WEBVTT - Ep. 018 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:02.560 All right, everybody, this is the best news to ever 0:00:02.600 --> 0:00:07.320 happened in the entire history of of everything. Individual Meat 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:11.680 Eater episodes from our new season I'm talking to TV show, 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:15.720 not this yere podcast are available for instant streaming and 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.840 HD downloads right after they air on TV, so you 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:22.880 get a new episode every Thursday. There's no embargo, you 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:24.400 know where you gotta wait a long time to get 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:26.960 a new episode. It comes out on TV, you go 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.640 to your computer. You watch it on your computer, no problem. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.600 Head over to meat Eater dot vh X dot TV 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.560 to instantly watch the new season of meat Eater and 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:42.240 h D. Use the promo code meat Eater Podcast at 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:45.360 check out and you get five bucks off any of 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:49.599 our previous volumes. Go check it out Prime viewing for 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.559 you everyone. Just the meat Eater Podcast were recording in 0:00:54.080 --> 0:01:01.840 the warm and sunny Juno, Alaska, the only state capital 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.679 not joined to the International Highway System. But you can't 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:13.600 drive out of Juneo. How many people live here? Oh? 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:22.240 Was it thirty five thousands? No idea, It doesn't matter. 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:26.600 Not many people live here. For a state capital, um 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.720 surrounding us as Tongas National Forest, And we've been here 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:39.200 in Juno for four days of action packed sooty grouse hunting, 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.080 which is something you probably haven't heard of before. Honestly, 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:43.760 lay some quick groundworld. Well, no, no, The first thing 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:47.680 I want to talk about who's here? Um, we have 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:53.000 our representative from the famous Hunt to Eat T shirt company. 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:57.080 Honest tell us he's wearing his Hunt to Eat shirt. 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:01.280 Garrett Smith, he's wearing a Hunt to Eat shirt. Did 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.040 you buy that or get that free? Gurt? I can't say. 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:09.080 You can say I was giving it so the people 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:10.960 in this room get a free Hunt Eat shirt. But 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:14.919 but really, if you wanna, um, we've got we've got 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:20.720 shirts in stock. Janice long Tong, Yanni, Yanni Chamani whatever 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:23.400 you want to call him, has T shirts in stock 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.560 now at Hunt to Eat. And I want to point 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:31.359 out I have nothing to gain a Steve the host. 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:36.320 I have nothing to gain from you buying, um y 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:39.520 honest the T shirts. Besides many thank you you know. 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.120 In fact, I'll point out I have something to lose 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:45.960 because if you get rich and famous from selling T shirts, 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.440 you're not gonna work here anymore. That's not true. You 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.440 don't know that. You might just do it like oh 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:55.320 the goodness of your heart. So yeah, I like my job, 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:57.360 you know, so I can only lose from telling you 0:02:57.400 --> 0:02:59.440 to go buy Onni Yanni's hunt eat T shirts. He's 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:01.639 got him in dock. Why don't you sell him for 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:05.600 un But wasn't there a special deal where people could 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:07.760 put in a thing and get some cheap T shirts? 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.280 There was? But this is tough because we're recording this now. 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:15.320 It's uh may, who knows when this is gonna air, 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:19.640 So it's tough. Anyways, check the website. Yeah, maybe I 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:26.000 have a special goal full price man Um Garrett Smith Garrett, Uh, 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:29.440 you weren't born in Miles City, Montana, Great Falls, Montana. 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:33.239 Born in Great Falls, Montana. He's working with right now 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:36.440 because his old man. In a roundabout way, not not 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:38.920 to diminish your talents, but in a roundabout way, because 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:43.320 you're old man's friends of my brother. Talk about nepotism, 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:50.080 Yanni's friends of my wife. Full circle. Mike washed Leskie's here. 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.800 He's not friends of anybody. He Mike got his Mike 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.040 got his job the honest way. Man, How did you 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.760 get How did you come to work here? Mike? Uh? Since? 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:04.000 And he email to sence to me yeah, did you 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.440 think about sending me one? No, I didn't have it. 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.240 I watched an episode on television like a year ago 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:13.240 or actually a little bit more year ago, and was 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.120 very moved by the production and and this it was 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:18.080 whenever you didn't pull the trigger on that bear at 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:21.680 your cabin, and I thought, well, what did you think 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:25.320 about the hosting? I thought it was excellent? Excellent? Yeah, no, 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:27.120 it was. It spoke a lot the fact that you 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:28.640 didn't take the bar. I was it's like, well, first 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:30.799 of all, you know, not to diminish other hunting shows, 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:32.840 but there was something that really stood out. The first 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:34.600 episode I saw I was with Rogan. I was like, 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:36.600 what the hell am I watching? Like, why is Joe 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.400 Rogan on hunting show? And then I watched another one 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:40.920 because it was like a marathon or something like that, 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.280 and it was the episode where it was just you 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:45.479 out hunting that bar and you didn't pull the trigger. 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:48.560 And I was like, that says something because you know 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:50.640 most hunting shows like you gotta put it down. I mean, 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:52.000 that's the whole point where here is going to kill 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:53.760 the animals like that. Then you came out to work 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.120 shot yeah, sure to Yeah, And it you know, and 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:04.520 no it got revenge on us man. Yeah, Mike's uh 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:08.000 that was your first trip, that was my first trip. Yeah. 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:14.320 This young kid, um, Mike washed Leski is out of Austin, 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.440 Texas and he's up here right now. Because as everyone knows, 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:22.600 Operation Jade Helm, the U. S. Military is in Texas. 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:29.480 Um much fear in Texas that it's actually they're gonna 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.000 they're overthrowing the government in Texas. Is that right? The U. S. 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:38.159 Military is imposing martial law in Texas, take everyone's guns. 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:42.200 That's fair. Yeah, So they sent uh, the U. S. 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:46.920 Army into Texas and there it's a big movement. They're 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.960 a big operation to declare martial law in Texas and 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.480 disarmed Texas. That's what That's what people think is happening. 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.840 That was gonna happen until the Texas governor very boldly 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:01.080 said that he's gonna have the NA National Guard keep 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:03.640 an eye on the U. S. Army while they're there. 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:07.320 He's going to defend us from from the from the U. S. Army, Yes, 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:09.880 and special forces. He's like, not only that, I'm gonna 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.040 send some more cops out too. So but Mike' up 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:15.120 Juno to all this blows over man because he doesn't 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.200 want to have Marshal lawful duck out. Yeah I did 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.359 duck out man. It was getting too crazy. Um also 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:26.240 joined by Corey kaz Merrick Yes or cutch Mark or 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:30.320 cutch Mark what nationality is that? Polish? Yeah, he didn't 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:34.560 really get his job honestly because you came on recommendation 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.119 from a guy. Yeah, well a small town zpc West 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.880 moved to Bozeman, and I live in Bozeman, Montana. So 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:43.279 that's an honest way to get a Job's on a 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:47.159 good recommendation. That's true. It is, Yeah, you know, I 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.720 like the way Mike did it. Send an email? Yeah, 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:54.240 but come on, everyone's gonna send an email. But to 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.800 come on recommend more I think about it. To come 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:03.080 on recommendation now that it's something we'll see here. Who 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:08.680 does here, Mike? So? But to get on the may 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.400 they want to talk about blue grouse. Now, I as 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:17.480 a hunter, I'm a fan of uh. I like hunts 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:22.200 that that are underutilized, right, I like consider overutilized. You 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.080 know what, there's like too many people trying to do it, 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:27.680 which I would say that generally like hunting, you know, 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:33.080 ducks right. It's like ducks high competition hunting typically you 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:37.120 know publicly, and white tails high competition, turkeys, high competition. 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.040 I like all that stuff, but I also like stuff 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:43.760 that just no one does because I don't know why. 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:47.920 It's just not something people know about, you know, I 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:51.400 would say squirrel on people know about, they just don't 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.560 do it. Or there's a way more squirrels and way 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.760 more squirrel hunting land than are people interested in hunting squirrels. 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:02.120 But one of the most underutilized hunts in the world 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:08.240 is the blue grouse. Now a blue grouse, people used 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.160 to call them blue grouse. And then some years ago, 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:16.280 like seven years ago, I think oh six two six, Okay, 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:22.880 figure ou how many years ago? That was nine? Yeah? Right? 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:27.960 Net ballpark? Right, net ballpark thanks to the um right 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:33.360 ned ballpark. The Ornithological Society declared or not declared, but 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:38.320 suggested that it be split in. The blue grouse, which 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.160 is a bird from the western uf so split into 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:44.160 two populations dusky grouse, city grouse. Duskies live in the 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:48.840 interior mountain range of the Rockies. Cities live on the 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:58.080 coastal ranges. Now, people who run into and and and 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.960 and inadvertently now and then. Sure, do not not, like, 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.920 as an incidental take kill a blue grouse now and 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.760 then because the birds are just kind of there and 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.240 they don't really know to run away people. They're one 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:14.360 of many birds that people call a fool's hen, which 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:18.040 is like a disparaging term for a bird. And what 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:21.560 they're getting at is that they would say, it's not 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:24.839 that smart. The blue grouse isn't that smart, because yeah, 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:26.280 I subscribe what happens when you walk up on a 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.160 blue rouse. You were talking about this earlier, oh in 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:33.840 the inner Mountain Rockies interior. But yeah, so what what 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:38.320 is now since two thousand and six now? Dusky grouse? Well, 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:42.480 often I've run into him archery, l hunting, and I 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:44.679 used to I used to always have an arrow maybe 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:48.400 sometimes too marked, you know, grouse on my fledgings. You'd 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:50.319 actually write it on there. Oh yeah, because it'd be 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.040 like a you know, slightly crooked arrow or you know, 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.000 something to be wrong with it. But so you could 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.439 wouldn't feel bad shooting at the grouse. But yeah, you're 0:09:57.440 --> 0:09:59.840 just cruising along and like you look over and you know, 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.520 ten fifteen feet away there he is just chilling feeding 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:06.120 sometimes just kind of like they see you, but they're 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.679 not flushing, they're not running, they're just kind of slowly 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:12.920 walking away, and enough time to take oftentimes multiple shots 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:18.319 with bow and arrow. I've killed more now Dusky's blue 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:19.800 grouse with my bow and arrow than I have with 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:24.320 a shotgun. At one time, hunting in the Interior Ranges, 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:29.040 shot a blue grouse with my bow and then grabbed 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:34.079 a rock and killed the second one. The point I'm 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:38.920 getting at is people look at the blue grouse, and 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:41.360 you know, they live in the high country. Typically they 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:42.839 look at a blue grouse, they're like, oh, there's a 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:46.120 dumb bird. But that's that's that's a dumb way of 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.959 thinking about it. A blue grouse, like blue growls. Generally, 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.320 human predation is not something they're generally dealing with, right 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:56.960 They live in areas where they have other stuff that 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:01.440 they're worried about. And I think it's unfair to birds 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:06.959 and fish and animals when humans declare them dumb, because 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.960 their response upon seeing a human isn't to run away. 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.240 You know, people be like, oh, those two are dumb. 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:17.480 They didn't run away. But you might say, well, maybe 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.400 he's really smart because he doesn't run from everything he 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:25.400 sees and waste calories and put himself into risk from 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.600 other kinds of predation that he might not know about 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.640 when he inadvertently runs into other things, and so he 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:32.960 knows the hold tight and assess whether it really is 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.320 danger or not. And it's dumb to fly away and 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:39.120 run away from stuff that means you no harm. That 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:40.880 could be one way of looking at it. Yeah, it's 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:48.400 like a an ignorant person's way of like it's personification, 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:53.240 Like you're putting like human emotions and feelings to an 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.400 animal and and saying like, in that situation, if a 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:58.760 human did that, you would say it's dumb, you know, 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.680 but humans humans like humans walk up on them. No, 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:04.400 I know, but that's I walked up on a ton 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:08.120 of people in that restaurant we ate at tonight. I 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:12.959 saw running Actually, yeah, yours ran over some guys with 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:21.920 your fan. So yeah. The word anthropomorphism giving it's kind 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.760 of different than anthropomorphism is what people What people do 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:27.480 with their dogs usually like act like their dogs are 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:31.120 capable of emotions, you know. I'm like, you're like projecting 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:36.360 human tendencies or human attributes onto animals, which most dog 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:43.280 owners are guilty of you know, Ronnie being not Ronnie 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.680 ban but most dogs look and those those those humans 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:48.920 that are saying that you're saying, I just I just 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:51.720 walked up to some people. But that bird had people 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.160 sneaking up to it in camouflage with rifles. So if 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:57.720 you had done that in that restaurant tonight, maybe not 0:12:57.760 --> 0:12:59.840 everybody would have been so dumb and just been hanging out. 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:03.959 Some of them might have fled, so especially if you 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:06.840 walk through the door where the rifle and camouflage. But 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:08.800 we have so much ground to cover blue I want 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:10.960 to I want to move the blue grouse storyline, like 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:17.680 everyone's being real boring. So blue grouse are hunted in 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:26.400 the fall now. Years ago, in probably in the late 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.880 nineties and early two thousand's, I was out hunting black 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:33.040 bears in the spring and the way one of the 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.800 Montana the way we eventually started hunting black bears once 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:41.240 we got good at it. As we would hunt uh 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:47.840 southerly south facing, east facing, southeast facing exposures in really 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:53.960 steep country where you had avalanche slides or snow slides 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:58.160 would clear away snow on big hillsides so that you 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:00.720 climb up into a high area in the Moun Mountains, 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:04.400 and everything's covered in snow except avalanche shoots where the 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.400 snow slid off, and then the sun warmed the hill up, 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:11.240 and because the snow was gone, those hills greened up. 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:15.600 Those strips would green up faster than all the surrounding topography, 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.600 and you'd get skunk cabbage and glacier lily and all 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.680 kinds of grasses would grow on these snow shoots. And 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.480 a bear, a black bear who might dan you know, 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:29.040 eight thousand, nine thousand feet above sea level. He comes 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:33.600 out of his den around me earlier or later, but 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:38.080 generally May six. Some people say May seven. I think 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.960 my brother Danny thinks that's May eleven. But there's a 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:43.200 day every year. And also like bam, all the bears 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:45.480 come out. Some bears trickle out all the time. But 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:49.360 like bears come out, Um, we s on these avalanche 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:51.280 slides and now on then we'd be sitting at the 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:55.720 foot of an avalanche slide and you would hear a noise. 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.000 It would sound like it's who whose things they can 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:06.200 do it best, not that's I'm gonna do. I'll do 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.520 mine then, but someone else has to do there's next. 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:15.440 Would hear this noise? Okay, picture it's April May, and 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:21.480 all of a sudden, m m was that six seven notes? 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:31.240 Almet m m m m M. You try yours. M 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:38.400 that's one far away. Yeah, that's why. That's when we's 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:44.160 all that's might might do the far away grouse? Who 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:45.720 else wants to take a stab at? You're getting the 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.480 point the bar set too high. I don't get it. 0:15:48.720 --> 0:16:04.240 Do one let one rip? Oh oh that was good. 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:09.680 Yeah that sounds good. Here's this noise. Now, we were 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.800 for a couple of years baffled by what this noise 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.280 was because I grew up in Michigan, right we moved 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.200 out west get into the hunting fishing action. We would 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.840 hear this noise. Turns out that the blue growls, which 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.120 is just kinda I was gonna call him blue grouse 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:29.840 like everyone knows now right, dusky grouse, city grouse, blue grouse. 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.200 Learned that it's it's it's a blue grouse, and that's 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:40.080 his noise in the spring to call in ladies um 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:44.800 and eventually figured that out and then learned that there's 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:49.760 a thing in southeast Alaska where you can hunt blue 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:54.840 grouse in the spring, and the Molaska they calm hooters 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:57.160 spring hooters because you can hunt them in the spring. 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.840 The hunting method is you go out into the mountains 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:07.560 in the spring and try to listen for that hoot 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.800 noise and then try to locate the bird. Now, three 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:17.240 years ago, we were finishing up bear hunt and we 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:20.479 had passed through the town to ketch A Can. Yanni 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.520 was there. We had some time to kill and we're 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.320 going to take some pictures and we drove up on 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:29.840 the road system out of Ketchikan on revel A Gegado 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:35.080 Island or Ravilla Island or Revy Island. We drove way 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:36.880 to up the road till we got the snow got 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:42.720 too deep, and then we walked for a ways and 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:46.919 got to this high road and it sounded to me 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:56.919 like from everywhere, from everywhere was Mike, what do the 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:03.720 far away everywhere? You remember that you honest, I do 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:09.199 describe your impressions. Yannest was so moved he started a 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:14.840 T shirt company. Yeah, it was one of those things 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.320 where it because we weren't focused enough, Like we weren't 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:20.640 hunting him. So we're just like cruising around doing our thing. 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:24.480 We're taking some pictures and no, because if you remember, 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.320 I proposed we draw back into town and buy a 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:29.359 twenty two, then drove back up there to hunt for 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:34.760 an hour for our plane. I forgot about that. So, yeah, 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:36.480 we heard a lot of hooters. It did sound like 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:40.800 they were everywhere. It haunted me as haunting as a 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.680 noise as it haunted me A year after that, well, 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.840 so that year I started researching how to hunt spring 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:52.400 hooters because like I had a spot. I got onto 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:56.679 this idea where I was gonna um kill him, like 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:03.480 how you killed turkeys. So I found this catalog online. 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.960 There's like, here's one right here. I'm looking at the 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:13.880 Macaulay Bird Sound Library. Here the libraries full of all 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:15.800 the library things. Start this way. I'm gonna play one 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:20.800 thing real quick. Four or five two. That dude says that, 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:34.960 then you're here. That's a female. Okay, that's a female 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:38.640 tending her chicks, HEARDing her chicks. So I started trying 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:41.439 to find ways that you would mimic these noises, and 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.600 I would send the noises to friends of mine who 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:48.280 were musicians, first asking them like, if you had to 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:50.240 figure out how to make that noise, how would you 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:54.359 make it? I sent them both the female and the 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:57.240 male sound. Now, everyone said that a blowing out a 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:00.600 beer bottle would make the male noise, which you don't. 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:07.720 And everyone said, there's some kind of Australian instrument. Did 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:12.080 you re do? Yeah? Do you do? You like this? 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:15.640 Do you no? That's a that's a that's something yeah, 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.480 with the like thing on the end. Yeah, I think 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:20.359 it is. I think it's like I roped up. You 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:22.600 spend the rope real fast at that. What's it called? 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:26.520 I have no IDEA boomerang? Bro, Remember they had a 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:30.280 ghost caller toy growing up. It's like a tube you 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:34.800 do that? Yes, yeah, that's the word. I mean it 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:36.679 made that sound, yeah, know that. I think about it. 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:39.000 Whenever I was out there, I pictured, like in like 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.280 an old guy with the moonshine jug with like triple 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:44.480 axes on it, just like softly blowing on it. Yeah, Mike, Mike. 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:45.960 First thing, Mike said, we got in the moms like, 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:49.040 she's just a lot old mood shiners out here, the 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:52.600 all things mood shiners. Are you think we've find it still? So? Yeah, 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:56.320 it sounds like an old dude blown on a moonshine jug. Anyways, 0:20:56.320 --> 0:21:00.440 I sent these sounds that everyone eventually sent uh the 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:04.639 sound to the guys that down in dirty game calls, 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:13.240 and they made me a box call and an open 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.719 read call that I could use to try to mimic 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:24.080 a hand and it's kazoo like that was the other 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:25.840 musicians kept saying, like, you might be able to do 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:27.280 it with the kazoo, but I couldn't figure out how 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:28.280 to do it with the kazoo. But I got this 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:30.679 open read call that sounds damn good, and it's like 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:37.120 it's like, uh, is that right? Yeah, sounds like that. 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.720 And I put out a thing on social media asking 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:46.959 anyone if anyone had a dead female blue grouse laying around. 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:50.000 This dude name who had become kind of like email 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:52.480 buddies with this guy named Shad Brunson out of Utah. 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:55.600 Runs out, He's like, hey, I'm going hunting them anyways, 0:21:55.880 --> 0:22:01.159 runs out, shoots me one I have it, go to 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:06.959 a taxidermist that I know in Montana who stuffs that 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:16.960 female and armed with a hand call and my decoy. 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:23.679 I go out back one year later with Yanni and 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:26.840 do where he was with us back out to Ravilla 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:31.919 Island and spend four days trying to get under the 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:37.000 tree of a blue grouse in order to call to 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:42.359 it and present it with this decoy, thinking that I 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:44.440 would pull the bird down out of his tree where 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:47.000 they're hiding up in the tree, pull him down, he'd 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:51.520 come down and strutt and I shoot him. And we 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:57.640 got killed on that trip. Talk about why we got 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:02.440 killed for what I know now know from what you 0:23:02.520 --> 0:23:07.400 knew then what I knew them. There weren't as many birds, 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:10.800 we felt like, and we hunted the same. We didn't 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:12.000 have a lot of room in room. We're kind of 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:15.040 hunting the road system out of catch can. We had 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:18.359 I don't know, maybe three five miles of road we 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:21.359 could hunt that was National four something like that, and 0:23:21.400 --> 0:23:23.200 they're just I felt like we were working the same 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:26.640 four or five birds. We named them all, Yeah, we 0:23:26.680 --> 0:23:31.679 had them all named It's a roast bird, lost Bird, Randy, 0:23:31.760 --> 0:23:36.720 new Bird, Houdini, Houdini. Yeah. Yeah, We're like, yeah, there's 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:38.720 like we knew about these birds and we try to 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:42.280 find them. You could not find them. Yeah. We kept 0:23:42.280 --> 0:23:44.800 getting cliffed out. We got cliffed out numerous times where 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:47.240 we just could not we felt like we couldn't continue, 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:50.320 you know, you know, moving on these birds. What these 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:53.439 sons of bitches will do is they'll get up in 0:23:56.160 --> 0:23:58.600 a high spot like picture, you're at the head of 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:04.440 a canyon, and they, like the walls of a canny 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:06.240 kind of come together and peter out at the head 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:08.800 of a canyon or the head of like a draw, 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:13.160 you know, on a mountain slope, and there's some big, 0:24:13.240 --> 0:24:19.640 badass spruce tree rising up and towering over the head 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:23.080 of the draw. A blue grouse will go up into 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:27.160 that high spruce tree and start making is weird hit 0:24:27.160 --> 0:24:35.720 it like noise, and you it sounds like it comes 0:24:35.800 --> 0:24:37.600 from everywhere. Like you know, if you're out in the 0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:39.080 woods and you hear a sound and you'd say to 0:24:39.119 --> 0:24:43.000 your body'd like point your finger at the sound. Well, 0:24:43.000 --> 0:24:45.520 I noticed people do when a blue growlse calls. They 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:48.160 don't point their finger. They sort of like gesture with 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:52.840 their hand like uh, like, oh, it's over, like in 0:24:52.920 --> 0:24:56.360 this vague sort of direction. Yeah, what we started doing 0:24:56.400 --> 0:24:59.360 now is like it's like a two handed like pie 0:24:59.480 --> 0:25:05.480 kind of you hear a blue grouse, sometimes your pie 0:25:05.520 --> 0:25:12.440 thing describes degrees right, or sometimes you might a very 0:25:12.600 --> 0:25:20.840 narrow pie wedge would be a yeah, a very narrow 0:25:20.840 --> 0:25:23.040 pie edge is a lie. But I would say a 0:25:23.160 --> 0:25:27.640 narrow pie wedge is a fifteen to twenty degree pie wedge. Right. 0:25:28.640 --> 0:25:30.960 If you see someone get what if you hear annoy, 0:25:31.160 --> 0:25:34.040 you hear a grouse, a blue grouse off like you know, 0:25:34.040 --> 0:25:38.000 he's a mile away whatever he is, um and you 0:25:38.119 --> 0:25:42.879 drew a pie wedge more narrow than fifteen degrees, you 0:25:43.600 --> 0:25:49.719 the person's over excited, you know. To put it this way. 0:25:50.119 --> 0:25:54.680 One time, while we're trying to hunt spring hooters in Alaska, 0:25:56.440 --> 0:26:02.000 we had a grouse's location in our minds. Pinpointed to 0:26:02.080 --> 0:26:08.159 two trees, one of which I climbed. Hours later. We 0:26:08.160 --> 0:26:12.520 were probably about a mile away from there, trying to 0:26:12.600 --> 0:26:18.320 ascertain which mountain the bird was on. He never stopped hooting. 0:26:19.400 --> 0:26:22.200