Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bear Hunting Magazine Hunt Cast. With me
Speaker 1: Koby moorehead, We're gonna nerd out on bears hunting and
Speaker 1: the outdoors. We'll tell stories, talk biology, tactics, gear, and
Speaker 1: the fight to protect the pursuits that we hold dear,
Speaker 1: So grab your bino's, lace up your boots, load up
Speaker 1: your barrels, and gather the helnds we venture on this
Speaker 1: journey together. Welcome back to the Bear Hunting Magazine Hunt Cast,
Speaker 1: or should I say it's good to be back. It's
Speaker 1: been a busy few weeks between designing the magazine, going
Speaker 1: up to a wedding in South Dakota, congrats Alex and Maria,
Speaker 1: and then after a few more days head it up
Speaker 1: on a twenty and a half hour straight solo drive
Speaker 1: to southeastern Saskatchewe with Eastern skyguiding. W what a mouthful,
Speaker 1: but I have been quite the road warrior. If you
Speaker 1: follow our Instagram you know it was a fruitful trip.
Speaker 1: But I'm back in Northwest Arkansas and tomorrow I get
Speaker 1: to start opening up my own baits here in Northwest
Speaker 1: Arkansas for our upcoming season. But while I was up
Speaker 1: in Saskatchewan, the day after I tasted sweet success. I
Speaker 1: sat down with Rich Garaz in this episode. We're talking
Speaker 1: about the history of their outfit and we're gonna recap
Speaker 1: my hunt. So hope you enjoy. Let's get into it.
Speaker 2: Hey, Rich, finally good to meet you.
Speaker 3: Colby.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I knew the voice.
Speaker 2: You can finally put a face to the name.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so, uh, I think I know the answer
Speaker 1: to this. But who kills more big bears? You were Marla? Well,
Speaker 1: no contest, but I'm gonna say it because you're a
Speaker 1: busy guy and hire your wife.
Speaker 2: I am the hunters only as good as the guide. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And all your daughters have killed really big bears
Speaker 1: too growing up.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They love doing it as well. They're out there
Speaker 2: all the time.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's a family tradition, it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we spend a lot of time in the woods.
Speaker 1: So give me some of the history of the outfit
Speaker 1: in business here real quick. You guys started out as
Speaker 1: Waterfile outfitters. You've been doing that for what twenty something years?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've I've been in the in the Waterfall, I've
Speaker 2: been guiding and an old fitting I started guiding in
Speaker 2: and then we purchased the Waterfall end. I believe it
Speaker 2: was in two thousand and nine or twenty ten, and
Speaker 2: then the bear end of it we bought in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you guys have been you guys have been
Speaker 1: getting some good ones. It's crazy. You guys should see
Speaker 1: and we'll post this on our Instagram, but you should
Speaker 1: see some of the bears they've got mounted here at
Speaker 1: the house or the lodge, and it's pretty crazy, like
Speaker 1: the size and even some of the huge colored bears
Speaker 1: that they have here. Well, what's been your experience, like
Speaker 1: what was the hardest thing switching from or not switching,
Speaker 1: but bringing bears alongside the waterfowl.
Speaker 2: I guess just the opportunity to do it. It's always
Speaker 2: something we've wanted to do, and then the only thing
Speaker 2: is you have to buy somebody else you can't start
Speaker 2: or apply for it anymore. So that was the biggest
Speaker 2: hurdle until we did find an area that we wanted
Speaker 2: and you know and habit that it is for sale.
Speaker 2: So that was an opportunity in twenty seventeen. And yeah,
Speaker 2: it's been awesome, love doing it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, awesome. So you guys don't typically run fall hunts.
Speaker 1: This is just kind of like an oddity.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the fall is a nice time. It's
Speaker 2: just usually this year we had a few tags left,
Speaker 2: so we thought we'd finish it off before before we
Speaker 2: run into our bird season. So we run it that
Speaker 2: the first week in the fall season, which is the
Speaker 2: last week in August, and then we go into birds
Speaker 2: beginning of September, and I think you could run it
Speaker 2: another couple of weeks. It gets tougher as you get
Speaker 2: later into fall. Yeah, once they start adapting, you know,
Speaker 2: to hibernation. They're training their body to slow down, so
Speaker 2: you'll get you'll still get bears coming in, but it
Speaker 2: won't be as consistent. Later in the fall. You might get,
Speaker 2: you know, a bait bombarded for a day and then
Speaker 2: you might not see them for two or three days.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and uh, one of the things that you
Speaker 1: you talked about was some of these boars seem to
Speaker 1: travel together or in like proximity to one another, and
Speaker 1: so that they'll be on one bait all together and
Speaker 1: then they'll just disappear and then they'll show up on
Speaker 1: another bait. Tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just you're you're getting you know, all them all
Speaker 2: them boars are that we're fighting in the spring. Now
Speaker 2: they're all buddies, So you'll and what we're seeing is
Speaker 2: a lot of that three hundred pound bears. You'll get
Speaker 2: a group of them come in where you might have,
Speaker 2: you know, one one evening, you might get four or
Speaker 2: five bears that come in are all in that same
Speaker 2: weight range. Yeah, you know, and uh, I think we've
Speaker 2: seen that even last night where we had a lot
Speaker 2: of three hundred pounders and then and then we had
Speaker 2: a couple couple crankers walking later.
Speaker 1: We're gonna and now that was a foreshadowing. I see you,
Speaker 1: rich oh Man. Well, we wish Marla could be on here,
Speaker 1: but she's at her day job. Well, one of the
Speaker 1: things that I haven't I guess I haven't thought of
Speaker 1: until I was up here is, you know, down in Arkansas,
Speaker 1: we're always battling that mass crop, mainly acorns and stuff like.
Speaker 1: That's typically what they're hammering around that time, competing with
Speaker 1: our baits. I never thought about competition for baits up
Speaker 1: here in Canada, except for you guys have agg land everywhere,
Speaker 1: and I mean it's just a big agricultural agriculture community.
Speaker 1: And so that's one of the things that we were
Speaker 1: battling this week is some of those bears were on
Speaker 1: different ad crops and then they would just come check
Speaker 1: the bait off and on. And you told me that,
Speaker 1: what are some of the things that are competing with
Speaker 1: the baits during this time of year in this particular area.
Speaker 2: I guess berries, you know, your berry bushes are your
Speaker 2: biggest that's their go to this fall. Our berries were
Speaker 2: way down. We just don't have near the berries this
Speaker 2: fall like we normally do. Choke cherries, cranberries, you know,
Speaker 2: stuff like that. Oats Fields are another big drawing card
Speaker 2: you get into them oats fields. They love going in
Speaker 2: there and sitting down and filling up. But even some
Speaker 2: of the baits we had were close to oats fields
Speaker 2: and you're still pulling them out of the oats and
Speaker 2: then they go back into the oats, so they're back
Speaker 2: and forth trading, and it just makes it nicer when
Speaker 2: you don't have the options like berries are down, so
Speaker 2: it gathers them a little more to them to them
Speaker 2: feeding areas, so what they do have access to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think we really saw that on this hunt.
Speaker 1: And yeah, so this week it was just me and
Speaker 1: one other hunter Bob. Bob was a nice guy, Yeah
Speaker 1: he was. He got out of here quick, Yeah done,
Speaker 1: and he stayed a little longer. But no, Bob is
Speaker 1: turns out he's quite the bear hunter. He's a he's
Speaker 1: just absolutely eat up with it. And so I'll let
Speaker 1: you I'll let you tell the story about Bob's first hunt.
Speaker 1: First day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we went, we set them up. We had a
Speaker 2: couple couple of good pictures of some good bears coming,
Speaker 2: uh one one really good heavy bear that was showing
Speaker 2: up at midnight, and a couple you know in that
Speaker 2: three hundred pound It's just nice when you get a
Speaker 2: bear that has a certain mark or you know, a
Speaker 2: scar or something that you can you can show that
Speaker 2: picture and get somebody to watch it, you know, watch
Speaker 2: for that bear. And that's what happened with Bob's is
Speaker 2: basically we had you know, that was one of them.
Speaker 2: He had a really unique mark on the chest and
Speaker 2: and I told him, you know, if he comes in,
Speaker 2: you know, he's a pretty good bear, check him out,
Speaker 2: see what you think. And and yeah, that was first
Speaker 2: first sit for Bob. And that's that was one of
Speaker 2: the bears that did come out later and it had
Speaker 2: that mark, and he checked him out and he was
Speaker 2: happy with him. He wasn't going to give him another
Speaker 2: chance to leave.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, it was a it was a good looking bear. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you guys want to see it, you can look
Speaker 1: on their post. I guess it would have been August
Speaker 1: twenty six that y'all posted on your Instagram. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think star guiding, and it was a it was a
Speaker 1: really good bear, good photo. And he he shot that
Speaker 1: bear with a shotgun at six point thirty and dropped
Speaker 1: it in his tracks. Yeah, it's pretty wild. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: he was shooting a Remington slug.
Speaker 2: No, I did a good job. He had laid him
Speaker 2: out right there, he didn't there was no tracking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, day one I saw several bears. I think
Speaker 1: it's hard because they look so similar in that area.
Speaker 1: They were all black, and you're trying to pick out
Speaker 1: different markings on their face and just trying to decide
Speaker 1: is that the same bear a different one? And I'm
Speaker 1: sure most of you know that that pain. But I
Speaker 1: didn't have a bear that came in that. There was
Speaker 1: one that came in that tempted me and and I
Speaker 1: think it was a mid three fifty, I mean a
Speaker 1: mid three hundred bear. Wait wise, after talking to you
Speaker 1: guys and just what I was, what I was looking at,
Speaker 1: he had a little bit of a gut, he had
Speaker 1: a good But I am slow to pull the trigger
Speaker 1: on day one. And it's not because I'm against taking
Speaker 1: a bear on the first day. It's just I don't
Speaker 1: have a good understanding of what kind of bears I'm
Speaker 1: dealing with. And so unless it's just a no brainer
Speaker 1: a bear that I would you know, typically you know,
Speaker 1: jump on at different areas, I would let pass the
Speaker 1: first day, and he tempted me. I mean, he stood
Speaker 1: out there for how it felt like three or four minutes,
Speaker 1: just sitting there breathing at Broadside at like twenty one yards.
Speaker 1: But it just didn't feel like it just didn't feel
Speaker 1: like the a bear I was interested in at the time.
Speaker 1: And uh, and it was one of those I hope
Speaker 1: I'm not. I don't regret passing this bear up, but
Speaker 1: I think it's the right call for me. And so
Speaker 1: day one, like you guys were ready to come in
Speaker 1: and get me, I didn't know that Bobby had gotten
Speaker 1: a bear. Yeah you need You're sneaky. You didn't even
Speaker 1: you didn't even tell me. We got to the truck
Speaker 1: and it was like Koby Yaro talked to Bob there
Speaker 1: and see what the story was.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to blow the excitement for Bob.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh man. And then we got back to the uh.
Speaker 1: We got back to dress out as bear, and I
Speaker 1: was fading. I couldn't hang. I was out there for
Speaker 1: a while, and I was in and out of conversation,
Speaker 1: like I would be hot in the conversation and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden I would be kind of aloof. And
Speaker 1: I had driven twenty and a half consecutive hours from
Speaker 1: Arkansas to to this southeastern part of Saskatchewan. It's Lincolnberg
Speaker 1: or you say it different Langenburg Langenburg. Yeah. I do
Speaker 1: that with Canadian cities, and I do that with Oklahoma cities.
Speaker 1: They're always pronounced differently than I expect. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: I had a really I mean, it was a solid bear,
Speaker 1: but it was one of those those three hundreds. And
Speaker 1: with just knowing, I mean, we've dealt with these guys
Speaker 1: for several years, and seeing the photos of the quality
Speaker 1: of bears that are here, if he'd have more weight
Speaker 1: on him and been he he was a little thin
Speaker 1: in his front end. I like a really strong looking bear,
Speaker 1: like I like stove pipe legs and just blocky yeah
Speaker 1: and yeah, and and my goals coming into this hunt
Speaker 1: was I wanted to bear that had some good weight.
Speaker 1: I wanted to bear with a lot of fat so
Speaker 1: I could render it down and uh yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: those were my main things. And and whenever I go
Speaker 1: into hunt, since we're since we're doing content, I wanted
Speaker 1: to take a really good representation for the outfitter, so
Speaker 1: like that'll also that's also in my mind whenever I'm
Speaker 1: doing this, because I want to be able to show
Speaker 1: people what they can expect, and you know, and and
Speaker 1: the more that I hold out and the longer I
Speaker 1: go inside of a hunt, it's it's good for a
Speaker 1: few different reasons. One, it gives me a good ability
Speaker 1: at seeing a lot of bears and sharpening my skills
Speaker 1: at judging bears in the field, seeing how they act,
Speaker 1: seeing what they do. Like it's me sharpening my my
Speaker 1: skills and my understanding of bears. Just helps other people too,
Speaker 1: whenever they come to me and ask me questions. And
Speaker 1: even when I was on this SNE, I had an
Speaker 1: email from a guy asking what he could do to
Speaker 1: get a bear to come in and explain the situation.
Speaker 1: And if I have no experience in these things, then
Speaker 1: it's like what good am I? You know? And and
Speaker 1: so that's one part of it. Also, I get a
Speaker 1: lot of imagery. I mean I get a lot of images.
Speaker 1: I get a lot of video where I can use
Speaker 1: later down the road, and I can show people what
Speaker 1: to expect on a on a hunt, you know of
Speaker 1: this of this quality. And so so day one I
Speaker 1: made a tough decision, but it and the at the end,
Speaker 1: it wasn't too tough a decision. It was just more
Speaker 1: of a fear that I made the past might have
Speaker 1: passed the best bird that I might see.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, uh that was a tough day with high
Speaker 2: winds that day too. Oh yeah, Bob was sitting he
Speaker 2: had a tree come down beside him. Oh sure did Yeah,
Speaker 2: I saw it. Spoiler alert. I sat in that same
Speaker 2: stand on day three. I think, yeah, day three, yeah, okay, but.
Speaker 1: We were jumping the head. Let's go to day two.
Speaker 1: So day two I ended up sitting at a different stand.
Speaker 1: And uh, Marla Rich's wife is she loves bear hunting.
Speaker 1: I mean it's clear that she eat up with it
Speaker 1: and and I was like, you want to go sit
Speaker 1: with me? And she jumped at it. And so she
Speaker 1: jumped at the opportunity and it was fun. I it
Speaker 1: was a slower day, and I was in a ladder
Speaker 1: stand and there's a kind of a box blind with
Speaker 1: like a three there's three or four walls there and
Speaker 1: there's no ceiling or anything. So she's close enough that
Speaker 1: I can look down and see her, and we can
Speaker 1: even like whisper and kind of hear each other. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And she was able to spot bears from her position
Speaker 1: much faster than me, so you know how like you'll
Speaker 1: watch a bear on the bait and you'll watch them
Speaker 1: and like what are they looking at? And they getting excited?
Speaker 1: And she would let me know almost every single time
Speaker 1: when a bear was coming in before I would ever
Speaker 1: see it. And so we were sitting there and we
Speaker 1: had a bear that showed up, the first one and
Speaker 1: Marla was looking at it through by nose and she
Speaker 1: was like, good bear, and I was like, oh yeah.
Speaker 1: And then another bear came in and it was a
Speaker 1: lesser bear than the other one, and so that big
Speaker 1: bear came in just a little and then he looked
Speaker 1: up and looked directly at me, and then he backed
Speaker 1: away a little, and he kind of skirted to the left. Well,
Speaker 1: the other bear left, and then he came in with
Speaker 1: a bear about the same size as him, from our right,
Speaker 1: and Marla thought that she had misjudged the big bear. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: I see the big bear probably you know, fifty yards
Speaker 1: to our, you know, kind of our to our I
Speaker 1: don't know, eleven o'clock, ten o'clock, and he's just looking
Speaker 1: at us. He's broadside. But I can't do anything with
Speaker 1: the bow out there, and I probably wouldn't because it
Speaker 1: was so hard. It would be so hard to judge
Speaker 1: him anyways, But he looked like a good long bear.
Speaker 1: And then we never we never saw him again. And
Speaker 1: so those two bears were in there, and we had
Speaker 1: a few more come in. And then about twenty minutes
Speaker 1: before the end of legal shooting light, I look back
Speaker 1: behind me, and this would be about my you know,
Speaker 1: four or five o'clock. I look back and I see
Speaker 1: just this long black mass coming through the woods. And
Speaker 1: when I first seen, it's just like a gap or
Speaker 1: a lane that I can see further out there. And
Speaker 1: when I first see he's probably ninety yards away and
Speaker 1: he keeps he's making a bee line for us, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, I feel the wind hit
Speaker 1: the back of my neck, and every hunter knows it's like,
Speaker 1: oh no, and he just boy, he puts the brakes
Speaker 1: on and then he sniffs the air a little and
Speaker 1: then he sits on his haunches and he's round and
Speaker 1: he's long, and he looks just like a black hole,
Speaker 1: you know, just like I mean, it looks like no
Speaker 1: light really escapes him. And he sniffs a little more
Speaker 1: and then he just like turns like his middle a
Speaker 1: swivel and just goes back from you know, which he comes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh. And so you know, it was a slower
Speaker 1: day as far as bear activity, but we saw two
Speaker 1: good bears that I think the I think the bear
Speaker 1: I saw the last twenty or twenty minutes before the
Speaker 1: end of legal shooting light was a no brainer. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, he just looked he I just you just
Speaker 1: knew he was a good bear. Yea.
Speaker 2: And the way he acted too, it's just yeah.
Speaker 1: And whenever he walked away, he waddled. Yeah, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and yeah, a no brainer. And I was betrayed by
Speaker 1: the wind, and the wind only blew that direction. It
Speaker 1: seemed like for like thirty seconds. Yeah, you know it
Speaker 1: was just that one instant that that kept him from coming.
Speaker 2: Just give him that one swirl that he could teache
Speaker 2: the air and he's gone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, it seems like with smaller bears,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really like your sense, not as big of
Speaker 1: a deal. But when you're dealing with these bigger bears, well,
Speaker 1: what's your experience with that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they're definitely more cautious, you know, And
Speaker 2: I think that's the when you compare spring hunt to
Speaker 2: a fall hunt. You know, that's that's some of your
Speaker 2: pros and cons. In the spring, you've got that sow
Speaker 2: that you know might still lure him in even though
Speaker 2: he knows there's something up. Yeah, you know, that can
Speaker 2: be a deciding factor. In the fall, you don't have that,
Speaker 2: so now you're just relying on a food source that
Speaker 2: you're trying to draw him in. So, I mean, you
Speaker 2: get some of them bears, they get pretty smart, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know they and if if they don't have the
Speaker 2: girlfriend to lure him in, and you're just trying to
Speaker 2: suck him in on a piece of candy, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: you got to have a lot of stuff in your
Speaker 2: favor too.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, but it's.
Speaker 2: That's what makes it hunting. I guess if you had
Speaker 2: everything figured out, it wouldn't.
Speaker 1: Be right shopping, right. Yeah. Well all right, so day
Speaker 1: two is done, So we jumped to date three, and
Speaker 1: day three we were rich was going and pulling cards
Speaker 1: and everything, and we were looking through things, or we
Speaker 1: were looking through the different cards and figuring out what
Speaker 1: we wanted to do and come up with a game plan.
Speaker 1: And on day three we decided that I should go
Speaker 1: and sit on the stand that Bob shot his bear
Speaker 1: out of. And uh, there's two big bears that had
Speaker 1: been in there in the last week. One is probably,
Speaker 1: what would you say, y'all's biggest bear you'll have on camera.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the one he's yeah, he's well over five hundred.
Speaker 1: Yeah and long, and y'all call him Hugo, right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Hugo is huge. And then there's a new bear that
Speaker 1: showed up, that really big bear that had a short
Speaker 1: ear on his right ear. Yeah, And and either one
Speaker 1: of those bears would be no brainers. And so we
Speaker 1: went and sat there, or I went and sat there,
Speaker 1: and I saw a lot of color I saw a
Speaker 1: lot of color phase, I mean, and there was a
Speaker 1: chocolate bear in there when we went in, and it
Speaker 1: and another bear were there most of the evening. And
Speaker 1: then I had a Sal and a solo cub, and
Speaker 1: then I had another Sal come in with three cubs.
Speaker 1: Two of them were black and one of them was
Speaker 1: kind of a cinnamon blond like kind of on the
Speaker 1: edge there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and uh, yeah, it's a pretty bear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was beautiful, and I mean it was a
Speaker 1: fun hunt. I mean, anytime you get to see bear behavior,
Speaker 1: it really it's really awesome. And watching those sALS and
Speaker 1: how the two different sALS acted, how they were with
Speaker 1: their cubs was really cool. I mean, one of them
Speaker 1: was a really solid sal. Both of them were good
Speaker 1: sALS had a really crazy blaze on her chest. Yeah
Speaker 1: and uh and uh So while I was on this hunt,
Speaker 1: I looked down and I noticed that the back stabilizer
Speaker 1: bar was missing off of my bow. And I didn't know,
Speaker 1: like if I had lost it just then or if
Speaker 1: it had been gone the whole trip. Like it's nothing
Speaker 1: that I ever take off, so I never I never
Speaker 1: check it, and so somehow it must have rattled out
Speaker 1: and so I noticed that. And then the next day,
Speaker 1: day four, we decided to go back to Ron's. And
Speaker 1: one thing we didn't say is Bob stayed an extra
Speaker 1: day and went and sat that stand And this is
Speaker 1: the stand that I was on day one and day two.
Speaker 1: Bob sat there and saw a lot more bears than
Speaker 1: I even saw the first night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was pretty active that night.
Speaker 1: Yeah. What did he saw? What? Several good three hundreds.
Speaker 2: And yeah, he had a he had a lot of
Speaker 2: three hundred pounders come through, and then he had one
Speaker 2: big one and uh later in the evening. Yeah. And
Speaker 2: then when we did check the card that yeah, the
Speaker 2: card was just loaded with bears coming and going and yeah,
Speaker 2: and more mature bears that day two.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Uh. Whenever you're setting up a bait site, what
Speaker 1: are you thinking in terms of wind? Because one of
Speaker 1: the things I noticed is I was getting a lot
Speaker 1: of wind, but I looked at the leaves surrounding the
Speaker 1: bait site and it's like there was almost no wind
Speaker 1: down there. Is that something you take into account whenever
Speaker 1: you're setting up a bait side or choosing one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you try to, you know, the best
Speaker 2: you can, and I mean it every locations different, and
Speaker 2: the biggest thing is, you know, trying to put your
Speaker 2: your bait at your more dominant end and then having
Speaker 2: your tree stand on your exit point so that you
Speaker 2: don't have to pass that bait going out. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2: So it's a safety concern that you're you know, you're
Speaker 2: more on the end of going out to begin with,
Speaker 2: you don't have to go through that bait.
Speaker 1: Site coming up.
Speaker 2: Yeah. As far as wind direction, it's really tough, you know,
Speaker 2: to plan for it. You can try to figure it
Speaker 2: out the best you can, but they're gonna gonna if
Speaker 2: they want to swing around that entire bait safe before
Speaker 2: they step in, they're going to do it anyway.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2: So it's it's a matter of how bad they won
Speaker 2: in where that saw that was in heat where she
Speaker 2: came in.
Speaker 1: Those are the yeah, okay, Day three. You guys wanted
Speaker 1: me to go back to Ron because it was hot
Speaker 1: when when Bob sat there, and for some reason, I
Speaker 1: just wanted to go to the Elkstan, uh, like I
Speaker 1: wanted to go after the big bears. So whenever I
Speaker 1: went and sat night too with Marla. We chose that
Speaker 1: location because there's a bear that you guys put on
Speaker 1: on Instagram last year's like why should we call him?
Speaker 1: And I was like, he looks like a captain to me,
Speaker 1: and y'all y'all took it the suggestion and uh, and
Speaker 1: so I was caught up in the I was caught
Speaker 1: up and just how cool would it be if I
Speaker 1: named that bear not knowing I was gonna come hunt here?
Speaker 1: And then I killed that bear? Yeah, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like, I want the captain. And the Captain
Speaker 1: is probably your second biggest bear. Yeah. Uh from what
Speaker 1: Marlo was saying, Uh, he is about the same as Hugo,
Speaker 1: just not as long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that's who you've seen that night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, probably Captain. Yeah, but he's given you guys the
Speaker 1: skirter on several Hunters.
Speaker 2: Yeah. He's a cagey character. Yeah, yeah, I know he is.
Speaker 2: And it's I'm glad we made that the change after
Speaker 2: I think you would have seen him again. But there's
Speaker 2: a few changes that we're going to do there to
Speaker 2: trick him up.
Speaker 1: But yeah, well they spoiler alert, They've got some good
Speaker 1: developments that are going to bring it all together, I think, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you have to you have to track them to
Speaker 1: see what what they're going to do. Uh so day four,
Speaker 1: So day four that will day three. You go in
Speaker 1: there and pull the card and the batteries have died. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh so we didn't have a fresh card to
Speaker 1: take out of there, and you never know, batteries and
Speaker 1: trail cams, like everybody knows that struggle. So we get
Speaker 1: there on day four. You have me sneak in and
Speaker 1: you give me some time and then you come in
Speaker 1: on the quad and to freshen up the bait and everything.
Speaker 1: And so I go in, I get in the stand
Speaker 1: and while I'm setting up, there's a bear coming in
Speaker 1: and it's a smaller bear, a younger bear, and coming
Speaker 1: into the bait. And then you come in and freshen
Speaker 1: everything up and pull the card. Well not too long.
Speaker 1: You tell me there's three thousand pictures from the night before,
Speaker 1: like since you had replaced that card in the batteries,
Speaker 1: So three thousand photos in one night on that bait.
Speaker 1: And then you bring a camera with you and you're like,
Speaker 1: I'll send you the photos, So tell me what you
Speaker 1: saw whenever you were going through.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was just NonStop activity, bears there all night,
Speaker 2: you know, trading back and forth all afternoon, all into
Speaker 2: the night. Through the day it slowed down. You could
Speaker 2: tell it was picking up again just before we got there,
Speaker 2: but through the day it was pretty pretty quiet, which
Speaker 2: is a good sign. You know, everything was relaxed. And
Speaker 2: now we're going back into the afternoon again. But but yeah,
Speaker 2: you could tell the caliber was way better, you know,
Speaker 2: it was. It was in that category of you know,
Speaker 2: them three hundred pound plus stuff hanging together that were there,
Speaker 2: and then a couple good, good crankers that that showed
Speaker 2: up later in the afternoon, you know, or later in
Speaker 2: the evening, so and it was still still within everything
Speaker 2: that was good was all in shooting time, so it.
Speaker 1: Was Yeah, you said that the the three hundred pounders
Speaker 1: would show up around six thirty, and they did. And
Speaker 1: then you told me that a better barrel show up
Speaker 1: around seven to fifteen, and you're pretty close. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're with intimate probably would.
Speaker 2: Have came at seven fifteen, but it was a cloudy day, so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, oh man, that's funny. But you sent me
Speaker 1: a picture of a bear that was a no brainer
Speaker 1: that uh well over the barrel that was there at too.
Speaker 1: And I came in and I was set up by
Speaker 1: three thirty. I think I was walking in around three
Speaker 1: and uh, but we were a little delayed. We were
Speaker 1: going to get an early start. But I've made it
Speaker 1: a ritual and I've been really disciplined about shooting my
Speaker 1: bow at a target with a sacrificial broadhead on every hunt.
Speaker 1: So I brought a broadhead target and I was shooting
Speaker 1: it and my bow was hitting way off, and uh,
Speaker 1: that's when I knew that I had lost that stabilizer bar,
Speaker 1: that rear bar here like the night before. And so
Speaker 1: with all of the big bears and even the no
Speaker 1: brainer that showed up at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I'm glad I went to the other stand because if
Speaker 1: if I had lost that, I lost that bar between
Speaker 1: shooting on day three here at camp and then going
Speaker 1: out to the stands. So if I'd just shot at
Speaker 1: a bear, I'd have wounded it, like yeah, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have killed what I was aiming at. It was way low,
Speaker 1: like way low, yeah, And it was the It was
Speaker 1: just one of those things that right before the hunt,
Speaker 1: I was freaking out. I had some anxiety, and I
Speaker 1: get my bows tuned at Outdoor America. Back home in Springdale,
Speaker 1: Arkansas and the guy that helps me a ton and
Speaker 1: you know, gives me. He helps me make sure my
Speaker 1: form's good, and uh, you know, he's just there, takes
Speaker 1: his time with me. And we had made sure I
Speaker 1: was on the Broadheads before I came h Steve had
Speaker 1: had tipped to Steve. I messaged Steve on his day
Speaker 1: off and I'm like, man, I lost my rear bar
Speaker 1: and now this thing is just giving me troubles. And
Speaker 1: he was like, wells I shouldn't be a too big
Speaker 1: of a deal. He's like, uh, He's like, pull your
Speaker 1: front bar in quite a bit and then shoot and
Speaker 1: see what it does. And so I did that and
Speaker 1: then it was better. And then I had to dial
Speaker 1: an extra five yards on my dial, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I was I was hitting dead center bullseyes,
Speaker 1: you know. And you know, part of my not shooting
Speaker 1: great at first too, was once I hit that first
Speaker 1: shot and it hit low, I was in my head.
Speaker 1: And so just having him to to uh, having him
Speaker 1: on the other side of the phone and just being
Speaker 1: calm and like it ain't a big deal, like help
Speaker 1: me get back and you know, the right mindset and
Speaker 1: so that, I mean, that was I needed that that calm, steady,
Speaker 1: confident boost of confidence. And so I made the changes
Speaker 1: and I just I was like, all right, whatever, yard
Speaker 1: is just bears at I got to a five yards
Speaker 1: and then I went out and sent a couple at
Speaker 1: thirty and I was, you know, within an inch of
Speaker 1: ciner punching where I was aiming, and so I felt,
Speaker 1: you know, finally it's like I got my confidence back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I was rattled, you know, I was real rattle.
Speaker 1: I was like, I was like, Rich, you got anything
Speaker 1: I can I will pew pew.
Speaker 2: I almost said, yelled with a sling shot.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, well, as long as you gave me paintballs,
Speaker 1: I'd start tagging bears and knowing how many I saw.
Speaker 1: But uh, anyways, So so I'm out in the stand
Speaker 1: and Rich sends me this picture of a no brainer
Speaker 1: that was there about an hour and a half before
Speaker 1: I was there, and this bait it's just on fire,
Speaker 1: like it just lights up. I mean it's firing on
Speaker 1: all cylinders. There might have been ten minutes that I
Speaker 1: didn't have bears on that in front of me, you know,
Speaker 1: and I think I had as many as five that
Speaker 1: I saw at one time, which Bob still beat me there.
Speaker 1: He had eight in there at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: So and I'm messaging Rich throughout. I had just enough
Speaker 1: signal to get text messages out. And it starts out
Speaker 1: and it's bears that I watched the first day. It's
Speaker 1: the smaller you know, one hundred, one hundred and mid hundreds,
Speaker 1: upper hundreds, and then some you know, and throughout the
Speaker 1: day it just kept gaining in size. If you looked
Speaker 1: at a chart, it was it was a steady climb, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and just like clockwork, about six thirty, the
Speaker 1: three hundred start showing up.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And that's when I started getting getting nervy about judging
Speaker 1: these bears because these bears. The barrels are way off
Speaker 1: the ground, because these bears are just eating up that
Speaker 1: grease and like I guess they're digging it out, eating
Speaker 1: it out. I mean they are. That's one thing I
Speaker 1: noticed is they are they are grease sounds.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean your bait set up is like sweets
Speaker 1: in one barrel, right, yeah, and then a grease sparrow
Speaker 1: where it's like baking grease, cooking grease.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then sometimes you put a beaver out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we got beaver cages, so they've got some options,
Speaker 2: you know, to dig around in and they never get
Speaker 2: sick of the same thing, and changing it up it helps.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And one thing you did was you sprayed something.
Speaker 1: You sprayed scent all around and uh I could smell
Speaker 1: it strong. It was like a bacon smell. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like it was. It was making me hungry.
Speaker 2: It smells good.
Speaker 1: Oh. But I'm sitting there and I am constantly like,
Speaker 1: I'm so used to having a barrel flat on the
Speaker 1: ground as my measuring rod, and uh I couldn't lean
Speaker 1: on that as a crutch this time, you know, and
Speaker 1: uh it chewed over. Yeah.
Speaker 2: There, so you get some dips and dives.
Speaker 1: And all the barrels are on their sides because they,
Speaker 1: you know, are pulling them over as fast as they can.
Speaker 1: And I'm watching them pull these logs and stuff you'd
Speaker 1: stuck in there out. Anyways, it was about I think it.
Speaker 1: I think it was about seven o five seven o
Speaker 1: seven within two minutes of there. And uh I looked
Speaker 1: to my left because the bears alerted me, and I
Speaker 1: looked to my left and there's just this jet black
Speaker 1: just chonk of a bear, you know. I mean, and
Speaker 1: his coat was just shiny and beautiful, and he was blocky.
Speaker 1: He was thick and I didn't think he was that tall,
Speaker 1: but it was because he was so so thick. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he had a lot of widths to him and
Speaker 2: big old gut. Yeah. And it's that's the other thing
Speaker 2: in the fall is they really have that shiny, shiny fur.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, it looks like they come right out of
Speaker 2: a salon. Yeah, you know, beautiful. Yeah, it's not as
Speaker 2: long hair like it is in the spring, but it's
Speaker 2: really really shined up.
Speaker 1: And laid down to Yeah, he had it was ridged
Speaker 1: up on his back like he had a cool little
Speaker 1: ridge back. Yeah. But he came in and I licking back.
Speaker 1: I was just in my head. I he was a
Speaker 1: no brainer, you know. And he came in and he's
Speaker 1: the first bear that's come in where my heart skipped
Speaker 1: a beat and I was like, that's a good bear.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And uh And if he'd have kept walking straight, I
Speaker 1: probably would have sent it, Like I think I probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't have let him get up to the barrel. But
Speaker 1: he saw me. He looked up and saw me because I,
Speaker 1: like I was moving the camera around like I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's the one, and and he saw me in the commotion.
Speaker 1: I was like, I was hoping he would just keep
Speaker 1: his eyes on the bait. And so I wasn't like
Speaker 1: going crazy, but I was moving stuff and like, all right,
Speaker 1: let's get already for the shot. And uh, I guess
Speaker 1: he just caught the movement out of the corner of
Speaker 1: his eye, and so he was a little nervy all
Speaker 1: of a sudden. I was like, God, I just screwed
Speaker 1: this up. And he turned and walked in behind the
Speaker 1: bait into the thicket. I'm like, oh, man, I hope
Speaker 1: he comes out. And then he starts getting real close
Speaker 1: to the bait. I can see the I can see
Speaker 1: his black fur through like little breaks in the vegetation,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, he's gonna come in. He wants
Speaker 1: it too bad. And the wind is perfect, Like he
Speaker 1: never smelled me. The wind was in my face. And
Speaker 1: you know, maybe with some of these big bears, it's
Speaker 1: like with a white toe, where it's like they might
Speaker 1: see but as long as they don't smell you, he
Speaker 1: might be safe. Yeah, But he he comes in from
Speaker 1: behind the bait, and it's pretty quick. It's probably within
Speaker 1: three minutes, and squabbles with another bear and man. Once
Speaker 1: he gets beside the barrels and it being lifted off
Speaker 1: the ground. I was, I was, I was really questioning things,
Speaker 1: you know, because I'm like you always it's drilled into
Speaker 1: you back of the barrel or taller. And so anyways,
Speaker 1: long story short, he sits and just just chomping on
Speaker 1: on the cookies and different bait that's out there, and
Speaker 1: and I was a little nervous I was going to
Speaker 1: run out of time, and I was still waiting on,
Speaker 1: like I wonder if a bigger bear's gonna come in
Speaker 1: Like that was a real good bear on photo on
Speaker 1: me on the the picture you sent me. But the
Speaker 1: more I looked at him, the more I was like, golly,
Speaker 1: he looks thick. He's thick. I think I told you
Speaker 1: he was thick. With three c's, he was thick. But anyways,
Speaker 1: there's a smaller bore out there that he was, probably
Speaker 1: two hundred. But he had the attitude of a big
Speaker 1: old bear. Yeah, yeah, bigger bearon I've ever seen. And
Speaker 1: he would get he got pushed off the bait one time,
Speaker 1: or he had left and come back and there was
Speaker 1: all this competition, and he would get out there in
Speaker 1: that thicket and he was you could just hear him
Speaker 1: just like stomp as hard as he could, huff at
Speaker 1: him and just causing a racket. And at first they
Speaker 1: were a little jumping and they were like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: just you, and so they stayed there, and so he
Speaker 1: they wasn't taking the bluff. So he went up there
Speaker 1: and he pushed my berry, which was more than twice
Speaker 1: his elder. Yeah, and uh off. And I was like,
Speaker 1: I might not get another opportunity. So I'm like, I
Speaker 1: start rolling and I'm I'm ready to draw and uh
Speaker 1: and so I come to full draw and uh, well
Speaker 1: he he leaves the bait, makes a little circle coming
Speaker 1: back to it, and he's facing to my left and he's, uh,
Speaker 1: he's just almost perfectly broadside, a little little quarter towards me,
Speaker 1: but I would consider it straight broadside. Uh. And I
Speaker 1: pulled back and I'm just like middle middle for just
Speaker 1: little and I and I let it go and straight
Speaker 1: pass through. He takes off and while he's going, like
Speaker 1: the way that the the way that the low vegetation
Speaker 1: is here, you can see as he's running he's just
Speaker 1: pushing these it looks like I mean, it looks like
Speaker 1: if you ever watched drastic part like the Ye, like
Speaker 1: the Lost Raptors coming through the through the grass or
Speaker 1: the whatever. Yeah, or like you know, just like you
Speaker 1: could just see it moving. And he went, I mean
Speaker 1: I was guessing thirty yards, but when we were actually
Speaker 1: standing at the where he was to where he went like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, twenty something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say realistically probably like twenty yards straight.
Speaker 1: Line, Yeah, twenty yards. And then I saw like it
Speaker 1: was like he was spinning around or something like it
Speaker 1: was like a washing machine going off and where he
Speaker 1: was standing. Yeah, And and then the movement kind of stopped,
Speaker 1: and I just heard some lild gurgling, you know. And
Speaker 1: so I was I was feeling pretty good, and I
Speaker 1: was waiting for the for the moan that never came.
Speaker 1: And then so he was there and we weren't going
Speaker 1: to pressuring. Another bear must have gone toward words, because
Speaker 1: I heard a commotion and then a smaller bear popped
Speaker 1: out real quick, like he was not happy, and yeah,
Speaker 1: so then I let you know, real fast, yeah, like
Speaker 1: a shot a bear. Think the think the shot was good.
Speaker 1: And then I went into research mode. I get on
Speaker 1: my camera and I'm like replaying the footage and taking
Speaker 1: it in slow mode, and I was like, I feel
Speaker 1: real good about that shot. And h while I'm doing that,
Speaker 1: a big old bear comes out and I don't know
Speaker 1: that he was He didn't. It didn't seem like he
Speaker 1: had the fat on him like my bear. He wasn't
Speaker 1: like blocky, but he was tall, long, and he had
Speaker 1: some weight on him. It's hard to say which bear
Speaker 1: I would have chosen between the two. I really liked
Speaker 1: the bear that that I ended up with and and
Speaker 1: he had Well, I'll let you take over some of this,
Speaker 1: like the recovery and some of your thoughts on what
Speaker 1: things you go through whenever we recover a bear, like
Speaker 1: things that that I did that helped you out, and
Speaker 1: kind of what you want from hunters inside of that scenario.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I mean the footage to play back is
Speaker 2: that's a bonus for sure. I mean, that is super
Speaker 2: nice to be able to see, you know, the shot placement,
Speaker 2: and it gives you a good time, you know, a
Speaker 2: good idea. How much time to give him, you know,
Speaker 2: we we were probably we probably it was probably half
Speaker 2: an hour until from the time you shot till we
Speaker 2: went in Yeah, and yeah, I mean it's the other
Speaker 2: thing is you know, knowing what direction that bear went,
Speaker 2: how far? How far did you hear noise? You know,
Speaker 2: it gives you an idea how far he is deep in? Yeah,
Speaker 2: death mooned to listen to. You know, those are all
Speaker 2: important things for sure. And I mean direction, what trail
Speaker 2: did he run down? Because you might not get blood
Speaker 2: right away, yeah, so you could you could spend a
Speaker 2: lot of time just trying to find the right trail, yeah,
Speaker 2: because they have so many different avenues they're branched off
Speaker 2: of and if if you're not on it right away,
Speaker 2: it just gets harder.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think we started finding blood at like eight
Speaker 1: ten yards, yeah, somewhere around there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it wasn't too far.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it was like the first blood we found
Speaker 1: was on the side of a small tree, yeah, or vegetation,
Speaker 1: and then we had drops here and there, like he
Speaker 1: was bleeding relatively good. Yeah, I thought it was pretty good.
Speaker 1: Like we were finding blood every I don't know, two
Speaker 1: and a half three.
Speaker 2: Feet yeah, and he didn't go that far, so it's
Speaker 2: not like he had a ton of time to really yeah,
Speaker 2: to drop.
Speaker 1: It old either but yeah, And one of the things
Speaker 1: that that I've consciously built is anytime I used to
Speaker 1: it would shoot an animal, I I wouldn't pay attention
Speaker 1: to the after In fact, I would get caught up
Speaker 1: in the moment at the shot, like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: did I get him, like or I was the shot
Speaker 1: like I would be replanted in my head automatically. And
Speaker 1: so I've been working on the ability to like mature
Speaker 1: in my after shot, you know, checklist. And so it
Speaker 1: was like I paid attention. I didn't just like let
Speaker 1: go of the arrow. I was paying attention and watching
Speaker 1: where the arrow hit and big growth for me. And
Speaker 1: then I was trying to watch where I thought that
Speaker 1: bear went into the thing. I was off two trails
Speaker 1: on this one, so it was good to have the
Speaker 1: footage to know exactly which he went because I was
Speaker 1: I was two bear trails off, which was ten feet.
Speaker 1: But whenever he ran off and I saw everything go
Speaker 1: down where I thought he laid down and stayed, I
Speaker 1: was like counting trees, all right, one, two, three trees
Speaker 1: and then there's another one to the right of that
Speaker 1: third tree like six seven feet, and he was exactly
Speaker 1: where I thought he was. And so and then just
Speaker 1: because my memory is not great, I pulled my phone
Speaker 1: out and started recording, and I was like, all right, one, two,
Speaker 1: three trees, he's between those two. Yeah, because I was,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to make sure I had that information
Speaker 1: in that I have a tendency that whenever I keep
Speaker 1: going over the same thing over and over, the story
Speaker 1: starts changing and I start second guessing myself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean when you come down from the stand,
Speaker 2: everything looks different too from where you're drop in the stand. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it makes it tough if you can if you
Speaker 2: can have some kind of a landmark or like a
Speaker 2: log laying there, or a piece of twig or anything
Speaker 2: that you could pick up when you get down there
Speaker 2: that distinguishes that that's where it went in, you know,
Speaker 2: it helps big time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I mean we were several yards into that
Speaker 1: thicket before we found the first blood. So if you
Speaker 1: were just relying on oh I shot him and he
Speaker 1: ran that way, Like, I imagine how long do you
Speaker 1: take to find first blood at times?
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, They've just got so many trails in there
Speaker 2: that it's it's just if you can kind of get
Speaker 2: a line of sight or get an idea of the
Speaker 2: direction he's going. At least you can work that trail
Speaker 2: further to try to find another spec of blood or yeah, anything,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, have you have you found any general tendencies that
Speaker 1: bears may have whenever they're shot, either shot really good
Speaker 1: or poor shot placement or less an ideal shot placement.
Speaker 2: I guess one thing, you know, if they're you get
Speaker 2: past you know, if they're hit really good, generally you'll
Speaker 2: find them thirty forty yards. Yeah, and they're piled up.
Speaker 2: If they're not hit exactly where they should be and
Speaker 2: you start pushing, you know, north of eighty one hundred yards,
Speaker 2: it's usually not a good sign. Yeah, once you get
Speaker 2: past that distance. But what we have found is if
Speaker 2: we went back to recover him the next morning, to look,
Speaker 2: you know, you know, on a on a longer retrieve,
Speaker 2: if you can find if you've got any kind of
Speaker 2: water source in the area, Yeah, that's usually what they're
Speaker 2: going to aim for.
Speaker 1: Really. Yeah, Okay, that's good enough.
Speaker 2: So if you're if you're totally going blind, sometimes it's
Speaker 2: better to hit that water source and work the edges
Speaker 2: of it, and it might give you a better leader.
Speaker 2: You might find them at the edge. We've found quite
Speaker 2: a few like that.
Speaker 1: Or really, yeah, really that's a that's a good hot tip. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, well take me from there, which direct? What
Speaker 1: do you think Whenever you walked up on that bear?
Speaker 2: I thought you did pretty good.
Speaker 1: I tell you, I've been wanting your seal of approval
Speaker 1: the whole time, but your stial of approval was not
Speaker 1: the most important. The most important seal of approval was marvelous.
Speaker 1: I know, you know. And and what did I tell you?
Speaker 1: Whenever we run our way back you dropped me off
Speaker 1: at the cabin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as soon as I got home, you told well,
Speaker 2: she was good. She wanted to look at it. You
Speaker 2: weren't there yet, and I said, you cannot look at
Speaker 2: that bear until Toby gets here.
Speaker 1: I got strict orders. I told her.
Speaker 2: He's like really, I said, yeah really.
Speaker 1: I told Rich I was like, don't let Marlow see it.
Speaker 1: I was like, I need to be there when she
Speaker 1: sees it for the first time, and I want to
Speaker 1: see how excited she is. And I said, and I
Speaker 1: know you won't let her see it because you're all
Speaker 1: about customer service. Oh man, oh man. But yeah, but
Speaker 1: he's just heavy. I mean even getting him inside of
Speaker 1: the sled and stuff was just rolling him over was hard.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know he's a beauty bear. Yeah, really thick, wide,
Speaker 2: his hot head on him just so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's he's poping young but not quite a booner.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think we were at nineteen and five sixteenth since.
Speaker 2: Just yeah, yeah, he had good length. He was just
Speaker 2: a little bit short on the on the width, but
Speaker 2: either way, it's it's a it's a beauty Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: not a bear that anybody could really pass when he comes.
Speaker 1: To no, no, no, unless he's blind, yeah, like me.
Speaker 1: Uh no. And then we when we went to skin
Speaker 1: the bearer, he had just the thickest slabs of fat
Speaker 1: on him. I mean we put a tape measure on it.
Speaker 1: In some parts it was three inches deep. Yeah, just
Speaker 1: solid fat. And uh it's crazy, Like I I got
Speaker 1: everything that I wanted inside of a bear. I wanted
Speaker 1: a big, mature boar. I wanted a lot of meat,
Speaker 1: and I wanted a lot of fat, and I had
Speaker 1: I had just like I had mentioned to you guys,
Speaker 1: I wanted a bear that was thick in the front,
Speaker 1: just looked looked tough like a bodybuilder. And then I
Speaker 1: wanted him to. Uh, I really wanted one with a
Speaker 1: really dark muzzle. I tend to go more for those
Speaker 1: dark muzzled bears. Yeah, I mean he checked every single box. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and uh, anyways, it was a it was
Speaker 1: a great hunt. And uh, you guys would have seven
Speaker 1: tags for next year still.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got seven seven available for next.
Speaker 1: Next spring, so some of you guys are to jump
Speaker 1: on that. You guys listening, It's like this has been
Speaker 1: the way it's been all all week. We've just been
Speaker 1: laughing and having a good time and cutting up and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it was. It was fun to Avenue Colby.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's such a treat to to be
Speaker 1: on a hunt where where it's just one or two guys,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, and because it's more relaxed and laid
Speaker 1: back and it feels more like a hunting hunting buddies
Speaker 1: and then uh, you know, then you being busy the
Speaker 1: whole time. Yeah, me just being aloof or with other
Speaker 1: folks or whatever. Yeah, but cool.
Speaker 2: Thanks Rich, Okay, thanks.
Speaker 3: Buddy, Thank you for listening. The Bear Hunting Magazine Hunt
Speaker 3: Cast is recorded by Bear Hunting Magazine and produced by
Speaker 3: Mountain Gravity Media. Be sure leave us a five star
Speaker 3: review on iTunes, and keep guarding the gate.