The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 926: Suppressor Rules Change, Hangry Bears, Oil Worker Wins 100 Cooks, and More!

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

Steven Rinella and the MeatEater Crew discuss: Tyler McKinney, Angler of the Year; Lake Ontario (not Lake America); changes to suppressor regulations; a Montana oil worker wins $200k in a cooking show - with an elk dish; human-bear conflicts; a 6 year old finds an ancient bison; and more! Call to Action: Support Accurate Bison aging: https://www.gofundme.com/f/minnesotans-rally-to-date-gregs-bison-skullT Follow Bryce Stubbs on social  @letbrycecook  read his Substack at https://substack.com/@brycestubbs Connect with Steve and The MeatEater Podcast Network Steve on Instagram and Twitter MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Onex Hunt now has an add-on for Canadian hunters called OnexSOS, powered by Overwatch Rescue. 4999 a year connects you to a 24-7 rescue coordinator with coverage across more than 220 countries. So if things go sideways when you're deep in the bush or a long way from the nearest road, they can manage the rescue and cover the evacuation costs directly. No claims and no deductible. Get Onex SOS today inside the Onex Hunt app.

Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Good Lord, it's the news show. This week we've got Bryce Stubbs in the studio, a Montana kid who just won the Food Network's 100 cooks and walked away with a nice little chunk of scratch. We got Colorado Bears are on the Ter.

Let's try to make a rhyme. Colorado Bears are on the tears. Or are they? Janus will tell us. It's a better than ever time to get that suppressor you've been looking for. Trump generated something of a national eye roll by renaming Lake Ontario. Angler of the Year, Trey McKinney joins us

live here and more. But now on to our news. What's first up in our news? Yanni, tear it away. No, it says Steve's kid's question. Oh, it's very quick. Driving to grouse hunt last night, my kid said to me,

11 years old, he said, if you froze a person and cut them open would all the blood be where it belonged, that's all. Go on. You didn't have an answer for him? I told him, yeah.

Be right where it belonged. I imagine. I'll ask my brother on that. He just did a big cadaver thing. It's right where it belonged. I already thought it through. Go ahead, Janie. This American life did a real good story recently about when freezing people and keeping

them around forever until medical advances caught up to bringing them back alive. Remember that in the 70s. That's still a thing, man. Maybe, but they did a nice long story on it. Very entertaining. There's dudes now hip, because that's expensive. There's a cheap version. And one of the guys that many people, you know, they don't know who invented Bitcoin.

I didn't know that. So my friend Ben Wallace, my friend Ben Wallace wrote a wonderful book about trying to unmask, yes, the mysterious Mr. Nakamoto. No one knows who invented Bitcoin. He has billions and billions in Bitcoin that has never been tapped into. one of the guys that some people think invented bitcoin just had his brain froze trying to save money so he's he's anticipating like major medical advancements not that you just reanimate his body but you thaw his brain out stick it in some dude i don't know yeah i don't know playing a long game a nice strong night 20 year old uh what do i

from are my news. Whitetail habitat in Wisconsin work, Kansas scouting, and Wyoming elk. Two days in late July in Wisconsin, mostly spraying buckthorn, which is this invasive that I'm, it's funny. I thought I was going to have like a little bit to battle when I started this project. And as soon as the sunlight hit the forest floor, it went bananas. And now I've got like 10 acres of it. But why do people hate it. Buckthorn. It's like any of these invasces, they just take over and they don't let the stuff grow that you want to grow. And nothing wants to eat it. No. Yeah. But I'm happy to report my dad's been back a month later since I was there and he's, he reported there's a lot of dead buckthorn. So my work had had results. Look, you're murdering it. Yeah. I don't know how I miss this though.

growing up in Michigan, maybe you have memories of this, but I don't have memories of sweating the way that I sweat now when I go to Wisconsin to work to the point where my rubber gloves, and I would take them off after doing a, like spraying a full backpack, walking around the middle

of the day, I could pour the sweat out of them. There's a video on my Instagram. Kids don't sweat. You just don't, you think that's what it is? I remember discovering that I could sweat throwing hay bales. And then you're only aware of it because all the dust stuck to But no, you don't sweat as a kid.

It's like an acclamation thing, too. I wear a shirt that says that on it. Skinny little shit don't sweat. The other highlight from Wisconsin was I finally took the time to hang some vines and make like legit mock scrapes. You familiar with this? Like hanging a grapevine? The internet says that that's the best thing. You can use other, say you don't live in a place, say you live in a place where there are no grape vines.

you can use other branches. You mean you're putting in a licking branch? Yes, but instead of using a oak licking branch, just hang a vine. Hang a vine. And I did them, you know, 20 yards from two different stands, killed all the, you know, stuff that was living underneath. God, you're killing all the stuff all time, man.

Oh, yes. I'm such a, I become more and more of a fan of herbicide and cutting trees down by the day. Yeah, okay. Because when you kill stuff, The stuff that you want comes back. I understand. Anyways, did a couple, did three of those.

Two out of the three, that same night had deer activity on them. Yeah, yeah. It's pretty amazing. Did you put some Buckman juice down? I didn't put any. Well, yeah, I did that. I peed in the scrapes for sure. But yeah, they're just going up there and like, whatever it is.

Are you kidding me? No. They see it, you know? And they're just like, they go over there and attract it to it. On the day you did it. Yeah, that night, I had two. visited it. I did, I made three and two out of the three got hit that night. That's incredible. Do's and young bucks. I haven't had a big buck on them yet. Yeah. There's something about that

yeah, height and position that they're into it. Yeah. You know, you hear similar stuff about grouse and a drumming log. Yep. Right. They're like, oh. That's everything, you know what I mean? It's right. It's like, I need to be able to see a certain distance. It needs to be a certain height. And they just, right, are on it. And a licking branch. She's like, oh, sweet looking branch. Makes you realize they're paying more attention to, like, detail, like what's around them than you think they do. Yeah, for sure. Like, that shows up at Lays got, like, a signpost.

Yeah, that's really interesting. Yeah, even though there was some dude with his hands all over it and ladders and can ands drive it around spraying herbicide, they're like, oh, no matter. I like that thing. I'm going to rub my forehead on it. middle of August, Brent and I went to Kansas and hung 10

multi-trail cameras on three different properties that we're going to hunt. Now, we got these three different properties through a friend of his who's, I don't want to say an out,

it's a very, like, it's an outfitter, but he's kind of a DIY kind of guy where he's going to have the spots for you. He's going to put you up, but you're kind of on your own for the hunting. He'll say, yeah, go check that out.

And, you know, we see deer down. here, but you're not going to get dropped off at the blind. You're not, you know, he's not going to hang grape vines for you, that kind of stuff. It was like that time you and me did that turkey hunt in Florida. Yes, exactly.

You basically get the property. Yeah, like, figure it out. Yeah. So Brent and I did, we basically had one full day there. Hot as hell there, too, just like Wisconsin. It's like 95 and hot. Hung 10 cameras, speed scouting it, just trying to figure

out, you know, major crossings, pinch points, funnels, whatever. Did okay, I think, if you don't mind, Phil, go ahead and show the viewers

what we've seen, what we've got so far. Doesn't matter. Pull one up. Yeah, any of the ones from the trail cameras. Yeah, hold on here. We don't have a Kansas giant yet.

But there's this guy. Dude, I'll take it. And he's got like a bonus. You can see, I don't know if you call it an extra keep kind of rolling through him, Phil. On his left antler, there's like an extra brow time. Oh.

Yeah. You know what I always asked myself, any buck I see? Uh-huh. I say, but is it as big as the buck that's been laying in my yard? No. Your neighbor showed me a picture of that thing. Holy cow. My daughter had to mow around it.

Yeah. He's a bruiser. She had to mow around the buck. Are you serious? It's huge. Unbelievable. She smote around it? This buck is like, hey,

what's up guys? Jimmy's all trying to plot how he's if he doesn't get it, how he can drive it out of city limits. Scare him into Pat's yard where he's outside of city limits. You know, I can tell so many funny stories

about him and that buck. He's obsessed with this buck. He's got no path forward though. Well, you need to bring in a picture of this buck. It's like giant drop time. Anyways, go on. Well,

this is what we got so far, which is, uh, you know, this is actually a different one. That's a 10 point. It's been running with the, funky guy, which are both like, if I saw either of them in Wisconsin, I'd be flinging an air

immediately, but Brent keeps telling me, Yanni, I could shoot those bucks in Arkansas. You know, I'm like, okay, well, you're going to be there with me so you can tell me which one to shoot or not shoot. Phil, show the picture of the taxidermy bucks. This is what's available. Is it bigger than the buck in my yard? I don't know. I haven't seen the buck in your yard.

Maybe. man those G3s yeah it's amazing wow then there's won't fill with two oh yeah there's a no nice a lot of high and tight bucks yeah yeah they definitely have yeah you're not gonna get a big spread credit out of those oh yeah look at those two boys what's who's place is that that's a big G3 that's where we're that basement is where Brent and I are going to be sleeping during our Kansas um so we're heading there in uh okay but here's the I don't know if you People just listening, Yanni's showing pictures of bucks that most dudes would be real excited to get. With astounding G3s.

Are you hunting the rut there or what? I'm going to hunt the last week of October. Pre-wret. Yeah. When I came home, though, from this trip. Yeah, I saw this. I kind of felt like when you were in the hospital and you had Lyme. Just problems.

And yeah, and you had possibly like Jardia. And I forget all the things that had compounded. And because you had some kind of skin irritant as well. No, I had, yeah, I had a whole list of issues, but it all, I had, it was a, um, like a colon infection. Yeah. Long story. Long story. But it had a compound.

Yeah, it was a series of events that led me to be there. And it, and I was at, uh, I was at the Jewish hospital in New York. And when I finally was getting checked out, I always remember the doctor was leaving the door like, it was like a movie scene. She's leaving the door and. turns to me and says, stay away from pigs. Right, because didn't you get poison ivy or poison oak from the pigs? Yeah. Right, right, right.

So you can hear that story on probably several different old media podcasts, find it somehow. I left there, came home. I've got, I was thinking about you, because I'm like, I wonder if Steve's ever had this many skinny irritations at once. Mosquito bites, tick bites, chiggers, poison ivy, and then on top of all that, wicked, calm and cold that shut me down for three, four, five days. Let me see them chiggers. Well, they're gone now.

This is 10 days ago. Did any of that stuff get your scroll? A little bit of that patch of poison ivy here. Not scroll, but in the general scroll area, I definitely had some tick bites, the seed ticks. Yeah. Hopefully they'll be gone by end of October. What kind of ticks? Little seed ticks.

Oh, okay. you'd be wise to go listen to that episode we did on alpha-gal syndrome the whole dedicated episode on alpha-gal yeah i haven't listened to it yet no it'll scare you all right or not last but not least leaving in two days from my wyoming elk hunt it's exciting what's the weather looking like hot it's gonna it's hot this weekend then it's gonna cool down it's gonna start getting into like highs of 70 maybe low 70s and then lows 30 to 40 no one believes me but the air of the morning our roof had frost on it. It's probably the morning that my thermometer read 37.

Oh, because everybody keeps telling me my thermometer said 44. I'm like, I don't know, I must live in a weird little hole. I don't know. The big buck brings in the cold. Maybe. I don't know what it is. I'm a little bit nervous. Here's what I got going on.

I'm two days out. I still have a lot of packing and planning to do. I never made it there to do any scouting. So the first couple days are going to be all just driving around as much as I can in the Cam Am and just road scouting. Glassing early and late, but basically figuring out my access, figuring out how long it takes to get from A to B

and just zipping around, zipping around until I have an idea of, you know, like I know the place. The one thing I will say, which I'm very happy about this, I do think is maybe the most important is that my broadhead-tipped arrows are flying good,

and right now I would shoot at an elk at 50 yards. Good. Which means... 50 you'll shoot an elk at 59 no you know i was shooting with a guy the other day at at the house we have a little 3d course set up there and we're shooting and he asked me the question he's like how far how hard you shoot we're actually shooting at a farther range but i think we were shooting at 60 or 65 that's why i like your range and i had a really nice group going you know like a 7-8-inch group at that range and he's like what would you shoot him at i'm like 50 he's like

Really? Right now, look at you what you're doing. You're telling me, perfect conditions, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And in the moment, I thought, well, yeah, maybe he's right. You know, the wind's not blown. The bull elk doesn't know I'm there. And everything's perfect. My heart rate's not up. Yeah, I could probably send it. But then later, that night, I was laying in bed and I was thinking, no, you don't want to send it because you take those, I don't want to call them chip shots, but the shots that you're absolutely 100% sure in, 50 yards and under, not 59, because you have to think about five minutes later when that sucker's running off with one stuck like way too far back or in his ass. But it's way too much arrow showing.

Yeah. It's like that's why you don't take the 59 yarder. I just, I won't. I had this conversation today with someone who's telling me, man, guys online, I'm like, you ain't online. Yeah, totally. You're in the woods. Yeah, and again, you know, I'm human, I make mistakes, and again, at 60 plus yards, like, that arrow takes a while to get there and those critters can just take one step, and it goes from being a perfect center of the lungs to being back or whatever. Dude, when you come back and tell me, man, I pass up a beautiful bull at 51.

I'll be all yours. Yeah. I'll be all yours. All right. Nate Mason Nate Mason came over to us in the podcast space from our, from one of our companies,

FHF gear. Makers are the greatest vinyl harness on the planet. Makers are the greatest final harness on the planet. He was on the same, before he came over to the podcast team, he was on the same floor as this studio, just as a different wing of the office. Yeah, the wing, none of y'all visit.

I'm down there all the time. You are, but everyone else doesn't. No, me and you're down all the time. We're just not welcome guests. Oh no, you're welcome. No, because we're like, hey, can you guys sew this? Well, usually it's like a buoy or something. Hey, can you sew the spearfishing wetsuit for me?

Hey, can you make me, can you guys got like a few days where you can make me a holder for my underwater flashlight? Shit like that. Yeah, the guy who was managing Paul's schedule said no, but Paul said yes. Anyways, so Nate was involved. Nate's going to, he's going to bring the worlds together. Yep. So worked there for two years. And a big chunk of that time spent giving input on the FHF Apex Pag that we just released.

So you go to the website, check it out. But we'll give you the spiel here that I would give to you at a trade show if you walked in. Headliner, it's going to cost $400. Big. And we knew that going into it because you make anything physically large. Yeah, you make anything physically large in America by citizens of the United States. It will cost you so much money. And we're committed, like FHF's committed to that.

And so we knew it was going to be super expensive. And the question that we wrestled with was how do you make, how do you justify a $400 price tag? And what we landed on is a backpack that you don't just pull out of your closet for a seven-day elk hunt. It's a backpack you can use year-round in multiple configurations, everything from no waistbelt throwing it into an overhead in your plane to loading it on an XO K-4 frame and hauling out an out-quarter. Does everything in between? Got to you something? see this one right here guess what I had in here last night

grouse 10 grouse and a laptop that's why your charger doesn't work anymore you guys have you guys had a good night was in this

was I was because I like to do big screen trail cam checking big screen yeah so I was getting a couple

things out of the woods and I was like I don't have my laptop with me because I can't I'm not patient enough to wait so I have my

laptop in there and we had had me and my kids had our dead grouses in there big bang boom but mine has a custom stick or meat eater laboratories yeah that's that's prototype special what uh what species of grouse did you guys get into so well how to how technical do you want me to get super are you like an ornithological society man no that case then they were duskies duskies if you're just a regular blue collar guy blue grouse got it yeah yeah so go check that bag out f hfge beer not all got bigger or not up bigger than that. How many did you end with?

We had four hunters. 12. Me, three kids. That's good day. Anyhow. Go on. If you want to check it out. Yep.

FHFgear.com, it's a big price tag, but you'll use it not only four years, but throughout the entire year. That's good thing. That's all you're going to say about it. It speaks for itself. Just grab one and show it.

Yeah, okay, okay. Pass that one on the behind you, Bryce. Well, that's one on a K4, frame. Yes. And so if you look at the left, you know, no, give me the one on the left. Sorry, give me the one on left. Why's Bryce got to do it? Because he's no right over there. This sucker, he's a chef. This is how, this is, this is how this bad layer is going to come. Okay, no waist belt, um, straps, pad, kind of your everyday 24 hour, 36 hour pack. It'd be great. Then you can take that sucker, pan over to Steve and throw your apex belt.

another whip pan. I got mine clip behind. Throw your apex belt on there and now you have some load bearing capability. You got your hip deal going on. E4s, whatever you want. Keep your bullets in these little pockets on your grouse on. Yep. Throw your grouse in there, your laptop, whatever you want.

And then, Bryce, we got the K4 version. Same bag. You strip all the shoulder pads off, the waist belt, all that stuff. And you can mount this sucker on an XO K4 frame and it works just like it would. other Western meat hauling pack. It's about 2,200 cubic inches. Perfect for truck hunting, day hunting, maybe two nights. One night, two nights.

Yeah, it's great. Love that thing. Made in America. Thanks, man. Yep. Get Bell, Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.com.com for details and to check availability.

Bell, connection is everything. Hey everyone, big huge announcement. Meat Eater Live, the Christmas Tour is kicking off again this year for the Christmas season of 2026. This time we're hitting the Midwest. Meat Eater Live, the Christmas Tour kicks off in December across six Midwestern cities. We've got Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Madison, Des Moines, Minneapolis, and Fargo. Join myself, Janus, Putellus, Clay Nook, and Brent Reeves, and Randall Williams. for a night of laughs, trivia, free prizes, news, and opinions from across the worlds of hunting, fishing, wildlife conservation, and wild foods.

Also, we're already stacking up some great special guests. I got my buddy Bubbly Doug making the appearance in Madison. Meat Eater Live is the best Christmas gift for any outdoorsman or woman in your life. Tickets go on sale September 25th, but sign up at themeatater.com slash tour and you'll get pre-eater. sale access to buy tickets on September 14th, days before they go on sale to the public. We can't wait to see you there. And I'm telling you, go ask anyone who has ever come to one of the meat eater live events. And they will tell you, we laugh our asses off.

We give away great prizes. We put on a solid show that I'm proud to be part of. All right, Phil, cue of your news. What was that? That was a pigeon delivering a letter and putting a, through a mail slot. Well, I wouldn't have gotten that. He's been using that one for weeks.

Those are the best sound effects, the ones you have to explain to people, just like jokes, you know. This is your news presented by banish. Speaking of suppressors here, okay, banish, speaking of suppressors, at the end of the show, we have an update from Silencer Central on changes to the NFA. You don't need to know what that means. What you need to, you can listen to the whole story. It's fascinating if you're a policy guy, if you like the details.

The long and short of it is probably in the history of America. It's going to sound bold. At the end of the episode, you'll hear the whole interview. In the history of America, now is probably the, definitely the best time that has ever happened and could become the best, I'm trying to say. undoubtedly right now is the best moment ever to get a suppressor if you've been thinking about a suppressor because the federal government regulatory changes there's a chance it'll get better there seems to be a better chance it's going to get worse depending on the state you live in depending on the state you live in

or not or following we'll hit it to listen to the interview just listen in the end yeah listen in the end listen in the end politically, politically in this country, the friends of the suppressors are in power. The enemies of the suppressors will follow on their heels. But just listen to the whole damn thing later. The generator update is this. I spelled out on a new show this problem. I have a generator that needs an exorcism.

The greatest mechanical minds in Ketchikan, Alaska, have not been able to solve this problem. I laid it all out. This is an insider for you people that listen and participated. You built the graph. Can you explain the graph? Yeah. Basically, we aggregated comments from the email, the inbox, which always feel free to write in.

And the YouTube comments. And we've got two columns. We've got, there's five top suggestions on how to exercise this generator. And there's a differentiation between the YouTube folks, the YouTube. mechanics and the email mechanics. But really, there's two, there's two options. Who can you put more faith in the YouTube guy? You know, well, that's what I want to find out.

I don't know who's a more educated populace on generators. The YouTube comments... What do you think about that, Bryce? I would say email. If you take the time to type out an email. You're smarter? You know what I found? Anyone can comment on a YouTube.

Many mechanics who wrote in apologized for their grammar, which I don't care. But I found that the Better suggestions came from the guys who had poor grammar. I started not trusting in the guys who wrote real. Yeah, because they spent their life wrenching that stuff. I agree. I agree.

So anyways. Yeah, they're not like keyboard. They're not keyboard dudes. They probably don't even have an email. They just go on YouTube. Yeah, these are dudes. They got a dip packed and they're wrenching. The YouTube guys, they're not down there to spell right.

They vote that it's the low oil level slash pressure sensor. And the email guys think it's the fuel cap or tank vent is clogged up. I'm trying to both, dude I'm not even going to find out which it was Is it in town getting fixed or is it still there? It's been to town. This is a well-traveled generator. I got more money into shipping this generator back and forth

when I say, I mean, my co-owners worth. We got more money in shipping this generator around than it would cost to buy the damn generator. Aren't you going back there this fall? It's out there right now. But you're going back to Met. Yeah, and I'm doing all this junk. What kind of generator is it?

It's a Honda EU 7,000. The big boy. Big dog. So those were number ones and two. Number three was the co-minder sensor. The fourth recommended was overheating and thermal sensor. And the fifth was the ignition coil. So there's your hit list.

I like these guys on the ignition coil. They're saying take a heat gun and just speed it along. Heat the ignition coil. Instead of waiting four hours for it to shut off, heat it with the heat gun. mainly the reason we're getting into this is thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

For all this feedback. It means the world. Bison's skull discovery. Check this out. Best story of the show. Check this out. Someone writes in, we own a small piece of river property in southwest Minnesota,

which is what makes us interesting. To me a little bit. Because, you know, some guy in Wyoming, sure. Sure. They're covered up in them. but Southwest Minnesota. We are currently experiencing a drought. Oh, my kid was reading me an article yesterday

that the Mallard count is just devastating right now. Mallards are at like a 50-year low because of the same drought this kid's talking about. We're currently experiencing a drought which has made the river lower than it has been in quite some time. on a walk on the river this summer with my three-year-old daughter. I found a broken off buffalo horn, see picture below, and the water wedged between some rocks.

There it is. What's remarkable for you folks just listening is he's holding up a chunk of a buffalo skull, but it is coal black, coal black, jet black. I thought this was an amazing find until I went home and showed it off to my wife and two boys. when showing my six-year-old son the horn, he said, well, dad, the other day when I was on the river, I seen two of those, and they were connected.

That's the best part. We went down to the river, and there under the water, wedged against the rock, was a full buffalo skull. And he's got pictures of his little boy holding a gorgeous, jet black skull. wonder about that you build. No.

You only find something super old and cool, they put it like in a tank. Like if you excavate an old like boat out of the water, they'll put it in a tank of water. So it doesn't deteriorate. Yeah, knowing that once you change its environment, it's going to go to shit. I feel that in six months, he's going to be the proud owner of a cardboard colored buffalo skull and not a cold. black buffalo skull. I don't know what he's going to do about this. The stuff about this, how big it is, is interesting to me. Oh, I hadn't got that.

Simply because, like, is there, you can read it. And then I'll ask you. He's dabbling in here without knowing it. He's dabbling in a discipline called horn core morphology. Which is what I'm getting at. Like, what it's actually from. Like, you know, because bison antiquist was bigger and had straighter horns. And it's kind of Is it possible that's not a bison bison and it's a bison antiquis? Here's what we'll do. Nate, you're going to have to be in charge of this.

If he's willing, we will raise the money to have him send a gram of it to beta analytics in Florida. And we will settle the question. We just need $600 bucks. We'll send it in. We'll send a gram in and get it radiocarbon dated. We'll make a go fund me. Everyone pitches in a dollar or whatever, 50 cents. I don't know something.

Yep. Until we can find out how old his skull is. Phil, did you pull up? Minnesotans. Yeah. Minnesotans, this is your duty as Minnesotans. That picture is why. Go to Nates GoFundMe, which he hasn't made yet, and give a dollar.

We'll work up a little kitty, a little pot of 600 bucks and send it to beta analytics. He just got a Dremel out of Graham out of that sucker. I've done it. I'll show him right where to get it from. This GoFundMe will be live when this episode drops. I don't know the name yet. It's called Minnesotans for accurate bison school dating. Okay.

Nailed it. I got a quick update on your kid's story, your quick kid's question. I already know the answer. Well, what's your, well, what did you think? The blood's all right where it belongs. No, my brother, who's an orthopedic surgeon in the military trauma guy, he said, if they were gradually frozen, then most blood would be shunted centrally. If they were flash frozen, probably.

I think he meant flash. I'll check back. Yeah, I'll text him. Like, not getting stuck. He's too little to text, but I'll have to just talk to. Not getting stuck in a meat locker and freezing over the course. I'll just have to connect with him in person, I think, later today. All right, time for the news.

Wow. Trey McKinney's here. Youngest ever at 21 to become angler of the year. Fresh out of the dove fields. Here he is. Trey McKinney, you there? Yes, sir. What's going on?

Here's my first question for you. So, okay, so you're 21 years old and you just became angler of the year. At what age did you become aware that there was a thing called angler of the year? Honestly, like you said, that there's, I was definitely to an age, probably like 16, once I realized they're actually the true meaning of it of what it meant and what the actual title was. So I'd say probably 16, 17. Okay, so lay out the point. path to become angler of the year.

Like, tell me about your, tell me about your year as a professional, tell me about your last two years as a professional bass fisherman. Absolutely. So, yeah, you actually have to qualify through the opens. There's a few different ways you can, but the main way is through the open. So it's like, you probably have, I don't know, anywhere from probably 200 plus guys. And they, they fish nine events and they take nine guys. And they take a few more if you count the Bass Nation and stuff.

But, yeah, so you have to finish in the top nine in points out of the average of all these guys. And then there, after you qualify for that, you qualify for the elite series of the Westmore fishing now. And then it's actually the top hundred. So, and then every year, you have to finish probably above the cut line. So it's about like the 80th place or something like that. Or you actually get cut and then they bring in the new nine guys. So it's definitely, you definitely got to stay on top of your game. for sure. But once you qualify and you get in, you know, that's kind of the goal is like once

you get kind of settled down, getting a late series, a top 50 finish in AOI is definitely everybody's goal to keep you in it. So, you know, you're kind of safe. You don't have to worry about losing your career, your job. But we've been really blessed these last years. Actually, we've never, we never finished out of the top top two out of angle of the year. And we finally sealed the deal this year. So you were second place two times in a row. Yeah, unfortunately, yeah, I'm not very good closure, I guess. But that's amazing, though, man. So who was previously, was Kevin Van Dam?

Was he previously the youngest angler of the year? He was. And how old was he when he got it? I think I beat him by, I think it was like three and a half years or something like that. So it was actually a pretty good margin, and I didn't realize at all. It was over a thousand-something days that I beat us to beat us record so it was uh it was it was i was pretty palm and then lay out for me a little bit like like how long have you been a professional bass like i'm assuming now you don't have you don't do you don't

you're way beyond having a side job right how long have you been yes sir well i got two questions for i guess tell us how you define a professional bass fisherman absolutely so like what i guess the how i would define it is when most of your income comes from any kind of spot like any kind of sponsor. So for us, like, that's where, if we didn't have our sponsors, there's no way we could do it. Because you guys have seen it, gas prices, diesel prices, absolutely insane right now. Okay. So it definitely is.

It makes it tough because our payouts are pretty good. You know, it's $100,000 to win one. For the classic, it's $300,000. Then you get $100,000 for L.I. And then they pay all the way down to 50th place. So if you finish good and consistent, you know, you're going to make a decent living. But, you know, where you're at, actually set yourself apart to be a professional angler is when you mostly rely on sponsors,

social media, stuff like that as well. And nowadays, I feel like that's where if you are actually one of the top like 10%, that, you know, I'd say a lot of the guys in the elite series, you know, there's that 10% that actually truly make a good living. And that's definitely mainly related around the sponsors. Okay. So at 21 years of age, how many years have you been a pro? two. I would say this, this is, this one will be my third. But before this, I was kind of as soon as I started the elite series, we kind of went, well, we didn't have a plan B or nothing. You know, it was kind of that was it. We didn't, we didn't have any other no option. We didn't go to college, nothing like that. We just kind of full send it all the way. And thank, thank goodness,

we were blessed enough. It worked out. How many people in your immediate family are kind of like, he did what? Yeah, I felt like, if you people were a little skeptical, they're like, So you're going to go fish for like, living, right? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, man. That's what I'm going to try. And they're like, wow, okay, I didn't see that one coming. But now, man, it's pretty special. You know, everybody's kind of coming together here in Southern Illinois.

And I got to have so many text messages from everybody who wrote me on. Oh, I bet, man. It's pretty special. I got to tell you, you know, me interviewing you, I can only ask you dumb questions because I don't know a lot about this. The guy that could ask you good questions is Seth Morris, who's very excited. that you're coming on and he follows you, but he's fishing. That sounds about right.

So you would have had a better interview if he wasn't fishing, but it makes sense that he's fishing because he's a big fan of yours too. So how, like, what's your vacation look like now? Do you sit back and kick it?

Or like, when do you got to go out and fish and compete again? Absolutely. So right now it's hunting season. That's literally, that's basically all I do is a hunting fish. Just an outdoorsman.

Like, I feel like a lot of us, you know, it's kind of what I enjoy. But usually my season will start mid-January, and unfortunately that's about when all the ducks get here down here in southern Illinois. But usually, you know, I get a lot of good weeks before that and stuff. And usually start mid-January and then run. I usually have actually an in-bed truck camper now that I invested in. And I usually run until the first week of September and come back home.

And then usually that's when I head to Canada, Saskatchewan. or anywhere like that and stay up there for, you know, two weeks to a month and over a month. And just kind of work my way back, waterfowl hunting all the way here to southern Illinois. And, you know, we do some, got some big white tail here. A little bit north of me is definitely a lot better. But, no, we got some good deer and, you know, pretty much live in the woods and in a field after fishing season's over. Okay, here's a couple quickies for you. Hold on.

Are you, I feel like you're already wrapping it up. We're not going to go into the Ford Face and Sonar with Tray? Hey, we can. Hey, I'm in it. about that. Let's debate it. Let's do it. Oh, I don't want to hit him up. I was probably sitting here and there's just a big article in the Wall Street Journal. Right. About him and the Canadian and forward faces sonar. I just assumed he's sick of talking about. We'll ask him about it. Can I ask my two quickies? Yeah. I'm going to ask my two quickies and I'm handing it over to Janus.

Smallmouth bastard or large mouth bass? There's not, there is a wrong answer to this. Yeah. I mean, they're so different that it's hard to pick one of the other because, because there's so many positive and negatives of both. But man, a big, like a giant large mouth, like a Texan, it's hard to beat that. That's the wrong answer. I'm sorry. Now, remove the, okay, remove the professional aspect of it.

Okay. Someone comes to you, okay? Like a, like a supreme emperor being comes to you and it says, Trey, you can hunt or fish? You can't do both. but there's no professional part of it. Uh-huh. What do you say?

I feel like I'm also going to pick hunting. I mean, mainly because I probably do fishing for a job, but the camaraderie and like, you know, just hanging out with your buddies, the memories that you have. I mean, you can have it in fishing, but man, all the ones that I remember seem like they come from the field or the woods.

And I don't know, it's a pretty special moment when you got, when you got your buddies and the right people that you surround yourself with and out in nature. I mean, it's just, I know you have plenty of those moments. It's pretty special. You know, I used to very much agree,

and now that I'm in my 50s, I switched my answer to fishing. Really? I just think that, I mean, I think you could fish to the bitter end, man. You can. Like, if your kids can get you into a boat, you're fishing.

You know, I mean, I just feel like, if I had to pick now, if I was being strategic, I would now go fishing, because I'm like, dude, I'm going to fish till the day. day I mean, I'll literally be fishing on the day I die. I hope.

I hope. You could be shooting doves off of a bucket. Yes, that's true. On that day, too. That's true. If it's dove season, but it's always fishing season. I'm switching to fishing. Like my, I just switched.

I officially switched. Okay, Yanni's going to take it over. He's going to ask you the hard hitting questions. Everybody wants to hear. Yeah, I don't know. I'm trying to set it up so that we can, we can, everybody knows what this is. Brody, you might have. have to help.

We talk about this so much. If they don't know what forward-facing sonar is now. So everybody knows what forward-facing sonar is. In these tournaments that Trey is in, it's become so contentious and correct me with I'm wrong here, but that like in your, the entire tournament season, they split the tournaments in half where half of them you can use this new technology and some you can't or the other half you can't. A lot of people thought that this.

new crop of younger anglers like yourself. Is there anybody younger than you on the tournament? It's close now. I know last year I was definitely the youngest, but now it's close. All right. So, you know, sub-25, sub-30-year-olds that are all using this technology to catch fish.

And people thought that since they said in half the tournaments you wouldn't be able to use this. They'd all shit the bed. Yeah, these guys would not be able to catch a fish. Turned out that wasn't the case. At least it wasn't the case for Trey. It's the biggest nah in the world is they take his forward-facing sonar way, and he still wins. Yeah, so I guess I don't know if I don't have a specific question prepared on the heels of that,

but off the top of my head, I guess when they made that rule and you knew that you weren't going to, that you weren't going to be able to use the technology for half of your tournaments, were you like, oh, no, no. Or were you like, oh, no big deal. I was fishing like this for 10 years before I ever had forward-facing sonar. Yeah, no, I definitely more of that case because like when we started, of course, we didn't have it, right? Like, so it was just just like normal fishing, you know? But like to me, like the forefacing is like a tool, right?

So like for me, it's about efficiency. So it's like anything else. It's just makes you way more efficient and fast and like you can cover a lot more water and understand what's going on. So yeah, although they did, you know, honestly, it's kind of crazy because the older folks that is doing most of the complaining and, you know, about it. They actually had the tool first, but they just didn't, I guess, learn it as well. And the younger guys come in.

And, you know, it was the deal because it made you so efficient. Like now, you know, I go out to the lake. And if I turn my floor face off, you know, it takes me 10 times to hit this brushball, you know. But if I turn it on, you know, I can hit one cast and hit right in the middle of the brushball. So, yeah, it just comes down for me. I just like it because it's an efficient. efficiency game. Like I just get tired, caught up, like, fishing a spot if it don't got no fish,

you know, or not only that, I like if I'm casting, at least I know my bait's in a high percentage area. So, like, you know, that's the big deal for me. I like keeping it in a high percentage area where I have good odds all day long, you know, that's the whole thing about fishing. You know, if you keep your bait in the highest percentage odds all day long, most likely you're going to finish, you know, out of the top five if you're fishing enough with it. So it's, it's definitely a controversial term for sure in bass fishing right now like that's the word that gets everybody riled up livescope but would you go would you fish a tournament that was let's say there was a tournament and it had a normal paycheck or a normal what do you call it i don't know like a prize

purse a normal purse and and the the the term was like zero live scope no live scope in this tournament at all would you be like great i'm in yeah i mean i definitely wouldn't be like hey yeah you know, like, but I would definitely be like, let's do it. You know, it doesn't really affect me. No, it's definitely, it's because it's still just fishing like anything else. You know, there's plenty of stuff that kind of goes, I guess, co-exist with it. But no, it's still fishing to me. You know, you're still going out there trying to get as many bites as you can

and catch as many fish as you can. So honestly, you know, the game stays the same. It just makes it a little different, you know, when you're able to use those tools, whether it'd be like, you know, hunting. I mean, this is not. same, but like with on X, right? So like if you have your on X and you're more efficient knowing exactly which ways you can go up the mountains, how you can go up, how you can, you know, track down or cut a deer off or however, but without that, it's a little harder because you kind

of got to, you know, just kind of guess. You know, me not test, but. You got to go over there first and have a look. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, you're a little bit more efficient with it. So that's how I, I guess, see a live scope for me is like, I just like it because it's a great tool. You know, I know exactly what I'm getting into when I'm there and makes life a little easier. Possibly as contentious as forefacing sonar. Come on. Do you eat large mouth? He can't ask him this question.

Why not? Because you put my spot. I really do. Do you eat them? And then if you say no, do you have any problems with people that do eat the bass? No, actually a lot of times. So it depends. like, well, and now, if you're keeping like six pounds, I'm going to be like, bro.

Like, what's the only? Like, no. For sure. Like, that's a problem. But, but no, like, if you're just helping, like, honestly, it helps a lot of fisheries out, right? Because, like, a lot of them will have too high of the population where they, you know, they don't have enough to eat so they get stunted. And then, you know, you won't have any big fish to catch. So it is, I tell a lot of people, if you're in a high populated area where there's a ton of fish from,

14 inches to, you know, 16 or 17, those are the perfect to eat. Like, and honestly, when you do take them out and you knock the sides off of them, it honestly will help that fishery a lot because it gives a lot of the other sources of life to get food. You know, it's not such a race and not, no skinny, you know, it's an unhealthy fishery when you got too many. But when it's just right and when you have people where they take them out and eat them, that's when you grow the biggest ones. So you like to fry them up, obviously? I do both. You know, bass, what I like about it, it's a little bit, you know, harder. So, like, you can grill it or something like that where when you kind of get underneath it, you know, it don't just all fall apart.

Got it. So it does. You can actually black it in on a grill, and it's honestly, it's quite tasty. I love it. But frying it is definitely a good option. You can't go wrong with that. Okay. Last question. You married or anything like that? I do have a girlfriend going on a year and a half now. So it's still early for a lot of people, but no, it's going really well. congratulations. All right, everybody, Tray McKinney, youngest ever, twin angler of the year. Congratulations. Good luck on your fall. You just came out of the,

you've been hitting some doves. Sounds like you've got deer plans, duck plans, fish plans. Yes, sir. All right, man, enjoy it, buddy. Thanks for coming on. Thanks, Treve. I appreciate it. Thank for the opportunity as well, man. Have a good day. Take it easy. See, boys.

Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Hey, everyone, big huge announcement. Meat Eater Live, the Christmas Tour is kicking off again this year for the Christmas season of 2026. This time we're hitting the Midwest. Meat Eater Live, the Christmas tour kicks off in December across six Midwestern cities.

We got Grand Rack. I'm Milwaukee, Madison, Des Moines, Minneapolis, and Fargo. Join myself, Janice, Putelles, Clayneuke, and Brent Reeves, and Randall Williams for a night of laughs, trivia, free prizes, news, and opinions from across the worlds of hunting, fishing, wildlife conservation, and wild foods. Also, we're already stacking up some great special guests. I got my buddy Bubbly Doug making the appearance in Madison. Me Eater Live is the best Christmas gift for any outdoorsman or woman in your life. Tickets go on sale September 25th, but sign up at themeetor.com slash tour,

and you'll get pre-sale access to buy tickets on September 14th days before they go on sale to the public. We can't wait to see you there. And I'm telling you, go ask anyone who has ever come to one of the Me Eater Live events, and they will tell you, we laugh our asses off, we give away great prizes. We put on a solid show that I'm proud to be part of. All right, Bryce Stubbs. How's it going? Welcome into the studio.

This is great. Happy to be here. Tell us what 100 cooks is, man. So it was a cooking competition show. It was the first season ever, and the premise was taking home cooks from America, and they found 100 of us, and they flew us all to L.A., and then it was just a competition from now and out. So for me, they found me on Instagram. So I would post like cooking videos and stuff when I was in college and it was kind of just a hobby thing, you know, like meal preps for my friends. And then yeah, they found me on that. And I thought it was a scam. So I didn't respond for like four days. And I was like, that's not real. This is back in December of 20, 25. And then four days go by. I'm like, what's going to hurt? You know, I was working in the oil fields. It was on my phone probably too much anyways. I was like, I'll just respond. She gets back to me right away. And she's like, let's have a phone call like at 10 tomorrow. And I was like, okay, maybe it's real.

chatted with her for like five minutes and she's like yeah you seem like a good fit for the show we're gonna send you to the head casting director what maybe this is real and then the next they already watched all your videos they must have seen a couple of my videos they must have known something about you or like did a little bit of research but then i kind of just started talking about like my story and like the jobs i've worked and the stuff i've done and they were just like interested in that i think and they're like well we can build something off of this okay and then i talked to the head casting director uh the next day had a zoom call so like happened really fast it was in the beginning to December and we had like a 30 minute conversation and then he like stopped it at the end and he's like,

dude, you're going to be great for this show. He's like, this is like, I think you'll do good on this. He's like, if you don't get on this, he's like, we'll get you on guys, grocery games or something else, you know? And I was like, oh, cool, you know, like, really? Must have went well. It's all it takes. Yeah. And then he took that and I guess they cut it down to like three minutes and then sent it to the head producers of the show. And then Christmas time came, New Year's, New Year's came. And so it was just like dark for like three weeks. And I was kind of like, all right, well, is this going to happen or not? I had to go. I was working in the oil fields at the time.

What oil fields? So I was in Wright, Wyoming, in Gillette, Wyoming, working there. And then my last hitch I did in March after the show, I went to North Dakota. So that was over by Stanley. Yep. But yeah, so I was out, I was about to start my next hitch in January. And I was just kind of waiting for the show because it's going to be the third week of January. We're going to film.

We'll fly you down. And so the 14th, I was supposed to start my next hitch. The 13th, I got an email, and I was like, hey, you made it on the show. We bought your flights to L.A. Hope these work. Like, you're flying down in seven days. And I was like, I have a job. So I had to call my boss and, like, explain what I had going on.

And he was kind of like on the fence. He was like, well, you know, we kind of need you. And like, this and that. Then his wife found out. And she got like to him and was like, he's going to Hollywood. You know? And like, he's going to go down there and he's going to cook. And so then they're like, yeah, you go ahead, go ahead.

It was great because that's when we had that cold snap. And it was like negative 45. and Stanley, like with the wind show. You're like, suckers? Yeah, my brother was up there working, and I'm like in my king-sized bed and, you know, in the Hilton in L.A. I was like, this is great.

You know, it's like vacation for me. So how long were you down there? How long to take to film the show? So how it worked is they flew us all down there at the same time. We got it on a Thursday. It was like 15 days total, I think I was there. Okay. The Friday, we had like a media day.

So we did like an interview, like who you are, why you're here. And then Saturday, dark day. And then Sunday was the first day filming. and it was cutthroat the first challenge there was like 11 people called down and I think seven were eliminated right off the bat

and if you get eliminated they're fly you home the next day like they're not gonna pay for you to stay So you're saying that you sort of like within a day or whatever you went from 100 to I think episode two there was 74 left So they're getting right to it

Yeah they like went straight to the point We didn't know anything when we showed up Like we got it was like an old abandoned Ikea building So it was massive and we didn't know the judges, we didn't know the host. All kinds of unassembled, unassembled deck, home furnishings everywhere.

No, they've turned it into like a full on cooking studio with like massive commercial fridges and like everything to store all their stuff for all the shows that they run out of it. But yeah, so no one knew what was going on. Like everyone was kind of in the dark and it was just a lot of sitting and waiting and then we found out and then they called us down

and I was like, oh, this is real life. And I was like seeing people cry and getting cut off the show and I was like, and they're telling you, like give me an example of a challenge. Like you come down in the more, morning or whatever, and they'd tell you to do what. Yeah, so, like, we'd go on the set. They'd run through, like, everybody clap, everybody cheer, kind of get the B-roll stuff for the show. And it felt really weird because there's, like, thousands of cameras everywhere. And I'm just sitting like,

I've never been, you know, in a studio like that, or ever, actually. And so the first challenge, they have this big rolling machine. It's got, like, balls in it. And each ball says, like, a certain challenge. And they have another rolling machine. They call them, like, the mixers. And it's got 100 balls from 1 to 100 and every one of us has a number on our apron and we're sitting in a chair and there's a big number behind us that's our number. It was like squid games kind of feel. Yeah, it was weird and then

they would roll the first one and it'd be like best noodle dish and like Terry Cruz is the host and best noodle dish challenge and then you know he'd be like all right I need 11 cooks for this one he'd walk to the mixer and one at a time he'd roll this mixer and then pull a ball out and be like number 26 and you know they'd come down and you'd have to wait until everyone gets called down.

And then he'd be like, I'm going to get... What was your number? 39. Yeah. So... And on best noodles, were you hoping? I hope they don't get my number. I would have been okay with it.

I was like, I definitely don't want to be the first person to go down and cook. But in my head, I was like, just don't go home episode one. I was like, every cooking show I've ever watched, I was like, there's always the guy goes home episode one. I'm like, if I happened to me, I was going to tell nobody I went on Food Network. I was like, I was going to come home. I'm not going to ever talk about this again if I get cut the first episode. See, I feel like those producers, when they're,

they cast you, they were like, this guy is top 20 material. And they cast those other people, like I'm reading here in the notes that you beat an old lady in the first round. They cast her to lose in the first round. Yeah. So that's where like there was obvious, like you still have to cook. You know, it's like it can't be rigged because you have to go down there and cook. And like I watched it. But like as far as the number drawing goes, it's still TV. It's reality TV. And so the first challenge goes, you know, I see seven people get eliminated. And, uh, and, uh, Next challenge, I turned to this guy behind me. I'm like, dude, imagine if they did like a one-on-one challenge.

He's like, oh, that would be crazy, you know? Right after Terry pulls a ball and he goes, rotisserie chicken challenge, and he goes, I only need two cooks for this challenge. And I was like, okay, there's no way. Like, one-on-one challenge. I was like, they're not going to pick me. Like, there's 92 other people up here in the stands. Like, there's no way I'm going to be picked.

Sure. First number that comes out is mine. And so then I'm walking down the stands. It's the second challenge of the whole show. And you feel like you're watching this little ball deal. Yeah. You feel like it's a legit ball deal. So that's what I don't know.

It's like how could they have put with like, did they put a bunch of 39s in there? You know what I mean? Or did they like, is there someone's hands back there? Like, because it would mess up sometimes. And like, that's the thing where they put the lady. So she was in her 70s. She survived the noodle dish challenge and how it works. If you get the best dish, you get immunity for the episode.

Oh. If you get whatever, they decide to keep four out of 11, you're safe, but you can get your ball thrown back in the mixer. Okay. So her ball gets thrown back in the mixer, and she had just survived the other round. She probably got second or third place, and everyone in the crowd loved her. You know, we're all home cooks.

It's like, oh, you know, Antoinette, she survived, you know. Everyone was calling her Nona. She had, like, a catchphrase after the first cook. What was your catchphrase? Toast that bread, because she forgot to toast the bread, and she told the judge she would toast the bread if she got a chance to come in. Well, I didn't have a catchphrase, really.

I was trying to just figure things out when I was there. They did get, I'll tell you the nickname they gave me after because it was pretty funny, but I went, so I got called down and like, I knew everybody's like, who's this guy. I was like wearing a real tree camo shirt. Like, who's this guy? And I'm like, I'm from Montana and like,

where I was like, where's Montana at. Like a lot of people there genuinely didn't know, like, where it was. And then they call her number right after. And everyone's like, she's cooking like twice in a row. Like, what the heck? But it's like, take the youngest guy who's from like Montana and then like this Italian, like, grandma

and like put them against each other. I was like, that doesn't just happen by chance. And so yeah, we had to cook off. we had a rotissory chicken we had 35 minutes I think to make the better dish using a rotissory chicken like pre-cooked oh yeah

so it wasn't it was like a fun challenge you know because it's like it's still like home cooks and so they're trying to like make sure like people like relate and like I mean I use rotissory chicken all the time it's great quick and yeah so we both had to make our own dish and I ended up beating her and like after I won everyone in the crowd

was like oh like no one was excited Like it was so hard. Of course. They're like, this Montana dude, you've got to get out of here. I couldn't relish in it at all. Like, I was like, you know, excited.

But then like everyone was like, oh, no. And so I gave her a hug and like felt bad. And then the next day on set, so we filmed, the only episode filmed over two days was episode one. And so I had immunity now because I had the best dish in that round. So the next day I like showed up, you know,

like in my slippers. And I was like, I don't have to cook today because I have immunity. And I was kind of enjoying the day on set, watching other people go up. And they all started calling me the granny slayer. And it like stuck. And so everyone was like,

oh, there's the Granny Slayer from Montana, like the Granny Slayer. And it was so funny because I was like, they're going to run with this. And so then I had to do an interview after. You know, can I switch it to like Buck Slayer?

Yeah, anything else. Like the first guy I met on the, on the, like, the ride to the hotel was like, I'm going to call you cowboy. I was like, yeah, that's, I'll like that. You know,

I'll take that. Then as soon as it switched to Granny Slayer, I was like this isn't going to be good. And then the producers would kind of play with that a little bit, like after my interview of when, They're like, so why did you think you would beat her?

Like, why did you have so much confidence going? And it's like, you knew you were going to beat her. And I was like, well, I didn't say that, you know, but they were trying to get me to like play a part and stuff. But they were pretty good about all that. Like, they were up front in the beginning. They're like, you know, you guys are just regular people. Like, we want to make you look good.

We don't want you to like, we're not trying to create stories here. Like, if you act like this, we're going to make you look like this because that's how you're acting. So it was nice because it was like a lot of people just got to go on. You know, it's like doctors, lawyers. There's people like that. There's some content creators on there, like food people like that. But it's just people kind of going on, telling their story.

And everyday, like, home cooks, which was kind of a cool thing to see because I think in a lot of cooking shows, there's a lot more ego involved in, like, chefs. Do you really feel like you're an everyday home cook, though? Because I feel like that's what I would call myself. And I look at someone with your accolades. I'm like, coming out of the oil fields, man. I got, it couldn't have been more perfect timing for me. So, like, I grew up in Churchill, went to high school in Manhattan, went to college at MSU.

I graduated. Manhattan, Montana, Montana, State University. Amsterdam Elementary, Montana. No. Yeah. But I graduated. He's not an international playboy. Yeah, I got from Amsterdam with school in Manhattan.

I graduated from MSU with a finance degree. Okay. And through college, I had always cooked for my friends and, like, gold rush and just, like, started posting videos and just having fun with it. Then I started doing some, like, catching cook stuff. And I was like, oh, I really like cooking a lot. and I've had this passion forever, but I was like, I'll never want to, like, make my passion my job

because it'll ruin it is what I thought in my younger mind. And then I graduated school, and to get through school, I had a firewood business. So I was cutting firewood in the valley and, like, had a deal with, like, Yelso National Park. I started in high school, and it was all really good, and I, you know, finished college, graduated, sold the firewood business, and then I started, like, just work in construction,

trying to figure it out. And everyone's like, why wouldn't you keep the firewood business? You know, it's like, I don't want to cut firewood the rest of it. of my life. What were you getting per chord? So I, when I first started, I was 225 for pine, 275 for fur, and then fur is just so questionable when you get it. Like, you can cut into it, and it could be like rotten or it could be like rock hard, still green. So I just ended up switching to lodgepole pine. And then, I mean, after COVID, because I started the business in high school, which was my senior year. So it was 2020, 2019 with just like a log splitter and a chainsaw.

Yeah. And then it started growing and I got like a commercial like, processor and stuff, and I just switched only to, like, lodgepole pine. And then I would just do, like, 16-inch cuts, and it's all split, delivered, and, like, nothing else. Because people get specific. Can I see a question? This is a regional question. If I say to you, if I say to you, I would, no, I say to you, I would like to buy a Rick.

Oh, yeah. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, it's like a third of an actual cord. Exactly. Is what it is, yeah, because the cord is, it's four by four by eight, which I'm not sure what What's the one? cubic like 120 128

128 cubic so it doesn't matter what the measurement is as long as it's a hundred and 28 cubic yeah but people don't want four foot logs yeah they want 16th definitely and so Rick is a face cord yeah yeah that's always let's not let's not

yeah I don't want to go down that hole a lot of firewood just bringing me back just made Steve's day no idea you were firewood man Stubbs firewood it was my my business my first business is pretty fun I want to jump from firewood to like the final deal so the final deal

How many people are left? When you go into the final, the final challenge, you gotta cook your meat, you gotta cook your big meal. Yeah. You showcase personal meal. How many, how many people are there?

So the last episode, there's eight of us in the finale. And so the night before, it was funny, they kind of told us like, hey, it's gonna be 80 you. This is the most info we got, like on the challenges.

Oh, it's gonna be what? It's gonna be, there's gonna be eight of us in the finale. The night before. I understand. Eight cooks, yeah. Sorry. And they were like,

this is the first time we got any, info about what the challenge is going to be about. They're like, you're going to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner tomorrow. Okay. Just think of any ideas for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We're like, we're going to throw some twists in there, obviously. And they're asking us all in this little meeting, the culinary directors, because they get

you what you need as far as ingredients go. So they're running back and forth at the store. Yeah, yep, essentially. And so before we flew, before I even left Montana, uh, every cook was allowed five additional ingredients. So they gave us an entire pantry list and it was just massive. And I just sifted through it and they're like five things that you want that aren't on the list. And so I asked for

tar root, huckleberries, elk tenderloin, Anaheim, chili peppers, and wahaka cheese. But this is when there's still 100 of you. Yes, there's still 100 of us. And so I asked for these ingredients because I was like, if I can use these and highlight these, that would just be fun for me. You know, like, this is cool. Like,

there's no way they're going to find this stuff probably anyways. Send it out. Get on the show. I cooked, I think, eight meals before the finale. And every time, I use the Anaheim peppers and mohawka cheese a couple different times, like in Mexican dishes. But the huckleberry is the tar root and the elk, I could never find a way to make it make sense. And so I was like, I'm not going to force this in there when it's not necessary. You know, I just need to follow the challenges and hope for the best. So the night before, they're asking everybody like, you know, what do you guys need for ingredients?

And someone's like, oh, do you have like this sea bass? And someone else like, oh, yeah, I might use that too. And I was like, do you guys have my elk tenderline? And everyone around me, like all the other cooks, like, don't worry. like no one's gonna touch your elk tenderloid. Like we don't even know what that is. And then the lady was like, yeah, you know how hard it was to find the huckleberries too?

Because this was in March. They had it. They found frozen huckleberries. So they're like, we have your huckleberries. She's like, those took a week to get. And she's like, your elk took two weeks to get. And they kept it frozen. So it was still good.

But I had no idea like what it looked like or anything like that. So they had all of my stuff there. The next day, eight of us start out cooking breakfast. And you have to make something stacked or stuffed. And so the day, day before I had made like this chili reano inspired pizza and so I can't make like a Mexican and like I want to do like a chili Kila as well I was like I can't do that it's so similar to like yesterday's dish.

Do you have, do you have family from Mexico? Yeah, my grandma and my mom are from Mexico. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. And so that's, yeah, there's a lot of, I figured the most of your connection. Yeah, yeah. And so I decided to make like a taramisu crepe and I made that and I was like, I'm to show off that I can do like a little like dessert kind of stuff.

Dude, you're way beyond me, man. I don't even know where to begin on that. Well, it went well. I survived that one. And then the next one, there was five of us. And they're like, all right, you have to highlight a jalapeno or an apple in your lunch dish. And Terry looks at me, he's like, Bryce, what are you going to do? And I'm like, come on.

I obviously, I'm going to do a jalapeno. Like, it makes sense. Like, I'm going to use that as my highlighted ingredient. And so I made, like, a shrimp savice toastata. And I used, like, the jalapeno, like, four different ways. So I did, like, like, a, in the savice, there was raw jalapeno. jalapeno. I did a chipotle powder, which is just a dried jalapeno, and I tossed the tostadas in that, so they had

like a dusting of that. I charred a jalapeno and made like an aoli, and that was like my sauce base on the bottom. And then at the very end, I just cut up some slices and like toss them cornstarch and fried them and had like crispy jalapinos on top. And survive that. And so now it's just two cooks. Me and this guy, Doug, we make it into the finale. And so right before we go to our little break, Terry's like, this is the final challenge. It's like, make a dinner worth $215,000.

This is the most important dinner of your life. And he's like, you can make whatever you want. And then he let us go outside for like a half an hour. And we couldn't have our phones or anything like that, but you just kind of sit out and wait. Because they don't want you looking up recipes. Maybe that, like, yeah, that's a part of it. Like, we were allowed to have a little notebook of recipes that we could write down

and it had to be a certain size, you know, all those things. So you could check that. But yeah, you couldn't have your phone at all. And they were resetting the kitchen. too. So after you cook, they have to reset it. So the judges come out. And then they actually brought in a live audience, too, for the final cook. So they brought a hundred people in. And so when we came back in, I was like, oh, here we go. You know, I thought it was going to be just me. Yeah. But the time I was out there, I was like thinking about like, what am I going to make.

And it hit me right away. I was like, there's three ingredients I haven't used. And I was like, all three of those ingredients are like part of like the story of my life. Like that's like what I, like, I am about. Like I eat elk every week, you know, huckleberries are from Montana. The tar root. got it because I had it in Vietnam and I've been lucky to travel a lot like for my age. And so I had tar root fritz there and I was like, I'm going to incorporate that too somehow. And then I did like a smoky corn puree as well as like an ode to my grandma. Like I remember her flipping whole corn on the cob like her bare hands, you know. And so I did that as well.

And so I made like a seared elk tenderloin with a huckleberry reduction tar root fritz and then a smoky corn puree. Kick dog's ass. Yeah. Kit dog's ass. So as I was thinking about it, I was like, it just felt more and more, like, every part of it was like me in Montana. And then I'm like, man, I was like, I'm going to pitch this to the judges. Like, this is how, like, I'm going to, you know, this is the story of my life.

That's the name of this dish. And I was thinking about it. Went in, cooked. And it was so funny because, like, normally I was doing pretty good. I had all my stuff organized while I was cooking. And I had every single bowl mixer, tasting spoon, like all laid out over like two benches because we had the whole kitchen. And they were walking by like, Bryce, what is going on? Like, you have stuff everywhere.

And I had so many things. working at the same time, like getting the huckleberries reduced, frying those tariff root reeds, you gotta soak them in water to get all the toxins and all that starch out of there. And I overcooked my elk tenderloin. Okay. Because I got them and I cut open the bag, and it wasn't a whole tenderloin.

They were pre-sliced and they were like maybe an inch thick. So I saw them was like, all right, I gotta be very, very careful about how I cooked these. So I seared them hot, fast, and then butter-based it. And I was like, I'll just set them in the oven, let them keep warm, and then I'll cut them at the end, they'll have plenty of time to rest, cut into him, and it was like a gradient,

like medium to, like, medium well. And so I cut out the medium wells, you know, and, like, tried to put as many mediums. There was a little bit of mediums. You were high-grading. Yeah. And it was tough because I was like, it was so funny because the one thing

that I should have been able to nail was that, like, that elk tenderline. I should have been fine on that. But thankfully, I put so much work into all the other ingredients, you know, it highlighted, like, everything else and it came together as one dish. And then, funny enough, Doug, he cooked a pork chop.

He did, like, a, I think it was some Chinese, like, pork chop recipe. And he grabbed a big old pork chop. When he pulled it out, it was raw in the center. So he had to cut it in half and quick pantsier it real quick to just get it up to the temp and dry it out. And so when they were like, you guys both overcooked your proteins, I was like, here we go. You know, it's like now it's like just based on overall at this point. And I had more components. And, yeah, I mean, I thought, you know, I thought I had a really good dish.

So do you think of you, do you? Do you think if he'd have done that pork chop perfect, he'd beat you? That I don't know. I think it's tough. Based on those two dishes alone, like, I feel like I put a lot into,

like that the work that went into that dish. And it wasn't like, my steak wasn't gray. You know what I mean? Like, it was still like edible, but yeah, I don't know.

I think he still would have been close. No. Yeah. But it definitely helped, like, that he also overcooked his. So do they come marching out with like a giant check?

not so those big ones were like takes two people to hold them up so how it works is like I found out I won

confetti fell and everything there was some people that were in the show that were competing that like I was friends with at that point that came in the stands

and watched because they hadn't flown out yet they all came down like hugged me congratulated me yeah then they took some pictures in front of like

they had this big sign with the money up because the money would go up based on like how the show worked and took some pictures of that and then it was like

that was it was done I walked outside this lady came up to me a piece of paper she's like sign here for like agreeing to accept the money. Sign that, did interviews until like midnight.

And then I didn't get the check until like three weeks ago. They're going to tax that check so hard. Well, yeah. We'll see. I mean, they set the whole amount. So I'm sure there's going to be some withholdings I'll have to. It's just, yeah, like I was saying earlier, man, like someone writes, you know, see, like when people win lotteries, whatever.

If all of a sudden someone's like, hey, Bryce, here's $215,000. They're going to be like, I'll take some of that. Yeah. That's easy money right there. Yeah. It just seems like maybe I'm wrong. It just seems like they're going to hit it with like the extra special tax. Well, I think like the Super Bowl players got taxed by playing the Super Bowl in L.A.

By L.A. is like California's taxed, like much harder than they would have somewhere else. Like with their winnings. So I know California has like a stipulate on like winnings for. It's still a nice chunk, man. What are you going to do? Yeah. So it was funny. What are you doing with the money?

I mean. Then I'm going to ask you what are you going to do? He's got a finance degree. You've been listening? He's got, he doesn't have, he's not going to make any plus issues. I was working in the oil fields, that part of it. So yeah, I was doing the construction thing

after I sold the firewood business, got a private chef gig just by like, happen chance. Then that's when I was like, this is what I want to do. Everything I want to do is like right here. Pursued that, doing freelance stuff. And then, yeah, so I realized

I wanted to go to pastry school. Last year, I got back from my trip, and I was like, I need to focus up here and make some money. kind of chase this dream. And so I was like, how am I going to do that? My brother's worked in the oil fields. They hooked me up with a job.

And I started doing that for pastry school to save up money for it. The show came in the midst of all this. So then I went on the show. I won. I didn't get any of that money. Like, they told me they were going to give me any of the money until the last episode came out,

which came out in, like, middle of July. And so pastry school was coming up in March. And I was like, I need to pay for this. They didn't give you your scratch until... Nothing. They gave me my... I got a $50 per die per day for dinner. That's redundant.

Yeah. They gave me that. It's for them. I've had this argument. Makes sense. Yeah. Is that? Anyways, they gave me that.

So they sent me like 800 bucks, which was, I guess, nice for the time I was down there. But that was it. So I was like, I got to go back to work. And you had to sign all kinds of stuff

to keep your mouth shut. So many NDAs. Yeah. Like, I came home. I was like, you can't be talking about it. I was hugging Terry Cruz. And the next day,

I was like on a flight back in Montana. Like, up, going back to work in North Dakota. Sworn to see. Which was kind of nice, because I was away from all of it back there. But yeah, I worked another month and then saved up the money so I could start pastry school.

Then I left for France at the end of March. And then the show came out in June, and I got back home in July. So it was kind of great, like being away from Bozeman and like small towns. Like if I go to the ridge, you know, someone's like, did you win? Did you win? I can't say anything. So it's just hard. So thank goodness I was gone.

You'd be like, I didn't lose. I didn't lose. Yeah. But what I would say, I was like, would I have gone back to work at the oil field? if I won. And then it shut everybody up. I'd like, oh yeah, you would never go back to work if you won that. But funny enough, I just didn't have any money. Because I didn't win the show you. I didn't get the money yet. So yeah, then I did France for three months, came back, was still waiting on the check. And then so I just three months of pastry school. Yeah, yeah. So it was in,

I don't want to like pry, but like, how expensive is three months of pastry school? It's not. It was actually, I spent a lot of time trying to find the cheapest one. Okay, I'm just cheap at heart. Like they, I'm from Churchill and everyone's like, oh, it's because you're like, you're from a Dutch community. That's why you're cheap. And I was like, oh, man. Yeah, that's why my own man. He wouldn't go to a Hollander's road garage sale.

My old man. Yeah. I knew I got you guys numbers. I was raised around this, man. Yeah. So I took my time to find a cheap one and, like, all said and done with, like, housing three months and, like, school, I think it was like 10 or 11 grand. Okay. So it was, I thought it was pretty reasonable instead of, like, liquid on blue.

But you're just doing this as, like, career development and self-improvement. Like, you're paying. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, I want to be like, I'm a saving. chef. I like cooking is what I like. But in my mind, I think like the best chefs are well-rounded and have, you know, a little bit of everything. And so I was like- So you're serious about this whole thing, man. Very, I would say, yeah. Like now for sure, yeah, it's like my life. But yeah, so I did that.

And I came back, was waiting for the show to end, kind of seeing whatever opportunities came out of that. And then randomly got like a DM to go to Alaska and go cook on a yacht because their chef had like flaked out. And I'd never done anything like that. Like the most of the most of, like, the most of the most of, most I've provisioned for was like four days and I was like still could run back to Bozeman and it was for like a couple guys at a ranch. So I got called out for that and the day before I left I got my check from the show. So it was like last month I finally got the money. So it took a while.

But nothing yet. I bought a laptop. That's probably. You're hoarding that money. That might be my biggest purchase out of that. It's like someone was joking the other day like your laptop's worth more than your car. I was like, that's how it should be. But dude, now you're going.

So you're going to space. now. Yeah. And you're going to work in a Michelin Star restaurant. Yeah. So how long you signed up for, indefinite? No. So how it works. So it's, I'm doing like a visa free travel deal. And so I didn't get like a visa approved to like work there. But it's essentially it's called a stage, which just means like intern in French. And like all chefs would know like a stage. It's like you go intern at a restaurant, maybe get paid like it's kind of a gray area and they're still working those things out. But like I'm almost guaranteeing I don't get paid at all. But the point is you're under the best chefs in the world learning like the craziest kind of knowledge, technique.

You can take away from that. And then it's also a resume builder. Like if I put like this is a three star, if I survive, which I'm really hoping I do like I can put like I stodge at a three star Michelin restaurant and like adds weight to it. Doing private chef stuff. It's like it's big for that because people are always curious. You know, like where are you classically trained? Have you been here? You know.

And so yeah, while I was in Alaska cooking on the boat, I got that opportunity offered to me. And so I was kind of just figuring out, like, am I going to do this finally? And it's like, this is what I want to do. And so, yeah, I leave five days for that. Damn. So what do you see like in five years?

That's a tough question. I don't. What's it going to look like? I feel like I can't even do like anything past two months. It's too hot right now. Yeah. Too much. Too much going on.

I think I've been like just taking each opportunity as I can. For me, The show was a huge booster, just like the money, obviously, and then it gave me kind of the confidence and, like, was, like, solidified what I, like, what I think I already knew. But now it's like, you know, I spent a lot of time. I was cutting fire. I was in college, like, not pursuing food really, like, intensely.

And so it's just growth, I think. If I can just go and be a sponge everywhere and just take every opportunity to learn, like, even this Alaska trip, I had a half day in Juneau, which, like, I don't know if you guys have been to Juneau, but they don't have a whole. foods or anything like that. And so I had a half day to provision for two weeks worth of food for 11 people, three meals a day. And I've never done anything like that in my life, you know. And so I did that whole experience, cook for two weeks for these guests. You know, got a lot of

fresh catch. It's cooking stuff like I've never even seen before or heard of before. I made my own tasting menu and like it was like a taste of Alaska and it was like a six course deal for the guest. It was super fun because it was just like all making up on the fly. And then after that experience, I'm like, I learned so much. I opened up kind of the yachting chef world to myself. And so I don't want to say, like, I'm going to do this now for the next five years. And the five years I want to do this. Or I'm going to start a restaurant because when you do those things, you're kind of shackled to it for the time.

And so I feel like for me, I'm 24. If I could spend like the next five years taking opportunities like that and just learning and absorbing and growing as much as I can and then go from there. Thinking about that money, man. I know a dude in Southwest Minnesota needs 600 bucks. It was 50 cents, right? I think I could swing 50 cents. Dude, congratulations. It's great, man.

Yeah, yeah. You got to be proud. It's such a cool accomplishment. It was cool. You got, like, obviously, you got tons of ideas. Yeah. You got a pretty cool career laid out ahead of you. Yeah, yeah.

The money's cool, but it's bigger than that. I think it always has been for me. I think, yeah, like getting out of college, you know, I was just working whatever I could to travel and eat and taste food. And everyone was kind of like, you know, buying houses and stuff like that. and getting married and I was like, am I doing the right thing here? And then when that show came around, I think every part of what I'd been doing kind of got brought there.

Is your grandma still alive? Yeah, yeah. But she's proud. She was stoked. Yeah. She's got to be excited. She loved that, the chili Riano pizza that I made. You better go cook her a nice meal, man.

I know. I got to get back. You owe her a nice meal. Definitely. Yeah. And so if folks want to watch it now, they got to go to HBO. Yeah, it's on HBO Max and Amazon Prime. And then I don't know what food network's on.

Like, I know they do reruns and stuff on. TV and then I don't know if they're on like Fubo or any of those other apps or whatnot. But yeah. Excellent man. All right. Bryce Stubbs. Churchill, Montana. Yes, sir.

Big time food competition champion. Private chef. Michelin Star. Maybe. Protege. Congratulations. Thank you. Thanks, buddy.

Appreciate it. Get Bell, Pure Fiber Internet with Crave Netflix and Disney Plus. From $94 a month, price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell. Connection is everything. Hey, everyone. Big huge announcement. Meat Eater Live, the Christmas tour is kicking off again this year for the Christmas season of 2026. This time we're hitting the Midwest. Me Eater Live, the Christmas tour kicks off in December across six Midwestern cities. We've got Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Madison, Des Moines, Minneapolis, and Fargo. Join myself.

Yannis Putellis, Clay Nook, and Brent Reeves, and Randall Williams for a night of laughs, trivia, free prizes, news, and opinions from across the worlds of hunting, fishing, wildlife conservation, and wild foods. Also, we're already stacking up some great special guests. I got my buddy Bubbly Doug making the appearance in Madison. Meat Eater Live is the best Christmas gift for any outdoorsman or woman in your life. Tickets go on sale September 25th. but sign up at the meeater.com slash tour and you'll get pre-sale access to buy tickets on September 14th days before they go on sale to the public. We can't wait to see you there. And I'm telling you, go ask anyone who has ever come to one of the meat eater live events and they will tell you,

we laugh our asses off, we give away great prizes, we put on a solid show that I'm proud to be part of. You can go ahead and hang out if you want. We're going to talk about Lake. I can't you say it. I want to know what's going on with that. Is that real? Yeah, it's real. Define real. We're going to get into it.

We're going to get into it. Yeah. Like, you all know by now, except Bryce, apparently. Which says a lot about it. Yeah.

It's a good thing. Doesn't spend his time on the dumb shit. In the, in the midst of a tariff-induced trade war with the evil empire of Canada, Trump says Lake Ontario is now Lake America. So I just want to hit like a few points before we do a little roundtable discussion on it. Number one, Lake America implies that we have some kind of American ownership over that lake,

but that's like not the case. And Trump doesn't have the authority to rename an international body of water. He's got it all backwards when it comes to history and geography. Lake Ontario is not named after the Canadian province. It's in fact the opposite. The word Ontario has indigenous origins that go back hundreds of years. It was in use long before the United States existed, long before Canada as a country existed. Ontario didn't adopt, the province of Ontario didn't adopt that name until 1867.

So there was obviously some reactions to all this. Google caved very quickly. I just read Apple Caved Can I just tell you right now I put in Lake America and on the map Google Maps it does say Lake America

but in the search bar it says Lake Ontario and then in parentheses America Right you want to know something funny If you Google it in Canada it's not Lake America But I don't know to say like I don't know

that they cannot I don't know that they cannot do that Yeah, but go on. Doesn't matter. No, they caved, man. They're like, they're curing favor, I believe. Sure, yeah.

There's a kissing of the ring, yeah. But getting back to the indigenous origin. So, like, there is a reaction from some Native American groups to this, obviously. The Wendat Nation, Grand Chief Pierre Picard expressed shock over to the decisions. He stated it was an attempt to erase indigenous history and noted that the Wendat originally named the lake. I'm going to say Ontario, it's like some version of that that I may not be, you know, might not pronounce the right way, but either way, Ontario means the lake is beautiful. The lake is big.

With all the respect, I don't think it was an attempt to erase indigenous history. I don't think that was considered it, but this is the reaction from the people that came up with the name. Yes. Understood. That was not intentional. I mean, I get it. Go on. It's a reaction to something important to these people. Seneca Nation president, J. Conrad Seneca, issued a strong statement, condemning the rename as

unpresidential and a sign of blatant disrespect. And he noted it violates the historic 1794 Treaty of not going to pronounce this right. Canon Degua, which I'm not sure exactly what that means, but again, it's an attempt to erase indigenous history. Moving on from that, those points, in the United States, there are at least 12 geographic locations and municipalities that are named Ontario, you know, towns or whatever.

Countless businesses and schools also use the name Ontario. This, I think, is funny, because I'd forgot this from my childhood. The Great Lakes are typically remembered with the acronym Homes, but now it would be shame. Superior, Huron, America, Michigan. Yeah, yeah, in Erie. Okay, no, I got it now. Shame, man. And then we had maybe the most important point come in that someone pointed out.

Yeah, this trumps all, oh, yeah. this is the real mindbender i doubt trump's ever even heard this song if he has he wouldn't be able tell you i don't think because you know like all the weird gold things hanging up in there in the office it just does i don't get a wreck of the edmund fifth jerry vibe no i get more liberacee or yeah like george w bush had like a closet full of junk they took from saddam hussein and that's like now decorating the office yeah so what we're getting at is the the song we talk about all the time Gordon Lightfoot's the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. There's a line in that song that goes.

And farther below Lake Ontario, Nate, move your, I can't read it. And farther below Lake Ontario takes in what Lake Erie can send her. And Steve is very upset. Farther below Lake Ontario. Very upset because there's just, the rhyming just does not work for that. I called a prominent songwriter. I don't want to drag his name into this. I called a prominent songwriter.

And I said, dude, what happens now with the, the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. He said, no, there's not a problem because they're both four syllables. And then he thought about it. He goes, oh, there is a problem. I said, can you fix it for me? Can you propose a fix? He puzzled over it for a day and then did a thing not many people do.

He texted and said, I can't figure it out. I have to move on to other things in my life. He gave up trying to fix the song. We brought it to, reads piano news. Yes. How do you fix the problem for Gordon Lightfoot? Can you cue it up?

Here's the best he could do. Lake of Lake Ontario being renamed Lake America. Everybody's asking one question, and that's, how is this going to affect Gordon Lightfoot's seven-minute sea shanty, the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, where he says Lake Ontario exactly once. And I think we've got options. Oh, Michigan Steams like a.

young man's dream the islands and the bays are for sportsmen like america sits down farther below we've got luckies and punt guns and freedom any songwriters that want to write in and take another stab at what in the world happens now to gordon lightfoot's masterpiece yeah you can't mess with that The wreck of the Eminfitt. Like, does he get a fine? I mean, oh, he's dead, but say he wasn't. Does he get a fine every time he sings it? I think he'd punch Trump in the face.

Well, they, he's a Canuck. I think he'd punch Trump in the face. Yeah, big news. Okay, Yanni. That's all you got to say about that, huh? Gee, what more is there to say? What do you do about the wreck of the Evan Fitzgerald? Songwriters, please come together.

I don't know. No, I wasn't talking about the song. No, I got no more to say on it. I'm still in shock. I'm still in shock. Hunters. It's a Great Lakes Man, an ancestral Great Lakes Man. Hunters carrying sidearms for bear protection in Colorado may find their caution well justified this season.

Wow, that's a real. I came up with that. You wrote that? Yeah, I did. It's kind of sensational, isn't it? Exactly. No. I wanted my little segment here to start off with a bang.

If it was sensational, he would ever have used the word may. Well, that's true. It would have been will. Will. Well, I was thinking about, like, how does this actually relate to us? Because as you'll see, a lot of this stuff that's happening with these bears, it's not really out in the wilds. And in the past, we've covered stories. I think it must have been so long ago, it must have just been on the regular media podcast,

but where people were shooting themselves in Colorado Elkins. deer camps with pistols. And I think you were like, why are they even carrying pistols? In Colorado. In Colorado. They don't have grizzly bears. Yeah, it's just black bears. Well, one guy does. What was his name? Adam Green Tree.

Right. He has grizzlies in Colorado. Convinced they're all over the place. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I kind of remember that too. Low Mountain snowpack, active wildfires, severe trout, and localized late spring freeze events have heavily depleted natural food sources such as various fruits, nuts, plants and grasses forcing black bears to travel into residential areas

in search of easy calories. So much so that this year, up until now, well, no, these numbers go until I found from January 1 to August 13. In 2025, there were 3,115 reports. In the same time period this year, 6,129. I'm going to put that to our finance friend.

Yeah. What percentage is they grown? I'll tell you, Bray, twice as much. Is it because there's twice as many, they got twice as many bears now a year later? I don't think so. But interestingly, I did look up population of black bears in Colorado, and it says 17 to 20,000,

which I thought, that's a hell of a lot of bears. And I thought, that's got to be like the most bears in any state besides Alaska. Turns out, no, Colorado is actually 10th on the list. Alaska's number one. Then California, Maine, Idaho. All these states have 35 to 30,000. And then Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, 24 to like 27,000. Yeah, I mean, that makes sense.

Half the state of Colorado is not bear country. It's just like ag-plained stuff, you know. That's a great point, man. It's a great point, yeah. Yeah, but I bet you there's a lot of bears out in that ag country these days. I don't know about more. and more. I mean, just being back in the Midwest when I was there for a wedding this past weekend, like,

there's the same conversations we're having here now and people in Colorado are having. It's happening in like three rivers Michigan. They're like, oh, yeah, there was a bear that came in to, you know, walked through the Walmart parking lot or something like that. Let's see,

where was I? Yeah. It's about to hit, like, the, the main time of year when Colorado or any state has a lot of human and bear encounters. And that's because bears are going into hyperphasia. Phil? Remember this?

Oh yeah, dude. This is the early days. Blast from the past for you. You guys know the word hyperphagic? He's like eating a whole bunch. Yeah. So, yeah, like they say that bear, you know, the first. fall they go into a hyperphagic state, like just eating around the clock. Now thinking back on it, we have watched them where they're so focused on eating that then when they're in a

spot that doesn't have food, they run. Like, you watch them digging ground squirrels and they just run from burrow to burrow. Like when they get done with one burrow and catch the squirrel, because there's nothing in between, so what's the one? Yeah, so maybe she just was up in that rocky junk because now that she's just down there pounding blueberries like nobody's business and has no idea about this gut pile. So it's like, she's just like, I'm not going to stand here with nothing to eat, I'm going to run,

which seems like it's own sort of inefficiency, like you're consuming energy, but they must just have it. It worked out the math on it. That's good, Phil. Thank you, Phil. Oh, yeah. That's a good episode.

What was that one called? You remember? That's fun. That was a fun one. Hyperfaget. You were there, too? Oh, yeah. What were you doing on that one?

You were just WPA? WPN. Nice. All in Carab. meet around watching out for grizzly bears. Dirk climbed out of the tent one night to take a piss. It's never really dark out. It's kind of dusky. He climbs out and take a piss. He says it was a grizzly

standing in the middle of the tent. It was her with her cup. It was the same one. Yeah. Yeah, hyperfagia. So they're trying to eat a whole bunch. They got no berries, no grass, nothing in the woods. So they're running from trash can to trash can. In like the last month or so, there was a

Steamboat Springs residence attack where Bear went through a sliding glass door and then struck a woman in the face in Aspen in a park He entered a sliding glass door or went through a sliding glass door? Oh, okay. I understand. Yeah.

Got it. In a park in Aspen at 3 a.m. On August 19th, a bear bit a homeless man in the head. No. Yep, Bear was euthanized for doing that one. Down in Crested Butte, a bear got into a house and then started a kitchen fire. There was one in Eaglevale where you and I used to,

I got attacked in a laundromat there, like something like that. In August, recently. That's the last thing on your mind at a laundromat, man. It was something to do with laundry. I've been in a laundromat since graduate school, but when I was, I was not thinking about Bear tags. So they're around. I was hoping to talk to somebody. I didn't get, CPW didn't get back to me about this

because my main question was like, why it just seems like, this happens from time to time that, you know, the bears are just going to be hammering the trash cans more. But this year just seems like there's way more attacks actually on the humans. It's not just encounters.

It's like, why are they? Mix up. Biting, swiping, actually messing with the humans. So my main question, there is a new, they're angry. Law in Colorado that just took effect.

And they're basically, the law is making it so that instead of getting a ticket for like knowingly baiting a bear, which you can't do, now you can get a ticket for just basically knowingly leaving food out that you know a bear could come in contact with. So if you're part of the problem, they can hit you. They don't have to give you a first time warning. And it looks like subsequent penalties can go from $2,000 to $5,000. So this could be like a bird feeder Or is it just like garbage related? I mean, I think it's up to the You know, the wardens probably going to be issuing the ticket Oh, if they got to talk to you three times, two to $5,000 fine. Yeah, which is good, I think.

I got a neighborhood be eligible for that. I mean, they get visited all the time. I don't know about how where it was. Yeah, and I don't think that we have this emboldens. But I don't know how it was down in Eagleville where you were, but when we were up Valley, like we had to have those bear-proof trash containers. Eagle was not, it didn't,

I wouldn't be surprised if it does now. My brother's in Salida, none. Just regular old trash cans, he says every morning right now when he takes a dog out for early morning walk, he just goes down the alley, every single trash can is knocked over. Got it, Bill.

I don't know why like that isn't more of a thing. Like, you don't have to, where you are, you don't have to have lots of beds. In the winter, we put it out the night before. Mm-hmm. In the summer, you can't do that. You got to wait

and then rush it out there right when you think the dude's coming which means you'll miss the garbage all the damn time. I'm sitting on a two-week load right now because this very reason. That Highland Boulevard area

over in Bozeman is where I lived in college and we'd have a black bear go down the whole road like every week and just take out each trash can. So I imagine that I mean this is all sort of

urban interface but there's plenty of bears still left out and about in the woods, they're going to be facing these same challenges. Sure. What do you think hunters are going to or should do? Season open yesterday in Colorado. For bears. Uh-huh.

Okay, so I guess there's that. There's like, what do you do if you're a bear hunter? And what if you do if you're an elk hunter trying to not have a mix up with a bear? Those bears still got to drink water. Like hunt, you know, I mean, hunting water. You're going to find bears. I can't and never will as long as I live. I don't care what happens ever find it myself to take a black bear serious enough to carry black bear

defense not going to do it I don't care what happens oh you said to stay bear safe I thought you said how to get one I'm not worried about staying safe in Colorado well maybe not you if you were to go hunt and you're going to have a tent camp like a back not a backcountry just a wall tent camp in the let's say the flat tops right for a week would you do you wouldn't do anything else else that you already, that you don't do? I mean, I wouldn't leave food laying around, but no. No. Like, I don't think, I don't think these few attacks are like a sign that bears are going to be

jumping dudes in the woods like all over the place. Yeah, I'll put my food somewhere in my sleeping bag. I cannot find it myself to get scared of a black man. I mean, I've, I've been backpack tent camping in Colorado and had them walking around my tent at night. It's like not. But this year's different. They don't have any.

foodie. I still don't think they're going to start eating people. Brody was wondering if this means good or bad for bear hunters. Like, does it mean that the habits change? So it's like harder to anticipate them or does it mean that they're out just more visible? Just roaming. Yeah. Roaming. Yeah. Yeah, you think they'd be more visible. That's what I would think. But the thing about Colorado too is it's got. Oh, check this out. There a day. The other day, I don't know why he's keeping quiet about it. He sends me a way off. sends me a way off video where he's looking at the baldest 10,000

foot gravel ridgeline. He's like, is that a Wolverine? He sends me a little clip. Because like, what the hell else to be running around up there? Well, he gets home and is able to look at it on something. And it's a little shit in Black Bear. Way up. Dude, there ain't a bush in sight.

You know what I mean? Not even a bush. He's up there eating rocks, dude. And he's just probably dying. And he rolled out. I wonder if it was that, do they do the moth thing that the grislies do? He was traveling, but I don't know.

He was hurt. I don't know. I'm putting a lot on to him. I don't know what he was doing. He was by himself. He was small. But that was like 10 minutes after an antelope rolled by at 10.5. I'd never seen an antelope up that high.

It was crazy. Maybe he's hunting antelope. But the thing I was getting at in Colorado is, I mean, you've seen it, especially down in Southern Colorado, as they got all that oak brush. So like a berry failure isn't a total end of the world because they can go to those acorn. but the berry failure here they don't got acorns to turn to so i think they're going to be out running around a bunch and be good hunting okay all right everybody now earlier i talked about how if you're gonna if you're fixing to get a suppressor don't want the government telling you what to do now might be the time to strike why how certain am i stay tuned

for this interview, which is going to close the show out. We're not coming back to say goodbye. Stay tuned. You're going to learn a whole bunch. And thanks for joining the show. And thanks for coming on, man. Thanks for having me. Bryce Stubbs.

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We can't wait to see you there. And I'm telling you, go ask anyone who has ever come to one of the Me Eater Live events, and they will tell you, we laugh our asses off, we give away great prizes. We put on a solid show that I'm proud to be part of. Okay, we're moving over to a report about, you know, the sort of never-ending regulatory shifts around suppressors, which some of you folks, you know, from old movies might know as silencers, but suppressors, things you put on the end of your gun,

on the end of your muzzle of your rifle, so that you and your children don't have to damage your ears when you go shooting. It's a phenomenal, phenomenal invention. I think one should sit in every gun case out there. It's a shifting, you know, like I said, rapidly shifting environment around these things. Hopefully in the long run, we're just headed to a place where you can just go into a sporting store or go online or whatever and just get yourself one. But you've got to jump through certain hoops.

The hoops have changed. I feel like it's good news, but I don't really know. It's confusing. Me and Nate Mason were just talking about that these regulatory changes around suppressors are confusing. But here to clear it all up is the man for the job. Got it probably knows more about this than anybody. Brandon Maddox, who's the founder and CEO of Silencer Central.

So this guy has to pay attention to this stuff. I'm going to intro it like this, and he's going to explain what this means. He's here with us. This is in my notes. Here's what it says, Scott. A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in Silencer Shop Foundation VATF. That key National Firearms Act registration requirements for items like suppressors and short-barreled rifles are unconstitutional because Congress previously reduced the,

NFA transfer tax stamps to zero dollars. If you took all 360, whatever the number is, million Americans out there, I think that 359 million and 99,000 and 950, don't know what that means. Brandon, you explain what that means? Sure. Good question. So basically what happened is a big beautiful bill, got rid of the tax stamp. Tax stamp had been $200 since 1934.

And when the tax stamp went away, some gun rights groups got together and said, let's sue the federal government and say that the registration of silencers is unlawful because there's no longer a tax. Congress had written underneath the tax code. And since it was underneath the tax code, the assumption being that there should be some revenue and when it went to zero there was no tax revenue. So when you say the $200 thing is like if you go, like if I went to you, if I went to you, or I go to Silencer Central and I'm shopping, like part of the process is I need to, I

previously had to pay this 200 bucks. Yeah, correct. From like 1934 up till December 31st of 2025. So essentially January 1st of 26, there was no tax. stamp. What does this mean going forward? Like, who all does it apply to? Is it just Texas now? Like, who does this have implications for? Yeah, good question. So, you know, basically the judge and his ruling gave a list of, you know, basically the plaintiffs that had sued the government. And he said, any of those plaintiffs, and there's, you know, a long list of them. And then anyone that is current member or

future member. So what we see is, you know, we basically joined one of the other organizations. One of them was like a Texas Rifle Association that was a subsidiary of the NRA. So, you know, we joined that and some of the others. So once you join it, then you as a dealer have the same benefits that the, you know, basically the ruling created. You know, where it gets interesting is there's 15 states currently that have state laws that say you have to follow the federal registration process or your silencer is unlawful. So unfortunately, there's 15 states out there that until they correct that language, they're in a position where they still have to go through the old process. Are those states like lefty states or righty states, generally? No. I mean, it's sort of

a big combination of both. I mean, you know, Montana's on the list, believe it or not. Oh, okay. You know, Alaska is Georgia. You know, some of these states that are on there, it basically, it was a way to create a state law that was relying on the federal law. It basically just said, you know, South Dakota had this law and the silencer Central worked to fix it in 2006. We also helped fix Kansas. So there was two states previously. But in simplest terms, mostly what these states say is that, again, you got to go through the federal process, get your silencer registered through the NFA process for it to be legal in this state. well if the nFA process goes away then it ends up being um you know illegal to own it and possess it

in the state so the state's going to have to change their state laws oh i got it but but i feel like without getting too without getting too speculative here i feel like if if the fed if the feds remove the process yeah and make it that you can't do the process yeah and a state says you have to do the process to be legal i feel like those state courts would pretty quickly get like that ruling would get struck down because you're you're asking people to do a thing that they can't do yeah that's fair i mean that's a good point i you know looking at some of these states that um you know might like connecticut's one of them um you know Colorado's one Georgia's kind of a purple state Oregon Washington state so there's some states where it could be hard

harder harder they might fight it they might even create their own state laws that you know that that's one concern too is that that you know, we saw where, um, Virginia tried to put a $500 tax earlier this year on silencers when they saw the $200 tax went away. Oh, you're kidding me. No. It didn't last too long, but it was, I mean, it made, it made Virginia our number one state behind Texas really quick just because everyone was worried about that.

So if federal wall goes away completely far as the regulation of silencers through the NFA process, it could open the door for blue states to create their own rules. They could create their own tax stamp. They could create their own processes. they could, you know, outright outlaw them if they wanted, or they could leave some of these state laws on the books and then make it hard. But, you know, we see this process could stay in place for a while. What if, when you look at these states that like Virginia to add this,

that tried to add this $500 tax to a suppressor, what? And I'm asking you to put on a, I'm asking you to like put on a funny hat here because I'm ask you like what what is the primary argument that they have like what is the primary problem that they have with suppressors yeah it's a fair question i mean obviously they see that the republicans took away the two hundred dollar tax so they see it as a way to generate revenue for some other you know pet project okay um no it's a good point i mean if you if you really dig in and look at the um you know crimes that are committed with silencers almost

100% of the time, if a crime is committed with a suppressor, they didn't go through the process. They made their own. They didn't go through any kind of background check. So, you know, it's not, it's not considered a public safety issue. You know, before, before Trump got in in 2017, ATF even said, hey, we'd be interested looking at a way to deregulate these, which, you know, sort of fueled the idea that eventually they could become deregulated because even the ATF felt like they were overregulated, at least at that time. Yeah. You know, I think I've made this point. you, I know I've made it on the show before, but I always think like imagine just imagine that for whatever reason the laws of physics were such or the early technologies

were such that guns just were about as loud as they are with a suppressor on them. Like it's magical thinking, but just imagine that a rifle naturally was about as loud as it is with a suppressor on it now. would they have made laws saying you had to make your gun louder? Yeah, of course not, right? No, no, I'm so saying it's like, where is this thinking that they just need to be a certain decibel level so that the people around them need to risk having hearing damage? Like, is it like a way to get you?

Is it like, I know how to fix shooters. I'll make it that they have hearing damage. Like, I just like, I don't understand the motivation. And a lot of the, you talk about like blue states, a lot of the blue states have a reputation of of sacrificing at time sacrificing personal liberty on the part of public safety, saving you from yourself, regulating what you buy, like, you know, you can't buy certain kinds of fishing sinkers because lead could be toxic. But we would like your guns to be really loud. Yeah, it makes no sense. Yeah.

It's hard to, you know, I think about the same thing. thing with like, you know, the modern sporting rifles that, you know, they, they don't necessarily have any data for those and they still kind of go after those. I do find that, um, some of these states are responding well when I'm doing like testimony at the state level that in Europe, these are completely unregulated. I mean, they have a serial number, but you can buy them over the counter in Europe. There's not, it's not considered a firearm. There's no background check. You just walk in and get one. Even like in a hardware store or something. So for some reason, the politicians kind of respond to that. They're like, oh, really, okay. Well, maybe it's not as bad as I thought. But

still it's unfortunate that they don't see it as like you're saying it's just basically hearing protection the other story i tell all the time the first time i ever shot a suppressed rifle was 15 years ago maybe well yeah it was exactly it was 15 years ago the first time i shot a suppressed rifle i was in scotland we were doing we were coaling red deer on an estate we were shooting a suppressed rifle i said i was ignorant to the subject back then i said i can't believe you guys can hunt with these. He said, I can't believe you guys cannot hunt with these. And he was telling me, it's, it's impossible for us to get a gun. It's easy for us to get a suppressor. I'm like, well, we play the opposite game in America. True. It is the weird. It is like one of

those things that so, to me, the issue is so like, it's so glaringly obvious that, that these These are a safe, beneficial tool for people to, like, to increase safety, to protect kids. Like, it's just a beneficial tool. It's so glaringly obvious that I, it's one of those ones that it's hard for me to get in the head of people that oppose them. And usually I take some pride and be able to, like, articulate opposing viewpoints of mine. I'm kind of stumped. I'm always kind of stumped with these guys. but so back to the matter at hand here though

the details at hand is it that right today is it that in some states you can now I could now go to you and buy a suppressor and just buy it like I'm buying

ammo and it just comes to me in the mail or is that not true right now yeah good question it's kind of based on state but like so you know here in South Dakota, you know, because we changed our law here in South Dakota earlier in the year, people can walk right into Silencer Central, purchase a silencer, but they still do the 44-73, like the same background check you would do to buy a rifle or handgun. They do that.

We do a background check. If they have a concealed carry, we don't have to do a background check, and then they could leave with it. Okay. So then it's just like, it's just like if you were a gun shop, like for me to go to for me to go to a physical silencer central location. Yep. I can get a suppressor in South Dakota the same way I can go in and buy a shotgun.

Yeah, absolutely, exactly. Okay, but what about online shopping? Yeah, good question. So there's 37 states where if you have a concealed carry, there's no background check. So we can mail them, signwinter directly to you there. You would just do the 4473 via DocuSign. And then also, you know, if you have a local dealer that's willing to do a transfer for you, we can sell a silencer to you, a ship it to them, and then they can do a local

transfer as well. If I, okay, tell me a state that has the state, tell me a state that has the state rule still in place. Montana. You said Montana. Yeah, Montana. Yep. Okay. So, this is getting a little nuanced here, a little detailed. But, okay, I go to you. I'm a Montana resident. Yep. And I'm visiting in South Dakota. Yep. And I'm like, man, I'm going to go over to Silencer Central and check out everything and I'm going to, and I'm going to buy a suppressor. Is that cool or not cool? So the process would be what we kind of call the old process, the form four. So the same way that you know, you've done it since 1934. Got it. You still have the hold. And it would eventually come to my, it would eventually ship to my local FFL.

Well, no, we should have to write to your house. You should be right in my house. Yeah. How long would I have to wait for that? Right now we see approvals like three or four days. Oh. Okay. So way different than it was like two years ago for people that. Oh, yeah. Used to be a long time. Yeah. So it's gotten better, yeah. Okay. So the difference train, when I registered my first suppressor, I don't remember, it was quite a long time ago, it went and I gave a local, I did, I remember I was using Bob Wards, local Bob Wards as an FFL.

I think it sat there. You probably remember better than me several years, five years ago, whatever in hell. I think it sat there for 13 months. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Forever. So 200 bucks.

It sat there. I mean, for a year, I think it was, I hit like a terrible time in the backlog. Sat there for $200, sat there forever. Finally, I was able to go get it. We're at least now at a point where even if I'm in one of these states you're talking

about, I can do mail order. Like I could go to Silencer Central, buy a suppressor. And then in several days, it's going to ship to me and I don't have the $200 bucks. Correct. Yeah, exactly.

Yep. So a tax stamp went away and it's a whole lot quicker. Yeah. Um, you know, if you go through a trust, it can take a little bit longer just because they have to reread it, you know, make sure everything's good. But, um, yeah, if you do it as an individual, it's a little bit quicker. But yeah, I would say most people are getting them in a couple weeks. What, what do you think is going to happen? Like, let's just run a scenario where, uh, let's run a scenario where a Democrat, a pro gun control Democrat comes in in, in, in, what the hell is it going to be?

2028, like a pro-gun control Democrat comes in in 2028. Is it like one of those things where you just sign a paper and this whole thing gets reversed? Yeah, good question. Because it's not, because it's not like an act of Congress. Well, good question. So, I mean, that's my concern is that this is tied up in litigation. Like you said, you get, the worst case scenario would be Democrat and the White House and Democrats run the Senate and the House. So the big beautiful bill went through just a simple majority vote through Congress.

So basically they could add anything they want to the tax stamp. I mean, the tax stamp before was $200. I mean, they could pick a number that's inflation adjusted and say it's $5,000 for a tax stamp. And then it would go into effect whenever they pick and basically the whole market would collapse. So they could get punitive. They could get like vengeful if they wanted to. Oh, yeah, 100%. 100%.

It'd be easy, too, because they'll have the majority. So if they have... You know, I wouldn't be planting ideas in their head like you're doing right now. Yeah, no. Other people in the industry have told me about it, which got me scared because it's sort of like, you know, it's sort of a lackable as soon as you, you know, the best scenario would have been of Congress had done the Hearing Protection Act. Then it would have gotten rid of all these state issues because it was written in

there to sort of trump the state issues, which would have been beneficial. But to kind of have it backdoor to the courts, I think, you know, the other thing we didn't mention is that although the judge came. up with this, he gave a seven-day sort of stay or pause. He basically said, I'm going to give a seven-day pause to give a chance for the federal government to respond. And I tell you, everyone I talk to, I consider experts at this from illegal and also in the industry. 100% of them said there's zero chance the ATF doesn't appeal this. And they didn't. So by them not appealing it and not staying and it just opened the door for that ruling became instant. So, I mean, there's a lot of

things came out of the blue. Like, I don't know if anyone would have thought the tax stamp would go to zero, then I don't think that anyone would have thought the lawsuit would actually win. I mean, you could argue that in Texas, North Texas, yeah, I can see a judge going that way. But then for the Trump administration and DOJ and ATF to not even respond and for it to open the door, just because it creates so much chaos, because like I said, it's, you know, some people are protected. Some aren't. Some states have issues. Some don't. I mean, it's a big quagmire. It creates a huge issue for everyone, a huge issue for ATF from a regulatory standpoint, huge issue for us, dealers in the industry to try to figure out where the market's going. Yeah, it's created a mess. But yeah, thinking worst

case scenario that could happen. You know, I guess the ATF could just completely back away and not challenge it. But then another, you know, like I said, another administration could come in and change the tax stamp to, you know, whatever, $5,000 each or whatever they want. And then that's the new norm and the whole market would collapse. Go, man, it seems like right now, if you're kicking around getting a suppressor, now's the time to strike, man. It's like it could get better, but it could get worst, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, no, totally. Especially on the state issues. Those are some of those states where, you know, it's illegal to state law, because if eventually the federal law goes away completely, then they've got an issue that they may not be able to fix

on the state level. Yeah. And if you get one now, I'm guessing it's like, you know, they're never going to do something where they come clawing it back. But hey, whatever happened to the Hearing Aid, the Hearing Protection Act, because I would have pictured if you could get one, like if it had a chance, it would have been over the last two years where here you have, you know, Republican administration, Republicans have the House, Republicans have the Senate. If they couldn't get that son of a bitch passed now,

like, why not? I mean, after the November elections, it's going to look a lot. Prospects for that are going to look a lot dimmer. Ever getting that across the finish line? You know, it's unfortunate. I think just having to get the majority, because

they would have needed, you know, the two-thirds votes or whatever in the Congress. They just didn't have enough votes. There's just the, there's, there's, there's, there's, Republicans to have a majority in the, um, Senate in the house, but it's just not a big enough majority to really pass anything. If you look, most things aren't really passing. Yeah.

The only reason the budget passes is because it just needs a simple majority. I understand. I understand. Yeah. And also it's like it's, there's like, there's a probably a priority set, right? And it's just, you know, it probably feels like very fringe. Like, yeah. To people side to people besides guys like you and me, it probably feels very fringe.

Yeah, true. Right. Yeah. Like what? It's an educational opportunity for us to educate elected officials. Well, man, thanks for coming on and explaining that. I hear what you're saying, though. I hear you on the uncertainty.

But I mean, do you agree with the assessment, like from a professional perspective? Do you agree with the assessment that, I don't know, like, is your advice to people, hey, wait, because it could get better? or is your advice to people like I don't know it could get worse quick I don't see it getting any better I mean yeah I mean because right now there's a lot of states that you know you could potentially just do a 4473 like I said if you have a concealed carry in 37 states we can mail a silencer right to your front door just doing a 4473 through the mail yeah I can't see it getting any better I can only see it getting worse especially in those states where they've got a state law they got to fix that yeah and if this stays

unresolved, which I think it potentially could through to a Democrat administration, then it's a problem. So when Obama first got in, he changed it where he wanted fingerprints and photos for everyone that was on a trust that bought a silencer. And in the past, that wasn't the case because it used to be considered a corporation and there was no fingerprints or photos for corporations. That drove the greatest demand that I'd ever seen, just that fear lost. So that that is definitely something that people respond to and afraid that they couldn't get them in the future. So these dudes watch, these dudes watch too many movies where

the bad guys got like a pistol that goes Pee-W-D-I-W-D-I-M-A-T. Yeah, 100% They watch too much. They're like, oh, that's, yeah, the guns like, you know, they're like, yeah, that's no good. It's like, dude, it's just not like that. You know, it's crazy?

So my kids are 11, the change is so often, I can't remember, but like 11-13-16, 11-13-16. My kids, yeah, every year. they've never shot a rifle that wasn't suppressed. I'm not joking. My older one has now,

but my 11, my 13, they've never shot rifles that weren't suppressed. Perfect. They're not scared of them. Like, they are not scared.

All the flinching and crying and all that, they are not scared of rifles. They love it. That's awesome. Yeah. So I do feel like, whatever happens, I feel like there's a shift,

you know, there's a sort of shift that, you know dope smokers will appreciate this when they started like legalizing all that there's like a shift that's just going to be hard to put back you know what I'm saying it's going to be hard to go down the road like as my kids become like voting age or whatever and other shooters it's going to be hard it's going to seem like lunacy to them true when someone says oh no no no no no no we want you're going to be real loud it's just it's going to seem crazy to them because they were raised on it it wasn't like me where they're in their 40s or whatever you know when when they discover this. It's just going to be very second nature to them that, like, that that's what it is. Like, that's how shooting is. That's how rifles are. Yeah, I agree.

Yeah. All right, man, thanks for coming on and explaining that to us. Thanks for having you, sir. All right, appreciate it. Take it easy. Absolutely. Yes, sir. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.