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Speaker 1: And we're back with another episode of Cutting the Distance podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Dirk Durham, and today I have a man on

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Speaker 1: the podcast, someone who I admire a whole bunch. He's

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Speaker 1: a family man. He's probably one of the toughest guys

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Speaker 1: I know for back country hunting, probably the most fearless

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Speaker 1: guy I know for back country hunting, and very talented

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Speaker 1: and an accomplished bow hunter. Welcome to the show.

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Speaker 2: Ron.

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Speaker 1: Is it njolic?

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Speaker 2: How do you how?

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Speaker 1: It's it's kind of spelled like nisiolic, but it's yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: thanks for coming on today.

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Speaker 2: Good to see you again.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I've known Ron for a number for years. I

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Speaker 1: think we kind of got really good, well acquainted back

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Speaker 1: in the days, back when I was a co founder

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Speaker 1: of a magazine elkhunting magazine called Extreme Elk and Ron

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Speaker 1: came aboard to edit articles and to write articles for

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Speaker 1: us on there and got acquainted with him and got

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Speaker 1: to know about all of his backcountry experiences in the

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Speaker 1: beautiful state of Wyoming. And I will I'll kind of

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Speaker 1: say one thing that always kind of stood out is

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Speaker 1: Barren counters. You always, you know, you always had a

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Speaker 1: good elk hunting story, but it seems like there was

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Speaker 1: always some barre encounters or one from one way or another,

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Speaker 1: you know, every few years, you know, whether it was

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Speaker 1: black bears or grizzlies.

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Speaker 3: Mostly grizzlies, but yeah, there's there's definitely been a few

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Speaker 3: through the years, but this year was just a little ridiculous,

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Speaker 3: to put it mildly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, ever since, you know, a

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Speaker 1: few years ago, then they got those things listed and

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Speaker 1: then we all thought we were going to get a

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Speaker 1: bear hunting season, and then that got shut down. So

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Speaker 1: I think we've all been kind of sitting here holding

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Speaker 1: our breath hoping that we get a grizzly bear season,

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Speaker 1: you know, even even if it is a very limited opportunity,

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Speaker 1: because I know Wyoming and Montana the grizzly populations have

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Speaker 1: exploded and which triple a to Idaho pretty well. So

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Speaker 1: what's your take on this, on the whole grizzly hunting season?

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Speaker 1: Should we should we open that up and get that

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Speaker 1: thing going.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's what should be done. But you know, anymore,

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Speaker 3: it seems like seasons are, especially for the predator animals,

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Speaker 3: the seasons are determined by voters instead of by biology.

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Speaker 3: So voters and or judges, and you know, the grizzly situation,

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Speaker 3: it's just the anti hunters find a sympathetic judge to

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Speaker 3: their cause and just with a magic wand and they

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Speaker 3: just put you know, the season that we did have,

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Speaker 3: they put the debosh on it, and it's yeah, it's

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Speaker 3: just a pipe dream at this point, I don't know

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Speaker 3: if it'll ever happen.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, which makes elk hunting is kind of scary,

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Speaker 1: you know, or any kind of outdoor recreation, whether you're

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Speaker 1: a hunter or not, just if you're an outdoor enthusiast. Shoot,

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Speaker 1: I can't I can't imagine backpacking and why homing with

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Speaker 1: my wife and kids, you know, just enjoying a beautiful

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Speaker 1: day in the woods and having a grizzly bear wreck that. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: We Uh.

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Speaker 3: My philosophy is I try not to let them determine

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Speaker 3: where I'm going to go and what I'm going to do. So,

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Speaker 3: you know, if i want to hunt elk in a

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Speaker 3: particular drainage, as long as I'm not aware that somebody

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Speaker 3: else has killed the bull in there, there might be

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Speaker 3: you know, opportunity for Grizzly to be on a carcass

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Speaker 3: or you know, just a really well known spot tons

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Speaker 3: of bears. You know, for the most part, I just

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Speaker 3: go wherever I want. I'm not scared, but definitely a

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Speaker 3: little bit cautious and just have a little bit of

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Speaker 3: respect for what they can do.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And I'm sure you probably take some pretty

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Speaker 1: good measures and some things you do do do and

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Speaker 1: things you don't do when you're in bear country.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we do.

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Speaker 1: We were talking a little earlier about backpack hunting, and

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Speaker 1: I know you said you want a real big fan,

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Speaker 1: and I feel like backpack hunting and grizzly country, that's

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Speaker 1: definitely something you have to be careful with.

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Speaker 3: That's now that in particular, I'm not worried about because,

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Speaker 3: first off, my philosophy on the bears is I've never

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Speaker 3: heard a report of anybody hiking in the dark that's

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Speaker 3: been attacked or mauled by a grizzly. And I know

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Speaker 3: there have been instance is where they go hopping and

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Speaker 3: you know, kill or pull out some unfortunate person and

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Speaker 3: chew on them. But for the most part, at night, honestly,

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Speaker 3: I just put ear plugs in so I'm not awake

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Speaker 3: listening the sounds all night, and I just try to

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Speaker 3: get the best night's sleep, and like I said, with

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Speaker 3: the ear plugs and then you know, at least I

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Speaker 3: won't hear them chewing on me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, now, I that reminded me of the story

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Speaker 1: you told here a while ago. A couple of years ago.

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Speaker 1: I heard you talk about an encounter in your little

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Speaker 1: camp with a wolf buddy, and there was some pretty

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Speaker 1: good shenanigans that went on there with that fricking wolf.

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Speaker 1: If you don't mind telling that story, I'm sure our

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Speaker 1: listeners would love to hear it.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I can do that.

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Speaker 3: So a young friend and I were backpacked in about

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Speaker 3: seven miles and we were doing some horn hunting, and

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Speaker 3: one of my favorite things to do, at least it

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Speaker 3: used to be. Util I got two busted up anyway,

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Speaker 3: So we backpacked in one weekend and got the tent

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Speaker 3: set up and just a little cooi tent and took

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Speaker 3: off going horn hunting and scouting for the rest of

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Speaker 3: the afternoon. And we came back to camp that evening

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Speaker 3: and the tent's broken down. You know, the poles were

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Speaker 3: sticking out everywhere, and it's just demolished by a bear.

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Speaker 3: The bear chewed on my buddy's wife's sleeping bag. Left

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Speaker 3: mine alone. So anyway, with nothing better to do, he

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Speaker 3: just broke the tent down and threw our sleeping bags

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Speaker 3: out on the on the ground cloth. So and I

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Speaker 3: was on one side, my buddy's on the side right

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Speaker 3: next to a big rock, and we had our backpacks

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Speaker 3: propped up there. He had his h his socks, and

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Speaker 3: his shirt laid out on top of the sage brush.

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Speaker 3: I just stuck mine in my sleeping bag to hopefully

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Speaker 3: dry him out, and then went to bed. I put

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Speaker 3: in my famous ear plugs, and a little while later

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Speaker 3: I could I could hear a wolf howlan or a

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Speaker 3: couple of them. I thought, man, those things are pretty close,

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Speaker 3: and just went to sleep. And I got woken up

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Speaker 3: by my buddy just yelling get out of here, get

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Speaker 3: out of here. So you know, my immediate thought was bear.

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Speaker 3: So I'm sitting up, pulling out of your plugs, finding

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Speaker 3: my headlamp, finding my pistol, get all that stuff done,

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Speaker 3: and turn on the headlamp. Well there's a dang wolf

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Speaker 3: like ten feet from him, of not a young wolf

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Speaker 3: but probably medium's eyes black wolf, just sitting there staring

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Speaker 3: him in the face from about ten feet away. And

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Speaker 3: so he yells, get out of here again. Well, the

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Speaker 3: wolf reaches down and this is no bs, like this

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Speaker 3: truly happened. The wolf reaches down and grabs a boot

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Speaker 3: and takes off running, and my buddy panics and he's

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Speaker 3: like he's got my eff and boot, and it's like

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Speaker 3: it's a brutal backpack job to get in there. I mean,

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Speaker 3: it's just it's a lot of rock, so hiking out

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Speaker 3: of their barefoot wouldn't have been fun. So the wolf

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Speaker 3: stopped like twenty yards out in this age brush. I

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Speaker 3: could see him, but he couldn't, so I cranked around

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Speaker 3: at him, and you know, the muzzle flash couldn't tell

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Speaker 3: what happened. So got up stumped into boot someone out there,

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Speaker 3: and I couldn't find any any sign that actually hit

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Speaker 3: the wolf. But I did find the boot, and on

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Speaker 3: the way walking back to where we were sleeping, I

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Speaker 3: found his daypack or his backpack, and so we're looking

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Speaker 3: around and I look at the rock where my pack's

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Speaker 3: supposed to be right next to his, and mine's gone too,

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Speaker 3: So that dang wolf had drug off both of our

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Speaker 3: packs while we were sleeping and then come back and

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Speaker 3: was sniffing my buddy's face. So, but the story just

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Speaker 3: gets better and better because the wolf liked to really

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Speaker 3: pick on my buddy. So we get up in the morning,

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Speaker 3: or I get up, he's still laying and sleeping bag

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Speaker 3: and I go stomping around just looking for any blood

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Speaker 3: or any sign that I might have hit the wolf,

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Speaker 3: and don't find anything. But before I on my way

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Speaker 3: back to camp, I found both his socks with the

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Speaker 3: ankle chewed out of one of them, and it was

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Speaker 3: the only pair of socks he had. So for the

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Speaker 3: rest of that day he hiked around with his ankle

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Speaker 3: right on the leather. But so I was just laughing.

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Speaker 3: I said, dude, look at your socks, you know. So

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Speaker 3: we get we get all dressed, and we take off hiking,

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Speaker 3: and we're gone most of the morning.

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Speaker 2: And we had.

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Speaker 3: Split up and we met up. I was like eleven

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Speaker 3: o'clock or so, and he's got this look on his

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Speaker 3: face and he's like, dude, smell my shirt. I think

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Speaker 3: the wolf piste on it. So I took a whiff,

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Speaker 3: and I'm like, oh my god, maybe you want to vomit.

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Speaker 3: You know, it really stunk. So when he put his

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Speaker 3: shirt on in the morning, he thought it was damp

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Speaker 3: from the frost. You know, that happened overnight, so he

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Speaker 3: didn't pay any attention to it. But the wolf really

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Speaker 3: did piss on a shirt. So it just kept getting

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Speaker 3: funnier for me. I had a big belly laugh, and

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Speaker 3: we go, you know, we were all done antler hunting.

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Speaker 3: We had to hike out of there. So we go

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Speaker 3: walking back to camp and we come down the trail

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Speaker 3: and do a little clearing where we were a camp. Well,

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Speaker 3: the damn wolf is sitting there, like at forty yards

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Speaker 3: just looking at us. Of course we're all excited there

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Speaker 3: he is, you know, a little bastard. So anyway, well

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Speaker 3: he just kind of trots towards us up to twenty

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Speaker 3: yards like what's up, guys, And anyway, it sounded like

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Speaker 3: a gunfight when we escorted him out of the clearing,

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Speaker 3: went back to camp in the tent or the sleeping bag.

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Speaker 3: The camp's fine. So we loaded up and hiked out

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Speaker 3: of there with our stuff, and it just got funnier.

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Speaker 3: Two days later he texted me again and he's like, dude,

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Speaker 3: check your pack. I think he pissed on mine, or

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Speaker 3: he did piss on mine. So when he got home,

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Speaker 3: he left his pack in and it was really warm

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Speaker 3: for a couple of days and when he opened when

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Speaker 3: he opened the door, that wolf piss had just been

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Speaker 3: marinating in there, and like, yeah, he.

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Speaker 2: Said, it just almost made him puke.

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Speaker 3: So anyway, that's I just got lots of laugh and

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Speaker 3: we figured the wolf picked on all his stuff because

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Speaker 3: he had five dogs at the time, so I think

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Speaker 3: all that smell kind of spurred on the wolf to

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Speaker 3: pick on all of his stuff. So it was it

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Speaker 3: was great. And I talked to the game warden the

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Speaker 3: night we got out, and he said that a pack

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Speaker 3: of wolf, pack of wolves had come out of Yellowstone

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Speaker 3: Park and we're kind of terrorizing up in that area

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Speaker 3: and they had shoot on site orders for him because

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Speaker 3: they were causing so much problems. So anyway, I think

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Speaker 3: they got I think they got whacked. But one of

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Speaker 3: the one of the ranches up there actually had a

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Speaker 3: video that's probably the same younger black wolf. They went

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Speaker 3: out and he wasn't scared at all, and they threw

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Speaker 3: a ball and he actually went and grabbed it. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 3: it's pretty crazy. But you know, in the park, it's

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Speaker 3: not it's not a pristine environment. They're really habituated to people,

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00:12:08,679 --> 00:12:12,600
Speaker 3: all the animals there, So that's why he didn't, you know,

218
00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:14,839
Speaker 3: didn't display any fear whatsoever of us.

219
00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:17,319
Speaker 1: He's probably waiting for you guys to throw a twinkie

220
00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:18,240
Speaker 1: to him or something.

221
00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:19,160
Speaker 2: I know.

222
00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:19,480
Speaker 1: Right.

223
00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:24,040
Speaker 3: Anyway, my buddy said, when he felt and heard that

224
00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:26,120
Speaker 3: thing sniff in his face, he just knew it was

225
00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:29,920
Speaker 3: a grizzly, you know, gonna come eat him. So he's

226
00:12:30,280 --> 00:12:31,880
Speaker 3: little relieved that was just a wolf.

227
00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:35,679
Speaker 1: Yeah, thought he's gonna get his face ripped off. Oh yeah,

228
00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:39,520
Speaker 1: pretty much. I bet that was pretty scary and then funny,

229
00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:44,280
Speaker 1: mostly funny, you know, Yeah, that's awesome.

230
00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:47,000
Speaker 3: He was scared a little bit, and honestly, when you

231
00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:49,440
Speaker 3: turn on a headlamp and there's a wolf ten feet

232
00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:52,280
Speaker 3: away staring at you, it's not the best feeling. But yeah,

233
00:12:52,400 --> 00:12:55,240
Speaker 3: when he grabbed his boot, that was probably the funniest part.

234
00:12:55,400 --> 00:12:58,000
Speaker 3: Listening to him in his Panic voice saying he's got

235
00:12:58,000 --> 00:12:58,559
Speaker 3: my eff.

236
00:12:58,440 --> 00:12:59,119
Speaker 2: And boot.

237
00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:01,959
Speaker 1: Man. He love it.

238
00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:02,920
Speaker 2: I love it.

239
00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:05,960
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's always good to have a buddy to to

240
00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:08,880
Speaker 1: make fun of, but something like that too, So absolutely,

241
00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:12,720
Speaker 1: I hope something like that happens to Phelps sometimes when

242
00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:15,520
Speaker 1: him and I are out, man, it'll probably happen to me.

243
00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:18,120
Speaker 1: He'll he'll make.

244
00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:20,240
Speaker 3: Sure he's not armed, and then you can pull some

245
00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:21,439
Speaker 3: kind of a good prank on him.

246
00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:22,320
Speaker 2: Yeah.

247
00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:26,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, I'll start messing with his stuff. Oh man,

248
00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:28,240
Speaker 1: I think both done into your pack there.

249
00:13:28,120 --> 00:13:28,200
Speaker 3: But.

250
00:13:30,040 --> 00:13:34,360
Speaker 1: String everything out of it. Uh So we have a question.

251
00:13:34,520 --> 00:13:42,080
Speaker 1: So you're longtime archer, very successful, and everybody knows everybody

252
00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:44,280
Speaker 1: likes to talk about elk cutting, and everybody knows I

253
00:13:44,320 --> 00:13:47,559
Speaker 1: love to talk about elk cutting. What what do you

254
00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:49,760
Speaker 1: what's your mode? Are you a spot and stock guy

255
00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:51,320
Speaker 1: or you a call guy or you kind of a

256
00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:54,120
Speaker 1: hybrid guy. What what do you do? What's your tactics

257
00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:55,120
Speaker 1: for for elk?

258
00:13:56,240 --> 00:14:01,559
Speaker 3: I do everything me personally, I prefer the spot in

259
00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:06,400
Speaker 3: stock method of things. But having switched on areas a

260
00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:09,680
Speaker 3: while back, this newer one has a lot more timber.

261
00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:14,000
Speaker 3: That makes the spot in stock plan a little harder

262
00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:19,080
Speaker 3: to execute. So I just incorporate everything that that it

263
00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:22,440
Speaker 3: takes to get it done. You know, hopefully spot them

264
00:14:22,440 --> 00:14:26,360
Speaker 3: first or hear them close. The gap is ninety nine

265
00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:28,800
Speaker 3: percent of the battle I think is is getting in

266
00:14:28,840 --> 00:14:31,720
Speaker 3: there close and then either call or finish the stock.

267
00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:37,040
Speaker 3: But you know, for me, ell cutting is two speeds basically,

268
00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:41,760
Speaker 3: or either you know, covering ground and until you find one,

269
00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:44,400
Speaker 3: see one or hear one, and then you're you know,

270
00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:48,360
Speaker 3: hustling like crazy to get close and then it slows

271
00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:52,160
Speaker 3: slows down either to the calling mode or the stock.

272
00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:56,440
Speaker 3: So but yeah, I do. I do a little bit

273
00:14:56,440 --> 00:15:01,680
Speaker 3: of everything. I've had really good good luck calling lately

274
00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:05,400
Speaker 3: this year, since the bulls seemed to be super call shy.

275
00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:10,280
Speaker 3: When I finally shot the one, I did be agle

276
00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:13,320
Speaker 3: to locate and then I just snuok in quiet and

277
00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:17,200
Speaker 3: I positioned myself up above three three bulls in this

278
00:15:17,400 --> 00:15:21,480
Speaker 3: one narrow little drainage, kind of got above the middle one.

279
00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:24,160
Speaker 3: I was waiting for one of them to come up

280
00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:27,320
Speaker 3: into a clearing behind me and then I'd make a move.

281
00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:30,440
Speaker 3: And the one that I was above, just one hundred

282
00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:32,680
Speaker 3: yards or so, he came up right to me.

283
00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:34,800
Speaker 2: So it made it really easy.

284
00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:39,880
Speaker 1: So you hunt quite a bit of gnarly, steep, deep

285
00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:44,000
Speaker 1: country is probably high elevation. What are you doing to

286
00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:48,520
Speaker 1: get in shape and stay in shape to navigate navigate

287
00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:52,280
Speaker 1: that country and especially with some of your physical imitations,

288
00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:55,280
Speaker 1: like you fought back injuries for years, and how do

289
00:15:55,320 --> 00:15:58,880
Speaker 1: you how do you maintain that mental toughness to push

290
00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:00,800
Speaker 1: through some of that pain in those tough days, to

291
00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:02,480
Speaker 1: just continue to keep grinding.

292
00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:07,560
Speaker 3: My wife would tell you that I'm more stubborn and

293
00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:11,280
Speaker 3: stupid than I am tough, and sometimes I agree with her.

294
00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:12,760
Speaker 2: Anyway.

295
00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:16,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've had a long history twenty plus years of

296
00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:24,200
Speaker 3: back surgeries. Ten ten years ago, I had a fusion

297
00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:27,040
Speaker 3: and my third fusion in my back that just didn't

298
00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:30,840
Speaker 3: work made everything worse. So the following year, since I

299
00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:33,320
Speaker 3: was still struggling with it, I had a spinal cord

300
00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:38,280
Speaker 3: stimulator put in and that helped with my legs, but

301
00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:41,560
Speaker 3: it didn't help with my back, so that kept declining.

302
00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:44,800
Speaker 3: Man for the last few years, I missed a lot

303
00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:50,440
Speaker 3: of mostly mornings going out hunting, and I just had

304
00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:53,640
Speaker 3: to tell my buddies I can't go. You know, I'm sorry,

305
00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:56,920
Speaker 3: but I'm just not going to make it, and they're

306
00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,560
Speaker 3: all pretty understanding. I think it was probably harder on

307
00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:02,280
Speaker 3: me than them, because I don't like to let anybody down.

308
00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:06,119
Speaker 3: And then this last summer I went to the Mayo

309
00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:10,520
Speaker 3: Clinic just for a last try. You know, is there

310
00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:14,240
Speaker 3: anything possible it could be done? Or do I just

311
00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:16,800
Speaker 3: have to suck it up and live with it. So

312
00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:21,680
Speaker 3: and I had doctors in my local area assure me that,

313
00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:24,960
Speaker 3: oh yeah, you know, everything's been done that could be done.

314
00:17:25,760 --> 00:17:28,800
Speaker 3: And the first thing the mayo told me was that

315
00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:36,560
Speaker 3: fusion never took whatsoever. So they recommended, you know, refusing

316
00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:40,760
Speaker 3: that level and also the next one up it was time.

317
00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:41,160
Speaker 2: For that one.

318
00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:45,200
Speaker 3: So anyway, in December, I went there and I had

319
00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:47,639
Speaker 3: the had the surgery. They took the rods out of

320
00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:50,960
Speaker 3: my you know, real low back, put in some new

321
00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:56,160
Speaker 3: ones to cover those new levels. And anyway, it took

322
00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:59,960
Speaker 3: a while for me to get over it or start

323
00:18:00,119 --> 00:18:03,159
Speaker 3: making some progress. I was restricted for three months, so

324
00:18:04,040 --> 00:18:07,520
Speaker 3: March in April or probably April, I you know, I

325
00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:10,200
Speaker 3: was able to at least start walking outdoors a little

326
00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:15,520
Speaker 3: bit and doing things, and so gradually just gotten better

327
00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:18,280
Speaker 3: in better shape over the summer. I'm still fat and

328
00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:22,280
Speaker 3: could roll around the hills if you kicked me. But anyway,

329
00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:27,640
Speaker 3: I just mind over matter whatever whatever it is. I'm

330
00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:31,880
Speaker 3: still limited, you know, I certain things I can't do

331
00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:34,600
Speaker 3: like I like I used to, but you just adapt,

332
00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:38,560
Speaker 3: and I don't know, and maybe that's why, you know,

333
00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:41,880
Speaker 3: I've switched over to more of a calling phase in

334
00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:45,000
Speaker 3: my hunting, so I'm not doing these long you know,

335
00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:47,760
Speaker 3: spot now two or three miles away with an hour

336
00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:50,200
Speaker 3: to go before dark, and take off like a madman

337
00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:54,280
Speaker 3: and go get them just a little bit more patient

338
00:18:54,359 --> 00:18:55,200
Speaker 3: and slower going.

339
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:59,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you have a pretty good support group

340
00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:01,760
Speaker 1: as far as friends you can call if you get

341
00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:05,320
Speaker 1: a bowl down, that'll come and help help get one out, too, don't.

342
00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:08,800
Speaker 3: I do. The area where I'm hunting has zero cell

343
00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:12,359
Speaker 3: phone reception, so but over in reach, yeah, I'm able

344
00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:14,560
Speaker 3: to send some texts out and I have some awesome

345
00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:17,960
Speaker 3: friends that'll, you know, come help me out at a

346
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:18,840
Speaker 3: moment's notice.

347
00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:19,480
Speaker 2: Pretty much.

348
00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:24,760
Speaker 3: The other The other thing is I do I still

349
00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:28,400
Speaker 3: prefer to hunt totally by myself. I just think it's

350
00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:29,399
Speaker 3: a lot more effective.

351
00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:30,120
Speaker 2: You don't.

352
00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:34,880
Speaker 3: You're not trying to figure out what somebody else's thinking

353
00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:37,520
Speaker 3: or adapt to how they want to do things. It's

354
00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:42,440
Speaker 3: just all your own decisions. But where I'm hunting, it's

355
00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:48,840
Speaker 3: just you don't. You don't follow an elk up by yourself,

356
00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:52,719
Speaker 3: or if you do, go find it, but then go

357
00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:55,920
Speaker 3: get somebody to come hold legs for you whatever while

358
00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:59,040
Speaker 3: you're breaking it down and moving it away from the carcass,

359
00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:02,680
Speaker 3: so that that's what we try to do. I'd try

360
00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:04,640
Speaker 3: to have, you know, somebody else there to at least

361
00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:08,760
Speaker 3: follow up with me. These grizzlies are just more brazen

362
00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:13,880
Speaker 3: all the time. We've had belt taken like mine from

363
00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:18,040
Speaker 3: this year, you know, whether it's overnight or just an

364
00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:22,680
Speaker 3: hour or two, or we had one that while we're

365
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:27,880
Speaker 3: actually skinning the bull, seven cubs comes in and they

366
00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:29,800
Speaker 3: don't care that you're there. They just come in and

367
00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:34,120
Speaker 3: take over. In that situation, you're supposed to let them. Legally,

368
00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:39,720
Speaker 3: it's a tough thing to do. I might nowadays, I

369
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:42,560
Speaker 3: think I might cause a little battle if I was

370
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:45,639
Speaker 3: actually working on my elk and a bear came in

371
00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:47,800
Speaker 3: and tried to take it like I was there first,

372
00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:50,400
Speaker 3: it's mine, you know, I'd probably do.

373
00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:51,200
Speaker 2: Whatever it took.

374
00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:55,399
Speaker 3: But years past, you know, if that happens, we just

375
00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:58,439
Speaker 3: back out and just be thankful they didn't come in

376
00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:01,960
Speaker 3: batting us around. And so if they do that like

377
00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:04,560
Speaker 3: that first, the first one a few years back, the

378
00:21:04,600 --> 00:21:07,400
Speaker 3: same guy that had the wolf sniff his face. It's

379
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:11,400
Speaker 3: his first bull, his first bull ever, and we had

380
00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:14,600
Speaker 3: four of us in there and we're working working on

381
00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:17,320
Speaker 3: the thing, his dad heard a bull bugle, so he

382
00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:19,840
Speaker 3: went over to hunt this bull. And so three of

383
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:23,719
Speaker 3: us are there and we're talking and doing whatever, and

384
00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:27,239
Speaker 3: all of a sudden heard a bull bugle. Kid looked up,

385
00:21:27,359 --> 00:21:29,520
Speaker 3: he said, there it is. He's like, no, it's a

386
00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:32,520
Speaker 3: it's a grizzly. And so the grizzly and her two

387
00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:35,560
Speaker 3: full grown cubs came in and I mean as close

388
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:39,120
Speaker 3: as fifteen yards before we got out of there, and

389
00:21:39,119 --> 00:21:41,680
Speaker 3: and just took it over. We had only had bear

390
00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:45,320
Speaker 3: spray at the time, and it was not on our body.

391
00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:48,240
Speaker 3: It was on our packs, which were leaned against a log.

392
00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:51,479
Speaker 3: So we had we just had nothing. We just had

393
00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:56,399
Speaker 3: to get out of there. So anyway, bad bad deal,

394
00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:59,200
Speaker 3: it can it can happen. It seems to be happening

395
00:21:59,240 --> 00:21:59,800
Speaker 3: more and more.

396
00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:03,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's scary and heartbreaking too. You know, works so

397
00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:06,359
Speaker 1: hard to get an elk and then you know, tim

398
00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:08,520
Speaker 1: monster comes along and steals it.

399
00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:12,400
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, and that's what we live on all year too.

400
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:14,920
Speaker 1: So oh yeah, yeah.

401
00:22:15,359 --> 00:22:19,000
Speaker 3: So thankfully my wife has a cow tag, so hopefully

402
00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:23,080
Speaker 3: in November next month will get some milk meat in

403
00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:23,600
Speaker 3: a freezer.

404
00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:35,560
Speaker 1: So reading reading your post, on Facebook here a week

405
00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:39,199
Speaker 1: or so ago. Then I started reading down through it,

406
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:41,439
Speaker 1: and I always always wait for your posts every year

407
00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:44,720
Speaker 1: because they're always really good. Okay, I talked before you

408
00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:46,439
Speaker 1: you've got to you're a writer, so you have a

409
00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:48,720
Speaker 1: good way to, you know, lay things out. It's always

410
00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:53,240
Speaker 1: a good story. And and and as I'm reading through it,

411
00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:54,359
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, yeah, this is gonna be a

412
00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:57,120
Speaker 1: good story. And then then I start seeing these these

413
00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:01,280
Speaker 1: uh these numbers start showing up of how many grizzlies

414
00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:05,520
Speaker 1: you saw and what distances you saw them, and I'm like,

415
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:08,160
Speaker 1: what the heck's going on. Then I read the rest

416
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:10,800
Speaker 1: of the story, I'm like, oh my god, I got

417
00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:13,879
Speaker 1: to get ron on here to tell this story. So

418
00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:16,480
Speaker 1: so give us the breakdown how your ELK season went

419
00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:16,960
Speaker 1: this fall.

420
00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:22,200
Speaker 3: So my brother came out to visit while my mom

421
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:25,520
Speaker 3: had some knee surgery done right at the end of August.

422
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:29,960
Speaker 3: So I took him to the airport September first, and

423
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,440
Speaker 3: then I was just going to go to the mountains

424
00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:35,760
Speaker 3: September second. Well, of course I got back to town

425
00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:38,480
Speaker 3: and there's still daylight lefts It's like, man, I just

426
00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:39,960
Speaker 3: thought to go. I want to spend the night in

427
00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:43,080
Speaker 3: the mountains at least, so I did that, got there

428
00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:46,520
Speaker 3: up there at dark. So from September second to the

429
00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:50,920
Speaker 3: twenty seventh, I saw forty one grizzlies. Most of them

430
00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:55,479
Speaker 3: I have pictures of, or somebody was with me, and I,

431
00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:59,119
Speaker 3: like my post said, I think it was five or six.

432
00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:02,880
Speaker 3: We're at you know, long distance. A few more were

433
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:08,040
Speaker 3: under two hundred yards, a few more under one hundred yards.

434
00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:12,040
Speaker 3: And there's twenty six of these instances that were under

435
00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:17,080
Speaker 3: fifty yards. And on five of those occasions we had pistols.

436
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:18,800
Speaker 2: Out o cow.

437
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:20,720
Speaker 1: I shot a lot.

438
00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:26,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, I shot once this fall, mainly because I was

439
00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:28,240
Speaker 3: pissed off. I wasn't trying to hit the bear.

440
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:29,400
Speaker 2: It was a bore that.

441
00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:33,639
Speaker 3: He just didn't care at all that we were there.

442
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:37,920
Speaker 3: You know, we were walking on along this trail and

443
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:41,320
Speaker 3: my buddy was leading and he blew out, you know,

444
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:44,560
Speaker 3: this bear at twenty yards, pretty close, and he took

445
00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 3: off up the hills. So when I got up to him,

446
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:48,879
Speaker 3: he's like, did you see that? And I said, I

447
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:50,720
Speaker 3: saw something. I couldn't tell you what it was. He

448
00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 3: said it was a grizzly. So we looked, took a

449
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:56,280
Speaker 3: couple more steps. Well, the bear he was still only

450
00:24:56,320 --> 00:25:00,119
Speaker 3: at forty yards and as we're standing there talking, he's

451
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:02,919
Speaker 3: looking at us and he starts coming at us. So

452
00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:05,600
Speaker 3: it wasn't a charge. He was just walking at us.

453
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:10,320
Speaker 3: But we got our pistols out and then he got

454
00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:13,439
Speaker 3: to twenty five to thirty yards probably, and I'm like,

455
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:17,080
Speaker 3: that's enough. I didn't know at the time my buddy

456
00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:22,119
Speaker 3: was actually aiming at the bear, practicing getting his psyche pitcher,

457
00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:27,239
Speaker 3: you know, and he didn't know that I was going

458
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:29,639
Speaker 3: to shoot. So I'm glad when I shot, I shot

459
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:33,520
Speaker 3: like ten feet to the side of the bear. I'm

460
00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:37,199
Speaker 3: just glad he didn't twitch and actually shoot. He was

461
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:41,119
Speaker 3: actually aiming, right, So anyway, yeah, there was there was

462
00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:44,320
Speaker 3: that one, and I think he was mainly trying that

463
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:47,960
Speaker 3: because when I got my bull and we and we

464
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:50,359
Speaker 3: got charged, and I can go into that story, but

465
00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:53,360
Speaker 3: when that bear came at us, neither one of us

466
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:57,040
Speaker 3: was using our sights. We were just kind of you know,

467
00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:02,119
Speaker 3: we had we had our stancer whatever, and we're I

468
00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:04,640
Speaker 3: had to grip on the pistol, but we were more

469
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:10,160
Speaker 3: watching watching the bear, you know, maybe judging its reaction

470
00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:15,119
Speaker 3: before we were gonna start shooting. But both both times

471
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:18,280
Speaker 3: that bear charged, it was five six yards right in

472
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 3: that range, and neither one of us shot, and neither

473
00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:25,359
Speaker 3: one of us acquired that site pitcher either. You know,

474
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:28,800
Speaker 3: bad on our part, but you know we're still learning

475
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:31,520
Speaker 3: with all this too. But I'm pretty positive how we

476
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:33,919
Speaker 3: started shooting, the bear was going to be in trouble,

477
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:37,280
Speaker 3: you know, especially being that close. We might have been too,

478
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,600
Speaker 3: but the bear definitely would have caught some lead.

479
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:46,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've always figured, you know, if I had to

480
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:48,240
Speaker 1: shoot a bear, I would have to wait till I

481
00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:53,679
Speaker 1: got really close because at a distance even ten twenty

482
00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:57,000
Speaker 1: thirty yards whatever, moving, that's a hard target to hit.

483
00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 1: And I feel like with my level of pistolero ship,

484
00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:05,640
Speaker 1: then that thing's gonna have to be almost just right

485
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,119
Speaker 1: on me, you know. That way, I don't miss, and

486
00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:11,640
Speaker 1: I can give him every bullet I got and hopefully

487
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 1: they'll take you know, and he maybe he'll die before

488
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:15,360
Speaker 1: he gets a couple of bites out of me.

489
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:20,160
Speaker 3: No kidding, And from our experience reinforced this year, they

490
00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:22,040
Speaker 3: don't even care that you're.

491
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 2: Yelling at him.

492
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:26,440
Speaker 3: And when I when I shot next to that bear,

493
00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 3: he didn't care. He uh, he kind of moved quick

494
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:34,000
Speaker 3: to the side, you know, maybe two yards, and he

495
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 3: started eating again and digging, digging up stuff. He disappeared,

496
00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:41,240
Speaker 3: you know, the front half of them disappeared under a

497
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:44,159
Speaker 3: pine tree. They're eating the white bark pine and pretty

498
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:47,000
Speaker 3: soon there's these big swaths of dirt coming out when

499
00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:49,560
Speaker 3: he's you know, just digging up stuff to eat. And

500
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:50,960
Speaker 3: that was right after I shot.

501
00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 1: It's just that's crazy.

502
00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,119
Speaker 3: So yeah, warning shots, which which would be what it

503
00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:00,399
Speaker 3: was if I if I was trying to shoot a

504
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:02,880
Speaker 3: bear that was charging me at twenty or thirty yards.

505
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:06,080
Speaker 3: I'm giving them warning shots because I'm probably gonna miss.

506
00:28:07,119 --> 00:28:12,440
Speaker 3: I've always been like minded with you just don't even

507
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:15,600
Speaker 3: start until they're closed. That way you have more time

508
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:18,360
Speaker 3: to read the situation. Not that I'm opposed to shooting

509
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:22,639
Speaker 3: these things, because I'm really not. But at the same time,

510
00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:26,919
Speaker 3: I'm just as happy if I don't have to. So

511
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 3: I don't know a lot of people might disagree. I

512
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:34,360
Speaker 3: disagree with myself sometimes on it, like some of these

513
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:38,200
Speaker 3: things need to start dying, especially the problem ones. But honestly,

514
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:41,320
Speaker 3: in the situation this year, not with that particular one,

515
00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:45,280
Speaker 3: but with the one that charged us as just doing

516
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:53,800
Speaker 3: what bears do. Thankfully didn't make contact, so that's about

517
00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:56,200
Speaker 3: the best scenario. We don't get chewed on and the

518
00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:57,880
Speaker 3: bears bears not dead.

519
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:03,920
Speaker 1: It's crazy that that we hit the bear's behavior like

520
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:08,760
Speaker 1: you guys, it was coming towards you, cracked off a

521
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:11,040
Speaker 1: shot and then he just kind of went back to feeding.

522
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:13,840
Speaker 1: What's going through that bear's mind is like, Hey, what

523
00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:16,240
Speaker 1: are the heck are these things standing here? I guess

524
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:19,520
Speaker 1: they're no bother. I guess I'll just go back like

525
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's so weird.

526
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:25,840
Speaker 3: We ran into that particular bear the following evening as well,

527
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 3: and that time you did bluff charge just a little bit.

528
00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:33,520
Speaker 3: But honestly, right before that, we were talking to a

529
00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:37,200
Speaker 3: backpacker that was that was coming out and he had

530
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:39,680
Speaker 3: a cann of bear spray on his back and not

531
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 3: in an easily accessible area, which happens a lot with

532
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,760
Speaker 3: people around here. They just don't know how fast you

533
00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:49,040
Speaker 3: need to get something into action and that you should

534
00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:51,920
Speaker 3: practice doing that. But we were talking to him for

535
00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:54,239
Speaker 3: a while. He told us what he you know, what

536
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:56,480
Speaker 3: he had seen up there. He saw some bear tracks

537
00:29:56,520 --> 00:30:00,040
Speaker 3: up high and some mountain lion tracks, and we he

538
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:02,560
Speaker 3: had told him, like, just back behind you a couple

539
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:07,560
Speaker 3: hundred yards. The day before was a big grizzly we

540
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,240
Speaker 3: had that encounter with, and he's like, oh, that would

541
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:13,480
Speaker 3: have been cool to see. So after he left, we

542
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:16,320
Speaker 3: want two hundred yards up the trail, and there was

543
00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:18,800
Speaker 3: a branch broken off of one of these trees. And

544
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:21,320
Speaker 3: the bears do that at times to get to some

545
00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:23,280
Speaker 3: of the pine cones. They can reach a branch and

546
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 3: to pull it down. So I saw the branch laying

547
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:28,840
Speaker 3: there and I said, oh, look, the bear's been here

548
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:32,280
Speaker 3: breaking branches. Then I'm like, holy crap, he's right.

549
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:33,400
Speaker 2: There, and he was.

550
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:35,520
Speaker 3: He was right in the trees, and he was less

551
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:38,440
Speaker 3: than thirty yards off the trail that that kid walked by.

552
00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 3: The kid had no idea the bear was there, and

553
00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:44,120
Speaker 3: I might not have either if I hadn't joked about

554
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:48,680
Speaker 3: that branch. But it just seems like in that one's case,

555
00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:52,840
Speaker 3: he was perfectly content to let people go back and

556
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:56,840
Speaker 3: forth and go buy them. But so we stopped the

557
00:30:56,920 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 3: day before and he didn't like it much, came towards us,

558
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:03,560
Speaker 3: but he wasn't really aggressive. And but that night he

559
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:07,600
Speaker 3: didn't like us standing there talking and so he bluff

560
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 3: charged us, then just back to doing his stuff. I

561
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:15,200
Speaker 3: filmed him, you know, just grubbing around and eating and digging.

562
00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 3: We went on our way and came back. So on

563
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 3: the way back, I told my buddy, I said, well,

564
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:23,680
Speaker 3: you're in charge of this one, because if he charges us,

565
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:25,479
Speaker 3: I'm going to film you shooting him.

566
00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:25,720
Speaker 2: You know.

567
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:29,920
Speaker 3: So I was walking along with my with my phone

568
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:33,000
Speaker 3: up videotape and the whole walk back by there, but.

569
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:33,880
Speaker 2: We didn't see him.

570
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:42,520
Speaker 1: Oh man, thank god. Yeah, so tell us tell us

571
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:48,080
Speaker 1: how it all went down with So you guys, you

572
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:52,320
Speaker 1: killed this bull, you were tracking it, you found it.

573
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:56,720
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, So tell us how that all played out.

574
00:31:57,520 --> 00:32:01,520
Speaker 3: I I already told you that I, you know, snuck

575
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:04,239
Speaker 3: in close to the bugle and that one came up

576
00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:07,360
Speaker 3: the hill right to me, and I had a narrow

577
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:10,600
Speaker 3: fold to shoot through the trees. It's like thirty yards.

578
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:16,080
Speaker 3: I shot him and just briefly saw it when he spun,

579
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:21,479
Speaker 3: But my impression was, oh, I hit him back. And

580
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:25,280
Speaker 3: it was like seven in the evening, or close to

581
00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:30,160
Speaker 3: their half hour before dark, and like, I'm not comfortable

582
00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 3: following this up today. I know it's a chance, but

583
00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:38,600
Speaker 3: I'll wait until tomorrow. So I got a couple buddies.

584
00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:41,640
Speaker 3: I had a friend there from Oklahoma that was hunting

585
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:44,760
Speaker 3: the same unit. Got hold of him and he said

586
00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:46,800
Speaker 3: he'd be there in the morning. And my other buddy

587
00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:50,720
Speaker 3: came from halfway across the state to get there in time.

588
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 3: And so the three of us went up there to

589
00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:55,120
Speaker 3: trap this bear.

590
00:32:55,160 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 2: In the morning.

591
00:32:56,720 --> 00:32:59,440
Speaker 3: We get in there, and the one from Oklahoma, he

592
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:03,240
Speaker 3: doesn't have bear spray. He wouldn't carry bear spray or

593
00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 3: a pistol. It's just his own hunting philosophy, like, if

594
00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:09,360
Speaker 3: he gets taken out, he gets taken.

595
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:13,680
Speaker 2: Out, it's time. Yeah, But man, when.

596
00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 3: You're trailing these things, I mean, we've had him find

597
00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:20,760
Speaker 3: us in the elk in a half hour's time before.

598
00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:23,640
Speaker 3: Sometimes it might take him two days to get on

599
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:26,840
Speaker 3: the elk, or it might take four hours, but it's

600
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:32,400
Speaker 3: happened quick before. So my buddy Randy and I were ready,

601
00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:36,960
Speaker 3: and so we had our ten milimeters fifteen shots each.

602
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:39,760
Speaker 3: We get in there, I show him where it all

603
00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:42,400
Speaker 3: went down, and then we get on this both trail

604
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:45,840
Speaker 3: oh and down the hill where he came from the

605
00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:48,920
Speaker 3: night before. I had a trail camera set up over

606
00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:52,200
Speaker 3: a wallow just to see what might be around in there.

607
00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:55,200
Speaker 3: So when I shot this thing, I'm like, man, with

608
00:33:55,280 --> 00:33:58,040
Speaker 3: any luck he ran down there past that camera and

609
00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:00,200
Speaker 3: I'll be able to see where I.

610
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 2: Did hit him.

611
00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:04,040
Speaker 3: So we get on this trail and the blood trails

612
00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:06,720
Speaker 3: really good. So I'm starting to dit, like, man, did

613
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:09,120
Speaker 3: I hit him back or not? And we get down

614
00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:11,360
Speaker 3: out of the thick trees into this clearing where the

615
00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:15,520
Speaker 3: wallows are. Blood trail is still good, but he hooks

616
00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:17,839
Speaker 3: up up a little bit and he was too far

617
00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:20,400
Speaker 3: away from the trail camera to pick it up.

618
00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 2: Anyway.

619
00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:25,719
Speaker 3: We're just turning the corner starting to go into this

620
00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:29,760
Speaker 3: thick patch trees. Well it's not just a patch, it's

621
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:32,759
Speaker 3: it's dense for its really good bedding area for elk.

622
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:35,839
Speaker 3: So we were just getting ready to enter into there,

623
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:40,000
Speaker 3: and I was like, I don't know, six yards six

624
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:43,240
Speaker 3: or eight yards to the right of Randy and Eddie.

625
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:48,040
Speaker 3: Eddie's the one without a pistol or spray, and all

626
00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:51,440
Speaker 3: of a sudden, I hear a crack and I look up,

627
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:55,560
Speaker 3: didn't see anything right away, but Eddie said, there it is. Oh,

628
00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 3: it's coming, you know, we didn't say it was a bear.

629
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:01,560
Speaker 3: He just you know, surprise, oh coming. And he ducked

630
00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:05,880
Speaker 3: back behind Randy. And that's where the bear charged first,

631
00:35:06,040 --> 00:35:10,200
Speaker 3: was at him, and Randy says he was just thinking,

632
00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:13,040
Speaker 3: oh man, why isn't it charging Ron instead of me?

633
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:15,760
Speaker 2: Get him?

634
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:19,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's what That's the first thing through his mind.

635
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:21,320
Speaker 1: I guess that's a real friend.

636
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, real friend.

637
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:26,840
Speaker 3: So anyway, we both we both have pistols out really quick,

638
00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:29,359
Speaker 3: and and like I say, we're just pointing them though

639
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:34,320
Speaker 3: not not aiming, which wasn't wasn't the best deal. So anyway,

640
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 3: this bear, Randy must has seen that it was slowing

641
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:41,640
Speaker 3: down or it turns, it turned its attention over towards me,

642
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:44,040
Speaker 3: because you know, we're we were yelling. We can't even

643
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:47,560
Speaker 3: remember what all we yelled. I remember when it charged

644
00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:51,759
Speaker 3: the second time, what I said. But anyway, so the

645
00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:55,200
Speaker 3: bear comes really close to him, you know, five six yards,

646
00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:59,120
Speaker 3: turns and runs back to where it came from, which

647
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:02,400
Speaker 3: like we could see thirty yards ahead of us, maybe

648
00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:02,839
Speaker 3: that far.

649
00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:04,200
Speaker 2: And then.

650
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:08,520
Speaker 3: At that point, you know, I saw where it ran

651
00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:11,840
Speaker 3: to you, and then I saw cubs. Didn't know how many,

652
00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:15,880
Speaker 3: but they were big so then I know it's a she.

653
00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:19,640
Speaker 3: Well she charges again. This time she does come at me,

654
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:22,719
Speaker 3: and I had a few choice words to say to her,

655
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:28,239
Speaker 3: and I think that's why she stoppedge But yeah, she

656
00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 3: might be opposed to some foul language. Anyway along the

657
00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:38,040
Speaker 3: lines I will blink and shoot you, you know. And anyway,

658
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:41,160
Speaker 3: she stopped really close. My finger was I was squeezing,

659
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:45,320
Speaker 3: not shooting yet, but like all the slack was taken

660
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,240
Speaker 3: up and just it wouldn't have taken you know, another

661
00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:49,960
Speaker 3: half a yard or something, and I was going to

662
00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:56,040
Speaker 3: start shooting, but she she broke off. She never took

663
00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:59,919
Speaker 3: her eyes off me until she turned and went back,

664
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 3: like she wasn't distracted by anything else. But she did

665
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:09,080
Speaker 3: turn back, which was good. So backed up a few steps,

666
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,799
Speaker 3: and Randy and Eddie backed up, and then they're like,

667
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 3: let's let's get back out of here, and I'm like, well,

668
00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:17,600
Speaker 3: I want to. I need to get my bow. Which

669
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:20,600
Speaker 3: those two steps that I backed up, my bow's laying

670
00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:23,319
Speaker 3: up in front of me. So I did go get

671
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:26,440
Speaker 3: my bow and we backed up, and man, it was

672
00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:30,040
Speaker 3: around that time I was I remembered, holy crap, we're

673
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:32,600
Speaker 3: like out in front of this trail camera, maybe we

674
00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:36,719
Speaker 3: got some pictures of all this stuff happening, and we

675
00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:39,759
Speaker 3: did get a and we backed out of there. It

676
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:43,040
Speaker 3: took a little while, we got things, our pistols holstered up,

677
00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:45,600
Speaker 3: and we're talking and then just finally left. Like we

678
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:48,279
Speaker 3: were one hundred percent sure that that bear was on

679
00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:50,319
Speaker 3: my elk because it's right where the trail was going,

680
00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 3: so and there's nowhere like we couldn't climb up anywhere,

681
00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:59,040
Speaker 3: climb a tree, you couldn't see where it was really thick,

682
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:03,360
Speaker 3: there's nowhere to get good look. But pretty confident, especially

683
00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:09,160
Speaker 3: with a little experience with these stupid bears of you know,

684
00:38:09,239 --> 00:38:11,920
Speaker 3: she was protecting a food source, is what I figured,

685
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:14,799
Speaker 3: because you know, we were we were talking while we

686
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:17,400
Speaker 3: were trailing, so she knew we were there for a

687
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:20,680
Speaker 3: while before she charged. We just ended up getting too

688
00:38:20,719 --> 00:38:25,799
Speaker 3: close to what she was protecting. Anyway, it turns out

689
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:29,360
Speaker 3: the trail camera got a little bit of the action.

690
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:31,680
Speaker 3: You can never see the bear, but you can see

691
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:36,480
Speaker 3: one picture has Randy and Eddie on it. The next

692
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 3: picture has Eddie kind of behind Randy and me up

693
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:44,319
Speaker 3: to the right, crouch down ready to shoot, and then

694
00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:46,520
Speaker 3: from there on it was just us backing out of

695
00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:50,040
Speaker 3: there and bs and then finally leaving. I did grab

696
00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:52,560
Speaker 3: the camera when we left, just so I could check

697
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:58,880
Speaker 3: check everything. But so after that all happened, we waited.

698
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:01,000
Speaker 3: I think it was like five days or so. We

699
00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:03,960
Speaker 3: got dumped on with a bunch of snow, and then

700
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:10,160
Speaker 3: me and Randy and friend Adam and Mary Miles. Adam

701
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,640
Speaker 3: was out hunting. Mary came with us and she's a

702
00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:16,520
Speaker 3: good pistol shot. She's really quick on the draw too,

703
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:19,120
Speaker 3: so perfect. She came with us and we had a

704
00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:22,239
Speaker 3: shotgun to go in there to just to try to

705
00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:25,160
Speaker 3: recover the antlers. And they were right there, right where

706
00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:28,839
Speaker 3: we figured they would be. And luckily we got out

707
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:31,960
Speaker 3: of there. There's just a ton of bear sign. They

708
00:39:32,080 --> 00:39:35,719
Speaker 3: dug up, you know, probably a twenty foot wide by

709
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:39,000
Speaker 3: forty foot long area where the you know, the dead

710
00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:42,560
Speaker 3: elk was and they just had everything torn up and

711
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:45,480
Speaker 3: there was nothing left of the elk except the head

712
00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:49,600
Speaker 3: and the antlers, the hide, and the lower legs.

713
00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:50,279
Speaker 2: That was it.

714
00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:53,319
Speaker 3: They even the bears even skinned his face and ate

715
00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:54,680
Speaker 3: all the meat off the face.

716
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:58,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was pretty wild, so hungry.

717
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:03,080
Speaker 3: Yeh got that got that all, you know, cut off

718
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:06,080
Speaker 3: with my buddy's standing guarden and we got out of

719
00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:10,959
Speaker 3: there thankfully with the rack. But yeah, no meat. And

720
00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:14,719
Speaker 3: in all honesty, even if we were to would have

721
00:40:15,080 --> 00:40:17,560
Speaker 3: pressed the issue and gone in there and maybe gotten

722
00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:21,839
Speaker 3: in a gunfight with a bear, chances are the elk

723
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:26,840
Speaker 3: would have been ruined by then anyway, so we would

724
00:40:26,840 --> 00:40:33,520
Speaker 3: have exposed ourselves to a lot more danger, maybe legal troubles,

725
00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:36,920
Speaker 3: and probably still wouldn't have gotten any of the elk anyway.

726
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:43,200
Speaker 3: So I've heard once they once they start chewing on it,

727
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:46,879
Speaker 3: the game and fish people says, you don't want any

728
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:48,200
Speaker 3: you don't want any part of it.

729
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:51,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, probably introduce the meat.

730
00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:53,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they do.

731
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:57,520
Speaker 1: Plus bears, they like to scrape up a lot of

732
00:40:57,600 --> 00:40:59,640
Speaker 1: pine needles and dirt and covered up and.

733
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:04,799
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, they make a mess yep, they do like to.

734
00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:08,480
Speaker 3: And it's amazing if you have a bull dye kind

735
00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:12,600
Speaker 3: of in a grassy area, they make it look manicured

736
00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:16,960
Speaker 3: because they sweep up all the pine needles, pine cones, branches,

737
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:20,719
Speaker 3: whatever might be there and they pile it over the carcass.

738
00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:23,440
Speaker 3: And the best one of those was a few years

739
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:28,160
Speaker 3: back buddy Jason Stafford killed the bull, and we got

740
00:41:28,239 --> 00:41:31,680
Speaker 3: all taken apart, moved moved the quarters away from the carcass,

741
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 3: and came in there like eight people the next data

742
00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:40,239
Speaker 3: to pack it out, and that bear had completely buried

743
00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:44,040
Speaker 3: the carcass. It did go down and it grabbed one

744
00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:46,480
Speaker 3: of the quarters, and the game bag brought it back.

745
00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:49,600
Speaker 3: It was under the pile and he went around and

746
00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:52,399
Speaker 3: he picked up all the lower legs and he put

747
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:54,359
Speaker 3: those in the pile with everything else too.

748
00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:56,759
Speaker 2: Really, yeah, so that.

749
00:41:56,719 --> 00:42:01,360
Speaker 3: Place looked like it was a manicured lawn. He's swept

750
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:03,359
Speaker 3: it up so nice. It is unbelievable.

751
00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:05,560
Speaker 1: Like he had a weed whacker and a rake in there.

752
00:42:05,640 --> 00:42:10,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, huh, it was. It was pretty interesting.

753
00:42:10,719 --> 00:42:15,040
Speaker 1: In your opinion. How far is far enough ish to

754
00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:17,560
Speaker 1: get your quarters away from the carcass.

755
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:23,120
Speaker 3: I like to say at least one hundred yards, But

756
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:26,600
Speaker 3: I want to be where I can see the carcass

757
00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:28,400
Speaker 3: like I want to. I want to be able to

758
00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:33,239
Speaker 3: see the quarters and see the carcass if possible. If

759
00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:35,800
Speaker 3: I If I can't, then I tried to move the

760
00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:39,839
Speaker 3: quarters farther away, which is what we did last year

761
00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:43,799
Speaker 3: with my bull. Adam and Mary had had come up

762
00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:47,239
Speaker 3: I texted them and they came out of where they

763
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:50,600
Speaker 3: were at and helped me go in there and and

764
00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:54,520
Speaker 3: get my bull cut up. And we packed those quarters.

765
00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:58,360
Speaker 3: Since it was in that same really dense bedding area,

766
00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:03,120
Speaker 3: we packed them about three hundred and fifty four hundred

767
00:43:03,200 --> 00:43:07,000
Speaker 3: yards away, Like we made two trips that day instead

768
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:09,919
Speaker 3: of making one trip and then coming back the next

769
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:13,680
Speaker 3: day and getting in there at all close to where

770
00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:19,360
Speaker 3: the carcas was. So just depends, you know. I like

771
00:43:19,440 --> 00:43:21,600
Speaker 3: it best if I can go in there and if

772
00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:24,759
Speaker 3: I can see all these nice white bags, count them up,

773
00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:28,319
Speaker 3: you know, make sure everything's there, see if anything's on

774
00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:34,120
Speaker 3: the carcass, see if it's been buried or not. That's

775
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:37,759
Speaker 3: what we prefer, just a little sense of comfort if

776
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:41,080
Speaker 3: you can actually see where a bear might be. Not

777
00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:45,399
Speaker 3: to say they can't be anywhere around there, but being

778
00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:49,960
Speaker 3: able to see all your bags and meat lined up

779
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:52,000
Speaker 3: on top of a log, in a tree or whatever

780
00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:55,759
Speaker 3: you do with them is the best thing when you're

781
00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:58,799
Speaker 3: coming back for them, because where that's where I think,

782
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:01,680
Speaker 3: either trailing and out or coming back for me is

783
00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:04,439
Speaker 3: where I think the most dangerized.

784
00:44:04,719 --> 00:44:10,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you always hear folks who have a negative encounter.

785
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:15,600
Speaker 1: It's oftentimes after they've they've killed a bowl, got the

786
00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:18,279
Speaker 1: stuff in a tree, maybe pack one, load out, and

787
00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:21,759
Speaker 1: then they go back and then that's when when the

788
00:44:21,800 --> 00:44:23,560
Speaker 1: tragedy strikes ye.

789
00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:25,839
Speaker 2: To move it.

790
00:44:26,640 --> 00:44:29,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, a few years ago, Well, it was the first

791
00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:33,239
Speaker 1: time I hunted Wyoming in the part that has grizzlies,

792
00:44:34,719 --> 00:44:37,680
Speaker 1: and a buddy of mine. There were three of us

793
00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:41,600
Speaker 1: plus a camera guy, and one of my buddies killed

794
00:44:41,600 --> 00:44:44,120
Speaker 1: this bowl and it was right at the edge of

795
00:44:44,120 --> 00:44:46,080
Speaker 1: this timber but then like kind of a nice little

796
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:48,480
Speaker 1: hillside with an open meadow you could actually see from

797
00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:50,440
Speaker 1: the highway. You can see it several hundred yards away

798
00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 1: from the highway. So after we broke this bowl down,

799
00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:55,080
Speaker 1: the ore packs loaded. We're in one trip this thing

800
00:44:55,160 --> 00:44:56,600
Speaker 1: out that way. We don't have to go back it

801
00:44:56,600 --> 00:45:00,960
Speaker 1: because it's notorious for a grizzly rice And I said, hey,

802
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:03,359
Speaker 1: you know what, because there were bulls bugling in there,

803
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:05,279
Speaker 1: stills like, that's a good spot. We'd like to come

804
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:07,640
Speaker 1: back and hunt again, but if there's grizzlies in here,

805
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:10,680
Speaker 1: we don't want to. So I'm like, you know what,

806
00:45:10,800 --> 00:45:14,319
Speaker 1: let's drag that carcass out into this open meadow on

807
00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:17,600
Speaker 1: this hillside, and then we can glass it up from

808
00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:19,759
Speaker 1: a long distance and see if anything's been on it. So,

809
00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:23,520
Speaker 1: oh yeah, that's good idea. So we do this, and

810
00:45:23,560 --> 00:45:25,319
Speaker 1: a couple of days later it's like, well, you know,

811
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:27,200
Speaker 1: maybe we'd like to go back in there. So we

812
00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:31,040
Speaker 1: get out, pull over on the highway and we start

813
00:45:31,160 --> 00:45:36,560
Speaker 1: blasting and immediately so I don't know why, but I'm

814
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:39,920
Speaker 1: the first one got my binoculars out. They're readily available.

815
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:44,600
Speaker 1: I'm like, huh, the carcass is gone. So I'm looking.

816
00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:47,040
Speaker 1: I'm like, uh, you think it would just be obviously

817
00:45:47,120 --> 00:45:50,680
Speaker 1: right there? And I focus focus into the timber, and

818
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:52,400
Speaker 1: then the timber, I'm like, oh, there it is. I

819
00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:55,160
Speaker 1: can see the rib cage. And then I focus it,

820
00:45:55,200 --> 00:45:57,680
Speaker 1: like look a little harder. It's like there's a fricking

821
00:45:57,719 --> 00:46:01,480
Speaker 1: grizzly standing over the rib cage and it's this great,

822
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:06,000
Speaker 1: big sucker, and I'm like, holy cow. And camera guys

823
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:09,040
Speaker 1: are scrambling, you know, for their for their long lenses,

824
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:11,960
Speaker 1: and and my buddies are getting their their their stuff out,

825
00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:15,600
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, there's another one. And here comes

826
00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:18,600
Speaker 1: another grizzly. He walks out right out in front in

827
00:46:18,640 --> 00:46:22,680
Speaker 1: that little meadow, and I'm like, holy cow, there's another

828
00:46:22,680 --> 00:46:23,040
Speaker 1: one there.

829
00:46:23,080 --> 00:46:23,239
Speaker 2: You know.

830
00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:26,200
Speaker 1: He's walking out there and he's kind of paces back

831
00:46:26,239 --> 00:46:30,120
Speaker 1: and forth camera guys. You know, of course there's he's like, man,

832
00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:32,520
Speaker 1: where's my big lens this? And there's my big lends that.

833
00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:36,600
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, that big bear charges out

834
00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:41,120
Speaker 1: and they start fighting, and I'm just like, oh god,

835
00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:45,200
Speaker 1: they're fighting now. Then they're really scrambling, like they can't

836
00:46:45,239 --> 00:46:48,319
Speaker 1: really get their cameras together quick enough. But anyway, so

837
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:51,319
Speaker 1: they're fighting, and then all of a sudden, I can

838
00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:54,920
Speaker 1: hear the sound, and the first thing that came to

839
00:46:54,960 --> 00:46:58,279
Speaker 1: mind was, huh, there's somebody riding dirt bikes, like four

840
00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:02,920
Speaker 1: stroked dirt bikes up up in the like, and like

841
00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:06,000
Speaker 1: I might kind of come to to like my senses,

842
00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:09,880
Speaker 1: like that's the bears. You could hear those things roaring

843
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:12,120
Speaker 1: from that distance. It was a few hundred yards away,

844
00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:14,279
Speaker 1: and you could hear them. It was that loud, which

845
00:47:14,280 --> 00:47:18,160
Speaker 1: I was just blew me away. And those things fought

846
00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:20,560
Speaker 1: and they were just rolling around fighting, and then all

847
00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:23,560
Speaker 1: of a sudden they just stopped. They froze like they

848
00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:26,440
Speaker 1: had each other in a good barehold bite a bite

849
00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:31,160
Speaker 1: or something. They just froze, and then they separated and

850
00:47:31,200 --> 00:47:34,880
Speaker 1: the smaller one ran off, and the big one he

851
00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:37,200
Speaker 1: kind of sauntered right back up to the carcass, and

852
00:47:37,239 --> 00:47:39,640
Speaker 1: the smaller one we could watch him because this big

853
00:47:39,719 --> 00:47:42,320
Speaker 1: hillside you could just it was just laid out perfectly

854
00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:45,160
Speaker 1: like a like a movie screen, right, and he kind

855
00:47:45,160 --> 00:47:46,959
Speaker 1: of walked down a big pile of brush and walked

856
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:49,239
Speaker 1: around the corner on the side and he went over

857
00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 1: there and he just plopped down on his butt and

858
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:54,319
Speaker 1: kind of hung his head like the pout, like was

859
00:47:54,360 --> 00:47:56,600
Speaker 1: pouting like, Man, I just got my ass kicked. I

860
00:47:56,600 --> 00:47:58,480
Speaker 1: can't believe I really wanted some of that elk.

861
00:47:59,120 --> 00:47:59,839
Speaker 2: Yeah.

862
00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:02,760
Speaker 1: So as we're watching this, I'm like, man, that's cool

863
00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:06,280
Speaker 1: and that's crazy watching that. And then all of a sudden,

864
00:48:06,320 --> 00:48:08,040
Speaker 1: another bear comes up out of the draw out of

865
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:11,400
Speaker 1: the willows. So this is Bear number three, walks up

866
00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:13,560
Speaker 1: there and he kind of paces back and forth a

867
00:48:13,600 --> 00:48:16,680
Speaker 1: little bit, and then he don't want none of that

868
00:48:16,719 --> 00:48:19,360
Speaker 1: big bear, so he kind of wanders off, and then

869
00:48:20,280 --> 00:48:22,080
Speaker 1: a little bit later another one comes out. We sat

870
00:48:22,120 --> 00:48:24,560
Speaker 1: there for two hours and five different bears. They come

871
00:48:24,600 --> 00:48:26,480
Speaker 1: out from different places you know, so it's not the

872
00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:28,400
Speaker 1: same ones because they'd come out and disappear and go

873
00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:30,920
Speaker 1: a different direction. So I know they weren't the same bears.

874
00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:34,759
Speaker 1: But five different bears came out, and the last bear

875
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:37,000
Speaker 1: came out, it was getting pretty dark. But the last

876
00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:41,640
Speaker 1: bear that came out, those two fought again like it

877
00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:44,120
Speaker 1: was a you know, there was another fight and they

878
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:45,640
Speaker 1: got kind of got up into the timber there and

879
00:48:45,640 --> 00:48:47,279
Speaker 1: we're fighting around so you couldn't really see him.

880
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:47,440
Speaker 2: Good.

881
00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:49,759
Speaker 1: This a little bit too dark, But I was like,

882
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:53,440
Speaker 1: at that point in my life, I'd never seen a

883
00:48:53,440 --> 00:48:57,160
Speaker 1: grizzly bear, and all of a sudden, I saw five

884
00:48:57,239 --> 00:49:01,000
Speaker 1: in one night, in one setting. And we each other

885
00:49:01,280 --> 00:49:03,600
Speaker 1: and I'm like, yeah, we're not hunting the anymorew we're

886
00:49:03,600 --> 00:49:07,400
Speaker 1: not going back. And my one buddy's like, yeah, but

887
00:49:07,680 --> 00:49:09,160
Speaker 1: now we know where all the bears are, we just

888
00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:11,680
Speaker 1: have to make a big circle around him and get

889
00:49:11,719 --> 00:49:13,960
Speaker 1: back in there. I'm like, yeah, no, what about the

890
00:49:13,960 --> 00:49:16,839
Speaker 1: other ones that haven't made it there yet? Like I'm good.

891
00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:27,319
Speaker 1: I think we need to find a different spot.

892
00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:36,280
Speaker 3: That's pretty interesting. You mentioned that you know what sounded

893
00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:38,960
Speaker 3: you like a dirt bike or something. So when we

894
00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:41,840
Speaker 3: were getting close. We were still out in that clearing

895
00:49:42,160 --> 00:49:46,479
Speaker 3: tracking my bowl, and Randy you know, put his hand

896
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:50,719
Speaker 3: out like quiet. You know, we listened for a little bit.

897
00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:53,319
Speaker 3: I didn't hear anything. He's like, it must have been

898
00:49:53,360 --> 00:49:57,200
Speaker 3: a four wheeler or something. He heard it, and it

899
00:49:57,280 --> 00:50:00,640
Speaker 3: was I'm sure it was the bear's low growl or

900
00:50:00,960 --> 00:50:03,279
Speaker 3: you know, maybe they were squabbling over the meet her

901
00:50:03,320 --> 00:50:07,359
Speaker 3: in her three cubs and uh, but anyway, he had

902
00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:10,399
Speaker 3: heard that, you know, at first he just blew it off.

903
00:50:10,480 --> 00:50:14,200
Speaker 3: And Eddie and I didn't hear it, but you know,

904
00:50:14,280 --> 00:50:15,960
Speaker 3: Randy just blew it off. Yeah, it must have been

905
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:18,600
Speaker 3: a four wheeler in the distance or something, but it

906
00:50:18,640 --> 00:50:21,280
Speaker 3: was a I'm sure it was a gral and over

907
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:25,200
Speaker 3: where we got charged from. So but yeah, if you

908
00:50:25,239 --> 00:50:27,919
Speaker 3: could have heard that, you know, those ones fighting from

909
00:50:27,920 --> 00:50:30,520
Speaker 3: that far away, it'd be pretty cool to listen to

910
00:50:30,560 --> 00:50:31,200
Speaker 3: it up close.

911
00:50:31,680 --> 00:50:32,120
Speaker 2: Yeah.

912
00:50:32,360 --> 00:50:35,200
Speaker 1: I just I wish those camera guys would have you know,

913
00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:37,719
Speaker 1: I wish wou'd have been ready. You know, we had

914
00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:40,120
Speaker 1: no idea we're going to see that, But dang, if

915
00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:42,720
Speaker 1: they'd had their long lenses to capture the bear fights

916
00:50:42,719 --> 00:50:44,880
Speaker 1: and stuff, that would have been so cool.

917
00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:51,160
Speaker 3: I took videos in fact it was. It was before

918
00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:54,719
Speaker 3: I shot shot my elk. I was up hunting it

919
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:57,239
Speaker 3: a different area, probably a mile and a half two

920
00:50:57,320 --> 00:51:00,920
Speaker 3: miles away, and I was up on this now and

921
00:51:02,160 --> 00:51:04,600
Speaker 3: I watched a bull feed down this drainage, push a

922
00:51:04,640 --> 00:51:07,240
Speaker 3: cow down into some trees, and I was thinking about

923
00:51:07,280 --> 00:51:09,640
Speaker 3: going after him, got all my gear on and started

924
00:51:09,640 --> 00:51:12,919
Speaker 3: down this ridge and then I'm like, well, crap, there's

925
00:51:12,960 --> 00:51:16,719
Speaker 3: four bears. And it was the same sow with three cubs.

926
00:51:17,480 --> 00:51:21,640
Speaker 3: Saw her a few times, and I got to watch

927
00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:25,120
Speaker 3: and video a couple of those cubs just my cell phone.

928
00:51:25,160 --> 00:51:29,080
Speaker 3: It's probably two hundred yards away, but they play fought

929
00:51:29,239 --> 00:51:33,719
Speaker 3: for probably fifteen minutes. I got to listen to him

930
00:51:33,800 --> 00:51:36,399
Speaker 3: watch them. Yeah, it was pretty neat. The third one

931
00:51:36,480 --> 00:51:39,640
Speaker 3: came out and just kind of ignored them, and the

932
00:51:39,719 --> 00:51:44,320
Speaker 3: mom spent most of her time in the trees. So

933
00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:49,160
Speaker 3: I ran into sat and two cubs there one morning

934
00:51:49,200 --> 00:51:52,719
Speaker 3: in the dark when I was going around trying to

935
00:51:52,760 --> 00:51:55,319
Speaker 3: hunt this one drainage in there, and I knew there's

936
00:51:55,360 --> 00:51:58,600
Speaker 3: probably bears around, and I walked into him at forty

937
00:51:58,680 --> 00:52:03,839
Speaker 3: yards in my headlamp. I'm like, well, crap, pistol was out,

938
00:52:03,920 --> 00:52:08,520
Speaker 3: and I was pretty well ready, and I started talking

939
00:52:08,520 --> 00:52:11,279
Speaker 3: to her, playing with my head lamp, put it on strobe,

940
00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:14,600
Speaker 3: and just whatever I could do to make them go away.

941
00:52:16,120 --> 00:52:19,200
Speaker 3: The sow one away, but her two cubs were up

942
00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:22,440
Speaker 3: a tree, you know, probably messing around getting the pine cones.

943
00:52:22,480 --> 00:52:25,400
Speaker 3: You know, grizzlies can climb it, especially at that branches

944
00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:28,360
Speaker 3: and stuff. But I didn't know they were in a

945
00:52:28,400 --> 00:52:31,320
Speaker 3: tree until the mom walked off, and I'm like, oh,

946
00:52:31,480 --> 00:52:33,000
Speaker 3: I think I'll go the other way. So I made

947
00:52:33,000 --> 00:52:36,359
Speaker 3: a bigger loop and went and didn't kill a bull

948
00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:38,960
Speaker 3: that morning. But coming back through, it's like, God, dang it,

949
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:40,799
Speaker 3: I know I'm going to run into them again in

950
00:52:40,840 --> 00:52:44,399
Speaker 3: the daylight, and I did about sixty yards. They didn't

951
00:52:44,440 --> 00:52:46,360
Speaker 3: see me at all, and I was able to circle

952
00:52:46,440 --> 00:52:47,319
Speaker 3: down and around them.

953
00:52:47,360 --> 00:52:51,239
Speaker 2: But yeah, the joys of grizzly country.

954
00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:56,720
Speaker 1: What do you think are the chances of those larger

955
00:52:56,760 --> 00:53:00,600
Speaker 1: type cubs getting involved in a charger or an attack?

956
00:53:01,560 --> 00:53:03,440
Speaker 1: Do they do usually do that or they kind of

957
00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:06,640
Speaker 1: pretty timid still that I don't.

958
00:53:06,800 --> 00:53:11,280
Speaker 3: I don't really know. I'm very curious about that myself.

959
00:53:11,480 --> 00:53:16,839
Speaker 3: So I got to, you know, post incident, analyzing things,

960
00:53:16,920 --> 00:53:19,600
Speaker 3: you know, and that bear charged us. Why didn't. Why

961
00:53:19,640 --> 00:53:23,120
Speaker 3: didn't we shoot? Because I mean, there's plenty close. We'd

962
00:53:23,160 --> 00:53:28,839
Speaker 3: have been fine in that situation doing that. But part

963
00:53:28,840 --> 00:53:31,319
Speaker 3: of me thinks, after the fact, I wonder, you know,

964
00:53:31,360 --> 00:53:34,480
Speaker 3: if we just didn't, like one shot killer outright, I'm

965
00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:38,279
Speaker 3: sure she'd have been growling, snarling, whatever, maybe chewing on us.

966
00:53:38,680 --> 00:53:41,920
Speaker 3: And I wonder if that wouldn't have spurred those cubs

967
00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:44,719
Speaker 3: to do the same, you know, wouldn't have brought them out.

968
00:53:44,920 --> 00:53:47,960
Speaker 3: And then you know, we're trying to shoot out with

969
00:53:48,040 --> 00:53:51,680
Speaker 3: a with four bears instead of one. So I don't

970
00:53:51,680 --> 00:53:56,560
Speaker 3: know the answer, but I think if we would have

971
00:53:56,640 --> 00:53:59,680
Speaker 3: shot that style and she would have you know, gone

972
00:53:59,680 --> 00:54:03,600
Speaker 3: to snow Arlin, growland, whatever, I really think it might

973
00:54:03,600 --> 00:54:05,919
Speaker 3: have brought them out to do the same thing.

974
00:54:06,239 --> 00:54:08,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, they had came to her aid, because like you said,

975
00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:11,000
Speaker 1: they were pretty big, you know, they weren't like, yeah.

976
00:54:10,960 --> 00:54:13,680
Speaker 3: Ne were only you know, twenty five thirty yards away,

977
00:54:13,760 --> 00:54:15,919
Speaker 3: so it wouldn't taken them much to get there.

978
00:54:16,080 --> 00:54:18,080
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, and even a bear of that size

979
00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:18,960
Speaker 1: has a lot of power.

980
00:54:19,680 --> 00:54:22,319
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were big cubs. Like I'm sure she'll kick

981
00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:25,319
Speaker 3: them off this next spring, but you know, and she's

982
00:54:25,360 --> 00:54:29,879
Speaker 3: got we have three new grizzlies out there that no, oh,

983
00:54:29,920 --> 00:54:31,840
Speaker 3: we don't have to fear humans, you know, we just

984
00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:32,239
Speaker 3: go do.

985
00:54:32,239 --> 00:54:32,839
Speaker 2: What we want.

986
00:54:32,960 --> 00:54:36,320
Speaker 3: So they keep, for whatever reason up in this area.

987
00:54:37,680 --> 00:54:40,880
Speaker 3: There's at least two sALS that are having triplets, you know,

988
00:54:40,960 --> 00:54:44,680
Speaker 3: every two three years. However often they pump them out.

989
00:54:45,560 --> 00:54:47,239
Speaker 3: They have triplets almost every year.

990
00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:47,960
Speaker 2: Wow.

991
00:54:48,760 --> 00:54:52,920
Speaker 1: Wow, Well, what what kind of advice do you have

992
00:54:53,040 --> 00:54:55,080
Speaker 1: for our listeners if they're going to go hunt grizzly

993
00:54:55,120 --> 00:54:59,400
Speaker 1: bear country. It sounds like you've dealt with the bears

994
00:54:59,440 --> 00:55:01,520
Speaker 1: for a long time. I'm what kind of advice do

995
00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:02,279
Speaker 1: you got for him?

996
00:55:04,400 --> 00:55:06,280
Speaker 2: First? They need to be honest.

997
00:55:06,600 --> 00:55:10,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, need to be honest with themselves, and they can't

998
00:55:10,719 --> 00:55:14,400
Speaker 3: they do it comfortably. Some people think they can and

999
00:55:14,480 --> 00:55:17,120
Speaker 3: they come here and you know, like the situation you

1000
00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:21,279
Speaker 3: were in you saw those five bears. There's times that

1001
00:55:21,480 --> 00:55:24,240
Speaker 3: just overwhelms people and they'll just pack up and go home.

1002
00:55:26,160 --> 00:55:28,759
Speaker 3: So it just has to do with readiness. And you

1003
00:55:28,800 --> 00:55:32,120
Speaker 3: can be the most cocky person on earth. I just

1004
00:55:32,160 --> 00:55:35,160
Speaker 3: go in there. I'd shoot them all or whatever. Yeah,

1005
00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:38,920
Speaker 3: sometimes it really doesn't work like that. They may have

1006
00:55:38,960 --> 00:55:43,080
Speaker 3: more enough of an effect on you than you might imagine.

1007
00:55:43,280 --> 00:55:45,200
Speaker 3: I guess is what I would say to a lot

1008
00:55:45,239 --> 00:55:47,560
Speaker 3: of people. And that's just that's not just trying to

1009
00:55:47,600 --> 00:55:49,719
Speaker 3: keep them out of my area, which would be awesome too,

1010
00:55:49,760 --> 00:55:57,240
Speaker 3: but it's just not for everybody. Seeing them is seeing

1011
00:55:57,239 --> 00:55:59,960
Speaker 3: them one thing is one thing, especially at a distance,

1012
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:03,719
Speaker 3: and it's all that's cool, you know, seeing them up

1013
00:56:03,719 --> 00:56:06,239
Speaker 3: and close does something a little bit different to you.

1014
00:56:07,040 --> 00:56:11,560
Speaker 3: And then having encounters I don't know, I guess you

1015
00:56:11,640 --> 00:56:14,280
Speaker 3: get to see what you're made of. And some people

1016
00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:17,440
Speaker 3: have a flight reflex, some people have fight or whatever.

1017
00:56:19,239 --> 00:56:22,480
Speaker 3: The group of people that I share camp with not

1018
00:56:22,600 --> 00:56:26,279
Speaker 3: every year, just you know, whoever draws tags.

1019
00:56:26,800 --> 00:56:28,080
Speaker 2: We kind of hunt.

1020
00:56:27,800 --> 00:56:31,080
Speaker 3: Together or follow up, you know, things together, even if

1021
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:36,520
Speaker 3: we can't separate. None of them have that flight reflex.

1022
00:56:36,880 --> 00:56:42,600
Speaker 3: Like everybody's there, everybody's ready, We're all experienced with it.

1023
00:56:42,680 --> 00:56:47,360
Speaker 3: And the biggest thing if somebody does come hunt Grizzly Country,

1024
00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:51,640
Speaker 3: the biggest piece of advice I think is whether you

1025
00:56:51,760 --> 00:56:56,959
Speaker 3: carry a gun or spray, practice with it. Be very

1026
00:56:57,040 --> 00:57:00,440
Speaker 3: comfortable with it. That's where your hand goes now actually,

1027
00:57:01,239 --> 00:57:05,640
Speaker 3: and don't waste time, Like if you hear something you

1028
00:57:05,680 --> 00:57:10,040
Speaker 3: don't quite know what it is is, start reaching for

1029
00:57:10,160 --> 00:57:13,480
Speaker 3: your spray or your pistol at that time while you're

1030
00:57:13,520 --> 00:57:16,240
Speaker 3: trying to figure out what it is that you saw

1031
00:57:16,360 --> 00:57:18,520
Speaker 3: or heard, because that could make the difference.

1032
00:57:19,080 --> 00:57:22,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, you were telling me about it fast. You're telling

1033
00:57:22,200 --> 00:57:24,000
Speaker 1: me about a friend of yours that had an encounter.

1034
00:57:24,200 --> 00:57:26,080
Speaker 1: Can you can you tell that story real quick?

1035
00:57:28,000 --> 00:57:30,800
Speaker 3: It just happened like just a few days ago. I

1036
00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:34,920
Speaker 3: haven't talked to them. I just saw a Facebook post

1037
00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:38,840
Speaker 3: about it. But this son and dad were hunting together.

1038
00:57:39,440 --> 00:57:42,120
Speaker 3: I don't know if they shot an elk and were

1039
00:57:42,200 --> 00:57:44,640
Speaker 3: following it up, or if they'd just gone into the

1040
00:57:44,720 --> 00:57:49,920
Speaker 3: trees after some elk. But the son heard what he

1041
00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:54,040
Speaker 3: was pretty sure wasn't elk, and he pulled his pistol,

1042
00:57:54,120 --> 00:57:59,640
Speaker 3: which happens to be a ten milimeter, and what he

1043
00:57:59,640 --> 00:58:03,640
Speaker 3: heard was a grizzly bear, and the grizzly charged it him,

1044
00:58:04,200 --> 00:58:07,920
Speaker 3: not his dad, and he was able to He shot

1045
00:58:08,800 --> 00:58:12,960
Speaker 3: fifteen times or however many he hit the bear, like

1046
00:58:13,120 --> 00:58:17,640
Speaker 3: four times. It turned and it sounded like he hit

1047
00:58:17,680 --> 00:58:23,080
Speaker 3: it twice more. So that's pretty good heat of the moment.

1048
00:58:23,200 --> 00:58:25,800
Speaker 3: You know, if you could hit one four or six

1049
00:58:25,920 --> 00:58:28,840
Speaker 3: times out of fifteen shots, or even get all fifteen

1050
00:58:28,840 --> 00:58:31,959
Speaker 3: shots off at close quarters. You know, that's pretty good.

1051
00:58:33,120 --> 00:58:38,680
Speaker 3: And then I also read that the dad either didn't

1052
00:58:38,720 --> 00:58:43,320
Speaker 3: get his rifle off his shoulder or he did but

1053
00:58:44,160 --> 00:58:47,439
Speaker 3: he couldn't get the safety to work. You know, Jack

1054
00:58:47,480 --> 00:58:50,520
Speaker 3: in Theeschell gets safety off in time to help out.

1055
00:58:51,240 --> 00:58:53,800
Speaker 3: So yeah, it happened fast, and this kid was on

1056
00:58:53,880 --> 00:58:59,320
Speaker 3: his toes and he just maybe had that instinct like hey,

1057
00:58:59,320 --> 00:59:02,760
Speaker 3: I don't think that elk and he without even seeing

1058
00:59:02,800 --> 00:59:05,640
Speaker 3: the bear, he got his pistol out, so he was

1059
00:59:05,800 --> 00:59:08,320
Speaker 3: he was kind of ready when it happened. And that's

1060
00:59:08,360 --> 00:59:11,840
Speaker 3: just that's just what you have to do, you know.

1061
00:59:11,960 --> 00:59:15,200
Speaker 3: Had had Randy been sure like hey, I think that

1062
00:59:15,360 --> 00:59:17,720
Speaker 3: was a growl I heard when we were tracking my bull,

1063
00:59:18,440 --> 00:59:21,040
Speaker 3: we would have him out right then and been ready,

1064
00:59:22,440 --> 00:59:25,040
Speaker 3: but as it was, we didn't. We didn't get him

1065
00:59:25,080 --> 00:59:26,640
Speaker 3: out until she was already charging.

1066
00:59:27,440 --> 00:59:32,800
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well that's awesome. That's that's awesome information and scary too.

1067
00:59:34,160 --> 00:59:37,720
Speaker 1: Well man, thanks for coming on the podcast today. Where

1068
00:59:37,760 --> 00:59:39,200
Speaker 1: can people find you if they want to look you

1069
00:59:39,240 --> 00:59:40,160
Speaker 1: up on social.

1070
00:59:41,960 --> 00:59:48,920
Speaker 3: Just my name Ron Niziolic on Instagram and and Facebook.

1071
00:59:49,240 --> 00:59:53,600
Speaker 1: Yeah sounds good. Well, I appreciate you coming on. Good

1072
00:59:53,640 --> 00:59:56,360
Speaker 1: catching up with you hopefully good to catch up. It

1073
00:59:56,360 --> 00:59:58,280
Speaker 1: won't be so long until we catch up again. I

1074
00:59:58,320 --> 00:59:59,120
Speaker 1: haven't talked to you for a.

1075
00:59:59,120 --> 01:00:01,600
Speaker 2: While, so all right, sounds good?

1076
01:00:01,760 --> 01:00:02,160
Speaker 1: All right?

1077
01:00:02,320 --> 01:00:04,080
Speaker 2: Well, thanks thanks Jart