Ep. 956: Deer Hunt Reports - Phoning It In

Randall Williams and the MeatEater Crew Discuss: The blue wave drowns proposition 83; hunt reports from around the US; Randall fields listener questions; and Cal goes offroad! Contact Forest Service Law Enforcement https://www.fs.usda.gov/about-agency/law-enforcement-investigations or your local fish and game for motorized infractions: https://www.fs.usda.gov/about-agency/law-enforcement-investigations Find BHA’s reward for reporting Illegal Motorized Use here https://www.backcountryhunters.org/get-involved/issues/public-lands-waters/illegal-motorized-use-program: https://www.backcountryhunters.org/get-involved/issues/public-lands-waters/illegal-motorized-use-program Connect with Steve https://www.themeateater.com/authors/steven-rinella and The MeatEater Podcast Network https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork Steve on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/stevenrinella and Twitter https://twitter.com/stevenrinella?lang=en 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?

  Okay, so buying a new car or a new home starts by building credit, right? So how do you start building credit? It's easy. With One Pay's Builder Card, there's no credit check and no monthly or annual fees, just a card that helps you build credit to reach goals like buying a car or home. Download the One Pay app or visit onepay.com for banking that gives you more for what matters.

• 0:31Speaker 02

  One Pay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank or Lead Bank, members FDIC. Builder Card results may vary and aren't guaranteed. Learn more about banking through One Pay at onepay.com/podcast.

• 0:45Steven Rinella?

  Holy smokes, I've been running around in some Zamberland boots and my God, are they comfortable? Damn, out of the box, ready to wear. I can't believe I haven't done it before. And the hunting tradition, right, has always been about knowledge and skills handed down from one generation to the next. Whether it's field memories with your parents or sharing the experience of a first hunt with your own kids, that shared connection is something the family at Zamberland Boots truly understands. Since its founding back in 1929, three generations of Zamberland family bootmakers have refined their craft in the mountains of northern Italy, maintaining a tradition of handcrafted

• 1:26Steven Rinella?

  construction durability and performance for the toughest conditions. Each Zamberland boot combines exceptional materials, patented technologies, and the latest innovations from partners like Vibram, Gore-Tex, and Boa. Because a quality boot is an investment in your feet, Zamberland hunting boots are resolable with original outsoles, keeping you comfortable for a lifetime of use. Zamberland's wide range of hunting and hiking boots is available at zamberlandusa.com and select retailers, including the newest drop, the lightweight, full-protection, 8X6 Boa and Coyote Camo.

• 2:07Steven Rinella?

  To explore Zamberland's handcrafted hiking, hunting, and work boots, visit zamberlandusa.com. You guys are always hearing me talk about Montana Knife Company. I love these guys, hands down, favorite knives. The blades are incredibly solid. These are high-quality tools that put in the work. Well, you asked for it and I've been asking for it and MKC finally did it. They're launching their very first folding knife. It's called the Montana. It'll be dropping soon. Go to MKC.com right now and sign up for email and text alerts so you don't miss the drop. MKC.com, Montana Knife Company, working knives for working people. Again, MKC.com.

• 2:55Steven Rinella?

  Welcome to the news show. We've got D reports from the crew members who are not doing the news show this week, but are in fact hunting in cool places all over this great country. We're going to share a couple of hunt stories ourselves. We've got an update from Ryan Cal- Callahan on illegal off-road vehicle use. We've got a new segment, a little AMA with yours truly from the podcast inbox. But first, our headliner.

• 3:28Speaker 03

  Oh, I love it so hard.

• 3:30Speaker 04

  Excellent.

• 3:30Steven Rinella?

  Steve hates that one. It might be the most visceral reaction Steve's ever had to an audio drop.

• 3:35Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 3:36Speaker 05

  But we already decided that the ones that Steve doesn't like are the best ones.

• 3:39Steven Rinella?

  The people love them.

• 3:40Speaker 03

  In Montana, the, the, the big bus carrier is Beachliner. Right? And so on our football trips, we'd be like, big old Beachliner.

• 3:50Speaker 03

  Which was a carryover from past generations when, you know, what is that? That's Jefferson Airplane, right?

• 3:55Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 3:55Speaker 05

  Uh, Steve Miller Band.

• 3:56Speaker 03

  Oh, Steve Miller Band, sorry. Yeah.

• 3:59Steven Rinella?

  Well, uh, our headliner today unfortunately is, is not good news for our audience here. If you've been listening to the news show, we've been covering this over the past few months, Proposition 83 in Colorado, which would guarantee a constitutional right to hunt and fish to residents of Colorado. Uh, it appears has failed at the ballot box. We are reporting now this morning, the day after Election Day. Um, and the latest numbers that I was able to find were, uh, no is 55% to yes is 44, 45-ish percent. And I think looking at like 76% of the votes are in, but it seems like folks have called it.

• 4:44Steven Rinella?

  Um, it was unsuccessful. I've seen Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management, who are leading the charge on that front, um, have acknowledged that the, the amendment did not pass, but, um, disappointing, disheartening. I think probably in a future episode, we'll, we'll dive into this a little deeper, but Brody, if you have thoughts as a former Coloradan.

• 5:06Speaker 05

  Yeah, I, I mean, the, the, the political landscape in Colorado has changed a lot in the last, let's say, decade, maybe, maybe even longer. It's gotten more and more, going more and more in this direction of like, kind of unfriendly to hunting.

• 5:25Speaker 05

  So it's not a gigantic surprise. They had an uphill battle from the start because, because it was an amendment to the Constitution, it requires 55% of the vote, which these days is

• 5:39Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 5:39Speaker 05

  a lot, right? Like a lot of elections are decided 51 to 49.

• 5:44Steven Rinella?

  It needed like a 10-point victory.

• 5:45Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 5:46Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 5:46Speaker 05

  Yeah. And instead it lost by 10 points, which is probably related to this larger blue wave that we saw come through last night and, and some, some are still being decided this morning, but it's like part of this kind of national trend.

• 6:04Speaker 05

  So yeah, disappointing. A quote from Dan Gates at, at Colorado, Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management that I saw was, "Colorado hunters and anglers didn't lose anything."

• 6:18Steven Rinella?

  Right.

• 6:18Speaker 05

  But they didn't, they didn't gain what we wanted them to gain. So, you know, it's not, this doesn't mean that hunting is going to become overnight, it's going to become illegal. The thing that, that is not going to happen is what this would have done is kind of given a buffer against things like, uh, the, the cats aren't trophy ballot measure that got defeated. Those things are going to happen in Colorado again. It's inevitable. And this measure would have, would have offered some protection, uh, against that.

• 6:57Speaker 05

  Another quote that I'd like to read you, just so you're staying on your toes. Um, this really caught my eye.

• 7:05Speaker 05

  This was from a proponent, a supporter of, of not passing this amendment, like not having a constitutional right to hunt and fish in Colorado. This comes from Eric Washburn.

• 7:23Speaker 05

  He is the president of a group called, this is very interesting, a president of a group called Colorado Hunters and Anglers for Sensible Wildlife Conservation. Sounds great, doesn't it? But it really caught my eye once I read his quote.

• 7:42Speaker 05

  He said, "Voters' rejection of Amendment 83 speaks to how much Colorado cares about wildlife. As a big game hunter, I am exceptionally proud of Coloradans for establishing an ethical system of hunting in our state," Washburn said, adding that he was even more proud of my fellow Coloradans for rejecting this ballot measure. That caught my eye, so I real quick did a little, little Googling and, uh, this group is, is, uh, backed by animal welfare, animal rights, anti-trapping, anti-trophy organizations. It is, it is not a group for hunters and anglers.

• 8:24Speaker 05

  It just has a name that suggests that's the case. And I think we've, we've run into this guy before.

• 8:30Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 8:31Speaker 05

  Yeah, we, Steve talked about him last time we covered this in.

• 8:35Steven Rinella?

  His resume, he'll talk about being some sort of founding member of TRCP, which is dubious at best. But TRCP itself has come out in favor of Proposition 83. So the guy's, the guy's not on your side.

• 8:51Speaker 05

  Right.

• 8:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think, and I think too, one takeaway from this, I don't believe, I would be shocked if this precluded sportsmen in Colorado from trying this again.

• 9:02Speaker 05

  Right.

• 9:02Speaker 04

  And in a different election cycle, when there's

• 9:04Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 9:05Speaker 04

  better turnout on one side versus the other.

• 9:08Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 9:08Speaker 04

  Like in a, in a, in an election year, when there's huge conservative turnout, huge rural turnout, like you could very well swing it the other way. And it seems like

• 9:21Speaker 04

  over the past few years, Colorado's hunters have had to,

• 9:26Speaker 04

  you know, lead campaign after campaign to defend themselves against

• 9:31Speaker 05

  A barrage.

• 9:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, like ballot box, wildlife legislation, all that stuff. So, you know, hopefully this is just one bump in the road that leads to a bigger, bigger victory down the road.

• 9:42Speaker 03

  Well, it has to be because the history of these things in Colorado is unfortunately like a fantastic example, right? Like every campaign, the winning side and the losing side learns a lot.

• 9:55Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 9:55Speaker 03

  And they have to evolve for the next one.

• 9:57Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:58Speaker 03

  You know, it was really interesting during this one, how much time was spent chasing like these non sequitur response campaigns to, oh my God, if this passes, then this will happen.

• 10:14Speaker 05

  Right, right.

• 10:15Speaker 03

  Right? And it was masterfully done to dilute the vote and cause confusion. And I think like the gap in the numbers that you read say it where it's like, there's plenty of people in Colorado who are like, boy, I don't know enough about this one to even vote.

• 10:32Speaker 05

  Right.

• 10:32Speaker 03

  Even put pen to paper.

• 10:33Speaker 05

  Right.

• 10:34Speaker 03

  And those counterpoints, if you call them that, were as simple as, well, it won't allow fishing game to make adjustments on regulations.

• 10:45Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 10:45Speaker 03

  Right? Which was completely unfounded.

• 10:47Speaker 05

  Yeah, and this Washburn guy made the argument that Amendment 83

• 10:54Speaker 05

  could overturn past voter approved restrictions on, you know, trapping and bear baiting and things like, like, there's a lot of like disingenuous language surrounding this thing. So hopefully, like, like you guys said, they get another chance at it down the road.

• 11:11Speaker 03

  Man, just another reason why we need independent fishing games

• 11:15Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 11:15Speaker 03

  in every single state.

• 11:16Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 11:17Speaker 04

  I also think, you know, when you, when you're, like, we're talking about a statewide election, right? And I don't know what the current numbers are in Colorado, but this thing hinges on non-hunters.

• 11:30Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 11:31Speaker 04

  And so again, it's always just, man, tell your story to people who don't live in your world, be a good ambassador for our community and put yourself out there because if, if all we're doing is hanging out on hunting message boards and

• 11:47Speaker 05

  It ain't gonna work.

• 11:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, you gotta get out there and you gotta get the general public, educate them. It's tough. It's an uphill battle, but it's something that we just need to do.

• 11:57Speaker 05

  Hunting is still generally well approved of nationwide, right? So if you paint non-hunters, all non-hunters as the enemy, you're just shooting yourself in the foot.

• 12:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, need a big tent. Anything else on Colorado? All right, Phil, we're on to our news.

• 12:21Speaker 04

  Now, as I alluded to in the intro here, the office is empty. It's a

• 12:27Speaker 05

  Been that way for a while.

• 12:30Speaker 04

  It has. This is a particularly egregious week. And not just the office, but our, our satellite offices in Arkansas and elsewhere. It seems like everybody's out there hunting as they well should be. Trivia office, yes. The, the head trivia man is gone. But we've, we've managed to recruit them to participate in some way in today's news show by giving us an update on what they're seeing in the deer woods. And we're going to kick this off by heading far to our northwest, to southeast Alaska, where Steve and Seth and the Meat Eater crew, they are doing a black tailed deer hunt. So Phil, roll that, roll that clip.

• 13:14Speaker 06

  Okay, here's the first week in November update from southeast Alaska. It's a very nice day today, just rain.

• 13:25Speaker 05

  Today's a nice day.

• 13:27Speaker 06

  Today's a nice day, it's just rain.

• 13:29Speaker 05

  I'm afraid of the bad.

• 13:30Speaker 06

  And then the next few days, they're calling for somewhere between one and two inches of rain each day. Plus gusts of 60 knots. You know what they say, if you don't, can't tie knots, tie lots. 60 knots, that's a lot. Knots. Well, we've been, we've been, no, no antlers. This, we hunted a day and a half now.

• 13:54Speaker 05

  Yeah. No bucks.

• 13:56Speaker 06

  Saw probably half dozen does yesterday, maybe.

• 14:01Speaker 05

  But that's what the bucks are at, and it's that time of year.

• 14:06Speaker 06

  So half dozen does yesterday, called in a doe today.

• 14:12Speaker 06

  Bumped a

• 14:16Speaker 06

  undetermined deer. Stood a couple does up.

• 14:23Speaker 06

  Got bad weather coming for two, two days of terrible weather, like maybe unhuntable weather.

• 14:31Speaker 06

  And then it's gonna supposedly get a little better, but not great.

• 14:37Speaker 05

  We'll find something.

• 14:38Speaker 06

  Can I add to that Seth? I don't know how many of these reports you guys got, but I'm guessing some other reports are, hopefully people got better reports than us. Like I said, we hunted yesterday evening and today it's early afternoon. So we haven't been pouring the coals too, too bad. And I'm only sweating it because I, I think we're gonna lose two hunt days, like I was saying. That makes me start to sweat.

• 15:01Speaker 05

  The positive thing is the last time we did this hunt was four years ago or so.

• 15:06Speaker 06

  Yeah, I can do about once every four or five years.

• 15:07Speaker 05

  We've seen more deer in the last, well, we saw more deer yesterday than we did that entire hunt.

• 15:13Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 15:14Speaker 05

  So things are looking up.

• 15:17Speaker 06

  This, this, this,

• 15:20Speaker 06

  you can't tell what's going on. We're, we're hunting black tailed deer in southeast Alaska, which is a

• 15:28Speaker 06

  it's, it's a weathery time of year to be up here. Usually it seems every time I do this, it's like a weather issue.

• 15:33Speaker 03

  Yeah. What's, what's on is likely somewhere on the box of that camp stove. It says, do not use as a heating source.

• 15:40Speaker 05

  Right.

• 15:43Speaker 06

  Yeah. Fog becomes a problem. And you might be wondering what we're doing right now. Like you might be thinking, those boys ain't hunting at all. This is lunch break.

• 15:53Speaker 06

  That's why we're here. We're fixing to pack up and get going. We stopped for lunch about one o'clock. We're gonna get racing out here.

• 16:01Speaker 06

  We got a long descend. We climbed, we climbed up about 800 feet through the rainforest and now we're down.

• 16:14Speaker 05

  You okay? Yeah. That's the report from southeast Alaska.

• 16:20Speaker 05

  Cal, you've been up there. I've been up there for this thing. It always sounds like, oh, man, they're gonna be rutting and running around on the beaches and we're gonna call them into our lap.

• 16:32Speaker 05

  It's like, doesn't seem like that's the way it works. Maybe it's later, like that later. I don't know.

• 16:37Speaker 03

  Well, no, the, the people with those stories are the ones who live there full time.

• 16:40Speaker 05

  Right.

• 16:41Speaker 03

  And they're like, oh, today's a nice day.

• 16:42Speaker 05

  Yep. I'm gonna, yeah, it's a hunt that's like not for the faint of heart. You wear rain gear all the time, but you're still soaked because you're wearing rain gear all the time.

• 16:54Speaker 04

  He had heavy, he had heavy slicker pants on and extra toughs.

• 16:58Speaker 05

  Yes. And hiking or like, you kind of gotta wear the extra toughs. But then when you start climbing around in those things, it's like, God, I hope I don't break my ankle.

• 17:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, I put my hunting in soles in my extra toughs and that's the way to do it for sure. It's the only, gives you a little more traction. The mental part too is like, if you didn't know anything about Alaska, southeast Alaska, the ocean, it would be very different. But for folks who have spent time up there fishing, you have to, any day that isn't a good hunting day and you're out there hunting just for the extreme off chance that something good happens, you have to reconcile every step with like, this would be like another bucket of spot prawn tails.

• 17:51Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 17:51Speaker 03

  This would be however many Dungeness crab.

• 17:54Speaker 05

  Exactly.

• 17:55Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:56Speaker 05

  Because those, those little Sitka blacktails, they're, they're tiny, man. So like, it's like one halibut, nice 50 pound halibut versus, you know? But it, it's cool. You're hunting in the rainforest. It's such a different hunt. So.

• 18:11Speaker 03

  Yeah. And then you turn the 50 pound halibut into 10 Dungeness crabs and then, you know? It is a funny, funny deal.

• 18:19Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 18:20Speaker 04

  Yeah. And, and clearly they have plenty of fuel for that stove.

• 18:23Speaker 05

  Yes. Yeah.

• 18:25Speaker 04

  Because it's just ripping.

• 18:30Speaker 04

  Anything else on southeast?

• 18:32Speaker 05

  I think we'll get an update here in a couple of days.

• 18:34Speaker 04

  Phil, roll that second update from Spencer New Hearth.

• 18:38Speaker 06

  Hunting mule deer in Montana. I am on day three of my mule deer hunt here in Montana. The rut report is that the rut is not happening yet. I have not seen really any rutting activity. I think the most indicative thing is my hunt that I had last night. I was hunting the edge of a weed field and I had a group of 13 does come into the field and then I had a group of 11 does and then I had a group of five does. Not a single buck with them, not a single buck showed up. I think if it were like three or four days from now, definitely a week from now.

• 19:12Speaker 04

  Uh, there would be multiple bucks out there harassing them, but on November 2nd, it was just not happening. But I did just kill this. Look at there, a western whitetail. I am in a spot where I've never seen a whitetail before. I've never seen a doe here. I've never seen a spite.

• 19:32Speaker 03

  Protecting those mule deer.

• 19:33Speaker 04

  I didn't know they lived in this place. And I shot him right over here in this draw. He was standing in there making a scrape. He's got this area just littered with rubs.

• 19:44Speaker 05

  That'll teach him Spencer. Good job.

• 19:45Speaker 04

  Classic, mature, western whitetail. Four by four. He's thick. He's got double split brows.

• 19:56Speaker 04

  I love these deer.

• 19:58Speaker 03

  He's got a handy Spencer.

• 19:59Speaker 04

  Thank goodness that we got these.

• 20:03Speaker 04

  So I got something I can kill while the mule deer bucks aren't participating in the rut yet.

• 20:07Speaker 03

  Well, I was gonna say the whitetail kid, that matches a wheat field out there. It's like.

• 20:11Speaker 04

  That's my rut report.

• 20:12Speaker 05

  You know, yeah. It's a, those whitetails can just show up anywhere, you know? Just anywhere, especially this time of year.

• 20:21Speaker 03

  And this is just solid pre-rut activity. I, in my mind, it's pre-rut time for both still.

• 20:28Speaker 05

  Yeah, I, I like, I, I don't doubt for one bit that there was no mule deer rut activity going on where Spencer was. I just had a buddy in town that came up for a mule deer hunt. Um, we had a much different experience. Uh, every group of does we saw had a buck or two with them. Some of those bucks were following does. The, my buddy got like a nice three, three by three buck, pretty nice one. Um, and that buck was with four does. Like, he was like with them, with them, you know? Not just like hanging out by them. He was like, that was his group of does. Um.

• 21:06Speaker 03

  Tending. He was tending.

• 21:07Speaker 05

  Yeah, so I, I, you know, these reports are all great and interesting and fun.

• 21:12Speaker 04

  They are very interesting and fun.

• 21:14Speaker 05

  Um, but you kind of got, when you have like location specific rut reports, you kind of got to take them with a grain of salt because the other side of the mountains or the next river drainage over or whatever, like, things could just be dead where you're at, but you go over there and things are on fire, you know?

• 21:32Speaker 03

  Even, I, I certainly have it. I'm sure you have too, where it's like, the rut activity is in the morning.

• 21:40Speaker 05

  Right.

• 21:40Speaker 03

  Like it's cold, they're puffed up and they just decide to do it.

• 21:45Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 21:45Speaker 03

  And that can happen in the middle of October sometimes.

• 21:48Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 21:48Speaker 03

  So it, I think there's just all these little cycles and, and obviously when you're talking about a group of animals, the bell curve is very real.

• 21:59Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 22:00Speaker 03

  Where you have a little intro tail, where you could have some anomaly does start to produce the right pheromones.

• 22:08Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 22:09Speaker 03

  And then you hit the bulk of the belly and then on the exit, you have these little anomalies popping up too, which people call, well, it's the second rut or the third rut or whatever, but.

• 22:20Speaker 05

  Or there's 30 does out in a whitetail and a great big giant old buck gets a burr up his ass. It's like, you know what? I'm gonna go over there and see what's going on. And goes over there and maybe he stays, maybe he doesn't.

• 22:34Speaker 06

  I think the most impressive thing is I was soliciting these videos last week. Spencer said, I'll have a dead buck for you.

• 22:41Speaker 05

  Yeah, Spencer gets it done, man. He doesn't screw around. I like that, the way he hunts, man.

• 22:45Speaker 04

  That must've been public land he was on, right?

• 22:48Speaker 05

  Hmm, I think he's got something.

• 22:49Speaker 04

  Just joking, just joking. Spencer's the master of the, you can be that confident when you're the master of the deer permissions.

• 22:55Speaker 06

  Yeah, his letter writing games. I mean, very impressive.

• 22:59Speaker 04

  I know people, like I, I have friends of friends whose families have received letters from Spencer New Hearth.

• 23:06Speaker 06

  That, I was sending out trapping letters and Steve sends me a picture of his, of my letter. And he said, you're on this property because I'm on this property.

• 23:19Steven Rinella?

  I'll tell you one thing that binds together all of the vehicles in the Rinella fleet at my house. They all have WeatherTech floor liners. When we get a new car, the first thing we do, out with the junky factory carpet mats in with WeatherTech. They really are the best. They're indestructible. You can pull them out, hose them off. It doesn't matter what happens on the floor of your rig. If you got WeatherTech, you're gonna be covered. I love these things. If you're looking to get a great gift for someone, especially if they're a big time outdoors kind of person, like if you really want to do them a favor, get them some WeatherTech floor liners for their truck or car. They'll have a way easier time keeping their rig nice and clean and they'll get years and years of use out of a set.

• 24:04Steven Rinella?

  Visit weathertech.com for your holiday shopping today. You need credit to buy, well, pretty much any big thing. So how do you get started? Easy. The One Pay Builder Card. It's simple and smart. One Pay is the banking app trusted by millions of Americans. And the One Pay Builder Card is an easy way to build credit. Just use it to make everyday purchases, build your credit history, and then you can work up to the big milestones, buying a new car or a new house. Or hell, maybe something I'm always thinking about, which is another boat. Those moments start with small, consistent steps with the One Pay Builder Card.

• 24:45Steven Rinella?

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

• 24:53Speaker 02

  One Pay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank or Lead Bank, members FDIC. Builder card results may vary and aren't guaranteed. Learn more about banking through One Pay at onepay.com/podcast.

• 25:07Steven Rinella?

  Holy smokes, I've been running around in some Zamberland boots and my God, are they comfortable. Damn, out of the box, ready to wear. I can't believe I haven't done it before. And the hunting tradition, right, has always been about knowledge and skills handed down from one generation to the next. Whether it's field memories with your parents or sharing the experience of a first hunt with your own kids. That shared connection is something the family at Zamberland Boots truly understands. Since its founding back in 1929, three generations of Zamberland family bootmakers have refined their craft in the mountains of northern Italy,

• 25:45Steven Rinella?

  maintaining a tradition of handcrafted construction durability and performance for the toughest conditions. Each Zamberland boot combines exceptional materials, patented technologies, and the latest innovations from partners like Vibram, Gore-Tex, and Boa. Because a quality boot is an investment in your feet, Zamberland hunting boots are resolable with original outsoles, keeping you comfortable for a lifetime of use. Zamberland's wide range of hunting and hiking boots is available at zamberlandusa.com and select retailers, including the newest drop, the lightweight full protection 8X6 Boa and Coyote Camo.

• 26:29Steven Rinella?

  To explore Zamberland's handcrafted hiking, hunting, and work boots, visit zamberlandusa.com.

• 26:38Speaker 05

  Randall, you didn't need to get permission for your bull?

• 26:41Speaker 04

  No, I didn't. Uh, yeah, I, I was lucky enough to kill a bull on Saturday. Um, I hunted the opener with Corey and we were, uh.

• 26:53Speaker 05

  Snuggled up under a tarp.

• 26:54Speaker 04

  Yeah, we had a miscommunication about who was bringing the tent. So we got to our camp spot after hiking in two and a half miles and we're pulling stuff out of our packs. And I said, I said, we agreed that you'd bring the tent, right? And he said, I can't tell if you're joking. And I said, I'm not. And he said, but even if you were joking, you'd still say you weren't joking to make the joke funnier, right? And I said, no, I don't have a tent here. He didn't have a tent either, but I had a tarp, a little, little backup tarp.

• 27:24Speaker 05

  Kind of like thing those guys were using.

• 27:26Speaker 04

  Exactly, yeah. So we, uh, we rode out a little bit of weather in the tarp. We got close, but, um, the elk went the wrong way. Uh, we had a bull that was, we just needed him to step out in the open on the public side. He stepped out in the open on the private side. Um, but then I went out on Friday afternoon and spent the afternoon glassing, just, just glassing as much country as I could and found a bull, uh, slightly before dark. And actually it was funny when I was looking at him.

• 27:59Speaker 04

  This, this vehicle came up the road and pulled up right next to me like five feet away from me. And they said, hey, you don't mind if we, if we share the glassing knob for a minute and glass with you, do you? And I said, no, no, not at all, thinking that they'd then drive away, you know, and set up 30 yards away. They just put it in park. Like they could have reached out of their window and touched the Can-Am. And, and they just sat there with the engine running, glassing, you know, and, and.

• 28:27Speaker 05

  And there was a bull out there.

• 28:28Speaker 04

  Meanwhile, I, I have this bull, so I just turned my, I turned my spotter to look at another mountain. And I'm doing everything I can to not look at the bull. But every now and then taking a casual glance back around. And, uh, they took off at some point.

• 28:44Speaker 05

  Never saw him.

• 28:45Speaker 04

  No, and I also, there was a, there was a vehicle at the trailhead, um, to go up this drainage. And it's like, I, when I saw, like, I, I was thinking about hiking in there anyway, but I saw a vehicle at the trailhead. And I said, I don't want to, you know, hike in on top of these folks, cause just the landscape, the way that it is. If there's someone in there, you're going to run into them, you know? Um, so I was waiting for them to shoot the bull. And I just watched that bull until dark and I didn't hear a gunshot and I watched him go into the timber. And then I drove up to the trailhead, the vehicle that was there previously was gone. So I parked the Can-Am and I slept in the Can-Am at the trailhead because I wanted to make sure that I was the first person hiking in.

• 29:29Speaker 05

  When you say slept in the Can-Am, you're not saying like in the bed, like in the back.

• 29:34Speaker 04

  No, no, it's a two seater. Well, it's, I guess technically a three seater. It's like one bench and a little bed in the back. And, uh, I, I dropped the steering wheel as low as it would go and I covered it with jackets and things. And then I put my feet up on that. I leaned back against the passenger door.

• 29:53Speaker 05

  Sounds horrible.

• 29:54Speaker 06

  That's terrible.

• 29:55Speaker 04

  I wouldn't do it again. I had a conversation with myself in which I said, you know, people sleep on planes all the time. How could this possibly be worse than a plane? It was, um, I did sleep, I, I did sleep several times. Um, and then woke up in the morning and, uh, got up the hill, got up to where I wanted to be. I knew I'd be looking right at where this bull had come out the night before. And sure enough, like 15 minutes after shooting light, he, I, I saw one elk kind of starting to go into the timber. And then I saw him behind it. It was just the night before he had had a smaller bull with him. And that same morning, it was the same two bulls. So then I shot him.

• 30:38Speaker 05

  Did you shoot him with a great big giant Randall gun?

• 30:41Speaker 04

  No, I didn't.

• 30:42Speaker 05

  No?

• 30:42Speaker 04

  Six, five PRC.

• 30:43Speaker 05

  Oh, there you go.

• 30:44Speaker 04

  Um, and, uh, yeah, called, called Sydney, called, uh, called some buddies and called Alex Zimmer. Uh, for as long as we've had a meat eater flagship store, my wildest dream has been to interfere with its staffing. By, by having the store boys, three years ago, I walked into the store and there was all these strapping young lads in their twenties. And I thought, I bet they could carry out parts of elk. So sure enough, uh, Alec, Alec was supposed to work. I said, what are you doing? He said, I'm about to head into the store. And I said, do you have backup? Cause I don't. And, uh, so yeah, I had a crew of four come down and meet me and I had got the bull quartered up.

• 31:26Speaker 04

  So they hiked up and we got them out of there quickly, uh, before the grizzly bears came and had lunch. And yeah, when we were sitting at lunch, I realized between Sydney, Alec was the newcomer, but between Sydney and my two other buddies,

• 31:43Speaker 04

  collectively they've had, I think 10 or 11 tours of duty on five different bulls of mine over the years.

• 31:52Speaker 05

  So you're spreading out some meat to that crew.

• 31:54Speaker 04

  Well, not really. I was just thinking about how grateful I was. It was kind of, you know, it's, it's like, it's pretty fun when you get, you know, people, people are, they come out to do something. And that's just objectively unpleasant and like, um, I've killed a couple of bulls solo and it's like miserable cutting them apart solo. And then these people come up the hill and they're all smiling and high fiving and hugging and, uh, yeah.

• 32:20Speaker 05

  And you suggest they take the hind quarters?

• 32:24Speaker 04

  No, I, I took a hind, I took a hind and, and the head. Um, but yeah, it was a real civilized, Sydney only carried out, I think the back straps, loins and some trim.

• 32:34Speaker 05

  Nice.

• 32:35Speaker 04

  You know, so she got out of it easy, but yeah, it's just good to, you feel really lucky when you, whenever I kill a bull elk, I'm still like, it's just, wow, I'm living out my wildest dreams here. And then good people come to help you and it's just, man, I'm, I have like a warm and fuzzy, my cup runneth over moment whenever that happens.

• 32:56Speaker 05

  Now you got time to hunt the mule deer rut.

• 32:58Speaker 04

  That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Once we get through this damn news show.

• 33:04Speaker 03

  Smoking tennis shoe out the door. You know, I was at a public glassing knob, uh, years ago, just an after work thing, right?

• 33:12Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:13Speaker 03

  Um, and for all you kids out there, why, why go home and watch TV when you can go watch a mountain?

• 33:19Speaker 04

  Man.

• 33:19Speaker 03

  And, uh, I'd literally never been there before. I just knew people did it.

• 33:24Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:25Speaker 03

  And so I drove up there, was sitting there glassing around, you know, saw a couple of does here and there and, and, but really nothing compelling. And, uh, it was a Friday and I was like, you know, still like, where the hell am I going to hunt tomorrow? Uh, this isn't it. And same deal, there's like two other trucks eventually roll up. And sitting there, sitting there, sitting there and just about dark, dark. Cause I was like, oh, other people are here. I wonder if some, this guy comes over and he goes, so, uh,

• 34:01Speaker 03

  did you see him?

• 34:05Speaker 03

  And I was like, well, I guess I know where I'm hunting in the morning.

• 34:10Speaker 03

  So, but I have always thought.

• 34:12Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 34:13Speaker 03

  Of doing that to somebody else just for fun.

• 34:17Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 34:18Speaker 03

  Like not seeing anything and be like, so.

• 34:20Speaker 05

  That's good.

• 34:21Speaker 04

  Did, uh.

• 34:22Speaker 06

  Saw those three big bulls.

• 34:23Speaker 03

  Did you, did you see him?

• 34:24Speaker 06

  They looked real comfortable. I think one of them had a broken leg. He'll be there in the morning.

• 34:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 34:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, I gotta watch kids in the morning.

• 34:34Speaker 04

  No, it's a fun, it's a fun time of year. It's a very fun time of year. Nate, you've also been up to some fun.

• 34:41Speaker 06

  Yep. I, uh, shot a buck pretty early mid September with a bow, so to deal with my crippling depression, not hunting the rut, I'm running Steve's trap line while he's in Alaska. Business is booming.

• 34:54Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 34:55Speaker 06

  So we preset everything on Saturday, Sunday, the season opened, um, check traps on Monday. Day one, got a beaver, a mink and a raccoon. Beaver was in a foothold trap on the bank then.

• 35:06Speaker 05

  Ooh, that's a little beaver.

• 35:07Speaker 06

  Yeah, he's a little guy.

• 35:08Speaker 03

  I was gonna say that is a very small raccoon.

• 35:11Speaker 06

  Yeah, he's about this. Hey, actually it's a pretty big mink, so maybe it's throwing it off.

• 35:15Speaker 04

  Yeah, and a huge cutting board.

• 35:17Speaker 06

  Uh, that is a giant cutting board. Um, got a mink and a pocket set and then a raccoon and coon cuff. This picture is at Steve's bat cave, not my kitchen counter. Um, so hopefully no diseases were transmitted there. And then day two, we went out and got two beavers, one in the foothold and MB seven 50 on a caster set. And one, the three 30 in little travel corridor. Got that coon in the pocket set that got the mink the day before.

• 35:45Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 35:45Speaker 06

  And a muskrat and another three 30 on a little feeding slip. So learned a lot.

• 35:50Speaker 04

  This is your first foray into trapping?

• 35:52Speaker 06

  First time and do.

• 35:53Speaker 05

  He's Steve's latest, um.

• 35:56Speaker 06

  Minion.

• 35:56Speaker 05

  Latest absentee trapping assistant.

• 35:59Speaker 04

  How long?

• 35:59Speaker 05

  Latest in a long line.

• 36:01Speaker 04

  Yeah. How long ago did Steve sort of nudge you and say, hey, have you ever thought about getting certified as a trapper?

• 36:08Speaker 06

  When those certification courses were popping up. So I did it and, uh, I'll tell you, it's so fun. It is like a, I've never really fished, so I don't know. It's like a treasure hunt mixed with chess, mixed with something else. It's real fun. But it's so much work. I don't, I don't know with this little one at home. I don't know if trapping's in the cards for the next year or so. But till then.

• 36:34Speaker 04

  Well, just keep an eye on Steve's travel schedule and.

• 36:37Speaker 05

  Save any of them beaver hams or raccoon hams?

• 36:40Speaker 06

  He wanted them all for, for bait.

• 36:42Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 36:42Speaker 06

  You know, so I screwed up some of the skinning there.

• 36:45Speaker 04

  We do need, we do need, um,

• 36:49Speaker 04

  some muskrats for a, for a culinary experiment.

• 36:52Speaker 06

  I got both that muskrat and mink are full and they're both in the freezer.

• 36:56Speaker 04

  Perfect.

• 36:56Speaker 06

  So, um, if you're thinking about it, man, it's fun. It's so fun, but you gotta have a lot of time. A lot of time.

• 37:03Speaker 04

  Or people that work for you.

• 37:05Speaker 06

  Or yes, or minions like myself. Yep, yep. One of those two.

• 37:09Speaker 03

  Muskrat's pretty often eaten.

• 37:13Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 37:13Speaker 03

  Game. What, what's the interesting experiment there?

• 37:17Speaker 04

  Well, if you haven't seen, if you haven't listened to our new audio book, Meat Eaters, American History, The Alaskans. We tell the story of a man named Curtis, who just boiled muskrats for an hour head down in the pot, flipped them over another half an hour.

• 37:34Speaker 05

  In unskinned.

• 37:35Speaker 04

  Mixed in some, no skin.

• 37:37Speaker 05

  Skin.

• 37:37Speaker 04

  Mixed in some flour and then just did like a biscuits and gravy for, that was, that was three days of meals was 10 muskrats.

• 37:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's like, uh, Never Cry Wolf or the, what's the.

• 37:49Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's the one where.

• 37:50Speaker 03

  That one?

• 37:51Speaker 05

  Where they eat the mice?

• 37:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 37:52Speaker 05

  It's Never Cry Wolf.

• 37:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's a great one.

• 37:55Speaker 06

  I think my biggest takeaway is those minks are pungent.

• 37:59Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 38:00Speaker 06

  Shockingly.

• 38:01Speaker 04

  Lovely.

• 38:01Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 38:02Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 38:03Speaker 04

  Phil, how about we get a, uh, a variation on the deer report? And we'll head out to Western Kentucky for a small game report with the one and only Mr. Kevin Murphy.

• 38:15Speaker 05

  Shorty.

• 38:16Speaker 04

  I also thought this is interesting. I began with him just calling his dog for a while.

• 38:21Speaker 06

  We can scrub ahead.

• 38:24Speaker 05

  No, you, you know what you're getting when it's Kevin Murphy. It's like, it ain't.

• 38:28Speaker 03

  It's not gonna be a linear narrative.

• 38:31Speaker 05

  Kevin Murphy with good news from the world of small game hunting.

• 38:37Speaker 05

  Shorty and I are out in the Clark's River bottom. Uh, we got our number two squirrel. It's been pretty tough today. Wind's blowing, it's gonna get up to 33 mile an hour gust today. It's sunny. Uh, still got about 80% foliage on the tree, so that makes it difficult hunting. So, uh, Shorty had this squirrel trade. It's got another one over there. But, uh, it took me a while to find him up there with the wind blowing. Usually the tail gives away, but there's so much leaf cover, it's hard to see him whip it around out there. I looked and looked for him and finally I was about to give up and then. He showed himself. And then I made a, I think a maybe a pretty decent shot on him.

• 39:23Speaker 05

  Offhanded with my TACSEL 22, so he's the second squirrel that we've got. Yeah, he saved those shoulders. For the morning, maybe we'll get a couple more. I'm just kinda out exploring. Not really an ideal day to be squirrel hunting, but I'm off from work today, so I go out and prowl around, look for some swamp rabbit sign. That's one of the best things a first can do is just go hunting when they can. And that way you get to pay more attention to maybe the trees. Here's a willow oak right here. That's a typical hardwood bottom tree that you see down here. It has the pin eight leaves and they look kinda like a willow, willow tree. That's not a very fine specimen.

• 40:05Speaker 05

  It's been, been shaded out and stunted, so. But it looks like we're gonna have a good rabbit season this year. We had a really dry springtime, so that gave the rabbits a chance to multiply. But we went into a really wet summertime, but I think they got a good start and. Rabbits don't mate when it's wet. Rabbits around. I watched six or seven run out of a soybean field the other day. A friend of mine wanted me to go muzzle load hunting with him. I just thought, well, I'll go over there and sit in a, sit in a ground line with him. And we just watch and see what's going on. And it was very unique to see seven cottontails run out of a, out of a soybean field.

• 40:50Speaker 05

  So I'm using TACSEL 22 semi-automatic. A lot of people, their shotgun this time of year, I pretty much try to, try to stay with rifle. I'm a rifleman. Not that I won't use a shotgun, but when I'm squirrel hunting, one thing that I've got too is suppressor. And another tip, if you don't have a suppressor and you've got young kids, you don't have to have the Tac stamp anymore. So go and get you a suppressor and you can just buy it like a farm. You don't have to do the big paperwork and all that. But down here in the Clark's River bottoms, 12,000 acres of hardwood,

• 41:35Speaker 05

  made, developed mainly for migratory songbirds. And we see a lot of them, of course, they're all gone south pretty much now for, for the winter. I know that they trapped one bird, it's been a few years back, they caught him like three times. He was probably going down to Central America, Costa Rica, somewhere in that neighborhood. But this is a very unique place, flora and fauna for the swamp rabbits. Deer, raccoon, few turkey, some waterfowl. So if you get a chance, get out and get the woods. It sure will make you feel better if you're having a bad day. That's good advice.

• 42:17Speaker 05

  All the good news I have from the world of small game hunting.

• 42:23Speaker 03

  Well, just the hunt when you can advice.

• 42:24Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 42:25Speaker 03

  Oh, man. I mean, that's.

• 42:26Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 42:27Speaker 03

  Wait on a perfect day, you're gonna end up waiting a long time.

• 42:30Speaker 04

  What a philosopher. If you enjoy the poetic musings of Kevin Murphy, check out Meat Eaters, season 14, out now. The first episode is, features Kevin and Seth. Steve takes them bobcat and small game, bobcat trapping or hunting and small game hunting in Texas. Kevin is a fan favorite. He's great. For good reason, for good reason.

• 42:57Speaker 04

  All right, and it's time for our new, your news. It's your, time for your news, Phil.

• 43:05Speaker 05

  Ask Kevin.

• 43:06Speaker 03

  I played it, you were talking over it, Randall, it's fine.

• 43:07Speaker 04

  Sorry.

• 43:08Speaker 03

  That's okay.

• 43:08Speaker 04

  No, I was just.

• 43:09Speaker 03

  I'm just letting you know so we can move the show along. And I think, guys, this show's going pretty good.

• 43:13Speaker 04

  And this is your news presented by Banish. As Kevin just said, it's never been easier to get a can. And boy, howdy, are they nice. Speaking as someone who shot their bull with a can, and then yesterday took someone out for a cow elk hunt who had a muzzle brake.

• 43:33Speaker 05

  Oh.

• 43:33Speaker 04

  On their 300 win.

• 43:34Speaker 05

  Were you ready for it?

• 43:35Speaker 04

  I was, I brought, I brought ears for everybody. But still, just like a little slap in the face every time that, every time that gun went off. We're gonna do a quick Ask Me Anything segment, in this case for Randall. After our full-length episode with Steve, we had some listeners write in with questions for various members of the crew. And so if you have a member or a question for a member of the crew, write into the Meat Eater Podcast at the meat eater.com. In this case, we're gonna ask Spencer, I'm sorry, we're gonna ask Randall.

• 44:09Speaker 05

  Spencer's deer hunting.

• 44:10Speaker 04

  Spencer's deer hunting. Spencer Ryan, the right, the person who wrote in asks.

• 44:16Speaker 05

  So all kinds of, there's Spencer, there's Ryan, there's.

• 44:20Speaker 04

  I know. Let's run it back.

• 44:22Speaker 05

  Tough.

• 44:23Speaker 04

  We're interviewing Randall. Spencer Ryan is a listener who wrote in. And he says, Randall, as a fellow gun enthusiast, I use a Ruger Carbine 44 mag on our deer drives, but this year I have switched to a new Marlin Big Loop 4570. What's your preferred weapon for deer drives? I've never participated in a deer drive, so I can't speak to that.

• 44:47Speaker 05

  Really, you guys didn't do them in Ohio? You were talking about all the shot, the buckshot you got.

• 44:52Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, I just have a ton of buckshot for my 10 gauge, which is probably what I'd use. But when I got that 10 gauge, I got like a case of ammo, like slugs, a lot of tungsten. Lucky guy. But in any event, I think the Marlin 4570, I have killed deer with one. In fact, I killed three or four of my first few deer with a Marlin 4570 down in the great state of Kentucky.

• 45:22Speaker 04

  But what intrigued me most about this question is his mention of the Ruger 44 Magnum Carbine. If you're not familiar with it, it's a semi-automatic 44 Magnum. It looks just like the classic 1022 with the barrel band and everything. I had one briefly. I sold it before I shot it. It had a cracked fore end and I didn't want to get into that. I sold it to a guy in December of 2020, I believe. But what I really wanted to do, Phil, if you'll play that picture, when I was working on my dissertation, I was going through some old issues of Field and Stream and I found perhaps what is my favorite advertisement of all time. If you're a listener, you're gonna wanna go on YouTube and see this.

• 46:07Speaker 04

  It is a full-page ad from, I believe, an issue of Field and Stream in the 1960s. And it depicts a man who sort of looks like, what's the NYPD blue? Do you know who I'm, he looks like a, you know who I'm talking about, that actor? In any event, there's a, there's a, there's a burly man with a shirt unbuttoned all the way to his navel. And he's holding a Ruger 44 Magnum Carbine.

• 46:33Speaker 03

  Is that a telegraph?

• 46:34Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 46:35Speaker 03

  That's amazing.

• 46:36Speaker 04

  And, and next to him is a silverback gorilla that he's killed with the 44 Magnum Carbine. And it's, it's hung by its wrists like a hostage.

• 46:45Speaker 05

  It kind of looks like that gorilla is cheering for him.

• 46:48Speaker 04

  It does, the gorilla's mouth is open and sort of a grotesque expression. And then at the top of the, at the top of the image is a reproduction of a telegraph. And it reads as, oh, where, where did it go? Nope.

• 47:04Speaker 03

  I can read it. You got it? This is awesome. Frank Delano, returning today after 25-day safari in Gabon, commissioned by Los Angeles County Museum to collect rare lowland gorilla. Stop. He claims it was his toughest hunt. Stop. After week tracking succeeded in killing 450 to 500-pound lone gorilla, estimated very day, oh, estimated 50 to 80 years old. Stop. Delano is only American to have killed this type animal. Stop. Terrifying cry. Traveled in canoe to gorilla country with excellent trackers, stalked animal in swamps and rainforest up to chest.

• 47:49Speaker 03

  Stop.

• 47:50Speaker 05

  Oh, you, you skipped one line that I think is great.

• 47:52Speaker 03

  Yeah. Very dangerous and intelligent. Stop. Fast as leopard. Stop. Strong as 14 men. Stop.

• 48:03Speaker 03

  Now, I, we'll, we'll have to find the, the scientific formula that transfers gorilla strength into man strength. I, I assume it's something like horsepower.

• 48:15Speaker 04

  I like the idea too, that someone's like, it's as fast as leopard. And you're like, well, I have no idea how fast a gorilla is, but I have a very clear sense of how fast a leopard is.

• 48:24Speaker 03

  His trophy is exhibited in Peabody Museum. Stop. Yale University. Stop. San Antonio. Stop. Texas Children's Museums, South Carolina and Los Angeles County.

• 48:34Speaker 04

  But Cal, again, you skipped over the critical line here. Used 44 Magnum Car, Ruger 44 Magnum Carbine. Stop. So.

• 48:43Speaker 03

  Stalked animal in swamps and rainforest up to chest.

• 48:47Speaker 04

  And, and then at the bottom, at the bottom of the, at the bottom of the ad, it says, the Ruger 44 Magnum Carbine is generally regarded as the world's finest firearm for hunting in thick cover. And it says, the standard model with open sights is $108. I have been, I've been texting this photo. Whenever something sort of tickles my brain, I've been texting this to friends over the years. It's just so bizarre. And I didn't know that I was gonna show it today, but then I was reading that letter and I thought, hey, here's how I can finally tie in this Ruger ad to the news show.

• 49:26Speaker 03

  It's kinda like in high school when you legitimately thought, there's part of your brain that's like, I am a hero now.

• 49:34Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 49:34Speaker 03

  For killing, killing this deer and coming home. Or killing this bull and coming home. And this is the way this reads. It's like, thank God for Frank Delano.

• 49:45Speaker 04

  Yeah, so Spencer, so Spencer Ryan, I don't have great deer hunt, deer drive weapon advice, but Frank Delano trusted that 44 Magnum Carbine when he chased a gorilla that's as strong as 14 men. So it should do just fine for your local whitetails.

• 50:04Speaker 05

  We should.

• 50:04Speaker 04

  We can't take that to Nantucket.

• 50:07Speaker 03

  I think that is a great listener challenge.

• 50:10Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 50:10Speaker 03

  Nate, I'm sorry, this is unsolicited, but give us your best hunting story in, what is that? Eight lines of Western Union telegraph style.

• 50:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, oh, yeah, that is a great, that is a great segment.

• 50:23Speaker 05

  Write in at the meat eater podcast at the meat eater.com with your best hunting story, eight lines.

• 50:30Speaker 03

  Subject line telegraph.

• 50:32Speaker 05

  Yes. And we'll read them out.

• 50:34Speaker 03

  Yep. Diesel fuel, $8 a gallon. Stop.

• 50:42Speaker 03

  Hunted very close to home. Stop.

• 50:46Speaker 06

  All right, on to the next question. This comes in from Evan. I really enjoyed your segment on hunting in Austria from episode 923. What would you bring from the Austrian hunting European culture to the US?

• 51:00Speaker 04

  Man, this one is tough because I, I can't say that I am, you know, if you came, if you were foreign and you came over here to hunt for 10 days, your impression of hunting in America would in large part depend on who you went hunting with. Be like, oh, man, hunting in America's awesome. You backpack into these vast wilderness areas and they're full of game and.

• 51:25Speaker 03

  Our guide Corey was very knowledgeable.

• 51:27Speaker 04

  And our guy Corey is very knowledgeable. He's a great, uh, he's a great voice actor. Or you could end up somewhere where, you know, you're sitting in a box blind and, and shooting deer over a pile of corn, or you end up, you know, like, I don't want to generalize. So I, I, at first I, I just want to preface this by saying, uh, my experience is very specific. I was hunting with two guys who were phenomenal and their families were just phenomenal hosts and, uh, I bring the people here for sure. Um, I do think it's, it's the licensing aspect of it is pretty cool. Like, there's, there's obviously double edged sword. In Austria, you have to do a lot of hunter ad to get your license.

• 52:11Speaker 04

  It's a much higher barrier to entry. So on the whole, your average hunter is much more knowledgeable.

• 52:19Speaker 04

  About conservation and about tracking and about recovering game and about the laws and all that stuff. And, and that's really appealing to me. On the other hand, it keeps people out of hunting. So I don't know that there's like a perfect middle ground. The, the really interesting thing is fishing is similar. So like the guys I was hunting with, they're like, man, someday I'd love to get a fishing license.

• 52:41Speaker 06

  Me too.

• 52:41Speaker 04

  And I'm like, here in the US, they're practically begging you to just go buy a fishing license, even if you have no intention of fishing, right? It's just, but, but there is like, yeah, I need to set aside some time, go through all the coursework and everything to get my fishing license.

• 52:59Speaker 04

  So I don't know. What would I bring?

• 53:02Speaker 03

  What about the varieties of dark beer?

• 53:06Speaker 04

  Oh, for sure. I mean, the beer and the culture. I mean, it was, it was.

• 53:10Speaker 05

  Alcohol and hunting is good mix.

• 53:12Speaker 03

  Yeah. Hey, after a nice long hunt, warming up next to the fire, having, I mean, we have no good dark beer in America anymore, by God.

• 53:23Speaker 05

  What about this though, Randall? You took game, that freshly killed game into a restaurant and said,

• 53:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 53:31Speaker 05

  Cook this for me.

• 53:32Speaker 04

  That was very cool. That was very cool. Um,

• 53:36Speaker 04

  you know, another, another thing about it was like the guy, at least the guys I was hunting with and other people we encountered. It was kind of like the Kevin Murphy attitude. It was like, you go out and you're hunting and you might end up with a big buck or a little buck or whatever, but you're out in the field, you know, you call the deer in, you make a good shot. And regardless of how big that deer was, at least in my experience, and you show it to people or whatever, you know, people ask you how your hunt was like, it was very focused on the experience and just being out there. And I feel like those guys,

• 54:16Speaker 04

  again, it's, it's like anecdotal, but those guys were just so very appreciative of the opportunity to be out in the field. And they're also very aware that, you know, not everybody over there has that opportunity.

• 54:32Speaker 04

  There's just a lot of gratitude involved in it that, you know, like it's easy, especially around here, you're like looking at people who aren't in the office and they're out hunting, you know, and who got a big buck and who got a big buck there and who's got what tags or whatever. And there I, the impression I got from my very limited experience was it's just like.

• 54:51Speaker 05

  They don't take it for granted.

• 54:52Speaker 04

  It's like, yeah, it's like Kevin Murphy, like any day you can go out and hunt. It's just fantastic. Yeah. So.

• 55:01Speaker 06

  I like the idea of always having a dog with you when you're deer hunting.

• 55:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, that was cool too. That was cool too. And like a, a real,

• 55:10Speaker 04

  a real boost of confidence. We didn't have any situations where we needed to track anything, obviously, but like to just have a tracking dog there with you. Cause that's obviously like the worst case scenario in your mind is you're, you run up to where you hit a deer and you're scratching your head. Um, so, yeah. There's a lot, man. There's a lot. And I'm excited to have that, those episodes come together.

• 55:34Speaker 03

  That's great. Yeah.

• 55:36Speaker 06

  Third one, if Phil, you can pull up the photo.

• 55:39Speaker 04

  This is great.

• 55:40Speaker 06

  It is, uh, a few weeks back, we, we went back and forth on doctor's notes and this is one we sent out to Alonso. Not a question, but just a thank you for, uh, sending a doctor's note. And this is a photo of Alonso on the right, handing our signed doctor's note by Dr. Randall and honorary Dr. Steve to his trigonometry professor.

• 56:00Speaker 04

  Hopefully there's more people out there doing, doing this. Hope, I mean, it, it delights me to no end that Alonso actually took our fake doctor's note and gave it to someone with a position of authority.

• 56:12Speaker 03

  Well, it's a real doctor.

• 56:13Speaker 04

  That's true. Yeah. I mean, if.

• 56:15Speaker 03

  Medical doctor? No.

• 56:18Speaker 04

  Yeah. He's handing it to a professor. So if anybody's gonna, if anybody's gonna respect the credentials, it should be this guy.

• 56:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 56:26Speaker 04

  But he does look skeptical. He's, he's holding his eyeglasses as if to apply an additional degree of, of skepticism to this. But Alonso has a big shit eating grin on his face and a big thumbs up. So this is wonderful. This is wonderful. Thank you for sharing Alonso.

• 56:43Speaker 06

  All right. If you have any questions for member of the crew or, uh, telegraph ready hunting story, write in at the media or to the meat eater podcast at the meat eater.com. Thanks, Randall.

• 56:55Speaker 04

  Thank you, Nate.

• 56:57Steven Rinella?

  I'll tell you one thing that binds together all of the vehicles in the Rinella fleet at my house. They all have WeatherTech floor liners. When we get a new car, the first thing we do out with the junky factory carpet mats in with WeatherTech. They really are the best. They're indestructible. You can pull them out, hose them off. It doesn't matter what happens on the floor of your rig. If you got WeatherTech, you're going to be covered. I love these things. If you're looking to get a great gift for someone, especially if they're a big time outdoors kind of person, like if you really want to do them a favor, get them some WeatherTech floor liners for their truck or car. They'll have a way easier time keeping their rig nice and clean and they'll get years and years of use out of a set.

• 57:42Steven Rinella?

  Visit weathertech.com for your holiday shopping today. You need credit to buy, well, pretty much any big thing. So how do you get started? Easy. The One Pay Builder Card. It's simple and smart. One Pay is the banking app trusted by millions of Americans. And the One Pay Builder Card is an easy way to build credit. Just use it to make everyday purchases, build your credit history, and then you can work up to the big milestones, buying a new car or a new house, or hell, maybe something I'm always thinking about, which is another boat. Those moments start with small, consistent steps with the One Pay Builder Card.

• 58:23Steven Rinella?

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

• 58:31Speaker 02

  One Pay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank or Lead Bank, members FDIC. Builder card results may vary and aren't guaranteed. Learn more about banking through One Pay at onepay.com/podcast.

• 58:46Steven Rinella?

  Holy smokes. I've been running around in some Zamberland boots and my God, are they comfortable? Damn, out of the box, ready to wear. I can't believe I haven't done it before. And the hunting tradition, right, has always been about knowledge and skills handed down from one generation to the next. Whether it's field memories with your parents or sharing the experience of a first hunt with your own kids. That shared connection is something the family at Zamberland Boots truly understands. Since its founding back in 1929, three generations of Zamberland family bootmakers have refined their craft in the mountains of northern Italy, maintaining a tradition of handcrafted construction durability and performance for the toughest conditions.

• 59:32Steven Rinella?

  Each Zamberland boot combines exceptional materials, patented technologies, and the latest innovations from partners like Vibram, Gore-Tex and Boa. Because a quality boot is an investment in your feet, Zamberland hunting boots are resolable with original outsoles, keeping you comfortable for a lifetime of use. Zamberland's wide range of hunting and hiking boots is available at zamberlandusa.com and select retailers, including the newest drop, the lightweight full protection 8X6 Boa and Coyote Camo. To explore Zamberland's handcrafted hiking, hunting and work boots, visit zamberlandusa.com.

• 1:00:17Speaker 04

  Now onto the news.

• 1:00:25Speaker 04

  Now Yanis, it's, it's very applicable here to be talking about this on the news show because he's hunting a newsworthy buck. And he's going to give us a twofer. His results in Kansas and his outlook, his preview for his upcoming Wisconsin hunt.

• 1:00:43Speaker 03

  There's a great millennial pause from Yanis here, so I'll just let that play.

• 1:00:49Speaker 07

  Good morning, gentlemen.

• 1:00:53Speaker 07

  Thanks for having me on today.

• 1:00:55Speaker 05

  Sounds like he's addressing the nation.

• 1:00:56Speaker 07

  Reporting to you from Kansas. But I'm gonna give you two states for the price of one today. I've just spent 10 days in Kansas, hunting with my bow, trying to kill a buck that would land somewhere between two of these.

• 1:01:11Speaker 04

  A large buck and a very large buck.

• 1:01:12Speaker 07

  Trail cam pictures of him. Unfortunately, all the pictures of him have been at nighttime. Um, the highs here have been between 70 and 80 degrees, and we've had little to no daylight activity. Rent and I hunted for nine of these days, and I think we counted nine deer total that we saw from the stand. And seven of those nine days, we sat dawn to dusk. So we put, we put the effort in. Um, but it has just been slow and, um, that's what we saw. That's what the cameras were seeing. I spoke with an outfitter a couple of days ago.

• 1:01:51Speaker 05

  Put the effort in, required to set the spot.

• 1:01:53Speaker 07

  Last week of October here in Kansas was the worst hunting he's seen that week in his entire career as an outfitter. Um, so that's how it goes sometimes. Um, it got cool today. It was rainy. But I did see a small forked horn on his feet at 3:00 PM, and we's had a probably two or three year old buck. Um, on a camera around 5:30, which is half an hour before dark. So I've got one day left tomorrow. I'm hoping to make something happen. Now, this is how you get two states for the price of one. My cameras in Wisconsin, which I've probably got two dozen, literally.

• 1:02:37Speaker 07

  Um, military trail cameras, trail cameras set up in Wisconsin, they have been blowing up the last week. I've been running cameras up there for five years now, and I would say that this is the best camera activity I've ever seen in a single week in Wisconsin. Um, it was cooled last week of October, and I mean, they were just going bananas every day. Um, daylight activity. Um, I've already had a bull, a doe, yeah, excuse me. I've already had a buck locked down on a doe for an entire day. They daylighted on the same camera three different times. That was two days ago.

• 1:03:21Speaker 07

  Um, so that must have been maybe the first of November.

• 1:03:25Speaker 05

  It's whitetail and go there daylighted. Yeah, they make up their own birds.

• 1:03:28Speaker 07

  It's a little bit rainy, but I'm heading there on Thursday because Friday, the high is gonna be 45. And it's gonna be clear and cold. And then again, I'm expecting good hunting then and the good hunting to continue. So. Um, yeah, that's my report. Um, from Kansas and Wisconsin. I've got the seat equity put in here in, uh, Kansas. I just need it to, uh, pay its dividends now. Thanks, guys.

• 1:03:58Speaker 04

  Equity.

• 1:03:59Speaker 03

  See, that's a, like, that is the problem with going to places where they don't allow you to walk around.

• 1:04:07Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:04:08Speaker 03

  It's like, all the tools at your disposal are picking a tree and sitting there all day.

• 1:04:13Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 1:04:14Speaker 03

  Versus being like.

• 1:04:15Speaker 05

  Finding the sign where they are.

• 1:04:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, and being like, I, I'm running low on time. I need to start doing some still hunting and change things up.

• 1:04:26Speaker 04

  Yannis looks worn out. Well, if you pull up that picture, Phil, there's a reason they sat nine days in there. That's that buck they've been hunting.

• 1:04:35Speaker 05

  And that's a feeder back there?

• 1:04:38Speaker 04

  Big ol' feeder. Kansas Moby feeder. 3:52 AM.

• 1:04:45Speaker 04

  Not daylight.

• 1:04:46Speaker 07

  Not daylight.

• 1:04:46Speaker 04

  Not daylighting.

• 1:04:47Speaker 07

  Boy, that's a, that's a tanker.

• 1:04:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm a little worried about Yannis. He seems like he's a bit run down. Hasn't been shaving.

• 1:04:55Speaker 05

  A little bit.

• 1:04:56Speaker 04

  Hopefully, hopefully, Wisconsin's kind to him.

• 1:04:58Speaker 05

  Yeah, spoiler, he didn't kill that buck.

• 1:05:02Speaker 05

  I think he'll be okay.

• 1:05:04Speaker 04

  All right. For the, now for the moment everyone's been waiting for, Ryan Cal Callahan.

• 1:05:12Speaker 03

  Oh, well, that's quite the build-up.

• 1:05:13Speaker 04

  You have something to get off your chest.

• 1:05:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, this is just a public service announcement. So, uh, we've covered ad nauseam, uh, executive order 14408, removing unnecessary and counterproductive restrictions on access to federal lands, which, uh, directly targets travel management plans. Like how we designate roads and trails for what type of travel, anything from foot and hoof to, um, in this case, fixed wing aircraft. Uh, and everything in between. Um, that executive order did what a lot of executive orders have done here in the last two years, which is make big statements. And then if you get down to the fine print, it says nothing changes.

• 1:05:58Speaker 03

  As long as there's a travel management plan in place, that is the law of the land. Where you can go, when and with what. Um, we've certainly talked about this before, but there is an increase in illegal, uh, true off-road, off-trail, cross-country travel activity, as well as destruction of signage and gates on our public lands across the Forest Service system. So I went out and dug up some photos right here, uh, in,

• 1:06:37Speaker 03

  uh, our surrounding national forests of illegal activity, uh, that we're talking about. Phil, do you have some pictures up here? Just buzz through them real quick. So, uh, here is a seasonal closure on a road, and somebody, uh, rammed through this gate and broke it. And this is a gate that we all pay for. And, uh, the seasonal closure, the travel management plan here that has this seasonal closure. Um, that is something that we all participated in as a public process as well. Um.

• 1:07:09Speaker 05

  And there's often very good reasons for these seasonal closures, like, you know, protecting elk calving grounds or whatever it might be.

• 1:07:17Speaker 03

  Let's just pretend we're a bunch of hunters listening to this show, right?

• 1:07:20Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:07:20Speaker 03

  Um, these are your friends.

• 1:07:23Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 1:07:23Speaker 03

  Like, the reason that you can come up to these areas and consistently see elk, uh, and have that feeling of opportunity is because of the travel management plan. Uh, next one, Phil. Uh, this is a user-created road. And this is really important because also right now, uh, the, the public comment period has ended for this, but the USDA has, uh, said that we're gonna revise the travel management rule. And the travel management rule, uh, addresses a bunch of things, but it essentially sets the guardrails for how we create travel.

• 1:08:04Speaker 05

  Does it address these lazy asses here?

• 1:08:07Speaker 03

  Uh, so this is a user-created road. This is illegal off-road use. Um, this one is another seasonal closure. Uh, and you can also see the sign here that says, uh, 50 inches or less, uh, which is another type of restriction. But you can see the dates here, like this is a closed road with, um, uh, fresh tracks on it, so illegal motorized use. Um, and, uh, that, you know, that previous one, the user-created road. One of the things that, uh, the USDA has said is they wanna look at all of these roads, every single road.

• 1:08:50Speaker 03

  Versus, versus just the legal roads that exist on maps, all of these user-created roads, and add all of them to the inventory. And, and one of the hard things is, is we don't have the personnel, the staff, or the cash to maintain these roads, uh, as is. And I can get into the, the numbers of that, too.

• 1:09:15Speaker 05

  And no longer have the staff to enforce illegal off-roading.

• 1:09:20Speaker 03

  Well, and that's where the, the hu, you know, we as users need to help out here. Uh, so this is another example here of you have a legal road or trail, a designated trail, and you have a bunch of knuckleheads right here. Uh, you can see them, uh, not using the designated route and has created this very braided trail. And what this does, right, is it spreads noxious weeds, invasive grasses outside of the single trail zone. It creates all these routes that funnels, uh, uh, runoff and creates more erosion, less feed

• 1:10:04Speaker 03

  for our public land grazers, less feed for public wildlife, um, and visually extremely unappealing, right?

• 1:10:14Speaker 03

  Uh, this is another simpler version of the same thing, uh, illegal trail cutting. This will also channelize that runoff, create erosion, diminish feed, spread noxious weeds. Um, and this person just couldn't stomach staying on the trail, uh, even though they're on a motorized vehicle to just follow the trail.

• 1:10:35Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's, you see this often when there's a switchback and they just cut the switchback.

• 1:10:41Speaker 03

  Yeah. Um, I'm not sure if we have any.

• 1:10:43Speaker 05

  That's all of them.

• 1:10:44Speaker 03

  Thing else, yeah. So, um, big thing here is it is hunting season. These pictures are taken during hunting season. And everybody out there is going to assume hunters are out here breaking the laws and breaking the rules. And, uh, we need to understand that there are travel management rules in place. Those travel management rules, um, are what keep public wildlife on public lands during hunting season. Um, all of the available science, which happens to be paid for in large part by hunters, say,

• 1:11:23Speaker 03

  where, uh, motorized things go and how many of them go there and how fast directly correlates to how long public wildlife stay in areas. Um, and that's kind of the simplest way I can put it. I can rattle off a bunch of, um.

• 1:11:42Speaker 03

  You know, a bunch of the study names, of which there are many.

• 1:11:52Speaker 03

  And in this travel management rule revision, there's a bunch of fun things. And just for, you know, popular culture sake, if you have not seen the season 29 premiere of South Park, titled "South American Biker Gangs",

• 1:12:08Speaker 03

  they do a phenomenal job of tackling one of the interesting things in the travel management rule revision, which is expanded use of e-bikes, specifically Class 1 e-bikes. And our good friends over there at South Park, who I'm sure are, you know, licensed hunters and anglers,

• 1:12:29Speaker 03

  tackle one of the big issues with Class Whatever e-bikes, which is there is no regulatory body out there that says this bike is a Class Whatever. And there's no way to enforce that. So

• 1:12:42Speaker 04

  Meaning it hasn't been decided if they're motorized vehicles or not.

• 1:12:46Speaker 03

  Well, that's a whole separate issue.

• 1:12:48Speaker 04

  That's a separate thing.

• 1:12:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, but the Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 was supposed to essentially say how fast something can go.

• 1:12:55Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:12:56Speaker 03

  Or that something goes. And so, you know, one of the things that we've been discussing with the USDA is like, hey, before you expand use for Class Whatever e-bikes, you should be aware that the manufacturers haven't decided what a Class 1 e-bike is. The writing groups haven't decided what a Class 1 e-bike is. And right now, you can have something that's called a Class 1 e-bike that goes 30 miles an hour.

• 1:13:24Speaker 03

  And that's just, you know, one in a long list of, of things that we need to be aware of because it will directly correlate to the opportunity that we have regarding hunting and angling on our public lands. And that's a big deal to me. So, and I don't like this, that it even exists. I don't think it should exist, but we at Backcountry Hunters and Anglers have an illegal motorized use program. We offer rewards.

• 1:13:55Speaker 04

  You should clarify that. You have an illegal motorized use reporting program.

• 1:14:00Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 1:14:01Speaker 05

  Not a how-to.

• 1:14:04Speaker 03

  Everybody knows how to.

• 1:14:06Speaker 04

  We have a poaching program.

• 1:14:08Speaker 03

  But basically, if, if you provide the information that leads to a citation of illegal motorized use on our public lands, will kick you a $500 reward. And the reason that I don't want this, don't like it, and don't want it to exist is it shouldn't. We love our public lands.

• 1:14:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:14:31Speaker 03

  They're full of amazing adventures and opportunities. And our system of rules and regulations allow for those opportunities. And we need to be stewards of these resources if we want those opportunities to be repeatable and something that we can count on and pass on, of course, to the next generation. So you can go to backcountryhunters.org and look at that motorized, that illegal motorized reward program. How would you say it, Randall? You say it.

• 1:15:03Speaker 04

  I would, I would just not call it an illegal motorized use program.

• 1:15:08Speaker 05

  It's kind of like a tit, poaching tips program.

• 1:15:10Speaker 04

  That's what it is. A poaching tip line versus just like a poaching tip.

• 1:15:15Speaker 05

  Can I add something here, Cal?

• 1:15:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, go for it.

• 1:15:17Speaker 05

  That I think's important. We're not like, you're not attacking legal off-road use in any way, shape, or form, right?

• 1:15:25Speaker 03

  Like, in fact, if this would be protecting legal off-road use.

• 1:15:30Speaker 04

  Well, let's, let's also clarify something like, for the most part, when we're talking about off-road vehicles, we're talking about using off-road vehicles on, that's just what they're called, but you're using them on roads or established routes, right?

• 1:15:44Speaker 03

  Any of the off-road groups.

• 1:15:46Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:15:46Speaker 03

  They define off-road as anything off of pavement, tires off of pavement.

• 1:15:52Speaker 04

  It doesn't mean you're just driving wherever you want.

• 1:15:54Speaker 03

  Correct.

• 1:15:55Speaker 05

  Yeah, if it's an open road to trucks, four-wheelers, whatever.

• 1:16:01Speaker 03

  You are an off-roader.

• 1:16:02Speaker 05

  Like, you're an off-roader, but you're, you're allowed to be there.

• 1:16:05Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:16:06Speaker 05

  And we're not in any way attacking that practice at all. Hunters use that practice all the time. It's just the bad eggs that lead those legal routes.

• 1:16:19Speaker 04

  It's like poaching and hunting, right? You know, there's, just because you use an off-road vehicle doesn't mean you're tearing up trails. But there's an assumption that when people see torn up, like newly established roads where there shouldn't be roads and all that stuff, it's like the blame gets lumped on one party. And I think, you know, I'm, I'm always surprised when I talk to folks, it's obviously, it's obviously like can be confusing. It's a complicated process, but I'm surprised how many hunters out there are not as familiar as they should be with, with travel management plans. Right?

• 1:16:57Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 1:16:58Speaker 04

  Like, people need to educate themselves on where they can go and when and with what type of vehicle.

• 1:17:03Speaker 03

  And just like our example right there.

• 1:17:05Speaker 04

  Follow those rules, yeah.

• 1:17:06Speaker 03

  You have a trailhead that's properly posted. It's got the seasonal closures. And there's not a turnstile and a gate and all these things. A, it costs the American taxpayers way more money. B, it's restrictive to the legal users of that trail during that time's system, right? It is like, these are our public lands and there's like this idea that we're responsible enough humans to go out there and steward them ourselves. And, and that's a, a great example. It's like,

• 1:17:39Speaker 03

  here, here is, here's the law. Just follow it.

• 1:17:42Speaker 04

  And I think it's, it's easy for some people, you know, they get to a place where they're not supposed to drive past it, but they see that physically they can. And they're like, oh, go another two miles down this road. It's going to save me some time. It's going to save me some, some

• 1:17:57Speaker 04

  like heavy pack-out heartache.

• 1:18:01Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 1:18:01Speaker 04

  But you just got to, it's the same as following the game laws. You got to follow the rules no matter who's watching because ultimately the consequences for everybody.

• 1:18:11Speaker 05

  And I think it's important, and Cal kind of got to this earlier.

• 1:18:18Speaker 05

  This isn't all on hunters, right? Like, people might assume it is, but man, if I was a betting man, a hunter didn't drive through that, blow through that gate would be my guess. I can't say that for sure, but I'll bet you it wasn't a hunter.

• 1:18:32Speaker 03

  Oh, man. Gates are, are good friends.

• 1:18:35Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:18:36Speaker 03

  Good friends to, to hunters. And the reason is this. 88 million acres of Forest Service land outside of Capital W Wilderness

• 1:18:48Speaker 03

  is within a half a mile of a motorized road. And that does not include the motorized trails.

• 1:18:56Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:18:56Speaker 03

  Okay. Within half a mile of a motorized road. There's 259,000 miles of motorized roads on Forest Service land.

• 1:19:09Speaker 03

  Idaho, about 20,011 miles. Montana, 19,038. New Mexico, 11,810. Utah, 10,231. These are full-size vehicle roads. 15,695 miles of full-size vehicle road in Colorado's US Forest Service system. And then,

• 1:19:35Speaker 03

  again,

• 1:19:37Speaker 03

  you know, all like Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, if you are a member, of which I am, we have all paid for all of these studies that show the direct correlation of how and why and when elk move on our public lands in relation to motorized travel.

• 1:20:00Speaker 03

  And that's how a lot of these travel management plans were built. In part.

• 1:20:06Speaker 03

  Elk responses to humans in a densely roded area. Elk responses to trail-based recreation on public, public forests. Effects of road management on movement and survival of Roosevelt elk. Identifying migration corridors of mule deer threatened by highway development.

• 1:20:23Speaker 03

  The list goes on and on and on.

• 1:20:28Speaker 03

  And it's like,

• 1:20:33Speaker 03

  There, it's very hard at the end of the season to survey hunters out there on the landscape and say, would you like to see more access to the areas that you were hunting in terms of full-size vehicles? And the response is just not, is just not going to be yes.

• 1:20:55Speaker 04

  Right. So, big takeaway, follow the rules. Tell your buddies to follow the rules. If you see something, say something and earn yourself a little, uh, cash on the side. A little side hustle, reporting off illegal off-road vehicles.

• 1:21:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, put some more cash in that fuel tank.

• 1:21:17Speaker 04

  Alrighty, we've got yet another deer report, deer report number five, coming to us from Missouri. It's the one and only Mr. Brent Reeves.

• 1:21:29Speaker 06

  I just got into central Missouri yesterday evening. I left Yanni up in Kansas for, to hunt yesterday afternoon and today, I didn't give you the report on what we saw up there.

• 1:21:42Speaker 04

  Nothing.

• 1:21:43Speaker 06

  But I got down here, a lot of rain this morning. I haven't even been out to make a set yet. Rutting activity here from all reports is starting to pick up, but still it is warm. And for the love of humanity, can we not get a cold front? Now, this rain, I'm in a patch of not rain right now. It's holding off. There'll be another one come through mid-morning and I fixing to get out, get a set put up. I brought old Dave Smith decoy with me. Yanni had a little success with that, had some, uh, interaction with a couple of bucks that we rattled in in Kansas, but I'm going to try that here.

• 1:22:24Speaker 06

  I haven't had a camera out, so I'm actually going into this place blind, but it's a place that I've hunted before and was this close to getting a good one last year who's still walking around out there. So, I'll be bow hunting, um, from a saddle, central Missouri. Hopefully I won't get rained on this afternoon, but I'm looking forward to getting in, getting out there after holding a camera for eight days. With Yanni, it's nice to be holding a bow for the rest of this week here in Missouri. I can, hopefully we can get it done, but temperatures are supposed to start creeping downward, which is going to be good hopefully, but you know, the deer, they can't fight

• 1:23:09Speaker 06

  that genetic code. They've got to get out there and, and do their thing and only way to catch them doing it is to be in the tree when they are. So, good luck to everybody. That is your rut report for Brent, here in central Missouri. Y'all ever hunted over a decoy, a deer decoy?

• 1:23:27Speaker 03

  Negative.

• 1:23:29Speaker 06

  It's so fun. When it works, it's so fun.

• 1:23:32Speaker 04

  I want to put one in the backyard to try to draw some bucks off the neighbors.

• 1:23:36Speaker 03

  I, I lied. So, we had some, the old outfitter I worked for, he was a master of garage sales in the summer, right? And he got the, um, the cloth, like the old Montana decoy cloth, uh, whitetail deer decoys. And I used to go out and set our camp up and get everything cleaned up during archery season. Um, and would hunt the mornings and evenings, right? It was amazing time of life. And I was, I dug this whitetail decoy out and, and put it out and, uh, came to the conclusion

• 1:24:19Speaker 03

  that it smelled so strongly of the old outfitter's nicotine that it was largely, uh, an any animal deterrent. But that was my experience hunting.

• 1:24:34Speaker 04

  If you put that thing out there in the 50s and 60s, man.

• 1:24:38Speaker 03

  Cause they want, yeah.

• 1:24:40Speaker 04

  Cause in the 50s and 60s, it seemed like lit cigarettes were a buck attracting.

• 1:24:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. But yeah, so the, the deer would see this thing in the, in the field and then they'd swing around to the downwind side of it and they'd be like, oh, that smelled, smells like, uh, what the hell was it? Prince, Prince, uh, oh, he rolled his own cigarettes.

• 1:25:04Speaker 04

  Prince Albert?

• 1:25:05Speaker 03

  Prince Albert, I guess.

• 1:25:06Speaker 04

  Prince Albert in a can?

• 1:25:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly. Yep.

• 1:25:09Speaker 06

  We were using that, one of those hollow ones. It's a pack and then that morning, you just like, you'd touch a tree and it sounded like a snare drum. And I was thinking to myself, there's no way this is going to work. And so we both set up on it, kind of, you know, we kind of had the cone of death and we had, we had three, but we almost doubled up. When I shot mine, it crashed maybe 40 yards away and that brought in another buck who thought that it was our decoy messing around. He just didn't give my buddy a shot. That was most fun, most fun day of deer hunt I've ever had.

• 1:25:44Speaker 03

  Hmm. Heck yeah. Good to see that interaction.

• 1:25:48Speaker 04

  And we've got one final deer report for you here. Mark Kenyon, who just wrapped up his North Michigan archery hunt. Phil, roll that tape.

• 1:26:00Speaker 06

  Hey guys, coming to you, uh, on my way back from my rut hunt in northern Michigan, chasing whitetails with my bow. And, uh, you know, the conditions I was experiencing from a deer activity perspective were ramping up more and more does beginning to come into heat. Bucks with that, you know, so the rut was definitely starting to ramp up. I was seeing a lot of bucks cruising and some chasing happening. Uh, but the weather conditions were not ideal. We had kind of mid 60s for the highs on, on much of that trip, which especially in northern Michigan is not what you want this time of the year.

• 1:26:43Speaker 06

  And now as you can maybe hear and see in the window behind me, uh, rain too, which definitely, you know, adds some challenges to it. But all that said, um, you know, saw a lot of good stuff, had a lot of great encounters. And my big takeaway, my lesson learned, or I guess thing that this trip has left me thinking about.

• 1:27:01Speaker 03

  He looks like he's been hunting at night a lot.

• 1:27:03Speaker 06

  Beyond just that activity that I was seeing starting to ramp up and that should continue to ramp up over the next, you know, seven to 10 days. It was this idea of balance and, you know, making good decisions in the moment, which during the rut is especially hard because during the rut, we've got really high expectations and maybe we're putting pressure on ourselves because this is supposed to be the Superbowl of the whitetail season. This is when it's supposed to happen. So, you, you put some extra pressure on yourself. And then also in the moment, deer action, deer encounters, all of that is happening fast. You know, many times there's chasing or there's a buck all of a sudden showing up or there's a fight or there's, there's all these different things that, you know, during the rut just

• 1:27:47Speaker 06

  seemed to happen on steroids and then happened, you know, kind of fast forward. And I experienced that. Um, I had a really, really close call with the number one buck I was after, this one big, heavy-bodied, mature buck that was, uh, just a terrific buck from northern Michigan. He came in and did exactly what I wanted him to do in this setup. And in this area I was hunting, it's big woods, swampy terrain. This is not like your standard Midwest farm ground where there's very clear funnels and small pinch points and stuff like that. Um, this is all cover. And so the only kind of concentration of deer movement for the rut that I could find in this area was where a bunch of different cover types come together.

• 1:28:30Speaker 06

  And so when you have those edges, that creates a line of movement. So I had a bunch of different edges all coming together in one spot, uh, swamp, an old clear cut, a hemlock, which is like kind of evergreen tree stand, and a cut pipeline. All of this came together in this one spot. So there's all these lines of movement all converging. So that's where I was hunting. And this buck, I was, I was hoping he would do what I had seen the sign tell me he was doing and what my trail camera photos were showing me he was doing at times, which is coming down that pipeline, coming down one of those edges. And he did that. Uh, the downside was that he came through an area where, uh, I did not have a shooting lane. I had a spot where maybe I could have forced a shot and one other spot where maybe I could have forced a shot.

• 1:29:15Speaker 04

  Little bit of heartbreak coming to us from a rainy truck stop.

• 1:29:19Speaker 07

  That's hard, man.

• 1:29:20Speaker 05

  Lot of hunters excited about that rut, but it seems like it's letting them down a little bit.

• 1:29:25Speaker 03

  Well, that's, problem is.

• 1:29:27Speaker 05

  It's so early.

• 1:29:28Speaker 03

  Yes. Yeah, it is. Picking dates, right? It's hard.

• 1:29:32Speaker 06

  But it looks like we got some cold weather coming in.

• 1:29:35Speaker 03

  Is that true? I keep looking at 10-day forecasts. I'm like, oh.

• 1:29:40Speaker 06

  I'm always skeptical of 10-day forecasts, but a boy can dream.

• 1:29:43Speaker 05

  You're talking about here?

• 1:29:45Speaker 06

  No, across the north.

• 1:29:46Speaker 03

  Well.

• 1:29:48Speaker 04

  Let's hope so.

• 1:29:52Speaker 06

  Either way, they're going to be chasing.

• 1:29:54Speaker 05

  You know what they say, when it's the rut, you just got to be out there all day. Anything can happen.

• 1:29:58Speaker 04

  Well, it's, I mean, it's hunting season.

• 1:30:00Speaker 03

  Strap yourself to a tree.

• 1:30:02Speaker 04

  Yeah. I'm going to follow, uh, I'm going to follow Kevin Murphy's advice here.

• 1:30:11Speaker 03

  Hunt when you can.

• 1:30:12Speaker 04

  Hunt when you can. It's hunting season. Uh, you know, obviously we can't hunt when we're sitting here hosting the news show, but I'm going to hunt when I can and I'm going to make the most of the next couple of weeks.

• 1:30:23Speaker 05

  Weather, moon, all that stuff be damned.

• 1:30:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, if you wait, if you wait for the ideal conditions, you might sit out a couple of seasons.

• 1:30:29Speaker 03

  Neck strength and ability to regulate body temperature of a five-month-old child. Don't let that be a deterrent.

• 1:30:38Speaker 04

  Alrighty, well guys, this is fun. Listeners, viewers on YouTube, thanks for tuning in. This was yet another episode of the news show. We'll see you here next week. Good night.

• 1:31:20Steven Rinella?

  I'll tell you one thing that binds together all of the vehicles in the Rinella fleet at my house, they all have WeatherTech floor liners. When we get a new car, the first thing we do, out with the junky factory carpet mats, in with WeatherTech. They really are the best. They're indestructible. You can pull them out, hose them off. It doesn't matter what happens on the floor of your rig. If you've got WeatherTech, you're going to be covered. I love these things. If you're looking to get a great gift for someone, especially if they're a big time outdoors kind of person, like if you really want to do them a favor, get them some WeatherTech floor liners for their truck or car. They'll have a way easier time keeping their rig nice and clean, and they'll get years and

• 1:32:02Steven Rinella?

  years of use out of a set. Visit weathertech.com for your holiday shopping today. 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

• 1:32:45Steven Rinella?

  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.

• 1:32:59Speaker 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.

• 1:33:14Steven Rinella?

  When you're miles deep in the mountains and carrying everything you need on your back, your boots aren't gear you think about, they're what you depend on. That's why western hunters trust Zamborland. And man, I'm telling you, I've been running around in some Zamborlands. They are so comfortable and just well-built and feel great in the hills. Family-owned and handcrafted in Italy through three generations, Zamborland boots combine nearly a century of bootmaking expertise with premium materials and new innovations for any pursuit, game, and terrain. They're comfortable, supportive, resolable, and built for the long haul. From rocky desert to steep shale slopes, Zamborland's perfected their craft to ensure your success.

• 1:33:56Steven Rinella?

  Head to zamborlandusa.com for handcrafted boots for every season. Zamborlandusa.com. You're gonna love getting your feet into a set of these.

• 1:34:07Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.