Latest / The MeatEater Podcast / Ep. 868: Clay and Bear’s Alaskan Coast Black Bear Hunt | 12 in '26

Transcript

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

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is Bear Newcomb's first time to Alaska.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: He's nineteen years old. I really think it's.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: Going to impact probably the rest of his life.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: There's just some landscapes in the world that just seemed
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to just grab you. It's hard to describe.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: This place is like exotic and wild and dangerous and
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: beautiful and just has a whole different five. That's what's
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: so incredible about Planet Earth is you go different places
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: and you bring something home with.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: You that's unique. I'm really excited to see what.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Bear brings home.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: Hey everybody, this is Clay Nukeomb And the clip that
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: you just heard is from our film Southeast Alaska Boat
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Based Bears that's on the Meat Eater YouTube channel, and
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: it was This film is about when me and my
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: son Bear John went to Southeast Alaska last spring twenty
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: twenty five and hunted with our friend and outfitter David
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Bennett's on his big old crabbing boat and shrimp and boat,
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: the Sandpiper. It was an incredible hunt, an incredible time.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: And it's episode three of Meat Eaters twelve and twenty six.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: And this what you're listening to what you're watching. So
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: there's a video of this on the Meat Eater Podcast
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: YouTube channel, but you could also listen to this on audio.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: If you're listening to this, this is the Companion Podcast
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: where we're gonna give behind the scenes, and like I
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: said before, there's only so much that a video can show.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, imagery is beautiful and powerful and you can see,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: but there's just so much that goes on behind the scenes.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: And that's what we're gonna talk about today. I have
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: with me my main sidekick, Josh Landbridge spilmmaker, and we're
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: about to talk about this whole Hunt with Bear, which
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: was really spat I mean, kind of the key features
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: of it were, first of all, Southeast Alaska, which is
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: just a phenomenal place. I mean, anybody that loves wilderness, hunting,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: epic landscapes, I mean Southeast Alaska. Yeah, rivals any place
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: I've ever been on Planet Earth number one, Number two.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: What was cool about this film was I got to
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: go with my with my son Bears now twenty.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: At the time, he was nineteen years old and it
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: was his first trip to Alaska. I've heard somebody say it.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: People have said it since they saw the film, but
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: there's a pretty famous quote about somebody saying don't go
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: to Alaska when you're young. Oh really, Yeah, they're like,
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: don't go to Alaska when you're young, because everywhere else
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: you go after that will be a lesser place. I mean,
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: that's kind of the idea and obviously the intent of that.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: So you've ruined your son basely.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Well, really, what the.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: Guy is saying is that Alaska is an incredible place
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: and you should go. But I took Baar on there
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: for the first time and it was it was it
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: was really awesome.
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: Well great, Well, this is, likelay said, this is a
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: companion podcast. If you haven't watched the film, go to
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: YouTube search the meat Eater channel and watch the film
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: called Southeast Alaska boat Boat Based Bears and you'll you'll
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: get see the film and then get to follow along
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: with what we're talking about today. Also, if you're listening
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: to this podcast on one of our audio platforms, know
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: that there's a video of it on YouTube as well,
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: So come enjoy the video of this companion podcast. But
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: we got some great clips. You know, you kind of
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: mentioned Alaska and that it's it's a special place. Is
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: there anything specifically that that makes it a special place?
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: Specifically for hunting well.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Just the I said early in the film that it's
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: it's arguably the best place in the world to hunt
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: black bears for for numbers of bears that you're going
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: to see, and for even size of bears.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, for many, many years.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: The biggest bears black bears in North America, in the world.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Black bears are endemic to North America. They only live here.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: Was on Prince of Wales Island, which we were hunting
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: within one hundred miles of Prince of Wales's Island. So
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: the bears they're big, have big skulls. Bears are measured
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: by their skull so that's not necessarily way. The biggest
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: bears weight wise in the world are typically in the
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: southeast North Carolina.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: The growing seasons are longer, but for skull size, Southeast
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Alaska has big bears, so bears just get old there.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Southeast Alaska is a rain for us. They get over
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: one hundred inches of rain per year and that's one
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: of the biggest challenges of hunting there. But it also
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: makes for this like incredibly productive and rich environment that
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: just causes animals to bears to go big. And it's
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: partly because well, southeast Alaska is not I mean it's
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: sea level, right, it is far north right, but like,
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: it doesn't have really extreme winters, so the bears actually
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: stay out of their dens, you know, typical to what
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: bears in the lower forty eight would like. Okay, now,
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: a bear in the interior of Alaska would be sleeping
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: for as many as as much as six months of
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: the year.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: In my bear book that's coming out spring of twenty seven,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: we cite the longest hibernating bear ever recorded by science,
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: which it was in the last interior.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm not going to give that number.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: You're gonna have to check the book out, but it
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: was incredibly it was more than half of the year
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: the bear was hibernating bears. That means smaller bears, is
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: that right, right, they're just out less.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: They're eating less.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: These coastal bears are out for longer, and they grow.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: Bigger, and they're eating primarily.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: I mean, they're eating a lot of vegetation. But in
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: the early spring, the woods, the berries haven't produced yet.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, think about the cycle of the spring. It's wintertime,
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: there's no berries. Vegetation has to grow and then berries
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: grow so like midsummers when berries to the end of
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: the summers, when berries and stuff come out.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: So early spring, I said it.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: Southeast Alaska has really big tide swings, which means I
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: don't understand the science of it, But there are places
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: where the tide swings are much less, so like the
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: water would go down like say a foot or two
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: and would expose just like small amounts of the shore.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Every day. Man, in parts, we were seeing places where
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: the tide would push out like hundreds of yards daily,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: really yes, like daily daily, like multiple times per day
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: it would the edge of the water would be way
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: up there, and then four hours later the edge of
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: the water would be hundreds of yards.
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: Well, you mentioned the difficult one point. You mentioned the
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: difficulty of getting to the shore without you know, without
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: having to get the water above your boots.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: That's one of the biggest challenges that like somebody like
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: me who wouldn't know just the ends. I mean, I've
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: been there several times, but still like the ins and
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: outs of how to navigate that country. Anytime you go
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: to the shore, you got to be thinking about the tide, right,
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: because if you get out of the boat and you're
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: gone for an hour, you could come back and your
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: boat could be on dry land and you'd be sitting
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: there for six eight hours, whatever the cycle is, and
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: that it might be the middle of the night before
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: you know, the tide comes back in and then you
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: can't drive in the night. So there's all kind of challenges.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: And that's probably the biggest thing that stands out to
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: me when I go there. And and honestly, why going
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: with somebody that's a veteran like David Bennetz or I mean,
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: I don't even know that I would have enjoyed it
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: if I had gone by myself because of how treacherous
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: it is.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, you're you're on big water.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: We were crossing like this big channel that took you know,
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: I don't I don't want to say multiple hours, but
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: huge channels like out of like big open water and
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: like these small skills just.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Which to me is scary because if you go down,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: you die. I don't want to jump ahead.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: But like you asked in that interest that Alaska is
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: like scary and exotic, and.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: It is to me that's like the top of the list.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: Like if I were just listing the things that stood
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: out to me on any hunt in Southeast Alaska, it's
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: it's a little bit of fear and that made just
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: be me. But I mean, just like being on that
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: big water and so many times been with Steve Vernella,
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: I've been with David, been with others, and I always
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: ask the same question. We'll be like a quarter mile
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: from the shore, like you just feel like you could
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: just like jump in and just like swim right. And
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: I say, if we went down right now, would we survive?
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: And everybody's like, no, you did.
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: There's a high potential for risk there it is.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: And those guys just don't think a thing about it.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: And it's just every day just.
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: Go wow, wow. Well we've got we've got some great
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: clips coming up. We've also got some questions and comments
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: from UH our audience who've watched the film and left
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: comments on social media and on YouTube. So without further ado,
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: we'll do it.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Let's do it.
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: Jump into our next clip. So we're opened to do
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: some shrimping, a little crab.
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: In this week, eat some good food.
• 9:55
  Speaker 6: We're gonna get back into a little a little cove
• 9:58
  Speaker 6: that's secluded from the wind, and we're gonna anchor or
• 10:03
  Speaker 6: we're gonna send down our pots and then this afternoon
• 10:07
  Speaker 6: we're hoping to do some bear hunting. This bear hunting
• 10:11
  Speaker 6: with weather like this, it's it's really only gonna be
• 10:13
  Speaker 6: good probably the last couple of hours of daylight.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: But the days are long. It's middle of May. But
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: maybe we'll catch some shrimp.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we got some shrimp.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Look at there, sweet, Wow, those are a lot bigger.
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: Than I thought.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: You know, there's some meat on that good dungeoness crab.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Look at that guy.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: Go ahead, you cut.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Up some more bait, bear rebait, thees you got lots.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Get Let me have friends over to an inlander like me.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: The availability of this exotic protein is wild, and it's
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: one of the coolest parts.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Of being with David on the sandpipe.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Seafood, dungeoness crab and spot shrimp are a rare delicacy.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: But we'll need full bellies for the long afternoon hunt.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Man. That's good.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: We're crawling around on the bottom of the ocean.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: About two hours spoken.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: So for guys here in Arkansas going to Alaska, tell
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: us what it was like to be able to add
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: that as part of your trip.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Have you ever been to Captain D's.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: Once or twice, Yes, is that what it's like?
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: Oh, it's almost as good as Captain D's. That's the
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: only thing we have to relate to you Captain D's.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: You get there like seafood combo platter, and you get
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: an actual like shell of a crab, Yes, like a
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: real crab Captain D's.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: So this video is sponsored by on X and Multie
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: trailcra Cameras, but not by Captain D's.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: Not by Captain Des. You know, that was always one
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: of the things. I've known David for a long time
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: and uh follow him on social media and we've been
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: friends for over a decade, and uh, that was one
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: of the most intriguing things he always showed pictures of
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: was his shrimp and crabbing. He's David's a commercial crabber,
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: which is dungeness crab and uh that's what that boat
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: primarily is used for.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: And uh, yeah, it's it's it's a lot of work.
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: You know, it seems to me when I watched this
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: any of these videos, Uh, you know, just like shows,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: it's just like pitching a pot in the water and
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: coming back and right shrimp like that was hours long work.
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: So you guys pitched those off like in the morning
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: and went back in the evening and got them. Yeah,
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: was that was that? We let them sit for a
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: night okay, overnight.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we put them out the first day on
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: the way into the bay. And the logistics of the thing,
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: I said it, but you can't just park that boat
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: out in like the main channel and sleep. I mean,
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: the water just gets too crazy. And so you got
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: to find this Like we found this David knew at
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: this little secluded cove that was really tight and just
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: like kept you you know, away from the wind and stuff.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: And so we on the way there, we dropped our
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: shrimp pops. Okay, and there are real specific rules about
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: non residents shrimping, and you know, originally the original cut
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: we had this whole section about the legality of us
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: catching shrimp and how many we could keep and all this.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: We ended up cutting it. But you know, there's a
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: lot of regulation.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: You have to report to the elastica Game and Fish
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: how many, how much shrimp that you catch. It's pretty wild,
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: like they're keeping train of all that, you know. Yeah, yeah,
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: and so we we submitted all that.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: Did you guys eat shrimp and stuff? Every day.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: No, not every day.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: We had two big cookouts where we ate dungeonus crab
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: and shrimp.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll be honest with you.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: What I realized was how critical hush Puppies, French fries
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: and Coast Law are because we had all this incredible,
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: first rate seafood, and I was kind of like, hey, minute.
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: Where's the where's the carbs, where's the Coast.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Law and the potatoes? You know? Yeah, I can't complain
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: it was. It was really great.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: Uh cut Cama chika xbox. The YouTube comment This is
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: a YouTube commenter said, I wanted to see more of
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: the cooking on the boat. The meals looked amazing.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: He basically boiled all that. He had a propane cooker,
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: big pot.
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: He seasoned it all and I mean, was it pretty
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: just straightforward? Man?
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: If if we'd have been in Louisiana, he we would have.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: He seasoned it some, but it wasn't heavily seasoned. Yeah,
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: it's pretty district. Were huge they were. You'd be surprised
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: how much they cooked down though, Like those those spot
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: shrimp would be as long as your hand, like it,
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: I mean for real that long. And but when they
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: would cook down they would be like that long and
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: you know, yeah big as your thumb, you know, bigger,
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: a little longer, but yeah cool.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: Well let's uh, let's go to our next clip here
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: for those of you on the audio platform, were watching
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: video of Clay shooting the selth bow on the orange
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: bow of the boat. This o sage came a far property.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: But I made this bow last summer, killed a couple
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: critters with it. But it's got coppy red skins on
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: the back. There some turkey feathers. Pronghorn Osaye orange is
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: the king of North American wood for making bows. This
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: is the primitive archery tool. I mean we could have
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: used like a sinew string. This is a modern string.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Uh are our broadheads are are gonna be modern metal broadheads.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: But the actual bow itself is as primitive as they come.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: It's one piece. It's it's called a self bow, and
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: a self bow means that it's what does that mean
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: it relies on itself for strengths.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't mean that you made it self bow
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: means that it relies on its own own self for
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: strength as opposed to a laminated bow.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: And this thing is full. This is this thing will
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: kill any animal in North America period. But you're you're limited.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, you need to be close and I'm going
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: to try to be within ten yards, and so it's
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: going to take probably a lot of stocks. We're gonna
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: have to try to find the right bear that's doing
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: the right thing, that's in the right place, and then
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Bear with his rifle looking for a big one going after.
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: So, and in the film you mentioned the hunter education
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: requirements for bear. You're hunting with the bear the bow
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: that Bear made, Now, was the original intent for bear
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: to hunt with that bow?
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Yes?
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: It was, okay, so tell us about that.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: So Bear Nukom and I were headed to Alaska, both
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: of us with our self boats that he made we
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: were gonna do.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: We were both gonna hunt with them. And on the
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: way they.
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: So you had two self boaths we did okay.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: And on the way there, I woke up like in
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: the night, just like my eyes just like sprung open,
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: and I remembered from like ten years ago when I
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: bow hunted in Alaska. I had to get a bow
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: hunter's education course and card to be able to bow
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: hunt in Alaska from the sun from Alaska. But just
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: like a Certified bow Hunter Education Course. Okay, I was
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: able to take it here in Arkansas, but you get
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: this card and it's good.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: You know, all the states honor it.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: And I realized that Bear didn't have that, and so
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: I go, Bear, you you can't legally bow hunt in Alaska,
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: which is just such a technicality. But but obviously we
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: we had honored and so we were able to get Uh.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: We actually borrowed that.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: Six point five PRC from Jannis Putelus just like at
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: the last minute sent it up there. And so yeah,
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: Bear was really bummed, but it ended up working out good.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: I wish I could have shot the rifle and Bear
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: could have bow hunted though, right, you know, because it
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: was just way harder than I thought it was going
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: to be. It just uh, I mean, well we can,
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: we can get into it. I want to I want
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: to say something else about that clip. Misty nukemb my wife,
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: the keyed in on this comment.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: This guy tagged that section and he said, typical, Dad,
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: move son builds a bow with his own hands. Dad
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: explains there were a couple of people that were like,
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: my goodness, Clay sure talks a lot, you know, and
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: Misty loved those comments.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: She was spreading up. She was like showing everyone. She
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, yeah, I mean.
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: So that in that same vein tell us a little
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: more about that bowl.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Like I gladly tell you about bear's self.
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: Both that he made.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: The bow was fifty pounds, which is, you know, just
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: about the right way.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: And I had some people say, oh, that bow's way more.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: You could shoot an animal further than that, and you
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: absolutely could. That was like a self self induced regulation
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: of my own you know. I just knew for my proficiency,
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: and I have hunted with a traditional bow enough to
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: know that I just wanted to be inside of ten yards. Honestly,
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: I wanted to shoot one at five and so I
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: just in my mind just committed to that. And it
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: was harder than I thought. And I just felt like
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: there was going to be more terrain features that.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Would help us get close to bears. That's what I thought.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: And I found a lot more of these bears just
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: on these like wide open beaches. There was there were
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: sections of where we were hunting that was like real rocky,
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: big bluffy stuff like on the ocean. But it was
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: first of all, why would a bear be there? Like
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: the beaches where there was all this grass and the
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: low tides where they were coming out to feed on
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: muscles and different stuff like, that's where they wanted to be.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: So we were trying to find one like up in
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: the rocks, but we just never truly did.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Well.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: You would see him, but but then the wind might
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: be blowing so hard that like you couldn't get the
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: boat up there without without problems, and so we just
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: kept making stock after stock.
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: But so, you know, you talked about the gamut of hunting,
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: you know, modern versus primitive. You know, most modern would
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: be a you know, a rifle like like that, a
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: precision rifle like that with a scope all the way
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: to you know, you know, kind of down the list
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: would be like a compound bow, and then like a recurve,
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: and then you've gotten all the way to a self bow,
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: which is you know, homemade one piece of wood, right
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: tell us, you know, for for those who wouldn't have
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: a lot of knowledge of hunting with primitive weapons, like
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: what's the motivation in doing that? Why why limit yourself?
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: Why use something that wouldn't be as a effective as
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: a rifle? Why those self imposed restrictions?
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: So everywhere that I've ever bear hunted.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: To me, the landscape and the numbers of bears and
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: the numbers of opportunity kind of dictate what kind of
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: weapon I've hunted out west in Montana's spot and stock before.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: And you can go out there and hunt for a
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: full week and just see a handful of bears and
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: maybe get one opportunity. Okay, I would never dream of
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: taking a self blow there, right, because I mean, in
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: my experience, I think I've been to Montana seven times
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: and hunting the spring for like a week at a time,
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: and typically on average, I get one to two opportunities
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: at a bear and a whole week, you know. So yeah,
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: Southeast Alaska, I knew we would see multiple bears per day.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: I don't know how we didn't say this in the film,
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: but one day we saw nineteen bears.
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: A couple of days we didn't see any bears because
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: it was just raining and we didn't hunt.
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: How many miles of coastline? Would you say that.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: David Bennett's is a wild animal in that skiff he
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: would drive, I'm telling you we we were in that
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: skiff sometimes for I don't want to exaggerate, but I
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: want to say twelve hours.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: I mean like really driving. Wow, I mean we were
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: going fifty sixty seventy miles. I mean like.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: It was more than I wanted. I hope David doesn't
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: watch this. David, I love you so much.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: The stories you told me about David Bennett's is that
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: dude is hardcore.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: He is.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: He is a veteran Alaskan huntering god and just relentless.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Like that first day, you know when when I said it.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: Was just pouring rain and cold and we got in
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: that boat and we went on like a six hour
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: afternoon run. You know, I was like, did you expect?
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: Are you surprised we didn't a bear? And he was like, no,
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: I didn't think we'd see one.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: I mean what I wanted.
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: To I just wanted to spend six hours, Like why.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Didn't we stay in the boat and drink coffee. I mean,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: I'm usually on.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: A hunt the one wanting to go, and I would
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: much rather have a hunting partner that was wanting to
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: go rather than one you were like dragging around. I
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: mean that's kind of a to me, a requisite for
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: a good hunting partner, somebody that just wants to go.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Because we all know.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: I mean, man, I can tell you success in hunting
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: is all about just going. I mean, and we all
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: know people that that that maybe just don't have quite
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: as much drive, and they enjoy hunting for different reasons,
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: I mean, just being there and experience. But David is
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: David's hardcore, and we spent some brutal days in that
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: dang boat.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: And he was used to it.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's just like if you went mule riding
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: with some of these guys that I ride with over here,
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: we might ride, we might ride for twelve hours, and
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: maybe we don't think much of it.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: You take somebody that's not been on the mule much
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: and they would be going, holy cow, how do you
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: do it? Same way? Being in a boat on that water, cold, wet, windy.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: To me, it was like that. It was just like
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: holy cow.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: And I mean a film can only show so much.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: The other thing is that I kept talking about bad weather,
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: and like every scene that opened up with me going.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Man, the weather.
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: It's true, It's true.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: I thought about that. I mean, obviously we only filmed
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: during good weather, right, so in eight days you saw
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: all the windows of good weather, if that makes sense.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: I mean there were there were I think two full
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: days that we pretty much lost, and then even on
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: those good weather days, there would be periods.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: That it would just be bad weather.
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Mister Spaceley three two one on YouTube said, I
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: guess when you get to Clay's level, you try to
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: make the hunt as difficult as possible for the thrill
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: of it.
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: Is that your motivation of No, and I didn't finish
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: what I was saying about why I chose what I chose.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: I knew in southeast Alaska I would have a lot
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: of opportunity, and I just felt like it would be
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: the place to get really close to bears and I
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: wanted to. I mean I used it for seven little
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: trad history for seven years, probably from twenty fifteen to
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty one or two. Traditional archy was my primary weapon.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: Like I didn't always sometimes I rifle hunted, but that
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: was my go to thing that I brought and I
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: killed multiple bears killed, deer killed. I mean, I had
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: success with it. And then, man, just to be completely
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: frank about it, it was so much work and so
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: hard that I just kind of was like, Hey, I
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: did it. Yeah, I think I'm gonna go back to
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: the compound, And it's kind of funny. Inside of hunting circles,
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: you'd have people that would be like, oh, you know,
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: he shouldn't have done that, or a sellout or something. Man,
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: I don't view it.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I used to would have.
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: I've also learned that it's kind of problematic to have
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: opinions about hunting because.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: People can disagree with you.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: But I mean, I grew up with a very exclusive
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: mentality about bow hunting being like the superior way to hunt,
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: and I just don't It's just not true. I don't
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: believe that anymore. There are times when I love to
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: limit myself to the extreme, and then there are other
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: times when I'm like thrilled to be out there with
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: a rifle. And so that's just the way I think
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: about it. And I wanted to use that bow because
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: Bear had made it.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: I wanted to.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: I mean really, that was honestly why I did it.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Like if I had just gone with somebody else, I
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: might have taken a compound or might have taken a rifle.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to kind of.
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: So you limited your range to the self bow to
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: ten yards. Had you had a compound, what would be
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: the difference between shooting the primitive bow and the modern bow.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: I would have killed a bear probably on the first
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: or second day.
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: And effectively you could reach out how many yards?
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's again a subjective question, but I would
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: have shot a bear for sure out to forty yards.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean, you know.
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: And you have many opportunities.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't say, I don't want to exaggerate how many
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: of the twenty one stalks, but I was within thirty
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: yards of that seven foot bear on like day five. Yeah,
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: I was within forty yards of several of them, you
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: know that were so And I said it it's kind
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: of not that hard to get to fifty yards, right,
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: to close the distance inside of there, You've got to
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: do a lot of things right, And I man, you
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: see your weakness when you are exposed that much to stalking.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: I mean, I've never stalked that many bears in a week,
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: And so you learn so much and and boy, there's
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of different skill levels. David was critiquing
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: my stalks, you know, I mean.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: He's he doesn't he does bow hunt.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: He exclusively bow hunts, and most hunting an Alaska spot in stalk.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: So I mean he's a master, I would say. I mean,
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: that's just the way he hunts, right, I'm probably proficient.
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: You know, most of my hunting for archery stuff has
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: been out of a tree stand or round blind.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, we don't do as.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: Much stalking, So I don't claim to be the best
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: spot in stock hunter in the world at all, or
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: there's a dumb way to say it.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: But I mean, like I don't.
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: It's not like, let's just say you're the best spot
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: in stock archery hunter in the room.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Well, you're probably pretty good, Josh.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: But well great, Well let's watch another quick clip here.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: This is a not fun part of Southeast alast Goa
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: just rains all the time.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: I was so cold right there, I thought I was
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: gonna die, really serious, really.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Old West, Like I tell you, had to spring.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: Dive in the bear.
• 30:32
  Speaker 6: Don't like the rain.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: So I'm trying to do the best I can to
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: waterproof these fletchings. That didn't work at all. Really, Oh,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: we're gonna be in some suitous David laughed at me
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: when I put that on the whole week. It didn't
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: really work. If I was using you know, just modern
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: archery equipment, I would.
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: Be using veins, which are plastic fletchings.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: But these are real, real feathers, and they'll get matted
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: down if they get super wet, and it affects airflight.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: But this little magic powder will help a little bit.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: May have to do it a couple times over the trip.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: I was a little bit worried we were gonna get
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: stopped by the coast guard and they were gonna see
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: this little ziplocked bag of white power. It's like a
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: teflon powder. It's made for archery. Perhaps in like a drizzle,
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: it would it would keep your feathers up, but just
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: in like non stop downpour, it really didn't do that much.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: That's another reason why I wanted only ten yards, because
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: airflight at longer distance becomes exaggerated by things like if
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: your feathers are matted down or whatever. So like that
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: was another reason. I was just like, I'm probably gonna
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: be shooting a bear with wet feathers.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: I want to be close.
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: So the weather definitely came into play. I mean that
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: that limited your the amount of time you could hunt.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: That's right, yeah, for sure.
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: Okay, all right, let's watch this next clip.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: Here we spot a big bear on the shoreline.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Sometimes they're stationary and feeding and they're just staying there.
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: But a lot of times they're traveling and this one
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: is moving. We make a move to interceptor.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: They left me at the boat and they were like,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: you stay at the boat, young man. Oh yeah, man,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: that was crazy, big bear. I don't think I've ever
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: shot a bear in such a pretty place. That was
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: one of them. I saw the whole thing holding the
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: boat down there.
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: Think of God, look big, yeah, huge to get a
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: good shot, I think, So.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: You find them? Yeah yeah, oh man, Alaskan bear. Man, man,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: These Alaskan bears have some big old pans on their feet.
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: Yep, so big bear there. It was. What did the
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: bear square?
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: The bear squared six foot six to six foot eight.
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: I can't exactly remember, but it was a It was
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: a top shelf bear.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: I mean.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: A seven footer is like big.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah you all you hear pete? Oh yeah, let's get
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: on this. How big bears are. For years I had
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: Bear Hunting magazine and for a decade like bears were
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: my entire world, and people and about bears talking about bears,
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: and I was amazed that all the people that always
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: talked about seven foot square bears, And the square of
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: a bear is you take a green hide, like a
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: freshly skinned hid, right, stretch it out, measure from the
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: base of the tail to the tip of the nose.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: That's one measurement, and then measure claw to claw on
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: the front arms.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Of the bear.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: Take the average of that number. So add those two
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: together divide by two.
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: That's they're typically close.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, usually they are.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: And I've always been amazed that how many people told
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: me that they had killed seven foot bears or seen
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: seven foot bears.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: The only.
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: I've seen, like with my own eyes in a camp,
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: and I used to hunt a lot in Canada and
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: would be in camps where multiple bears per week were
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: being killed.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: And I have personally only seen with my own.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: Eyes maybe two seven foot bears that were killed.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: So they're incredibly rare.
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: Wow, it's kind of like one hundred typical one seventy whitetail.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: It's like.
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: They're just not that many of them. And maybe people say, yeah,
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: as one seventy, but really when you score it is
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: one sixty three, right.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: You know. So I find that to be with bears.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: And so when I say that a six and a
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: half foot square to six foot eight square bears top shelf.
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: I think that's pretty accurate, that bear. So we when
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: we checked it, we sent the tooth. They took a
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: tooth in the Alaska game and fished does a really
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: good job. They sent bear a letter and that bear
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: was fifteen years old.
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: Tell me what the name of that process was, you said.
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: Cementum ANNUALI it's so, you know, they tooth They they
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: give toothage estimates on toothwear for deer, like you just
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: kind of look at a jaw, and guys give estimates
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: and we all know that those very inaccuracy. But cementum annually,
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: it's basically like they cut a tooth in half and
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: look the annual growth rings like a true a diet.
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: Look at it under a microscope. It's done at a
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: professional lab. Me and you could take the teeth of
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: any animal that we wanted. You could pull one of
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: your teeth and we could send it in to have
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: its cementum annuli aged at the Matson Lab in Montana.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: But be bear was fifteen years old. Somebody made a
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: good comment.
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: They were like bear and that bear were almost the
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: same age' true, it's true. Another thing That's interesting to
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: me is that if you'd have told me bear was
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: going to kill a fifteen year old boar, I would
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: have been tempted to be like, oh, man, I bet
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: it'll be a boon and Crockett animal. I bet it
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: be seven foot square boon and Crockett. And bears are
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: just like people. Me and you are about the same age,
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: but like I'm just smaller than your smaller frame. Bears
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: are the same way. So that bear wasn't getting even bigger, okay?
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: And would that bear have changed skull size over the year.
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: I've debated that with so many people, talk to biologists
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: all over the country, and I don't think anyone really
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: knows the full answer. It's but like a bear, like,
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: is your skull getting bigger with age?
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: Brain?
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: Your ears are in your nose?
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: That my mustache.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: That's actually fact. I wasn't, you know, poking fun at the.
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: Mustache.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, size of their mustache. It's possible that a bear
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: could calcilify parts of its skull and get a little
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: bit bigger. But really, I've never had a biologist tell me,
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: And like, science isn't necessarily trying to understand the answer
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: of that, because there's not a big reason for it,
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: So I don't know if they get bigger. They obviously
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: get bigger up until the time they're fully mature. The
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: biggest bear that I have ever killed on the boers
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: crocket scoring system was six years old. The bear way
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: three hundred and sixty pounds and had a twenty and
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: eight sixteenth inch skull.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's a Boon and crocket skull.
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: And I have also killed more than one five hundred
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: pound bear that did not score boone Krockett that was
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: much older.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: I've killed an.
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: Eleven year old, nine year old and another older bear,
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: and none of them scored Boon and Crockett. The six
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: year old bear scored Boonu Krakka, So it's genetics.
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: That was one hundred and forty pounds lighter.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Yep, wow, yeah.
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: Interesting. We had an Instagram question talking about how did
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: you get the meat back to Arkansas.
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: So David has a commercial freezer on the Sandpiper. We
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: quarded that bear up, put it on there, and then
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: put it completely frozen in ice chests and just had
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: it shipped back to Arkansas. So in the town we
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: were in, they ship a lot of salmon and so
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: there were commercial companies that shipped frozen goods. So we
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: took it to this place and they.
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: Package, they ship whole quarters.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just shipped it right here. Okay, yep, pretty wild, awesome.
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: You can also check of a cooler, you know, duct
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: tape the cooler. I mean, it's not cheap, It's never
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: cheap to do that, but yeah, it was good.
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: Do you know how many approximately, how many pounds of
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: meat you got?
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: I don't even remember.
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: Okay, well, let's we got another clip here quickly following
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: that bear kill.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: So these are some stone knives. This when I made,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: That's when a buddy made me. But these are flint
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: apped and they're razor sharp.
• 39:51
  Speaker 5: But this is what people would have skinned animals with
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: for long before we got here, and so we're going
• 39:56
  Speaker 5: to try the mout on this bear.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: It's believed the first humans to come on to the
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: North American continent passed through southeast Alaska, and without a doubt,
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: they use stone tools to kill and butcher game. In
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: a world where a lot of young people spend a
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: lot of their lives behind screens, I'm glad to see
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: bear John interested in primitive hunting technology. I'm grateful for
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: steel blades and technology. Hey, but I think skinning a
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: bear with a rock put the modern world in perspective.
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: So tell us what that was like. So using this,
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: do you feel like how effective were they? Were they?
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, did you find yourself at a significant disadvantage
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: using the flint mat knives over a modern steel knife.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say if you characterize it like that,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: it would it would take a lot longer to use
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: a flint knife. It just would have.
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: But still effective.
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: It works like if it's all you had, you could
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: absolutely skin it.
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: And those were flint, yeah, those blades were yeah.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they can re sharpen them.
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: So we did a video a couple of years ago
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: where we me and Steve Vanilla and Ryan Callahan and
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: Spencer Newhart skinned the entire bison using stone tools and
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: we had a guy there that was sharpening them for
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: us as we went.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: And because they get dull, just like a knife and.
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: Nap it, get it sharp again, and uh, I mean
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: it probably takes twice as long, but I mean that's
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: not that big a deal. Like if it took you
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: like an hour to skin a bear, it would take
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: you maybe two. And again the video can't show everything,
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: and we weren't trying to be We were trying to
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: show exactly what happened. You see a picture of David
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: helping him skin that with a with a regular knife,
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: and David did, like we bear just was jumped in
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: there and it was getting dark and had to get
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: back to the boat before dark, and so we had
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: some time constraints. So we didn't I didn't want to
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: be like I mean, I guess in some ways you
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: might think, well, he skinned the whole bear by that
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: with that, but David actually helped him, you know, but
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: you absolutely could if all you had was a flint
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: knife and a way to sharpen it, you could skin
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: any animal in North America.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: People have been doing that for longer than we had steel.
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: That's it kind of blows your mind when you think
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: about it. How long have we had steel as humans?
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: I mean a couple thousand years, right, you know that
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: we were using I mean, we were using stone technology
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: for who knows how way longer. Yep, we've had steel
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: and humans survived, they lived, they ate, they butchered meat.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: We know that. I mean, it's pretty kind of a
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: neat idea and and I really Bear it is cool
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: that he is focused on those things.
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: Speaking of that, I actually didn't even mean for this
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: to happen, but I was. We had a big rain
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: last night and our Arkansas I was wandering around the
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: mule pasture this morning and picked up these stone tools
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: out of my front yard. These are broken stone points,
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: airheads or you know, add addle dart heads. Wow, that
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: were in the mule pasture this morning. Evidence of ancient
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: bow hunting right here where we're amazing recording this podcast.
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: So what was it like getting to watch Bear kill
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: that bear from a distance there and just seeing them
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: do that. It had to be pretty rewarding and fulfilling.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, it was cool.
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: You know, You've got four kids and they've all at
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: times hunted, you know, different differing levels of engagement and
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: passionate about hunting. But watching Bear do something that you're
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: also passionate about, man, that's got to be got to
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: be cool to see.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: It really is. And I.
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: It may seem like this was all planned for Bear
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: to just be a really passionate hunter, but it really wasn't.
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, we never like made our kids, you know,
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: follow these passions that I had right, We just kind
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: of took them. It was a major part of their life.
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: And Bear is a of the kids. This is the
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: one who's kind of taking it the furthest so far,
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: you know, but all the others like to hunt too.
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, all right, here's an next clip.
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: Bear didn't believe in Wales. He had to see one
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: first before he believed it.
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: Didn't believe him.
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: It was just wasn't totally convinced.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: That there's a giant fish that just jumps out of
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: the water, a mammal of things that suckles, it's young
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: with milk. This is ridiculous hard, But now we believe
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: they're right there.
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: Wow, this was a hump back away else.
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: Yep, this was so crazy that we have given anything
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: to bring one of those rib bones.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: In fact, we pick it up. We just can't take
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: it home.
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: You can't. You can't keep them.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, they're just gonna get to our old Yeah
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: that's a rib bone, I guess.
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, what we have really looks like a dinosaur.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is so, you said, David. That for a
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: year and a half after this Well died, the the.
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: Wolves, eagles and bears were just having a heyday over here.
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it lasted a long time. It was a soupy mess.
• 45:40
  Speaker 6: You can see the.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Bears, yeah, you know you death look that is these
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: are these are all hrks and what this is the
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: skull the old look that's like the gosh, the wonder
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: if I got that name right?
• 45:59
  Speaker 5: Form?
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: How's that for?
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: Wow, that's that's unbelievable, that vertebrae.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: I'm a believer.
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: Well real, so tell us more about that. I mean,
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: that's that's unbelievable.
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: Did I get the name right? The magnum Foreman, magnum Foreman?
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: I was. I was for those of you who aren't watching.
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: I was looking at the skull of a whale and
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: like the hole in the back of the neck, like
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: where the spinal column comes into the to the to
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: the skull. I believe it's called the magnum Foreman. That was,
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: I mean almost one of the highlights of the trip
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: for me. I don't I don't really know why form
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: oh forum and ma I reverse the words. David said
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: that that carcass for like did I say two years
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: year and a half year and a half up? Was
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: rotting and just I don't know if every time you
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: drove by there, but like that's where the bears were,
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: and he actually let a client shoot. As I remember it,
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: a client killed a bear close to there, and after
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: he skinned it, he said, I'll never do that again.
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: The smell was so putiline, and the bear had just
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: been got rotting meat for a year and a half.
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: The bear had just been all over it. He said
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: that even the bones, after all the flesh had been
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: gone for a long time, still smelled terrible.
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: So how long ago had that place?
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: I couldn't tell you. Probably three four years, probably three
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: or four years, and you could still smell a little
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: bit of that bone. But yeah, there were there were
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: humpback whales all over the place. I mean just every
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: single day, without exception, we would see humpback whales.
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: How close would they be.
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: Well, you'd just be driving your boat and they would
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: just pop up, you know. Sometimes we were seeing their spouts.
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: They you see the spouts of water that goes up,
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: you know, ten to fifteen feet in the air. You
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: can see that from like a mile away. You just see.
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: But then just randomly, you're driving and one just pops
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: up like fifty yards away, or maybe maybe you see
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: him and you're going that way and you have to
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: kind of drive by him just to get where you're going,
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: you know, And yeah, pretty incredible.
• 48:26
  Speaker 4: Like cow, that's that was really interesting to watch on
• 48:30
  Speaker 4: the film. Okay, here's here's the first.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: Still bummed about this stalk.
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: Watching Clay stalking a bear and then all of a
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: sudden he takes off end of the world.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: It's embarrassing to watch yourself run and waiters and swirls.
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: The bear wins me while he's inside of ten yards
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: but still quartering to me.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: And when he spooks, I opt to chase him and
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: try to run him up a tree. It actually works,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: and I just can't get a shit.
• 49:00
  Speaker 5: He was about eight yards but.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Still in a good shot such as tried hunting.
• 49:11
  Speaker 4: So was that a spontaneous move? Was that something you thought, Hey,
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: if if I see a bear and he goes on
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: in the woods, I'm go and chase him.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: It's kind of just in the bag of tricks.
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: Done that before.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and it it's worked before too, So to
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: we did weren't able to show that whole stalk.
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: That stalk was money. Okay, right at dark, we see
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: this bear just trucking down the woodline. We're able to
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: get way in front of it. I'm able to get
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: out walk down the woodline towards it, duck deep in
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: the timber, and he's he had just been walking down
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: the woodline for a quarter mile, just right on the edge.
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: And I get tucked in behind this tree and just
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: and waiting for him and peek out, and here he comes.
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: He's been walking for a quarter mile end. Basically when
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: he got ten yards, just kind of swirled. I mean,
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: just like inside of this small perimeter of a human
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: in that kind of turbulent environment with like waves and
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: water and the woodline and the open area, like you
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: just it's hard to predict what the wind's gonna do.
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: I was on the down wind side of the winds
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: hit me in the face. But when he got he
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: was inside of ten yards but quartering to me, okay, right,
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: because he's walking towards me, right, So I mean like
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: he's in range, but I can't shoot him. He's got
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: to like come past me, or at least get even
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: with me, because with that trad bow, you don't want
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: to shoot one quartern to you gotta be broadside, right,
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: And so he gets like right at ten yards and
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: makes a and kind of throws his head up and
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: I'm just like no, and he makes a loop and
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: basically I knew this it was busted.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: But he was so close.
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: I thought maybe I can run him up a tree, right,
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: and I would have shot him out of a tree,
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: you know. And basically you can't see it, it's so dark,
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: but he ran. He jumped up on a tree. You
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: could see it in the video if you stopped it.
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: The bear has his head out from behind the tree
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: looking at me, and I'm very close to him, but
• 51:18
  Speaker 3: all I can see is his head. He's like around
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: the tree. And then he ended up not running up
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: the tree but running off. But originally he jumped up
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: on the tree when he saw me coming and it
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: was like what is this guy doing? And then he
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: took off and so it was over. But in British
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: Columbia one time I stalked a bear, actually through a culvert.
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: It's on the old it's on the Bear Grease Channel.
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: There was a bear.
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: There's this big road, this big like commercial gravel road
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: for log trucks. Okay, imagine a four foot culvert under
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: this deal. I'm watching a bear feed right beside the
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: end of a four foot culvert that has water running
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: through it, coming away from the bear. I sneak up
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: on the other side, walk through the culvert. The air
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: is pushing down with the water and I basically poked
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: my head out and there's a bear like five yards
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: from the mouth. And I wish I would have taken
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: the bear. It was a boar, but it was young,
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: and it was early in the hunt. And I've got
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: my trad bow. This is British Columbia, several years ago.
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: And I see the bear and I'm wearing a go
• 52:28
  Speaker 3: pro in my head. You can watch it on YouTube.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: Wow. And I just go, hey, bear.
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: And it looks at me, just coming out of the
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: culvert and just takes off and then I just chase
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: it and it goes right up a tree and I
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: just stand there.
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: But anyway, so that that can work pretty good, chasing them.
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: I've never killed one like that, but yeah, it works.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: More clips everywhere clips would prove to be.
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: We're going to be watching the three legged bear. Look
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: at him, winds not bear, you see it. Look at
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: that he's missing a front left leg.
• 53:04
  Speaker 4: Well, for our listeners, right now, we're watching kind of
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: a montage of man. It took us an hour. A
• 53:10
  Speaker 4: few of the twenty one different stalks.
• 53:16
  Speaker 3: Hard to stalk, but this part of Alaska doesn't have
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: a ton of grizzly I find black bears.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: Easy to stalk.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: Within fifty yards, the bear finally breaks the ten yard mark.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: This is the good one. Seven yards.
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: But now he's facing me and he's way too close.
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: I can't move.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: I try to shift my weight to getting better shooting position,
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: and he hears me, sees me, and finally spooks.
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: This was a big.
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: Bear, probably nearing the seven foot square mark. And once
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: again I got to inside of thirty yards, but just
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: couldn't close the distance. I'm starting to doubt if I
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: can make it happen.
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: Twenty one different stalks, twenty one So after over the
• 54:03
  Speaker 4: course of how many days.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: Eight days?
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: Well, bear hunted kind of two days, so really six days, okay,
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: seven days. We'll give bear one day at full stalks of.
• 54:14
  Speaker 4: Those stalks, I mean, from those stalks and being in
• 54:18
  Speaker 4: a place that's unique for hunting bears. Tell us some
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: of the things that you learned, and maybe some things
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: that you would have done differently.
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Number one, I would have planned on wearing some
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: type of moccasin.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: You almost had to wear ribber boots because it was
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: so wet, right.
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: But I started carrying some little Stalkison's little shoes that
• 54:44
  Speaker 3: you put on, but it was so late in the game.
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: I never actually never used them. I would have used
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: them a lot more. It's very hard. Those bears were
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: hearing me, really yeah, and I had a cameraman with me,
• 54:58
  Speaker 3: like right on my heel, so it's like two people
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: walking and those bears hurt us probably thirty percent of
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: the time. And again they wouldn't have heard us, Like
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: if you're just trying to get to thirty yards, you'd
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: be okay, right from thirty to ten.
• 55:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a lot more you hear in ten yards
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: that you don't.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: And they can hear. They can hear so good. They
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: just hear. They hear so well.
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: And you know, a bear is not a prey animal
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: like a deer, so they don't have quite that response.
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: But they are very concerned with other bears sneaking up
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: on them because they'll kill them. I mean, it was
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: grizzly country too, Like did.
• 55:36
  Speaker 4: You see any grizzly bear?
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: No, No, not a lot of gris, But I mean
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: it was in bounds for grizz to be, especially on
• 55:46
  Speaker 3: the Alaska mainland side we were on and so bears
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: here very well.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: So your feet.
• 55:53
  Speaker 3: Number Two, the wind, there's just nothing you could do.
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: You're just at the mercy of the wind and where
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: you could park the boat. And again, getting inside of
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: thirty forty yards, the wind.
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: Would typically stay pretty good.
• 56:04
  Speaker 3: But in that inner cone, you know, inside of thirty
• 56:09
  Speaker 3: even if the wind's hitting you in the face, like
• 56:11
  Speaker 3: we've all felt that when the wind is blowing consistently
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: and then it stops, yeah, and there's like a little
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: bit of a drag and the wind just kind of eddies,
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: and man, it just got me almost every time.
• 56:24
  Speaker 4: Really.
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: Like now, we may talk about the successful stalk, but
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: the successful stalk had two things going for it that
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: the other twenty stalks didn't have. Okay, Number one, that
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: bear was within twenty yards of a creek.
• 56:39
  Speaker 4: That was let's actually we have that coming up here
• 56:42
  Speaker 4: in just a second. Let's save that one. But anything
• 56:46
  Speaker 4: else that maybe you would have specifically done differently besides
• 56:49
  Speaker 4: the Stalkisons.
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: Man David Bennett's has guided hundreds and hundreds of bear hunters,
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: and he says the thing that most people do is
• 57:00
  Speaker 3: they're too slow. Oh really yeah, he said, he said,
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: on this kind of hunt, volume is what he finds
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: that kills bears, and he would rather get out of
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: the boat and just do the boldest move possible. Really, yeah,
• 57:15
  Speaker 3: do the boldest move possible, and if it works, it works.
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: If it doesn't, it doesn't. What I was doing was
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: getting out and like just like trying to be like,
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: this is the stock. I have to give it my everything.
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: And we'd end up spending an hour on this bear
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: that was probably going to be blown whether I took
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: my time or I didn't.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: Does that make sense?
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And so David Is just was just like Clay,
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: you're too slow.
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: And I'd be like you think and he'd be like, yep,
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: you just he said, why did you try to get
• 57:48
  Speaker 3: up in the woods and sneak around? I was like, well,
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: I didn't want him to see him see me. And
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: he was like he wouldn't have seen you if you'd
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: just laid low and just like walk.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: Straight towards it.
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: And so but again, it's like taking instructions from a
• 58:02
  Speaker 3: pro basketball player when you're playing in the G league,
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: you know, it's like, uh, that's the way I felt.
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: I really was humbled, not that I thought that I
• 58:12
  Speaker 3: was going to do good, right. I don't mean it
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: like I had high expectations for myself. But it was
• 58:18
  Speaker 3: harder than I thought it would be. And I mean,
• 58:19
  Speaker 3: I've stock plenty of bears.
• 58:22
  Speaker 4: Joe Etlinger three four two three says Clay, there's no
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: rule in bow hunting that you have to stalk every
• 58:28
  Speaker 4: animal to the point of failure. If thirty yards is
• 58:30
  Speaker 4: the closest you can get, just stay put and see
• 58:33
  Speaker 4: if he comes your way. Seems like you may have
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: learned that one on that that on the one that
• 58:38
  Speaker 4: went up the tree.
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: Joe t Linger three four two three. That's a that's
• 58:46
  Speaker 3: a good comment. I understand what you're saying. You don't
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: have to like push, push, push until the animal spooks.
• 58:52
  Speaker 3: What Joe doesn't understand is the constraints that were bigger
• 58:56
  Speaker 3: than just what you see on the film.
• 58:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I could get a full picture by a forty
• 59:01
  Speaker 4: eight minute film.
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: Well, and just like what David was saying, he was like, Clay,
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: don't mess around, Just get in there and try to
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: do it. If you spook one, no big deal. We'll
• 59:10
  Speaker 3: go into the next one, and eventually you're gonna find
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: the one.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: That's just right.
• 59:14
  Speaker 3: So I see what he's saying. And in some cases,
• 59:18
  Speaker 3: like if you were in a place where you were
• 59:21
  Speaker 3: going to see three bears in a week, you better
• 59:23
  Speaker 3: do what Joe Linger three four two three says is
• 59:26
  Speaker 3: don't push it. Just get to where you can get
• 59:28
  Speaker 3: and then just wait.
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I probably could have done that.
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: This was a volume hunt though, And there was also
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: a timestamp with David setting out in the boat and
• 59:38
  Speaker 3: navigating the tides.
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, you know he would pull me most of the time.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: He would pull me up. I would jump out, then.
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: He would go back out because the waves are just
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: like slamming the boat, right. So he's out there just like,
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: you know, like messing around waiting for me. It's not
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: like I had three hours that I could see what
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: the spirit Joe did. Some of those stalks last well,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 3: I mean a couple of them lasted two hours. Most
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 3: of the time they lasted ten minutes.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: Okay, okay, ye off Road Tech double zero said, great episode.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: The Alaska shows are full of amazing scenery except Clay's butt.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 4: There was way too much of it. Must remember Stalk
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 4: Hunt's equal watching butts.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: Hey, brother, you ain't wrong. That's the first thing that
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: I noted when I watched the draft. I was like, wow,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: this is like feature was watching.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 4: He's like, does this stalk make my butt look fat?
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: The feature length film of Clay's butt. I am so sorry. People,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 3: all right, he ain't wrong.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 4: Well, we've got one more clip here. We're going to show.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 3: Tucked in La butte, which offers some great cover to
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: get close. He's just feeding on grass and there's also
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: a running stream really.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: Near vibe that covers my sound. This is perfect.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: This is what I've been waiting for. I hit it
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: wrong when I was aiming. You aimed in the wrong place, Clay.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: We got on the other side of that tree. The
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: bear was laying down right there. Air hit right where I.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 5: Was aiming, but it didn't go in very deep.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: Oh no, oh my god. That's not good at all.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 5: M hm, David.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: I don't think it penetrated past the broadhead.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 5: I felt like I hit him right behind the shoulder,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 5: but I must have touched the tip of his shoulder.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 5: His elbow must have been back because it broke that broadhead.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 5: And I mean, we're going to come back in the
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 5: morning and look, but that bear is not mortally wounded.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 5: And that was my biggest fear, and that is why
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 5: I limited myself to ten yards and I hit right
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 5: where I was aiming, and so I don't know what
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 5: to say other than I messed it up. But that's
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 5: just part of the game. I think that bear will
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 5: be fine. It's a bummer to hit a bear and
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 5: not recover it, but my hunt's over. Such as the
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 5: drama of the self bow.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 4: Mmm, so kind of walk us through that thing.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: Well.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 3: So that stalk was so good and it took it
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 3: took twenty one stalks to get one that was just perfect.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: That there was a fallen tree that completely shielded the
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: bear from anything going on the direction I was okay.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 3: There was also a stream that flowed out into the
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 3: ocean there that did two things. Flowing water typically pulls
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 3: air currents, so my wind was kind of like going
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 3: out on the water. You know, you'd puff and it
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 3: would just be going out of the water by that
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 3: by that little creek. That creek was like twenty yards
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 3: from the bear. And then number two, it was loud,
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 3: the sound of that water.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: So I mean it was like the perfect sight.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 3: So I just peek out around that tree and that
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: bear is there ten yards. It was just a average
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 3: male bear. I mean, we know because the bear got
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 3: killed like two weeks later, and I was told that
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 3: it was like, uh, you know, just a decent, younger
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 3: type boar, probably a two hundred pound animal.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't a big one. And uh, I
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: wish we could have got better footage of the actual shot,
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: but we were so worried about spooking game. Dirt was
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: but just.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 3: Dirt was your camera, Yeah, Garrett Smith, Dirt myth was
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 3: my cameraman, and he just did the best he could
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: without you know, having to get out further than me.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: Spook the bear.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 3: And as I watched the film, I said it like
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 3: three times and it could come across as me trying
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 3: to make an excuse, and maybe I probably was, but
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 3: I was like, I hit right where I was aiming.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: I hit.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 3: I mean, I kind of kept telling myself, well, I
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 3: hit where I was aiming. Well, I mean I aimed
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: in the wrong spot that you know, and I I've
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 3: said this for years and it's hard to compensate for.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 3: But on a on a shorter haired animal like a deer. Okay,
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 3: a deer has you know, this like half inch to
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 3: one inch fur. To see the contour of that animal,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 3: you see a shoulder. A black bear is like shooting
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: at a black trash bag that's been blown up like
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 3: a balloon. He don't see the contour of its body
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 3: quite as much because the longer hair. Okay, number two,
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 3: the difference between shooting a bear and shooting a deer
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 3: is that a bear has a lot more ability to
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 3: contort its body. And what I've always told people is
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: a bear can make itself into a sea. Like envision
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 3: a bear being broadside, but his butt and his shoulder
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 3: are closer than to you than the.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: Middle, like his last rib, like the middle of his body.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 3: It's like a dog. He can like curve his back.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: A deer really can't do that. Think about that. So
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 3: when he's when that bear is like curved like a sea,
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 3: if you're aiming like kind of where the vital should
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 3: be at this black trash bag that you can't see
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 3: much contour on, you will hit its shoulder.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: Does that make sense?
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 4: Like it folds in and so it narrows the picture.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 3: So you could actually shoot in the place that on
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: a three D target you would shoot, but if that
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 3: bear is cupped toward you in a sea, you're going
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 3: to hit it shoulder.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: And that's what happened.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 3: Like just in the moment, I wasn't able to see
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 3: that that bear was actually maybe just slightly cupped. And
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 3: like I always say that a bear can do so
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 3: many things that a deer can't. A bear can sit
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 3: on his butt. That bear was actually laying on his
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 3: belly when I first saw it, like laying flat on
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 3: its belly with its palls flat on the ground like
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 3: this really chopping grass, I mean just and like if
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 3: I had come up and that bear would have been
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 3: like that, that shooting target would have been compressed and
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 3: different than if it was just standing there with like
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 3: its ribs kind of like fully extended hanging down. So
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 3: most people, including me, mess up on a bear when
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 3: a bear is doing something unusual, and it's not like
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 3: he was just standing the broadside in my mind, and
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 3: I just wop and just hit that shoulder.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: I knew that a lot of.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 3: Air was sticking out, but I actually thought that everything
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 3: was okay, because you know, I'm telling myself, I hit
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 3: right where it was aiming right, do.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 4: You feel like you're did you feel like you're you
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 4: had a full draw, you feel like all the shot
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 4: was okay.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 3: I mean that's where any traditional archer will tell you
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 3: it's easy to what they call short stroke when when
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 3: you're in the heat of the moment where you're just
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 3: like in such a hurry, you don't like get.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: Your full extension. I don't know it's possible.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 3: I mean I was so josh being inside of ten yards,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 3: and I mean I had time, and I walked through
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 3: my shot sequenced consciously. I was like, bore him up,
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 3: focus anywhere you want to hit, draw it to your
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 3: anchor point. I mean, I did everything.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: But who knows. I think so much of human memory
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: is flawed.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 4: That's true. I mean it's true.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 3: You know, like even me saying I hit right where
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 3: I was aiming. It's like I wish the foot the
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 3: foot you cannot see it. You cannot see the arrow
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: in the footage. I don't know why, you just can't.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 3: Who knows if I truly did. I do know it
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 3: hit the shoulder, because we know that for a fact,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 3: because a couple of weeks later, and this is maybe
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 3: the most bizarre part of the story. So we go
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 3: check bear's bear with the Laska Game and Fish. You
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 3: have to take the animal. Actually two a biologist that
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 3: pulls the tooth, that takes the hair sample, that does
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 3: all this stuff. And so we're talking to him and
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 3: you know, and I'm like, man, I shot one guy away,
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 3: you know, I told him. And so David knew the
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 3: guy that we were with really well. And a couple
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 3: of weeks later, David sends me a text message and said,
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 3: found your broadhead and uh, I'm pretty sure some guys
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 3: from Texas killed that bear with a rifle.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and they pulled the broad head out.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 3: They just were skinning it and found a broadhead and
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 3: thought it was interesting. And when they took it into
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 3: the Game and Fish, they were like, hey, we found this.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: And the guy was like, I think I know whose
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 3: that is why? And uh, you know, I was I
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 3: almost you know, part of me didn't want to tell
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 3: that part of the story because I mean, animal the
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 3: ethics of just the treatment of animals. It's not the
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 3: right words I'm saying there. But you don't want to
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 3: shoot a bear and not find it. You don't want
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 3: an animal running around with the broadhead.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 4: And you guys went back the next morning to look
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 4: for it.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, we did, we we did.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 3: We went back the next morning, looked for it, found nothing,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: you know, and uh, the bear there was fine, except
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 3: for he got shot by a guy from Texas, you know.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 3: So I don't know if it's from Texas. That's what
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 3: I remember being said. But so that's the story.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 4: Well that was great, man. The film was fantastic. And
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 4: another comment here, did you feel fortunate the bear ended
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 4: up okay after you hit it? And also I didn't
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 4: see any firearms on your stalks as a safety backup?
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 3: I've read that comment, and nobody carries firearm backup on
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 3: black bear hunts. And when I say nobody, obviously there
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 3: are exceptions to that rule.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: I would say eighty plus.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 3: Percent of people hunting black bears are not if they're
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 3: bow hunting or not carrying a firearm backup. Now, if
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 3: you're hunting Griz country, you probably will. There's been times
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 3: when I've carried a pistol, almost just for the fun
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 3: of it. But I would say ninety five percent of
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 3: my black bear hunting I've never.
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: Had firearm backup. Griz totally different story, Yeah, yep, much
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: more aggressive.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 3: So just it's just not You're just not gonna be
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 3: attacked by a bear while you're hunting them. You might
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 3: be attacked by a bear while you're at your camp,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 3: you know, he wants to eat your food, or you
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 3: run into a side with a cub while you're out hiking.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 4: Another comment here, he says Caleb Allen says, just finish
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 4: the episodes. Still can't believe what happened to Clay's arrow.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 4: Do you think maybe the constant moisture may have weakened
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 4: the wood at the broadhead point, I would have imagined
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 4: that even with the self bow, with that type of
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 4: broadhead would have struggled to get I can't imagine even
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 4: with a self bow that that type of broadhead would
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 4: have struggled to get more penetration.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good point.
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 3: I don't no, I don't think. I don't think wet
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 3: would necessarily means weak would if that, If I'm understanding
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 3: this comment, it's possible though.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: Definitely the water.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 3: On the string and water on the feathers would have
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 3: slowed the boat to some degree. But again, that's why
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 3: I was limiting myself to ten yards because I felt
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 3: like at that distance it really wouldn't have mattered. I mean,
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 3: the bottom line is I hit the shoulder right, and
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 3: and with any I mean even with a compound, if
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 3: you hit the shoulder, potentially you're going to have problems.
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 4: And so hitting that hitting that animal ends.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: Your it does.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 3: There's legality of such is different in many states, but
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 3: in Alaska, if you draw blood on an animal, that's
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 3: your that's your tag. And and in most places and
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 3: in most people that I've been around, even if that's
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 3: not the law, that's typically the way that I would
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 3: manage something. If you have a one bear tag and
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 3: you wound one, just check your tag.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: Yep, you know I wouldn't. I'd say most of the time.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: That's what a lot of people would do. Anyway.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 3: Man, thank you guys so much for watching this companion
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 3: podcast for meat Eaters twelve and twenty six.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: Film. This is episode three of our Southeast Alaska boat
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: based for Bears. Check it out on YouTube. If you
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: haven't watched it, please go watch it. It's a lot of action,
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: I tell you what, it's a lot of action and
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: it was a really special time to get to spend
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: that with my son Bear John and Man, I hope
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: you guys get to get out and hunt this spring,
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: And thanks so much for checking this out.