EP 81: Spring Bear Hunting with the Epic Crew

Some days I saw 15 plus bears. Put the camera on the tripod, get the bear in the camera, hit record, get down on the gun, find it. You need to be planning your fault right now. We're getting dry results. Big things are happening. Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hi. Hi, everybody.

Hey, threw you for a loop, didn't I? You guys weren't expecting that. That's a good intro. Hey, everybody. I liked it. Hi. Hi. My name is Jason. Just a little change. All right. So, anyway, here we are. Another podcast. Pounding them out. They're killing me doing two today. But here we are. Another podcast. Going to talk about bears and all the kinds of fun, furry things. So, anyway. Jason Carter here, along with the Epic crew. Jeff John. Chris Peterson. John Peterson. Some of my best friends in the whole wide world. Coming at you from Cedar City. So, anyway. Before we get started, we're going to thank Under Armour. So, we appreciate them and sponsoring Epic Outdoors. They run ads in our magazine as well as we do the online stuff. Everything online, whether it be digital, social, or anything else. So, anyway. We appreciate them. Got a lot of great gear. Of course, I tested.

And we'll talk about some of that in this podcast. Tested it in Alaska. Now, it wasn't my favorite thing in the world. But I was rained on, hailed on, sawed on, and everything else in Alaska. And it was in Under Armour gear. So, appreciate them for keeping me somewhat comfortable in an uncomfortable environment. Having said that, we're going to move right along to the Wyoming Super Tags. We want to give them some thanks. We appreciate them. Wyoming Game and Fish has been a supporter of Epic Outdoors. You can see them in our magazine. They're running ads within the magazine for their tags and ticket sales for the tags. So, anyway. You can apply for some of their different raffle options. They got Super Tag tickets for $10 a piece. You can apply for multiple different species. They also have the trifecta. You can choose any three species available for $30 a ticket. So, anyway.

Awesome opportunity. Ten different species. Eleven chances to win. Deadline to apply is July 2, 2018. So, not too far down the road. And, anyway. You can go to wgfd.wyo.gov backslash epicoutdoors. How about that? Epic Outdoors has their own landing page within the Wyoming Game and Fish. That's awesome. Perfect. Perfect. So, all I got to say is hold on to your socks. This is going to be a good one. Yeah. That's it. So, Jason just got back from his bear hunt not too long ago. And, Jason, how much caffeine did you have while on that bear hunt? Zero. Okay. The only thing we had was mountain house, mountain house, and mountain house. Okay. And where there was a lack of caffeine at that point, there is currently – I guess I'm ratting you out here, aren't I? I'm kind of ratting you out. My wife is going to string me up. Got a little – string me up.

Got a white monster pouring through his veins now. So, yeah. Good luck. She's 110 pounds. She ain't hanging me from anything else.

I'm pretty much more than double that.

I know. So, I'm on a monster. These guys made me do a podcast two in a row. We're off to a great start. I'm liking it. Only 30% has to be edited out at this point, Chris. He's going to be busy for the next three days. Chris is like, this is an editing nightmare.

He's good at it, so we'll make him do it. How about that? All right. So, anyway, we got some bear stories. Of course, we got some drawing results. I just want to talk about that for a minute. We got some guys here at the table that have pulled some tags. Chris. Namely, Chris. Crap.

What did you draw, Chris? You can't edit this stuff out, Chris. You're stuck. You're stuck leaving this in. We will be checking. So, when I applied, I wanted an elk tag for the year. And so, I was a little bit liberal in my applications. And I did. I would say. I just did a second choice and figured, well, why not? I may be there on a deer hunt at some point. So, drew a horrible tag.

I'm going to turn it back. What are they? How much is that? Drew a second choice tag. $661. A lot of guys would say, I've got to make good on that. I'm going to spend another $14,000 to make sure I make good use of that $661. Oh, yeah. You're doing the smart thing. Turn that tag back and get your money back. Go on another date.

Maybe two dates. Put a deposit on a ring. By the way, if there's any hot chicks out there, hit Chris up. Chris at EpicOutdoors.com. We'll make him go out on a date with you.

That's free advertising. We should raffle that off. There you go. We need to buy a ticket. Hot date with Chris. Buy a ticket. Buy a ticket for your daughter. Must send picture. No purchase necessary for certain people. I don't know. My editing is going way up. Yeah. I don't know why you would. That's perfect. Other than maybe you'd plug in your own cell phone. I can see that. Yeah. Add a cell phone number. We should just put that on our first page of our website. Just have Chris's Pearson down in the corner. Not going to happen. Diehard cowboy. Let's throw out everything out there. Where can they reach you, Chris? Actually, we ought to have a little, you know, where they go through one of us before they get to you. You know, your agent. You know. I thought we were talking about bears today. Let's talk about, well, what other draw tags we got? We were on the draw tag.

Man, it's kind of a... Wait a minute. Wait a minute. None of the rest of us turned down The Bachelor. Really? What? Yeah. What do you mean? Chris turned down going on The Bachelor. No. You did? No. Chris. I didn't know this. I didn't turn down The Bachelor. What did you turn down? What was it? The voice. No, I thought it was The Bachelor, too. Whatever. Bear Grylls. You've had Bear Grylls. You've had about everybody hit you. That's awesome. I still can't figure out why. Why wouldn't you ask me? Because you're married and you can't sing. Because you have a voice for radio. Actually, we've got to edit that. You have a face for radio. You have a face for podcasts. I know. I get it. I get it. I get it. All right. Well, before we go into my draws, which I don't want to talk about because they're secretive, let's talk about bears. There you go. Jeff, you've been baiting bears.

How did it go last night? Oh, man. You know, I was pretty disgusted until last night. So, set up my baits. Opening day. You can't start baiting until opening day in Utah. Utah. And I was tired of packing 50 to 80 pounds of feet up the stinking mountain. I was getting fed up with it. Well, if I heard you were doing that on a four-wheeler.

Didn't you tell me? Partially. You were putting the pack on and getting on the bike. No, I was strapping it to the four-wheeler, driving up. And then once you get to the certain spot, then you've got to get off and you've got to hike to this place. Okay. So, yeah. So, anyway.

It's not that hard to pack on a four-wheeler. Yeah, I know. Tires are getting low. And it's not. I'm only hiking. This guy is legit. No. I mean, trust me. I'm still only hiking maybe 500 yards to 1,000 yards to get to these bait stations. But still, it sucks. It sucks. You only do that for a giant. 500 yards? 500 yards? It better be giant or nothing. It's like me complaining about hiking when I'm on my horse. There you go. That's just too much packing.

This horse, it's just too much. You need to train the hunt program. Yeah, I know. That's what I need. Seriously, I do. It's just annoying, man. Like, every time you're walking out there and you're just dumping food out on the ground, you're like, I hope something comes eventually. You're pouring money on the ground. That's what you're doing, dude. You've got a lifetime dog supply out there. Oh, it felt like it. Well, then I went back yesterday, pulled up to my spot, walked out, glassed. Well, sure enough, there's a bear on the bait. It's working. It's not for nothing. It felt like there was a reason. Was it a cub? No, it wasn't a small bear, but it was a smallish bear. Okay. All right. All right. It was a smallish. I can picture exactly what you're talking about. It was not even close to it. It wasn't a one-hander? It was not. It wasn't a one-hander, that's for sure.

It wasn't a one-hander. It looked like I have a mule deer ears on it. Yeah. No. Some of those, you see the pictures, like, I'm pretty sure I could pick that up and hold it out there, like, you know, like. One-hander. One-hander. Just pick it up with one hand. But no, no. They're much bigger than that, but still nothing close to what you're looking for. What I'm looking for. Well, you've got a little bit of time. Yeah. You know you've been mixing up the bait a little bit. Oh, my heck. Just trying to. You've got a special concoction going on in the house. Your wife's cooking for the bears. Oh, man. And we're just dumping money. I feel like I've got a feedlot out on the mountain. I don't know, man. The bear baiting thing, like, kudos to. Now, I'm going to tell you. This hunt is. I'm a week into this hunt. A week and a half into this hunt. I'm pretty sure I could go to Alberta.

I could drive to Alberta, book a hunt with a guy, pay the $3,500 to $4,000. $4,500. And still be ahead. And still be ahead. I am not kidding you. Like, it feels like that as you're dumping another $50 worth of fuel in the truck to drive up there. Another $10 into the four-wheeler and then bashing everything, all your gear to heck, driving the four-wheelers out of the spot. It's like, man, I should have just booked a hunt. I should go to Alberta. I booked a hunt, Jeff. Oh, that's true.

So I booked a brown bear hunt, and I have nothing to show for it. I tested a lot of gear. I was the gear test guy.

Mountain House should be sponsoring this podcast because you ate enough of it. I agree. Anyway, yeah, kind of interesting. It was good. It was a real good experience. It was with Mike Litson, Litson Guide Service. Super good guy. We endorse him. We still endorse him. That's good news. That's good news. That's a good sign. That's a good sign. I saw lots of bears. I mean, I saw some days I saw 15-plus bears. Really? Yep. Brown bears. That's incredible. It's unbelievable. It was. It was unbelievable. Tons of bears. It was. I've never been somewhere, and I'm not used to this, but it was the most prevalent species there. Like you see five or six caribou total, and you see them four or five times, and so you like to say there's 20. There's not. Okay? There's five. And they just roam around, right? And very few grass eaters. There's nothing. There's no trees.

Like there's lots of logs, like thousands of logs along the coastline, and they came from 200 miles away, 300 miles away. There are no trees there. It's all alders. Wow. And like five foot? No. Eight foot tall alders? No, like 12 footers and thick as dog hair. Wow. You know? And here you are with a 30-inch rifle trying to get through them. Freaking Neanderthal walking through there. Like, good grief. My little short guide's like, I don't know what the problem is. Yeah, buddy.

Jeez. Gain a little height. Walk through there. See how you do. So, anyway, but it was interesting. We'll apologize in advance to the poor little guy. Oh, he's a good guy. We spent a lot of time together. We spent a lot of time playing nine card. I mean. Staring at each other. Oh, dude. I know way more than I should know about him. And he knows way more than he should know about me. So. It was interesting. It was awesome. Tons and tons of bears, you know. And it's one of those things I didn't. I mean, lots of eight to eight and a half. There's. We did see two great bears. But they weren't settled down breeding. When you get a breeding pair. What they call a breeding pair. They settle in. And they hang out for long periods of time. You know. Like meeting 48 to whatever. You know. 72 hours or whatever. And they chill out. And they might not move 15 yards. And you did not see that.

Like they're all. So. We watched. I videoed some breeding. But they were eight and a half foot. You know. An eight and a half foot boar. Yeah. On a little sow. And he just. He's getting lucky. Because the big boar wasn't walking through. And didn't. You know. Didn't kick him off. So. Anyway. There was actually two boars on one sow. It was kind of interesting. Interesting to say the least. But. Anyway. Videoed. A lot of great video there. Doing that. And then. Foxes. And wolverines. And you name it. And you know the crazy thing about that place. Is. And it's weird. It feels like. I don't know. It kind of feels like hell a little bit. You know. It's like a bun yard. Like. It's. Everything eats. Everything. So. There's not like. You get a lot of grass eaters here. You got rabbits. You got deer. You got antelope. You got elk. And cattle. Or whatever. You got grass eaters. You know.

And gillots. They eat each other. You know. You got bears eating grass right now. Like. But then they go into meat heavy. You got bears eating cubs. They'll. They'll run. You know. Chase. They'll. They'll be on a sow. And she will not get away. We watched him track. We watched a big boar track a sow. Through. You know. Sheep country. Like straight up sheep. You know. Rugged shale. Track her through that. She's a half mile away. And we watch him stay on her. He gets into a snow slide. Right on her track. Comes barreling down the snow slide. And then he just. Slowly works. It's like the government. Never ends. Very slow. You know what I mean. Never gives up. Never gives up. Pretty soon he catches up close to her. She's watching. She's watching her back trail. She's on to him. He kind of is on to her. He knows he's getting close. And the cubs with him. And I mean.

We videoed the whole sequence. Back up the mountain. They go. Around the mountain. They go. Out of sight. She's trying to get out of. Get the cub out of the way. What she needs to do is get in a creek. And walk down the creek for two miles. And then she might get away. Other than that. You're not getting away. And then he would get to the snow slide. And he laid out there. Sprawled out on all fours. Eating snow. Because he's so hot from hiking. I mean. He's freaking out. Oh. And anyway. That's the way it goes. It's just. And then at some point. He'll catch up. If the cub's smart. He'll run away. Otherwise. He's going to be bear poop.

They crunch. The guides have story after story. About how they crunch. I mean. They can sit there. And listen to him crunching on the bones. Of a cub. And then when he's done with the cub. He breeds mom. Because she comes back in the heat. Oh. There was one story. One of the guides. He watched a boar come in. And rip the sow out of the den. And eat the cubs. Wow. Yeah. It's unbelievable. I mean. There's a lot of really cool. Crazy stories. But then. You know. You watch the seagulls come down. And they grab the crab. And fly off with a crab. Sitting there in midair. And 30 seconds. He's got his eyes gone. And his guts are gone. You know what I mean. And I mean. It's everything. Eats everything. We watched foxes.

Sniff on the beach. You know. So the tide comes in and out. Yeah. And you got the ocean. Obviously. And they're sniffing on the beach. And he's sniffing. Sniffing. Sniffing. And then pretty soon. He's digging. He digs down. Eight or ten inches even. Pulls out a flopping fish. I mean a flopping fish. From the sandbar. A live fish. And he eats it. And then he eats another one. He eats another one. Watch it 15 times. Goes over. Grabs three of them together. Pulls it out. Throws it out on the beach. Grabs another one. Grabs another one. Goes over. And they got a den. Feeds mama. Makes her beg. She's down there begging. You know. Tells a wagon. She's flat on the ground. You know. Submissive. And I'm like. I could learn something here. You know what I mean? And just total submissive. And then he makes her beg. For about five seconds. Ten seconds. Flops the fish out on the ground.

Then she eats them. And she's so happy. And so excited. And then he goes back to hunting again. It's unbelievable. I'm like. Fish in a sandbar. Yeah. Ready to bark. They had a den. Oh yeah. They had a den. And everything. And so. And then. And then later on. I glassed up a wolverine. I'm like. That's pretty cool. Got a wolverine. And then I go. And the next day. We were hiking. We went eight and a half miles. On the inreach. You know. The inreach will track you. Yeah. And by the way. The inreach is pretty cool. Like. I know there's some. You know. Conflicting stories out there. It was non-stop texting. Like. You can text. Unlimited text. For like. 65 bucks a month. You know. Which is how I got in touch. With you guys once in a while. You can go inreach to inreach. Right? Yeah. Inreach to inreach. Inreach to cell phone. You can. You know. They got an app on your cell phone. You type.

Type on your cell phone. And it's awesome. Anyway. A lot of people know that. Kind of new to me. But. Anyway. We were hiking our guts out. And glassed up a wolverine. Who just killed a fox. So the wolverine kills a fox. And I mean. He does the happy dance. Jump. Jump. Jump. Do. Do. Do. You know. So excited. And then he's getting all the blood off of his face. And so he's burrowing into the snow. And burrowing into the snow the other way. And jumping around. Jumping around. Grabs onto him. Tears him apart again. You see fur flying again. He's a dead corpse sitting there. You know. Chews on him. Then jumps around. Jumps around. Buries in the snow. Buries in the snow. You know. And then pretty soon. He takes the rest of what's left of the fox. He's hauling it off to his den. I mean. It's. It's. Everything eats everything. You know what I mean. And then you see a caribou once in a while.

You're like. You're bear pooping. You ain't going to make it. Keep walking further out on that peninsula. You're not going to make it back. Yeah. Lots of rain. Lots of wind. You know. I was in waders most of the time. Oh. It's horizontal rain. Really? Non-stop. Like what temperature? 32 to 42. Wow. Whole time. Whole time. Yeah. Whole time. That's what you were at. And you had a lot of daylight. We should have had a lot of daylight. You had daylight. But no. Very little sun. But yeah. You have daylight. And then. You know. Bears came through the camp. I mean. You know. You've got a little hole you're using to. You know. Use the bathroom in. Yeah. And. You know. And you dig it out. And. Anyway. Bear comes through and raids the hole. You know. Cleans it out for you. I mean. Just like. Oh my gosh. It's non-stop. Going through camp. Videoed them right next to camp.

Videoed them going through camp. You know. Just. Just a lot of that. What's interesting about up there though. These bears are inherently scared of you. They. They are. They know they're hunted. To a degree. And I don't necessarily know how. Because it's not like there's lots and lots of tags. But. They don't like humans. Generally speaking. Generally speaking. Which isn't. Which is. Kind of good to know. Because you look at them out wandering around. You probably think. That's an awful intimidating creature to. Have to be anywhere near. Oh. It's intimidating. Trust me. Giant. Yeah. And fast. Yeah. They're way fast. Incredible sense of smell. Yeah. You and your hip waders. You're not going very fast. Okay.

You're not. You're a gummy. And so. Anyway. Yeah. They're a very intimidating animal. But. Anyway. They are scared of you. They. They. Even the big boars. The big boars are smart. And. If they get on your trail. Or. They come across your trail. They're gone. And so. You try not to stink up the area too bad. You don't want to. You want to glass from a distance. And go in when you need to. And. So. Anyway. I extended after 14 days. And spent 20. 21 days up there. You know. Hunting. Actually during the season. And so. Dang near spent the entire. Brown bear season. It went. May 10th. To May 31st. And. This is the last year. They extended it that long. Normally. You know. Multiple years ago. I don't know exactly how many. They went to. You know. From a May 10th. To May 25th season. To the 31st. Which was awesome. Because the warmer it gets. The more they're moving. And the more they're moving.

The more they're breeding. You know. The more. The warmer it gets. The weather. Everything like that. You get a lot of activity. And you have a better chance. Of killing something good. And. And also they had. You know. And on even years. You have a spring season. And on odd years. You have a fall season. The fall seasons are tougher. And there's no question about it. You know. Just because they're. The boards aren't roaming as much. Right. They're not. And when you're holding up. And if you have a good salmon run. They don't move. They lay there on the bank. Wherever they're at. And if it's in thick allers. And they got salmon. They're laying. Just dead salmon. They're laying in dead salmon. You can't walk without walking on salmon. You know. Especially a year like last year. And so. Anyway. It can be. A little bit tougher that way. These spring hunts are pretty fun. This year was tough.

A lot of. A lot of tough weather. Some people killed some giants. And congratulations to them. It was. It's awesome. It makes you want a big old bear. And there's no question.

But. Anyway. I wanted. I wanted to kill a good one. You know. I just. Didn't want to kill an oversized black bear. I mean. I want to go up and kill a big old bear. You know. And so. And saw a couple. And once you see a couple. You're like. All right. I got to have one. You know. And so. Anyway. It was. It was awesome. It was one of those things. You know. You better have very good ring gear. And. And it's kind of. It's kind of crazy. Obviously no cell service. I'm unplugged for. You know. Three weeks plus. And. And of course. You guys are running the office. And it's freaking me out. You had withdrawals. Texting. Hey. Are you saying I'm addicted? Instagram withdrawals. I did have that. So. Anyway. But we're paid to do that kind of stuff. I'm supposed to be on Instagram. But anyway. It was. It was quite a. Quite a. Quite a deal. You know. It's one of those things you don't do very often.

You know. If you kill one. You're done for four years. You know. There's. And so. Anyway. Not. Not cheap. That's for sure. But at the same time. They do have boat hunts. You know. Litson does have boat hunts. Where you can move a lot. He's covering a lot of country. Shorelines. And. And. And that's kind of like. If you want a big mule deer in the rut. You need to cover country. You cover the numbers. Right. And we've talked about that. I don't know any different podcasts. Yeah. And that's what I feel like on these bears. And. And I know I'm just. I'm just. One guy. One opinion. And only. It's not like I'm an expert. I've been on one of them. Right. Yeah. But I'm just saying. Cover the numbers. Cover the country. You know. And you can do that on some of these hunts. That one. You know. They couldn't. But having said that. We did see a couple big old bears. And we had a big.

Great big bay to ourselves. With drainages that run into the bay. And so. How far were you glassing? Like where were you? Oh. Four plus miles. Really? Yeah. Oh yeah. So you're glassing up bears across the bay. Oh yeah. You'll see some of the video that I took through phone scope. You know. Chest and set up was awesome. Got a film. Even the happy dance from. The Wolverine. I got that on film. The fox is amazing footage with the. The iPhone and chest and set up. Phone scope set up. So. Anyway. Yeah. There's. There's a lot of that.

Just lots of film. With that kind of stuff. Bears chilling. We. We. Hiked in on. A couple of bears. Maybe 125 yards away. And videoed them. And then once they start sniffing the air. And they're. They're kind of. You know. Facing you. I mean. You're like. Ew. You know. You know. Because the young bears. The middle. Middle aged or young bears. Like. They're the ones that are dumb enough to come check you out. And not sure. Just like. The old ones. Younger lion or something like that. They're intimidating. Because. They're curious. Well. They're not. No. And they're not smart enough to go. There's danger. Oh. What's that? Never smelled that before. Let's go check it out. You know. And so you're like. No. You know. So you kind of got to be careful of those young ones. And. You know. But we did video them. Got up close. And. And whatnot. So. What age class are you like on. Like. Like.

Eight and a half year old. Some of these bears. No. Some of these bears are. You know. 15 to 25 years old. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. They're old bears. Bears get old. You can learn a lot in 20 years. As a bear. I'm sure. I don't know Jeff. You're eating cubs. Breeding. Eating salmon. That's probably true. But. Finding a winter bed. Eating cubs. Breeding. Eating salmon. Find a winter bed. That's what you do for 25 years. Well. And avoid being killed. Yeah. You got to avoid being killed. That's right. When you're not thinking straight. You know. In the rut. Yeah. Be like you. Coming off a hunt. And trying to avoid being killed. Pretty much. Be easy to slay. Buddy.

That's the truth. That's the truth. So anyway. It was awesome. I mean. You get to learn a lot. You meet a lot of good people. There's other outfitters and whatnot. You meet a lot of other hunters. And. You know. It's a. Like everybody says. It can be the most boring hunt in the world. You're. You're. I mean. Sometimes we're bound to camp for. Three days. You know. The wind's not right. And the wind that is there is. Blowing rain horizontal. You know what I mean. And you can't glass. You got fog. Visibility. Yeah. Visibility zero. And all you're doing is tracking up the place. Right. Because your. Winds are on. Or whatever. So you try to. You try to make good on the days that are good. And the days that are good. We had three good days. And. And those days. We saw the least amount of bears. We took off. And went aggressive. Very steep. Rugged country. Yeah. A lot of bears will be up high.

And. You know. One of those days. I was in my waders. Because. Here's the problem. You got. You got hip waders. And. And they're insulated. And your feet still get cold. Right. But you're hiking your guts out. Because wherever you see that bear. You're going to have to go. Yeah. Oh yeah. You're sweating. And so. If you see the bear across another valley. Well. Valleys are marshes. And tundra. You know what I mean. So you had. I fell into my crotch multiple times. Water everywhere. It's like quick sand. You know. Just water. Like you just. You just. I'm going to live in water. You know. For the. For the duration of my hunt. And. And. And hopefully you got a good camp. Where you can dry out a little bit. And boot dryers and whatnot. If you can. That's a very luxury item there. We didn't have. That. But I mean. It's definitely. You know. One of those. One of those things. Where you're not.

It's not just. Like out here. We're 90 degrees. Or 80 degrees. Or 70. Or 60. Or 50. Or 40. Or whatever. But lots of sunny. You know. Days. And clear days. So anyway. You just. You just go up there. And enjoy bad weather. Yeah. In a 20 day stretch here. You might have three days of bad weather. In a 20 day stretch up there. You got three days of good weather. Yeah. This was an abnormally tough. Tough spring that way. Yeah. It was abnormally bad weather. Usually they have a lot more sunny. We had. We had the in reaches. And go pros and what not. And so we had. You know. We also had the solar. You know. Charging batteries. And what not. And then using those to charge. Some of our devices. Because you want to be able to connect with people. You want to also be able to video. Yeah. All right. With your phones. What was your favorite piece of gear?

Oh. That's a tough one. My. Under Armour does make a stuffable. Jacket. That was unbelievable. It's a lifesaver. It was a lifesaver. And it was kind of in the middle. Because it's. So you're packing. You're going light. Waterproof on the outside. But light. Not much underneath. And then when you stop. You're going to freeze. Yeah. You're going to freeze. So you got to pull it out. Throw it on. Yeah. Put the rain shell. Yeah. Is it the modular? Is that the one you took? No. It's. Well. That modular. I think was kind of an outer shell. Lightweight. I used it nonstop. 100%. This is the new stuff. The new stuff. Yeah. Okay. That's right. And then I did have. Do you remember those brown pants you guys took. Yeah. And freaking went through the car wash on. Yeah. They were brown. But they weren't the camel version. Yeah. And those breathe. And they. And yet. So you. They could be soaked.

And dry within an hour. Like it was pretty crazy. Like they shed water. But they're. But you're going to. But they do to a degree. Up there. You're going to get wet. You know what I mean. And so. Yeah. And so. But then it breathed. It was breathing. And so it was awesome. Like it's awesome. I wore them. I mean I wore them for 20 days.

So I'm just going to say. They just about walked out of the airplane themselves without you in. On day 14. I'm like. Well if we're going to extend. I'm doing laundry. So there was a laundry basket on the beach from some sailor. There's a lot of trash on the beach. I mean these guys have fished for. You know. Whatever. 50, 100 years. And there's just shiz everywhere. And so anyway. Cutting boards. And who knows what. So anyway. Had a little bit of laundry detergent. And did some of my most favorite pieces. That got abused. There you go. And so yeah. Those brown pants are just unbelievable. And those will be out. You know. Obviously this year. What was the gear you were missing? What did you feel like? Wool gloves. I wish I would have. Wool gloves. Needed wool gloves. Yeah. Your hands are unbelievably cold. And I had gloves. And wet. Yeah. And wet all the time. And so I had gloves.

But when they get wet they get cold. And so I was constantly having to put them in my pockets. And just kind of keep those gloves from getting saturated. Or just. If they were. Then you just got cold hands. And it's not just a little bit. It was bad. You know. So I would say. You know. Wool gloves I think is the one thing. The one miss I had. Other than that. I was decked out perfect. I had great gear. It was awesome. You know. I don't know. I took 15. 15 power binoculars. I pretty much took the 10s. Left them in camp. Put my 15s in the bino harness. And it was 15s non-stop. Wow. Well we're good. If you can really glass for four miles. You want your 15s. Yeah. And they won't let you shoot a bear. Yeah. You want the 15s on a tripod. But they won't let you shoot a bear. You know. Unless you're close. I'm talking 200 and under. Because you're going in after the alders. After a bear. Yeah.

If you have a marginal shot. Or you don't. You know. Get a good shot on him. I mean. You're going in. You're going in with him. You got some stories of guys that. Oh yeah. Had to go in. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. When I was there. One of the guides. You know. They got a bunch of rounds into a bear. And with his adrenaline and whatnot. He came at him at 15 yards. And he had to put one between the eyes. Oh. Like. There's some crazy stories. Crazy stories. And so. I want that guide. Where's that guide? If I'm ever going after one. I want that guy with me. I'm pretty sure he flew home after that hunt. So. Anyway. But a lot of fun. Right? That's how. How would you like to have. I'd like to have that skull. Like that bear. That would be awesome. Yeah. This is my bear. This is the story behind him. So. Anyway. A lot of. A lot of stuff like that. Just. Just good times. Good people. I extended. You know.

Yeah. I mean. You know. You did everything you could. Yeah. Did everything we could. Just the weather. You can't help the weather. I mean. You can't help the weather. If you feel like you had three more good days. Yeah. There's not. You can't go. How far can you go? I mean. You go as far as you can go. On foot. Well. And you covered the whole country that's within your jurisdiction. So to speak. I mean. Yeah. So. You're limited to your. The outfitter's licensed area. Yeah. Like. Well. Whatever. Whatever. And. And yeah. And this is. Your land camps are based to this area. And then. The boats get to cover all the other country you can't. You know what I mean. Yeah. So. Tell me how the yacht hunts differ from that. Are they. You're glassing from the boat. Yeah. To sea bears. Oh yeah. They have 15s on the table. Glassing from the boat. Showers. Food. It was amazing.

They have to hit land before they can shoot. Oh yeah. Yeah. They'll go to land. They'll take a skiff to land. And. And. And work it from land. And a lot of times. They don't wait until they see one. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they. You know. Yeah. They road hunt. So to speak. Right. A lot of times every day. You're kind of playing it. The weather's good. You're going to land. And you're going to go to this bay. And work this country. Right. And then. And the next. And the other three hunters are going to do the same with their guide. Or whatever. And then. And just. Go in there. And then. You'll know what's there. And you can come out. And then you can try a different bay the next day. Or whatever. So you get more mobility. And then. I guess it'd be a luxury. More mobility to a degree. But then. To a degree. But then the wind comes up. You get really rough waves. Rough seas. I mean.

That'd be rough. You get rough seas. You're boat bound. You're not getting in a skiff and going shore. Yeah. Yeah. And so. Yeah. It's going to be frustrating. Right. You can see how all this goes. And you've got a limited time. Usually a 10 day hunt. You could lose half of it to weather and rough seas. Yeah. So. Anyway. It's a numbers game. And it's making it happen when you see them too. You could. You could see a bear. A breeding pair. Let's say you have a breeding pair with a 10 foot bear. And they. They. They killed him when I was there. Like theirs. 10 footers. And you think Kodiak's the only place. It's not. There's great bears. And other. Plenty of. Parts of the peninsula. And. You got a breeding pair. And. Let's say. You know. You go and you hunt them. But you're careful. And you don't hunt them really hard or aggressive. Which is natural. You don't want to blow them out.

You come back. You could have two days of rough seas. Go back. And he's not there. Right. And so. Depending on when he started mating. Breeding with her. You know. Maybe it's a day into it. Or two days into it. And he's on the very last. You know. Portion of. Of that. Then you end up. You know. Losing them. If you don't get back there right away. So you kind of want to make it happen. When. When. When it's out on it. You know.

Anyway. Kind of interesting. You know. The boars. I mean. Telling boars from sows. And. You know. A lot of the sows will have. You know. Round heads. And short necked. And. You can just kind of get a feel. You get a. You get a see them. You can tell. You know. They're rubbed. You got to deal with rubbed bears. And. And then just judging them. Big old low hanging belly. And. You know. You. When you see a big one. You're like. That's freaking. That's a big bear. Slew foot. You know. Yeah. And that's what we call the one bear. I mean. He'd pop up like. We saw him for multiple days. But. And we made a run on him. Yeah. But he came out. And went back in. Came out. Went back in. Kind of thing. And. Not even close to killing him. These smart bears. They're freaking smart. So. Anyway. Chris. You were in Montana. I was. Spent a few days up there. Making a little run.

I was trying to end my dry spell. I've had some rough hunts. And. So. I thought. Well. I'm going to go try to shoot a bear. And. And. It was. It was interesting. Tell us the real story. It was interesting. Well. The first few days were pretty rough. And then it got.

More rough. After that.

So. Now granted. Was the kill rough? Was the kill rough. What part was rough? Well. Just. You had been talking to guys. And. Nobody was seeing bears. Yeah. In that area that you were in. They just weren't out. Yeah. I had a friend that. They were up there. For ten days before me. And they only saw three bears. And they're. Ten days. They're guys that have. Hunted the area. They don't. For. Forty years. Like. Wow. They have been. In that area for. What was the reason? My. My thoughts on it. Was there's so much grass. In the trees. This year. And I don't know what it was. Or why. But there's. In all the thick pines. There's just tons of grass. In the trees. And on the roads. There wasn't a whole lot yet. Yeah. And so. A lot of times. When you have a good season. There'll be. A lot of grass on the roads. And you can walk those roads. And. You'll have bears out in the open. Well.

They had no reason to be out in the open. Yeah. And so. I feel like. They were just in the trees. A lot of those roads are cut into the mountains. So. You know. If you had drifts and stuff coming down. They probably just stayed snow laden. Yeah. Longer. Right? Yeah. And I. I think. They had quite a lot of snow this year. And. Oh. They did. Oh. They did. And so. Yeah. It just. It was just. Different. And I talked to a lot of friends that said the same thing. That. Everybody was just struggling. And I feel like maybe I was a week. Two weeks earlier than I should have been. Yeah. Yeah. Late spring. Yeah. Something like that. I don't know exactly. And I was. I was very mobile. I. Man. I started probably 200 miles south of where I finished. I finished. Canadian border. Yeah. The last couple days. I was probably 20 miles from the Canadian border. Just. I was trying to stay mobile.

I just wasn't seeing sign. I'd stay a day or two in an area. And just no sign. And. No bears. Finally. I was driving up this road during the middle of the afternoon one day. And I. I hadn't seen a bear the entire hunt. Yeah. And. All of a sudden I see this black thing in front of me running up the road. You're like. No way. I don't know. At first I thought it was somebody's lab. You probably don't want to chase that bear Chris. No. No. I got a lab sized bear running in front of me. No. It was off in the. I'm going to kill it. It was a little. No. No. No. It was actually a pretty decent bear. But it was up ahead of me quite a ways. At first I was just. I was just so shocked to see a bear. Because I hadn't seen one. No. And it was middle of the day running down the road. And so I. Tried to walk up to where it. Had gone off the road. And it was just. Start barking. Barking like a dog.

Bay up the bear. Yeah. I didn't. I didn't. It was. I was just too surprised I guess. I was not expecting to see a bear. I was just driving to the top of this mountain. To try to see. More country. Anyway. Trying to find a cell service to check your. DMs and stuff. Jeez. Oh hell. All right. Keep going. Anyway. So I thought you know. I saw a bear here. So I'm going to hunt here tonight. There's a good chance. And there was a cut. Across the canyon from me. That had. Been kind of a clear cut. And. I was up on this. Higher road. Where I could see across the canyon. And it was like. Not that big of a. A cut. Maybe 10 acres or something. But. I'm like. There could be a bear walk in there. And everything else was just. Thick. Thick. Thick. And. So you posted up. I posted up. I love it. So I sat there. Just. Putting all my eggs. Into the basket of. That one clear cut. Because there was.

How big is a clear cut. Across there. You mean. How far away was it. Yeah. Like the one end of the other. Oh. 500 yards. Okay. I mean. It's not. Well within shooting distance. What you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. So. Anyway. I sat there that night. And. I see a bear come out. And. I'm like. In the clear cut. Yeah. In the clear cut. Right where I was hoping a bear would come out. Bear comes out. That's pretty good. And. And I hadn't. Seen any other people where I was. And so I thought. Oh. This would be good. So I set up my gun. Taking my time. I was just gonna. You're gonna smoke this lab. Yeah. It's gonna make a good shot. I mean. It was. No. This was a different. It wasn't the same bear. Okay. All right. So. From where I saw the bear. This one's clear across the other canyon. Okay. The lab. No. All right. Not the same bear. Anyway. So I get set up and. I'm just dialing up my turret.

And I look across the canyon. And. All of a sudden. About. A hundred yards from the bear. A truck pulls up and stops. Some two trucker. I didn't even know it was there. I didn't know it was there. Geez. Haven't seen anybody up to this point. No. As long as the windows are up. You let one rip. No.

I. I. I. I. Could. Never get their chance again. There's one way to build a reputation. Couldn't. Kill them when you see them. Obviously. I wasn't going to shoot over. Over somebody. And. And so. They pulled up. And they stopped. I almost feel like they had seen the bear somehow. And I don't know where they were. Or how they would have seen it. But. They pull up and stopped. A hundred yards underneath the bear. But it's just thick trees under the bear. And they couldn't see a thing. You know. They get out. And kind of walk around. Walk back and forth. And he gets back in. And backs up the truck. And. Stops. And pulls forward. And I'm like. Oh. Geez. Meanwhile. I glass up the bear. And the bear's just sitting there. Staring at them. Watching them. Through the trees. Like. Maybe just listening. Or not seeing. Just listening. Just listening. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And. Just. Alert. Yeah.

And I'm thinking. This bear's going to blow in the trees. And it'll be gone. Well. By some miracle. The bear stayed there. And. They left. The truck leaving. Wow. These guys are listening to this podcast. Thinking. I told you the bear was there. I told you. It was there.

So. I get back down on the gun. And.

The bear had kind of gone behind. Some trees. And so. It took me a minute to find it again. And.

Finally. I see it. And it's walking up the hill. Back toward the tree line. And I get my gun out there. Right then. It's. The worst hell storm I've ever been in my life. Just. Just hits. Giant. All of a sudden. Giant hell. Keep in mind. We had a Mark Thompson YouTube video. Two rounds in 15 seconds. Yeah. This bear should have been dead five minutes ago. No. You need to attend his course. I've. I actually. That's true. I mean. Yeah. There I was. I actually have. All right. I want to put three rounds down. As I'm dialing up. The clouds appear. No. But. The clouds were rolling in. When that truck was down there still. Like. It was. The black was coming. But I thought. You know. I can. I can get it done before. And it just. Literally. If I'd had another 30 seconds. I could have shot. All of a sudden. Just this hell storm. Crazy hell. And. And I can't see. Well. Far enough to shoot. Yeah.

Exactly. And. I'm getting soaked. So. I load up my stuff. And. My. Actually. It was about a half mile from my truck. So. I start hiking back. And. About 10 seconds later. This is when you needed my underarm again. I know. I didn't have anything. Because it was. Clear when I. And I wasn't that far from the truck. Yeah. I thought. Well. But I didn't expect a hell storm like that. Yeah. Anyway. I get back to the truck. And. There goes the day. Because it was. By that time it was. You know. Evening. Yeah. Hell storm didn't roll out. So. I went back to town. And stayed the night. And. I had one day left. Because I had. I had an appointment with. Can a trick boots the next day actually. I was going to go stop by. Yeah. Yeah. Check out some boots. And. So. I thought I have one more day. And. The morning was a flop. And then. And the bears don't come out until evening. Yeah. Generally. Yeah.

Our bears didn't. Yeah. Sometimes you get lucky. But. Yeah. Nothing came out in the morning. And so. I thought. Well. Maybe. That same bear will come out. So. I set up in the same spot. Just banking on that one bear. And. About. Seven o'clock. I see this black spot come out. Same spot. Hey. You have to. Start barking. No. You have to. Hey. I got to. I have to remind you. I know. I got to remind you too. I got to remind you on this whole thing. I was filming too. So. I set up the camera on the tripod. Got the camera on the bear. Then I had to go to the gun. What kind of lightweight operation is this? So. I don't think you'd have a videographer. I know. Right. So. When you are the videographer. Yeah. We don't send anybody. You know you're not getting back. So. So. Add that into. Add that into the equation. I. Put the camera on the tripod. Get the bear in the camera. Hit record.

Get down on the gun. Find it. You know. Range it. Find it in the gun. And. Anyway. All the while. You're a right handed shooter and left eyed. Is that what you're right? Right handed shooter. Shooting left handed on a right handed gun. Yes. I know. You're a wreck. All right. Keep going. Wait. You got to elaborate on that. It's because he's a one eyed willy. What? Come on now. He did. He stabbed his eye out when he was a kid. Oh. Geez. I didn't know this. Well. They both work fine. It's just. Just one's clear and one's not. I'm left eye. They don't work fine. It's just one's glass and one's. Actually. I actually have better vision in my right eye than my left eye now. But. My left eye is dominant. Yeah. Easier to just shoot with your left eye. Gotcha. Yeah. So generally this phone scope. The new phone scope adapter that shows you what you're seeing through your scope.

It's nice if he has a partner to say. Yes. All right. Chris. You need to aim a little bit left. Yeah. Chris. Switch eyes. Switch eyes. Switch eyes.

Come on. You guys are out of control. Here's your. Here's your pirate eye patch. Put it on the other eye. All right. Here we go. I don't. Use a patch. So he's laid down. Go shoot the dog. I actually have pretty good vision in both eyes.

Of course he hasn't seen much. Remember?

That was slow.

Let's see. Where are we at? Where are we at? No editing on this. You have to leave it all. I'm not sure what I'm going to do on this one. It's going to take some pondering. Let's kill this thing. Where are you at? So anyway, I pulled the trigger and killed the bear. Did you? Yeah. Come on. Yeah. I did. Not that quick. Well, almost.

Watch the video.

Be out in a couple weeks. After all the editing. Chris, tell us the truth. Tell us the truth. I was by myself. The truth is whatever I said. The story is whatever you. I had to film it. On a hunting trip. That's how it works. It may not have been as fast as that, but it felt pretty quick. The bear died. Okay. The bear died. I set up the camera. Hit record. Set up the gun. I will say. I will say this. Out of this room, we got one bear killer, unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah. Ouch. We've got a. That was below the belt. I'm just saying. We've thrown some grief out there. Just saying. Right now, we're one for three. Well, at least you've got a bunch of help coming your way. Because we're going to make sure you kill a bear. Yeah. You know, I'm hoping making 13. And I realize that there's people sitting in Canada thinking, 13 points. It took 13 years to draw a bear. Well, it did.

That's when I got wrapped up in this bear. It's retarded. It is retarded. It's retarded. Oh. Chris just drives it to Montana and kills one. I'm 13 years into drawing this one. I don't know what I'm doing. By the way, thanks, Jeff.

I was ready to end my drought. I wanted to kill a bear. And it was a good bear. And I shot it. That's right. Good deal. You know, it's been fun seeing all the Instagram posts. Like, seeing a lot of guys killing bears on social media. I think it's good that guys are getting out and making some hunts happen in the spring. Like, it is good. Like, it's good to get out. You know what I mean? Yeah. You're either shed hunting, bear hunting, or turkey hunting. You know? And so. We're all three. It's a good time. Good times. Now, tell us about Kinetrek. How was that? How was that? Oh, it was good. It was good. So, I killed the bear, packed it out, and I didn't get back to town until about midnight. And I thought, and I'm six hours from Bozeman where I'm supposed to be. And so, I started driving. All-nighter. I started driving. I drove. I drove until I couldn't drive anymore.

Stopped about 4.30 in the morning. And I have no idea where I was. I stopped at this shady little. There are some backwoods places in Montana. I will warn anybody who's out bear hunting. You get into northern Idaho, Montana, you find some backwoods places. It's a little primitive. It's a little primitive. Anyway. I walk into this place, and I thought, I'm back in 1980. You don't even remember 1980. I wasn't even born in 1980. You didn't even slip off the delivery table in 1980. No, I didn't. But if I were ever to go to 1980, this would be what it was like. You've watched it in shows. You've seen it in shows. Yeah. I turned on the shower, and the fire alarm went off. What? Because the steam from the shower went into the main room because I left the door open. Wow. Set off the fire alarm, so I pull it off and take out the batteries. Then you knew you couldn't light a smoke.

There was no way. You're not getting into an own smoking room and light a cigarette. Anyway, I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Next morning, I made it to Bozeman pretty early and met with Kenna Trek. Actually, tried on a pair of boots. Nice. I had them show me a lot of different ways because I've had, over the years, tendon problems if I have really high-top boots. So, I talked with Joe Wynn, Jim, there. Not Jim. Not Jim. His brother, Joe. And he showed me a whole bunch of ways that I could tie my boots different to take care of those. No way. Which is incredible. Yeah. Like, that YouTube video you got on that, that is, I mean, it's awesome. Yeah. I had no idea it was even possible. I didn't even think about it. Like, just lace your boots different, and it's going to take pressure off of certain points on your foot. But, so I ended up buying the pair of boots right there.

You're like, I'll take them. Yeah. I mean, I... With those laces in that pattern. Yeah. And he's thinking, all you have to do is tie them different, but okay, here's your brand new pair of boots. Well, I've never bought a high-top pair before. I've got two pairs of the lower tops. And after he showed me that, I thought, I'm going to buy the high ones. Yeah. I am close. So I went home with a pair of boots. I got to tell you, when I was up there, we were hiking our guts out, and like I told you, those hip waders, I told my guide, I'm like, no, not doing that again. Because you're side-hilling in waders, right? You're side-hilling in shell. Yeah. It doesn't work, right? And so you do anything to put a pair of kinetrex on. Yeah. And get after it. And that's what we did after a while. Get kinetrex and gators, right? Yeah. Get after it. Yep. So, anyway, so it was good? Yeah, it was awesome.

If you want to watch that video... That jam was polar bear hunting. Did he kill a polar bear? Did they see it? I think he did. He did early April. Yeah, I think he did. He went and hunted early April. But if... Yeah, if you want to watch that video, it's on our YouTube channel. It's an awesome... It's very informative. Yeah, just search, go to YouTube, type in Epic Outdoors. Our channel will come up. And it's really cool. I always have the problem, my feet will go to sleep. And one of the things he shows in there, we'll totally take care of that. Really? Isn't it just lacing your boots too tight and you're not letting the blood get down? No. No, he laces it different and he goes and he misses, you know, going across. He lace up instead of across. Yeah. Oh, no way. Yeah. Just some neat lacing patterns to take care of all sorts of stuff. Like, Chris came back and I'm like, what?

Like, you can lace up boots differently? I didn't even know this was possible. Yeah, exactly. Wow. Really cool. See, because last night I was hiking my guts out again here, you know, here in Cedar backpacking and with my wife and my, you know, had one shoe, one foot fall asleep. So, I got to go check that out. Yeah. I didn't even know you guys posted that. Of course, I'm just getting back. Yeah, there's, I guess there's a nerve bundle right on the top of your foot. And so, if you lace across that a lot of times it'll cause your foot to go asleep. No way. Yeah. So, just a little bit of creative lacing will take care of that. Wow. That's awesome. Right on. So, yeah, lots of bear stories. I know one thing I did think about with all this weather, and we get a lot of weather in Montana, Idaho, and springtime weather.

One thing I did have was, so I took a custom 338 Remington Ultramag, and it's smoking out a 225-grainer going 3,257 feet per second average. That's a lot of bullet moving fast. I mean, it had like 5,300 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Anyway, and it's an unbelievable long-range rifle. And you do, you know, again, we're only shooting at 200 yards. But, you kill wolves, you know what I mean? And so, we didn't see a wolf on this particular trip, but you want to be able to. Well, anyway, I didn't take any gun oil. And you might as well just put it in a bathtub and leave it there. You know what I mean? I mean, it's... That much rain, that much moisture. Oh, and alders and hiking your guts out. And it's... So, I was... You dry fire. You know, you're dry firing it like before you go in each day.

And in stainless steel rusts, you know, within a couple of days, you're rusting. And so, anyway, the guide had a gun and cleaning kit. And so, you'd scrape the rust off, you know, with a brush. Oh, wow. And then oil it and take your bolt out. Well, the bolt rusted and left, marred up, you know, the shell, the brass itself. So, you have to clean the brass. You're cleaning the brass. I mean, that's how bad it is. So much moisture. So much moisture. And so much moisture, the water runs across the rust onto the brass. That's right. And then, the firing pin... That's a bullet. The firing pin... The firing pin started... Was slow. Was kind of retarded. Yeah. A retarded motion. And was a dull thump instead of a crack. You know, when you dry fire a gun, it's crack, crack, crack. Yeah. And that's what you want, you know. Wow. This was like... And I'm like, I'm brown, brown.

And this thing ain't gonna go off. Yeah. You know what I mean? And so, we broke the bolt down. Everything was fine inside. It ended up, you know, that little plunger that comes in and out of the back of the bolt. Ended up putting some lube. And so, it'd go down there. A lot of these custom guns have got tight tolerances. Really tight tolerances. No margin for rust. There's no rust. And so, pretty soon, a couple more fires with that oil. And it freed it up. Boom. Boom. Now, it's cracking again. And so, every day, you come in. You wipe your gun down. And you take some of that rim oil or whatever oil, gun oil. And you'll take a rag and work your bolt over it. Put a little drip around that plunger on the exterior of the bolt. It's a big tip. And now, it's cracking every time. And you just, and little things.

Like, you'll get a little bit of tundra, a piece of whatever, you know, crap up in there in your bolt. And you go to jack a shell and maybe it won't close as much. Because it's so tight. Everything's so tight. And so, you just want to keep it clean. You know, you always have, you know, electrician's tape over the end of your barrel. Always. But then, you just need to go through. It's a tool. It's a piece of machinery. You know what I mean? It's a tool. It requires a little bit of maintenance just to keep everything crisp. And it's okay. Yeah. And so, from now on, in my pack, nonstop. And we've had this before where firing pins get a little moisture. And then it freezes. And they won't go off at times. Like, we're rushing. We were on a big old 200-incher. And it happened to him about cost us a deer. So, anyway, you'd think I've learned by now.

But this was a huge testament to being prepared and having a little oil with you and whatnot. So, I know you're going to go on a self-guided hunt. Yeah. The caribou hunt. I mean, that's up in Alaska. I'm taking notes, man. I'm serious. I mean, it's a big deal. So, anyway. And the bikini covers and whatnot, you know, a little rubber cover that goes over. You don't want to flip up, you know. Anyway, you change powers and whatnot. And those things aren't flipping up right. And maybe they're in the way. You're bold or whatever. Yeah. You need to overthink. You can't overthink your gun in Alaska. So, anyway, just pay attention. And, geez, my guide had a Woodstock, blued up, 416 Remington. And the ballistics are unbelievable on that. And he had 400-grain slugs. But it had no rust on it. Okay. He's had it since, like, 2007 or 2008. But he had rust occur every day.

And he is nonstop putting grease. Not just oil. Grease. Because, you know, the oil will come off really easy in the alders and everything else. And, you know, so, anyway. He greased that sucker. Greased it. Yeah. He's greased. He's got a can of grisco. Not an official gun grease. It was just grease. Bacon grease. Yeah. I was like, ugh. You know. But, anyway, it's a cherry rifle. But he took really good care of it. I mean, every single day. But, anyway, a little something-something for guys out there. You know, he fit three rounds down in the magazine. And I could only fit two. And there's just things like that that you kind of think about when you've got a bear at 15 yards coming at you. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so, you know, but that it is what it is. So, great hunts, guys. Good hunts. It's time. I can't wait to start running trail cameras and scouting, glassing and scouting.

You know, it's a crazy thing. It's honest. It's like time is, it's getting crunch time already. It's kind of crazy to think about. You need to be planning your fall right now. Like, we're getting dry results. Big things are happening. And it's like, well, now it's time to start making the most of those hunts. Your dad drew a Wazoo sheep tag here in Utah. Yeah, we've been trying to decide when we're going scouting that. Because, luckily, sheep, you know what they're going to be in the fall. It ain't like you're waiting for velvet. So, anyway, we're wanting to go find areas, you know, learn the areas a little bit more. So, we're going to start crushing that. But we've got to do all that before we, you know, head to Alaska and play around up there. So, you know, we've got a lot of stuff to do. We've got a lot of stuff to do. Plus, we've got kids.

I've got kids with more tags than most adults. I'm excited. You've got some kids with some awesome tags. Hey, and they can drive. So, I'm saying, hey, when are you going to scout? You know what I mean? Dad, I don't have time to go to Wyoming or the gas money. Where's your credit card? Do you know how hard it is to, when your kid says, I'd like to scout, but I'm out of cash. You know how hard it is to say no? I'm like, how much do you need?

I mean, I love it. Here's a $200 gas card. They're wanting to ruin a truck out scouting? Absolutely. Best money I've ever spent. It's a proud day when you've got kids that are wanting to do that kind of stuff. You know, I mean, I've got kids that are doing. Talk about ruining trucks. Better food. Come on. We've got to talk about that. Better money and fuel than lights. Go ahead. You come home from being gone for 20-some days. And we're like, hey, just see your kid's Instagram. Oh, I know. That's awesome. They've got a bullet hole through the truck. Dents down the side. Well, you know, you can't let a rabbit go. And I'm just like, really? How'd you lose that back quarter panel? Well, Dan, I backed up and hit a pole. Well, did you look? No. I was the only one in the parking lot. I mean, really? Be in that pole. Really? I mean, dude, it is nonstop with those kids.

Dude, and they're awesome kids. I don't want anybody to get the wrong impression. They are awesome. But they're outgoing. And when you're outgoing, you're going to break some shoes.

That's the way it works. Sean will drive X amount of I don't know how many hours shed hunting by himself with the dog. I couldn't be prouder. But you don't have a driver's license.

I'm like, he's like, Dad, I want to go. And I'm like, sounds good. Jan is like, really? And I'm like, well, if he takes the back road and he hits the dirt, technically it'd be like a four-wheeler out there. I think it'd be all right. It's dirt the whole way. A little bit of justification going on there. I mean, geez. That's right. Yeah, take the $10,000 truck and see if you can ruin it. Yeah. See what we can bring about. $10,000 down to $5,000 in the time you were gone to Alaska.

Geez. Anyway, fun times, fun times. Of course, same thing with gear. You know, the gear is so expensive nowadays. And you just, you know, you want them to have good gear, you know. And so you just spend your extra money and time. I mean, I've been saving optics and whatnot for the last five, six years, knowing this is coming. I got four kids hunting. I applied to Ashley in Idaho. You know, the age limit's 10. Yeah. She's getting a deer tag. Well, better go buy you, run up to Ken's, buy you some Vortex for her, get her some Diamondbacks or something to start. For sure. Oh, yeah. You always, I don't, I don't, I probably wouldn't give her the Swarovski right off the bat. Maybe start Vortex. You tell your daughter no when she wants it. Dad, I just want good glass so I can, she spent. You're 10. She spent. You don't get 80s. She bought a motorcycle with her own money.

She went down and bought all the riding gear with her own money. She got a shotgun for her birthday and couldn't be happier with a turkey choke in it. Like, it's. She's awesome. Daddy can't tell her no. Okay. But we're also finding out that the time with our kids is short. Yeah. And so it just goes by so quick. Dude, Colton turns 18 in December. When is your kid? You know, your kid's getting up there. Yeah, a year later. One year later. One year after mine and then Sean and you start seeing the end. Like, you can see the end. And I'm like, geez, well, we're going to draw a Wyoming elk tag. We're going to draw a Utah deer tag. You drew an antelope tag in Utah. You know what I mean? And so. It's going to be a good year for that. So spending a little extra money on that gear or whatever it is, like, it doesn't seem like as big a deal as it used to. Yeah.

Well, this stuff's got lifetime warranty and whatnot. And it's not like they've given them to them. I make them put them back in the safe. And they're lenders for now, you know. But they're seeing how much stuff costs. Stuff costs. Good gear costs money. And these kids are spoiled. They don't want to. Once they go for the good stuff, they don't want to look through the okay stuff, you know. Yeah, it's true. It's true. Anyway, guys, anything else we need to talk about? No, we'll put a plug in for Kent's there. Give Kent's Optics a call if you're looking for that. If you're looking for that kind of stuff. I mean, if you want a good deal on any kind of optics or, you know, any kind of that. I mean, those new Kaia Babs from Vortex. I mean, they're fantastic. Well, you grew up down the street from them. They're super honest guys. I've known them for years.

I mean, I dropped in and picked up a pair of 15s the other day. Just like that. When I was up at Thompson's, he's like, dude, they're up there waiting for you. Got your name on them. Of course, I've got to pay for them. But they're those kind of guys. And they've got inventory coming up. And they ship stuff all over the country. So don't feel like, oh, well, I've got to sit in person. You know what a pair of 15s are going to be. Whether they're coming from Louisiana or Utah. Just order them from Kent. It's going to save you some money. And they're going to get them right out to you. They have a ton of stuff in stock. Totally worth jumping on it. Those are the shed tours, guys. They had all the wazoo sheds sharing a booth with us up there at the Hunt Expo. And they do. They practice what they preach. They're out there doing it. So anyway, give them a call. 435-257-7014. kentsoptics.com.

And anyway, super good guys. What else we got? We got anything else on this outline? I'd say since we were talking about gear for kids, King's Camo. They have a ton of gear for kids, for youth. Great prices.

Yeah, check them out. If you need gear for your kids and you don't want to break the bank, that's at King's Camo. That's right. The guys are good, good, good dudes at King's Camo. We've dealt with them for many years. We know them personally. Just great guys. Ryan Fouts is one of a really good friend, dear friend of ours, and been a huge supporter of Adam and I and John and Chris and Jeff. I mean, we all know him, and he's just one of those kind of guys. So anyway, give him a holler, 877-705-2266, or go to kingscamo.com. They got the XKG series, as well as a ton of other products for sale. And like I say, one of the first real Western patterns out there. We always had to deal with whitetail patterns here in the West. We weren't good enough to have our own Camo patterns. It's true. But they kind of came out with it, and then it kind of made it popular. It's okay to have a Western pattern.

It drove it into the market. Yep. Good guys, affordable gear, and high-performing technical-type fabrics. So check them out. I don't think you'll be disappointed. All right, guys. It's time for Jeff to kill a bear. Yeah. We'll podcast about that next time we see a lab hit the dirt. That's right. And congrats, Chris, to your awesome experience. Did you just make a lab joke again? It's not a lab. I got video to prove it.

Oh, geez. Yeah. Yeah, it was a lab joke. Yeah. I'm like, is this going to end? So I got lots of editing coming my way.

All right, old man. Well, anyway, can't wait to get back up there with Lits and Guide Service. Good guys up there. Of course, we gave away a doll sheep hunt combo with him just the other day. We got more hunts booked with him to give away down the road. All right, and just if any of you draw a tag out there, you want a little help, we can visit about it. Good chance we know something about it, and we know people that have hunted it. We can send you out a member draw list, people that have hunted it in the past that are members of Epic Outdoors, or we can hook you up with an outfitter or whatever. So, anyway, we also appreciate everybody that sends in stories. If you haven't seen yours in print, you most likely will down the road. We do really appreciate that. We've got a beautiful magazine, 150 pages generally, and a lot of it's due to you guys,

giving us stories and good content, as well as, you know, we have it's research-based here in the West. So, anyway, with that, we'll go from there, and I can't think of anything else. Let's go put out some dog food and see if you can find something in, man. Go waste, put more money out on the ground. How about that? Just more dumping it on the ground. Throwing it out of my pocket. Dumping it on the ground. All right, sounds good.

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