Ep. 716: F'd Up Old Trucks, Father's Day, and a Gobbling Guide | MeatEater Radio Live!

Hosts Brody Henderson https://www.themeateater.com/people/brody-henderson, Seth Morris https://www.themeateater.com/people/seth-morris, and Cory Calkins https://www.themeateater.com/people/cory-calkins chat with Danny Bolton https://www.instagram.com/dannybolton/ about off-roading in Hawaii, throwback to some memorable times had in f*cked up old trucks, reminisce about Father's Days of the past, and meet Captain Josh Miller and his one-of-a-kind co-captain. Watch the live stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork 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, and 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.

• 0:04Steven Rinella?

  There are a few days every year when big bucks are most likely to get gotten. And knowing that exact time stacks the odds in your favor when you're targeting a big buck. OnX Hunt's Whitetail Insights tells you what phase of the rut you're in and what tactics actually work for that phase, while the deer movement forecast tells you when deer are most likely to be on their feet. Together, they tell you when to be in the tree and when to go to your kid's game instead. Get the most out of every sit with OnX Hunt. Listen, we're all trying to save up for something. I got buddies saving up to buy their new house. I got people eyeing a new boat. I know buddies that are trying to switch out trucks and get an upgrade in their truck, whatever.

• 0:48Steven Rinella?

  People are always saving up for stuff. In reality, though, we see that it can be hard to actually save money. But that's what's great about the One Pay app. It makes saving money easy. First, you earn 3% cash back on up to $150 in monthly spending. You choose categories, okay, like Walmart, gas, or dining, and then get rewarded when you spend in those categories. So you're rewarded for what you're already buying. And with high-yield savings, your money keeps growing. Download the One Pay app or visit onepay.com for banking that gives you more for what matters.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  One Pay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank, or LEED Bank, members FDIC. Cash back is earned as points. Go to onepay.com/rewards/terms for redemption options and additional details.

• 1:42Steven Rinella?

  I get sent all kinds of products and snacks, and the truth is, most of them come and go. Every once in a while, though, I find something I keep reaching for, and Wiley Wallaby is one of those things. I first tried it because someone just handed me a bag and said, "This isn't like any other kind of licorice you've had before." And they were right. Wiley Wallaby makes authentic Australian-style licorice that's incredibly soft and chewy. It's not like that weird, tough, waxy, cheap junk you get. And it doesn't have that artificial taste. That turns a lot of people away from licorice in the first place. It's one of those products that's hard to explain until you've tasted it yourself. I keep some in my truck. I keep some in my fish shack. I keep some in my camper. They've got more than 10 flavors.

• 2:23Steven Rinella?

  And whether you like classic flavors or something a little different, there's probably one you'll end up keeping stocked around the house. Plus, it's made in the USA by a company that's been committed to quality and hometown values for over six decades. If you haven't tried Wiley Wallaby yet, pick yourself up a bag. Use code MEATEATER at shop.wileywallaby.com for free shipping and you can try it yourself. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

• 2:56Speaker 03

  Smell us now, lady. Welcome to Meat Eater Trivia. Meat Eater Podcast.

• 3:19Speaker 04

  Welcome to the June 12th episode of Meat Eater Radio Live. It's 11 a.m. Mountain Time here in Bozeman. That's 1 p.m. on the Outer Banks of North Carolina where my family is currently enjoying vacation without me. Yep, they're having fun on the beach. I'm your host, Brody Henderson. I'm joined today by Seth Morse and Cory Calkins. Today, it's almost Father's Day, man. So we're going to share some hunting stories about our dads. That'll be fun.

• 3:50Speaker 04

  We're going to talk to fishing guide Josh Miller, who we tried to get on the show a couple of weeks ago, I think, about his first mate, Ryder, Riddier. The turkey. I don't know what that turkey's name is. We'll figure that part out.

• 4:03Speaker 05

  Find out.

• 4:05Speaker 04

  And since we're running the voting right now for our 2026 fucked up old hunting trucks calendar, we're going to talk about some bad situations we've gotten into in our hunting trucks. And on top of that, we're going to interview an actual four-wheel-drive truck driving expert, someone who teaches people how to drive four-wheel-drive trucks. I'm not sure what his credentials are, but he's a good guy. So we'll figure that part out too. Um, yeah, that's what we've got for you. It should be a good show. Um, what's up? How's it going, fellas?

• 4:39Speaker 05

  Oh, going good.

• 4:40Speaker 06

  Yeah, going good.

• 4:41Speaker 04

  Yeah. Uh, what you been up to?

• 4:44Speaker 06

  I just got back from interior Alaska on bear hunt with.

• 4:48Speaker 04

  Lot of bear hunting this year, man.

• 4:50Speaker 06

  Lot of bear hunting, yeah. That's, that's my second Alaska bear hunt of the year.

• 4:55Speaker 04

  Oh, that's right. You did a personal funzy hunt.

• 4:58Speaker 06

  Yeah, one in southeast and one in interior.

• 5:01Speaker 04

  Much different style of hunting for those.

• 5:03Speaker 06

  Totally like, could, yeah, two different planets, basically.

• 5:06Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 5:07Speaker 06

  Um, but yeah, it was good. Um, yeah, watched some bears die and saw some beautiful country.

• 5:13Speaker 04

  Sweet.

• 5:13Speaker 05

  See any other critters up there?

• 5:15Speaker 06

  Yeah, saw, saw, uh, wolves, grizzly bears, caribou, moose, doll sheep.

• 5:22Speaker 05

  Wow.

• 5:23Speaker 06

  A porcupine, a marmot, and I think that's it.

• 5:27Speaker 05

  Man.

• 5:28Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 5:30Speaker 04

  Nice. Corey, what you been doing?

• 5:32Speaker 05

  Uh, man, yeah, lots of work and I've been fly fishing a lot more this year. I was a guy.

• 5:37Speaker 04

  Fly rod.

• 5:38Speaker 05

  Well, I was a guide for 15 years and when I retired from guiding, started this job, I didn't really want to do it anymore. I kind of lost the drive.

• 5:47Speaker 04

  Same thing happened to me after whatever 18, 20 years of guiding. I just, I just lost the drive to go fish on my own.

• 5:55Speaker 06

  That's what everyone says. I think same thing happened with the honest too.

• 5:57Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 5:58Speaker 05

  Yeah, maybe. But it's, but it's back, man. This year I've been fishing quite a bit. Uh, the cool fishing's good right now at the moment. It seems like it's going to dry up come late summer, but fish it now and, uh, going out, meeting up with my old man this weekend, go fish the Missouri. So I'm looking forward to that.

• 6:13Speaker 04

  With everyone else in the state of Montana.

• 6:15Speaker 05

  Yeah, hopefully they're going somewhere else. It'll be what it'll be.

• 6:19Speaker 04

  I don't know dude, that river is always busy, but there's so many trout, it doesn't matter.

• 6:23Speaker 05

  Exactly. And you just kinda, if everybody's fishing the right bank, there's the left bank.

• 6:28Speaker 04

  Or the middle.

• 6:29Speaker 05

  Well, wherever the fish are biting. Yeah, there's a lot of fish per mile in there. So, how about you?

• 6:34Speaker 04

  Oh, man. Gardening. My family's out of town. You know, like when your family goes out of town, you're like, oh God, it's gonna be great. I'm gonna have this house to myself. It's gonna be quiet. I'll get stuff done. But then they leave and you're like, God, I miss them. I'm bored.

• 6:50Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 6:50Speaker 04

  I'm getting some stuff done, but I do miss them. Um, we'll, we'll start hitting the fishing hard after the boys get back here this weekend.

• 6:57Speaker 05

  Nice.

• 6:58Speaker 04

  Yeah. Um, Phil, we got, we got old Danny Bolton on the line.

• 7:02Speaker 06

  Danny's on standby, yes.

• 7:04Speaker 04

  Uh, well, let's jump right in to our first guest, Danny Bolton. You guys probably seen him on the Meat Eater television show. He's done some stuff with Cal too. Um, he's been a friend of Meat Eater for several years. If you don't know him, Danny hails from Hawaii. He spends a lot of his time, uh, shooting arrows into feral pigs and sheep. And he spends a lot of time hauling tuna and wahoo into the boat. But we've got him on the show today to talk about his job, uh, training folks how to drive four-wheel drive rigs. And we're gonna pick his brain about what not to do when you're off-roading your truck around, especially during hunting season. So, uh, we got him up here. There he is. Danny, how's it going, man?

• 7:50Speaker 07

  It's good. How are you guys?

• 7:51Speaker 04

  Great, great. Uh, what you been up to lately?

• 7:56Speaker 07

  Uh, did, hey, did a little storm chasing just recently. Flew out to, uh, Kansas, drove all over the country. Well, not all over the country, but all over like through storm zones and actually got to see my first tornado.

• 8:09Speaker 04

  Oh, nice.

• 8:09Speaker 06

  Dude, that's awesome.

• 8:10Speaker 04

  Yeah, you don't get too many of those in Hawaii, huh?

• 8:13Speaker 07

  No, definitely don't get too many. I've seen like one little baby water spout one time, but not a full tornado.

• 8:20Speaker 04

  Nice. Did you have a special truck, like one of those big storm chasing trucks you were using for that or?

• 8:26Speaker 07

  Yeah, dude, you wouldn't believe it. My, my friend Ricky is like that, that they live for it. And he's got this big old orange truck, all the lights, underglow, all the, you know, like pretty much typical storm chasing thing. All kinds of antennas coming off of it. So gotta do that with him, which is super fun. And then it dude, it's just like the movies like pull up to a gas station. There's like thirty other storm chasers all amping for the storm coming in. And uh, some crazy rigs. I talk about, talk about messed up old trucks, dude.

• 8:59Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 8:59Speaker 07

  There were some crazy stuff there with like all kinds of like metal welded to it. And you know, just like Mad Max stuff.

• 9:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:08Speaker 07

  It's pretty funny.

• 9:08Speaker 04

  That's cool. Okay, Danny, like we've, we've done some four wheel drive stuff with you in the past, a little bit anyway, but give us a quick rundown of like your driving instruction job and how you got into it.

• 9:23Speaker 07

  Yeah, I'll just give you the a quick rundown, I guess. I just grew up just off road all the time. Uh, started playing on quads and dirt bikes and then just always had kind of beat up old trucks that we could ramble around in. And even before I had my driver's license. And then I have two older cousins that I rode dirt bikes with. And they had enough money and had jobs, so they were like building trucks. So then started building trucks and that got us into off road racing when I moved out of Hawaii after high school. Started racing desert stuff and that's kind of what got me into like the major side of off road and offered racing. And then

• 10:04Speaker 07

  my friend does all the training. So I've actually partnered with him now and we're in business together to to train a bunch of people. Uh, mainly military. So train mainly military to uh, basically how to drive off road. And then if the thing breaks, how to fix it. If you get stuck, how to get unstuck. All the little things that you know, you find out there in the, in the desert or wherever you are, what's going to break. It's similar to what would break when you're hunting.

• 10:32Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 10:33Speaker 07

  And just how to fix it, just all those little little secrets, you know?

• 10:36Speaker 04

  Right. Um, I, I would imagine based on my own experience, um, getting stuck and whatnot that one of the biggest mistakes people make when they're driving around a rough country is, is just like not turning around when they should, like not recognizing like stopping is the best thing to do. And then you'll just avoid getting yourself in a real bad situation. But what are like some of the main, most common mistakes people make when they're driving in bad conditions like washed out roads, snow, mud, whatever it might be?

• 11:12Speaker 07

  Yeah, I think, I think you kind of hit the nail on the head. It's just like your brain, right? Like be, uh, be real self-aware of where you're at. And, you know, I've gone down stuff that I couldn't get back up and it ended up being a dead end. And it was a mission. We, we did get back up, but like just knowing your situation, knowing your gear. And I would say the most common things and most people can probably relate to this is most likely flat tires and then just getting stuck. I would say, you know, out of all the crazy fixes that I've done out in the field, broken axles, changed transmission, all these crazy things.

• 11:52Speaker 07

  Getting stuck and just flat tires are probably the two most common things. And you need to be able to fix your vehicle or get it unstuck. So, you know, just having a shovel. And then checking your equipment before you go, checking your spare tire, make sure there's air in it. Make sure it's the correct spare. I've, I've had a truck where I got a flat and we pulled out the spare. And it was the wrong lug nut pattern. So make sure your jack is working.

• 12:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, we're gonna talk about that picture in a minute. Yeah, I was gonna ask you like what, uh, like what are the things you, you like have to have in your truck? When you're like, anytime you're gonna be leaving the pavement, like what thing, what's on your list of stuff everyone should have in their, in their truck?

• 12:40Speaker 07

  Yeah, to keep it real simple without sending people way down the rabbit hole, but I would have, uh, make sure your jack is working. Most cars and trucks come with a jack stock. So that, that's fine. Just make sure you have your jack and all the little pieces you need to use your jack. And then also your spare tire, make sure you have a spare tire and a lug nut wrench. And then all the little pieces you need to get your spare down to, usually it's the same thing that you use for your jack. And then I would say a shovel, if you're going off-road, like to go camp or go hunt or something, just, just bring a shovel. And then, uh, a little tow rope, like a tow strap would be amazing.

• 13:23Speaker 07

  But to keep it very simple, I would say out of those things, you can get yourself out of a lot of trouble.

• 13:29Speaker 04

  Yeah. What about those, uh, you know, those, uh, plastic things you lay down on the attraction board? Do you use those at all?

• 13:39Speaker 07

  Very rarely, uh, they come in handy and if you're planning on getting stuck a lot, they're cool to have. But honestly, like if you're trying to keep it simple, you don't really need it like so.

• 13:56Speaker 06

  I'm getting a little hiccup here.

• 13:59Speaker 04

  Uh oh.

• 14:00Speaker 06

  I think we actually lost connection here.

• 14:01Speaker 07

  Go and roll up on it.

• 14:03Speaker 04

  Oh, there he is. He's back. We lost you there for like a little less than a minute. So I don't know.

• 14:10Speaker 07

  Yeah. So, so I would say they just, just, you don't, you don't need them. Um, you can find other stuff to throw down in that hole, rocks, sagebrush, whatever.

• 14:20Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 14:21Speaker 07

  Um, I don't really carry them.

• 14:23Speaker 04

  So what you're telling me is I wasted my money on mine.

• 14:27Speaker 07

  Um, no, definitely. If you have them, if you have them and when it comes time to use them, you're gonna love them.

• 14:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, for sure. I've, I've used them a couple of times. Um.

• 14:37Speaker 05

  You're supposed to have them like on top of your truck.

• 14:39Speaker 04

  Well, you gotta look cool. Yeah.

• 14:41Speaker 05

  Never use them.

• 14:42Speaker 04

  Bright orange ones so everyone can see them.

• 14:44Speaker 05

  That's the thing.

• 14:45Speaker 04

  Um, how about, uh, how about like towing campers or four wheeler trailers, anything like? Any tips there or just like?

• 14:56Speaker 04

  Anything people should know? Yeah.

• 14:59Speaker 07

  I, I'd say the two things about towing stuff in is just know what you're towing and like where it is. Cause you don't want to get that thing twisted up or stuck. And then you're also pulling a lot more weight. So if you're going up super technical stuff, you're, you're putting more stress on all your equipment on your truck. Cause you're pulling this extra weight and I have seen axle snap and drive shafts and U joints and stuff go out. Um, so just know since you're pulling that extra weight, you just kind of got to account for it. And then obviously backing it up like. You you want to get it, you know, you don't want to get in a spot where you're having to back up for a mile.

• 15:38Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 15:38Speaker 07

  Especially if it's a small trailer, the things like twisting around on you.

• 15:42Speaker 04

  Um, earlier we showed a picture of you hauling hauling those moose out from a couple of years ago.

• 15:48Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 15:49Speaker 04

  Uh, is that like the the kind of the hairiest four wheel drive and experience you've you've ever been in?

• 15:56Speaker 07

  Uh, definitely not. Um.

• 15:57Speaker 04

  Oh, geez.

• 16:00Speaker 05

  Pretty gnarly.

• 16:01Speaker 07

  Yeah, I mean, we never even flipped it over on that one. Like it never it never even ended up upside down, but um. That was a long one and it just the the weight of the situation with having, you know, all that meat. And trying to get out like we we went in the first part of the season. And then when we shot those moose was the last day of the season. So I remember when we were broken down. And this this trip was crazy. We ended up shooting two mooses, moose, mises.

• 16:38Speaker 04

  Bulls.

• 16:38Speaker 07

  And uh, bulls, we shot two bulls. And um. So we had to get all this meat out and we ended up. Breaking uh, the belts on those are kind of known to go and we had already gone through our spare. We brought a spare. And I had already gone through it and then we had to stick go through the radiator. And we had to totally fix that whole situation. So. Crimp that all down and get that all fixed. But while we're fixing that. We there was a river nearby and I remember watching the last jet boat basically go down the river. Because there's there's no reason to be back there unless you're moose hunting.

• 17:19Speaker 07

  And it was the last day of the season and I remember watching that last boat go by and like knowing that. That was probably our last person that was going to be out there. And if we couldn't get that thing fixed, we were nine miles. At that point from the road. So hiking like all that meat to the road was going to be almost impossible. Um, so we had to get that thing fixed and yeah, it was it was it was amazing trip. We ended up. Getting the thing fixed and getting out and took took a while though. It took us four days. Um, missed my flight. So.

• 17:52Speaker 04

  That's alright, you got a couple of giant bulls, it's okay. Alright, one last question Danny. What would your like, kind of ideal four-wheel drive hunting rig? Like, what would it be and how would you have it set up? Like, would you have a topper on there, camper? Like, just kind of give us a rundown of what your rig would look like?

• 18:14Speaker 07

  Yeah, no problem. Basically, I probably have a mid-size truck. Full-size gets a little big to where, you know, you're having trouble making tight corners and stuff.

• 18:25Speaker 04

  Maneuvering.

• 18:26Speaker 07

  Ended up like bottom out. So like a Tacoma, Ford Ranger, something more in the mid-size range. And then, I can just tell you what I have like in the mainland, like I have a Toyota Tacoma. And then I have a deck system in the back, stores everything, lock it up. And then I have a Go Fast camper on top, which is like a, just a camper that has a tent on top of it. You don't necessarily need the tent on top of it. You could just tent camp, which is fine, but having some way to enclose the back so that you don't have to worry about rain and mud and all that stuff would be amazing. And then, honestly, a stock rig nowadays is pretty awesome.

• 19:05Speaker 07

  Like, if you can fit like thirty-two, thirty-three inch tires in most, some of the new stock trucks, you can fit thirty-three's on. Just having bigger tires, because everybody, all these lifts and all this stuff. Well, you're putting all that stuff on so that you can put bigger tires on, so that your fenders don't rub and your suspension kind of move. But the bigger tires is what's giving you more ground clearance. And that's kind of what you're shooting for, and you can't really beat stock suspension. Like, the amount of money that manufacturers put into their geometry is huge compared to aftermarket stuff. So just a stock mid-size truck with a little bit bigger tires, probably some, like I have B.F. Goodrich All-Terrains.

• 19:46Speaker 07

  And if you know you're just going to be in a muddy stuff, so like mud rains a little bit better for that, but I have All-Terrains.

• 19:53Speaker 07

  And then, yeah, that's, that's basically it. And I'd have a, I got a shovel in there. I got a jack. I got all my tools, rig tools. Make sure you have all the right tools that you need. I got tow straps and I got a winch on it. So it's got rear bumper, front bumper. The rear bumper is cool because you can pull harder on it. And if you drag something, it's not as big, you're not tearing up your stock bumper. But the front bumper holds the winch, which I can get myself out of a lot of situations and I don't need another rig there. And yeah, that's, that's basically it. It's, I mean, fairly simple, but uh, I definitely have everything I need to get myself out.

• 20:32Speaker 04

  Cool. Well, it was great talking to Danny. Hopefully we'll see you here in a couple of weeks in, uh, in Montana.

• 20:39Speaker 07

  Yeah, definitely. I miss you guys. And it is good to see you.

• 20:41Speaker 04

  All right. Yep. Good to see you too. Thanks a lot, man.

• 20:45Speaker 05

  Thanks Danny.

• 20:45Speaker 07

  Okay, boys.

• 20:46Speaker 06

  Later.

• 20:47Steven 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 weather tech.com.

• 21:27Steven Rinella?

  Listen, we're all trying to save up for something. I got buddies saving up to buy their new house. I got people eyeing a new boat. I know buddies that are trying to switch out trucks and get an upgrade in their truck, whatever. People are always saving up for stuff. In reality though, we see that it can be hard to actually save money. But that's what's great about the One Pay app. It makes saving money easy. First, you earn 3% cash back on up to $150 in monthly spending. You choose categories, okay, like Walmart, gas or dining, and then get rewarded when you spend in those categories. So You're rewarded for what you're already buying and with high yield savings, your money

• 22:08Steven Rinella?

  keeps growing. Download the One Pay app or visit onepay.com for banking that gives you more for what matters.

• 22:16Speaker 02

  One Pay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank or Lead Bank, members FDIC. Cash back is earned as points. Go to onepay.com/rewards-terms for redemption options and additional details.

• 22:31Steven Rinella?

  I get sent all kinds of products and snacks and the truth is, most of them come and go. Every once in a while, though, I find something I keep reaching for and Wiley Wallaby is one of those things. I first tried it because someone just handed me a bag and said, this isn't like any other kind of licorice you've had before. And they were right. Wiley Wallaby makes authentic Australian-style licorice that's incredibly soft and chewy. It's not like that weird, tough, waxy, cheap junk you get. And it doesn't have that artificial taste that turns a lot of people away from licorice in the first place. It's one of those products that's hard to explain until you've tasted it yourself. I keep some in my truck. I keep some in my fish shack. I keep some in my camper. They've got more than 10 flavors. And whether you like classic flavors or something a little different, there's

• 23:15Steven Rinella?

  probably one you'll end up keeping stocked around the house. Plus, it's made in the USA by a company that's been committed to quality and hometown values for over six decades. If you haven't tried Wiley Wallaby yet, pick yourself up a bag. Use code MEATEATER at shop.wileywallaby.com for free shipping and you can try it yourself. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

• 23:43Speaker 04

  Are we doing more truck stuff here in this next segment? Yeah. Yeah. Keep it truck. Throwback Thursday. Phil?

• 23:53Speaker 06

  On a Thursday morning, Stephen Brody take me back to nineteen seventy four. Throwback, I can't believe it. Did I mention Stephen Brody are old as shit? I like if I can play that.

• 24:11Speaker 04

  That's my favorite one.

• 24:12Speaker 06

  You're hosting.

• 24:13Speaker 04

  Phil, who broke this mic, man? It's never right.

• 24:16Speaker 06

  Spencer and Randall love to fidget with it when they're in the seat. Um, so I mean, it was probably one of them.

• 24:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:23Speaker 06

  If I had to throw anyone under the bus here.

• 24:25Speaker 04

  Great. Good call.

• 24:26Speaker 06

  I apologize.

• 24:28Speaker 04

  Um, all right. Throwback Thursday, fellas. Uh, we're looking back today at, uh, some, some, close your ears, kids. We're gonna look, look back today at some fucked up situations we've been in in our hunting trucks. So, uh, Seth, you're up first.

• 24:45Speaker 06

  Cool. Um, bringing it up here, Seth, one sec.

• 24:51Speaker 06

  Take your time, Phil. Ah, here we go. Oh, boy. This was, uh, south of the border, uh, in Mexico, two, three years ago. Um, hunted all week long, no rain, and then the day before we leave, it just lets loose and pours, which it doesn't. Oftentimes it doesn't rain like that down there. Um, we had like a crappy rental vehicle and then one of the guys we were with, Matt Cook. He drove a truck down hauling a couple of side by sides. And this ranch we were on, um, had a pretty crappy road going into it.

• 25:31Speaker 06

  And of course it rains and we had to get up early that next morning to, to get back across the border to catch a flight, fly back to Montana. Well, on our way out, still dark out, as you can see, um, we get everything stuck. And the truck gets stuck, the rental vehicle gets stuck. Um, so Matt's truck has two side by sides. He's as stuck as he could be. And we're in a spot where there's like no way you could turn around or like off to our left. It was a steep drop off. So if he was to roll, go off that, he would just roll. Um, to our right was a steep bank. They're just like, and, and we were on a turn too.

• 26:13Speaker 06

  So there's like, not a whole lot you could do. Um, we couldn't get a vehicle past it to try and pull it. It was a disaster. So our first thing we did was we need to get some weight off the trailer. So we pulled the side by sides off. Um, and in the process of doing that, um, Jason Phelps was with us. He hops in one and as he's driving it off the trailer, I don't know what the hell happened, but he ends up on on the side. He rolls the thing.

• 26:45Speaker 04

  So like down off the banks?

• 26:47Speaker 06

  No, in the, so he was like back.

• 26:48Speaker 04

  He's in the road.

• 26:49Speaker 06

  He was, yeah. He was backing it off the trailer and like, I don't know if he hit the throttle a little too hard, but like hit the, the bank on the right side. That's super steep.

• 26:58Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 26:58Speaker 06

  And just kind of went right, like backed up it and just flipped it right over. So now we got two truck, two stuck vehicles and rolled over side by side in the middle of the road.

• 27:10Speaker 05

  Um, that's when you want to just go to bed.

• 27:11Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 27:12Speaker 05

  All day.

• 27:13Speaker 06

  Like, let's try this again tomorrow. Um, but yeah, I, I think there's another photo there, Phil. Um, yeah, there's, there's the, you can see Jason in the cab of the side by side.

• 27:24Speaker 05

  Oh, no.

• 27:25Speaker 06

  Standing up. Um, but yeah, it was just a kind of a shit show of a morning. We finally got everything, you know, we've rolled that back over and then I think we might've, I don't remember. We might've somehow gotten a side by side around the truck and pulled it out with that. I don't remember exactly. We ended up getting out of the situation and made it back.

• 27:47Speaker 05

  Sure.

• 27:48Speaker 06

  To America.

• 27:49Speaker 05

  You're here.

• 27:49Speaker 06

  We're here.

• 27:51Speaker 05

  Yeah. Look at the grease on those tires.

• 27:52Speaker 06

  Oh, it was so, it was like, it was almost like gumbo mud.

• 27:55Speaker 05

  Really?

• 27:55Speaker 06

  Up here in Montana.

• 27:56Speaker 05

  Sticky.

• 27:57Speaker 06

  Yeah. Sticky slimy mud.

• 27:58Speaker 05

  Oh, wow.

• 28:00Speaker 06

  But yeah, that's my story of getting a truck stuck, clipping the side by side.

• 28:04Speaker 05

  Wow.

• 28:07Speaker 04

  Who wants to go next? Oh, yeah.

• 28:09Speaker 05

  Yeah, no problem. No, that's, that sounds really scary. Let's see, uh, I used to own a 2001 Toyota Tacoma. By far my favorite truck I'll ever own, probably. But when I started guiding fly fishermen, it wasn't quite big enough. So I upgraded to a Tundra, which I'll one day go back to the Tacoma, but there's a photo of it right there. 2001 Tacoma, they don't make them like that anymore. Uh, and I, when I was, when I upgraded to the Tundra, I sold that truck to my hunting outfitter, elk hunting outfitter with the agreement that I, that was going to be my guide rig. So for a couple of years I got to guide out of the, my old truck, which was great. And, uh, one day, second week of rifle season here in Montana, my client and I went up onto these

• 28:54Speaker 05

  two mounds. I drove up onto one of these mounds. We called them the boobs, just these two mountains that stick up out of the middle of nowhere. They're very obvious. Uh, you can see them from miles away. We called them the boobs. I parked the truck up on one of them at like 3pm, sunset's like 7pm. We're just going to wait there and commit to that spot, hoping some elk come out of the timber and, uh, the truck being forest green, hopefully they wouldn't see us there. I swear I put it in first gear. Naturally, the parking brake was all messed up. I think there was mud stuck in the, the emergency brake. So I, that was just out of order, but I've had it in first gear, stepped out of the truck, did some glassing. I look over and my client was sleeping in the passenger seat.

• 29:37Speaker 05

  And, uh, saw three bowls come out of the timber. So I run over to the truck and as I turn and look, the truck is just all of a sudden rolling down one of the boobs with my client Billy and just sitting in the passenger seat. I see him duck over to the side and he was able to reach over and hit the brake, but without the key in it, the hydraulics locked up.

• 29:57Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 29:58Speaker 05

  So I'm not sure how it shifted out of gear, but it did. And it started rolling. I was able to run up and for some reason I thought I could be Superman for a hot minute and I tried stopping the truck. Instantly knew that wasn't gonna work, jumped out of the way, actually like dove and did a little roll out of the way. It was real three-atrial. And I just watched the truck ghost roll with my client in the passenger seat down into a pile of trees. Luckily, like ten degrees to the left, it would've went over a cliff.

• 30:25Speaker 04

  Geez, man.

• 30:26Speaker 05

  Luckily, it went into some smaller evergreen trees. It was kinda like, it wasn't one big tree, which would've really messed everything up, including Billy. But it actually just messed up the radiator, bent the whole front end in. And we had to walk out that night because I couldn't get the truck out. There's a photo of it. It went into the trees. Like just completely sandwiched, dominoed a bunch of ti- a small timber down. Uh, we went back the next day and I was able to actually drive it out the next day after a little chainsaw work, but uh. Yeah, that was scary. I still don't know exactly what happened. Uh, my client, who had reached over to try and hit the brakes, stayed down and he bruised some ribs because he was right on the shifter. The gear shifter was right on his stomach. And when he impacted the trees, it uh,

• 31:11Speaker 05

  bruised his ribs. That's all that happened really. Obviously, the truck didn't matter at that point. Um, but my outfitter actually fixed it up, put a new grill, new radiator, everything that it needed, which was a lot. Put a new uh, front bumper on it and we used it again for a couple more years. I think he sold it just a few years ago. Sadly, I couldn't afford to buy it back, but uh. Yeah, missed that truck. Greatest truck I'll ever own.

• 31:33Speaker 04

  Cory out there trying to kill us, his hunting clients.

• 31:36Speaker 05

  Well, shouldn't be sleeping on the job.

• 31:40Speaker 04

  Um, yeah, I think you guys probably got me beat. Mine's kind of a standard, um, getting stuck overnight. Getting stuck overnight story. Um, but the, it was because of this buck right here. Um, that whitetail buck. I was hunting up in northern Montana a couple of years ago. And the road, like there's, there's like the main highway, but then all the roads up there, this is like big ag country. There's very few trees. Not a whole lot of topography, like kinda rolling, but you guys know the roads up there, like they're public roads, most of them. But they're like these little two-track, like unmaintained. They're not roads, right?

• 32:24Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 32:25Speaker 04

  Um, but so I was back in their ways and I killed this buck in the late afternoon and it like, I'd slept in the truck the night before. And it well, it had I'd hunted the day before it rained all day, then overnight it snowed on top of that rain and like on the way to like walk out and hunt in the morning. I'm like, this is bad. Like, like, I need to like, kill an animal and get out of here before this stuff starts thawing out. Cause it was like a few inches of heavy wet snow, then a thin layer of ice and then a layer of mud. Like, it wouldn't matter what kind of tires you had on. And I didn't have change, which was

• 33:04Speaker 04

  probably a mistake. Anyway, I did what I shouldn't have done and stayed out there all day and shot this buck like late afternoon. Everything had started melted. I get the buck back to the truck. It's dark and I'm like, I'm gonna go for it. And it's like a slight downhill incline right off the bat to get out of there. And I go like 50 feet and the truck just does that slow turn and I'm going sideways down the road. And no, and slid like 100 feet down the road. Now I'm like kind of cockeyed sideways pointing back the other way. And there's just like no getting off

• 33:47Speaker 04

  the road to turn around. I tried, believe me. And ended up, I just had to sleep in the truck again that night because I had to wait for stuff to freeze. So let that be a lesson to you. Sometimes it's like, it was great. I got that buck, but if I'd have been in a more remote or tougher location, like, you know, who knows what would have happened. Just like, I knew walking out that morning to go hunting. I'm like, I gotta get out of here by like mid morning before stuff starts to melt. And I didn't. So it was just like what we talked about earlier, you know, knowing, knowing your situation and not getting, getting stuck somewhere because you made a poor decision. But

• 34:30Speaker 04

  I will say this, I have a Ford F-150 and I like that truck. You've got one, Seth. I learned a big lesson on that hunt about like Danny said, stock stuff is good. Well, I'll tell you what's not good about stock F-150s is they have what they call a skid. Maybe they've changed this since. Mine's a 2020. They have what they call a skid plate under there, but it's, it's like, it's not metal. It's this like weird, almost like fabric paper mache material.

• 35:02Speaker 04

  And it's like, it'll keep a pebble out of there, like, you know, a little bit of dirt, but it's not going to protect your important stuff up underneath or on top of that skid plate. And ripped right through that thing and poked a hole in the, uh, the transmission fluid reservoir. Which ended up like drug, got a little ways and then the truck just shit the bed.

• 35:25Speaker 06

  Wow. Did the transmission go out?

• 35:28Speaker 04

  Not completely. Like I didn't lose the transmission, but it, there was some cost involved in getting it fixed. It wasn't just plugging the, the hole and calling it good. But the first thing I did was put an aftermarket metal skid plate on that sucker.

• 35:43Speaker 06

  Dang. Yeah. I gotta check mine now.

• 35:45Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yours might already rotten, fallen off. Steve's fell right off.

• 35:50Speaker 06

  It may, it might be. God. Just another thing. Add to the list.

• 35:55Speaker 04

  So now all the Ford haters can be like, ah, I knew that. You shouldn't have bought that truck. Um, let's see if we got any of that and we got any of that in the listener feedback, Phil?

• 36:05Speaker 06

  Uh, we've got.

• 36:07Speaker 04

  Any Ford haters?

• 36:08Speaker 06

  Uh, no, we've got no, no Ford discourse happening right now. We do have Randy saying that this is his favorite episode so far because he loves the shit show experiences. Uh, it's from Randy from Georgetown, Texas. Thanks, Randy.

• 36:18Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 36:19Speaker 06

  Thanks, Randy.

• 36:21Speaker 06

  Uh, but yeah, we can, we can, uh, get, get some questions in here, whether they're about trucks or Father's Day or, or just comments. Um, let's move on to some listener feedback. Cody would like to know what the zoom is on those glasses.

• 36:34Speaker 04

  On my glasses? Oh, it's, it's light. It's like 1.5. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't need a bunch yet.

• 36:42Speaker 06

  Cool. Uh, Lance asks, Seth, have you ever gone walleye fishing in Canada? If so, where is the spot? Ooh, yeah. Uh, I have not gone walleye fishing in Canada. It's, that's a bucket list trip. I want to do that eventually. But I feel like, um, there's lots of spots.

• 36:59Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:00Speaker 05

  Lot of water.

• 37:00Speaker 04

  Like where I grew up, everyone used to go to Ontario.

• 37:03Speaker 06

  Yep.

• 37:03Speaker 04

  But like Yanis was just bear hunting and what?

• 37:07Speaker 06

  Manitoba.

• 37:07Speaker 04

  And they clobbered them there.

• 37:09Speaker 06

  They clobbered them there. I mean, Lake of the Woods is always.

• 37:12Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:12Speaker 06

  Notoriously good. Um, yeah, I think there's lots of options up there. Love to check it out someday.

• 37:20Speaker 06

  Uh, Caleb, he asks, what is the best gift for a hunting dad? We've got two dads.

• 37:24Speaker 04

  dads at the table. What, what would be a thing that you guys have received or would love to receive from your family? Man, my wife hates buying me. Yeah, it's like a standard thing like, cause I, I just buy the shit I want for myself, right? So it's always like, well, what do you want? I'm like, I don't need anything. And then I, what, what I need, I just go buy.

• 37:47Speaker 04

  So man, it's a tough one. And, and it's like, there's all kinds of different hunting dads. There might be like a duck hunting dad and a elk hunting dad. It's, it's a tough question to answer. Ask them what they want and then say, I'm getting this for you. Don't buy it for yourself. That'd be my advice.

• 38:05Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 38:05Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 38:06Speaker 05

  Good call.

• 38:06Speaker 06

  Or don't buy them anything. Just do something that's like real thoughtful.

• 38:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, exactly. I'd rather like hang out with my kids and my wife camping for a weekend than

• 38:16Speaker 06

  Oh, totally.

• 38:17Speaker 04

  Get some piece of gear.

• 38:18Speaker 06

  They're just say like, uh, we're going camping this weekend, dad. I'm going to get all the shit ready.

• 38:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah. There you go.

• 38:24Speaker 05

  Yeah. That'd be the day. Greatest gift I ever got though was from my wife for Father's Day. We were able to drop the kid off with the grandparents, which was fun for Father's Day of all days. But, uh, we went fishing on the Missouri with a guide.

• 38:38Speaker 04

  Oh, nice.

• 38:38Speaker 05

  Really fun.

• 38:39Speaker 06

  No, that's cool.

• 38:39Speaker 05

  Guided fishing trip wherever you are. I'm sure that that's an option.

• 38:43Speaker 04

  Yeah. I mean, if you can, if you can afford it and like,

• 38:45Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 38:46Speaker 04

  Find out what their bucket list trip is and get that for them.

• 38:49Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 38:51Speaker 05

  Uh, favorite trolling lure and what are you targeting with it? It's from Matthias. I think he corrected me. I said Matthias last time.

• 38:58Speaker 06

  Cause I know a French guy named Matthias, but it's, it is Matthias. Um, man.

• 39:04Speaker 04

  You're down on trolling.

• 39:05Speaker 06

  I'm down on trolling.

• 39:08Speaker 05

  But what's your favorite?

• 39:09Speaker 06

  I don't troll much. Uh, when I do, it's like crank baits and stuff.

• 39:14Speaker 04

  Yeah. I mean, we, uh, we'll pool crank baits. Like there's, there's an old, uh, lake Erie. I think it's a lake Erie lure called the Wally Diver.

• 39:23Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah. Yep.

• 39:24Speaker 04

  That's a good wall. I want, I mean, anything will eat them. We pull, uh, what are those Berkeley flicker minnow?

• 39:30Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah.

• 39:30Speaker 04

  That's a good one that we do well with.

• 39:32Speaker 06

  Chester likes that one a bunch.

• 39:33Speaker 04

  Yep. So we do. We'll definitely like take a break and do some trolling.

• 39:38Speaker 06

  Yeah, then you can do some, if you want to switch it up, uh, some bottom bouncers, um, with like spinner rigs and stuff.

• 39:45Speaker 04

  You know what I've always wanted to do? You know when them big schools of Coho get circling outside the creeks?

• 39:50Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah.

• 39:51Speaker 04

  I've always wanted to try trolling through those things and see what happens. I, I bet you.

• 39:56Speaker 06

  I'm all about trying new things up there.

• 39:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, why not?

• 39:58Speaker 06

  Yeah, it'd be cool. Uh, let's see, uh, Jesse says he just got a 2006 Tacoma. It has no bells or whistles. What would be a couple of the first upgrades or attachments you'd put on for hunting?

• 40:10Speaker 05

  Chains.

• 40:12Speaker 04

  Tires, like depending on what it's got on there for tires, for sure.

• 40:16Speaker 05

  Yeah, get you some good.

• 40:17Speaker 06

  Good tires. I'm a fan of toppers too.

• 40:20Speaker 04

  So am I.

• 40:21Speaker 06

  I like having a topper, keep my stuff dry. I can sleep in there.

• 40:24Speaker 05

  Locked up.

• 40:25Speaker 06

  You can lock it up, yeah.

• 40:28Speaker 05

  Yeah, get you a topper.

• 40:30Speaker 06

  Right on. And I thought this was a fun, fun comment. We're not doing Throwback Thursday anymore, but Cody J, when we were talking to Danny, said that he drives and is a, is a medic for tornado hunters and that it's a blast. And he said he also knew one of the guys that, uh, that Danny was hanging out with. Oh, nice. And he was doing that. So anyway, small, small world. Man, in a different life, I'd be a freaking storm chaser.

• 40:53Speaker 05

  Yeah, I don't know. Have at it, man.

• 40:55Speaker 06

  I think it's cool.

• 40:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, not interested, man. Like.

• 40:58Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 40:58Speaker 04

  I think when I was in like eighth grade, I think it was eighth grade, we used to get tornado. I, I grew up in Northwestern Pennsylvania, so it's not like the most tornadoey spot in the nation, but we would get tornado warnings. And in eighth grade, the next town over from us just got walloped by, by a tornado and like 30 people died. So like,

• 41:19Speaker 06

  Jeez.

• 41:19Speaker 04

  I don't have any, I don't need that in my life.

• 41:23Speaker 05

  Yeah, as a Montana kid, tornadoes freak me out. I'm going the other way.

• 41:26Speaker 06

  Yeah, I think they're cool, but I've never really had a bad experience with one, so.

• 41:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 41:31Speaker 05

  Chase them up, see what happens.

• 41:33Speaker 06

  Cool. We can call it right there, but I would do this again at the end of the show, so please submit more questions and we will field them in a few minutes.

• 41:41Speaker 04

  Alrighty, so Father's Day and what is it, three days, something like that?

• 41:46Speaker 05

  Hmm, yup, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.

• 41:49Speaker 04

  So, uh, in honor of that, we're each gonna share a picture and a story about hunting. Uh, you guys didn't do any fishing, just hunting, right?

• 41:58Speaker 06

  I did fishing.

• 41:59Speaker 04

  You did fishing, so hunting and fishing with our dads. Um, we're just gonna, we're just gonna honor our, our dads for, for getting us into hunting and fishing.

• 42:08Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 42:10Speaker 04

  So you up first, Seth?

• 42:11Speaker 06

  Sure, I'll go. Um, I got a bunch of photos of me and my old man up at the cabin in Alaska.

• 42:18Speaker 04

  That was just last, was that last year?

• 42:20Speaker 06

  He's been coming up the last three years now, so, um, I have a bunch of photos, but it, this is like, it's cool bringing my old man up to the cabin because like this is the first thing, like one of the first things in my life where instead of him teaching me something, I'm teaching him something new. Um, which is pretty cool and he's just like completely fell in love with like doing all the stuff up there, all the fishing and whatnot. Um, so yeah, he comes up every summer now and I put him to work. Um, he's, he's cheap labor. Um, he does a lot of firewood splitting and he could swing a hammer. Um, but here's some salmon that we caught up there.

• 43:00Speaker 06

  Um, but yeah, he comes up every summer now and, and helps out with the cabin and, um, yeah, it's just like, he's, you know, he grew up on the east coast and that whole world is like so new to him and he's, he's just getting to like, see him new, just getting to watch him see new things that he's never seen before and like catch fish that he's never caught before and, um, it's just super cool. Um, and one, one funny thing and bro, do you know how it is up there? Like when people first start fishing up there, it's like they, they just kinda don't remember how to fish almost.

• 43:38Speaker 04

  Yup.

• 43:39Speaker 06

  Um, so he, here's him fighting a small halibut, which he thinks is a giant halibut. Um, which is common and, uh, yeah, just, just like trying to teach like the hook sets or if you're running like circle hooks and not to set the hook. It, yeah, it's just been a blast the last, you know, three years, um, getting to show my old man that part of the country and that type of fishing.

• 44:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, I've, I've hung out with him a bit up there and he, he seems really love it.

• 44:08Speaker 06

  Oh, he loves it. It's all he talks about.

• 44:09Speaker 04

  Yup.

• 44:11Steven Rinella?

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• 44:56Steven Rinella?

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• 45:34Speaker 02

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• 45:49Steven Rinella?

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• 46:30Steven Rinella?

  And whether you like classic flavors or something a little different, there's probably one you'll end up keeping stocked around the house. Plus it's made in the USA by a company that's been committed to quality and hometown values for over six decades. If you haven't tried Wiley Wallaby yet, pick yourself up a bag. Use code MEATEATER at shop.wileywallaby.com for free shipping and you can try it yourself. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

• 47:01Speaker 04

  Corey, what are you doing down there?

• 47:02Speaker 05

  Making sure our next guest is ready to roll. It looks like he just showed up, so we're pumped.

• 47:07Speaker 04

  Doing some producing work at the same time he's hosting.

• 47:10Speaker 05

  Oh dude, yeah.

• 47:11Speaker 04

  He can do it all.

• 47:11Speaker 05

  Got a man of many hands.

• 47:14Speaker 04

  All right, Corey.

• 47:15Speaker 05

  Oh, my turn.

• 47:16Steven Rinella?

  You're up.

• 47:17Speaker 05

  Let's see. Man, I got a lot of great stories hunting and fishing with my dad growing up. He moved up to Montana back in the seventies to get away from the hustle and bustle of Nevada. Bought some horses and started hunting in the, in the Bob Marshall. And that's kind of what, what helped drive my desire to want to do the same thing. Was able to guide back in there, kind of chase his dreams a little bit, which was super cool. But I owe a lot to him for getting me into outdoor recreation for sure. But this particular story was in, I believe in 2005, I was a junior in high school. My dad and I were in Northwest Montana archery elk hunting. I think it was September 21st, we had a bit of a snowstorm the day before.

• 48:01Speaker 05

  And we hunted together in the morning, didn't hear any bugles, which I feel like is pretty typical after a snowstorm like that. And we decided to split up and spread out a couple hundred yards and just work this basin that we saw some tracks in the day before. And.

• 48:18Speaker 05

  I don't know what time it was, probably 10, 11 in the morning, not, not early, but it wasn't later in the day. And two bulls come up just naturally up right in front of me. They never saw me. Uh, I was just timber sneaking through the woods and I was able to arrow one of the two bulls, young raghorn, uh, dropped him, beautiful shot, got really lucky, I would say, being that, that young and, and not much of a hunter yet. Uh, and I was pumped. We had two-way radios, so I radioed my dad as soon as I went up and touched the thing and knew that it was dead and had a lot of work to do. And radioed my dad, told him, I got my first bull with my bow. And he's like, no way. I just shot a bull too. So we killed two bulls. It might've been within the same moment. We have no idea, obviously, because

• 49:00Speaker 05

  we weren't with each other and, uh, didn't have Onyx or anything at the time. So, uh, yeah, we killed two bulls, not luckily not too far from the truck.

• 49:08Speaker 04

  I was gonna ask, that's all, one's enough work. You get two down at the same time.

• 49:13Speaker 05

  It was probably four miles from the truck. Had to go up the hill and down. That same trip, actually leapfrogging quarters, had a black bear grab one of my, uh, hindquarters and tried dragging it off. Almost killed a bear that day too, but knew how much work we still had to do. But that was pretty epic, epic memory. Uh, he had killed an elk before with his bow, but that was my first archery bull. And, uh, yeah, pretty special moment to have that happen. That was really cool.

• 49:36Speaker 04

  For sure. And he's, he, you said he's coming out here soon, right?

• 49:41Speaker 05

  Well, he lives in Kalispell, up northwest Montana. We're gonna meet up this weekend and fish the Missouri together.

• 49:47Speaker 04

  That's right. Yeah. That's what you're, that's what you're getting at. Um, all right. I guess it's my turn. My old man, um, there he is. Uh, like my dad, like, he's definitely like the reason why I'm sitting in this seat right now. He's the reason why I became a fishing guide. Like, it was just like hunting and fishing with him as a kid. Like, learned a lot from him. Um, loved being out in the woods with him. And, and then like, Kind of got away from doing that kind of stuff together for, for a long time. And, and then after I moved out to Colorado and got into hunting, I kind of talked him in to start coming

• 50:28Speaker 04

  out to do some mule deer hunts and, and, and it was super cool. And he, he got bucks pretty much every year he came out. Um, I think he was 71 in this picture. So he probably started coming out like his mid 60s and shot some bucks, nothing huge, but you know, some decent bucks. This was, I think in 2011. Um, and he drew a third season rifle tag in Colorado and not, since I knew he had drawn that tag, um, I wasn't going to hunt that season for a buck. I was just like focused on getting him a big one. Cause like I said, he's 71 and he got around pretty good, but you know, he's 71. So you just don't know how much more time

• 51:11Speaker 04

  he's got to do that kind of hunting. Um, so I went into this area like a week before the season started and like right off the bat, I, uh, I glass up a bull, a bull elk. I'm like, shit, man. Like we're supposed to be deer hunting next week, but I'm going to pick up an over the counter bull tag too. And we go in there, we go in opening morning. We're glassing around, there's deer around, small bucks, nothing to shoot at. And I look up the ridge and there's three bulls working down the ridge. And I was like, peace out, dad. I'm going after these bulls and run up there and got in tight and shot, shot a bull. Um, so the next like day and a half was dealing with that bull, you know? And

• 51:54Speaker 04

  you know, my dad was kind of doing some hunting on the side, but it was warm and nothing, nothing happened. Then on like day, it would have been like day four, maybe in the evening, we found this buck and just could not get it done. That evening was, it was too far away. There's a lot of does around. It was going to get dark. So we went right back in there the next morning and found him right away and made a move on him. And we ended up like, we like almost screwed it up. Like we ended up real tight, like 70 yards. So my dad's just like offhand shot, real quick and spined him. I was like, you gotta shoot that deer again, but he's like on the ground, you know, and you can't really get at his vitals.

• 52:38Speaker 04

  I've never seen a 71 year old man run like 70 yards that fast like in my life.

• 52:46Speaker 06

  Oh, wow.

• 52:46Speaker 04

  And he ran up to it, finished it off. And I was like, man, like you don't know. Like you don't know what you just shot.

• 52:53Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 52:53Speaker 04

  Like you have no, he'd shot some mule deer bucks, but nothing like that. I was like, this thing's like, I think this thing's over 200. And he still was like not convinced. And we, we pack it out and I, I, we get home and I take, um, like a 170 buck that I'd shot earlier in the year. And set those antlers inside those antlers. I'm like, like, you get it now? Like how big this thing is? And it ended up scoring like, I can't remember what it was, like 206 or 209 or something like that.

• 53:25Speaker 06

  That's cool.

• 53:25Speaker 04

  You can't really, this picture's not great. It's from back in the day when like digital cameras weren't that great. Um, but he's got a couple stickers coming off his right side and there's one off the back of his left side that you can't see.

• 53:38Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 53:39Speaker 04

  It's a really cool old buck. And, uh, yeah, man, like every time I go back to Pennsylvania, I just stare at that thing. It's, it's just an awesome deer.

• 53:49Speaker 06

  Yeah, that's cool.

• 53:50Speaker 04

  So it was kinda like you Seth where felt like I was like doing what he had done for me.

• 53:56Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 53:56Speaker 04

  You know, later in life. So, yeah. He's, uh, he still does a little hunting at home, but not, not as much as he used to. He's getting up there.

• 54:05Speaker 06

  That's cool. That's cool. Nice buck.

• 54:08Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 54:09Speaker 06

  Big buck.

• 54:10Speaker 04

  Big buck.

• 54:11Speaker 05

  I'm ready for the fall. Let's go.

• 54:13Speaker 04

  Okay, speaking of Father's Day, we got to remind you that our, uh, our Meat Eater and First Light Father's Day sales are going on right now. So like, we talked about gifts earlier. Forget the ties, socks, golf clubs, like, get on the Meat Eater website, the First Light website, and, and get your, get the dads in your life, uh, something they'll like. And if you don't know what to get them, then get them a gift card and they'll get what they want. Um, and that's going on now, um, through all the way through the weekend, right?

• 54:42Speaker 05

  I believe so. Yeah.

• 54:43Speaker 04

  Yeah. So check it out on, on the Meat Eater website or the First Light website. There's some, some good deals going on right now.

• 54:50Speaker 05

  Cool.

• 54:51Speaker 04

  All right. Now it's time to, uh, to do the interview we were trying to get done a couple of weeks ago. Um, we're going to interview, uh, Josh Miller. He's a fishing guide from Western, uh, Western Washington. Um, I think he guides like, salmon and steelhead in the rivers and also like coastal fisheries too, out in the ocean.

• 55:12Speaker 05

  That's my understanding. Yeah, let's find out.

• 55:14Speaker 04

  Um, but he's got, he, the, some of you may have seen him on, on Instagram. He's got a co-captain, which is Ryder, Ryder the Turkey. So, uh, Josh, do we got Josh on the line?

• 55:26Speaker 06

  Here we are.

• 55:26Speaker 05

  How's it going?

• 55:27Speaker 04

  There he is.

• 55:28Speaker 05

  Hey, Josh.

• 55:29Speaker 06

  Hey, Josh.

• 55:30Speaker 05

  How we doing, gentlemen?

• 55:31Speaker 04

  Good.

• 55:32Speaker 05

  Not as good as you though. Where are you at?

• 55:36Speaker 05

  Uh, I am out in the Strait of Wanda Fuka fishing for a hell of it right now. Oh, God.

• 55:41Speaker 06

  Nice.

• 55:41Speaker 04

  Nice. Uh, first of all, tell us about your, uh, your early bird, uh, guidance service. Like what do you fish for? Where do you guys fish? What time of year? All that stuff. Give us a quick rundown.

• 55:54Speaker 05

  So, right now I'm doing raft trips. We do coastal tributaries and Columbia River tributaries. A lot of steelhead fishing, a lot of king fishing and coho fishing.

• 56:06Speaker 03

  I do spend the summers in Alaska fishing sockeye on the Kenai. So if you're interested in that, I can get you out in Kenai, Alaska for sockeye.

• 56:17Speaker 03

  And then, uh, the winter time after, anytime after New Year's is an awesome steelhead season. But yeah, year round, we're catching big chrome fish.

• 56:26Speaker 04

  Nice, nice. Well, um, we, we gotta, we gotta ask, like you're, you're pretty well known on the Instagram for your, uh, your unusual first mate that happens to be a turkey. Um, so like, how did the whole thing with, with bringing along the turkey and the boat get started?

• 56:46Speaker 03

  Well, I got a bunch of them, these heritage birds to raise. And a weasel got into the coop and long story short, there was only one left and it was literally ride or die for the little guy. I was fishing the next day. So he had no choice. He had to go out on the boat as a little baby. And here we are, seven years later, he's got the program pretty well figured out. He's been on hunting trips, uh, all sorts of fishing trips. I've had him with me on a mule deer hunt and we harvested a mule deer.

• 57:18Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's awesome.

• 57:21Speaker 03

  Elk hunting, I shot a cow elk with him following me through the woods.

• 57:25Speaker 04

  Dude, you gotta watch out. Someone might take a crack at that turkey while you're hunting.

• 57:30Speaker 03

  Right? I don't know. He's, the way I look at it, he's lived such a good life. I don't think he could get any better for a turkey.

• 57:36Speaker 04

  Right, that's true. Um.

• 57:39Speaker 03

  So. Then so be it.

• 57:43Speaker 04

  There we go. There we go. Um, so like people, people like to bring their dogs on boats like I do it. Um, it's some, some dogs are like really annoying when you're fishing in a boat and some are super chill. Where does, where does, uh, Ryder fall on that, on that scale? And like, does he react to fish being caught?

• 58:04Speaker 03

  Oh yeah. When he hears drag pulling out of a reel, he starts ripping goggles.

• 58:10Speaker 05

  So cool.

• 58:11Speaker 06

  That is awesome.

• 58:12Speaker 03

  He definitely knows what's going on and everything. And he's fun. He's got, he's got a lot of character to play having a dog and a cat at the same time. He's got a little bit of attitude, but most of the time.

• 58:23Speaker 04

  What do you think of that Ryder? Woo!

• 58:26Speaker 06

  That is awesome.

• 58:27Speaker 04

  That is excellent. Um.

• 58:29Speaker 03

  A ton of fun, even when I'm pulling out of the driveway. With the boat, he'll chase the truck down just because I'm towing the boat.

• 58:35Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah. Uh, do you got any, uh, clients that specifically request for that turkey to be in the boat with them?

• 58:43Speaker 03

  All the time.

• 58:44Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 58:45Speaker 05

  I bet.

• 58:46Speaker 03

  I just say as long as you tip the bird, I'll bring him.

• 58:52Speaker 04

  Nice.

• 58:52Speaker 06

  That's awesome.

• 58:53Speaker 04

  Nice. You guys getting them today? Got any action? I know unfortunately he couldn't join today because you had some pretty rough seas out there.

• 59:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, we got some rough water and we got four people in the boat. So we decided to leave him at home today. We got out here about an hour and a half ago and we caught three dogfish, so little sharks. Uh, no halibut yet.

• 59:15Speaker 04

  Well, keep at it. Um, now, now I don't, I don't want to upset you with this next question. I hope, I hope Ryder has a bunch more years of fishing ahead of him. But since, uh, since we're here at MeatEater, we, we all love eating wild turkeys. So, uh, is there any chance that bird is going to end up on the table at Thanksgiving? Or are you going to give him a proper burial at sea once his time is up?

• 59:39Speaker 03

  Oh, I, I think he deserves a proper burial. I don't know about eating him. He's seven years old.

• 59:47Speaker 04

  Nice, nice.

• 59:49Speaker 06

  It'd be tough.

• 59:49Speaker 04

  Well, hopefully you got, you got several more years with him in the boat with you.

• 59:54Speaker 03

  It's always a fun time around Thanksgiving.

• 59:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, I bet. I bet.

• 59:59Speaker 03

  I've had, I've had him sit down at the table with us and gave him a plate of green beans.

• 1:00:06Speaker 04

  Is he house trained or boat trained?

• 1:00:09Speaker 03

  When he was younger, I used to have him where he would peck the door or the window to turn around and tell me to let him out. But I don't get to spend a ton of time with him anymore.

• 1:00:20Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:00:21Speaker 03

  But for the most part, yeah, he's pretty well trained. Like he'll wait. Two hour car ride to the river and then when I let him out, he'll do his business.

• 1:00:29Speaker 04

  Nice, nice.

• 1:00:30Speaker 03

  So, uh, he's, he's a pretty smart bird.

• 1:00:34Speaker 06

  That's cool.

• 1:00:34Speaker 04

  Cool. Well, Josh, thanks for talking to us today. I hope you guys find some halibut out there and, uh, I hope you can continue to have fun with, with your, uh, turkey fishing companion.

• 1:00:44Speaker 06

  Yeah. All the best to Ryder. Yeah.

• 1:00:46Speaker 03

  Yeah. Time. Happy to be on the show, guys.

• 1:00:49Speaker 04

  All right. Thanks a lot, man.

• 1:00:51Speaker 03

  All right. You guys take care.

• 1:00:53Speaker 04

  You too.

• 1:00:53Speaker 06

  Thanks, Josh.

• 1:00:56Speaker 06

  That is awesome. That was cool.

• 1:00:57Speaker 04

  Phil, we got time for, for some more feedback?

• 1:01:00Speaker 06

  Yeah, we don't have a whole lot of feedback right now, uh, but Robert asks Seth, if you remember Seth, what kind of rifle did you use on the Texas deer hunt in Rough Cuts? Do you remember? Oh, that rifle was a, um, so kind of funny backstory. I wasn't actually supposed to be hunting on that shoot. Um, one thing led to another and, um, I ended up being on camera. So I actually didn't bring a rifle down there. I just went and, uh, grabbed. It was an old Remington three oh eight. I don't even know exactly what it was, but I just grabbed it out of the gun safe at the ranch. Um, and when shot to make sure it was shooting good. And that's what I took out. It was like an old Woodstock thumb hole.

• 1:01:44Speaker 06

  Like old schooly wood gun, um, which was kind of cool because I, I don't usually hunt with stuff like that.

• 1:01:50Speaker 04

  Yeah. And you guys weren't taking particularly long shots.

• 1:01:52Speaker 06

  No, no, it was all close stuff. So, um, yeah, it was, I remember it was a Remington, but I don't remember exactly what it was.

• 1:02:00Speaker 06

  Uh, Oscar asks, uh, what is the smallest area of private land that you'd hunt turkeys? He says he has 10 acres in Michigan.

• 1:02:07Speaker 04

  Sure. Why not?

• 1:02:08Speaker 06

  Yeah. 10 acres. You can get it down on 10 acres for sure.

• 1:02:11Speaker 04

  Especially if they're roosted nearby, like on your land or nearby.

• 1:02:16Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 1:02:17Speaker 04

  Call them in there. Yeah, sure. Why not?

• 1:02:20Speaker 06

  Uh, Remington asks how. Older you and you started hunting without your dad.

• 1:02:24Speaker 04

  Man, I broke the law.

• 1:02:26Speaker 06

  Yeah, same.

• 1:02:27Speaker 04

  I think it was 14 in Pennsylvania. You had to be.

• 1:02:30Speaker 06

  I think so, yeah.

• 1:02:31Speaker 04

  To hunt alone and I, and the minimum hunting age back then was 12 and I was hunting alone when I was 12.

• 1:02:38Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 1:02:39Speaker 04

  A lot.

• 1:02:39Speaker 06

  Same.

• 1:02:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:02:41Speaker 05

  Yeah, I think, man, I probably would have been like 17 by the time I finally went out with a buddy. My dad was my hunting buddy growing up.

• 1:02:47Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:02:47Speaker 05

  It was pretty late, 17 probably.

• 1:02:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's weird to me to think about it now that I have my own kids, like a 13 year old and a 10 year old and they can hunt at 10 in Montana, but like, like, I don't know about you, Seth, but like I, I would just go walk on the, like all the neighboring farms all day, like just be gone all day.

• 1:03:08Speaker 06

  Yeah, same.

• 1:03:09Speaker 04

  And for me to think about letting my 13 year old or my, you know, when my 10 year old is 12, do it at that age, it's like kinda weird, but I, I feel like that's a problem with me, not a problem with them being able to go do it. If you, if you like, give them the confidence to go do it.

• 1:03:26Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 1:03:27Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:03:29Speaker 06

  John asks, Brody, don't you think there should be a time limit on trivia questions?

• 1:03:33Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 1:03:34Speaker 04

  Uh, it depends if I'm having trouble with the question or it's someone else.

• 1:03:38Speaker 06

  If you, if whoever's sure of an answer, they want a time limit.

• 1:03:42Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:03:43Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:03:43Speaker 04

  But, um, honestly, like often the, the, the conversations, the banter that happens while we're extending the time on those, it's, it's pretty fun. Um, I mean, it, it could get taken too far, obviously, like of, cause the more talk that goes on, the more, the better the chance that something is given away and someone comes up with an answer you hope they wouldn't get.

• 1:04:06Speaker 06

  A time limit would, would ruin the, the energy of the show because if it were too long and it was an easy question, then we're just sitting there. I guess if people, if, if we all agreed we wanted to be done, we could move on. But, but yeah, like, like Brody said, just the, the flexibility.

• 1:04:21Speaker 04

  I think, um, maybe we could screw around with like a special edition of Meat Eater where it's like a speed round. Or maybe like.

• 1:04:30Speaker 06

  Buzzers?

• 1:04:30Speaker 04

  Yeah, like, it's like you get 30 seconds and that's that. Like maybe we could screw around with that.

• 1:04:36Speaker 06

  Randall is all caps in the chat saying yes on the time limit. There's too many hints.

• 1:04:40Speaker 04

  Randall and Spencer lurking in the crowd.

• 1:04:42Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah. Get out of here.

• 1:04:44Speaker 04

  Randall just happened to lose a couple of times and now he's all bent out of shape.

• 1:04:49Speaker 06

  No foul play, Randall says. Uh, let's see, Oscar, we've got two P, or no, we already did Oscar. Uh, did I, did I start this? There was a comment, boys, two PA boys about tactics for hunting deep woods in Pennsylvania for deer. It was a pretty general question.

• 1:05:07Speaker 04

  Seth would know more about that than me, like deer hunting the big woods?

• 1:05:11Speaker 06

  Yeah, it's all about. Here we go. It's from Ethan. It's kind of a lot, you gotta work land features in that big stuff, because it's just, you know, woods forever.

• 1:05:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, I like up where, where I hunted Northwest PA, like you're hunting small, like 100 acre chunks of private. And it's not, like that big woods is like, got some topography, man, like.

• 1:05:36Speaker 06

  Yeah, like saddles and, and pin, like if you can find pinch points, um, bottom, stuff like that, and then, um, find different cover types, white oak flats and stuff like that where they're feeding.

• 1:05:48Speaker 04

  I, I do think you, like, knowing what I know now about western hunting, I think there's some stuff you could apply to those big chunks of like mountainous public land.

• 1:05:59Speaker 06

  Yep.

• 1:05:59Speaker 04

  In Pennsylvania and hunt like a western hunter and like, get in there a long ways and, and be willing to pack about a buck out on your back, like, there's something to be said for like hunting where other people aren't in Pennsylvania, because a lot of it gets pretty crowded.

• 1:06:16Speaker 06

  Yeah, I think topo maps your best friend and that kind of stuff. Carrie asks, would you hunt a burn from last fall from mule deer or hunt away from the burn?

• 1:06:26Speaker 04

  Hmm, I think it depends on the burn a little bit.

• 1:06:29Speaker 06

  I've hunted burns where it burnt in the summer and I was hunting it in October.

• 1:06:32Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:06:33Speaker 06

  There was plenty of deer and elk in it.

• 1:06:35Speaker 05

  Yeah, you better check it out.

• 1:06:36Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, some burnt, like it was a real hot one where everything just gets just like, the topsoil gets burnt, probably pretty tough, but if it's a quick one that, and you get a bunch of new growth. Definitely.

• 1:06:48Speaker 06

  I was working on a fire back in my firefighting days, one time, um, we're cutting a line in to try to hold, hold this one fire from spreading and, uh, out of nowhere, a whole herd of elk come out of the non-burn stuff and go right up into the fire. I was like, that's not going to work out great for them, but we never saw them again.

• 1:07:08Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:07:09Speaker 05

  They gotta deal with that stuff every year.

• 1:07:10Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 1:07:13Speaker 06

  Uh, I think that's it.

• 1:07:15Speaker 05

  Cool.

• 1:07:15Speaker 06

  It's a good round of questions.

• 1:07:17Speaker 05

  Thanks, everybody.

• 1:07:17Speaker 06

  Go and wrap it up there. Yeah.

• 1:07:19Speaker 04

  Sure. Um, all right, folks, that's, that's the end of today's show. Happy Father's Day to everyone. Have a great weekend. Get outside and do something fun. Thanks a lot. Thanks, guys. Tune in next week.

• 1:07:42Steven Rinella?

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• 1:08:27Steven Rinella?

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• 1:09:56Speaker 00

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