My name is Clay nukemb And.

This is a production of the bear Grease podcast called The bear Grease Render, where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes of the actual bear Grease podcast.

Presented by f h F Gear, American Maid, purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as.

The place as we explore.

Welcome to the Bear Grease Render.

We've got quite quite the crew here, quite the crew.

Got Isaac Neil.

It's been a while since Isaac's been here.

Feels good to see it, feels good, feels good to be here.

Got the band back together.

The band's back together.

Baron ukombe Be Noswkem Nostril Nukelem land Bridge is here, and then most Shepherd is here.

Oh, glad to be here again.

The deer hunter, it's like that.

Time of year, like when the deer going to ret like Moe kind of shows up.

Yeah, shows up the render.

Yeah, yeah, you've.

Got him pattern And then all of a sudden.

Yeah, his home range gets a lot of range expands and I show up places I've never hardy ever show up.

Yep, yeah that's right.

Okay, so I was I've been talking with the honest tell us.

And he has told me that I need to be talking about my book more.

And he's like, and I'm like, every time he says it, I say, Jannis, the book doesn't even come out until twenty twenty seven.

You know what year it does is twenty twenty five.

And he says, doesn't matter.

He says, talk about it every time you open your mouth between now and then.

So I'm I'm taking Janice's Joannice's advice.

Do you see all these books right here from right there all the way to way past mo there, Yes, sir, basically those that's not limited to but every single one of those books is pretty much a reference inside of the book that I'm writing.

Incredible, wow, I mean there's a lot of research the book currently.

So when in the literary.

World, what you do when you get a book contract with a publishing house is that the publishing house immediately puts out a news release that says, oh, this person is writing a book with this title for us to kind of like stake out your territory in case anybody else is thinking about it.

At least they'll know that you're thinking about it too.

And so like over two years ago.

This project, when it comes out in twenty twenty seven, well have been going on, I think for three and a half years, so behind the scenes, behind what you see when you watch the render, when you hear Bear Grease, always write as the words that are coming out of my mouth just right back here.

Not so much here or here, but right in here.

The book is throbbing and has been for years.

But we're actually.

There's a flow of literary, literary creativity right behind.

I hope that's what they call it.

You know what you do?

You have a title for it?

Well, yeah, American Bear.

I feel like the longer it goes on, and especially if you're talking about it for the next two years, you might consider a title change to bear with Me.

Wow, that's good.

That's good.

It feels like you've been sitting on that for a while.

It just came to me that that's actually I'm gonna.

Go subtitle bear with Me.

It's been a while.

I believe me, Isaac.

I've known him a lot longer than you, and that's true.

Well, uh, the book is the the biography as never before told.

And I can say that with like great certainty, like there's there's biologists that really know bears.

There's anthropologists that really know ancient peoples and hunting.

There's American historians that really know the deer skin trade, like Steve Vanella and Randall in the books that I've been a part of with them.

Even there are modern biologists that understand the bear human conflict that's going on in America right now.

Never before has all that been put together in just like a truly wild story.

And and and I'll be done with the manuscript by February first, so I've got three months.

And so just I mean, like right before we clicked through this.

Dar three books in three months.

Well it's been a couple of years, and and we've only got this far.

No, No, it actually wasn't anybody's fault that the book, the project was extended a year completely because of like calendar details and publishing stuff yep, which I'm grateful for.

Actually today, I would be cool if they were like, hey, we're going to put it off another year.

You've got a whole another year.

I mean, the book would be so much better.

I mean, these people that are writing books like really fast, so be honest, that was for you.

I hope you enjoyed that.

And I told you, honest that, like what if I tell everyone all that's in the.

Book, And he said, you won't just talk about it.

So so there we go.

But uh, Joanness Petelius has never steered anyone wrong never.

I don't think he ever has, yeah at all.

Yeah, So, uh, it's it's dear week, Deer Central Week, I mean dear time, Buck time.

It's uh it's November the sixth.

As we record this, this comes out later, but uh it is.

That's why mos here and uh bear bears.

In two days, he's gonna have his annual bar Newcomb public Land deer camp.

Uh bear, beware of bear, be aware of the bear.

How many people you got coming in for this deer camp?

Uh, I've kind of lost count.

But I've got at least twenty five twenty five twenty five hunters, Uh probably not probably like twenty hunters.

But you know everyone goes in.

Pairs twenty only, Oh they go in pairs.

Yeah.

Because yeah, I've got I've got about twenty really good spots.

So we're gonna do like a rotation.

That's impressive that you've got twenty good spots in one location.

Hey, let me tell you something.

Let me tell you some good spots.

If you see bar Newcomb's Ford Ranger pull up in your public land spot.

Deer season, yeah, probably every thing is in trouble.

I mean everything.

We're making a population level impact here.

It's basically, we have deer.

We have to be nomadic.

We've had this camp for four years and we go to a different spot.

Ever, you're like, you're like an ancient sheep grazer that just like demolishes the land, grazes it down and just has moving.

We we say that we can't complain about the hunting pressure because we are the.

We got to make a strict.

With the bears Ford Ranger on it and a big spike.

He made me feel better while ago when he told me where he was actually going this year, and it was out of last year.

He was in the middle of some of my stomping grounds.

But we didn't kill.

We didn't kill down there.

Yeah.

I went down camp, took took a kid hunting or a young guy with me and stuff.

Yeah, and you put my buddy Levi on a bear and.

He killed the bear.

I told him to go.

Ye's correct.

Pure I feel like you better trademark that before this episode comes out, because you got that YouTube crew the hunting public that's his next career's pressure.

Well, I mean we haven't even heard the best part of it.

This is an international deer camp incredibly Yeah.

Yeah, there are.

People from from other countries here.

What are the logistics of getting somebody uh legal to hunt?

It's just not resident a resident.

Yeah, But do they have to have like the hunter safety or anything like that, or is there an apprentice tag here in Arkansas that.

If they're gonna hunt by themselves they have to have hunter safety.

But other than that, yes, the same rules if the hunter safety or be with reach, yeah, of someone twenty one or that.

There's also like a hunter's head.

What do you call it?

It's like a like it's like a one year replacement for the hunter's head.

I forget what.

Yeah, it's like a it's like where you can say, hey, I'm gonna do this.

Didn't get a chance to yep, yeah, but I promise I will.

Essentially you get one year.

Wow.

So last year, how y'all in the whole camp we saw one deer total wow, and killed the bear.

But it was the cool I mean, it was one of the coolest Bear.

Yeah, it was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had in the wood.

Do we need to circle back to twenty good spots?

Well, okay that the.

Year before maybe you didn't have any good spots at all.

The year before we went to we went to my stomping grounds where I've been hunting all year, and we killed six right right.

And the next year I was like, and you know, like a bunch of them were like spikes and stuff, and I was like, Man, if we just keep going here, we're just there aren't going to be any bucks left.

And so one.

Day there'll be a genetic study of the white tailed deer back you know, when Bear was a young man, and they'll be like, in the genetic record, they'll be like, we're not sure what happened, but there was a population level right around here in this five square mile area.

You know why y'all saw one deer last year?

Was that by what you just said.

You said you decided to move because you didn't want to find the deer out over.

There where you were.

At any time you brag about what you're doing or what you have done, let me tell you I've done it myself over the years and it'll come back and it okay.

So you think that he got a little overcomer.

Confident and so it showed up.

Oh, it definitely did because we were like, surely there's twenty ten dudes out there with guns and you know, pinch points and stuff.

Ten or ten.

Yeah, and where you.

All were at though, yeah, buck button, bucks, bikes and we saw it didn't matter.

You know.

I think Seymour saw like the flash of one deer and LEVI killed a bear.

So what are the all the names of some of your members?

Seymore, Yeah, Seymour, Schucks, I can't think of any off the bat, the Eagle, the uh less than the eagle, mm hmm.

That's all I can think of.

It going to be there, won't this year?

Yeah?

Sea Bass has been at the camp before.

What was a young man's name that I took?

He's from in this area, isn't he?

That was?

That was Attacus?

Yeah, yeah, and it was a kind of a weird name.

He killed a buck last week, a little buck over here there.

But yeah, we've got we've got a lot of people coming in.

We've got a giant wall tent and a bunch of other tents that we're going to set up tonight, and I'm I feel pretty good about it.

This year.

I think, well, you know, kind of back in my home range, got a bunch of good spots, been seeing a ton of deer and the rut has been picking up like crazy over where I'm at, So I think we're going to get into him.

The real question is do you have a buck pole set up?

Yes?

Yeah, I'd be careful about that.

Oh wait a what But it's it's like the yeah, greatest expression of confidence that you're going to kill the deer.

Yeah, to put.

Up a buck So don't I see I'm loaning my rifle to a young man from England.

Yeah yeah, I got a couple of different countries represented this year.

M hm.

Wow.

Wow, we are the hunting pressure.

We are.

That's just that's hashtag.

But that's that's that's pretty man.

You know what I I I commend you bear.

That's uh that's pretty cool that you're you're taking guys out and uh so yeah.

That's cool.

Josh, you killed a deer this week with your bow.

I did first bow and our first deer in years with my bow.

Now you killed a buck last year with the gun, but you.

Killed killed good decent bucks the last two years with rifle.

Yeah, this year, I went to scout in a spot and uh, I got out there and I think I texted you something about scouting and where I was looking because it was a place we used to hunt years ago.

And uh, he said, don't scout hunt and I was like, I had my tree stand with me and I had my.

Perfect day at Big Front.

Had been like a three day It was back in the latter part of baut October, love of the mid to the kind of central part of the country, you know in south this part got got it.

But it it rained for three days.

Yep, cleared out and it was cold, dropped twenty five degrees.

And uh it was it was kind of rainy, and uh when I pulled in, I saw a buck, saw an eight point grazing in this field, and so I thought, I thought he didn't see me.

So I tried to sneak up on him, and when I got there, he was he was gone.

But I just decided, hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna put my tree stand up.

They didn't seem spooked when I saw him, so I thought I'm just gonna put my tree stand up here on the edge of this field.

And got up there, and it was a tree stand i'd never used before.

I got a hand me down, so I never used it, so I didn't go super high, maybe sixteen feet and sat there for about an hour and a half and a little buck came walking underneath me and he stopped ten yards in front of me, and he's quartering away real hard, and when I shot him, he just bolted, and I felt like I got a good shot on him, but I watched him run maybe one hundred yards away before I lost sight of him.

And I got down out.

Of the tree pretty quick because my arrow was a full pass through and I wanted to see if it, you know, had good blood on it, and it did all the way down, and so I thought, well, he probably just ran over there one hundred yards and died.

So I gave him about forty five minutes probably, and just started trailing him.

And it was a really good blood trail, I mean really good, but you know, it was hard to miss kind of blood trail, and man, I got down there.

I got down out of the tree about five fifteen and started looking for him.

And I looked and looked and looked and ran circled.

My on ex tracks are like, looks like I've just completely covered the entire area.

Yeah.

His on ex app actually sent word back to the headquarters to send help yea, because they were like tracker and they were like this this.

Was either lost or can't find these animal.

Yeah, my good buddy Brian Beauley came and he came out.

He drove an hour out to come help me look for this deer.

And we looked for him till ten o'clock at night.

And that was pretty discouraged because it would be the first deer that I've shot and lost, and I was pretty sick about it.

And I just just like, I'm going to.

Get back up at daylight and go back out.

There was fortunately it was in the low thirties, mid thirties.

Yeah, I was getting cold.

I knew it was going to be okay, the meat was going to be okay.

And I went back out and just started scouring again, went down on these draws and looked for him and man, nothing.

I was about to give up and I thought, I'm just going to walk over in this area, which was actually kind of back closer to my stand and lo and behold, I crossed through an area where I hadn't been and he's just laid out in the open there.

Yeah.

And so now I, for some reason with Josh feel like every time he has a hunting experience, I need I need to teach him something.

Yes, yes, so Josh, he's good at smiling and being like okay, Clay.

But he'd called me and he said the blood trail was just like blazing hot yep.

And then it just just vanished.

Ye and uh, I told him, I said a lot of times when that happens and you feel like the blood's dried up.

It didn't dry up.

Just the deer did something that you didn't expect him to me, I.

Can hear of the problem was is that it was sprinkling.

It was right, it was raining, for it was.

Rain, and it was dark yep.

And basically the deer circled back and went closer to where and Josh said something that I hadn't thought about, but it makes sense why you would think it is that he just felt like the deer was going to be running away from where it shot was shot, like just and you watch you watch it run away from where you shot.

You just feel like it's just going to keep going that way forever until it dies.

Well, this deer, you know, busted out because the noise came from behind it, and then but it had come from behind you, and so it just basically made a big loop and was trying to get back into where it was.

And I tell you, I have found a lot.

Of deer almost by just like pure instinct, just when you tracked enough of them.

Yeah, I mean, and hopefully, you know, most of the time you're you're hoping you don't even have to deer falls within fifty six it's not that big a deal.

But we tracked the deer the other day in Georgia when I was with Ross Chastain.

He shot a deer with a rifle that couldn't find any blood, and it was real thick, and we were wandering around and basically I just started walking trails, deer trails just in the area, and I was just like, eventually I'm going to see blood.

Anyway, finally did just like skipped from the last blood, which was basically where he shot the deer, to like sixty seventy five yards.

I found a little.

Bitty speck of blood on a deer trail.

That was kind of a little different direction we thought.

Anyway, you know, you just kind of got a maybe not use your just gotta think about what the animal is gonna do.

It's usually going to want to get back to where he came.

Yeah, I mean, I just I did not want to lose that deer, and I just t look and kept looking, kept looking.

Really glad I got.

Them now, Mo, you hadn't got one yet.

No, No, I've hunted several days.

I hunted some during the Muslim type season or alternative weapons whatever they call it here in Arkansas now, and I bow.

Hundred a few times.

I bear hunted a couple of days, uh during that, once with my bow and then once with the with alternative weapons.

But seen a few dos.

Seen a couple of small, small bucks, but no nothing as much size to anything.

I've seen a lot of sign where I've been, where I've set in some stands, and I've done done this a little bit of slip hunting in the rain when it was raining those days a couple of weeks ago, when it was the end of that that Muslead season.

But like Barry said earlier, they're making lots of sign right now there, or they have been.

They're probably doing more dole looking for right now than they are making sign that they're gonna be in those areas where that's at or where the dose are bedding.

So mm hmm, Bear, you had to call MO the other day get some intel.

Yeah, yeah, Well I was after a big buck.

Found a big rub line and there were fifteen scrapes and a three hundred yard stretch like two miles from the road down some real thick stuff, like right where you would think a big buck would be.

That's why I was like the out, yeah, And I went in there a ton of sign, sat it once had a spike come like ten feet from me, but that was it.

And the next time I sat it at nine forty five, I see back behind me, I see the buck and he's he was a big, gnarly six point like crooked rack, but an old buck, like a big just big ugly six point.

And I was hunting with a self bow and a ground blind and he came like twenty two yards from me trailing a dough goes into some brush.

The dough runs out like twenty yards from me.

I bump up, get within ten yards of her, and the buck never comes.

I think he winded me.

It was kind of once the thermals, you know, weren't so dominant and the wind kind of took over.

Anyway, I was kind of stumped at what to do, and so I consulted Mow and basically he told me to find a finger ridge just coming down into that.

You know, it's it's way down in a valley on a creek bed, and so well, as soon as the thermals aren't the dominant, once the wind takes them over, then it's just swirling in there.

And there is there, does happen to be a nice finger ridge coming down there?

That any signing there?

I haven't yet.

He hadn't been it yet, but I told him, I said, I bet there's some rubs on that.

He's probably bedding up higher because they like the bed higher.

Yeah, he's probably coming down to check for dose or checky scrape for whatever and that.

So it kill several bucks out of way.

That's find most are signed down low, but kill them way up above where they're making the side.

So hmm, that's a hot tip hot tip hot.

Tip tips and tactics OAAC what have you been doing.

Working a lot?

Yeah?

What do you do for work?

Well, you know, I've been making videos and taking pictures.

You were hunting with a first light guy.

Yep up in Ohio.

What's his name, Kyle Forber.

He's the new Yep yep heck of a baseball player, I'm told.

Yeah, I've watched him play ball.

Yeah, he's got a great property up there.

And we did not do any good.

Their rutt hadn't really.

You were just hunting for like one day though.

Two days.

Yeah, it was pretty tight.

Yeah, did have a fun experience.

Happened a new experience.

We were hunting this big timber right off a food plot maybe two hundred yards, not seeing anything, and this little button buck bolts straight into the woods from the food plot at us, gets to within twenty yards, hangs up, then comes right up, starts licking the ladder stand to the semmer on, makes two full circles, comes back, licks the ladder stand again, and then goes back to.

The food plot.

Hmm, Wow, what do you make of it?

Witchcraft?

Yeah, absolutely, there was no reason for him to come in there.

I didn't see anything in the food plot that chased him in there or anything.

He just came straight to us on a bee line.

He must have smelled you liked it.

Yeah, any uh, it's been a while since we've talked a lot.

Any new tattoos, No new tattoos.

Oh, just all the same old standards.

Yeah, I don't I don't think there's much news fit to report.

I've been hunting a little, did it.

Did a little guiding up in Wyoming for mule deer and antelope.

Quite a bit of fun.

Yep, nice, that's cool.

Yeah, successful hunt.

Yeah, tagged out all my hunters so easier than others.

It is remarkable.

I think it's sku and I think we're in a weird world.

I think there are a lot of people who like to hunt that don't hunt or have as much experience hunting as us.

But just some remarkable people, all of them great and friendly.

And I really enjoyed it.

The clients.

Yeah.

But I had a guy show up and say, I got a new barrel put on my gun.

I haven't shot it yet.

What.

Okay, we're going and we're going hunting this afternoon.

Yeah, do you have something I can shoot at on the property?

And I was like, tell you what I'll bring my gun and we'll start off with that.

I know it's on it's on out to four hundred yards, so and maybe if it gets slow midday, we can shoot at something.

But I don't.

We're shooting my gun.

We're not shooting your gun, like okay with that.

Yeah, yeah, And he shot a deer.

He shot a good.

Deer with your with your gun.

Uh huh okay uh.

And it ended up being a layup shot at like one hundred and forty yards.

This, you know, one hundred and sixty in four by four was vetted one hundred and forty yards from the road and just looking out.

And yeah, I have two fans I work with that had went.

They didn't go together, they went separate, but they went to Wyoming meal deer hunting a couple of weeks ago and they both tagged a meal deer one of them, really nice of them, was just a smaller meal deer.

But they were both had good hunts.

They saw several several meal deer and said they had really a good time.

So, yeah, it's incredible up there.

It's funny hunting.

I've only ever hunted public land up there, and it can be a little hard.

A lot of it's land locked, and what's not is pretty overrun, right.

Uh, and so I'm taking these guys hunting and putting them on deer that are much bigger than I've ever shot.

I have never shot some yeah, yeah, yeah.

So the way it works in Wyoming is you have to be a licensed guide working under a licensed and insured outfitter.

And uh, he had a couple of leases and stuff.

So yeah, I entered.

That's cool.

That's cool.

Well, dear Stories.

So my favorite episodes of the year are the bear Grease dear stories.

I've been trying to figure out.

We've done this five years now, and every year we've had I think at least two Deer Stories episodes.

Usually there's between five and seven stories on each episode.

I would like to I wish somebody, not me or not like a part of our group, could analyze these stories to help me understand what kind of stories that we like to tell, because stay with me, there's a million deer stories.

I mean, please bear with me, Dear with me, dear with me.

This little idea may come to fruition in twenty twenty seven, after the book after, you know, because when I I find when I sit down with people, and Josh has been helping me gather stories.

I look at someone that I've come to them and maybe they don't know a thing.

Many of the people that have been on some of these episodes had never even heard of bear Grease or podcasts at all.

And so I'm like and they and they go, well, I mean, I've been like deer hunting my whole life, Like what kind of story do you want?

And like what would I say to them?

Because I'm not necessarily looking for a big buck story, but I might be.

I mean, one of the.

Best stories that that I personally have is the story of my saga with moofs and and really it's a it's a story of the patterns of a really big buck.

There's a buck that my neighbor ended up killing, you know, yep.

And so like, I'm very interested in, like a great deer story that has some great deer behavior, something unique, something that deer did that you you never would have predicted that he would do.

Yeah, I think that's cool.

But then also the story of Gary Farmer on this episode, who the story wasn't even about deer hunting, it was he was taken.

They've done a deer drive.

It was taking a nap.

His buddy pulls up on a mule and you know, says, hey, hop on, let's see if she'll ride double.

I mean, the.

Story wasn't even about deer hunting.

And when he told me that, I was like, that's a great story.

Yep.

And I I anyway, any any thoughts on how you would describe to someone, Like if you brought your best friend that didn't know any of this and you said you got to tell Clay a story, what would you say to him?

I think there's two types of stories that really do it for me, and it's things that are humorous, not necessarily side splitting, but like where you screw something up or something goes awry or whatever, like that mule story.

Or I think this oftentimes comes up more in the turkey hunting stories, but still in deer stories that things that are sentimental or things that carry weight for something beyond just the hunt.

And like I was just before we started here, I was saying, like some of my best deer and certainly my favorite stories happened like that.

Like my favorite deer I ever shot.

It was one hundred and forty inch main frame eight that had broken off both its g ones just rubbed them slick, so it's really a six point technically, it was illegal when I shot it because I was in a county that had a four point on one side restriction.

And I remember like walking up to it all statue.

Yeah, I remember walking up to it and being like, well, I was with my dad, I'll tell you that.

But I was like, Dad, this isn't legal, and he's like, that's not what that rules about.

This guy is clearly a.

Very mature to say.

Yeah, but we were walking in We're walking this road in right, and there's this bedding area right up next to it, and you can't get through it without blowing out these dear if you're walking in the middle of the day, it's like they're bedded ten yards from this little path through here.

And so we're walking up to it and fully expect to blow out some deer.

Three or four dos come through, and there's this little spike standing in the middle of the road, and I have my camera on me walking with Dad, and I've bend down on my knees and I'm getting a picture because he's just standing there all pretty in the middle of the road and I'm about to snap the picture and Dad's like.

Are you gonna shoot the deer?

I'm thinking no, I'm not gonna shoot that deer.

I would never shoot that deer.

And I'm like, no, what are you talking about?

And he just reaches down and grabs my head and turns it.

And this guy is just standing there like the king of the forest, right next to the road, still in the bedding area.

He hasn't bowled out there yet, but he's.

Standing there like, uh, I've never encountered something I can't handle, and you guys are no different.

He's just proud and this is my spot, right And he just stood there and I pulled up my gun and I shot him, and that it had nothing to do with skill.

I did everything wrong.

But that's the type of story that I'm like, that's really special to me and I will always remember it.

Cool that it was a good deer, but just being there with my dad and screwing things up and it still worked out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm asking you that are you going to shoot that deer?

A ten inch spike?

You know, like, okay, bear, what would you describe?

What kind of deer stories are we looking for because I actually gotta I actually gotta now do a little cleanup work with thought.

Isaac said, when I sit with somebody, I tell him I don't want it because your story is not necessarily sentimental.

I wouldn't call that sentimental.

No, I'm not disagreeing that.

Yes, that's a great story to find sentimental.

Well, okay, yeah, here's the other.

Thing that happens when you sit down with people, I say, tell me your best, dear story and they go, oh my gosh, you are not going to believe this story, Clay, are we recording?

And they go, man, my six year old son it was his first time one hundred deer And they tell me about their six year old son killing the.

Deer, which, dude, I have four kids.

I've spent I've dedicated a lot of my life to getting them into the outdoors and it's incredibly gratifying.

It doesn't make for that compelling of a story.

You're usually sentimental story where the sentimentality really only person.

And not taking anything away from a kid or any of those stories.

There's a place for that story, and that's part of my point on what kind of stories are we telling?

On the Bear grease deer stories because they're they're they They got to have a hook, they got to be exciting, they got to have a punchline.

I think part of it too, I'm answered my own question.

Okay, I think part of it too.

I told Josh the other day I would almost rather pick the person I want to tell me a story.

I literally told somebody the other day I said, these dear stories are thirty percent story and seventy percent storyteller.

Oh yeah, yeah.

And it's not even like bells and whistles of storytelling.

It's not It's not like everybody has to be like an Andy Brown that gives the sound.

But it's the character of the person, like like, well, it's the way they sound, it's the it's the it's the authenticity in their voice.

It's the Anyway, when I say sentimental, I'm thinking, well, the initially I went to that Turkey story of the guy in Tennessee where he took a no, took the strap off.

His gun and.

Story that's it's not like Sacharine sentimental.

It's not like super it's like, uh, the relationship or in this your story one.

The uncle Ira, what did you call him?

Ari?

Alright, all right, the the like the story of him, just that whole like that connection to someone else, that thing that transcends this.

Yeah, I think that's what I mean by sentimental.

But yeah, you're right, you're right of.

The storyteller talking about dipping and he used the word wretched.

Yea wretched in there.

Yeah, we need to do a deer story, like an All Star Deer Stories.

Yeah, it's time probably.

Yeah, I mean because I mean, over the past five years there's been.

On different ones.

Because I'm always surprised when I to me, there's always one story in the episode that's like the best, like like, if you had any other thought, I would think you didn't understand deer honey.

And but clearly that's like myopic view of like your perception of how you evaluate life.

Which I'm joking when I say that, but like there's always one that's just like really clear, and then I'll talk to somebody and they'll be like, oh I like that one, and they're all good, or they wouldn't be on there.

Right, you know what I mean?

I would say overall, Deer Stories and Turkey Stories are the podcasts that I get the most feedback on positive negative.

Yeah, like people love love dear stories and turkey stories.

Okay, let me pass something by you on picking the storyteller.

I feel like there are people who are exceptionally gifted with storytelling, and oftentimes the craziest things happened to those people.

They have a propensity some people.

Yeah, my uncle Scott is that way.

Incredible storyteller.

He's a big old guy, always wears overalls and the just stuff happens, I'd call him snake bit right.

He just you know, he was building his house and nailed his hand to his roof and hearing him tell that story is incredible.

But just him fiddling with a climber and getting his knee he's hyper extended because he slipped out.

He's got some coordination issues.

Oh definitely for sure, going to the bathroom and feeling good about it while hunting and then putting his coveralls back on and realizing that he had used the sleeve just just and constantly, it's always happening to He's an incredible storyteller.

But I'm like, I could count up on one hand maybe this quality of experiences in this realm that I have had, and you seem to have this every week.

Kind of like the guy and the story one of the stories of this second episode where where the the guy's dad love to hunt and loves to do all that bho his son says he can't hit the broadside of a bar there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Jordan Bear, what.

Was your favorite story?

And I kind of want to open it back up because we didn't have a render about episode one, which had some incredible stuff.

It had it had uh Andy Brown, uh about Uncle Ari, but mainly it had Johnny Johnson and story about giving away deer.

And had the stories about the deer camps too.

Well, so that was on the second one you're talking about the first, Well, I'm just saying I'm opening it up to all that.

The deer camp stories.

Matt Taylor had to be my favorite because the deer camp well yeah, and I've gone I can go to their deer camp a lot, and those stories.

So Matt Taylor's son, Weston is one of my good hunting buddies.

It happens to be.

He's the eagle.

Yeah.

If you see the eagle pull up, you're hunting area.

If you see that.

With the bald eagle and the.

That says, I am the pressure.

Yeah he is.

He's almost tagged out already head on.

He lets no mercy.

He he does have a the longest running he has a wild hunting statistic.

He has never passed.

He's once and he shot.

He's on public whole life and Bat Taylor, I'm serious, like he's every deer he's ever seen in the woods.

While I had a guy, he killed it.

He's killed like twenty one deers.

He does not know what a deer walking away looks like, what's that?

He's a flag?

I saw some weird the woodstas a white flat right what it was?

But anyway, so I've gone to that deer camp maybe since I was I think I was fourteen the first time I went there.

But they those three stories.

Whenever I heard the first one about the antler getting shot, I was like, they he better tell the Tanneride story.

He better tell the deer jumping out of the truck story, because it's just like those stories, Like they say the greatest hips and they kill like very consistently giant public land bucks.

I mean almost every year they've got a they've got a wall where the you know, like.

Whoever kills the biggest buck?

Every year gets a hat and they've got a wall for like thirty years worth of bucks, and you go look at all the pictures and they've got some giant bucks that they kill on public land, and like, I mean they tell those stories here and there, but like the these stories are are you know, like the deer jumping out of the back of the side by side and they get back and he's not there.

You know.

So those had to be my favorite, just because it's like the way they hunt is a very tough way to hunt, but they've What I like about it is they've done it for so long.

They've got they've got a lot of tradition in their camp and it's like a they just have a really neat camp and I feel like it's kind of portrayed well through those stories of like what what's really like what the camp is really about there?

Yeah, yeah, I thought Matt.

Matt's stories were great.

Was the tanneright, the same guy that got.

Kicked in the face?

Yeah, same guy, the same guy that.

Those were the two stories about this this cody you know, yeah, Matt's story, that story could have had a way different outcome.

I don't know if when you're listening from a production standpoint, like when Matt starts telling the story of him smoking like marb on Home Alone.

There's like this real lighthearted like music, and the story could have been and the guy was blind and lost.

You know, supposing of explosives in a fire is a crazy move.

It just it just was one of those no brainer moves.

But Josh, what was your favorite story of all of them?

You know, I really like Johnny Johnson's story because I think a lot of that that respect for older people is starting to slip a little bit, and I think that that one was a little sentimental to me.

Yes, yes, I.

Had great appreciation because there was no like, it was no question, oh he shot the deer, you know what I mean?

Yeah, And I appreciate that about it because and and that would have been a time that Johnny wasn't necessarily the greatest guy in the world, but they still had respect for this old man.

And I think that means something to me.

Man, if you hadn't listened to that episode, uh, look up what episode number that is, Josh, if you can, but that that story is one of the most unique.

And what was so cool about it to me was Johnny he didn't want to tell me.

That story that that's what I was going to say, the setup because if he had been like, I got a story for you, Oh check out how good I am?

Right well, and he, uh, you know, he said, he kind told it to you just by chance.

It was totally about chance.

I wasn't even at his house.

It was when I went to his cab his place to get him to tell me about yeah, like his whole life, which was one of the coolest episodes of twenty twenty five.

So three fourteen Confessions of a Former Outlaw.

Okay, now that was that one.

I was saying, what's the Deer Stories episode?

So Johnny had episode three fourteen, which is Confessions of a Former Outlaw I think, in my mind, one of the coolest stories that we've ever told.

And then the Deer Stories one.

But yeah, So I was at Johnny's to talk about Turkey, and I was just looking at his wall of deer and and there was one that was the biggest, just clearly the biggest, and I just said, hey, is that the biggest deer that y'all have killed over in this part.

Of the country.

Kind of just trying to get a feel for how big the deer were, because sometimes you go into people's place and you see a bunch of deer on the wall and they go, oh, these aren't the big ones.

The big ones are in my living room.

Yep, that's actually pretty common.

Yeah, and they go, oh yeah, these just in the barn are the ones that didn't make it to the shoulder mount, you know what I mean.

And I mean they were a huge deer.

So I was anticipating him telling me this is the big one.

It was like, I'd say, one hundred and fifty type inch deer and he said, he said, yeah, that's probably the biggest one, except for you know, we gave one away.

One that probably bigger than that we gave away.

And then he just started talking about the other deer, and I was like, hey, wait a minute, let's circle back.

Tell me what you mean by it gave it away.

And he just went, oh god, we all kind of shot at the same time, and you know, this guy killed it, and old man, I mean, he just like he was just like, let's keep moving, Clay, this is not that interesting to the story.

And so when we sat down and he had a recorder on, I said, you got to tell me the whole story, give me the whole story.

And so he did, and it was pretty phenomenal.

I actually had another story on this is kind of behind the scenes.

Uh.

One of the storytellers I won't tell who.

Had a story that they were gonna tell me and did tell me that was spurred on by Johnny's story because it was the opposite.

Two guys shot and there was a major conflict over who killed the deer, and to the point that one of the guys went and put his foot on the rack and said, Okay, well I'm just gonna break the rack and you know, you can take half and I can take half or something like that.

Oh real Solomon, Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and so you.

Are the true mother.

Yeah yeah.

So it was a real ugly story though, I mean it was like, you know, just guys just each.

Other kill the energy of the podcast.

Yeah, it was, it was.

And so anyway, it just didn't really fit.

But there's a lot of stories that don't end like yeah, Johnny's did.

But I also so think that.

There's a lot of those old guys that like Ernie in Matt's story, who doesn't really care about the horns, that much, which is bizarre to me.

Louet Dell and Charlie Edwards, the Turkey hunting outlaws that we did the series on Genuine Outlaws.

Those guys were deer hunters and their whole life, I mean, killed a lot of deer and they never kept the horns really, I mean they give them away to people.

Their horns are just scattered throughout the county.

I talked to Stony one day, I mean when I was doing that interview and I was like, what's the biggest deer your dad ever killed?

And he said, oh, he killed a giant one time.

You know, big, you know.

He described it to me, and I mean, I feel like he was describing a one hundred and sixty inch maybe bigger type deer.

And I was like, man, I'd like to see that.

I want to get a picture of it.

And he was like, oh, well, we don't even have it.

I don't even know where it is.

He said that gave it away.

I was like, gave it away and he's like, oh yeah, yeah, he said, Clay.

He said, those deer when they're those horns are stacked up at our camp the week of deer season.

He said, they mean something to us, because when they kill a deer, they put the.

Horns on the woodpile.

And he said, when we pack up that next Saturday to go home, those horns don't mean a thing does and they just kind of give him away.

Even to this date, Stoney says that about himself.

Uh, I don't know.

I mean, he'd probably keep a big one.

I mean, I don't really know.

He just said that's the way his dad and them were, and he was talking about himself when he said that doesn't really mean that much to us.

But I think the culture around keeping horns is way stronger today than it than it probably was in the past.

I mean, I think people want to keep a set of horns today, but I know Mo Shepherd does.

I'd ad they'll give away several sets of horns, and even killed He's go out West and Colorade and he hunted Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, elkhinned Mulier.

He kills some big mule deer and he'd bring them home and he'd show them off.

And then I remember when I was like, Kenna, let me go.

Some people came by and he was showing them the horns of big mule deer.

He'd kill and they said, both those are nice horns.

He said, we do you want them?

They said, yeah, we like to have them to take home or do what?

And he just give them to him And I remember him doing that several times as a kid growing up.

Uh huh.

He didn't think much about the horns, you know.

So yeah and eat.

Yeah.

What was your favorite story?

Mo?

Which one stood out to you?

I really liked the one that you were you all were talking about, you know, but as uh to hit on another base, I really liked the one of of whaling the lines.

I mean, even if it hadn't been a monster buck, that's the way it all took place, him hunting him, missing it, uh, not getting to go back for a while, and going back and and that's what he does set one of those finger ridges.

Did you hear that in the story?

Bear?

I didn't notice it.

Yeah.

Him and his wife went with him and they went and sat on a finger ridge aways from where he had because he said it looked like a better place to maybe ambush a big deer, another good deer.

And anyway, that's where he wound up killing it.

And there's one of them where it don't happen very often.

It's happened to me twice my whole life, where I walked up the deer and it's a lot bigger than what I thought it was when I when I put my sights on it or slung an air at it, or yeah, done something to it, you know, And that don't happen very often.

And it happened for sure on his stuff.

That deer.

I wish you could see it.

It truly is just giant.

It doesn't look like it came from ozarks.

It's a mainframe eight eight point, I mean, just like I imagine, just a clean eight point.

Now it does have the number of kickers, but they're but they're just I think they're on the G two's.

I can't remember had something maybe some on the base is a few, but just I mean don't I can't.

Remember how long the times were?

Is that what that we said?

Like it was six and a half at the base and four at the tips come out to where.

They flashed out on the just just kept its mass and yeah, and this is just on this old rocky ground over here.

So yeah, that that was a good That was a good story.

That was a great story.

Like I said the way the whole thing transpired, it was a really great story.

And then them dragging it out, and then he even made that comment, you know, even though he's got that deer and got those horns, I don't know, I he's got it matter what.

But he even made that comedy.

You don't never hunt for horns.

I just hunt for the deer because I like the meat.

And yeah sometimes that's who killed some of them monster deer.

So yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

What what other what other stories were in there?

Had the father Stephen Gadberry's story about him and hunt with Jesus.

It was like it threw me, you know, I thought it was going to be one of these you deals like hunting with Jesus, you know, and he was like, actually, I mean, like for real.

Yeah, I thought that was pretty funny.

He uh he got a good chuckle ot of that one.

Yeah yeah, yeah.

Oh those fighting bucks with uh.

Richard thought, so Richard thought he's worth talking about.

He is uh pretty well known that he's been on the Southern Outdoorsman podcast several times.

I think one of there Andrew and Jacob's best like most listened to episodes ever was with Richard.

Thought I listened to one of them that he was on.

Yeah, you were on there the other day.

All sure, we're all famous and look look good on there.

I think it turned out really well.

I've got a lot of comments about that episode, about the red lines and everything on it.

So yeah, uh, that guy's killed some big deer.

Yeah, yeah, he's he really has.

And uh, I'll tell you what.

I got to talk to Richard, and I I really enjoyed visiting with him because he he's real open about it now.

He was he was a pretty rough guy back in the day and when he was doing a lot of his hunting, and man, he just he completely turned his life around and he's a really pleasant guy to be around and got some great stories, a good, really good storyteller.

He told us the story it's not on the episode, but about uh fist fighting a bear, yeah literally outside of a bar, literally like like.

Fist fighting a bear and losing big yes.

Yes, well it's not entirely surprising.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh.

I liked his details about like the kid carrying the stand in and clanking against his ankles every time he took a step, and then the seeing the was it the blood come out the aluminac.

Yeah, yeah, coming out ye too.

I mean, like he said, he was on public ground and then two bucks of that caliber fighting.

I I wonder how that deer, like, if that deer like saw him right there, or like if it was just so in the moment, yeah, just you know, out of breath and had so much adrenaline pumping that it just like I didn't even notice him.

But I wonder how he even got four steps from a deer.

I mean, you'd think that even.

When the wind was howling, and you know, he told the keys to it, and I think that was the key, is that the wind was howling.

And I mean sometimes you'd be surprised what you can do when if it's real windy.

And I think when those bucks are that focused on one another, they just lose focus of everything else, you know.

And so I mean I think he had two things going for him there, you know, where he could just get up to him.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know I agree with that because you know, it's been several year ago.

But I was sitting on the ground on just a little blind place I built and I've been there most morning.

It was probably in a couple after that light and I heard racket, and I thought, what is that I'm hearing?

It sounded like somebody banging rocks together.

And then curio.

I mean, this was like in the late eighties, probably eighty seven, eighty eight, eighty nine, and.

When I could still here real good.

But I slept there for a while, and then it would stop, and then it'd get louder, and I could tell her just around the ridge from me on it.

I was on a bench, and so I got up and went started slipping towards it, slipping towards it, and the closer I got, the ladder got well.

I finally got over that crest of that there it was on like a white oak bench where there's.

You know, they're usually pretty open.

I mean you can there's still some brush, but you can see Pey gooding out there.

Probably one hundred yards I could see moving.

Got looking.

It was three bucks and they were fighting, like what his story said to them, you know, they wanted to get down.

I remember first when I first saw him, they was two shoving each other, and I was muzzloader hunting.

Had an old renegade muzzloader with open sides.

I thought oh gosh, I gotta get closer, you know.

And I didn't really know what to do, but I thought, well, they're occupied, and the wind was okay, it was blowing hard that day, and so I started slimming apit closer and by the time I seen moving again in that third buck run as hard as he could run, and I still remember today, did that real loud like that, and just rammed the side of one of them that was really fighting with the other really and spun around and they went the button each other, and this one to fight on it.

And I just kept getting closer, and I got about probably fifty sixty yards of them and got down on one knee and got me a rest and took a shot and shot my muzloader and they just kept fighting really yeah, And I thought, oh crap, I missed, you know.

And back then you got black power, you got a patch, you got a ball.

I didn't have all the fancy bullets in.

So I go to reloading and here they come.

They start coming towards me, fighting and then one rams another, and I'm trying to load and watch.

The deer and do all that.

Do you know which one you shot?

Yeah?

They were all three wound up.

I think they would have been eight points, but one was a little bigger.

He was he was had taller rack, and that's the one I picked out.

They was he was one of the two that was first fighting to get and one of the smaller of the three is wanted run and rammed into.

The the other ones.

Anyway, to shorten the story up a little bit, I finally got my gun loaded and as the it's coming towards me.

They were probably thirty forty yard they were.

The two were fighting, and this one was behind them, the bigger one.

I thought, well, why is he behind them?

You know?

And I got ready to shoot again and he just collapses.

It's the one I had shot, but he paid no attention to that shot.

He was still wanting to fight with those other deer.

Wow, and they.

Haven't you told me this story before?

You just.

That story I've heard you tell.

Well, it brought to my mind.

I mean, I've got so many stories over the years, I've hunted so much.

I mean just I just thought of it when when you all got talking about.

Most forgotten, better stories than you've.

Ever That's that's wow, that's cool.

I was going to ask you if you'd ever really seen deer just.

Like I mean, they were getting like you know, and they weren't monster bucks, but they were nice mountain bucks, all three of them.

And like I said, I think I killed the best of them, but I'm not absolutely sure I did, because they were all moving, the open sides and all that, but I think I killed the best rack one.

But they were all, you know, in that class of fifteen sixteen each deer eight points, just good mountain public lan deer.

So yeah, wow, that's cool, I don't.

I mean, I've seen plenty of deer tickle their horns together.

I've probably seen some young deer get fairly serious fighting, but I can't say that I've ever seen like like what Richard saw, or even like that where I.

Said, I remember my dad was still alive then he died in ninety one, and now I know it was two three years before he passed away.

But when I brought that deer back home and shut it to him, we were looking at it.

You could there was holes poked in it.

When we skinned it out where they'd been fire pretty hard, you know, were other horns, and that maybe been from where that small one run into one I shot, you know, yeah, I said.

They were had to down a little close to the ground doing you know, shove and push like that, and that one just made two or three loud grunts and just well, wham not that one come away from.

The other one.

So wow, But it's pretty awesome.

And the all other time I seen that happen was another time I was bow hunting.

I didn't kill a deer, but I seen a buck with a dough out and a little clearing and an old home place where I was sitting and watching some acrons, and there was feeding on acrons early in the season, and the and the.

Buck was kind of peeling around.

And at that time, this was several years after that, but I was trying my grunt call out and I would drunk, and the dough and the buck would both look towards me.

Then they just go back to the head kind of sniffing around.

And how I could do behind her, and she was mainly just eating acrens.

And there was probably fifty sixty yards from me.

I was up standing on an old limb on a white oak tree with my ree curved bow.

When I used to hunt a lot, when I could climb trees easy.

But uh uh, I heard remember hearing stick's breaking.

I looked in a really nice buck came from behind me somewhere and came running, grunning back like that, and he ran and knocked that deer down, that smaller buck, and they fought this a little bit, and then he walked over and rose the door around and they took off with the other direction, and I never did see him nowhere after that.

But Wow came and took it from her.

Yeah, from him, but it wasn't.

Much of a fight because he was a lot bigger deer.

But I tried drunking and everything, and he never paid me no attention.

Once he was with that dough, they took off.

But that's the two instances I've seen bucks kind of spar off in.

The woods like that.

But that first one was pretty awesome.

Where have you ever seen deer fight?

Time with Lee Walt whenever I was like a little kid, we saw two I don't think they were giant bucks, but two bucks down on Yeah, they were racked bucks and they were they fought a little But I've never I've never really seen and I'm other than that get after it that I could think.

Of m h m hm.

Well, uh, we've got one more Deer Stories episode is gonna come out.

I was only gonna do two, and then the stories were we're good and I like doing these, so we're gonna do We're going to have one more that's gonna come out yep next week.

So it's some of the best news I've had all day.

Wow.

Okay, So you wouldn't believe the people friends of mine and even family members of people I work with that I talked to on and off that they always asked me throughout the late summer and early fall, are they going to do deer episodes?

Are they going to do on Bear Grease?

I said, well, probably will I said, you know, I don't know for sure, but I forget it was they and a lot of people say that's some of their favorites, is the deer stories, and like, like I was talking about the Turkey stories in.

The spring, they really liked them.

So mm hm, Well, now that you burned up the best story, yeah, well we'll.

Cut that and yeah, I'm almost serious.

I might tell a story on this next one.

Yeah, I've got I've got it.

Yeah.

Well, if they told the same story every year, well, that's the thing.

That's the interesting thing about stories, and when you when you start going to people time and time again.

I mean, I've almost literally deer hunted my whole life.

And uh, there's only so many stories that are really great.

You know.

I mean it's not it's not like you just have unlimited, really unique stories.

And and most people, when you go to them and say, tell me your your stories, they've got one or two, maybe three that just are really great.

And then.

And so, I mean, they're hard to come by.

So I'm dipping into.

The obscure story category.

One of my stories may have to do with an explosion.

Matt Taylor brought it to mind.

Have you ever heard me talk about an explosion?

Well, in the vicinity of deer hunting.

It doesn't ring a bill.

Yeah, I think I told me about I ever told it on the podcast.

Were You Hunting Taylor's Deer Camp?

So there I was middle of the.

Woods with Matt with Cody.

I don't know if you've told it on the podcast, but I know the one you're talking about.

You told it to me.

Yes, I'm thinking about telling that story as rebuttal to Matt's story.

Uh, And then.

Yeah, so anyway, it's possible you might hear from me, but man, me and Isaac Neil are going.

Yeah, last time we hunted for an extended period of time, no stories.

No none stories.

That was tough.

Yeah.

We went to Illinois and uh, this first time in my life, and don't you ever use it against me world that I went on a fully guided whitetail hunt.

I mean I just never done that in my life.

We were offered, You were invited.

I was invited like two weeks before it happened, and it was like, hey, you could go to Pike County, Illinois on a on a fully guided white tail bow hunt, and it just worked.

I need I wanted to go.

Isaac went with me to film and we hunted for six hard days and I mean didn't kill a buck.

I think we hunted for seven, probably were slated for six, and then you were like, let's do one more, which was Halloween.

You're right, you're right, yeah, yeah, and it wasn't.

It was you know, you can you can be in some great deer country and not kill the deer.

You told me about that trip after you got back.

Yeah, he said it.

It was crazy to be in such a place like that and not get any opportunities of anything.

So yeah, we saw one shooter, yeah, one or two?

Yeah, I think we saw two.

Actually the first day we saw the one out of the back of the blind and then we.

Saw we saw one more.

But but so anyway, we're right in the middle of it right now.

So Baron Newcomb has been hunting a lot.

Saw four bucks yesterday.

Anyway, we'll have we're making stories as we speak.

So man, thanks everybody for listening to Bear Greece and Lake's Backwards University Prince.

This country life means a lot to us Live Tour.

There's still tickets for five of the six live.

Tour destinations Birmingham, Alabama, Nashville, Tennessee, Memphis, Fadble, Arkansas.

Sold.

Thank you so much, Faydeville, that means a lot.

I'll never forget you because of it.

Dallas and Austin.

Were you at risk of forgetting Fatville?

Well, what I meant by that was.

Just in the meat eater sphere scenes.

That's awesome, behind the scenes, this corporate stuff that happens.

You know.

They were like, hey, do you do you think Faydeville would do good because all the other cities are huge.

You you out, yeah, And I said, come to our little po dunk city.

He vouched for villain showed up, baby, and probably most people that's going to it, they don't even live in faith.

Are you going?

Yeah?

We got table, Yes, a table.

Good.

I'm taking my friend Brian Beuley with me.

Brian Bealey, he's the one who came and helped me the other night.

Oh yeah, good good.

So last time, weren't you gonna give it away to a random listener for the first person?

A couple of a couple of I mentioned it to him and he said, I gotta get tickets and I said, sorry, pal, they are sold out, but you.

Might happen to have a connections.

We got ours a first day.

They come available through the yeah deal.

They sold out before just with the pre release.

Wow what I'm saying?

The first down the pre release yep, that's when we got ours.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So the other shows will be really great too, they're just in other places.

Yep.

So all right, well, thanks guys, MO, good to see you, Good luck, y'all.

Good seeing you again, Isaac, Yeah, of course, Josh.

Always good to visit with y'all.

Yes, sir, yep, well, keep the wild places wild, and that's where the bears look