Ep. 868: Clay and Bear’s Alaskan Coast Black Bear Hunt | 12 in '26

Clay Newcomb gives behind the scenes details and answers viewer questions about the Alaska boat-based black bear hunt feature in the new film for the MeatEater “12 in ‘26” film series. Both Clay and Bear Newcomb hunt black bears along the Alaskan coast–Bear with a modern rifle and Clay with a primitive self bow. Watch the film now on MeatEater's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OEXSfTX4Ps Connect with MeatEater on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/meateater, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/StevenRinellaMeatEater/, Twitter https://twitter.com/MeatEaterTV?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor, YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAaa0mleeU128Ad5iM1RFIg, and YouTube Clips https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterClips Subscribe to MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Speaker 01

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star Trust Pilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval. If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Grainger. Grainger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  Plus, you can rely on Grainger for easy reordering, so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click Grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

• 1:03Steven Rinella?

  Warning: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Black Buffalo products are intended for adults aged 21 and older who are consumers of nicotine or tobacco. Black Buffalo spent 20,000 hours working alongside American farmers to build a tobacco alternative that actually dips like the real thing. Long cut and pouches made from barn-cured leafy greens with no tobacco leaf or stem, and wintergreen, mint, straight, and more. Check your local gas station or C-store, or hit blackbuffalo.com and use code MEAT for 30% off your first order.

• 1:45Steven Rinella?

  Black Buffalo Tobacco Alternative is everything you love about DIP, nothing you don't.

• 1:53Speaker 03

  This is Bear Newcomb's first time to Alaska. He's 19 years old. I really think it's going to impact probably the rest of his life. There's just some landscapes in the world that just seem to just grab you. It's hard to describe. This place is like exotic and wild and dangerous and beautiful. It just has a whole different vibe. That's what's so incredible about Planet Earth is you go different places and you bring something home with you that's unique. I'm really excited to see what Bear brings home.

• 2:32Speaker 03

  Hey, everybody. This is Clay Newcomb. And the clip that you just heard is from our film, Southeast Alaska Boat Based Bears. That's on the Meat Eater YouTube channel. And it was, this film's about when me and my son Bear John went to Southeast Alaska last spring, 2025, and hunted with our friend and outfitter David Bennett's on his big old crabbing boat and shrimping boat, the Sandpiper. It was an incredible hunt, an incredible time. And it's episode three of Meat Eaters 12 and 26. And this, what you're listening to, what you're watching, so there's, there's a video

• 3:12Speaker 03

  of this on Meat Eater Podcast YouTube channel, but you could also listen to this on audio. If you're listening to this, this is the companion podcast where we're gonna give behind the scenes. And like I said before, there's only so much that a video can show. I mean, imagery is beautiful and powerful and you can see, but there's just so much that goes on behind the scenes. And that's what we're going to talk about today. I have with me my main sidekick, Josh Landbridge Spillmaker, and we're about to talk about this whole hunt with Bear, which was really special. I mean, kind of the key features of it were, first of all, Southeast Alaska, which is just a phenomenal place.

• 3:57Speaker 03

  I mean, anybody that loves wilderness, hunting, epic landscapes, I mean, Southeast Alaska.

• 4:04Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 4:04Speaker 03

  Rivals any place I've ever been on planet earth, number one. Number two, what was cool about this film was I got to go with my, with my son. Bear's now 20. At the time, he was 19 years old and it was his first trip to Alaska. There, there, I've heard somebody say it. People have said it since they saw the film, but there's a pretty famous quote about somebody saying, don't go to Alaska when you're young.

• 4:27Speaker 04

  Oh, really?

• 4:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, they, they're like, don't go to Alaska when you're young because everywhere else you go after that will be, you know, a lesser place. I mean, that's kind of the,

• 4:37Speaker 04

  Right.

• 4:38Speaker 03

  The, the idea and, and obviously the intent of that.

• 4:42Speaker 04

  So you've ruined your son, basically?

• 4:43Speaker 03

  Well, really what the guy's saying is that Alaska is an incredible place and you should go. But I took Bear John there for the first time and it was, it was, it was really awesome.

• 4:55Speaker 04

  Well, great. Well, this is, uh, like Clay said, this is a companion podcast. If you haven't watched the film, go to YouTube, search, uh, the Meat Eater channel and watch the film called Southeast Alaska Boat, Boat Based Bears. And, uh, you'll, uh, you'll get to see the film and then get to follow along with what we're talking about today. Also, um, if you're listening to this podcast on one of our audio platforms, know that there's a video of it on YouTube as well.

• 5:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:23Speaker 04

  Come enjoy the video of this companion podcast, but, um, we've got some great clips. Um, you know, you kind of mentioned Alaska and that it's, it's a special place. Uh, is there anything specific, Clay, that, that makes it a special place specifically for hunting?

• 5:38Speaker 03

  Well, just the, I, I said early in the film that it's, it's arguably the best place in the world to hunt black bears for, for numbers of bears that you're going to see. And for even size of bears. I mean, for, for many, many years, the biggest bears, black bears in, in North America, in, in the world, black bears are endemic to North America. They only live here. Was on Prince of Wales Island, which we were hunting. Within a hundred miles of Prince of Wales Island.

• 6:08Speaker 04

  Okay, okay.

• 6:09Speaker 03

  Um, so the bears there, big, have big skulls. Bears are measured by their skull.

• 6:15Speaker 04

  Right.

• 6:16Speaker 03

  So that's not necessarily weight. The biggest bears, weight-wise in the world, are typically in the southeast. North Carolina. The, the growing seasons are longer, but for skull size, southeast Alaska has big bears, so bears just get old there.

• 6:31Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 6:32Speaker 03

  I mean, it's, southeast Alaska is a, is a rainforest. They get over a hundred inches of rain per year. And that's one of the biggest challenges of hunting there, but it also makes for this like incredibly productive and rich environment that just causes animals to, to, bears to grow big. And it's partly because, well, southeast Alaska is, is not, I mean, it's sea level.

• 7:00Speaker 04

  Right.

• 7:01Speaker 03

  It is far north.

• 7:02Speaker 04

  Right.

• 7:03Speaker 03

  But like, it doesn't have really extreme winters. So the bears actually stay out of their dens, you know, typical to, to what bears in the lower forty-eight would. Like, okay, now a bear in the interior of Alaska would be sleeping for as many as, as much as six months of the year.

• 7:23Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 7:24Speaker 03

  In my bear book that's coming out spring of twenty-seven, we cite the longest hibernating bear ever recorded by science, which it was in Alaska.

• 7:35Speaker 04

  Interior Alaska.

• 7:35Speaker 03

  Okay. I'm not gonna give that number. You're gonna have to check the book out. But it was incredibly, it was, it was more than half of the year. The bear was hibernating.

• 7:44Speaker 04

  Wow. But these bears just-

• 7:45Speaker 03

  That means smaller bears.

• 7:47Speaker 04

  Right, right.

• 7:48Speaker 03

  They're just out less, they're eating less.

• 7:50Speaker 04

  Right.

• 7:50Speaker 03

  These, these coastal bears are out for longer and they grow bigger.

• 7:56Speaker 04

  And they're eating primarily?

• 7:59Speaker 03

  I mean, they're eating a lot of vegetation, but in the early spring, there, the, the, the woods, the berries haven't produced yet. I mean, think about the, the cycle of the spring. It's winter time, there's no berries.

• 8:09Speaker 04

  Right.

• 8:10Speaker 03

  Vegetation has to grow and then berries grow. So like midsummer is when berries, through the end of the summer is when berries and stuff come out.

• 8:17Speaker 04

  Right.

• 8:18Speaker 03

  So, early spring, I said it, southeast Alaska has really big tide swings, which means, and I, I don't understand the science of it, but- There are places where tide swings are much less.

• 8:31Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 8:31Speaker 03

  So like the water would go down like say a foot or two. It would expose just like small amounts of the shore every day. Man, in parts, we were seeing places where the tide would push out like hundreds of yards daily.

• 8:47Speaker 04

  Really?

• 8:47Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 8:48Speaker 04

  Like in Daily?

• 8:49Speaker 03

  Daily.

• 8:50Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 8:51Speaker 03

  Like multiple times per day. It would, the, the, the edge of the water would be way up there and then four hours later, the edge of the water would be hundreds of yards.

• 9:00Speaker 04

  Well, you mentioned the difficult, at one point you mentioned the difficulty of getting to the shore without, you know, without having to get water above your boots.

• 9:07Speaker 03

  That's one of the biggest challenges that like somebody like me who wouldn't know just the ends, I mean, I've been there several times, but still like the ins and outs of how to navigate that country.

• 9:18Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 9:18Speaker 03

  Anytime you go to the shore, you gotta be thinking about the tide.

• 9:21Speaker 04

  Right.

• 9:21Speaker 03

  Because

• 9:23Speaker 03

  if, if you get out of the boat and you're gone for an hour, you could come back and your boat could be on dry land.

• 9:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:28Speaker 03

  And you'd be sitting there for six, eight hours, whatever the, the cycle is.

• 9:32Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 9:33Speaker 03

  And that, it might be the middle of the, the night before.

• 9:37Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 9:37Speaker 03

  You know, the tide comes back in and then you can't drive in the night. So there's, there's all kinds of challenges and that's probably

• 9:45Speaker 03

  the biggest thing that stands out to me when I go there and, and honestly,

• 9:51Speaker 03

  why be going with somebody that's a veteran like David Bennett or?

• 9:55Speaker 04

  Right.

• 9:55Speaker 03

  I mean, to, I don't even know that I would have enjoyed it if I had gone by myself because of how treacherous it is.

• 10:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 10:02Speaker 03

  I mean, you're, you're on big water. We were crossing like this big channel that took, you know, I don't, I don't want to say multiple hours, but huge channels like out on like big open water and like these small skips. Just

• 10:21Speaker 03

  which to me is scary. Cause if you go down, you, you die.

• 10:25Speaker 04

  Right.

• 10:26Speaker 03

  Like I, I don't want to jump ahead, but like you asked, I, I, in that intro said Alaska is like scary and exotic. And it is to me. That's like the top of the list. Like if I were just listing the things that stood out to me on any hunt in Southeast Alaska, it's, it's a little bit of fear. And that made this be me. But I mean, just like being on that big water and so many times I've been with Steve Rinella, I've been with David, been with others, and I always ask the same question. We'll be like a quarter mile from the shore. Like you just feel like you could just like jump in and just like swim.

• 11:01Speaker 04

  Right.

• 11:02Speaker 03

  And I say, if we went down right now, would we survive? And everybody's like, no, you're dead.

• 11:09Speaker 04

  There's a high potential for risk there.

• 11:11Speaker 03

  It is. And those guys just don't think a thing about it. I mean, it's just every, they just go.

• 11:17Speaker 04

  Wow. Wow. Well, we've got, uh, we've got some great clips coming up. We've also got some questions and comments from, uh, our audience who've watched the film and left comments on social media and on YouTube. So without further ado.

• 11:31Speaker 03

  Let's do it.

• 11:32Speaker 04

  We're gonna jump into our next clip.

• 11:35Speaker 03

  So we're hoping to do some shrimping, a little crabbing this week. Eat some good food.

• 11:46Speaker 03

  We're gonna get back into a little, a little cove that's secluded from the wind. And we're gonna anchor, we're gonna set out our pots. And then this afternoon, we're hoping to do some bear hunting. This bear hunting with weather like this, it's, it's really only gonna be good probably the last couple of hours of daylight, but the days are long. It's middle of May, but maybe we'll catch some shrimp.

• 12:16Speaker 03

  Oh yeah. We got some shrimp. Looky there. Sweet. Wow. Those are a lot bigger than the others.

• 12:26Speaker 03

  You know, there's some meat on that one. Good. Dunging this crab.

• 12:37Speaker 03

  Look at that guy. Go ahead, you cut up some more bait bear, re-bait these.

• 12:47Speaker 03

  He got lots. Good little head runs over. To an inland-er like me, the availability of this exotic protein is wild. It is one of the coolest parts of being with David on the sand pipe. Seafood, Dungeness crab and spot shrimp are a rare delicacy. But we'll need full bellies for the long afternoon hunt.

• 13:11Speaker 03

  Man, that's good.

• 13:16Speaker 03

  We're crawling around the bottom of the ocean about two hours ago.

• 13:23Speaker 04

  So for guys here in Arkansas going to Alaska, tell us what it was like to be able to add that as part of your trip.

• 13:33Speaker 03

  Have you ever been to Captain D's?

• 13:36Speaker 04

  Once or twice. Yeah. Is that what it's like?

• 13:38Speaker 03

  Oh, it's almost as good as Captain D's.

• 13:42Speaker 04

  That's the only thing we have to relate to here in the southern.

• 13:44Speaker 03

  Captain D's, you get their like seafood combo platter and you get an actual like shell of a crab.

• 13:53Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 13:53Speaker 03

  Like a real crab.

• 13:55Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 13:55Speaker 03

  Captain D's.

• 13:56Speaker 04

  So this video is sponsored by OnX and Moultrie Trail Cameras, but not by Captain D's.

• 14:02Speaker 03

  Not by Captain D's. You know, that was always one of the things, I've known David for a long time and follow him on social media and we've been friends for over a decade. And that was one of the most intriguing things he always showed pictures of was his shrimp and crabbing. He, David's a commercial crabber, catches Dungeness crab. And that's what that boat primarily is used for. And yeah, it's, it's a lot of work, you know, it seems to me when I watch this, any of these videos.

• 14:40Speaker 03

  You know, just like shows us just like pitching a pot in the water and coming back and shrimping it. Like that was hours long work.

• 14:48Speaker 04

  So you guys pitched those off like in the morning and then went back in the evening and got them?

• 14:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:53Speaker 04

  Was that, was that?

• 14:54Speaker 03

  We, we let them sit for a night.

• 14:56Speaker 04

  Okay, overnight.

• 14:56Speaker 03

  Yeah. So we put them out the first day on the way into the bay. And the logistics of the thing, I said it, but you can't just park that boat.

• 15:07Speaker 03

  Out in like the main channel.

• 15:08Speaker 04

  Right.

• 15:09Speaker 03

  And sleep. I mean, the water just gets too crazy.

• 15:12Speaker 04

  Right.

• 15:12Speaker 03

  And so you gotta find this like, we found this, David knew it, this little secluded cove that that was really tight and just like kept you, you know, away from the wind and stuff. And so we would, on the way there, we dropped our shrimp pods.

• 15:28Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 15:28Speaker 03

  And there are real specific rules about, uh, non-residents shrimping and, you know, orig- in the original cut, we had this whole section about the legality of us catching shrimp and how many we could keep and all this.

• 15:40Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 15:40Speaker 03

  We ended up cutting it, but you know, there's, there's a lot of regulation. You have to report to the Alaska Game and Fish how many, how much shrimp that you catch.

• 15:48Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 15:49Speaker 03

  It's pretty wild. Like they're keeping track of all that, you know?

• 15:51Speaker 04

  So he's got a log of all that?

• 15:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. And so we, we submitted all that.

• 15:56Speaker 04

  Did you guys eat shrimp and stuff every day?

• 15:58Speaker 03

  No, not every day. We, we had two big cookouts.

• 16:01Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 16:02Speaker 03

  Where we ate Dungeons crab and shrimp. Yeah, I'll be honest with you. What I realized was how critical hush puppies, french fries and coleslaw are because we had all this incredible first rate seafood and I was kinda like, hey man, where's the, where's the carbs? Where's the coleslaw and the potatoes? You know?

• 16:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 16:22Speaker 03

  I can't complain. It was, it was really great.

• 16:25Speaker 04

  Uh, cut Kamishika Xbox.

• 16:29Speaker 03

  This is a YouTube commenter?

• 16:31Speaker 04

  This is a YouTube commenter and said, I wanted to see more of the cooking on the boat. The meals looked amazing.

• 16:36Speaker 03

  He, he basically boiled all that. He had a propane cooker and a big pot.

• 16:40Speaker 04

  He seasoned it all? And I mean, was it pretty just straightforward?

• 16:43Speaker 03

  Man, if it, if we'd have been in Louisiana, he, we would have, uh, he seasoned it some, but it wasn't heavily seasoned.

• 16:50Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 16:51Speaker 03

  It's pretty just like.

• 16:52Speaker 04

  Shrimp were huge.

• 16:53Speaker 03

  They were.

• 16:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 16:54Speaker 03

  You'd be surprised how much they cooked down though. Like those, those spot shrimp would be as long as your hand. Like it, I mean, for real, that long. And but when they would cook down, they would be like that long.

• 17:06Speaker 04

  Oh, really?

• 17:07Speaker 03

  And you know?

• 17:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 17:08Speaker 03

  Big as your thumb.

• 17:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 17:09Speaker 03

  You know, bigger, a little longer, but yeah.

• 17:13Speaker 04

  Cool. Well, um, let's, uh, let's go to our next clip here.

• 17:27Speaker 04

  For those of you on the audio platform are watching a video of Clay shooting the self bow on the deck of the boat.

• 17:32Speaker 03

  This Osage came off our property, but I made this bow last summer. Killed a couple critters with it, but it's got copperhead skins on the back there, some turkey feathers, pronghorn. Osage orange is the king of North American wood for making bows. This is the most primitive archery tool. I mean, we could have used like a sinew string. This is a modern string. Our broadheads are gonna be modern metal broadheads, but the actual bow itself is as primitive as they come. It's one piece. It's called a self bow. And a self bow means that it's, what does that mean? It relies on itself for strength. Yeah, it doesn't mean that you made it.

• 18:16Speaker 03

  A self bow means that it relies on its own self for strength as opposed to a laminated bow. And this thing is, this is, this thing will kill any animal in North America, period. But you're, you're limited. I mean, you need to be close. And I'm gonna try to be within 10 yards. And so it's gonna take probably a lot of stalks. We're gonna have to try to find the right bear that's doing the right thing, that's in the right place. And then Bear with his rifle, looking for a big one.

• 18:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 18:56Speaker 04

  So, in the film you mentioned the hunter education requirements for Bear. You're hunting with the bear, the bow that Bear made. Mm-hmm. Now, was the original intent for Bear to hunt with that bow? Yes, it was. Okay, so tell us about that. So...

• 19:15Speaker 03

  Bear Newcomb and I were headed to Alaska, both of us with our self bows that he made. We were gonna do, we were both gonna hunt with him. And on the way there.

• 19:24Speaker 04

  So you had two self bows?

• 19:25Speaker 03

  We did.

• 19:26Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 19:26Speaker 03

  And on the way there, I woke up like in the night, just like my eyes just like sprung open. And I remembered from like 10 years ago when I bow hunted in Alaska, I had to get a bow hunter's education course and card to be able to bow hunt in Alaska.

• 19:44Speaker 04

  From the state of Alaska?

• 19:46Speaker 03

  Not from Alaska, but just like a certified bow hunter education course.

• 19:49Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 19:50Speaker 03

  I was able to take it here in Arkansas, but you get this card.

• 19:53Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 19:53Speaker 03

  And it's good, you know, all the states honor it. And I realized that Bear didn't have that. And so I go, Bear, you, you can't legally bow hunt in Alaska, which is just such a technicality, but, but obviously we, we had to honor it. And so we were able to get, uh, we actually borrowed that 6.5 PRC from Yanis Putellas.

• 20:21Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 20:21Speaker 03

  Just like at the last minute.

• 20:22Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 20:23Speaker 03

  Send it up there. And so, yeah, Bear was really bummed. But it ended up working out good. I wish I could have shot the rifle and Bear could have bow hunted though.

• 20:33Speaker 04

  Right.

• 20:34Speaker 03

  You know?

• 20:34Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 20:35Speaker 03

  Because it was just way harder than I thought it was gonna be. It just, uh, I mean, well, we can, we can get into, I wanna, I wanna say something else about that clip. Misty Newcomb, my wife, keyed in on this comment. Uh, this guy tagged that section and he said, typical dad move. Son builds a bow with his own hands, dad explains. There were a couple of people that were like, my goodness, Clay sure talks a lot, you know? And, uh, Misty loved those comments. She was spreading them, she was like showing everyone.

• 21:12Speaker 04

  She was reposting those.

• 21:13Speaker 03

  She was like, oh yeah, I mean.

• 21:16Speaker 04

  So in the, in that same vein, tell us a little more about that bow.

• 21:20Speaker 03

  I would gladly tell you about Bear's self bow that he made.

• 21:23Speaker 04

  How many pounds was the bow?

• 21:25Speaker 03

  The bow was 50 pounds.

• 21:26Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 21:27Speaker 03

  Which is, um, you know, just about the right weight. And I had some people say. Oh, that bow's way more, you, you could shoot an animal further than that. And you absolutely could.

• 21:40Speaker 04

  Right.

• 21:40Speaker 03

  That was like a self, self-induced, uh, regulation of my own. You know, I just knew for my proficiency and I have hunted with a traditional bow enough to know that I just wanted to be inside of 10 yards. Honestly, I wanted to shoot one at five.

• 22:00Speaker 03

  Um, and so I just in my mind, just committed to that. And it was harder than I thought. And, and I just felt like there was going to be more terrain features that would help us get close to bears. That's what I thought.

• 22:16Speaker 04

  That makes sense.

• 22:17Speaker 03

  And I found a lot more of these bears just on these like wide open beaches. There were, there was, there were sections of where we were hunting that was like real rocky. Like big bluffy stuff like on the ocean, but it was first of all, why would a bear be there? The beaches where there was all this grass.

• 22:38Speaker 04

  Right.

• 22:38Speaker 03

  And the, the low tides where they were coming out to feed on mussels and different stuff. Like that's where they wanted to be. So we were trying to find one like up in the rocks, but we just never truly did. Well, you'd see them, but, but then the wind might be blowing so hard that like you couldn't get the boat up there without, without problems. And so we just kept making stock after stock, but.

• 23:07Speaker 04

  So, you know, you, you talked about the gamut of, of hunting, you know, modern versus primitive, you know, most modern would be a, you know, a rifle like, like that, a precision rifle like that with a scope. All the way to, you know, like, you know, kind of down the list would be like a compound bow and then like a recurve.

• 23:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:29Speaker 04

  And then you've gotten all the way to a self bow, which is, you know, homemade, one piece of wood.

• 23:36Speaker 03

  Right.

• 23:36Speaker 04

  Tell us, you know, for, for those who wouldn't have a lot of knowledge of hunting with primitive weapons, like what's the motivation in doing that? Why, why limit yourself? Why use something that wouldn't be as effective as a rifle? What, what, why those self-imposed restrictions?

• 23:57Speaker 03

  So everywhere that I've ever bear hunted. To me, the landscape and the numbers of bears and the numbers of opportunity kind of dictate what kind of weapon I'm gonna use. I've hunted out west in Montana, spot and stalk before. And you can go out there and hunt for a full week and just see a handful of bears and maybe get one opportunity. Okay, I would never dream of taking a self bow there.

• 24:24Speaker 04

  Right.

• 24:24Speaker 03

  Cause it's, I mean, in my experience, I think I've been to Montana seven times and hunting the spring for like a week at a time. And typically on average, I get one to two opportunities at a bear in a whole week. You know, so.

• 24:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:40Speaker 03

  Southeast Alaska, I knew we would see multiple bears per day. What the, I don't know how we didn't say this in the film, but one day we saw 19 bears.

• 24:50Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 24:51Speaker 03

  Couple, a couple of days, we didn't see any bears because it was just raining and we didn't hunt.

• 24:55Speaker 04

  How, how many miles of coastline would you say that?

• 24:58Speaker 03

  David Bennett is a wild animal in that skiff. He would drive, I'm telling you, we, we were in that skiff sometimes for, I don't want to exaggerate, but I want to say 12 hours. I mean, like driving.

• 25:14Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 25:14Speaker 03

  I mean, we were going 50, 60, 70 miles. I mean, like.

• 25:20Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 25:21Speaker 03

  It, it was more than I wanted. I hope David doesn't watch this. David, I love you so much.

• 25:27Speaker 04

  The stories you told me about David Bennett is that dude is hardcore.

• 25:30Speaker 03

  He is, he is a veteran Alaskan hunter in God and just relentless. Like that first day, you know, when, when I said it was just pouring rain and cold. And we got in that boat and we're, went on like a six hour afternoon run.

• 25:46Speaker 04

  Uh huh.

• 25:47Speaker 03

  I, I, and I was like, did you expect, are you surprised we didn't see a bear? And he was like, no, I didn't think we'd see one. I mean, what I wanted to say was.

• 25:54Speaker 04

  So I just wanted to spend six hours.

• 25:55Speaker 03

  Like, well, why didn't we stay in the boat and drink coffee? I mean, I'm usually on a hunt, the one wanting to go. And I would much rather have a hunting partner that was wanting to go rather than one you were like dragging around. I mean, that's kind of a, to me, a, a requisite for a good hunting partner, somebody that just wants to go.

• 26:16Speaker 04

  Right.

• 26:16Speaker 03

  Cause we all know, I mean, man, I can tell you, success in hunting is, is all about just going. I mean, we all know people that, that, that. Maybe just don't have quite as much drive and they enjoy hunting for different reasons.

• 26:32Speaker 04

  Right.

• 26:32Speaker 03

  And just being there and the experience, but David is, David's hardcore and we spent some brutal days in that dang boat.

• 26:42Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 26:42Speaker 03

  And, and he was used to it. I mean, it's just like, if you went mule riding with some of these guys that I ride with over here, we might ride, we might ride for 12 hours and maybe we don't think much of it.

• 26:54Speaker 04

  Right.

• 26:55Speaker 03

  You take somebody that's not been on a mule much and they would be going, holy cow, how do you do it? Same way being in a boat on that water, cold, wet, windy. To me, it was like that. It was just like, holy cow. And I mean, film can only show so much. The other thing is that I kept talking about bad weather and like every scene it opened up with me going, man, the weather's great.

• 27:19Speaker 04

  It's true. It's true.

• 27:19Speaker 03

  I thought about that. I mean, obviously we only filmed during good weather.

• 27:23Speaker 04

  Right.

• 27:24Speaker 03

  So in eight days, you saw all the windows of good weather.

• 27:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 27:28Speaker 03

  If that makes sense. I mean, there were, there were, I think two full days that we pretty much lost. And then even on those good weather days, there would be periods that it would just be bad weather.

• 27:42Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 27:44Speaker 01

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 28:13Steven Rinella?

  If you spend a lot of time outdoors, you got dogs, you got kids, you know how hard it is to keep the floor of your rig clean. A thing we do in our, in our little fleet of vehicles that have in my household, if you go look, open the door on any one of them, they all got WeatherTech. We get a car, we throw the mats out and put in WeatherTech. That way, when there's a mess, it's like your kid's fault, your dog's fault, it's the weather's fault, doesn't matter. You take them suckers out and hose them off and you're back to being good as new. I'm telling you, if you've got a vehicle, put WeatherTech in there, you're gonna be happy you did it. And check this out, American-made floor liners and cargo liners, okay? They laugh in the face of all weather. Go take a look for yourself today at weathertech.com.

• 28:53Steven Rinella?

  I'm holding in my hot little hand here, the first ever folding knife from Montana Knife Company. Dude, this thing is sweet. They like reimagined folding knives. You touch this thing and you know you are holding a quality product. Montana Knife Company founded by Josh Smith, one of the most experienced master bladesmiths in the world. The Montana is the first folder Josh has built at production scale with a team of engineers and machinists who could match what he does on the bench. G10 scales with a 3D milled micro texture, titanium hardware, a custom deep carry clip with

• 29:33Steven Rinella?

  flathead screws set flush. This is a rock solid clip. It's not the kind of clip that you're going to use a couple of times and it bends and get all loose. The blade goes back into the mill after heat treatment for its most critical surfaces. That's the kind of step nobody else takes. That same standard applies to every part of the Montana. That's the name of the folder, the Montana, from start to finish. The wait is over and I've been waiting a long time to get one of these suckers. MKC launching their first folding knife. It's dropping extremely soon, so make sure you sign up for email and SMS to be the first to know. These are going to sell out quick. Head to MKC.com today. That's MKC.com.

• 30:15Speaker 04

  Mr. Spacely 3021 on YouTube said, I guess when you get to Clay's level, you try to make the hunt as difficult as possible for the thrill of it. Is that your motivation of?

• 30:25Speaker 03

  No, I didn't finish what I was saying about why I chose what I chose. I knew in Southeast Alaska, I would have a lot of opportunity and I just felt like it would be the place to get really close to bears. And I wanted to, I mean, I used to, for seven, a little trad history, for seven years, probably from 2015 to 2021 or two, traditional archery was my primary weapon. Like I didn't always, sometimes I rifle hunted, but that was my go-to thing that I brought.

• 31:04Speaker 03

  Killed multiple bears, killed deer, killed, I mean, I had success with it. And then, man, just to be completely frank about it, it was so much work and so hard that I just kinda was like, hey, I did it.

• 31:20Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 31:20Speaker 03

  I think I'm gonna go back to the compound. And it's kinda funny, inside of hunting circles, you'd have people that would be like, oh, you know, he shouldn't have done that, or a sellout, or something. Man, I don't view it, I used to would have.

• 31:33Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 31:33Speaker 03

  I've also learned that it's kinda problematic to have opinions about hunting.

• 31:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 31:40Speaker 03

  Because people can disagree with you. But, I mean, I grew up with a very exclusive mentality about bow hunting being like the superior way to hunt. And I just don't, it's just not true.

• 31:55Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 31:55Speaker 03

  I don't believe that anymore. There are times when I love to limit myself to the extreme. And then there are other times when I'm like thrilled to be out there with a rifle.

• 32:04Speaker 04

  Right.

• 32:05Speaker 03

  And so, that's just the way I think about it. And I wanted to use that bow because bear had made it.

• 32:12Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 32:13Speaker 03

  I wanted to, I mean, really, that was honestly why I did it.

• 32:15Speaker 04

  Right.

• 32:16Speaker 03

  Like, if I had just gone with somebody else, I might have taken a compound, or might have taken a rifle. I just wanted to kinda honor bear.

• 32:26Speaker 04

  So you limited your range to the self bow to 10 yards. Had you had a compound, what would be the difference between shooting the primitive bow and the modern bow?

• 32:35Speaker 03

  I would have killed a bear probably on the first or second day.

• 32:38Speaker 04

  And effectively, you could reach out how many yards?

• 32:41Speaker 03

  I mean, that's, again, a subjective question, but I would have shot a bear for sure out to 40 yards.

• 32:49Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 32:49Speaker 03

  And I mean, you know, I've killed animals.

• 32:50Speaker 04

  And you had many opportunities.

• 32:52Speaker 03

  I wouldn't say, I don't want to exaggerate how many of the 21 stalks, but I was within 30 yards of that seven foot bear on like day five.

• 33:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:03Speaker 03

  I was within 40 yards of several of them.

• 33:06Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:06Speaker 03

  You know, that were. So, and I said it, it's kinda not that hard to get to 50 yards.

• 33:15Speaker 04

  Right.

• 33:16Speaker 03

  To close the distance inside of there, you, you've gotta do a lot of things right.

• 33:22Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:22Speaker 03

  And I, man, you, you see your weakness when you are exposed that much to stalking. I mean, I've never stalked that many bears in a week. And so you learn so much and, and boy, there's, there's a lot of different skill levels.

• 33:41Speaker 03

  David was critiquing my stalks, you know? I mean, he's.

• 33:47Speaker 04

  Does he primitive hunt?

• 33:48Speaker 03

  He doesn't.

• 33:49Speaker 04

  He does bow hunt?

• 33:50Speaker 03

  He, he exclusively bow hunts.

• 33:52Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 33:53Speaker 03

  And most hunting in Alaska is spot and stalk. So, I mean, he's a master, I would say. I mean, he, that's just the way he hunts.

• 34:01Speaker 04

  Right.

• 34:02Speaker 03

  I'm probably proficient. You know, most of my hunting for archery stuff has been out of a tree stand or ground blind. I mean, we don't do as much stalking, so I don't claim to be the best spot and stalk hunter in the world at all, or that's a dumb way to say it, but I mean, I like, I don't, I, it's not like.

• 34:24Speaker 04

  Let's just say you're the best spot and stalk archery hunter in the room.

• 34:28Speaker 03

  Well, you're probably pretty good, Josh, but.

• 34:32Speaker 04

  Well, great. Well, let's watch another, uh, quick clip here.

• 34:37Speaker 05

  This is a not fun part of Southeast Alaska, just rains all the time.

• 34:42Speaker 03

  I was so cold right there, I thought I was gonna die.

• 34:44Speaker 04

  Really?

• 34:45Speaker 05

  I'm serious. We didn't see a bear? No? Really? It's cold and wet, like, I tell you, I think I'm scared. I just don't like the rain.

• 34:57Speaker 05

  So I'm trying to do the best I can to waterproof these fletchings.

• 35:03Speaker 03

  That didn't work at all.

• 35:04Speaker 04

  Really?

• 35:05Speaker 03

  No.

• 35:05Speaker 05

  We're gonna be in some serious.

• 35:06Speaker 03

  David laughed at me when I put that on and, and it didn't really work.

• 35:11Speaker 05

  If I was using.

• 35:13Speaker 03

  You know, just modern archery equipment. I would be using veins, which are plastic fletchings. But these are, uh, these are real, real feathers. And they'll get matted down if they get super wet and it affects air flight. But this little magic powder will help a little bit. May have to do it a couple of times over the trip. I was a little bit worried we were gonna get stopped by the Coast Guard and they were gonna see this little Ziploc bag of white powder.

• 35:44Speaker 04

  What was that? What was that stuff?

• 35:45Speaker 03

  It's like a Teflon powder. It's made for archery equipment.

• 35:49Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 35:49Speaker 03

  Perhaps in like a drizzle, it would, it would keep your feathers.

• 35:53Speaker 04

  Right.

• 35:54Speaker 03

  Up, but just in like non-stop downpour, it really didn't do that much. And that, that's another reason why I wanted only 10 yards.

• 36:04Speaker 04

  Right.

• 36:04Speaker 03

  Because air flight at longer distance becomes exaggerated by things like if your feathers are matted down or whatever. So like, that was another reason I was just like, I'm probably gonna be shooting a bear with wet feathers.

• 36:18Speaker 04

  Right.

• 36:18Speaker 03

  I wanna be close.

• 36:20Speaker 04

  So the, the, the weather definitely came into play. I mean, that, that limited your, the amount of time you could hunt.

• 36:27Speaker 03

  That's right, yeah, for sure.

• 36:28Speaker 04

  Okay. All right, let's watch this next clip here.

• 36:33Speaker 03

  We spot a big bear on the shoreline. Sometimes they're stationary and feeding and they're just staying there, but a lot of times they're traveling and this one is moving. We make a move to intercept it.

• 36:48Speaker 03

  They left me at the boat. They were like, you stay at the boat, young man.

• 37:01Speaker 03

  Man, that was crazy. Big bear.

• 37:06Speaker 03

  I don't think I've ever shot a bear in such a pretty place.

• 37:12Speaker 03

  That was wild. I saw the whole thing holding the boat down there. Think we got him. Golly, it looked big. Yeah, he looked huge. He looked huge. Did you get a good shot? I think so. You find him? Yep. Yep. Oh, man. Alaskan bear, man.

• 37:32Speaker 04

  Dang.

• 37:34Speaker 03

  Man, these Alaskan bears have some big old pads on their feet.

• 37:39Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 37:44Speaker 04

  So, a big bear there?

• 37:46Speaker 03

  It was.

• 37:47Speaker 04

  What did the bear square?

• 37:48Speaker 03

  The bear squared six foot six to six foot eight.

• 37:54Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 37:55Speaker 03

  I can't exactly remember, but it was a, it was a top shelf bear. I mean, a seven footer is like, big.

• 38:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 38:08Speaker 03

  In all, you hear, oh, yeah, let's get on this, how big bears are. So, for years, I had Bear Hunting Magazine and, and for a decade, like, bears were my entire world and people writing about bears, talking about bears. And I was amazed at all the people that always talked about seven foot square bears. And the square of a bear is you take a green hide, like a freshly skinned hide. Stretch it out, measure from the base of the tail to the tip of the nose. That's one measurement.

• 38:38Speaker 04

  Right.

• 38:39Speaker 03

  And then measure claw to claw on the front arms of the bear. Take the average of that number. So, add those two together, divide by two. That's the square.

• 38:48Speaker 04

  Are they typically close?

• 38:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, usually. They are. And I've, I've always been amazed at how many people told me that they had killed seven foot bears or seen seven foot bears. The only, I've seen like with my own eyes in a camp, and I, I used to hunt a lot in Canada and would be at camps where multiple bears per week were being killed. And I have personally only seen with my own eyes, maybe two seven foot bears that were killed. So, they're incredibly rare.

• 39:23Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 39:24Speaker 03

  It's, it's kind of like a typical 170 whitetail. It's like. There's just not that many of them. And maybe people say, yeah, it's a 170, but really when you scored is 163.

• 39:35Speaker 04

  Right.

• 39:36Speaker 03

  You know, so I find that to be with bears. And so when I say that a six and a half foot square to six foot eight square bear is top shelf, I think that's pretty accurate. That bear, so we, when we checked it, we sent the tooth, they took a tooth. And Alaska Game and Fish does a really good job. They sent bear a letter and that bear was 15 years old.

• 40:00Speaker 04

  Tell me what the name of that process was.

• 40:02Speaker 03

  Cementum annula. It's so, you know, they tooth, they, they give tooth age estimates on tooth wear for deer. Like you just kind of look at a jaw and guys give estimates and we all know that those vary in accuracy, but cementum annula is basically like they cut a tooth in half and look at the annual growth rings like a tree.

• 40:24Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 40:24Speaker 03

  They diet, look at it under a microscope. It's done at a professional lab. Me and you could take the teeth of any animal that we wanted. You could pull one of your teeth and we could send it in to have it cementum annula aged.

• 40:39Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 40:40Speaker 03

  At the Matson Lab in Montana. But Bear's bear was 15 years old. Somebody made a good comment. They were like, bear and that bear were almost the same age.

• 40:50Speaker 04

  It's true. It's true.

• 40:52Speaker 03

  Another thing that's interesting to me is that if you'd have told me bear was going to kill a 15 year old boar, I would have been tempted to be like, oh, man, I better be a Boone and Crockett animal. I better be seven foot square Boone and Crockett. And bears are just like people. Me and you are about the same age, but like I'm just smaller than you.

• 41:12Speaker 04

  Right.

• 41:13Speaker 03

  Uh, smaller frame. Bears are the same way. So that bear wasn't getting any bigger.

• 41:17Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 41:17Speaker 03

  And, and.

• 41:18Speaker 04

  Would that bear have changed skull size over the years?

• 41:22Speaker 03

  I've debated that with so many people, talked to biologists all over the country. And I don't think anyone really knows the full answer. It's, but like a bear, like is your skull getting bigger with age?

• 41:36Speaker 04

  I hope, I hope my brain is getting bigger.

• 41:39Speaker 03

  Your ears are and your nose.

• 41:41Speaker 04

  My ears and my nose are. Then my mustache.

• 41:44Speaker 03

  That, that's actually fact. I wasn't, um, you know, poking fun at the size of your ears.

• 41:48Speaker 04

  They score land bridges by the size of their mustache.

• 41:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, size of their mustache. Um, it's possible that. A bear could calcify parts of its skull and get a little bit bigger, but really I've never had a biologist tell me and like, science isn't necessarily trying to understand the answer to that because there's not a big reason for it. So I don't know if they get bigger. They obviously get bigger up until the time they're fully mature. The biggest bear that I have ever killed on the Boone and Crockett scoring system was six years old. The bear weighed 360 pounds and had a 28 16 inch skull. Okay. That's a Boone

• 42:28Speaker 03

  and Crockett skull. And I have also killed more than one 500 pound bear that did not score Boone and Crockett. That was much older. I've killed an 11 year old, nine year old, and another older bear, and none of them scored Boone and Crockett. The six year old bear scored Boone and Crockett. So it's genetics.

• 42:50Speaker 04

  That was 140 pounds lighter.

• 42:52Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 42:53Speaker 04

  Wow. Interesting. We had, we had an Instagram question talking about, how did you get the meat back to Arkansas?

• 43:03Speaker 03

  So David has a commercial freezer on the Sandpiper. We quartered that bear up, put it on there and then put it completely frozen in ice chests and just had it shipped back to Arkansas. So in, in the town we were in, they ship a lot of salmon.

• 43:22Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 43:22Speaker 03

  And so there were commercial companies that shipped frozen goods. So we took it to this place.

• 43:30Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 43:31Speaker 03

  And they packaged it.

• 43:33Speaker 04

  They shipped whole quarters?

• 43:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, just shipped it right here.

• 43:36Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 43:37Speaker 03

  Yep. Pretty wild.

• 43:38Speaker 04

  Awesome.

• 43:39Speaker 03

  You can also check a, a, a cooler. You know, duct tape the cooler. I mean, it's not cheap. It's never cheap to do that, but yeah, it was good.

• 43:50Speaker 04

  Do you know how many, approximately how many pounds of meat you got?

• 43:52Speaker 03

  I don't even remember.

• 43:53Speaker 04

  This quarter's been. Okay. Well, let's, we got another clip here. Quickly following that bear kill.

• 44:00Speaker 03

  So these are some stone knives. This one I made, this one a buddy made me, but these are flint knapped and they're razor sharp. But this is what people would have skinned animals with for long before we got here. And so we're going to try them out on this bear.

• 44:23Speaker 03

  It's believed the first humans to come on to the North American continent passed through southeast Alaska, and without a doubt, they used stone tools to kill and butcher game. In a world where a lot of young people spend a lot of their lives behind screens, I'm glad to see Bear John interested in primitive hunting technology. I'm grateful for steel blades and technology, but I think skinning a bear with a rock can put the modern world in perspective.

• 44:54Speaker 04

  So, tell us what that was like. So, using this, do you feel like, how effective were they? Were they, I mean, did you find yourself at a significant disadvantage using the flint nap knives over a modern steel knife?

• 45:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, I would say if you characterize it like that, it would, it would take a lot longer to use a flint knife, it just would've.

• 45:14Speaker 04

  But still effective?

• 45:15Speaker 03

  It, it works. Like, if it's all you had, you could absolutely skin it.

• 45:19Speaker 04

  And those were flint?

• 45:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:21Speaker 04

  Those blades were flint?

• 45:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. And, and they can re-sharpen them. So, we did a video a couple of years ago where we, me and Steve Rinella and Ryan Callahan and Spencer Newhart skinned an entire bison using stone tools. And we had a guy there that was sharpening them for us as we went. And, because they get dull just like a knife.

• 45:43Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 45:43Speaker 03

  And you're, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, nap it, get it sharp again. And, I mean, it probably takes twice as long, but I mean, that's not that big a deal. Like, if it took you like, an hour to skin a bear, it would take you maybe two.

• 45:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 45:57Speaker 03

  And, and again, the video can't show everything, and we weren't trying to be, we were trying to show exactly how it happened. You see a picture of David helping him skin that with a, with a regular knife, and David did.

• 46:10Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 46:11Speaker 03

  Like, we, Bear just was, jumped in there, and it was getting dark, and we had to get back to the boat before dark, and so we had some time constraints. So, we didn't, I didn't want to be like, I mean, I guess in some ways you might think, well, he skinned the whole bear by that, with that, but David actually helped him, you know?

• 46:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 46:29Speaker 03

  But you absolutely could, if all you had was a flint knife and a way to sharpen it, you could skin any animal in North America. People have been doing that for longer than we had steel. You know, that's, that kind of blows your mind when you think about it. How long have we had steel as humans? I mean, a couple thousand years.

• 46:47Speaker 04

  Right.

• 46:48Speaker 03

  You know, that we were using. I mean, we were using stone technology for who knows how long.

• 46:57Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 46:58Speaker 03

  Way longer.

• 46:59Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 47:00Speaker 03

  We've had steel and humans survived. They lived, they ate, they butchered meat. We know that. I mean, it's pretty kind of a neat idea. And I really bear, it is cool that he is focused on those things. Speaking of that, I actually didn't even mean for this to happen, but I was, we had a big rain last night in Arkansas. And I was wandering around the mule pasture this morning and picked up these stone tools out of my front yard. These are broken stone points, airheads, or you know, addle addle dart heads.

• 47:35Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 47:36Speaker 03

  That were in the mule pasture this morning.

• 47:38Speaker 04

  Napped by someone a long time ago.

• 47:40Speaker 03

  Evidence of ancient bow hunting right here where we're.

• 47:43Speaker 04

  Amazing.

• 47:44Speaker 03

  Recording this podcast.

• 47:46Speaker 04

  So what was it like getting to watch Bear kill that bear from a distance there and just seeing him do that? It had to be pretty rewarding and fulfilling.

• 47:57Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was cool.

• 47:59Speaker 04

  You know, you've got four kids and they've all at times hunted, you know, different, differing levels of engagement and passion about hunting. But watching Bear do something that you're also passionate about, man, that's gotta be, gotta be cool to see.

• 48:15Speaker 03

  It, it really is. And I, it may seem like this was all planned for Bear to just be a really passionate hunter. But it really wasn't. I mean, we never like made our kids, you know, follow these passions that I had.

• 48:34Speaker 04

  Right.

• 48:34Speaker 03

  We just kind of took them. It was a major part of their life. And Bear is, of the kids is the one who's kind of taken it the furthest so far, you know? But all the others like to hunt too.

• 48:49Speaker 04

  Yeah. All right. Here's our next clip.

• 48:55Speaker 03

  Bear didn't believe in whales. He hadn't seen one first before he believed it. Didn't believe them. He just wasn't totally convinced. There's a giant fish that just jumps out of the water. A mammal of all things that suckles its young with milk. This is ridiculous. But now we believe. They're right there.

• 49:19Speaker 05

  Wow. This was a humpback whale? Yep.

• 49:22Speaker 04

  This was so crazy. I would have given anything to bring one of those rib bones back.

• 49:27Speaker 03

  If we pick it up?

• 49:28Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 49:29Speaker 03

  We just can't take it home.

• 49:30Speaker 05

  You can't, you can't keep them. I mean, they're just gonna get. Tore, oh, like, yeah. That's a rib bone? I guess, yeah. One world have real.

• 49:40Speaker 03

  Looks like a dinosaur.

• 49:43Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 49:44Speaker 03

  Wow. That is wild.

• 49:46Speaker 05

  So you said, David, that for a year and a half after this whale died,

• 49:54Speaker 05

  the, the wolves, eagles, and bears were just having a heyday over here. Yeah, it lasted a long time. It was a soupy mess. You can see the bears. Yep. Look at how chewed that, look at that is. These are, these are all teeth marks.

• 50:10Speaker 05

  And what? This is the skull. Oh, yeah.

• 50:15Speaker 05

  Look, that's like the.

• 50:18Speaker 04

  I wonder if I got that name right.

• 50:24Speaker 05

  How's that for vertebrae?

• 50:27Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 50:28Speaker 04

  That's, that's unbelievable, that vertebrae.

• 50:31Speaker 03

  I'm a believer. Whale's real.

• 50:36Speaker 04

  So tell us more about that. I mean, that's, that's unbelievable.

• 50:40Speaker 03

  Did I get the, the name right? The Magnum Foreman? Magnum Foreman? I was, I was, for those of you who aren't watching, I was looking at the skull of a whale and like the hole in the back of the neck, like where the spinal column comes into the, to the, to the skull. I believe it's called the Magnum Foreman. Um, that was, I mean, almost one of the highlights of the trip for me. I don't, I don't really know why.

• 51:08Speaker 04

  Foreman Magnum.

• 51:10Speaker 03

  Oh, Foreman Magnum. I reversed the words. David said that that.

• 51:16Speaker 03

  Carcass for like, did I say two years?

• 51:20Speaker 04

  Year and a half.

• 51:20Speaker 03

  Year and a half?

• 51:21Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 51:22Speaker 03

  Was rotting and just, I don't know if every time you drove by there, but like, that's where the bears were. And he actually let a client shoot, as I remember it, a client killed a bear close to there. And after he scanned it, he said, I'll never do that again. The smell was so putrid.

• 51:42Speaker 04

  I can't imagine.

• 51:43Speaker 03

  And the bear had just been-

• 51:44Speaker 04

  Think about rotting meat for a year and a half.

• 51:46Speaker 03

  The bear had just been all over it. He said that even the, the bones, after all the flesh had been gone for a long time, still smelled terrible.

• 51:55Speaker 04

  So how, how long ago had that whale-

• 51:57Speaker 03

  I, I couldn't tell you. Probably-

• 51:59Speaker 04

  Three or four years, probably.

• 52:00Speaker 03

  Three or four years. And you could still smell a little bit of that bone.

• 52:05Speaker 04

  Unbelievable.

• 52:06Speaker 03

  That how, but yeah, there, there were humpback whales all over the place. I mean, just every single day without exception, we would see humpback whales.

• 52:17Speaker 04

  How close would they be?

• 52:18Speaker 03

  Well, you'd just be driving your boat and they would just pop up. You know, sometimes we were seeing their spouts. They, you see the spouts of water that goes up, you know, 10, 15 feet in the air. You can see that from like a mile away. You just see, but then just randomly you're driving and one just pops up like 50 yards away or, or maybe, maybe you see him and you're going that way and you have to kind of drive by him just to get where you're going, you know? And, um, yeah, pretty incredible.

• 52:48Speaker 04

  Well, that's, uh, that was really interesting to watch on, on the film.

• 52:54Speaker 04

  Okay. Here's, here's one of the first-

• 52:56Speaker 03

  I'm still bummed about this stalk.

• 53:00Speaker 04

  Watching Clay stalking a bear and then all of a sudden he takes off into the woods.

• 53:05Speaker 03

  It's embarrassing to watch yourself run in waiters. Winds swirls, the bear winds me while he's inside of 10 yards, but still quartering to me. And when he spooks, I opt to chase him and try to run him up a tree. It actually works, but I just can't get a shot. He was about eight yards, but still didn't get a shot.

• 53:29Speaker 04

  Such as trad hunting. So was that a spontaneous move? Was that something you thought, hey, if I see a bear and he goes in the woods, I'm gonna chase him?

• 53:38Speaker 03

  It's kind of just in the bag of tricks of...

• 53:41Speaker 04

  You've done that before?

• 53:42Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah. And it's worked before too.

• 53:49Speaker 03

  So, we weren't able to show that whole stalk. That stalk was money, okay? Right at dark, we see this bear just trucking down the wood line. We're able to get way in front of it. I'm able to get out, walk down the wood line towards it, duck deep in the timber, and he had just been walking down the wood line for a quarter mile, just right on the edge. And I get tucked in behind this tree and just am waiting for him and peek out and here he comes. He's been walking for a quarter mile. The wind, basically, when he got 10 yards, just kind of swirled. I mean, just like inside of this small perimeter of a human.

• 54:30Speaker 04

  Right.

• 54:30Speaker 03

  And in that kind of turbulent environment with like waves and water and the wood line and the open area, like you just, it's hard to predict what the wind's gonna do. I was on the downwind side of it. The wind's hit me in the face. But when he got, he was inside of 10 yards but quartering to me.

• 54:50Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 54:50Speaker 03

  Right? Cause he's walking towards me.

• 54:52Speaker 04

  Right.

• 54:52Speaker 03

  So I mean, like, he's in range, but I can't shoot him. He's gotta like come past me, or at least get even with me. Cause with that trad bow, you don't want to shoot one quartering to you. Gotta be broadside.

• 55:02Speaker 04

  Right.

• 55:03Speaker 03

  And so he gets like, right at 10 yards and makes a, and kind of throws his head up, and I'm just like, no! And he makes a loop. And basically, I knew that it was busted, but he was so close, I thought, maybe I can run him up a tree.

• 55:19Speaker 04

  Right.

• 55:20Speaker 03

  And I would've shot him out of a tree, you know? And basically, you can't see it, it's so dark, but he jumped up on a tree. You could see it in the video if you stopped it.

• 55:30Speaker 04

  Uh huh.

• 55:31Speaker 03

  The bear is, has his head out from behind the tree looking at me, and I'm... Very close to him, but all I can see is his head. He's like around the tree and then he ended up not running up the tree, but running off. But originally he jumped up on the tree when he saw me coming and I was like, what is this guy doing? And then he took off and so it was over. But in British Columbia, one time I stalked the bear, actually through a culvert. It's on the old, it's on the bear grease channel.

• 56:00Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 56:01Speaker 03

  There was a bear. There, there's this big road, this big like commercial gravel road for log trucks. Okay. Imagine a four foot culvert underneath this deal. I'm watching a bear feed right beside the end of a four foot culvert that has water running through it, coming away from the bear. I sneak up on the other side, walk through the culvert. The air is pushing down with the water and I basically poke my head out and there's a bear like five yards from the mouth.

• 56:37Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 56:38Speaker 03

  And I, I wish I would have taken the bear. It was a boar, but it was young and it was early in the hunt.

• 56:43Speaker 04

  Right.

• 56:43Speaker 03

  And I, and I've got my trad bow. This is British Columbia several years ago and I see the bear and I'm wearing a GoPro on my head. You can watch it on YouTube.

• 56:51Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 56:52Speaker 03

  And I just go, hey, bear. And it looks at me just coming out of the culvert and just takes off. And then I just chase it and it goes right up a tree. And I just stand there.

• 57:02Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 57:02Speaker 03

  But anyway, so that, that can work pretty good chasing them. I've never killed one like that, but.

• 57:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 57:09Speaker 03

  It works.

• 57:11Speaker 06

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 57:41Steven Rinella?

  If you spend a lot of time outdoors, you got dogs, you got kids, you know how hard it is to keep the floor of your Big clean. A thing we do in our, in our little fleet of vehicles that have at my household, if you go look, open the door on any one of them, they all got WeatherTech. We get a car, we throw the mats out and put in WeatherTech. Cause that way when there's a mess, it's like your kid's fault, your dog's fault, it's the weather's fault, doesn't matter. You take them suckers out and hose them off and you're back to being good as new. I'm telling you, if you've got a vehicle, put WeatherTech in there. You're going to be happy you did it. And check this out. American made floor liners and cargo liners. Okay? They laugh in the face of all weather. Go take a look for yourself today at weathertech.com. You guys have heard me talk all about Montana Knife Company for a few years now on the podcast.

• 58:26Steven Rinella?

  Hands down, these are my absolute favorite hunting knives. Every blade they make is a high-performance durable tool that you can rely on. Whether you're butchering, hunting, working on the farm, out in the field, doing chores, whatever. And I've got a massive update for you. People have been asking for this forever. MKC finally did it. I've been asking it forever. The wait is over. They're launching their very first folding knife. It's called the Montana. It's going to be dropping very soon. I'm telling you right now, these things are going to sell out fast. If you aren't ready, the moment they go live, you're probably going to miss out. So here's what you need to do. Get over to MKC.com right now. Make sure you sign up for their email and text message notifications.

• 59:09Steven Rinella?

  So you get the alert, the exact second the knife drops. Montana Knife Company, working knives for working people. Head to MKC.com today. That's MKC.com. I can't wait to check out one of these folders.

• 59:24Speaker 03

  More clips everyone.

• 59:25Speaker 04

  More clips.

• 59:26Speaker 03

  Would prove to be difficult.

• 59:27Speaker 04

  We're going to be watching.

• 59:28Speaker 03

  That's a three-legged bear. Primarily had to do.

• 59:30Speaker 04

  Really?

• 59:31Speaker 03

  What? Look at him. Not bear eyes. You see him?

• 59:33Speaker 04

  Look at that.

• 59:34Speaker 03

  He's missing a front left leg.

• 59:38Speaker 04

  Well, for our listeners right now, we're watching kind of a montage of.

• 59:43Speaker 03

  Man, it took us an hour.

• 59:44Speaker 04

  A few of the 21 different stalks that Clay did on bears.

• 59:50Speaker 03

  Hard to stalk, but this part of Alaska doesn't have a ton of grizzly. I find black bears easy to stalk within 50 yards. The bear finally breaks the 10 yard mark. This is the good one. Seven yards, but now he's facing me and he's way too close. I can't move. I try to shift my weight to get in better shooting position. And he hears me, sees me, and finally spooks. This was a big bear, probably nearing the seven foot square mark. And once again, I got to inside of 30 yards, but just couldn't close the distance. I'm starting to doubt if I can make it happen.

• 1:00:32Speaker 04

  21 different stalks.

• 1:00:33Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 1:00:34Speaker 04

  21. So after, over the course of how many days?

• 1:00:39Speaker 03

  Eight days. Well, bear, bear hunted kind of two days, so really six days.

• 1:00:44Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:00:45Speaker 03

  Seven days. We'll, we'll give bear one day of full stalks.

• 1:00:48Speaker 04

  Of those stalk, I mean, from those stalks and, and being in a place that's unique for hunting bears. Tell us some of the things that you learned and maybe some things that you would have done differently.

• 1:01:00Speaker 03

  Yeah. Number one, I would have planned on wearing some type of moccasin. You almost had to wear rubber boots because it was so wet.

• 1:01:11Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:01:12Speaker 03

  But I started carrying some little stalkasins, little, little, little shoes that you put on. But it was so late in the game.

• 1:01:23Speaker 03

  I never, I actually never used them. I, I would have used them a lot more.

• 1:01:26Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 1:01:27Speaker 03

  It's very hard. Those bears were hearing me.

• 1:01:30Speaker 04

  Really?

• 1:01:30Speaker 03

  Yeah. And, and I had a cameraman with me, like right on my heel. So it's like two people walking and those bears heard us probably. Thirty percent of the time. And again, they wouldn't have heard us, like if you were just trying to get to thirty yards, you'd be okay.

• 1:01:45Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:01:46Speaker 03

  From thirty to ten.

• 1:01:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, there's a lot more you hear in ten yards that you don't.

• 1:01:49Speaker 03

  And they can hear, they can hear so good. They just hear, they hear so well. And, you know, a bear is not a prey animal like a deer. So they don't have quite that response, but they are very concerned with other bears sneaking up on them because they'll kill them. I mean, it was grizzly country too.

• 1:02:09Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:02:10Speaker 03

  Like.

• 1:02:10Speaker 04

  Did you see any grizzly bear?

• 1:02:11Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:02:12Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:02:12Speaker 03

  No, not a lot of grizz. But I mean, it was in bounds for grizz to be, especially on the Alaska mainland side we were on. And so bears hear very well. So your feet. Number two, the wind, there's just nothing you could do. You're just at the mercy of the wind and where you could park the boat. And again, getting inside of thirty, forty yards, the wind would typically stay pretty good. But in, in that inner cone, you know, inside of thirty, even if the wind's hitting you in the face, like, we've all felt it when the wind is blowing consistently and then it stops.

• 1:02:49Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:02:50Speaker 03

  And there's like a little bit of a drag and the wind just kind of eddies. And man, it just got me almost every time.

• 1:02:58Speaker 04

  Really?

• 1:02:58Speaker 03

  Like, now, we may talk about the successful stalk, but the successful stalk had two things going for it that the other twenty stalks didn't have. Okay? Number one, that bear was within twenty yards of a creek. That was.

• 1:03:14Speaker 04

  Let's actually, we, we have that coming up here in just a second. Let's save that one. But anything else that maybe you would have specifically done differently besides the stalkersons?

• 1:03:24Speaker 03

  Man, David, David Bennett's has guided hundreds and hundreds of bear hunters. And he says the thing that most people do is they're too slow.

• 1:03:36Speaker 04

  Oh, really?

• 1:03:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, he said, he said, on this kind of hunt, volume is what he finds that kills bears. And he would rather you get out of the boat and just do the boldest move possible.

• 1:03:48Speaker 04

  Really?

• 1:03:48Speaker 03

  Yeah. Do the boldest move possible, and if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. What I was doing was getting out and like, just like trying to be like, this is the stalk. I have to give it my everything. And we'd end up spending an hour on this bear that was probably going to be blown whether I took my time or I didn't. Does that make sense?

• 1:04:12Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:04:13Speaker 03

  And so David is just, was just like, Clay, you're too slow. You know, and I'd be like, you think? And he'd be like, yep, you just, he said, why did you try to get up in the woods and sneak around? I was like, well, I didn't want him to see him, see me. And he was like, he wouldn't have seen you if you'd have just laid low and just like walked straight towards it. And so, but again, it's like taking instructions from a pro basketball player when you're playing in the G League, you know? It's like, um, that's the way I felt. I really was humbled. Not that I thought that I was going to do good.

• 1:04:47Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:04:47Speaker 03

  I don't mean it like I had high expectations for myself, but it was harder than I thought it would be. And I mean, I've stalked plenty of bears.

• 1:04:56Speaker 04

  Joe Etlinger 3423 says, Clay, there is no rule in bow hunting that you have to stalk every animal to the point of failure. If 30 yards is the closest you can get, just stay put and see if he comes your way. Seems like you may have learned that one on that, that on the one that went up the tree.

• 1:05:14Speaker 03

  Joe T. Linger 3423, that's a, that's a good comment. I understand what you're saying. You don't have to like push, push, push until the animal spooks. What Joe doesn't understand is the constraints that were bigger than just what you see on the film.

• 1:05:32Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:05:33Speaker 03

  Like, like-

• 1:05:34Speaker 04

  Hard to get a full picture by a 48 minute film.

• 1:05:36Speaker 03

  Well, and just like what David was saying, he was like, Clay, don't mess around. Just get in there and try to do it. If you spook one, no big deal. We'll go on to the next one. And eventually you're going to find the one that's just right. So I see what he's saying. And in some cases, like, if you were in a place where you were going to see three bears in a week, you better do what Joe Linger 3423 says is don't push it. Just get to where you can get and then just wait.

• 1:06:03Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:06:04Speaker 03

  Yeah. I probably could have done that. This was a volume hunt, though.

• 1:06:07Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 1:06:08Speaker 03

  And there was also a timestamp with David sitting out in the boat navigating the tides.

• 1:06:13Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:06:14Speaker 03

  You know, he would pull me, most of the time, he would pull me up, I would jump out, then he would go back out because the, the waves are just like slamming the boat.

• 1:06:24Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:06:25Speaker 03

  So he's out there just like, you know, like messing around, waiting for me. It's not like I had three hours that I could see what the.

• 1:06:33Speaker 04

  How long, how long did some of those stalks last?

• 1:06:37Speaker 03

  Well, I mean, a couple of them lasted two hours. Most of the time they lasted 10 minutes.

• 1:06:42Speaker 04

  Okay, okay.

• 1:06:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:06:43Speaker 04

  Um, Offroad Tech Double Zero said, "Great episode. The Alaska shows are full of amazing scenery, except Clay's butt."

• 1:06:53Speaker 03

  Ah.

• 1:06:54Speaker 04

  There was way too much of it. Must remember, stalk hunts equal watching butts.

• 1:06:58Speaker 03

  Hey, brother, you ain't wrong. That's the first thing that I noted when I watched the draft. I was like, wow, this is like feature.

• 1:07:08Speaker 04

  Clay was watching, he's like, "Does this stalk make my butt look fat?"

• 1:07:10Speaker 03

  The feature length film of Clay's butt. I am so sorry, people.

• 1:07:15Speaker 04

  All right.

• 1:07:16Speaker 03

  He ain't wrong.

• 1:07:17Speaker 04

  Well, we've got one more clip here we're gonna show.

• 1:07:23Speaker 04

  Clay's butt.

• 1:07:24Speaker 05

  The bear is tucked in behind this fallen tree, which offers some great cover to get close. He's just feeding on grass. And there's also a running stream really nearby that covers my sound. This is perfect. This is what I've been waiting for.

• 1:07:59Speaker 05

  I hit it right where I was aiming.

• 1:08:04Speaker 03

  You aimed in the wrong place, Clay.

• 1:08:06Speaker 05

  I got on the other side of that tree.

• 1:08:10Speaker 05

  Bear was laying down right there. Air hit right where I was aiming, but it didn't go in very deep.

• 1:08:23Speaker 05

  Oh no.

• 1:08:26Speaker 05

  It's not good.

• 1:08:31Speaker 05

  It's not good at all.

• 1:08:34Speaker 05

  David, I don't think it penetrated past the broadhead.

• 1:08:38Speaker 05

  I felt like I hit him right behind the shoulder, but I must have touched the tip of his shoulder. His elbow must have been back because it broke that broadhead.

• 1:08:49Speaker 05

  And I mean, we're going to come back in the morning and look. But that bear is not mortally wounded.

• 1:09:01Speaker 05

  And that was my biggest fear. And that is why I limited myself to 10 yards. And I hit right where I was aiming.

• 1:09:12Speaker 05

  And so I don't know what to say other than

• 1:09:17Speaker 05

  I messed it up, but that's just part of the game. I think that bear will be fine. It's a bummer to hit a bear and not recover it, but my hunt's over. Such is the drama of the self bow.

• 1:09:34Speaker 04

  Hmm. So kind of walk us through that thing.

• 1:09:39Speaker 03

  Well, so that stalk was so good. And it took, it took 21 stalks to get one that was just perfect. That there was a fallen tree that completely shielded the bear from anything going on the direction I was. Okay. There was also a stream that flowed out into the ocean there that did two things. Flowing water typically pulls air currents. So my wind was kind of like going out on the water. You know, you'd puff and it would just be going out of the water by that, by that little creek. That creek was like 20 yards from the bear. And then number two, it was loud, the sound of that water. So, I mean, it was like the perfect start.

• 1:10:24Speaker 03

  So I just peek out around that tree and that bear is there 10 yards.

• 1:10:30Speaker 04

  Was it a good bear?

• 1:10:31Speaker 03

  It was just a. Average male bear. I mean, we know because the bear got killed.

• 1:10:37Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:10:37Speaker 03

  Like two weeks later. And I was told that it was like, you know, just a decent, younger type boar.

• 1:10:47Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:10:47Speaker 03

  Probably a 200 pound animal.

• 1:10:49Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:10:49Speaker 03

  You know, it wasn't a big one.

• 1:10:51Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:10:51Speaker 03

  And I wish we could have got better footage of the actual shot, but we were so worried about spooking game.

• 1:11:00Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:11:01Speaker 03

  Dirt was.

• 1:11:02Speaker 04

  Being so close. Dirt myth was your camera?

• 1:11:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, Garrett Smith Dirt Myth was my cameraman and he just did the best he could without, you know, having to get out further than me and like spook the bear. And as I watched the film, I said it like three times and it could come across as me trying to make an excuse and maybe I probably was, but I was like, I hit right where I was aiming. I hit, I mean, I kind of kept telling myself, well, I hit where I was aiming. Well, I mean, I aimed in the wrong spot then, you know? And I've, I've said this for years and it's hard to compensate for, but on a, on a shorter haired animal like a deer, okay? A deer has, you know, this like half inch to one inch fur. You can see the contour of that animal. You can see a shoulder.

• 1:11:49Speaker 03

  A black bear is like shooting at a black trash bag that's been blown up like a balloon.

• 1:11:53Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 1:11:54Speaker 03

  You don't see the contour of its body quite as much because of the longer hair. Okay? Number two, the difference between shooting a bear and shooting a deer is that a bear has a lot more ability to contort its body. And what I've always told people is a bear can make itself into a C. Like envision a bear being broadside.

• 1:12:17Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:12:17Speaker 03

  But his butt and his shoulder are closer than to you than the middle, like his last rib, like the middle of his body. It's like a dog. He can like curve his back. A deer really can't do that.

• 1:12:28Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:12:29Speaker 03

  Think about that.

• 1:12:29Speaker 04

  Uh huh.

• 1:12:30Speaker 03

  So when he's, when that bear is like curved like a C, if you're aiming.

• 1:12:37Speaker 03

  Like, kind of where the vitals should be at this black trash bag that you can't see much contour on, you will hit his shoulder.

• 1:12:45Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:12:46Speaker 03

  Does that make sense?

• 1:12:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:12:47Speaker 03

  Like, it folds in.

• 1:12:48Speaker 04

  Uh huh.

• 1:12:49Speaker 03

  And so.

• 1:12:49Speaker 04

  It narrows the, the, the picture.

• 1:12:51Speaker 03

  So you could actually shoot in the place that on a 3D target you would shoot, but if that bear is cupped toward you in a C, you're gonna hit its shoulder. And, and that's what happened. Like, just in the moment, I wasn't able to see that that bear was actually, maybe just slightly cupped.

• 1:13:07Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:13:08Speaker 03

  And like, I always say that a bear can do so many things that a deer can't. A bear can sit on his butt. That bear was actually laying on his belly when I first saw it. Like, laying flat on its belly with its paws flat on the ground like this.

• 1:13:20Speaker 04

  Really?

• 1:13:20Speaker 03

  Chomping grass. I mean, just, and like, if I had come up and that bear would have been like that, that shooting target would have been compressed and, and different than if it was just standing there with like its ribs kind of like, fully extended, hanging down. So, most people, including me, mess up on a bear when a bear is doing something unusual. And, and it's not like he was, he was just standing there broadside in my mind, and I just whoop, and just hit that shoulder. I knew that a lot of arrow was sticking out, but I actually thought that everything was okay, because, you know, I'm telling myself, I hit right where I was aiming.

• 1:13:59Speaker 04

  Right. Do you feel like you're, did you feel like you're, you had a full draw? You feel like all the shot was okay?

• 1:14:05Speaker 03

  I mean, that's where any traditional archer will tell you, it's easy to, what they call short stroke, when, when you're in the heat of the moment.

• 1:14:15Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:14:15Speaker 03

  Where you're just like in such a hurry, you don't like get your full extension. I don't know. It's possible. I mean, I was so, Josh, being inside of 10 yards and, I mean, I had time and I, I walked through my shot sequence consciously. I was like, bow arm up, focus on where you want to hit, draw to your anchor point. I mean, I did everything, but.

• 1:14:38Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:14:39Speaker 03

  Who knows?

• 1:14:39Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:14:40Speaker 03

  I, I think so much of human memory is flawed.

• 1:14:43Speaker 04

  Right. It's true.

• 1:14:45Speaker 03

  I mean, I.

• 1:14:45Speaker 04

  It's true.

• 1:14:46Speaker 03

  You know, like, even me saying, I hit right where I was aiming, it's like, I wish the foot, the foot, you cannot see it. You cannot see the arrow in the footage. I don't know why. You just can't.

• 1:14:57Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:14:59Speaker 03

  Who knows if I truly did? I do know I hit the shoulder because we know that for a fact because a couple of weeks later, and this is maybe the most bizarre part of the story. So we go check Bear's bear with Alaska Game and Fish. You have to take the animal actually to a biologist that pulls the tooth, that takes a hair sample, that does all this stuff. And so we're talking to him and you know, and, and I'm like, man, I shot one and got away. You know, I mean, I told him. And, um, and so David knew the guy that we were with really well.

• 1:15:35Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:15:36Speaker 03

  And a couple of weeks later, David sends me a text message and said, found your broadhead. And I'm pretty sure some guys from Texas killed that bear with a rifle.

• 1:15:45Speaker 04

  Really?

• 1:15:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:15:47Speaker 04

  And they pulled the broadhead out?

• 1:15:48Speaker 03

  They, they just were skinning it and found a broadhead and thought it was interesting. And when they took it into the game and fish, they were like, hey, we found this. And the guy was like, I think I know whose that is.

• 1:15:58Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 1:15:59Speaker 03

  You know, I was, I, I almost, you know, part of me didn't want to tell that part of the story. Because I mean, animal, the, the ethics of, of just the, the treatment of animals. It's not the right words I'm saying there, but I mean, you don't want to shoot a bear and not find it.

• 1:16:20Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:16:20Speaker 03

  You don't want an animal running around with a broadhead.

• 1:16:22Speaker 04

  You guys went back the next morning and looked for it.

• 1:16:24Speaker 03

  Oh, we did. We, we did. We went back the next morning and looked for it. Found nothing.

• 1:16:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:16:30Speaker 03

  You know, and, um, the bear was fine, except for he got shot by a guy from Texas.

• 1:16:39Speaker 03

  You know, so, so, um, uh, I, I, I don't know if it's from Texas. That's what I remember being sad, but, uh, so that's the story.

• 1:16:49Speaker 04

  Well, that, that was great, man. The film was fantastic. And, uh, we, uh, another comment here. Did you feel fortunate the bear ended up okay after you hit it? And also I didn't see any firearms on your stalks as a safety backup.

• 1:17:07Speaker 03

  Man.

• 1:17:10Speaker 03

  I've read that comment and nobody carries firearm backup on black bear hunts. And when I say nobody, obviously there are exceptions to that rule.

• 1:17:22Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:17:22Speaker 03

  But I would say 80% plus of people hunting black bears are not, if they're bow hunting, are not carrying a firearm backup.

• 1:17:31Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 1:17:31Speaker 03

  Now, if you're hunting in grizz country, you probably would. There's been times when I've carried a pistol almost just for the fun of it.

• 1:17:39Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 1:17:39Speaker 03

  But I would say 95% of my black bear hunting, I've never had firearm backup.

• 1:17:44Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 1:17:45Speaker 03

  Grizz, totally different story.

• 1:17:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:17:47Speaker 03

  Um.

• 1:17:47Speaker 04

  Much more aggressive.

• 1:17:48Speaker 03

  So just, it's just, it's just not.

• 1:17:54Speaker 03

  You're just not going to be attacked by a bear while you're hunting them. You might be attacked by a bear while you're at your camp, you know?

• 1:17:59Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:17:59Speaker 03

  Wants to eat your food, or you run into a sow with a cub while you're out hiking.

• 1:18:06Speaker 04

  Um, another comment here. Uh, he says, Caleb Allen says, just finished the episode, still can't believe what happened to Clay's arrow. Do you think maybe the constant moisture may have weakened the wood at the broadhead point? I would have imagined that even the self bow with that type of broadhead would have struggled to get. I can't imagine even with a self bow that that type of broadhead would have struggled to get more penetration.

• 1:18:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's a good point. I don't know. I don't think, I don't think wet wood necessarily means weak wood if that, if I'm understanding this comment. It's possible though. Definitely the water on the string and water on the feathers would have slowed the bow to some degree.

• 1:18:48Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:18:48Speaker 03

  But again, that's why I was limiting myself to 10 yards.

• 1:18:51Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 1:18:51Speaker 03

  Because I felt like at that distance, it really wouldn't have mattered. I mean, the bottom line is I hit the shoulder.

• 1:18:58Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:18:58Speaker 03

  And, and with any, I mean, even with a compound, if you hit the shoulder, potentially you're going to have problems.

• 1:19:07Speaker 04

  And so hitting that, hitting that animal ends your.

• 1:19:11Speaker 03

  It does. There's legality of such is different in many states, but in Alaska, if you draw blood on an animal, that's your, that's your tag.

• 1:19:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:19:23Speaker 03

  And, and in most places, and in most people that I've been around, even if that's not the law, that's typically the way that I would manage something.

• 1:19:33Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:19:34Speaker 03

  If you have, if you have one bear tag and you wound one, just. Check your tag.

• 1:19:40Steven Rinella?

  Yep.

• 1:19:40Speaker 03

  You know.

• 1:19:41Steven Rinella?

  Yep.

• 1:19:42Speaker 03

  Um, that, I, I wouldn't, I would say most of the time, that's what a lot of people would do anyway.

• 1:19:49Speaker 03

  Man, thank you guys so much for watching this companion podcast for Meat Eaters 12 and 26 film. This is episode three of our Southeast Alaska boat based for bears. Check it out on YouTube. If you haven't watched it, please go watch it. It's a, it's a lot of action. I tell you what, it's a lot of action and um, it was a really special time to get to spend that with uh, my son Bear John and uh, man, I, I hope you guys get to get out and hunt this spring. And thanks so much for checking this out.

• 1:20:33Steven Rinella?

  If you spend a lot of time outdoors, you got dogs, you got kids, you know how hard it is to keep the floor of your rig clean. A thing we do in our, in our little fleet of vehicles that I have at my household, if you go look, open the door on any one of them, they all got WeatherTech. We get a car, we throw the mats out and put in WeatherTech. Cause that way, when there's a mess, it's like your kid's fault, your dog's fault, it's the weather's fault. Doesn't matter. You take them suckers out and hose them off and you're back to being good as new. I'm telling you, if you got a vehicle, put WeatherTech in there, you're gonna be happy you did it. And check this out, American made floor liners and cargo liners. Okay, they laugh in the face of all weather. Go take a look for yourself today at weathertech.com.

• 1:21:13Speaker 03

  This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. You know those little promises you make to your future self? Tomorrow I'll put my phone away earlier or stop rehearsing arguments in the shower. Tomorrow I'll stop saying yes to everything or stop overthinking that conversation. Most of us aren't trying to become completely different people. We're just hoping to feel a little better every day. That's what's great about BetterHelp. With them, better is personal. It's matching with a therapist who gets you and having someone in your corner. Better doesn't have to come from major victories. It can be from the small habits you create and how you honor your needs on a daily basis. So many of us are great at prioritizing even the smallest things for our loved ones. But what about ourselves?

• 1:21:57Speaker 03

  With thousands of therapists and millions of members in over 100 countries, BetterHelp is making therapy more accessible so more people can keep moving forward, one conversation at a time. Better is personal. Therapy should be too. Visit betterhelp.com to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.com.

• 1:22:19Steven Rinella?

  A few weeks into hunting season, you usually have a pretty good idea of what gear is working and what you wish you had. That's where Tractor Supply comes in. Maybe you need another trail camera for a spot that's heating up, warmer layers for a cold front rolling in, or a cooler for when everything finally comes together. Whatever the season throws at you, Tractor Supply has the gear to keep you in the woods. Stop by your local Tractor Supply or shop tractorsupply.com.

• 1:22:49Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.