? Oh, the angle's bad. Oh, here. Let's do it again where the angle's better. How could a river maul you? that's five feet ten inches tall. Wow. That's a big one. What are we going to spill out of it? And that, I think I might just keep it as a wall

hanger. I was going to do a hat, but I don't know. But what the point being, that's a river otter, and Heather's dealing with sea otters, and that's a river otter that weighs 25 and a half pounds. What's a big sea otter, Heather? I got my biggest sea otter this winter and it weighed 99 pounds. Imagine that thing kicking your ass. That's bigger than a coos deer buck. Yeah. Oh, that's crazy. Heather had, I think I posted it. Did I post? I think I posted it. Heather had, she went out hunting it. Oh, sorry, go ahead. Oh, that's crazy. Heather had, I think I posted it. I think I posted it. Heather had, she went out hunting. Oh, sorry, go ahead. Oh, it's bigger than my deer that I got.

Yeah, sick of black. She had a buck in a outer lane in the bottom of the boat and the outer looked bigger than the buck laying in the bottom of the boat. That's crazy. All right, so how's winter going, Heather? What's going on? It's going on?

It's going well. You know, we, a lot of people celebrate New Year, you know, January 1st, but our New Year is coming up with the resurgence of life in springtime. So we spend a lot of time in the winter here, just in my shop and just like the rest of the environment, hibernating, resting. And then as things awaken in the spring, we come to life and start our harvest season and that kind of marks our new year and yeah. Is that, is the new year, is the new year a day or is it the new year to sort of like regard it

as a window of time, like a broader window of time seasonal you know awakening new plants got it so there's not like a specific day when you announce it no but sometimes always feels like the new year for us I've been on, I've been learning how to tan deer skins with tree bark. And I have a, I tan my first seal skin at home. So it's here stretched on a frame. Can you grab that and let us see the other side? Yeah. So Steve, this is the seal skin that was hanging in the drying shed when you were here.

Okay. And I tamed it. It's pretty big. Actually, this frame is huge. Yeah. I think tall, but this is a harbor seal. Oh, you can't see the whole thing, but you can see the back of it. This frame is making it. Oh that turned out nice. Yeah.

This is not done but you can see where I've dry scraped it and where I haven't. So as you scrape it it'll lighten up in color and it'll soften up. So it takes a lot of elbow grease. So working on that. So what, as you're learning to do your own seals, I remember you telling me that, I remember you saying that it's hard to find, there's not a lot of good places to send seals.

Yeah, seals are- Like you haven't been satisfied with sending them in to get them tanned. Yeah, seals are- Like you haven't been satisfied with sending them in to get them tanned. Yeah, seals are really oily. You have to wash them right away after you skin them or else the oils will oxidize on the fur and turn the fur yellow. Okay.

They're really rubbery, so they'll stretch like 10 times their original size. And I think they're hard to thin. And it's just a really unique art when it comes to tanning them. And I haven't found a tannery that tans them in a way that I guess produces the end product that can be sewn with.

So I decided to try it myself and yeah, just learning as I go. So at, with, with Coastal Fur, Coastal Fur and Leather Sewing Shop, will you eventually, do you think you'll get, where you are able to have enough volume that you're selling products made from, that seals you harvest and tan and sew,

where like the whole process becomes in-house or do you think that it'd be too hard to ever have that level of volume? I think with sea otters no, but with seals we so sea otters the usable parts are the fur but with seals we eat the meat we render the fat and we use as much of the seal as possible. So we only harvest like two a year. So for seals we can definitely, you know, tan them here and convert them into sellable items. We're not able to sell whole pelts. The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires us to convert them to a sellable item. So hat, scarves, and things like that in order to try to recoup costs. So definitely feasible with seals,

but not sea otter because we hunt those in greater volume. Now walk me through what's going on with learning how to bark tan your deer skins. I brought my two totes here. I'm gonna grab the computer and show you. So I have in here, this is white tail. It's buckskin. Damn, look at that. Wow, that looks awesome. I didn't know that buckskin just means like hair off. I thought it meant like a buck deer, like a deer, but buckskin means the hair is off. I didn't know that. So this is white tail hide. And this is like a tree bark tee. I'll show you.

You can see all the bark in there. Yep, yep. So this is called a drench and this is the tanning agent. So some trees have a lot of tannins in them. Yeah, what trees are you using? Are you using hemlock? This is actually oak, but the local trees here that have a lot of tannins

are alder and spruce and hemlock. And this drench is a oak brand. So what we did was we soaked this in lime to de-air, which is you know real high pH, and then we put it in this drench, which lowers the pH back down in preparation to put it into the tanning solution. So I'm really excited to learn this process. It's all natural and non-toxic. So all of these products when I'm done with it

can be composted or put back into the earth and not cause harm. And yeah, I hope to learn this and be able to teach this soon. So when you come down to headquarters, I know you're working on this plan, where you're going to come down to headquarters, you're going to help people tan their deer skins that people save up over next. So will we be able to do, like, if we get all set up in our kitchen area, how many can we run through, do you think?

Yeah, so we can make these solutions to tan, you know, one hide or hundreds of hides, just adjust the different measurements. But one of my goals is, you know, we try to use as much of what we harvest as possible and reduce waste whenever we can. So I love to learn the different ways to use the materials that we have and then also teach. So if I can come there, if you guys wanna save your deer skins and if I'm able to teach you guys, I would love that. Oh, we're definitely doing that, man.

Yeah, what is it? What would the timeline be from killing a deer and skinning it to turning that into what you're doing there? So you could put it, like if you were to skin it and immediately tan it or, okay. So you'd skin it and you wanna make sure you skin it close so you don't have to skin it twice. But if you leave flesh and fat on there,

you know, we can always flesh it. I would say about two weeks. Okay. Okay. So you'll get a set up like we'll, we'll save deer hide, whoever wants to save a deer hide and, and uh, we'll kind of instruct them on what they want to, you know, so everything's ready. We'll get set up. You'll come down, introduce the process, make sure everything's going good. And then we could kind of carry on once we get started in your absence. Yeah. Yeah, you look it in the lime and that takes, you know,

like three days or it could, you could soak it for a week. So that's like, you do this and then you wait and then you put it in the next solution and wait. So there's a lot of time there where we can work or we can sow. Heather, if you wanted to do it hair on, do you just skip the lime process? Or is it, you have to do it hair on, do you just skip the lime process? Or is it, is it, you have to do it totally different?

It's a little different with seals. Um, yeah, you skipped that bucking process. Gotcha. Put it right in. Yeah. No, man, I want the, I want buckskin. Hey, American history buffs, hunting history buffs. Listen up. buckskin. Hey American history buffs, hunting history buffs, listen up we're back at it with another volume of our Meat Eaters American History series. In

this edition titled The Mountain Men 1806 to 1840 we tackle the Rocky Mountain beaver trade and dive into the lives and legends of fellas like Jim Bridger, Jed Smith and John Coulter. This small but legendary fraternity of backwoodsmen helped define an era when the West represented not just unmapped territory, but untapped opportunity for those willing to endure some heinous and at times violent conditions.

We explain what started the mountain man era and what ended it. We tell you everything you'd ever want to know about what the mountain men ate, how they hunted and trapped, what gear they carried, what clothes they wore, how they interacted with native Americans, how 10% of them died, violent deaths, and even detailed descriptions of how they performed amputations on the fly.

It's as dark and bloody and good as our previous volume about the white-tailed deer skin trade, which is titled The Long Hunters, 1761 to 1775. So again, you can buy this wherever audiobooks are sold. Meat Eaters American History, The Mountain Men, 1806 to 1840 by Stephen Rinella. You know, Heather, my old man saved up a bunch of his deer skins and he had this super 1970s buckskin jacket. Oh, that's cool. You know, in the seventies, they'd put the belts on everything and everything.

Yeah. Yeah. But he had it dyed black and it was all his own deer skins. I don't know what in hell happened to that thing. Like someone horked it when he died. Like we had a lot of different family members kind of running off with stuff. I mean, you know, they're right.

But someone horked that jacket. Did you guys have, like during deer season, people would put out like 55 gallon drums, just like out in the country in spots and there'd be a sign there that said, dump your deer hide in here? No, but when our fur auction was Ravana fur auction, and when you went to the fur auction,

everything was bid on. Like, I would take this, like this otter would go up on the auction table, right? And you might have, let's say it was otters, you'd have them divided, large, medium, small, male, female, then every one of those things is a lot and they all get bid on individually. So if your trapper divides his muskrats into four piles, every pile gets bid on. Every trapper's every pile gets bid on. The way they would handle deer skins is

the first deer skin that came across the table. They'd bid on that deer skin and then that buyer entered into a contract and he bought every deer skin at that price. And it was usually like four or five, six bucks. And he, that's all going to a tannery to get turned into buckskin. And guys would be out in the parking lot, cutting them in half and stuff, you know, to roll it up and sell it as two. But it was real common to sell them. But see, like, I don't think the price has changed. So in the mid 80s, it was five bucks. And I think it's five bucks now, and now that's like a buck. And I think that people just

don't, it's just there's not money in it. And that leather mostly goes to gloves. Yeah. So I would dude I would love to learn how to make my own I just got too lazy to do it During the winter I work on like I try to make new patterns and try new things I made a seal skin coat which I have here. Yeah, put that coat on real quick I want to see that then we got a quote then we got a question for you a fan question Man, that's be put that thing on. Oh You is badass, man. That's beautiful. Put that thing on.

Oh, you trimmed it in too. That's like some natural camouflage there. That's what I tell that snow camel. Yeah. A fully removable washable liner. What? This thing weighs eight pounds. It's so heavy.

It's like a weighted blanket. God, that is amazing though. It's so old in here. Have you been running around that? Oh I wear it just in the house. I can't, I just love this thing. Would you be allowed to sell that jacket? Would that be, would that fit the definition of made into something? Yes. I can't even hear you. Yeah. What would you have to get for that jacket? Oh I don't even know. I don't think you could put a value on things like this. I mean, this is a custom pattern. I made the pattern from a coat that I really liked and saved. And yeah, I do have

one other new pattern I'm going to show you. And then somebody wrote in and has a question. Yeah, we're going gonna hit with that question. But this other, this is super special. So I've never done this before, but do you guys know what this is? Yeah, no, yeah. A heating pad? No.

A heating pad, yeah. Oh, I was gonna say electric blanket, but then I was like, that's a very small electric blanket. Baby blanket. When you get old, everything hurts. So for Steve's birthday, I am making a custom for cover for this heating pad to help soothe all of those, um, aches and pains and midlife crises.

That's a novel product. That's a novel product. Yeah. I'm going to plug it in, get a long extension cord, take that power bank. Power bank. It's going to have a hundred million power lithium batteries sitting next to it. Okay. Here's a question from a fan. This is a... I have it here to help with the traditional words. Okay.

You want to do the question? I was going to read your question, but this- You can, there's some fling it in there. So I thought- Oh, then you do it. Go ahead. Okay, I'll do it. Then you do it.

Okay. So Heather was asked, how far are you typically shooting when sea otter hunting? I'm Kixadi. It's Kixadi. That's the clan he belongs to, which is Raven. Okay. I'm Kixadi out of Sitka and hoping to harvest my first sea otter this weekend, whether permitting. That's cool. And yep, she any other tips they ask. Then it says, oh, sorry. Oh, yeah, Heather, I didn't I didn't give that last

part to Steve. Yeah, that's my fault. goodness cheese to you and the meat eater crew goodness cheese means thank you. And this is from not yeah, that's his traditional name Lots. That's great Tlingit from Sitka Raven, which is my opposite. I'm Eagle clan so how far okay, so typically you're shooting from the boat and I would say within 100 yards.

Sometimes you can get off on a rock and shoot and get a rest and aim farther, but that really rarely happens. Any other tips? I would say it helps to have a good driver who, of course they have to be eligible to participate by the Marine Mammal Protection Act guidelines. Well, it's not guidelines, it's the law.

But I would say when you're approaching sea otter, make sure you go with the swell or the chop instead of against it. That way you're getting a smoother approach. And it helps to have a really light, like a hair trigger, real light trigger. And just takes a lot of practice, you're gonna miss a lot. And we shoot everything that we harvest. So whether it's a sea otter, seal, deer, we shoot.

We try to shoot everything in the head so it doesn't suffer. And that way we ensure that the pelt isn't damaged and the meat is not damaged. So. What cartridge are you shooting them with Heather? I started out shooting with a 222 and now last year I got an AR so for 223. One thing I noticed about Heather's shooting

and she explained it to me as well is she's not kind of hard to describe. Maybe you can help me when I bring this up. She's not fighting the movement. She's not fighting the movement of the boat. Like using the movement. Yeah, she's like, she was saying that you had this tendency to kind of want to like somehow rule fighting the movement of the boat. Like using the movement. Yeah. She's like, she was saying that you had this tendency to kind of want to like somehow rule out the movement of the boat

or overcome it, but she's, she's jiving. She's like jiving with the movement, you know? Timing it. Yeah. And you've got like having a good driver. My dad knows how to hunt, so he knows how to put you on the sea otter, but, but you want to shoot before they dive under so they're kind of laying there eating and then they when you approach them They sometimes they go See what's coming at him you want to get a shot off right then so you want to be ready because when they start to dive It turns into this It reminds me of those games at the arcade where you are standing there. These are popping up and you just don't know.

Yep. And it becomes more difficult. But yeah, so the boat is moving with the swell. They're moving in a distance at a different rate. So I kind of go on my tippy toes and bend my knees. And you want to move with the swell. And you're not going to get a steady aim and get those crosshairs on them for very long. So you just want to shoot right when

your crosshairs past their head. And yes, it just takes practice. Is there any danger of those otters sinking like a seal might or do they just stay afloat after you kill them? My first sea otter ever got sunk but they rarely sink. You want to shoot them in the head and their fur is so dense and it traps that air in the undercoat. They'll float but occasionally if you shoot a little low and they dive they might try to take a breath and breathe in water and then sink. But that doesn't happen very often.

And I would, you need to skin them right away because of the fur density they hold onto their heat. Even if it's zero degrees out, they'll stay warm for a really long time and the belly will get green and they'll stay warm for a really long time and the belly will get green and they'll spoil so skin them right away and yeah make sure you take good care of the materials that you get but like right away Heather you mean like you're you're skin them on the boat like as soon as they come in yeah either on the boat if if you can but usually you cruising, trying to hunt and get as many as you can. And as soon as I get home, I skin them on a tailgate,

which is the perfect height. We don't hang them when we skin them. I just roll them on my tailgate and that seems to work best for me. Good deal. Cool. Well, thanks for joining Heather. Yeah, thank you. Happy birthday, Steve.

Thank you very much. We'll talk to you again soon. It's great to have you on, and I look forward to talking to you next time. Me too. All right, Phil, listener feedback. You got it, buddy? Yeah, we've got a few.

Just a reminder to everyone, get some questions in if you want. We're gonna do another one of these at the very end of the show, or I might be able to catch some right now. Be fast. First one, let's see, this is about hunting history Steve. Episode two, someone's asking, Grant is asking, have they not used any LIDAR technology on those glaciers? Seems like you might find some fun stuff.

That's one thing no one brought up to me. Okay. Yeah. I'm trying to even think of, boy, I don't, you know, I've been with people using LIDAR. I don't even know how I, you know, I actually don't know how that technology works up against all that, that all that ice and like, yeah, a glacier has got a lot of air in it. Yeah. I have no, I I'm, I'm way, I'm already over my waiters. I have no idea.

I had no one mentioned that to me though. I can tell you that. Yeah. Uh, Colin asks, well, I guess first he says, Steve, I lost an inch of my pinky in a framing accident, pinched it in a lift. He's torn between turning it into a fishing lure or sending it to us to put in the Werner Bratzler machine.

Well, that's a great idea. If you sent it over, if it's nice and frozen, I'd like to eat it. Because I'm trying to find a way to be like a subject matter expert on cannibalism without killing anybody. I tried to explain my kids the other day that cannibals, they would call human meat, long pork and they were sure they weren't buying it. No, I've heard that. Yeah. Yeah. I'd like a little long pork. How much you got? Is it meaty? If not, I would put it into a, um, I a, I would, if I had that happen to me,

I would put it into a little jar of formaldehyde. And then people would come over and display it. And I'd be like, guess what that is? Turn that pinky bone into a little pendant for a necklace. Yeah, that's my boy's collar, his little surgery stuff they removed, I made a necklace. Oh, you put it in epoxy, that's right. Resin, yeah. Next question. collar as little surgery stuff they I'm holding right here is flesh stretched flesh and stretched and this lasts a long time I can't get my angle right where you can appreciate the

immensity um but no you'll get and also this is leather out so when you tan it will flip and then I'll I use those as wall hangers. Jovan Figueroa I guess asks first he says happy birthday Steve question for everyone at the table. Has anyone ever had any awkward situations dragging deer through permitted public hunting areas like parks or conservancies? No, but I'm sensitive to it. I don't think.

Well, I mean, awkward for who is the question, I guess. Not awkward for me, but yeah, I've carried some mule deer bucks down an escalator at a ski resort one time. That was pretty interesting. Uh, yeah, I know what you're talking about. And I have tended to, I actually had this discussion with a friend of mine once where it wasn't a deer, but we were carrying something up to a public parking lot. And I was wanting to hide it. He's like, not to be ashamed of him. I'm like, I'm not ashamed.

I just like, it's not like a matter of shame. I'm just, I like to be low pro. Yeah. Like I just don't, it's just, I just prefer to be low profile about it. It's like, it's like zero shame. I would just be like, why, if it's a place I'd like to hang out, why even draw like a little bit of a, or get someone pissed off or create some headache or someone calling even if you didn't do anything wrong, the fact that they're going to call the cops, call the whatever. And then you're going to have to explain yourself, even though you didn't do anything. So I usually just go like low profile on any kind of

situation like that. Like even at a public space, if there's, if you're parking and duck hunting at a spot and all the people are using the same parking lot, I don't come out just like, you know, throwing ducks all over the place. I'll throw them around later, but I just kind of go like, eh, just slip out of here. I make a scene. I used to hunt a bunch in New Jersey back in the day. And here. I make a scene. I used to hunt a bunch in New Jersey back in the day and it was often like real small woodlots and you would always have to like be real careful about shot placement because you didn't want it to like get on the run over die in the neighbor's yard like especially there's snow on the ground yeah I just heard some horror stories like deer dying in swimming pools and oh

like yeah it was you know it was something you kind of had to watch out for when you're hunting those small parcels. Yep reduce intentions. Yeah next question. Kentucky Thunder Outdoors says happy birthday if you had to choose would you wear a cowboy hat for a month or eat vegan for a year? I'd go cowboy hat. Yeah, that's not even a question. Kentucky Thunder, I like that. That's a good name. Got a big strutting gobbler. I know if I was going turkey hunting with a dude named Kentucky Thunder outdoors, I'd be like we're gonna get something. And you'd be wearing a cowboy hat.

We'll do one more for this round. Jeremy from Australia asks if you've ever had any encounters when predators harassed or attacked your pack animals when you were hunting? only the opposite where elk would take a great interest in take a great interest in livestock at a couple of occasions but no I've definitely heard that I've never seen it but I don't know what livestock a lot I'm like I like I'm the last guy I would ask a livestock question to yes no I mean I've had my dog run into a bear a couple of times, but no livestock issues. Okay. You're all going to give you a different piece of advice. If you're going to ask livestock questions, I've learned it. You can only ask a livestock question. This is going to sound like this, going to annoy people.

You can only ask a livestock question as someone that was raised around livestock. Yeah. Like it's not one of those things you can come into late in life. Right. There's just too much subtlety to it. You know, like guys that really know about horses, like you'll see a horse, be like, Oh, it looks like a horse to me. And people will be like, Oh no, he like is having whatever problem or he's, you know what I mean? They just, they can just sense it. Yeah. I feel like I looked at a horse that maybe had like one little lameness in

its leg. I wouldn't see anything, but that guy would be like, you can't ride that one. Yeah, no, no, like they'll be able to tell you about its parents and stuff. You can't get that. No, it's amazing to people that grew up around it. You know, it's just one of those things you got to absorb. So yeah, I'd go find out and talk to me about it. But no, I'll be able to tell you if something showed up in a bear ate something. That's never happened, but it happens. I think

Just to be a little more helpful. I've more I guess even what I'm saying. I've heard more about stuff coming for the feed Mmm, that makes like bears getting tuned into the to the to the supplement the grain and stuff for the horse I think a bigger danger than predators killing your livestock is livestock killing you if you're using horses or mules, you know Yeah, doing things. Yeah. Yeah, if I had a pistol with me, that's what my pistol before Shooting the horse try to defend myself Yeah, i've seen some horse wrecks All right, uh throwback thursday. This is going to take require 10 minutes from 1135 to 1145. What time is it? It's 1141 We're already screwed

This is my favorite one of his songs. It's fitting because you're one year older today. He's past the point where birthdays matter though. Oh dude, it really doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. My kids today were, so funny, my little boy, my older boy boy and he's in wood shop and he'd made a honey dipper you know what you call honey yeah the little thing with the grooves in it but the kid who was responsible for staining them all put

like a lead-based stain so my boys like he gives it to me he's like you can't really though it's more like just for show like actual stain on it oh look at that you can set him down can I eat my cupcake we'll get them you can eat while we're doing our little throwback yeah I put my ring on too bills kind of under selling the short throwback segment. He's not real interested in it. Oh no, it's a good one.

It's just not as jam-packed as other ones, because Steve's not participating. Seth, we'll have you go first here. Yeah, this photo here, I just had to go through my cell phone real quick to see what I had on there, because it was a late notice since Randall ditched us here but uh giant beaver this was I think the first time we went trapping together we filmed that little thing for YouTube mm-hmm and yeah we caught a few nice beers but this was the biggest one I can tell it's a long time ago because I don't have a blue shirt like that. Yeah. I think it was 21 maybe. Wow. 20.

That might've been 20. God, I was probably 20. And then we've got this video, Seth. Yeah, this is just a video from the fish shack. This was an old rusted double barrel that Steve has up there. We're we're curious if it's still shot or blow up So he had that helmet on trigger it's hard to keep guns working up there huh at the end here he says I'm gonna hang that up and let it rust some more hang that back up let it rust some more yeah good times let's, we got some pretty. Oh yeah, show the other one first, Phil. Oh, sorry about that.

There's an order to this. God, it looked like Jester. This is Stephen and I's first hunt together that we did for MeatEater. And I found him this buck. We were hiking in in the morning in the dark, remember and it was real hot for November. Mm-hmm And we were hiking in and after like, I don't know 15 20 minutes Maybe a mile hike and Steve's like Brody Brody. What are we doing? Where are we going? Like he's getting real irritated Cuz I think he was swall sweated up. That's not why

But then we got to the glassing spot and he's like, Oh, I like this spot. Then we found that buck a few minutes later and later that day, Steve killed him. And then, uh, yeah, then I killed that little dinker later, later in the hunt. But you can see we're wearing some vintage first light. Oh yeah. I look like Chester. You can vintage FHF. That deer's got a bad hole in it.

We ain't walking away from that situation. Nope. So yeah, there we go. God, you were young Brody. Well so are you. Good lord. What happens to a man? This is probably not, I think it was at least nine years ago, maybe ten years ago.

What happens to a man? Age is like a disease. Old age. It's like a disease. But I feel like I'm, I don't know, I'm hiking around just as good now as I was back then. Yeah, I was reading about last night. I'm reading this book That my friend Ben has coming out called the mysterious. Mr. Nakamoto. It's about the inventor of blockchain and Bitcoin Yep, and anyways dudes in that world are big into I had no idea but dudes that are big into that world

like they were big into early internet and and Then up into the open the 2010 2009 big into early internet and, and, um, and then up in the, up in the 2010, 2009, big into cryptography and stuff. They also happened like that mindset. They're also big into cryogenics where they're like getting their, they get a lot of these dudes as they're dying, they're getting their brains frozen or their whole body's frozen and they just feel it's like healthcare. Right. Cause someday they're going to get rebooted.

But if you really had faith in that shit, if you really had faith, you'd go in right now, right? Not gonna happen. Come back later when you're kicking ass. Yep. Cause if you're going in, if you're going in an old dead guy and they bring you back, you still got a problem. Yeah. Yeah. For sure.

That's true. But if you, if you really believed, go now. Yeah. I don't know. Like I don't mind being my age. Like I feel like I hunt and hike and I'm better than I was back then Because you know you got the mentality to just go yeah I gotta say ever since I started hunting with you. I don't know is I don't know it's like any sort of slowdown no

No, you're just charging charging ahead. Yeah see for me. What's happening is I've always been too skinny, but when you get old it winds up being you're glad you were too skinny yeah you know I'm saying like don't carry around extra weight yeah you used to be weak now you're just not old I'm saying it was up working out yeah yeah all right where we have what happens next well I was actually told to supply a throwback Thursday picture, Steve. You know, I was thinking about all, just an endless trove of memories that we have together, Steve. And the one that I pulled out was this Tiki bar.

That's right. In Nashville. When I was trying to go to this Tiki bar by myself because I was ashamed. And then you, Katie, Cal, and Rourke Denver all joined. It looks like you're there with Vince Vaughn. He's got a Vince Bond thing going on. I forgot about that. It's kind of a crappy quality picture, but yeah, that was, that was February, 2020, a month before everything, everything shut down.

That was before I quit drinking. Yeah. Hmm. Anyway, fun times. You feel making out. All right. Where are we at? Oh, we've got Randy coming in. No, I'm excited about this, You feel making out? All right, where are we at? Oh, we've got Randy coming in. No, I'm excited about this, man. This is a good story. Next up on the phone, we have Fisheries Division Chief for Michigan's Department of Natural Resources. Randy, I'm gonna go out on a limb.

Well, I'll ask him what the hell his last name is. Claremont? Hello, Randy, thanks for being here and welcome to the show. What's going on? Hit me with your last name. I wanna make sure I got it right. Yeah, you did great, Steve.

It's Claremont and happy birthday, by the way. Thank you, buddy. All right, bunch of questions. Yeah. When, telling you how to do this in good order, when did Michigan lose, like what was the last Grayling? You know, it's funny you say that because the last Grayling was actually

in the Upper Peninsula in 1932. So there's, you know, you go back to the historic record, there's some debate about that. But the distribution in the Upper Peninsula was actually pretty small. It was not as big as the Northern Lower. And I understand you're familiar a little bit with the Muskegon area of Michigan. Yes, sir. So I pulled out an article from Ben East. This article was published in a Journal of

Outdoor Life in May of 1930. You mean the Ben East? Yeah, the Ben East. Oh. And he's trying to figure out if they're still grayling around Michigan, or if they've been extirpated. In particular, he talks to

an angler that's been fishing for grayling for years in the Muskegon area. What? And he cites him in this article. No way. That's pretty cool. The angler initials E.S. Magoon of Muskegon area. They cite some of this article. No way. That's pretty cool. The Angler was initials ES Magoon of Muskegon, Michigan. The Rumbria 1930 article right now. And he said, I fished for grayling.

I would in the early 1880s, I catch one after another and Carlton, San, Cleveland and Silver Creek said empty into the white river. And gotta be kidding me. Really? Oh, that's cool. Probably some of those streets. Yeah. Cleveland and Silver Creek said empty into the White River. And you gotta be kidding me, really? Oh, that's cool. Probably some of those. Yeah.

And in any case, he said he was very concerned about the the Grayling being extirpated because he only caught one the previous year and none that year and that was 1930. What did what did a man what what did a man Randy 1930. What did it mean? Oh man. What did it mean, Randy? Why did they disappear? Yeah, yeah. It's well understood that in Michigan streams, we have sandy soils, relatively low gradient compared to mountain streams, but the deforestation, just clearing all the vegetation, it allowed those streams to warm up

and then all the sediment, organic sediment, not the sand and the, you know, when you have sandy soils with a lot of vegetation, the water will seep through the ground quickly and then flow groundwater in the streams. So you've got cover that keeps them cold and cold groundwater. When you take all the vegetation off and deforest

is what happened in Michigan, a lot of other Midwestern states, that water just becomes surface water. It runs right into the streams. And that pretty much decimated grayling. In addition to, we didn't have a Department of Natural Resources, didn't have any kind of protection.

So unregulated fishing and grayling are super fun fish to catch. They're really enjoyable. A little bit easier to catch the summer trout species. So they were easy to fish for. Hey, where were you able to find, to do a reintroduction, where are you able to find gray to do a reintroduction, where are you able to find grayling

that seems like it's, you know, that seems like it'd be like the right grayling, right? Or the closest to the right grayling. Yep. Well, so, you know, we looked at the lower 48 and tried to determine if any populations existed that could serve as a source population for Michigan. The only remnant population that we are aware of is the big

hole river of Montana. And actually Montana's rehabilitation program, you know, we're, we're mirroring a lot of things that Montana has been doing. But that population isn't at the level where it could serve as a gamete source. So we ended up going to the Chino River in Alaska for the gamete source. And really, you know, a lot of people say, you know, with warming of streams and things like that, is this the right time? But what we find in these populations is that they're highly migratory in their native

range. So they're going to find the cold groundwater and they're going to go where they need to go. We expect that. And it's part of the reason we selected the Chena River stock. How many, how many and where are you going to try? Are you going to try to cut them loose? Yeah. So, you know, we went through a stream candidate selection process where basically we wanted stakeholders, partners in this to nominate rivers that they felt grayling reintroduction

should occur. We then went and looked at the habitat suitability in those rivers. We did a lot of work before we ever went to Alaska to get the eggs. And by the way, shout out to Alaska. Those staff up there did a phenomenal job and really helped Michigan out a lot. So we went through the habitat suitability and that habitat suitability, we wanna make sure that,

all the things that led to the demise have been addressed as well as competition with other introduced trout and salmon species. And we have very strong partnership with, you know, nonprofits, angling groups, tribal governments, you name it. And that really, a combination of those factors led to a selection of three streams. The upper, and oftentimes the grayling, you're talking about the upper part of the watershed these are the headwaters of the streams headwaters of the little man's tea river headwaters of the Bordman River near Traver City the Maple River

in in all three and you know these are really northern lower northwestern Lord and that is so cool, man. Um, what do you think, uh, how confident are you in success and what success look like for you? I mean, are you, does success look like a breeding population or what is it? Yeah. You know, I think if we saw Grayling, uh, reproducing successfully within their, um their historic range. You know, that'd be a great technical definition of, hey, we've reached success, right?

To me, it's more than that because, you know, I would get questions a lot over the years that I've been working in fisheries for over 25 years, originally from Michigan, is why are we going to bring back grayling? We have a town, a city grayling named after the fish that we no longer have. So, this means a lot and trying to make a commitment, we're not gonna be successful in day one, nor have we been successful.

This has been tried half a dozen times. Really? And really the Montana model where you're putting the eggs right into the streams and again addressing some of the other things about partnership and habitat suitability. Those are all important factors to why we think we can be successful now in the rehabilitation, but like anything else what it really boils down to is are we committed to doing this? Do we are we committed to bringing grayling back to Michigan? We are. So what happens, what's gonna happen when down the road a dude's out fishing brookies or whatever steelhead and he

hooks a grayling you presumably you're not gonna close down stream sections you're not gonna you're not gonna like remove fishing from these stream sections so it'll have to be that people know they're there when they get one to be careful turn it back because because it. Cause it's gonna be a while till there's like a harvestable number. I mean, that's like a really best case scenario, right? Yeah, absolutely. We already removed the regulations

prohibiting targeted fishing. So if you catch a grayling, you can take a picture of it. Immediate release. We've had a lot of interest. And so I expect anglers, you know, they're really going to seek out these opportunities. We're still a couple of years down the road, but myself included, I've caught grayling in Alaska. I really, really am hoping that during my tenure, I can catch a wild grayling in Michigan and snap that picture and release

that fish. And right now regulations allow for that. So we're just hoping that the fish will cooperate. Man, that's amazing. I would make that trip back there to see that happen, to do that. You know, there's a thing I've really appreciated about, I haven't lived in Michigan for forever. I left in the late nineties, mid nineties,

but the thing I've appreciated about just the Great Lakes angling community in general and fisheries management there in general is going back and really the work people are doing to really put an emphasis on those native fish. Like the way I've seen anglers come to have a much greater appreciation for lake trout, for instance. The enthusiasm around getting sturgeon back in the rivers.

People treating whitefish with a lot of respect. Work to bring Arctic grayling back. Like I love seeing that stuff, man, where people are kind of having that ecological awareness of where they live, of kind of getting curious about what this place used to look like, what went wrong, why does it look like it does now, what are the implications of invasive, you know, aquatic invasive species, and how do we start turning back the clock and bringing back some of these really cool, unique fish to that area. I know you guys do work in that space and people in the

conservation movement do work in that space. I think it's phenomenal man. I love to see it. Hey I appreciate it and just just gonna say you know really seen it since the 90s I'll tell you we just recently announced kind of Lake Superior lake trout populations fully restored. But if you did eat Lake Trout, you know, back in the 80s and 90s, a lot of people didn't think that they had a lot of table fare, put it that way. The Lake Trout today are some of the best tasting Great Lakes fish out there. And there's a lot of reason for it, much is to do with the health of the Great Lakes, the diverse diet items,

but I tell you if you can get an episode where you have somebody flay a lake trout caught out of the Great Lakes now, that meat is just bright orange and fabulous, absolutely incredible. So yeah, an attachment to native species, increased angling opportunity, but the end goal is that people can use that. And we hear more and more about, you know, fish as food by recreational anglers, you know, across the state. Sure, man. Yeah.

Keep up the good work. I love seeing it. And I love hearing stories about those native fish come back. Like it's a really unique environment, all that whole Great Lake system. And, you know, if we if we let our guard down We're gonna wind up. We're more and more and more no matter where you go in the world Where are we going the country?

You're gonna see these kind of same things and to have that all that biodiversity and like these unique fish from these unique places Just makes it so much more exciting to travel around. So I mean, I wish you guys the best of luck on that project I think it's super cool. Excellent. Yeah. Thanks again for the opportunity. And I really appreciate the attention of Grayling and hopefully we can achieve what we're set out to do. So send me a couple of fillets. Yeah. This spring is our first big introduction, May 12th.

Oh, excellent. All right, good luck, dude. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, Phil, about to the end of the show, but what about that list of feedback, buddy? Yo, let's hit it. Kyle, here's kind of a heavy one.

What does the crew think about Indiana introducing a bill to legalize the sale of venison and another one to legalize the release of CWD resistant farm deer into the wild. I don't like either of them. I didn't know about the Indiana thing but it's not a good idea and neither is like we were we've talked about the releasing. It's pissing in the wind. Yeah I don't think like I think it sounds like a great idea, but when you look in like actual like genetic transfer, genetic transfer that you're somehow gonna like overcome

like the native genome and overwhelm it and actually like create a strain of it. And I think it's pissing in the wind. And I definitely don't like the idea, this people keep wanting to go down this path of commodifying deer meat and selling deer meat. Listen, if you think right now, if you think right now it's getting harder and harder and harder to find hunting spots because of, because of the, the takeoff

of like leasing for deer, like farms where there used to be like 10, 12 people hunted the farm now two guys hunt hunt the farm because they lease it. You think that you're seeing a reduction in acreage available to you to come hunt? Wait till a person looks and each of these deer is worth two, three hundred bucks. Right. Come on. I don't like it at all. Not only that, like I mean his parents selling deer meat was CWD and it's like, how are you ever going to sell deer meat when, you know what I mean? Yeah, I know. You'd be like, you're going to kill all these deer to sell. Someone's

going to check them for CWD. It's just, it's, it's, it's like people looking at complicated problems and thinking they got these little solutions for them. I think it's, I think it's stupid. I mean, I don't even be so blunt. No, I don't want I think it's stupid. I don't even be so blunt. I don't want to say it's stupid. Yeah, I definitely don't want to say it's stupid because that sounds like not being productive. Ain't a good idea. How's that? I ain't a good idea. Do you guys have favorite mounts or skins you have in your houses respectively? I haven't got my favorite still sitting at the taxidermist

or whoever's beetle in it right now. What are you missing? That moose. Oh, your moose. Yeah, that'd be good. Yeah, I should call it. I got a couple of hides I like a bunch. One being a red fox that Steve and I trapped last year.

And I also have another red fox from Pennsylvania that's beautiful. And skull mounts, I like the coos deer. I just like how tiny their little skulls are. They can put them anywhere. Easy to move. They just look cool. So. Alright.

This is a tough one, but if you don't know it, maybe you could direct this person to someone who does. Is there a way to rehabilitate housefire smoke damage tanned furs? I would call, you know what I would do, call, he's gonna hate me for saying this, call John Hayes at Hayes tax office, because I've had questions like this for John. Like I'll give you a piece of feedback, John give you one time, I had a very old, I have a really old bear hide, like a really, really old bear hide that never took good care of. And, uh, I was like wanting to know it's, I kind of kept it outside over the outdoor furniture under our patio

protected, but outside and it just got greasy and nasty. And I was like, man, can I like like shampoo this thing? You know? And he said, take a little wet, a little patch down, just take a corner and wet it down. And he says, if you wet that down, try to tear it with your hand. When you get it wet, if you can tear that thing with your hand, don't do it. And I got that corner wet and sure enough man you could just rip it like wet paper. So he's got little tips like that. Another thing I had, another thing John Hayes did for me is I had a bad, kind of really long story, I got a

mountain goat and I wanted it, I got it rugged out. It's almost hanging right there. When I got that rug back, the hair was all slipping. Not my fault. The hair was all slipping. It's a long story. The people involved are not even alive anymore. The person involved is not even alive anymore. The hair was slipping. John Hayes took that rug apart and put an adhesive. Oh really? Yeah. He spread an adhesive on the backside. You couldn't get that hair out if you wanted to. Yeah. Wow. So John Hayes, Hayes Taxidermy Studio, he'll tell you what to do.

He's got all kinds of little tricks. Cause when you've been in the business that long, people bring you more screwed up stuff. Do you know what I mean? All you do is deal with people's mistakes. Oh yeah. This will be an easy one to answer cause we've had someone on the podcast,

but just so you can remind this person, Phil is asking for an episode on hearing loss. I think we've done a few with Grace from Oda Pro. Yep. Yeah, just go back and find those. I wish we could think of the number, but we've done two with an audiologist about why that's happening to you.

Why when you're laying in bed at night, you're listening to whee, keeps you awake. Oh man. Yeah. Brody, I'm gonna direct this one to you because maybe you've seen this show, but a lot of people have been asking

if we've watched American Primeval on Netflix. You know, I did watch that. I did too, yeah. Oh, okay. And there's like some cool historical accuracies in it, but it's also, you know I did watch that I did too yeah okay and it there's like some cool historical accuracies in it but it's also you know Hollywood like I don't want to give it away to you know people that haven't seen it but there's a really stupid scene with wolves attacking like busting through a cabin and trying to attack people like shit that would never happen yeah but like

the Jim Bridger stuff where he was running the Fort, that's all. And, and his run in with, uh, Brigham Young, like that's, that, that stuff all happened. Um, it was, it was a cool show. I thought it was good. Cool. Uh, I think you gave an update on this, Steve, for an episode that maybe hasn't aired yet or it was trivia or something, but, uh, someone's Dakota's asking for a punt gun update, cause I know you've made some, we've made some strides in that department

from Dakota punts. We're getting very close to shooting it. Um, we just last week we were out, but we were working on a kind of a way to, you can't mount it rigid. You got, it's got to move. So we're working on a mount, but yeah, we would have shot it, but we're just having a real streak of bad weather right now. Just not fun time to be out blowing your hand off trying to shoot your punt gun 29 below this morning yeah it's a warm up well we will

do one more and this is kind of like a very is a very broad generic question but hey it's your birthday Steve so I'm gonna put you on the spot in your 51 years this from Tyler what is do you have a favorite hunting memory? No, no. All right. Thanks Tyler. I'll do it for today's. Just the whole pack, the whole package of it. I like a lot. I can't, I'd have to think about that. Yeah, it's a tough question. I know one you talk about a lot with a lot of enthusiasm is the, the youth deer season hunt. Oh, well, yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like I would say that, but that's pretty recent. Yeah.

Yeah. I like going, I like hunting. I like hunting, uh, taking the kids youth deer hunting, but then taking any kind of stuff, you know, younger people can't picture it. Cause I wouldn't picture it when I was younger. You just can't like, I might as well not even say it cause you just can't picture because I wouldn't picture it when I was younger You just can't like I might not even say it cuz you just can't picture it when you get older if you have kids And you should um It just I can't explain it

It just why it's been so much more fun to do stuff with them like when I think about me getting my first buck Versus my kid getting it's like no No comparison. Yeah, I would rather hunt one day with my kids than like three days without them. It's just more fun, man. I just like, but I wouldn't expect anybody to understand that. But like I said, I recommend having kids if you can have kids. Gives you a good sense of, I don't know man, gives you a good sense of purpose. Cool. Well, we've got one more thing to read before the end of the show about a, um, a call to action for our listeners.

Oh, scroll down. I gotta get the hang of this hosting. Folks, before we go, we're in need of some fresh hot tip offs. Man, I could make a hot tip off every damn day. Well, we could use some more, but this is, and that's one of the reasons why we're reaching out to the, to the people. I got one for you right now. Okay.

Let's hear it. When you cook deer meat and you got leftover deer meat the next day, slice it real thin, get a bunch of butter in a pan, put a shitload of Frank's red hot in that butter and then stir that meat in there and eat that buffalo. Buffalo, buffalo, leftover is what they call that we're needed some fresh hot tip off send us a video of what of this poorly written who wrote this I'm not gonna throw them on send a video of what you know to know it is well written send Sunday video of what you know, to know it is well written,

send a video of what you believe to be your outdoor tips to our radio live email address with hot tip off in the subject line. So here's all you do. Make a hot tip off a hot tip office where you go. Welcome to their hot tip off. And then you explain a hot tip for outdoorsmen. Quickly explained quickly. 30 to 60 seconds. Right, hot tip off in the subject line and send that son of a gun over to radio at the meat eater dot com. 30 to 60 seconds, film it vertically, okay? Family friendly. Family friendly. If we use, if we use your video, we're gonna it'll be a showdown. These are one-to-one showdowns. So we'll, you send your hot

tip off and we're gonna match it with another hot tip off and see who wins. If you win the hot tip off, the best hot tip off the week, then you win cool prizes. From, we'll send you cool prizes from win cool prizes from, we'll send you cool prizes from meat eater brands. We'll send you cool prizes for one of our amazing partner brands, whatever. You'll be rewarded when you make a 30 to 60 second hot tip and send it subject line hot tip off to radio at the meat eater.com leave your pants on while making the video. That wraps this week's program. I should tell you my story about Greg Fonz. Does that have to do with pants? Yeah. I'll just tell it real quick. Before I really knew Greg Fonz, he's got his spearfishing shop. I'd like, was texting him about like a question I had about how to rig something. And he's sitting there and like an apron, you know, like a shop apron.

And he's explaining, you know, the guy and he's explaining. Eventually he like turns towards the other work. But just this bare ass dude, I was like, what a freak, man. Later, I just realized his sense of humor, but it's all right. Stay classy. Media to radio live. See you next week. Hey American history buffs, hunting history buffs.

Listen up. Hey American history buffs, hunting history buffs, listen up, we're back at it with another volume of our Meat Eaters American History series. In this edition titled The Mountain Men, 1806-1840, we tackle the Rocky Mountain beaver trade and dive into the lives and legends of fellows like Jim Bridger, Jed Smith, and John Coulter. This small but legendary fraternity of backwoodsmen helped define an era when the West represented not just unmapped territory, but untapped opportunity for those willing to endure some heinous and at times violent conditions.

We explain what started the Mountain Man era and what ended it. We tell you everything you'd ever want to know about what the mountain men ate, how they hunted and trapped, what gear they carried, what clothes they wore, how they interacted with Native Americans, how 10% of them died violent deaths, and even detailed descriptions of how they performed amputations on the fly. It's as dark and bloody and good as our previous volume about the white-tailed deer skin trade, which is titled The Long Hunters, 1761-1775. So again, you

can buy this wherever audiobooks are sold. Meat Eaters American History, The Mountain Men, 1806-1840 by Stephen Rinella.