The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 927: Brent's Manitoba Moose Hunt | 12 in '26

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

Join Brent Reaves and Josh Spielmaker in this Q&A interview to hear behind the scenes details from Brent's Manitoba Moose hunt that didn't make the film. Brent chronicles the trip from start to finish and shares some surprising insights gleaned from his experience. He also answers some viewer questions about the hunt. Watch the film now on MeatEater's YouTube channel. Presented by Can-Am: maker of the best ATVs, SxS, and Utility Vehicles www.can-am.brp.com Connect with MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and YouTube Clips Subscribe to MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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In the morning, I'm going to catch a float plane out with Craig McCarthy with North Mountain Adventures, and we're going to see if we can't get a moose hemmed up here in northern Manitoba. It's a very remote place. It is as wild as wild gets in North America. It's hard to believe that this is really taking place. And I don't know if I'll fully realize it until we get in camp. But I'm a long way from home. What you just saw was a clip from Hunting Bull Moose in Manitoba, my 12 and 26 films sponsored by Moultrie and Onake.

And what we're doing now is the companion podcast that's going to answer some questions and maybe show some things that that didn't wind up in the final cut. And I'm joined by my good friend Josh Landbridge spillmaker. Well, I'm excited to be here, Brent. I really love the film. It was, it was, uh, did a great job capturing not just the hunt, but all the surrounding things to go with it, the scenery. Oh, man. The camaraderie, everything about it. It was just, it was information overload for a little while.

I'll say, I'll say. But we're, we're really excited to, uh, to do this podcast because we've got some great questions from some of the viewers. And, uh, we're going to give you an opportunity just to, you know, it's hard to catch a, how long was the hunt total? Oh, man, we were there for like, I think the whole trip was like nine days. Okay. So it's hard to capture all that in 42 minutes. Correct. And so, uh, we're going to give you an opportunity just to tell us more than we could see in the film.

but it's a pretty different kind of adventure for you. Growing up here in Arkansas, early on in your career, you spent a lot of time documenting other people's hunts. And you kind of go into that in the film, but this time you're the guy carrying the rifle. So before we, we're going to, I've got a couple questions for you, before we kind of dive into it. Okay. How did this kind of come about? How did you get, how did you like, hey, I want to go to Manitoba hunt?

Man, uh, it all started like in February a year ago. Okay. And Garrett Long, my boss calls me and says, we need to come up with an idea for a project, some, some, some film projects that we're going to film throughout the year. And I need, what's your dream hunt? And I'm like, I don't know. I'll think about it. Oh, I got it.

I mean, it was just that, that was. That's how it went. I said, I want to go shoot a moose in northern Manitoba with Craig McCarthy. And now the response I was waiting here was like, uh, how about we do something in Missouri, you know, a little closer to home. But Garrett's response was, okay, get a hold of Craig and let's start working out the details. And I'm like, say that again. And then from that, it just went from initial meetings with Craig and producer and,

and we just started getting the ball rolling and making a plan and it came to fruition. That's incredible. Yeah. What was what was kind of different about you, you know, I know you filmed quite a bit in Canada, you know, not necessarily in northern Manitoba, but you filmed a lot in Canada. How was it different preparing for this knowing that you were going to be the shooter? Well, to me, being a cinematographer, which I don't claim to be, I was a camera. man and I think I think there's a difference you know but prepping myself to go film a hunt like

that I just had to get the mindset that that I'm always working right that you know the hunt is not when you leave walk out the camp door or the tent or whatever with a gun in your hand when you're there to document the whole hunt that's all of it so you know you've got to be on the ready you got to you're the first guy up in the morning you're the last guy to go to bed at night you're the last most of your meals are going to be cold because you're filming everybody else doing all that kind of stuff. So it is a totally different situation that you have to prepare for. So you just got to get your mind right that if it don't happen on camera, then it didn't happen. Right.

You know, that's the way you got to look at it. And I want to think, I can't remember exactly Josh, but I think Dave Gardner shot like 26. Dave Gardner was your cameraman. He was my cameraman on this. It was me, Dave Gardner, and, and. Craig McCarthy in this. Excuse me, videographer. Yeah, cinematographer. A cinematographer. Shout out to Dave Carter. Yeah, for real. And, but I think it's like 26 hours of video or film that he shot, you know. And they condensed that down to 42 minutes. I mean, that's, uh, it's incredible, incredible.

Well, that's awesome. Well, uh, let's go ahead and dive into into another clip here. Okay. Man, the amount of stuff it takes to do this is monumental, especially if we're trying to document and feel like this. It's already going to be a good trip regardless, so a lot of folks ready to go, me and including. They're Arkansas. Ha ha ha. One big suey.

A long time, no see. Hey, brother. Good to see you. You too. Great, that's a great clip. One of the things that I noticed right away was how remote yeah this place was yeah flying in and out um no roads road systems i mean you fly in live out of camp um and your boat becomes your primary way of getting around um and then the whole process that

goes into loading these planes and getting everything off and um what what were the logistical what was the logistics of putting together a hunt like this i mean you think about there's always been in this business, and I learned it very early, that you're either hunting or you're filming a hunt. And that is two totally different things. If you're just hunting, you're just going to, you capture what you capture. If you're trying to tell a story,

then you've got to film everything. So there's going to be equipment and batteries and camera batteries and stuff that are going to take the place maybe of clothes of other things that you wanted to bring. I want to bring, you know, X, Y, Z, but you don't have room for it. And you got to make a choice between clean underwear and batteries. Batteries, it is. Batteries are going to win every time.

And you're just taking a, you're taking a bath in the creek, you know, and washing your clothes in the lake. And that's that, that kind of stuff goes into it. And it goes into the whole thought process of, okay, maybe I can wear a pair of britches for three days, you know. And I actually did a podcast about it about when I came back about how. the things that I would have done different and I I took way too many clothes and I would take I would cut that back and just you know washing the wash in the in the lake rents off dry and let it air dry and then go that route but you really prioritize the things that you need to document because if you run out of lens wipes or if you run out of batteries or if you run out of you know your B camera

you got more than one camera there if you run out of things to document that I mean you It's not, you don't, you don't call up FedEx and have them ship you another one in. Run down to Best Buy. Yeah, because, you know, from where we took off there in Thompson, we were in that float plane for another two hours before we. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. It was out there, you know.

Not in a straight line. We went to several other camps and dropped some stuff off, but it was, you don't just, if you don't bring it, if you don't have it with you, you don't have it. Right. Right. So, and usually one is none and two is one. So you, usually you're doubling up. Right.

So you can be. sure that you have. On the necessities. Mm-hmm. To have, yeah. So one of the things that I know and love about you, Brent, is that you really value relationships. Tell us how you met Craig.

Oh, man, I went up on a bear hunt with Craig and his wife, Mel, and their place, North Mountain. Yeah, North Mountain Adventures there. And I guess it's kind of in the bottom third of Manitoba there. And their family, Craig, Melanie, Hayden, And Kirsten, they're just, man, they are just an ideal outdoor family. They, they're hosting that they have there. And the places they have to hunt is just beyond anything.

And they're just good down to earth people. So we hit it off, you know, right from the get-go. The only, our only difference is, you know, we talk different. And they have an accent and I don't. But we just became good friends. And then when this opportunity came up to be able to go on a movie, hunt there was one guy that I wanted to do it with yeah and that that's how it happened oh that's really cool yeah that's really cool um so when you're when you're this remote you said you're out there

for nine days um what is a what does a typical day look like when you're out there hunting well hunting moose man you you you get up pretty early uh i mean it's not like a duck hunt where you're two hours before daylight you get up right before daylight and kind of get a bite to eat and you let the you want to get some daylight where you can you can see the shore you know when when you leave the camp you get out and you go and we're going to different spots along the shore and if weather's right and it's and and you can see you know you may be able you may spot a moose before you ever set up to call one now we didn't we didn't see the first two or three days we were there so we would just go to different spots

along the lake and call and we'd set in the one spot and I talked to even in the film you i'm talking to Craig about it you know asking him how long he likes to stay in one spot after we do a call and it's right i would think you know 45 minutes you know or but he's like no two hours and it's the way those those bulls react to a call it's just so slow and methodical and they can hear it a long ways but they're usually not just okay i hear a cow come running over there no, he's just going to start easing his way that way. And he may be a mile away from it or more. Right.

And just start easing his way. And you were there, what time, what time of year? That was in late September. Okay. Is that like peak for the rut? I think it's the kind of toward the end of it. Okay. Because everybody, we were the last hunt for that, for Craig's outfit up there,

his father's outfit up there. So anytime I was talking to someone, they'd say, oh you're going to when you're going to hunt this moose and i'd say oh we're leaving i think it was like the 18th or 19th of january or september something like that and they're oh you're going late i'm like golly that seems early yeah yeah but you take into account the the weather up there and in october as opposed to how it is down here you know there's quite a difference so it was a tail end of the rut but bulls were really active and and as you can see you it paid off. Yeah. So, um, you, you traveled with your rifle on several different airplanes. There's a

scene in the, in the, in the, in the film where you want to go just check your zero on it. Yeah. Um, what, what, uh, a lot of questions about what caliber, what, what rifle you were shooting, what caliber, and why was it important to you to check the zero? So Sig Sauer Cross and 300 PRC, which was the largest round I've ever shot, you know, in a civilian rifle. And when I looked at it and I thought, you know, that's probably a moose round. As big as it is. But I cited him with my friend who lives here not far from my house here. And he actually works for Sig. He's an engineer for Sig here at the, at their Arkansas ammunition plant. And Matt Burns, who's a competitive shooter and just a man, he's just so knowledgeable about it. So, but he's got a little range at his house. And we went there. I went there.

and cited that thing in. And the whole time we were traveling, you know, from plane to plane, I'm looking at the wind and I'm watching them load stuff. I'm like, that guy right there is not concerned whether my rifle stays on zero or not. But we got, that was the first thing that I wanted to do once I got there. And you can actually in Canada, in Manitoba, that is, you can hunt the same day you fly in. Oh, okay. As long as you don't use that aircraft to, you know, spot it.

anything, which we didn't see anything. But you can, it's legal to do that. So as soon as we got settled in camp, I mean, Dave push record and we started, we started hunting right then. Awesome. Awesome. Where, uh, what distance did you have your rifle zeroed in at? I cited it in. It was, I could shoot out to 700 yards on, on Matt's course. And we shot a hundred. If it's good at 100, Matt said it's good at 700. And I shot both at his house. And that was what we did there based on the ballistic calculator yeah based on all that we did it there once we got into camp and It was good to go awesome. Well that's cool Let's let's let's go ahead and hit this next clip

We talked about this earlier and I've heard you explain it to other folks are talking about going and calling and then Like at night and then leaving and coming back to that spot is that more it's like putting bait out? Yeah, I Pretty much. Unless he's right there, you're not going to get him right away. But he could be two miles. And if it's dead calm and he hears you, he'll, and moose aren't fast, you know, when they're coming, he'll start grunting and slowly make his way there. So we leave in the morning. He's probably coming if he heard you. Right. And then when we go back in the afternoon or the next morning, he's probably like within a couple hundred yards of where you were calling from. What's your picture perfect weather for calling moose in the rut? What are you looking for? Below zero temperatures and dead calm. Celsius? Yeah.

So 32 or under and no wind. Yeah. Now, I don't want to be presumptuous here. I've spent quite a bit of time practicing a turkey call and duck. call. Yeah. And don't claim to be good at either one. Right. I think I could get that one down. I've got, man, I've got videos of folks with their kids blowing through a toilet paper roll. Like, how's my moose call? It sounds good. And Greg will be the first to tell you. It's all you got to do with a minimum amount of practice to call one up. And it was the thing that got me so much is something that I just keep

beating the hair off of is it's like calling turkeys right now going back to camp going to bed and getting up the next morning going back and sitting by that tree and shooting him when he walks up i mean that it's just so out of the out of the ordinary that's what i kept thinking about i mean it's pretty amazing that you can put a call out yeah and 12 hours later that muses yeah yeah he's coming or 24 hours. It was when we would leave and there's something in there. And I don't know if we're talking, if we're going to get to something that didn't make it into the film that I wish

would have if this is a good time to cover it now. But one afternoon. And I can't remember now if it was the day after, I think it was a couple days after that I actually killed a bull. we were going down that river the same river and we just pulled up on the bank and Craig made a call and then we went on fishing down the river and as we left Dave's filming him and Craig says there'll be a bull here when we come back and we laughed Dave laughed I laughed Craig laughed we went fishing we came back and there was a bull there three hours later

really yeah we got some footage of him from the boat and but I wish that would have made it in Craig saying that but he because I mean you like oh this guy's got a ESP. Oh that that's awesome. It was pretty it was pretty funny. Were there ever any, uh, you know, when you're throwing these cow calls out there, was there ever any before you saw one respond to it like that? Was there any doubt in your mind that you're like, uh, well, I mean, you, you trust the guy. I was a duck guide for so long that I knew not, if I've got a client with me, I'm not going

to tell him something that's not true you've got to be honest absolutely in the course of being in the wilderness being outside dealing with nature the truth is going to come out right so i i had to do nothing but trust what he said and you know i would be thinking oh we need to get up and in my mind i'm thinking we should get up and move right the next thought would be i should pay attention to craig because he does this for a little yeah exactly and he gets this wrong he doesn't get paid right exactly so i mean I mean, it's, you never guide to guide, and that's something I always keep in the forefront of what we're doing. And I'm trying to learn, man, I learned so much from, you know, being a turkey hunter or a white tail hunter, you got to be patient a lot of times, you know. But I learned patience from him up there, especially when you're making a call that could have an effect 24 hours later.

Sure. That was, it was really cool to see. So Craig mentioned, you know, his ideal calling conditions were, you know, zero degrees Celsius, 32 degrees Fahrenheit, dead calm, why those conditions? Obviously, the dead calm makes sense. I think it's the sound carries. And it's, they seem to be active during that time, you know, with that temperature, they're most active. And obviously with the sound will go not just downwind, but in every direction.

Now, was that from your first day hunting? That was. Okay. So first day was just. call and wait yeah call and wait okay we we got there that afternoon we went over and across the lake we never hunted that side of the lake again because of the wind the we were facing into the wind there and we were right on the edge we had the lake uh right at the behind us the edge we were calling across that tundra or whatever technical term that is for that that part of canada there

and they had um you can see forever but i mean in that also in that instance i mean you can see that the wide open country but a something big as a moose can just all of a sudden just slip up on you you know so it was now is this private land or public land it's all public it's all public land and i'm not sure if it's native land or whatever if they have a lease or whatever it is but it's like a concession that they hunt up there. So, I mean, they're the only folks allowed in that part. Like, give us an idea of how big of an area you were hunting. As big as the world is.

As big as outside, I mean, there was thousands of acre of miles of what unnamed lakes and unnamed rivers and just wilderness, absolute wilderness. And it, from the time you left Thompson and that airplane, that float plane, fly, at little over 3,000 feet. Once, once those, that's part of civilization got behind the aircraft, there was, I mean, there was nothing. And it looked like it went on for absolute ever. I've not spent much time in the Canadian wilderness like that, but that's what everybody

says is just, it feels like you're. It feels like you are a million miles from home and really, you are. Like an uninhabited planet. Absolutely. And you're smet. and you're breathing air, it's never, nobody's breathed it.

It hasn't got to Arkansas yet. By the time it gets to Arkansas, they've been, folks have been breathing it all over the country. You're breathing something that's been inside someone. All over North America. And it's just a feeling. It's just all encompassing, really.

It's a little, it's, if you like details, and I love the details in places that I go. and the small things and it's over it's it's overwhelming it really is yeah yeah that's cool um let's uh let's hit the next clip okay normal on a foggy morning i just lay up until the fog clears or no i think it's just uh it depends where you are if the bulls have cows with them or not okay it's how moose hunting is it's just like you could see nothing for days and then all of a sudden there's moose

Over the place, yeah. Famine to feast. Yeah. It's just the way it goes. Lord, he's seeing something. Wait, I think I see a bull. Look up in the green over there. See up in the green? A pie? Definitely a moose, 100%. We're going in there. Yeah. We got time. Oh, I see him. He's to the left of the tree down lower.

I'd stop since seven minutes. Yeah, they just disappear. Now that was that the second day? Or was that? That's the first day there. The very first day. Yeah, we were coming back from where we were set up across the lake and saw that. He saw that moose.

And it's hard to see it, man. I don't know that if you could even put a pause on it and zoom in on it on your phone or your computer, whatever you're watching on and see that moose. But he was there. And you can see the paddles on him. and he had a cow up in there. Okay. And that spot right there,

where eventually I shot the moose from probably another. Oh, really? 40, 50 yards around that bend down there's where I found where we were sitting when I shot that moose. But something that impressed me about that was there is nobody within miles and miles and miles of where we are. And Craig says, we got seven minutes. And buddy, in seven minutes.

we were packed up and gone. Yeah. At five minutes till when we didn't have anything close enough, we were unloading and just standing there watching just to see what would happen. And there's nobody that would have known. Yeah. But me and Craig and Dave. Right.

But it's by the book, man. I love it. Yeah, that's awesome. They're just. Got to appreciate guys like that. Absolutely. I mean, the integrity is what stands out. Yeah, yeah.

100% of it does. I can imagine cruising up and down the lake there, you're probably every brown spot is a moose. Yeah, I saw this, there's one stump I tried to kill for six days up there that I kept seeing through those

binoes and I like, that's got to be a moose. No, it's still a stump. What's a legal bull? Is there a, is there a size requirement? I think it's got to have like four on the fronts, I believe. Okay.

And then, um, I'm not exactly sure. I mean, we talked about it, discussed at then. I don't remember now what it was, but it was, um, it's just incredible to, to be in those places and to be able to see that much.

Right. And know that, you know, behind that ridge. How difficult was it to see one? Well, it turns out it got pretty easy. As long as we stayed there, the more we saw. Uh-huh. And, but you just didn't see them, like Craig described, he said, man, we're allowed to come around a corner and they'll just be, you know, walking them down the bank.

Right. Way down there. You know, across the lake, you'll see them over there. No. When we start seeing them, you know, we start seeing them. them we just rolled up on them and there they were really yeah just as unconcerned with over the course of the hunt how many moose did you think do you think you saw oh i think we saw five different bulls including the one no uh been four bulls and then one that had the cow with it okay okay

now that's including one of the bulls that i killed wow that i would have thought you would have seen more but that's uh pretty amazing to see those well you saw well you saw what you see is where they were and fresh tracks and evidence of them and yeah and you really got to play the wind up there man because i mean one of the only creatures on the planet's got a nose bigger than mine and it's they can mine i'm the other me and you and you got if you don't play the wind right they're gone that's what i was wondering too because was that something you had to manage 100% i mean you you look the wind direction we walked outside and we got in the boat determined 100 percent where we were going that day.

And it also, the main thing, it determines where we weren't going to go. Right. We're not going to go in there and this dust, this area was sent when we know that there's moose in this and we'll, we'll wait until. Was it pretty windy when you were there? At times it was. More than not. Okay.

More than not. And there was a couple storms that blew through and it was raining. I can remember, I can remember sitting in the cabin. and we had a Starlink system up there so I we could I called home and I was talking to my wife on the and it was just raining and man it's raining it's so hard water's coming in on the floor and we're picking stuff up and setting it on tables I told her I said it's coming a storm there's water in here my stuff's getting wet and I can't think of any place I'd rather be right now than right here it was just that much fun yeah you know so yeah but there was windy it was windy and it just

played a lot, but you really had to be smart about and just take your time. You know, it's not a, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Right. And every day that, every day that you're there, you're learning more about the environment, more about what the moose are doing by the tracks we're seeing and just, you know, play in the hands that were dealt. Interesting. Um, as you, as tie going on, you kind of picked you there was a scene in there where you talked about is that a moose and he's looking he's like i don't think so and he said it looks like two eagles what what was it it was two eagles okay yeah eagles up there are buzzing around like hummingbirds here they're just everywhere and it was way across the lake and they were setting close far enough apart from each other or

separated enough that you thought yeah resembled paddles right because that's what you're looking for you know you got to look for those paddles you see the paddles and then you'll see the moose so that was to my untrained eye that's what i was looking for and then we looked and saw oh that's uh those are eagles there okay and right after that is when we i think first yeah we first got in there and saw where those moose were eventually where i would wind up killing one okay all right The new Red Bull Dragonberry and Tropicberry Energizers, now at McDonald's, made with freeze-dried fruit and an electric burst of flavor. The all-new Red Bull Energizers, now at McDonald's.

This product may not be right for you. High in caffeine, details at McDonald's.ca. At participating Canadian restaurants, excluding Quebec. Hey, everyone, big, huge announcement. Meat Eater Live, the Christmas tour, is kicking off again this year for the Christmas season of 20. 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, 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 themeatater.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 you. 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 let's uh let's move on to the to the next clip we've got a two-minuteer here and i think it's a good one everybody found a comfortable place on the log and sat down we were like a bunch of crows sitting on the light line and i had my boss holistics calculated out on my phone. I was range in different places and just really passing the time because I didn't figure we were going to see anything until late. And all of a sudden Craig said,

oh my gosh, there's a bull. How far? That's a shooter, Brent. How far is it? 460. Wings right on pretty well. 2.3. You ready? Yeah. Shoot him again. Oh, he's hurt. Where's he at? He's butt facing him. He turns one way the other I got him.

I can poke quartering, but he's hard quartering. Pretty sure you hit him. There's no doubt. Hit him again. He's going down. Here you go. He's going down. Can't see him. Holy man.

Weapons on safe. Oh, buddy! I think you put three in them. That's a good bowl. I love it, man. I get to chills every time I watch that. Craig was so excited and I was so excited. It was overwhelming.

Yeah, 100% overwhelming. And that whole sequence there, when we got there, it was early. It's like 2.30, 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And that's the same point you recognize from where we were the day before. And when we got there, I said, you know, the wind's blowing and it was kind of warm. He said, they're probably not going to start moving until later unless they're following a cow. He said, but it may be warm enough that they want to come get a drink of water to cool off. so we just set our stuff up got comfortable dave sat down with his camera Craig sat right beside him

and I sat down on the other end of this log and I've got that ballistics calculator out and I'm thinking okay if Craig calls out 500 you know I'm poking it in there and fine and and because I messed with that scope enough Matt and gave me a crash course on it and we shot round after round after round and he's calling out different different distances and I'm doping it in there so I was very familiar with with the process and was very comfortable with it and so I'm just sitting there go for nothing better to do than past the time because Craig says you know you might see one but it's probably going to be late you know when it kind of cools off right

and then all of a sudden he jumps up and runs by me and says there's a bull right there and he's a shooter the time he's running back over here to get his binoes and stuff. Dave gets his camera and stands up. I don't know what to do. So I just kind of run around in circles there for a second until Craig got back. And we got on the gun. And the rest of it was, you mean, you saw it happen.

And when there was, he called out the distance to me twice. And because the first time he says, 460, well, I dialed it in. And I said, how far? Because I get off the scope and I look and I can see. him right I'm like this there's no way that thing's four it's way closer than that he's because he's huge you know I can see him and he said 460 twice is what he said 460 twice I'll never forget it okay I trust him you know and I got back on the scope and when I turned it loose it's it when I shot I thought I'll be able to hear it hit him I shouldn't be able to and it seemed like it

took forever but wham you can hear it you and on the video you could actually I felt like I could hear it on the video you can 100% you can and then if you look you can see it actually go through him oh and hit the splash of water on the other side okay so he took the first round right in the baller room behind his shoulder on the right side and the other two uh i wish we would have got a photograph of it but the other two you could have covered up with your fist really i mean right in the zero wow and that's incredible it was just like he didn't flinch i mean he just amazing walked right up on the bank and laid down and died man it it was incredible it was incredible to see that just that huge animal i i was amazed that how little he moved after that first

shot yeah i mean just like he didn't know what hit him but he wasn't too concerned about it at the moment he just soaked it up man and he got two more and he i mean he didn't limp he didn't do anything. I mean, when it hit him, he moved. But as far as like shaking or anything like that, he just, he towed it all three of them up, just plumb out of sight. Now, you, you spent many, many years in law enforcement, um, working with SWAT. What are, what's your background with firearms? Well, I was also a firearms instructor. Okay. I taught at the state SWAT school down at Camden, when they would have special classes down there for SWAT personnel. So you're very, very, familiar with long-range shooting how to handle firearms I somebody we had a guy that

commented hey I appreciate hearing Brent you know full of excitement but the first thing he says is weapon on safe oh yeah just letting everybody know yeah that's a that's a weapons instructor right there yeah I think that's just a force of habit which is a good habit to be absolutely what were those feelings that when when Craig said there's a bull man it was just I mean I the whole time that whole hunt I was thinking about how you know it's a grand adventure for sure but it's also my work there's a lot of responsibility to that encompasses my portion of it you know that that's always why I talked about being the camera guy you know win or lose right if the camera if the camera's recording I've got all the shots whether or not the hunter misses or not right now I'm in front of of it. Now it's all on me. I know Dave's getting his part. Can I hold up my end of the bargain? And that's where the pressure comes from. And I mean, but it is part of the story. Had I missed him,

had I made a terrible shot and it had just been part of the story. Luckily, I did and I put three good ones in him and it was it was absolute euphoria, really. What, when did you see it immediately when you came around the bushes? Were you like, oh, there it is. When, when Craig said, there's a bull over there. And I'm sure you were full of adrenaline. Oh, yeah. When you walked around those bushes, did you immediately connect with him? Oh, yeah.

I mean, you could see down the river from where we were sitting. I didn't have to walk out. Okay. From where we were sitting when he, when, when Craig ran past me, he fast enough to set the grass on fire. You know, I didn't know if it was something after him or, or what? Should I keep up with him or outrun Dave? Right.

What's going on? And he said, there's a bull and, you know, a good bull right there. And I looked down there and immediately. Immediately it was like a painting when he's what he's knee deep out in this river and just slowly walking out there and the sun shining on him and there's the water the ripples are lit up from the sun and this thing is it looks like a movie. I'm getting chills now Josh just thinking about it. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I mean the sky was blue. It was it was absolutely unreal. it looked like a it looked like a film wow wow and when he said 460 you immediately went into i got to trust him yeah my first thing was there's no way but he said it's 460 and i made him

or i asked you know i'm how far i'm wanting him to you know to make sure that's what it is confirm you know and he confirmed it 460 twice and i'm like well that's how far he is and i love that you kind of had more or less immediate feedback of whether that animal was down or not. I mean, it was clear he was going down. Well, I didn't see it that way. Okay. Craig says, you got him. He's going down.

And I'm like, bro, that thing was walking last time I saw him. Of course, Craig's looking at a lot of, he's looking at, he's seen moose move that are shot good. He's seen moose that are walking that are shot, not good. Right. know but i mean his confidence was overwhelming but it wasn't for brent right when he walked out of sight far as i was concerned that moose is still walking because you shoot a deer and you think well he's in trouble you know you can kind of tell but i didn't i didn't know what to look for and to me it didn't like he was moving any faster or any slower than when he walked out before i ever shot him the

first time okay so did you wait or did you guys go immediately after it 14 days we waited right there in that spot is what it felt like i think it was 25 minutes okay because i was checking my watch right and we got in the boat and went down there and i when he walked out of the river and walked up on the bank out of the river he walked right past a rock that was sticking up it was about the size of a basketball but it was right on the edge of the bank the flat bank where and i think it was maybe two feet from the from the from the edge of the of the bank down to the water and just a cut bank straight and there's that rock was right there so in my mind when i saw him i logged that in there and i think that that's where right that's the trail i'll

look and start looking for blood right there yeah and we just started to float down there okay and well we've got it we've got a next next clip coming up i so you sat there for 25 minutes i can't imagine is the longest 25 minutes of my life i can't imagine yeah it was it was absolutely brutal well let's Let's watch this next clip here. He's laying right there. Right through here, Brent. See the horn? 15 feet.

Oh my gosh. What an absolute monster. I don't know what to say. It is incredible. Absolutely incredible. Beautiful fronts on them. There ain't nothing bad about it. Gosh. I don't know what to say. I'm just thank you for the effort. Thank you for, thank you for your friendship, man.

Thank you guys. This is already a success. Absolutely can't believe it. I just can't get over how big they are, man. I mean, I've seen pictures of Steve one Steve's killed, Clay and all, you see it. I've seen a jillion. Yeah. Pictures. I've seen the one that y'all have taken, but the box. body on these things is just the day that I killed a moose. I was absolutely not prepared for what that was like. That adrenaline dump was unlike anything I have ever seen because I glanced down the river before I went back to get my rifle and I could see him standing in the river.

And it looked like a dinosaur. It looked like a school bus with antlers. It was huge. awesome uh i'm no i'm no expert on moose but it looks like a bigan man i was looking the way he was moving when he stepped up out of the river onto the bank and i'd just seen his hind in going in into the bushes you know that was the end of it i'm expecting this thing not to be where he was because he was literally 15 feet from the edge of the water. Really?

Yeah. So he literally walked off and just collapsed. He walked up and just and laid down and was dead as a hammer when we got there. But I was looking past him. I was looking over him. And Dave is sitting, if you can obviously see in the boat, Dave's the cameraman. He's sitting in the front of the boat and he's facing back and shooting back towards me and Craig. Uh-huh.

And I'm looking hard. and Craig says, there he is. Well, I look over at Dave's face and he starts smiling. He looks back at these, he's back on the camera. So Dave sees him. I know I can, I know Dave. I can tell. He's like, man, we got him.

Yeah. And Craig's like, there he is. And I'm like, no, he ain't. I can't see him. I cannot end this hunt until I can see this moose. Right. And I'm looking further. And when he said 15 feet, I thought 15 feet.

And I looked down. And there he was. was and the wide open how i could not see that moose i don't know must have felt a tremendous sense of relief oh gosh i mean you can see it on your face i mean you kind of you kind of gasp a little bit there oh i did 100% i did and you know it's that's one thing that i love about how we film these things it's there's no way i could recreated that right you know uh if if dave hadn't a got it it wouldn't have gotten got right but he did and it it really showed you shows the raw emotion and just overwhelming relief that what we came there to do, we did.

So walking up on this animal expectations versus reality? I was not prepared. I have killed deer before. I've been after bears. And when you get to him, you're like, ah, man, he's good. He's nice. Thought he was bigger. I thought he'd be a little bigger.

You know? Yeah. Yeah. You know, and no disappointment or anything like that. That thing got bigger the longer I sat there and looked at it. It was not, I had no comprehension of it. I've seen Moose one other time, and I was in Alaska, and it saw him across a bay. So he might as well have been a horse and a pasture.

Right. You know, so I was not prepared for how big they were. Any idea, like how much that thing weighed? Craig estimated him to be 12 to 1,400 pounds. Holy smokes. I know that when we, when we skinned him, processed him. I brought all the meat back. We stopped in a Craig's cousin.

I actually got a place outside of Winnipeg and we dropped the meat off there. But I brought the backstrap's home. Okay. And the back straps had two soft coolers. One of them weighed 51 pounds and the other one weighed, My other one weighed 49. So I brought home with me a hundred pounds of backstrap.

A backstrap. Holy cow. Yeah, it was over 600 pounds of processed moose than me and my neighborhood and family and friends are still eating on. Not your friend, Josh, though. You will before you leave here. So what, you know, you could tell by the look

on your face when you finally see it, just this massive sense of relief, excitement, elation, satisfaction, all wrapped up into one. When you walked up on it, what were the top three things that you thought when you walked up to it? I was just grateful. Yeah. And that is that the top three things that I felt was, was grateful. Every, all three of them. Grateful, grateful.

I mean, it was from the opportunity that. i have backed my way into for this career that i never would have dreamed of having to the people that made all that happen you know and it has been i pulled the trigger but i had the easiest part right you know um from everybody that that saw that film to the people that work in the retail stores that under this umbrella that we all work for everybody plays a part in that and i'm grateful for every one of them And it truly is a, um, a blessing to be the tip of the spear to tell these stories. And, but it all, it's all possible because of everybody behind the camera that do everything.

Yeah. And it was an absolute physical and literal thought of while I was there. You, you kind of immediately express your gratitude to Craig and, and, uh, the other guys. Why is that important? to you oh it's just important this is never I love being the center of attention and talking to a room entertaining a room full of people but my least favorite subject is me right I'm just I'm blessed to be where I am and have this platform but I think it's it's not to tell Brent's story it's to tell

everybody's story right you know and everybody has a part everybody's got a story and everybody's story needs to be heard and And I enjoy telling my part of it, but my part of this story is just a part of it. Right. There's a lot of parts. And, you know, everybody plays a part in it. That's one of the things I really appreciate about you, Brent, is just your sense of gratitude, appreciation. You're a humble guy.

And based on all the comments that I've read on social media and YouTube, it's pretty obvious to everybody else. I appreciate you being a being a model of that. So yeah. What's it like processing an animal that pick? Took us two and a half hours to get him skint and quartered up, which is, you know, fairly quick for something that big. And the pack out, like I said, man, was, it was pick up a load of meat, take four steps, and load it in the boat. Right.

I mean, it was just so easy. it was skinning a bear skinning a deer you know times 10 and easy as far as how we handled the meat how it is to to skin one you know laying down it's a lot easier skin of moose laying on the ground it is a deer to me oh really yeah i think so just because it's it's so much bigger you got a bigger handhold and between you know Dave did some film and then he set the camera up and he jumped in there with us so it took three of us two and a half hours of solid skinning and then cutting to get it wow get it out and get it in the boat wow and I'm not sure I don't know what the next clip is but um the highlight of that whole thing or I wouldn't say the whole thing but one of the top highlights of

it was when we got that moose back in the boat and we were headed back towards the cabin as probably a mile and a half, I think. What time of day did you shoot it? Oh, it was probably three o'clock in the afternoon. Okay, so you guys are going late into the evening. It's late into the evening of the time we get there. So the time we get loaded and everything, Dunskint, all rib meat, neck meat, everything cut off and loaded into the boat and left there.

We had our headlights on in the boat. and we start heading we've got 20 minutes you know of motoring to get back to the cabin i turned my dave of course he didn't he's filming i turn my light out Craig turns his light out and then it's too dark to film but the our way is lit up by the the northern lights and i was sitting in the back and dave was sitting behind it was sitting right there beside me in the northern you can see that moose the moose antlers on the bow of that boat up there and then the northern lights up above it and that's how we what lit our way back from where we skint that moose to our cabin and it was unreal it was so the emotion was i mean it brought tears to my eyes how beautiful it was to be in that place

in a place like that with two of my good friends and do something like that and share that with was right and overwhelming is a theme from the time i got there to the time we left and anytime i think about it and i'm not sure there has been a day go by that i hadn't thought about one portion of that trip or the other i mean that not to put it cheaply but that sounds epic it is it was it was you know outside of something with my children or grandchildren it was the event of a lifetime for me that's incredible um Is that the longest shot on game that you've ever taken? 100%.

Mm-hmm. You know, growing up down here in South Arkansas, um, you have a scope on a rifle, but any place I, we were hunting, I hunt in the woods, you know, and I don't, um,

I never had a shot more than 150 yards, you know. Yeah. And, and I like to bow hunt, so I hardly ever hunt with a rifle anyway. Right. And so that was by far. what was so important to me to be prepared when I got there is shooting with Matt and getting comfortable and dialed in with that scope and and changing distances that you know with a quick

call out and swapping to different targets and putting the dope in the right in the scope and you mentioned dope a couple of times tell our our listeners and viewers what that means well it's just they you know those scopes they've got dials on them and turrets on them and they're numbered. And for wind and elevation, you know, left and right and up and down, depending on what those factors are, you can put that into what's called a dope calculator on your phone, an app you just put on your phone. And then if it coincides with the turrets on the scope and it tells you where to dial them in

so that you're shooting for distance and wind correction. Dope is a, dope is an acronym for data on previous engagement. And so you're using correct ballistics. From a known target. From a known target. And, you know, based on your round and your rifle. Yes.

The, the velocity of that bullet, you can calculate, if it's zeroed at 100, you can calculate how far you need to click for elevation. Yes. Way smarter than me. And it works really well. I know, like I said, you know, I made three good shots on that, but I had real good equipment and real good information work. working in there. Really all I did was control my, try to control my breathing as you can hear in that clip.

I tried to settle down and take my time. You did a good job because I was like, well, Brent's huffing coming around that corner. And then I heard you just kind of calm down. I just had to because he was dancing around in there like he was at a disco until I got it. What power scope is on there? Do you, do you remember? Yeah, that is a three by 18 by 50, I believe. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So it's Pretty stout. The new Red Bull Dragonberry and Tropicberry Energizers, now at McDonald's, made with freeze-dried fruit and an electric burst of flavor. The all-new Red Bull Energizers, now at McDonald's.

This product may not be right for you. High in caffeine, details of McDonald's.ca. At participating Canadian restaurants, excluding Quebec. 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, Janus 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. 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 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 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. Okay, we got another clip here. Here it is. Oh, sweet. This is yours, Tim. I wish you'd been here with me.

My older brother Tim took me hunting when he didn't have to. When I was more in the way than anything else. The only thing that would have made that moment better was to have watched him do what I just done. It's a long way from the Hayfield in Bradley County where I grew up to right here. It's a good place to be, man. Yeah. Thank you. Anytime.

I put that in there just so you could get choked up. Trying to get me. Oh. Man. Your brother Tim's been a real fixture in your life. Oh, yeah. As long as you can remember from the stories you told. Yeah.

And that really comes through in the film and the time he invested in you, mentoring you and hunting as a brother and a friend and a hunting companion. And that was pretty meaningful to you. What did Tim teach you that kind of came through in this hunt? man he has taught me so much stuff that comes in my everyday life he's probably the most forgiven person i know and he is um he can look at a situation where i'm ready to grab a hammer and start tearing stuff up and he's like just set back a minute let's let's reevaluate what what we really need to do there is no one on that i know or have ever heard of that has more integrity

than my brother. He's always doing the right thing, whether it's the easiest thing when it's not the easiest thing to do. And he is, he is an example of what a brother and a friend and a father is.

And he is a good man. And I, I talk to him every day. And I haven't talked to him today. And it's absolutely driving me nuts. Because since you got here is a normal time. that we called back and forth. So I'm ready for you get out of here, Josh.

We could see if we could pipe him in. But he is my buddy, you know, and we're tight. What would, how would that moment have been different if Tim had been there? That's the only thing that would have made it better. I mean, that was literally, I would have loved to have seen him do that. He is, he's the guy. He's eight years older than me. And when I was just little, he was taking me everywhere.

And he decided when he was 16 and I was 8 or 14 and I was 4 or 6, you know, he's like, I want to grow up and be a trapper in Alaska. Me too. I wanted to do whatever he did, you know, and I wanted to put a track. If I wasn't putting a track in my dad's tracks, I was putting one in Tim's, you know. And everything that we just. seemed to be so close and it would have been the culmination of all the things that I have been so blessed to do to be able to share that with him and watch him do that that's the only thing that it

made it better yeah yeah um you know I think there's been opportunities you know I've I've talked about on bear grease just about I didn't grow up hunting and Clay and Newcomb is the one who kind of taught me how to hunt and became a friend and a hunting mentor. Yeah. How valuable is that to take younger people or people who haven't had that experience? It is, it's the only way we keep this going. That's how valuable it is. Yeah.

You know, if it stops with one generation, it's done forever. You can go, it's easy to go back and count the generations that got us to this point, but the responsibility is only us now to keep it going. and to show it to the next folks. And there's, I have always said, you share a tragedy with someone, you can cut that sadness by 50%. You share a joy with someone and it multiplies it.

There's no end of the number that you can do that it'll multiply. And that's what we got to do. Yeah. And that's how valuable it is and how important it is. And we want to keep doing these. of things and having these moments and sharing them we we got to share them yeah and and share sharing them with the folks that are not already exposed to it gets somebody else in the position to do the same thing and it's it's it's violent and i and as a kid i probably never thought about that sure

as a young man i didn't think about as much but now it's at the forefront of a lot of the things that i do i think i think it it has so many benefits you know relationally and, you know, just learning the sport and the ethics behind it, but even just basic health, being outside, being in nature, being in the sun. I mean, there's so many benefits all the way around. And if you can take someone and teach them that and teach them the value of hunting ethically and harvesting organic meat and, I mean, it pays dividends. No, we were watching.

We had a premier party. I actually saw the two rough drafts before the final version came out. And the final version, we waited until that night to watch. And I watched it over at Friends, Fires, Friends and Family. We all gathered up at their huge television, you know, like a movie screen. And we watched it. But before we watched it, we had Moose chili. Oh, nice.

From that moose. That's awesome. And so it was that moose responsible not only for the entertainment of the evening, but for feeding everybody at the table yeah you know so it was it was it was a it was a very special day a very special thing to see that come out and uh to have the the story in there showing showing my dad and my brother it was a it's a special special moment that's awesome let's uh let's move on to the next clip here next strap and moose heart that is the first combination of that I've ever had.

Ready? There's so tender. Yeah. We've got some back straps too. Yeah, they're, I'll cook all the heart and then we'll tie into them. We'll have a picnic tomorrow with all this meat we got. That gum is good. Well, let's go catch a fish.

Heck yeah, maybe some walleye for supper. Oh, ho. We found one. There, a little fellow. Get back out there. Tell you, grandpa. That's a good one. There he is.

It'll be a little treat for supper tonight. He'll eat good. I'm guessing him 15 pounds. Yeah, right on. Oh, no, perfect. Don't you think? Yeah. 14 at least.

my fish i say how big you was that's right so um i'm i'm a little jealous of that moose meat it looked pretty tasty yeah it was a heart good oh fantastic and i've eaten deer heart before uh i had never eat a bear heart believe it or not and uh i may if i'm lucky fortunate enough to get one this year i'll i'll try it but that that moose heart there's some how big was that moose heart as a big as about like a volleyball wow close to a volleyball it was humonauts And I've got I've got some photos of it, you know, of me holding it. And it's just unreal how big that thing is. But we, we, uh, I brought, I mean, I had to bring some of it home.

We were there for, I think four more days, three or four more days where we could. And we ate from the time I killed that moose, that's what we ate, moose and something every night from then on. And we still didn't eat all that heart. Really? Oh gosh. Yeah. It's huge. Wow.

absolutely what did it taste like i was expecting and i like liver i was expecting the texture of an organ like a like a gizzard or a liver but it was just tender it was absolutely tender and it was there was no people say i'm not a fan of the phrase game right something tasting gaming i mean coon tastes like coon fish tastes like fish right taste like deer tastes like deer tastes like deer deer meat you know beef tastes like beef they compare everything to beef but it's i mean it is what it is uh there was no there was no strong taste to right no iron taste like you would kind of get with like you eat with liver sometimes you get kind of an iron taste to it it was um it was just really good man and did it compare to any other game that you've had um i don't know that i would be able

to say oh that's moose hall right took a bite and a blind taste test it just tasted like good seasoned fried meat for those who have never experienced it what's the feeling of eating meat that you harvested that day it's hard from that day it just it never gets better than that day it's like fish you know I'm not a I love fish I'm not a big fan of eating trout they don't just don't I'm with you they don't taste that good to me but you catch a trout and you cook it on the bank of the river it's the best thing you've ever eaten yeah and it's all got to do with the environment and where you are you know and who you're with

experience yeah the experience okay here's a big question fried fish or moose man i asked craig that he said moose and i probably have to tend to agree if it's fresh moose because of the environment but you bait a trap with a fried fish and you will catch me every time did y'all did you all Did y'all catch walleye? We did. And that was one thing. We didn't, Dave was changing out of battery or something. And we just kept fishing.

We're like, Dave, you're on your own. We're fishing for supper, buddy. And we didn't get that or it didn't make it into the film. But we did catch some walleye. Walleye's great eating. Oh, gosh, yeah. But the pike up there, I mean, that's the, we call out a jackfish down here. But the jackfish we eat down here ain't like those up there.

That cold water, man. Good, clean tasting. It is so good. Yeah, it's great. Oh, that's awesome. So we've got a couple comments I wanted, comments and questions that I just want to kind of run by you here. Okay. We have, I'm not going to try to say all of these names from people who made comments, but Aaron Song, 3913 said,

I heard that moose is the most tender meat. It doesn't matter how old they are or young. They taste very tender. I don't know how things taste tender, but was the backstrap tender? Yes, it was. And the longer we had it hanging in camp, the more tender it got. Did you leave it up the whole week? We did.

We left it up for, I think we were there three more days after I killed that. Okay. After I killed that moose. Yeah, what day did you kill it on? I forgot to ask that. It was like the second full day of hunting, but like the third day that we were there. Okay. And it was nice and cool.

there I said oh gosh yeah yeah okay yeah um Jordan Palick 9,004 said only one question I got why are they putting quartered meat into plastic bags that was to get it out of the boat cross the sandy beach up to the place where we had it laid out to cool it did it didn't stay in plastic bags all right a few more questions did you like that style of hunt or would you prefer a spot and stock I you know I would like to do that spot and stalk it would be hard to do that in that country there because of the limited visibility but uh that's i mean that that's going to be my favorite because it's the only way i've done it so far i've been on one moose hunting trip and killed a moose so that was that would be my preferred

would i like to try it absolutely and i'd like to try it my next one with archery okay okay um Quinn Scott said, what's a big thing that you took from behind the camera to being on camera? That's a great question. I think one of the things that I learned the most was patience. Being a cameraman, you're always wanting to stretch that shot out as long as you can. You know, you think about a, like a whitetail hunt. If you just showed the kill shot on a white tail hunt, like an archery hunt, that video, would probably be, it'd be stretching to do 30 seconds.

Right. You know, from start to finish, from the time you see them. And as a cameraman, you're wanting to milk that time out to be able to tell that story. So I think patience is, is an extra sense of, of patience would be what I took from behind the camera to in front. Because I'm thinking about it, but I'm also thinking about what Dave's looking at, you know. Am I giving him time to get set and everything? because he's a professional he's he's he's two steps ahead of me where I'm at on on that part but it is conscious in my mind especially if you're filming a hunt the the time that it takes to get it

right right okay great answer um you know you've you've had that moose meat quite a while now um Ethan Kenley said what's your favorite recipe you've made with your moose meat man we ground we have a bunch of it in burger we have made meatloaf and tacos and burgers and everything you can imagine. But probably my favorite is probably chili. Okay. The chili is good. The steaks are great.

I'm not saying the steaks aren't good. They are absolutely fantastic. You chunk it up like into stew meat? No, it's right. Or you grind it. Grind it. Okay. Okay.

But we did have some stew meat done and I've done recipes with that. And I gave a. buddy of mine, a tri-tip, and he fixed it off of that moose. And he said it was unbelievably good. And after he told me that I thought, dang, I shouldn't have gave it to it. But it was, it's been really good. There's been no way that we have fixed it that it hadn't been good. And literally anything that you would do with beef or deer meat you can do with this. Okay. It's really good.

Broad question here. but we got a comment that says what's the best part about moose hunting i can only i can only attest to this trip because i've only been once i was never a cameraman on another moose hunt i mean this is this is my experience and the best part about it was was being there sharing it with my friends it was you know on a when i go bow hunting i'm usually by myself unless it's a filmed event and I come back and I like, man, Josh, I wish you'd have been there. Yeah. And saw this.

You know, it may have something, not even anything to do with the moose. It may have been two squirrels fighting that fell out of a tree. But on that hunt and to this, to this very moment right now, I can pick up my phone and text Dave or Craig and say, hey, remember when this happened. You know, how cool is that? So I think that's probably my best part. Absolutely. Well, we've got one more. we've got one more clip here we want to show

I hope no one asked which had a bigger effect on me the moose or the lights as the answer might surprise them quick clip but the northern lights you talked about there in that clip don't if someone were to ask

yeah tell us what that meant to you like what what did it do You talked about being on the boat and seeing that and that being your light that you follow the home back to camp, but it clearly did something to you. You know, from a little, when I was a little boy, I was reading adventure stories from in seventh grade, I was reading Peter Hathaway Capstick, you know, death in the long grass about big game hunting in Africa. And before that, I was reading Jack London and adventure stories. stories in Alaska and they talk about the northern lights and to me that would have been as foreign as listening to neil armstrong talk about walking on the moon something that i would never

have dreamt i would have got to see and that has been over a lifetime you know i'm 60 years old and i've been thinking about that since i was 10 and then to be there and to look at it with my eyes there is no way Dave's camera could capture all the things that went into that. And it was an easy answer for me. The northern lights had a bigger impact on me than that moose did. Because I will eat that moose and it'll be gone. And then there will be no more moose. But those lights will be in me forever.

And it was amazing to sit there and think that the same creator that made those lights made me so it it made a very significant it was a very significant moment for me to sit there and see that and it was it has been so good every every bit of yeah i think about them now and i can't quit smiling about yeah you know it was they were you asked a question we talked when you first got here about a lot of the clips that you see of the northern lights are sped up so you can see the movement right you can see the movement in them if you're just sitting there staring at them but it is almost like you could hear them it is an overwhelming experience to sit there and see that it was for me you know and I'm a

I'm a detail-oriented person where I try to pay attention to everything except when Alexis tells me to do something apparently I'm not very good at that but it was very easy answer that that had the biggest impact on me and it was all good man that's great any final reflections on the on the trip there was nothing bad about it you know it's hard going from getting all that stuff up there and every all the logistics that went into it i can't tell you how many meetings we had meetings after meetings after meetings on prepping and planning and i knew once I got there and we got feet on the ground why we had so many of them because it is such a big undertaking but just the whole experience as a whole of I would there was there was no detractors

even the long drive you know we Dave and I flew into Winnipeg and then drove like 10 or 11 hours to the northern part of Manitoba to catch a float plane to go into where Craig was so I mean it was once we got, I mean, it was Katie barred the door, you got to go. Yeah. You know, you got to load up and drive. And then, I mean, it was effort. It took effort to get there.

But every bit of it was fun. Every bit of it was, you know, new and refreshing. And I got to share it with my friends. And it just made it so good. It was, uh, it will be with me forever. And I hope to get to go back and do it again soon, you know, with the. in a different place or with Craig or whatever but I won't go with a bow and yeah and just get that

much closer yeah well thanks for sharing the film with us and and and talking talking with me today I appreciate it thank you for being here Josh I appreciate it thank you all for being here if you haven't seen it yet check out the 12 and 26 Manitoba moose hunting episode that I did there on the meat eater YouTube channel it's been it was an absolute pleasure you do and I appreciate it and send your comments in anytime you see one of these when we do one of these companion podcasts your questions can could get answered right here on the air thank y'all for watching and y'all be careful thanks everybody this is an iHeart podcast