WEBVTT - Montana Mule-based DIY Spring Bear Hunt 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:03.080 You're listening to the Sportsman's Nation, brought to you by 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:06.600 Exodus Trail Cameras. Now, if you guys aren't familiar with 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:09.960 Exodus Trail Cameras, I'm gonna recommend you go to their website. 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:13.000 Tons of great information about their products. Right. The cool 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:16.000 part is is they're turning four. 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Take advantage 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:06.040 of off. Go to their website, Exodus outdoor gear dot com. 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:10.280 Do some research about all the functionality of their cameras. Right, 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:12.480 you can take a look at your price. You can 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:14.640 find the one that's right for you. You can enter 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:18.400 the discount code year four y E A R the 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:28.080 number four and save. My name is Clay Nucleman. I'm 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:31.920 the host of the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:35.039 be your host into the world of hunting the icon 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:41.360 of North American Wilderness. We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation, 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:44.160 but will also bring you into some of the wildest 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:52.880 country on the planet. Chasing the Better Man on X 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:55.520 with baiting, it's basically equivalent to hunting out of a 0:01:55.560 --> 0:02:02.440 helicopter with a machine gun. In Chad Newton attend helicopter 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.880 machine gun is equivalent to baiting bear using on it Yeah. 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:11.440 With Colby moorehead yeah, okay, bam and smoke Yeah, smoke. 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.080 You should not be fair, Chase. Yeah, Smokey is not fair, Chase. 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:21.720 This is the third podcast in our Montana Tour series. 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:25.640 We did a podcast with Justin Rebecca Spring. Justin is 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:28.640 the director of records for the Boon and Crockett Club. 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:32.160 We did a podcast with Gym Sessions Jared Peterson with 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.519 Huska MA Optics and Best of the West Rifles and 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:41.000 Cody Wyoming. This podcast is where Colby moorehead the Bear 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.400 Tech and I sit down and talk about our do 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:51.280 it yourself mule based Montana backcountry spring black bear hunt. 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:54.880 This is a in depth podcast that we just go 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:58.000 through all the details of our hunt. You're gonna be 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.280 able to watch this hunt at some point very soon 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.640 on the Bear Hunting Magazine YouTube channel, and we want 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:10.720 to invite you to check out our YouTube channel, and uh, 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.960 we've got some incredible videos on there that you're gonna enjoy. 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:19.280 Without further ado, I want to continue to remind you 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:23.200 about our Patreon page. The Bear Hunting Magazine Patreon page 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:28.120 is designed for those who want to support the podcast, 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:32.080 but also our YouTube channel, which is free content. So 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:36.960 check out Patreon. But more importantly, or likewise, or both, 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:42.000 check out Bear Hunting Magazine. Bear Hunty Magazine is the 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:47.160 world's only all bear hunting print magazine. We've been in 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:51.520 print for twenty years. By supporting Bear Hunting Magazine, you 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:57.440 are supporting the ancient and honorable culture of hunting in 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:01.240 North America. And uh, it's a great magazine. We print 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:04.200 six issues a year. We worked hard. We worked hard 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:08.119 to make it as relevant and as real as possible. 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:10.640 We're not just trying to fill the pages with stuff. 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.680 We really are trying to give show the full gamut 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.120 of bear hunting in North America. Hey, you're gonna enjoy 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.359 this podcast. We talked about the challenges of the hunt, 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:25.200 we talked about bears, we talked about hunting out west. 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:34.080 It's a great podcast. You couldn't enjoy it. This podcast 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:38.159 is gonna be the third or fourth in our Montana 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:42.400 Tour series of podcasts. So Colby Moorehead and I have 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:45.680 the Bear Tech got back about ten or twelve days 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:49.120 ago from Montana. About ten days ago. Today we're at 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:52.400 the Global headquarters and we've had ten or twelve days 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:58.400 to ruminate upon the events of are we were gone 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:04.000 eleven days on our do it yourself Montana mule based 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.520 black bear hunt. Um, let me give just a little 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:13.520 bit of the story behind this year I had. This 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:18.400 was my third trip to Montana in I went to 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.640 Montana with my wife. We drove up there and we 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:24.640 hunted in western Montana. We were kind of hosted by 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:29.080 Justina Rebecca Spring near Missoula, Montana. They told us some 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.840 places that we should go and we did a backpack 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:36.440 based five and a half day hunt. No equine animals. 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:38.520 We just packed in gear. I think I had a 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.520 sixty pound pack. Misty carried like a forty five pound pack. 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:44.320 We went into the back country for five full days. 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:46.640 The first day we were there we saw a sound 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:49.520 of cub We didn't see bears for four days. Finally, 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:51.680 on the fifth day we saw a bear that we 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:55.040 couldn't get too big Boor. It was our first like 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.880 western back country hunting experience. I came away from that 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.679 hunt with it with my tail took between my legs 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:04.159 really because it was a difficult hunt, I mean, and 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.719 we didn't kill a bear, And to me, it's always 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.000 such a It is a difficult thing to invest that 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.440 much time and energy into a hunt and you not 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.599 get what you went there for. Obviously, that's part of 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:21.800 fair chase hunting is that there are no guarantees. Um. So, 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.039 with the knowledge of that game from this hunt, in 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:30.400 twenty seventeen, Jim Sessions and I from Huska my Best 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:33.760 of the West, went back to pretty much the same 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:39.159 region of Montana on an equine based hunt. We really 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.359 didn't have that much information. Jim is a veteran Western hunter, 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.440 but he had never been to these areas before, and 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.279 we went up to Montana and we hunted for six 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:53.760 full days and we the closest that we got to 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:58.120 a bear was like a thousand yards for real, um, 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:02.160 super difficult hunt, and and we didn't kill any bears. 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:05.960 But I learned. So so now I have these two 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:08.200 six days, five and a half days, eleven and a 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.880 half days in Montana, and I in and what people 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:16.080 were telling me was or what I was seeing from 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:19.720 my sources in Montana, my local sources, is that guys 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:25.680 were killing bears basically by driving around, being mobile and 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.600 finding bears and clear cuts, walking roads in the in 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:30.480 the comments, so, I mean, these guys were kind of 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:32.760 like wild Clay, You spent eleven days in Montana and 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.800 he didn't kill a bear. You're doing something wrong, okay. 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:38.760 And I kind of agreed with them in a sense 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:42.679 because I knew that the methods that they were employing 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.480 were probably more effective, but it was more important for 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:47.640 me to do it kind of the way I wanted 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:49.720 to do it in terms of being a back country hunt. 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.200 And then we introduced mules and horses, which to me 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.400 is the way that I want to spring bear hunt 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.120 in the West. That's just why I wanted to do it. 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.960 I've got we'll get into my mules and stuff, and 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.480 so they were like, you're doing it wrong. You should 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.080 have killed a bear. Um. And these people were trying 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:13.160 to help me. Obviously, these were like my friends. And 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:18.160 so what we did in twenty nineteen was we did 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:23.320 kind of a morphed hunt between these two things, which 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:26.640 we brought equine animals. We were in back country, but 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:32.360 the equine animals allowed us two access areas that we 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.360 just probably couldn't have on foot in a day or 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.960 two and carried all the equipment that we needed. But 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.440 we were mobile. We went to multiple different places. In 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.520 the times past, I had locked myself into certain regions 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:47.120 like I would be like we're going to this place 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:50.560 and we're gonna stay there for six days. Well this 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:53.400 time we said, hey, we're gonna be mobile. We're gonna 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:56.080 we're gonna day hunt into places on the mules and 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:58.160 then come back out. If we get in there and 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:01.800 find critters, we're gonna stay there. We're gonna camp, but 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.040 we're gonna be mobile. And that's what we did. So 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:08.160 that that brings up to speed with where we're talking about. 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.320 So in this podcast we're just gonna talk about the 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.960 details of the time we did a gear related podcast before. 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:17.600 But the cool thing is is that Kolby went with me. 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:22.239 How many days before this hunt did I'd like say, Kobe, 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.640 you're coming with me to Montana, maybe like six six 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.719 or seven six or seven days? Yeah, so you had 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:34.079 plenty of time to prepare and to get physically in shape. 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:42.160 Yeah yeah, No, No, you didn't jump on like the 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:46.480 trendy fitness plan to like. No, I figured that my 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.280 I wouldn't be able to get through my first initial 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:52.679 soreness before we were going to be there. Yea from 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:54.880 light really hitting it. I don't even have Arkansas legs 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:57.400 yet at this point, and it's like, let's go to Montana. 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:02.200 Trekking polls saved my life. Yeah, well, it was a 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.720 unique situation. I was looking for somebody to go that. 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:11.560 First of all, I needed a video man and uh, 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:14.120 I needed a video man documentary and I and I 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.360 needed somebody that was flexible. And that's why I didn't. 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:18.560 I mean, there was lots of people that could have gone. 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:21.000 I would have enjoyed going, but I needed somebody that 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.560 was flexible because we were basing this trip based a 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:26.079 lot upon the weather, and I wanted to do an 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:28.240 early season hunt, but I didn't want it to be 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.800 too early. And so I mean just a week before 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.120 we went is really when we decided we were gonna go, 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:35.719 and then we even delayed it. I think you had 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.560 six days before we originally planned, but then we delayed 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.400 the trip five days, so you actually had eleventh days, 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.240 so you could have been in shape by that. I 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.040 totally could have been. No, And so I totally sprung 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:51.160 this on Kolbe. And so there were a couple of 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:55.559 challenges in that we were gonna this was gonna be 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:58.640 a mule based hunt, and you've never written a meal, 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.560 So how did you? So we prepare you for this 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:06.720 twenty minutes on the back of Smoky at my house 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:10.040 the day before we left. Yeah, literally the day before 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.560 we left, or two days before now it was. It 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.680 was it was that Saturday, we left Sunday night, that's right. 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:18.240 I was like, hey man, we probably better make sure 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:22.400 that like everything's okay and that, and so we we this. 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.520 This was my friend Trey Autrey's mule. If you watched 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.760 our our film hundred Dollars Squirrel, there's a white mule 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:32.240 that Trey Autry rides, and uh, we borrowed Smokey, and 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:34.160 Smokey's like, we don't even know how old he is, 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:38.080 but he's just like an old warrior safe, like just 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.480 a dead, broke, awesome mule. And so I knew that 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.800 Colbe would be safe because that was my number one thing. 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:48.040 I knew he couldn't ride a young mule like I'm riding. 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:52.599 Just you would have you've probably been killed. But I 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.240 knew Smoky to take care of you. But still some 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:57.880 close calls. Well, we had some close calls. But so 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:02.000 you came to my house. We saddled up. We I 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:04.760 just basically said, all right, get up there, go for 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.360 I said, ride for thirty or forty five minutes, just 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:10.520 kind of get your feel on this animal. Found out 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:14.600 I had legs shorter than the schoolgirl. I'm gonna let 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.040 you tell that story. We had to meete. We had 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:21.680 we had well you remember Trey, Okay, I'm gonna have 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:25.600 to so we borrowed the saddle from Trey and Trey 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:29.640 goes Clay. My daughter rode this mule last time. And 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:31.800 so these stirrups are like really short, you're gonna have 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:37.480 to lengthen him, if only. And so when Kobe gets 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:39.000 on the mule, he's like, is there any way to 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:43.560 make these stirrups shorter? And I was like, man, a 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:46.640 thirteen year old girl wrote the single last time, but 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:52.280 she's all legs. Well, so Kobe, she must be. She 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:56.040 must be. I don't know, Kobe. Uh. So he rode 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:58.360 the mule. Everything was good. He did good, and I 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:02.880 mean it was just like I knew you could do it, though, 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:06.360 And that's an ultimate compliment for real, I wouldn't I mean, 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.880 I wouldn't have taken somebody that I knew would fail. 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:13.240 I knew that you would have the mental stability and 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.360 toughness to do, because that's what it takes. I mean, 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:19.200 people get scared of equine animals. Almost almost everybody that 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:22.920 I talked to about mules and horses that have experienced 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.120 with them in the back country, unless they are a 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:30.960 straight up cowboy or just love equine animals, either love 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:32.920 them or you hate them. And there's a whole lot 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:35.560 more people that hate them than love them. And when 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:39.160 you dig down into why people hate them, it's because 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:42.280 they're afraid of them. And it's not their fault. I'm 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.680 not faulting someone for being afraid of an animal that uh, 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.000 they've had a bad experience with, because tons of people 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:49.800 and and that would have been me even through or 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:53.960 four years ago. But for some reason, Colby, I knew 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:56.480 that you could handle it, um And I knew that 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.640 that smoke was gonna be safe as safe as a 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:04.240 mule could be. He's not a big mule, um And 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:06.840 and he's old. And I've just been around him enough 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:08.960 and seemed trade mess with him enough to know that 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:10.840 he's he was the he was the one for the 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:16.480 job for you. And so but so we so there's 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:18.839 many things on this trip that we were totally testing out. 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.720 Like I had already been to the Montana back country, 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:25.840 but we had never carted stock all the way across 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.480 the country, which has his challenges for sure, no doubt. 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:34.560 I mean, so from northwest Arkansas to let's just say 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:40.360 Montana is twenty four hours on the GPS, and that 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:45.200 is driving the speed limit and doesn't include stops and 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:50.000 different things. And so when you're when you're when you're 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:53.280 pulling a trailer full of mules, full of equipment, you're 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:56.640 not driving the speed limit. Most of the time. You're 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.640 don't think we ever hit the speed limit. Yeah, I 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:06.880 mean rarely. And so we're like the trip took, I 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.160 couldn't tell you how long, many more, probably six more hours, 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:12.040 and it's it's probably a thirty hour. We're probably in 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:14.880 the road thirty hours counting the times when we stopped 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.920 and everything. And but I want to say that that 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:24.120 in itself was probably the most uh challenging or stressful 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:29.880 part of the trip for me, because I was using, 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:34.280 uh a horse trailer that probably was built in the 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:38.480 nineteen sixties. Yeah, for real, the old horse trailer. And 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:42.280 if you saw a hundred dollar squirrel, you saw me say, 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:44.600 you can tell a lot about a man's expendable income 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.200 by his mule trailer. Well, but there was there was 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.680 some major upgrades to this, to this trailer, no doubt. Yeah. 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:54.320 I had some fresh paint, some some official bear Hunting 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.640 magazine stickers. Yes it looks good. There's some new shoes. 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:01.120 Yes we put we So we did our homework with 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:04.040 this trailer. Though I had the re the barings repacked 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.840 a couple of whenever ago. We we painted it, uh 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.960 just for just so we wouldn't be profiled on the highway. 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.840 It's like, man, those guys are no telling what they 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:16.400 got in the back of that. I mean drug dealers. 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.320 I mean, I mean the roof even matches the truck. 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:21.840 So I mean we're color coordinated. It looked good. Got 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:25.040 our stickers on there. Got our insurance, you know, I 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:29.920 got yep, I gotta equine based like equine. It was 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:35.600 called American Equestrian or something. But what I was thinking was, 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.040 what do you do when you're in downtown Denver, downtown 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:41.440 Kansas City and you have a flat tire on your 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:46.000 trailer and rush hour traffic and four lane interstate and 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:49.520 you've got these animals that you you aren't getting out 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:51.720 of the trailer at that point, I mean on the 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:53.480 side of the highway, you know, if you're sitting there 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:55.360 for four or five hours trying to figure out what 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:58.120 to do in anyway, Now, for like a hundred and 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:02.000 fifty bucks a year, about this Equestrian insurance And basically, 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:04.119 if you break down, your trailer breaks down, your truck 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:08.159 breaks down anywhere in the country, they will send a 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:12.200 record service that's equipped to help people that are traveling 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:14.840 with equin animals that bring the water and hay, and 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:17.760 they have boarding facilities put up. Let's say you blow 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:20.000 a motor where you know, and you're not gonna be 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:22.760 back on the road in three hours, you know. So 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:28.240 that was that was good, got new tires, um. But 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:30.800 we made it the first day to Spearfush, South Dakota, 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:33.160 and stayed with one of our good friends up there 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:35.240 that has a farm, and we're able to put the 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:37.480 animals in a crowd. So that's about a fourteen hour 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:40.879 trip to Spiritfus, South Dakota, and from Spearfish over to 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:45.880 western Montana was another well bye bye map another ten hours. 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.960 And uh so by the time we got to spear Fish, 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.719 I felt like our equipment was solid and that we 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:57.520 were gonna make it up there, right. And uh so 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:00.959 that was just part of the battle that a lot 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:03.080 of people wouldn't think about. But you can't you can't 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:05.560 keep animals in a trailer for long periods of time, 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:08.760 I mean, for like twenty hours. You know, you want 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.560 to let them out about every every eight hours at least. 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:14.399 Let them walk around, let them stretch their legs, let 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:17.160 them roll if they want to roll, give them some grass, 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.879 just kind of let them be horses and mules, um. 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:26.080 And so we did that um. We we then made 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:30.200 it to Montana. UM. Once we made it to Montana, 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:35.119 we went and met with our friends and stayed with them, 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:41.879 and basically we the first evening we were there, we 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:43.520 bought our tag and so we had to wait twenty 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:45.720 four hours. Bought our tag at eleven o'clock on the 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.120 day we entered Montana. We had to wait twenty four 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:50.160 hours before that tag was ready, so we couldn't hunt 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:54.919 the next day till eleven o'clock. That evening we weren't hunting, 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:59.280 but we spotted a bear from several miles away, at 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:03.960 least two to three miles away. We spotted the bear 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:07.760 and it was in a place we could hunt. It 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:09.800 was on public land. It was in a place where 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:14.840 you could just glass forever. And we found a bear 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:16.960 on the first day. That was encouraging. Yeah, and we 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.800 felt like it was mature enough to go after yeah, 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.879 you know, just from a distance. But it didn't like 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.280 a juvenile. Yeah. It was a good bear. And we 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.359 knew that if there was one bear up there that 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.359 we could see, we thought that potentially on the way 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:37.760 into this bear that we would find other bears. So 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.840 the next day we we figured out how to get 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:45.760 into this place, which wasn't straightforward like from where we 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.720 spotted it. We were probably only three miles, but from 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.320 the information we had at the time, the only way 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:55.359 in there was way around the back side of this 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:59.119 mountain range and up on public land because it was 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:02.600 kind of separated by some private land. Between us and 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:04.480 where we saw the bear was private land, so he 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.640 couldn't just walk straight to this bear. So we had 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.760 to go way around, I mean like thirty minute drive around, 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:16.879 parked in on some public there's a gated road. And 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:21.400 so it starts day one, right the day of Kobe's trials. 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:24.879 That's what we have labeled the Day of Cody, the 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:30.200 day Kobe became a mule skinner. So we start off 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:33.120 on the mules. And if you've ever written equine animals, 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:38.160 they're they're always they're always feisty, full of energy, jumpy, 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:41.919 ready to roll, like right out of the gate. And 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:44.480 these animals also have been in a trailer for two 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:48.040 full days, and they're a new and a new environment. 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:50.760 And I'll go ahead and interject here that I was 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.119 riding my easy mule. She's three and a half years old. 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:59.920 She's that's young from you that's like, you know, a teenager. 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.920 It's like having a seventeen year old, you know, mature 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:09.480 physically eighteen, you know, but but still very young. And uh, 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:15.119 Izzy's done phenomenal for me. I've I've ridden her extensively 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:19.919 in the mountains here in Arkansas, UM and in this 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:24.240 hunt really was a lot about me and Izzy. For 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:28.280 for me, it was when I first got Izzy in 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:34.800 twenty mark February. She was basically an untouched mule. She 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:36.840 had a bride loner. I mean, the guy that raised 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:38.720 her had you know, he could handle her just a 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:42.679 little bit, but I mean untrained. And I trained Izzy 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:44.560 and it was the first time I'd ever trained a mule, 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:50.960 and it was an incredible life changing experience, truly was um. 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.520 I learned a ton about training animals. And the whole 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:57.600 point in my mind was to get deeper and stay 0:21:57.640 --> 0:22:00.520 longer in wild places. That's why I had this mule, 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:03.119 and I wanted to take her to Montana. That's what 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:05.840 I wanted to do. It's just just kind of in 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:07.600 the mule world. When you hear people say, oh, that 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:10.639 mule has been out west, You're like, oh, that's a 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:13.400 good one. Like that, that's kind of like the statis 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:17.000 factor for mules, you know, because if you if if 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:19.280 you could trust that animal to take it all the 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.080 way out west and not die, then this is a 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:24.760 good animal. If both of you come back, okay, it's 0:22:24.760 --> 0:22:28.480 a really good meal. Yes, yes, And so I had 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:31.320 this idea that I wanted to take easy out west 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:35.720 and so this was that. Um just for somebody that's 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:39.080 listening that maybe never has it doesn't hasn't been following 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:42.160 the Bear Hunting magazine stuff for a while. The video 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:45.119 there's a video on the Barning Magazine YouTube channel right 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:49.119 now that has over a million views and it's an 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:53.560 eleven minute video that encompasses the full training experience that 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:56.320 me training easy. So it's it's pretty neat. I mean, 0:22:56.359 --> 0:22:59.200 it kind of went viral, especially in the equine world. 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:02.960 It's called Project Hunting the Mule, and there's actually six 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:05.639 or seven videos, but the final one has over a 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:08.720 million views, just bumped over a million, and uh I 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:13.560 was I was fried by the equine community in many places. 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:16.680 Uh Man, trolls are everywhere. They're not just in the 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:20.639 hunting world, but they're in every world. There's there's people 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:22.639 that just love to just get on there and just 0:23:22.680 --> 0:23:26.639 say you're an idiot, but yeah it is. He's a 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:32.240 good mule now, um despite me not being very uh 0:23:32.480 --> 0:23:37.520 me being green, but is he's an incredible animal. So 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:40.119 back to the start of our hunt. We make the 0:23:40.160 --> 0:23:43.960 Montana we ride and I would within the first hour 0:23:44.080 --> 0:23:49.439 of the hunt the ride you you were tested. Do 0:23:49.440 --> 0:23:51.399 you want you want to tell this person? Try? I 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:54.119 don't know if it's better from my perspective. You're your perspective. 0:23:54.119 --> 0:23:55.520 Will you tell the first you tell it and then 0:23:55.560 --> 0:23:57.720 I'll add to it. All right? Yeah, so we get 0:23:57.760 --> 0:24:01.560