Speaker 1: You're listening to the Sportsman's Nation podcast network powered by
Speaker 1: Interstate Batteries from your truck to your trail camera. Interstate
Speaker 1: Batteries as you covered. Visit your local Interstate Batteries store
Speaker 1: today or online at Interstate Batteries dot com. Interstate Batteries
Speaker 1: Outrageously Dependable. My name is Clay Nukeleman. I'm the host
Speaker 1: of the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also be your
Speaker 1: host into the world of hunting the icon of North
Speaker 1: American wilderness to batter we'll talk about tactics, gear conservation.
Speaker 1: Will also bring you into some of the wildest country
Speaker 1: on the planet. Chasing the Battery. It's a beautiful spring
Speaker 1: day here in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, and we
Speaker 1: just got done recording this podcast that you're about to
Speaker 1: listen to with our friend brand Ending Atoms from Major
Speaker 1: League bow Hunter. Brandon killed a bear over in Oklahoma
Speaker 1: this last year and first bear that he ever took.
Speaker 1: We spend about an hour talking with him about a
Speaker 1: special project that he's working on that you'll be able
Speaker 1: to watch and learn more about later this fall. But
Speaker 1: we're talking about this unique Oklahoma based hunting project. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna give it away. But on this podcast, Brandon's
Speaker 1: a neat guy. He's been working full time in the
Speaker 1: outdoor industry for the last ten or twelve years, and
Speaker 1: we had a fun conversation with Brandon Adams. You're gonna
Speaker 1: enjoy this podcast. I want to introduce something today that
Speaker 1: is gonna be new to everybody that's listening to our podcast.
Speaker 1: We have become Patreon members. We now have a Bear
Speaker 1: Hunting Magazine Patreon account. For those of you who are
Speaker 1: not familiar with Patreon, Patreon is a way for people,
Speaker 1: if they so choose, out of the volition of their
Speaker 1: own heart, out of the out of the uh, the
Speaker 1: gratitude in their own heart for quality outdoor related content,
Speaker 1: you could become a Patreon and give money monthly to
Speaker 1: the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast and our YouTube channel. This
Speaker 1: is so basically the way this works, guys, is people
Speaker 1: produce this content and this is a way for people
Speaker 1: to support them. Now, you can support Bear Hunting Magazine
Speaker 1: by by by becoming a subscriber to Bear Hunting Magazine
Speaker 1: to our print magazine. So that helps us, that helps you.
Speaker 1: You get something in return for that. But if that
Speaker 1: just isn't what you're interested in doing, then you could
Speaker 1: become a Patreon of Bear Hunting Magazine. And the way
Speaker 1: that you would do that is you would go to
Speaker 1: our podcast page on the bear dash Hunting dot com website,
Speaker 1: and when you go to our podcast page, you'll see
Speaker 1: a link to Patreon, and on that link you'll see
Speaker 1: we have like three different tiers, and these different tiers
Speaker 1: get different things. So when you become Patreon, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be creating uh some exclusive content, not much. All our
Speaker 1: content is always going to be free from a digital platform.
Speaker 1: We're not saying you have to be a Patreon member
Speaker 1: to listen to this podcast or watch our videos or anything,
Speaker 1: but we are gonna do some kind of like uh
Speaker 1: impromptu updates that we're gonna give to people that are
Speaker 1: that are supporting us on Patreon. There's also some packages
Speaker 1: of Patreon, so like you give a certain amount per
Speaker 1: month and you get our DVDs, you get access to
Speaker 1: uh to early viewings of a couple of videos that
Speaker 1: we're gonna post on YouTube at different times. Um So, anyway,
Speaker 1: check it out and if you know, if you don't
Speaker 1: want to, don't check it out, but check it out
Speaker 1: and uh that's just the way that you can help
Speaker 1: us create more content because we we work hard at
Speaker 1: the magazine and that's that's primary the core of our business.
Speaker 1: But we're also producing this other content and uh, and
Speaker 1: we're just trying to continue to do it better. So hey,
Speaker 1: thanks for checking out the Bear Hunting Magazine Podcast. You're
Speaker 1: gonna enjoy this episode with Brandon Adams. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Bear Hunting Magazine Podcast. I believe the date is April third,
Speaker 1: third three, I like living in the future. April. We're
Speaker 1: at the Bear Hunting Magazine Global headquarters and we have
Speaker 1: a awesome guest in the office today, Mr Brandon Adams
Speaker 1: from Oklahoma. I also have uh, also have Colby moorehead
Speaker 1: of Bear Hunting Magazine here and so bear Tech Bear
Speaker 1: Huney Magazine, bear Tech is here. And I'll tell you
Speaker 1: why Brandon is here. For Brandon, I'm gonna give a
Speaker 1: little introduction of you, of what I know of you,
Speaker 1: and then but I want you to I mean, this
Speaker 1: podcast is gonna be about talking about some stuff that
Speaker 1: Brandon is doing, some projects. Brandon's the new bear hunter,
Speaker 1: uh and broader than that. But so Brandon Adams, he
Speaker 1: is a he's been with Major League bow Hunter, which
Speaker 1: is a show on the Outdoor Channel channel Dang Sportsman's Channel,
Speaker 1: Sportsman's Channel for many years. So Brandon has been on
Speaker 1: the show, a hunter, on the show, a videographer. He's
Speaker 1: also the he's the producer of the show. So that's
Speaker 1: that's kind of what you do. So and I met
Speaker 1: Brandon a couple of years ago through a friend of
Speaker 1: ours that introduced us because Brandon, he's from Oklahoma, but
Speaker 1: you're really not from the part of Oklahoma where the
Speaker 1: bears are, and so you we we got connected about
Speaker 1: Oklahoma black bear hunting and you were gonna be doing
Speaker 1: some hunting and uh so that's how we met, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: probably three years ago or something. Uh no, it was
Speaker 1: the beginning of it's been a little over a year,
Speaker 1: is that all we ended up? Like I've known you
Speaker 1: for three that's right. As much as also April that's
Speaker 1: really ap is not a hopefully because a is my
Speaker 1: wedding anniversary and this year is my tenth. Thank you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you would know if it was. I would definitely on
Speaker 1: My wife would definitely let me know about it. Uh
Speaker 1: But yeah, we we met last year, Tim, so little
Speaker 1: over a year. But I text you so much and
Speaker 1: ask you so many questions that it's felt like three years. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: well that's that's what it is. Man. You've texted me
Speaker 1: three years worth of friendship. Now you know what. It's awesome.
Speaker 1: But anybody that's wanting to I mean you you asked
Speaker 1: good questions, so that's good. But okay, tell us Brandon
Speaker 1: give me. I think a lot of people I was
Speaker 1: interested when I met you a year ago, uh to
Speaker 1: learn how you got involved with Major League bow Hunter
Speaker 1: and kind of how just kind of your story. So
Speaker 1: why why don't you tell us your story of how?
Speaker 1: Because you you make live in full time of the
Speaker 1: outdoor industry. That's just what you do. And uh so
Speaker 1: give us, give us the story of how you got
Speaker 1: hooked up with these guys. Oh boy, where do we
Speaker 1: want to start this story? Uh? Okay, I'll start the
Speaker 1: abbreviated version of my history. Um. I started filming Hunts
Speaker 1: whenever I was a kid. Wait, wait, this story is
Speaker 1: supposed to start. I was born in the small Show.
Speaker 1: I was born in central Local. I was born in
Speaker 1: late eighties in California. Oh no, no, no, I I
Speaker 1: wanted it to be I was born in the small
Speaker 1: tar paper Shock and the foothills of Oklahoma. Nope, Nope,
Speaker 1: I was I was born on We'll we'll edit this
Speaker 1: and uh we'll have a cooler story later. No, but
Speaker 1: I was born in California, actually on a military base.
Speaker 1: Bounce around in the military, my army bratt, bounce around
Speaker 1: for a little bit, and ended up back in central Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: which is where my family is from. But I've been infatuated.
Speaker 1: I was fortunately very fortunate to grow up on a
Speaker 1: farm and ranch. So, uh, that's fortunately a couple of ways. One, Uh,
Speaker 1: it is stealed upon me a work ethic because I've
Speaker 1: been working since I was nine years old, you know,
Speaker 1: talking about eighteen hour days as a you know, eleven
Speaker 1: twelve year old hall and hey, you know, doing hey
Speaker 1: and doing the ranch stuff. And um, luckily to have
Speaker 1: that you know in my blood, and yeah, exactly, because
Speaker 1: it's super easy to stand out, uh in a world
Speaker 1: of office people that aren't used to working hard. You know,
Speaker 1: office work is super easy to me because I grew
Speaker 1: up doing you know, working on my back. Uh. Super
Speaker 1: lucky there, and also super fortunate to have all that
Speaker 1: land to go stomping around just some animals, hunting, fishing.
Speaker 1: If it was in season. In Oklahoma, I was hunting.
Speaker 1: And it was lucky to have a a family that
Speaker 1: not only supported me, but encouraged me um to get
Speaker 1: out there as much as possible. And I grew up
Speaker 1: playing sports. So I was a super busy kid. I
Speaker 1: don't know how my parents did it, honestly, but I
Speaker 1: was always infatuated. I mean literally from a ten eleven
Speaker 1: year old kid, and I was in I took a
Speaker 1: VHS camera, you know, one of the big shoulder cameras
Speaker 1: that my mom and dad had up in the closet,
Speaker 1: and I would take it out and I would film
Speaker 1: hunting stuff. I'll go outside and filming birds. I go
Speaker 1: outside trying to film deer out in the backyard. And uh,
Speaker 1: I remember hooking up VCRs in a line with you know,
Speaker 1: like the r C A Jackson. You used them in
Speaker 1: a line to take raw footage into and create you know,
Speaker 1: quote unquote edited VHS. Yeah, which I mean this was
Speaker 1: in the nineties, so there was definitely higher technology around,
Speaker 1: but that's what I used. But I actually, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you this. Uh not a lot of people know this,
Speaker 1: but whenever I was ten years old. This is true.
Speaker 1: I had Yeah. Well people don't believe this, but I
Speaker 1: had a buddy who was also my age, who knew
Speaker 1: HTML code as a ten year old, and he taught
Speaker 1: me how to write HTML code. And as ten year
Speaker 1: olds we created websites, you know in the nineties. Uh
Speaker 1: Mine was called Okay White Tales for Oklahoma White Tales.
Speaker 1: He was a big turkey hunter and so his was
Speaker 1: called Turkey Hunting HQ. Well it was, it was not.
Speaker 1: We didn't own the domain. It was dot zero catch.
Speaker 1: It may still be online, Honestly, I haven't logged on.
Speaker 1: I don't even know. So if you go to Okay
Speaker 1: White Tales dot zero, like the number zero catch dot com,
Speaker 1: see some of your old work. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I went under a pseudo name. So I went under
Speaker 1: Brandon Jones. Yep, that's that's a true story as a
Speaker 1: ten eleven year old, a ten year old. You we
Speaker 1: want to know. I know you own a magazine, but
Speaker 1: you want to know something funny about what I think
Speaker 1: about outdoor writers. And this proves my story. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna say too much, but I read everything I could.
Speaker 1: I get a fatuate of things and and I was
Speaker 1: reading everything I could, you know, magazines, books, which at
Speaker 1: the time there was hardly any you know, hunting books. Uh,
Speaker 1: but I was everyone I could, and I was just
Speaker 1: regurgitating that. So I was able to put down on
Speaker 1: you know, pen and pad articles that I was just
Speaker 1: regurgitating things that I had read previously. So they would
Speaker 1: be putting these on your website, They're on They're on
Speaker 1: my website. Yes, I'm sure I don't know what I
Speaker 1: truly don't know what's on there, but there is definitely
Speaker 1: tips on there from a ten or eleven year old
Speaker 1: Brandon Adams. Uh, now, how old are you that, Brandon,
Speaker 1: I'm trying I turned thirty Saturday. Actually, yeah, so I'm
Speaker 1: I'm on the right side of it. Would have been
Speaker 1: the late nineties. Yes, ninety I was trying to quit
Speaker 1: in the internet. I mean, that's really about when the
Speaker 1: Internet really started coming to people. It was a little
Speaker 1: more mainstream, but totally not mainstream. That's why we went
Speaker 1: inner a pseudent name, because it was like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I was ten for one, and it was you know,
Speaker 1: everyone was afraid of losing their identity, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was just new. No one knew what it was uh, so,
Speaker 1: like I said, one in Brandon Jones and he went
Speaker 1: under his names. I don't know, I don't want to
Speaker 1: say his name, but he went under his suder name too. Uh.
Speaker 1: But anyway, there there's regurgitated articles on that website if
Speaker 1: you can find it. But anyway, from there, it led
Speaker 1: to getting my hands on a newer you know, a
Speaker 1: newer camera as a high eight camera and um my
Speaker 1: button different. Buddy and I we started shoot competitive archeries,
Speaker 1: traveling the country doing that, and then that led to
Speaker 1: us to filming each other's hunt in the fall. Uh.
Speaker 1: That led to Uh, there was a local TV show
Speaker 1: and out of Olcahoma City that was taking applications for
Speaker 1: a pro staff and this was in the early two thousand,
Speaker 1: mid two thousands, and Uh, I applied us without asking him.
Speaker 1: Actually it was a two. And this is really I
Speaker 1: did live by my age. I was. I've always been.
Speaker 1: This is true. I don't know. I'm not gonna lie
Speaker 1: lie about this, but I've always lied about my age.
Speaker 1: I always feel uh discriminated against because of your because
Speaker 1: I've always been young. You know, even one day that'll change,
Speaker 1: I know, And I am really I mean I'm really
Speaker 1: looking forward to my thirties because you just turned thirty.
Speaker 1: I turned I haven't turned thirty. I turned thirty Saturday. Really, yeah,
Speaker 1: I've got a good I've got a good quote about
Speaker 1: Daniel Boone's life, about a man's thirties. I have to
Speaker 1: share with you, like I don't want to miste. The
Speaker 1: thirties are like, thirties are a good decade. I'm coming
Speaker 1: out of my thirties. Well, I'll be forty in September.
Speaker 1: Well you did it. Yeah, yeah, I made it out
Speaker 1: my twenties. So well I haven't I've made a Saturday yet. Uh. Well,
Speaker 1: this is the this is the good version. I wasn't
Speaker 1: sure what version we're gonna get. Yeah, we got the
Speaker 1: HTML code, we got the website ahead. I always so. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I was sixteen whenever I applied for for this
Speaker 1: pro staff. But I so, I told him I was seventeen.
Speaker 1: Why I did that? I have no idea. Also, fun fact,
Speaker 1: when I met my wife, I was seventeen going into
Speaker 1: my senior year, which would have been the next year. Uh,
Speaker 1: I told her I was eight team because she's older
Speaker 1: than me. You know, I was going into my scene.
Speaker 1: What did you know how she found out. I was
Speaker 1: on the phone with her and then on my cell phone,
Speaker 1: and then the house phone rang and it was a
Speaker 1: I think it was a college recruiter, like for a
Speaker 1: sports or something. It could have been, I don't as
Speaker 1: a recruiter some kind. And he was asking me a
Speaker 1: bunch of questions, and I put my wife or my girlfriend,
Speaker 1: you know, down like this, and I was talking to
Speaker 1: this recruiter. I was on the phone for them like
Speaker 1: ten minutes, and that's all kinds of questions about myself,
Speaker 1: including my birthday, and mind you, that was like one
Speaker 1: of the first questions. And then we talked for like
Speaker 1: five minutes, ten minutes, and then I hang up with him,
Speaker 1: and then I picked the phone. She said, when did
Speaker 1: you say your birthday was? What year did you say
Speaker 1: you were born? And I was like, oh, and she yeah,
Speaker 1: So she's three years older. She's three years and two
Speaker 1: weeks older than me, which means for two weeks out
Speaker 1: of the year, including right now, she's four years older
Speaker 1: than me. So kind of just gave away my wife's age.
Speaker 1: But sorry, babe, I love you. Uh But anyway, the
Speaker 1: point was is I did lie about my age. There
Speaker 1: we got accepted on the pro staff. Was again I've
Speaker 1: I've been very blessed and very fortunate throughout my life
Speaker 1: to have opportunities, but also been very fortunate to take
Speaker 1: advantage of opportunities. And our first year on uh pro
Speaker 1: staff for this local TV show, which at the time
Speaker 1: was just now getting into remember the Men's channel m
Speaker 1: O R. It turned into uh I believe it turned
Speaker 1: into Sportsmans Channel. Yeah. Um, anyway, we were, we were
Speaker 1: that show was just going on the Men's channel, and
Speaker 1: my partner and I, my hunting partner and I we
Speaker 1: had a really good first year and that set up
Speaker 1: set us up really good for uh, you know, the
Speaker 1: upcoming season, and uh that next year we had another
Speaker 1: I had a really good year and we we split up,
Speaker 1: and then the owner of the show that was on
Speaker 1: asked me if I wanted to film him, you know,
Speaker 1: as a full time field producer, and I was like, oh, yep,
Speaker 1: And so that next fall I I filmed him, which
Speaker 1: was so my first year actually getting a paycheck in
Speaker 1: the outdoor industry was two thousand and eight. So this
Speaker 1: is uh, what does that even eleventh season? Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: twelve season, Uh yeah, going into my twelve season nine,
Speaker 1: um or eleventh, No. Seven was the first year I
Speaker 1: filmed him. Anyway, the point is I've been filming professionally,
Speaker 1: quote unquote professionally since he was seven. I've been in
Speaker 1: the outdoor industry since oh five. So how how did
Speaker 1: you get in with the major league? So the owner
Speaker 1: of that company, we were in cahoots with this other
Speaker 1: company called Buck Commander with Matt Duff and Chipper and
Speaker 1: you know, a bunch of rochy and lanky and Tombo Robertson.
Speaker 1: Uh Willie we Uh was in goods with them. And
Speaker 1: the show that we were on and the show that
Speaker 1: they were on, they wanted to focus they are you know,
Speaker 1: there was a group of them that was, you know,
Speaker 1: die hard bow hunters, and they wanted to make a
Speaker 1: show that was just about bow hunting and was educational.
Speaker 1: And that was where Majorie bow Hunter was born. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so at the time I was producing the other show,
Speaker 1: and uh, they asked me if I could produce this
Speaker 1: show too, Major Lee bow Hunter. And mind you, I
Speaker 1: only had a year or two of experience, but I
Speaker 1: was like, sure, why not? Who needs to sleep? You know?
Speaker 1: We could do that when I'm dead, when I'm forty. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what you've been researching. Yeah, but anyway, that was
Speaker 1: that was I've been around Majorie bow Hunter since the beginning,
Speaker 1: literally the very first they start, uh we started filming
Speaker 1: in we're back. We're actually filming for season ten right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'm putting together the episodes for season nine. We
Speaker 1: filmed last you know fall, and then you're about to
Speaker 1: start filming season so we'll be filming uh not next week,
Speaker 1: with the week after that or some in the field
Speaker 1: stuff for some you know, putting together some properties and
Speaker 1: stuff that will be four season ten, which is really
Speaker 1: cool to be producing the show that long and be
Speaker 1: a part of the show that long. And uh, since
Speaker 1: I started as a producer as a film producer and
Speaker 1: then a producer, and then that led to I kind
Speaker 1: of stepped down as film producing. I just did the
Speaker 1: producing part and I kind of i'd say over Sue,
Speaker 1: you know, I make sure that the film producers got
Speaker 1: what we what I needed to make a show. And
Speaker 1: then since then, I've taken over a lot of day
Speaker 1: to day operations at Major Lee bow Hunter. You know,
Speaker 1: we're fortunate to have a good mark, you know, I
Speaker 1: Major Lee bow Hunter is real strong logo, and so
Speaker 1: I I had a lot of business stuff. I had
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, behind the scenes, not just
Speaker 1: on the TV's TV show side. So yeah, it's uh,
Speaker 1: I've been like I said, I've been very fortunate to
Speaker 1: have the opportunities. I've been very fortunate to take advantage
Speaker 1: of the ones I've got. Well, it's evidence extremely hard
Speaker 1: worker even that you're here. Drove three hours today to
Speaker 1: to compare and meet with us, but also to work
Speaker 1: on this project that we're gonna talk about here in
Speaker 1: just a minute. And and that's really what it takes.
Speaker 1: You know, when I when I meet people that are
Speaker 1: professional videographers and you we when we talk about like
Speaker 1: working in the outdoor industry to create content. I think
Speaker 1: sometimes people the general feeling sometimes of people that are
Speaker 1: professionals from people who are not professionals can sometimes be
Speaker 1: sort of negative, maybe not negative, but just like like, uh,
Speaker 1: just thinking that maybe people not understanding people's motivations and
Speaker 1: what I what I like to see and somebody like
Speaker 1: you is I mean, you're a passionate hunter. I mean
Speaker 1: that's that is your motivation for all the work that
Speaker 1: you've done. And now granted the work side of it.
Speaker 1: I mean, like you're technically skilled and you learned a
Speaker 1: lot of these skills, but really the fuel for all
Speaker 1: that was the desire to work inside of an industry
Speaker 1: that you loved. And I mean just that that just
Speaker 1: being a being a hunter. I think sometimes people see
Speaker 1: people that are professionals, especially television and television guys have
Speaker 1: the have the bad rap, and I think it's because
Speaker 1: some people maybe are jealous. I don't know, but but
Speaker 1: like I mean, I don't know. I just want to
Speaker 1: say that because sometimes I hear guys people talking about
Speaker 1: producing television shows and sometimes like the hunting side of
Speaker 1: it gets lost. But I don't see that getting lost
Speaker 1: inside of you. I mean, like you're you're, you're, you're,
Speaker 1: you love it, You're passionate about it. When I set
Speaker 1: out to I mean I truly did set out to
Speaker 1: be in this industry. I set out to make a
Speaker 1: living in the outdoor world. I don't know how I
Speaker 1: was gonna do it. I'm gonna be a guide. I
Speaker 1: didn't know if I was gonna you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know what I was gonna do. I stood up at
Speaker 1: my senior year in high school. I stood up in
Speaker 1: like this leadership, uh you know, counts are meeting or whatever,
Speaker 1: in front of all the leaders of my hometown and
Speaker 1: told them that I wanted to be a professional hunter
Speaker 1: and they all laughed. Now I'm kind of a cut
Speaker 1: up and you know, make people laugh, you know. Anyway,
Speaker 1: so they laughed, and I wasn't joking. And to say
Speaker 1: that that didn't have a little put a little grit
Speaker 1: in my belly, you know, to to make it, make
Speaker 1: me work. You can go harder? Uh would it? Would
Speaker 1: it be a lie? But like I said earlier, you know,
Speaker 1: not that long ago. I was fortunate to grow up
Speaker 1: on a farm to learn a good work ethic and
Speaker 1: that has led well into the century. And the negative
Speaker 1: uh connotation uh people have for celebrities, and that's a
Speaker 1: that's a terrible world. But for the it's actually probably
Speaker 1: getting worse because of the world of social media. You know,
Speaker 1: people put influencer, public figure, whatever, I think they're more
Speaker 1: than they're not. Some people are in it for different
Speaker 1: motives than others. But I truly love, I truly love
Speaker 1: making a living and uh providing for my family. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not only you know, by the animals I bring in,
Speaker 1: but yeah, from the financial. But the other thing that
Speaker 1: I think people don't understand is that it took a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of sacrifice. Like they might see you now saying, oh, man,
Speaker 1: you're producing major league bo Hunter and get the hunt
Speaker 1: and do all this all the time, Like, man, there's
Speaker 1: no safeguard, Like I'm constantly kind of just watching people
Speaker 1: that I know. I mean, just my friends that have
Speaker 1: like normal jobs and have like consistent pay and have
Speaker 1: benefits and get paid time off, and when they leave
Speaker 1: work at five o'clock, they don't have to think about
Speaker 1: it again until eight o'clock the next morning. Like there's
Speaker 1: a massive amount of sacrifice that goes into stuff, and
Speaker 1: it's not for everybody, nor could everybody do it. And
Speaker 1: I don't say that from a position of everybody. I
Speaker 1: mean it's just like I don't know, there's only so
Speaker 1: many spots carved out where somebody could make a living
Speaker 1: in an outdoor industry. Like I I've had people ask me, Clay,
Speaker 1: what would you suggest for someone that wants to make
Speaker 1: a living in the outdoor industry? And I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't have a ton of suggestions, kind of like
Speaker 1: drowning their dreams. I mean, like, I feel like what
Speaker 1: what I've done was almost scripted out for me. I mean,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of stuff that happened that I
Speaker 1: couldn't have controlled, if I could say, just like my
Speaker 1: buddy that is highly successful in the Walmart corporation, like
Speaker 1: a whole lot of stuff and happened for him that
Speaker 1: that he couldn't have scripted, you know. And I'm not
Speaker 1: discounting hard work or intent because but honestly, I never
Speaker 1: had an intent to work in outdoor industry. And maybe
Speaker 1: that's why my perspective is a little bit different. But
Speaker 1: I never really like I always thought it was kind
Speaker 1: of a pipe dream, and maybe this is remnants of that.
Speaker 1: I was, like, man, I just gotta but but I
Speaker 1: found myself making decisions over time that constantly favored me
Speaker 1: being in the woods, you know. Like I I've started
Speaker 1: my own business, and that not this business, but another
Speaker 1: one that allowed me to to hunt a lot that
Speaker 1: gave me a lot of freedom, that allowed me to
Speaker 1: not have a boss that could tell me when and
Speaker 1: when not to work, you know. So I kind of
Speaker 1: geared my life towards this, and for other reasons too,
Speaker 1: for my family, I wanted to raise my family and
Speaker 1: be able to do what I wanted to do. But anyway,
Speaker 1: because a lot of people, I feel like that's a
Speaker 1: question a lot of people have, is like how do
Speaker 1: you get into that door industry? And I actually hate
Speaker 1: to even bring that question up on this podcast. Well
Speaker 1: you know I get that all the time as well.
Speaker 1: And the number one thing I tell people, if they
Speaker 1: truly want to do it, they gotta try. A lot
Speaker 1: of people don't try. I know, that's a that's a
Speaker 1: silly way. A lot of people will give up. A
Speaker 1: lot of people don't try. A lot of people give
Speaker 1: up quickly. You know, I wanted this. I wanted to
Speaker 1: make a living in the outdoor industry. However I could.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's fortunate, It's not not the right word. Um.
Speaker 1: I was able to push through not making money for
Speaker 1: many years. I mean it's a lot of sacrifice and
Speaker 1: a lot of quarrels with you know, my beautiful wife.
Speaker 1: But you know, there was there was several years where
Speaker 1: we weren't making nothing. I mean I'm talking, you know,
Speaker 1: making I don't want to get into specifics, but you know,
Speaker 1: making ten twelve thousand dollars a year because I was
Speaker 1: trying to make it. I was trying to do it.
Speaker 1: I did that for two or three years where we
Speaker 1: were and and she was a full time student, she
Speaker 1: had we had a young daughter, and I mean there
Speaker 1: was a price, there was a there was a but
Speaker 1: I worked my butt off and it's it's paid off.
Speaker 1: I found a career. You know. Now, I've been told
Speaker 1: by numerous people, I'm on the wrong side of my
Speaker 1: career in this industry. But what do you mean, like
Speaker 1: that television is television it's getting too says very saturated.
Speaker 1: Television is specifically is well not even television, but just content,
Speaker 1: the content and everyone can create content, everyone can create.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of people like great, great content
Speaker 1: that you can get for free online which we offer.
Speaker 1: I know, I know it's horrendous, uh but you know,
Speaker 1: like the Bear Honey magazine YouTube channel to subscribe. But
Speaker 1: uh but the I guess sponsorship dollars. Like when I
Speaker 1: was first coming in the industry was the heyday. You know,
Speaker 1: there there was there was a small crop of really
Speaker 1: outlets that these companies could go to. Now now they
Speaker 1: can they can distribute that money little bits here and
Speaker 1: there and to get get a bigger and they have
Speaker 1: every right to. I mean, that's they're trying to reach
Speaker 1: with me and people as possible. So you just gotta
Speaker 1: be you gotta be creative. And just like whenever you know,
Speaker 1: I was making you know, less than a thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a month, you gotta work your butt off, work through it,
Speaker 1: and figure figure out to make work. And like I said,
Speaker 1: we're very fortunate. I mean, uh at Major Bower to
Speaker 1: have a to have a good logo. Basically, you don't
Speaker 1: have a good mark. You don't have to know what
Speaker 1: really good people recognize for sure, Well you don't even
Speaker 1: have to know what the show is about. If you
Speaker 1: walk into a story you're online, you see and you're
Speaker 1: a bow hunter, you see Major Lee bow Hunter, you
Speaker 1: identify with that mark. And and we we're lucky to
Speaker 1: have that because a lot of a lot of TV
Speaker 1: shows are trying to sell you know, their show as
Speaker 1: a brand, where really, our brand has a TV show.
Speaker 1: Yeah you know, so yeah, I'll see what you're saying. Well,
Speaker 1: that's a good introduction to kind of get you to
Speaker 1: where where you're at right now. And so what we
Speaker 1: really want to talk about is we want to talk
Speaker 1: well we want to talk about the broader project, which
Speaker 1: I think I'll let you introduce, but we also want
Speaker 1: to talk about Oklahoma Black Bear because the project entails that.
Speaker 1: So why don't you give a give like a one
Speaker 1: minute version of the of the project and kind of
Speaker 1: the intent of it, and then we can dive in
Speaker 1: and and I would like to nerd out a little
Speaker 1: bit on Oklahoma black Bear. I would love to hear it. Uh.
Speaker 1: So basically what we're doing here is this last fall,
Speaker 1: I was very fortunate too, uh attempt something that I've
Speaker 1: been me into attempt for a long time, and it's
Speaker 1: called the Oklahoma Grand Slam. In Oklahoma, we're very lucky
Speaker 1: to have five honorable population of five big game animals. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And and all over the counter tags and regulated seasons
Speaker 1: for nonresidents residents life uh, which is black bear, elk antelope,
Speaker 1: white tail, and mule deer uh. And and honestly, most people,
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't even know about a lot
Speaker 1: of bet if you were to pull the listeners right
Speaker 1: now and you would have said, how many of those
Speaker 1: animals would you have known were in Oklahoma? I bet
Speaker 1: money most of them would have said one of those animals,
Speaker 1: probably one. You're right, I mean really and low mule, deer, elk,
Speaker 1: black bear, and not just in the state honnible populations,
Speaker 1: because in Oklahoma too we have I mean, we have
Speaker 1: a honible population of odd Dad, which I didn't know
Speaker 1: until I started this adventure. We have big horn sheep
Speaker 1: up in the black up in the black Nasa, up
Speaker 1: in the very tip of the deal. I had no
Speaker 1: idea we have big horn sheep that even we're the
Speaker 1: big horn sheep native to Oklahoma or did they think,
Speaker 1: I know, the odd Dad obviously would not be a
Speaker 1: north Yeah, that's definitely. Uh. I have no idea if
Speaker 1: the big horn sheep migrated naturally or they're in the
Speaker 1: very I'm sure they were introduced at some point like
Speaker 1: in like these animals were actually reintroduced there. I know
Speaker 1: that for sure. But my question, and you know, would
Speaker 1: be would they be native to Oklahoma? No idea, I
Speaker 1: really don't. And we have, you know, obviously, mountain lion,
Speaker 1: especially up in the Panhandle, there's a pretty pretty healthy
Speaker 1: population amount. No season on mountain there is no season amount.
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of a weird deal in the regulations
Speaker 1: if you ever read it, because it's you have to
Speaker 1: have a hunting license to kill one, but there's no
Speaker 1: season on it, and you're not allowed to kill one
Speaker 1: that's it's threatening you. But if it's threatening you, why
Speaker 1: do you have the hunting licenses to kill it? You
Speaker 1: see what I'm saying. That's kind of weird, right, got it.
Speaker 1: But there's definitely a pretty good population in the Panhandle,
Speaker 1: and of course you know there's sightings everywhere as Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's just the way it is. But anyway, Uh, that's
Speaker 1: that's what it's called. Then the project it called is
Speaker 1: called Slammed. It's gonna be a basically a ninety ninety
Speaker 1: minute film, So it's a full length feature film, be
Speaker 1: a feature basically a feature film. Yeah, it's gonna air
Speaker 1: on the Sportsman's Channel. We haven't nailed down the exact
Speaker 1: air time, but it'll air sometime this year. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then once it airs there go online to digital platform
Speaker 1: and probably uh. And so it's a it's a ninety
Speaker 1: minute film about you last year harvesting all of those
Speaker 1: big game animals no Colomba. Wow, And I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: So you gonna get into the story of how it
Speaker 1: came about. Okay, So I the this has only been
Speaker 1: possible for the last ten years because the bear season came.
Speaker 1: The first Oaklahoma bear season that I'm aware of regular
Speaker 1: hold season was in two thousand nine, and um, my
Speaker 1: first bear hunt ever was in two thousand fourteen and
Speaker 1: when and two thousand four and that was kind of
Speaker 1: when I really realized what we had in our state.
Speaker 1: We had five big em animals all over counter tags. Uh.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to attempt it then, but I didn't
Speaker 1: have the resources, you know, to really do it. And
Speaker 1: what happened was I wasn't one of my really good
Speaker 1: friends weddings, our wedding, um this last or to that
Speaker 1: the fall to seventeen, and his father and I was
Speaker 1: now father in law, came up to me and asked
Speaker 1: me if I ever want to hunt elk in Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: that I have told me that I have a place
Speaker 1: to hunt elk, and I'm like, let's go. And once
Speaker 1: I realized I had an elk property, I already had
Speaker 1: obviously white tail uh and very fortunate that make Bowler
Speaker 1: has a lease in the Panhandle that has muled deer.
Speaker 1: So now I only needed to I needed black bear,
Speaker 1: I need antelope. So I hit up Instagram because why
Speaker 1: wouldn't you hit up Instagram as a late twenties, uh
Speaker 1: young man millennial? I am, yeah, I think I'm squarely
Speaker 1: in the millennial millennial range there. Uh. But I end
Speaker 1: up Instagram and very very very fortunate. Within within an hour,
Speaker 1: I had an antelope property. Yeah with what I had
Speaker 1: dozens of leads too, but I hadn't had the guy
Speaker 1: that I ended up hunting with Mr Zach Alvin. And
Speaker 1: then I end up hitting the lead on bear in
Speaker 1: southeastern Oklahoma. Had Jason Curtis here. He runs an operation
Speaker 1: down They're called off grad white tails, and he was
Speaker 1: super super grageous uh that he allowed me to come down.
Speaker 1: Um are super thankful that he allowed me to come down.
Speaker 1: Uh and black bear on his property and wit tail
Speaker 1: to um. But after getting all five of those, my
Speaker 1: elk property actually fell through. And so now I've already
Speaker 1: told everyone I'm doing and I'm missing an elk and
Speaker 1: I have to, you know, obviously have an elk property
Speaker 1: because in Oklahoma it's over the counter tag for help.
Speaker 1: But the only catch is you for over counter tag,
Speaker 1: you have to hunt on private ground, right, so you
Speaker 1: gotta have landowner permission, correct, So to have that you
Speaker 1: have to have you have to have a landowner give
Speaker 1: you permission. And so what I did is I called
Speaker 1: every person I knew down there, and that didn't work.
Speaker 1: So then I opened up, uh, you know that the
Speaker 1: apps on my phone, which I used an app called
Speaker 1: hunt Stand, and was looking at, you know, uh the
Speaker 1: different landowners and you know, gives their phone number on there,
Speaker 1: and was dialing I mean dozens of phone numbers, and uh,
Speaker 1: none of the everyone said no, everyone's brother and everyone's cousin.
Speaker 1: Everyone hunted these out because you know, it's a very
Speaker 1: finite amount of land that has that resource seems could
Speaker 1: be a very coveted, very coveted tag it is. What's
Speaker 1: a coveted Yeah, yeah it is. It's coveted to have
Speaker 1: a property that has them on it, the huntible population. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I can end up contacting Buddy Brett Cardon, who runs
Speaker 1: an outfit in southwestern Oklahoma, and I was kind of
Speaker 1: curious if he had elk himself because he's in that
Speaker 1: kind of the area, and he said he didn't, but
Speaker 1: he knew of someone that might. And within an hour
Speaker 1: I end up having the property that I end up
Speaker 1: hunting on, which I say that the guy that gave
Speaker 1: me permission, he had a three He had three acres,
Speaker 1: and he said, more than welcome, come out. His name
Speaker 1: is Trevor Johnson. He's become a great friend by the way.
Speaker 1: He uh said, you're more than welcome hunt here. But
Speaker 1: only three and twenty acres legitimately thirty of it was
Speaker 1: even hauntable. The rest of it was as flat as
Speaker 1: this floor. Uh. And then the other thirty went up
Speaker 1: the side of this mountain. And when I talking about
Speaker 1: a mountain, this is a Dagon mountain very north in
Speaker 1: the witch Tall Mountains. Well, what he did is he
Speaker 1: used me as an as a reason to contact his
Speaker 1: neighbor who doesn't allow hunting, and he used me, told him,
Speaker 1: told him what I was doing, and got me permission
Speaker 1: to hunt on his neighbor's day, which has almost two
Speaker 1: thousand acres of some of the prettiest and prime elk
Speaker 1: cap that you've seen. Right. Let me, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know that part of Oklahoma at all. I mean
Speaker 1: I've I don't even really think I've driven through there.
Speaker 1: But from the pictures that I've seen, the video you
Speaker 1: showed me some video this morning, it's like it's it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like super flat. I mean, it looks like the prairie.
Speaker 1: But then there's these pretty big mountains. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it looks like they're two thousand foot fot like in
Speaker 1: over thousand foot peaks where we were at Rocky Shrubby.
Speaker 1: It almost looks like New Mexico or something. It's about
Speaker 1: how you describe it. Actually, I would describe it unlike
Speaker 1: anywhere I've ever been, just because because of the actual rock,
Speaker 1: not just composition, but the way the rocks are. It's
Speaker 1: the mountains, which not to be confused with the Washita Mountains,
Speaker 1: that's right, Yeah, it's the w U Yeah. And so
Speaker 1: like you said, it's it's super flat in the bottoms
Speaker 1: with mesquite trees and it just looks like you know,
Speaker 1: sound looks like Texas. It's super flat. And then it
Speaker 1: just runs boom right into the witch Tall Mountains, which
Speaker 1: is just you got gravel, you know, rocks the size
Speaker 1: of gravel, all wet sides of houses and and and
Speaker 1: rocky super rocky, and so whenever you're walking across this
Speaker 1: if you're jumped from rock to rock. And while we
Speaker 1: were there, it was raining the entire time, so it
Speaker 1: was really dangerous. There's a lot of rattlesnakes. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was. It was the roughest country ever been. If
Speaker 1: it was at altitude like some of the places that
Speaker 1: we hunt in Colorado and New Mexico places I've been
Speaker 1: in Montana, it would be it would be the worst.
Speaker 1: It would be the worst conditions I've ever been in.
Speaker 1: But it's luckily, you know, you're talking about you know,
Speaker 1: two thousand feet above sea level or whatever. You know,
Speaker 1: it's super low. There's there's no breathing issues. Right, So
Speaker 1: how far is that from where you live? So I'm
Speaker 1: I'm lucky because I live in central Coloma. Yeah, about
Speaker 1: two and a half three hours from just about everywhere?
Speaker 1: Is that right? From the bear and from the elk, Yes,
Speaker 1: the get to the Panham the table of the Panhaus
Speaker 1: a long way, so that's about five little over five
Speaker 1: hours five uh. And then the place that we hunt
Speaker 1: we have another the least that we for the mule
Speaker 1: deer and the where I end up killing my white tail. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's also in the Panhandle, on the east end of
Speaker 1: the Panhandle, and it's about four and a half hours away. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so uh, but yeah, luckily I'm in the central part
Speaker 1: of the state. So I'm only about two and a
Speaker 1: half from my bear, it's two and a half from
Speaker 1: the alp and you know, not too pretty incredible. Well,
Speaker 1: let me just take a minute to just say what
Speaker 1: a I think it's pretty incredible. I would not have
Speaker 1: even known and and been a neighbor to Oklahoma here
Speaker 1: in Arkansas. I mean, we're we're twenty miles from the
Speaker 1: Oklahoma border right here where we're sitting, and I would
Speaker 1: not have known that Oklahoma had all those big games,
Speaker 1: just wouldn't have even known it. So because of and
Speaker 1: it's partially because of the Panhandle, if you think about it,
Speaker 1: So the east west, the length of Oklahoma is really wide.
Speaker 1: It'd be interesting to see. I bet it's one of
Speaker 1: the widest. This would be interesting. I bet it's one
Speaker 1: of the widest states when you count the Panhandle. I mean,
Speaker 1: like obviously Texas would be wider. Yeah, you know, some
Speaker 1: someone would be. But but when you think about that,
Speaker 1: because the topography of North America changes from east to west,
Speaker 1: you go from the eastern deciduous forest into the Grand
Speaker 1: Prairie into the Rockies, you know, and so it's like
Speaker 1: the very eastern edge of Oklahoma is in the eastern
Speaker 1: deciduous forest. I mean that like, which is a massive
Speaker 1: topographic vegetative feature of North America. And then you know,
Speaker 1: you get two hours from here and you're you're pretty
Speaker 1: much in the prairie, I mean, the bread basket of
Speaker 1: the planet. And then you keep going and you almost
Speaker 1: get into the desert like high Yeah, so it goes
Speaker 1: from high desert prairie to eastern deciduous forests. And there's
Speaker 1: I don't know of any other states that encompass all
Speaker 1: those things. One of the most diverse states Texas Texas, Texas,
Speaker 1: Texas does, and I believe California. I think it's number
Speaker 1: three for the most diverse state. For that's a good
Speaker 1: statement ecosystems, like you're talking about what types of animals
Speaker 1: that it could hold just just a terrain. So like
Speaker 1: the you're talking about the eastern half of the state
Speaker 1: is uh, you know, large pine, large oaks, this big woods,
Speaker 1: giant and it transitions from there to the cross timbers,
Speaker 1: which is where I grew up, where the where the
Speaker 1: big pines meets the plains, and then it meets the
Speaker 1: plains and then you know, it has all these sub
Speaker 1: ecosystems within the state that we're very fortunate to hold,
Speaker 1: you know, large populations of different animals. Frankly, it's right on. Okay,
Speaker 1: So we've established this project and so people will be
Speaker 1: able to watch this this fall at some at at
Speaker 1: either on television or on YouTube at some point YouTube channel. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: So let's talk about your bear hunting. So this bear
Speaker 1: that you took inen was your first bear that you've killed,
Speaker 1: and so what what we're I wanted to ask you,
Speaker 1: ask you some specific questions because you already said that
Speaker 1: We've talked quite a bit and we were talking about
Speaker 1: baiting bears and whatnot, Like, what were the what was
Speaker 1: the biggest challenge inside of being successful baiting bears in Oklahoma?
Speaker 1: The biggest challenge was getting to the bait uh, running
Speaker 1: the base stations, I know, just the actual work of
Speaker 1: the actual work, the actual work of making sure that
Speaker 1: there was always food, you know, where I was wanting
Speaker 1: to be hunting. That was by far the because I
Speaker 1: you know, I'm fortunate to travel and to hunt across
Speaker 1: the country. In September is a busy month for me,
Speaker 1: and you know, our season opens up October one. But
Speaker 1: my hunting season opens up the end of October or
Speaker 1: end of August, right, and so in between trips, I
Speaker 1: was scheduling, you know, you know, driving down to to
Speaker 1: run bait in southeast Oklahoma. And I was having my
Speaker 1: my dad um hunted bear with me, and I was
Speaker 1: having him run my bay station while I was going
Speaker 1: on trips. I was going on an elk hunt for
Speaker 1: twelve days in the middle of the middle of September.
Speaker 1: And I mean our bait station was you know, running
Speaker 1: out in four or five days, so we had to
Speaker 1: make sure there's always bait there, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I didn't know this until uh, you know, it was
Speaker 1: fortunate to have you to text and to ask all
Speaker 1: these questions too. But you know, you don't want to
Speaker 1: bait to run out, you want them to I mean
Speaker 1: I learned about oil from you, like I would have
Speaker 1: never thought, yeah, grease and you know, knol and because
Speaker 1: you said that the oil gets all over their pads
Speaker 1: and the spreads across the woods, and that brings in
Speaker 1: more bears. And uh, my bait station where I actually killed,
Speaker 1: we were very lucky to have I mean a lot
Speaker 1: of bears. I mean, I hate to say the exact number.
Speaker 1: Some people that we hunt with say the exact number,
Speaker 1: you know, they give a number, but it was it
Speaker 1: was way more than one way. We had a really
Speaker 1: we had one really big four had a huge blaze
Speaker 1: on his uh, big chevron, you know, big black chevron
Speaker 1: on his chest. And then we had a big south
Speaker 1: that they were equal size, but she also had a
Speaker 1: huge chevron, and we thought, I thought it was saying
Speaker 1: bear for a long time until I got this. I
Speaker 1: got them together and they were fighting each other. Uh.
Speaker 1: But then we had we had those two We had
Speaker 1: the two boards like that with the size that I killed,
Speaker 1: and we had a couple of boars that were actually
Speaker 1: really that size. Are a few boars, and then a
Speaker 1: bunch of like random you know, salsand cubs. I mean,
Speaker 1: we had a very active bait station. And he said
Speaker 1: one place that you were baiting over there. We had
Speaker 1: one place that we ended up keeping baiting. You tried
Speaker 1: some other places that didn't work. Yeah, they didn't. They
Speaker 1: didn't they didn't like Yeah, they didn't take as well
Speaker 1: as that place. What do you think what was the
Speaker 1: problem with those bears? Weren't there wasn't secluded. Was there
Speaker 1: any factors in the successful bait that you could say
Speaker 1: these were the factors that made this one successful. Like
Speaker 1: in terms of location, Yeah, so where I killed. So
Speaker 1: where we're hunting. I don't want to give away the
Speaker 1: name of the mountain, but we're hunting on a pretty
Speaker 1: tall mountain on our property, and uh we're on the
Speaker 1: north face of it. And I think being on the
Speaker 1: north face in October helped. I don't know if this
Speaker 1: has anything at all, but I think that that's definitely
Speaker 1: the cooler side of the ountain. I think that that helped.
Speaker 1: And we were right next to a spring fed creek.
Speaker 1: I mean literally, the back of my blind was up
Speaker 1: against a creek that always had water in it. And
Speaker 1: uh so around that creek it's a big draine that
Speaker 1: goes up and down the mountains. So if animal wants
Speaker 1: to go up the mountain, which I when I say
Speaker 1: a mountain, it's you know, fet from the bottom of
Speaker 1: the top and there's a huge, you know, a gully
Speaker 1: that goes up so that if you're going to go
Speaker 1: up it, that's the easiest place to go up it.
Speaker 1: And uh so it's a natural corridor because of that,
Speaker 1: there's water there on the north side of the mountain.
Speaker 1: I think it was cool. I think then bears want
Speaker 1: to stay cool that time of year, So I think
Speaker 1: that had a lot to do with it. One of
Speaker 1: the other stations that we had, I mean it kind
Speaker 1: of got bad luck. It was more in the open.
Speaker 1: I put it kind of in the open for the
Speaker 1: video aspect of it, but like just a curse of
Speaker 1: bad luck. Um. Two days before uh the first open
Speaker 1: the opener. Uh, we were were hundred yards off of
Speaker 1: a big oil or well site. You know, they moved
Speaker 1: in an oil rig to clear out the whole. Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, so there's forty people on trucks and and
Speaker 1: so that that kind of killed that spot because there
Speaker 1: we did have a good bear coming in there. Uh
Speaker 1: So maybe that spot would be good in the future, yes,
Speaker 1: but yes, and there the chance of them coming in now.
Speaker 1: They were literally just going in there to clean it
Speaker 1: up for some reason. So they're gonna coming there for
Speaker 1: years now. Uh So, yeah, that would be a good
Speaker 1: spot and that but that spot is also right next
Speaker 1: to the creek, so I think the water has lots
Speaker 1: of water had a lot to do with you. Also,
Speaker 1: on the north side of a mountain, the most of
Speaker 1: the time that that time of year there would be
Speaker 1: a southerly or southwesterly prevailing wind, So that wind would
Speaker 1: have been blowing from the south, blowing your scent up
Speaker 1: onto that mountain. Correct. No, we were on the north face,
Speaker 1: so it had been coming over the mountain. Let me
Speaker 1: think about what you're saying. Okay, okay, you're right, I'm
Speaker 1: back I'm backwards. And I was concerned because it is
Speaker 1: a it's a pretty steep mountain. I was concerned that
Speaker 1: the prevailing wind is out of the south. Like you
Speaker 1: said that we don't get last squirrels. And with all that,
Speaker 1: I know how greatly the vegetation will affect, you know,
Speaker 1: wind currents. I was really afraid that our wind current
Speaker 1: would be swirling a lot in there, and I honestly
Speaker 1: believe it was swirling a lot, but we got really
Speaker 1: lucky on the opener. It didn't affect us. So, but
Speaker 1: that could be why I like to be on the
Speaker 1: north because the wind is swirling, they can smell everything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Well, it seems to me that in
Speaker 1: those mountains the wind swirls no matter where you're at.
Speaker 1: That that well, that's what the vegetation. Yeah, it really does.
Speaker 1: Those little kind of smaller mountains like that with a
Speaker 1: lot of drainages and different things just swirls like crazy everywhere.
Speaker 1: So you killed, so you you started baiting these bears.
Speaker 1: You were running running the baits, which is a ton
Speaker 1: of work, and people that haven't hunted over bait, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes don't understand the amount of work gathering bait and
Speaker 1: all these different things. You know. But one thing that
Speaker 1: we said earlier is that there's there's no other big
Speaker 1: game hunt that you interact with and animal as closely
Speaker 1: as a baited black bear hunt. Because it's like a
Speaker 1: white tail deer. If you're hunting a white tail deer
Speaker 1: a target buck that you see and kill, you're probably
Speaker 1: gonna see him for like thirty seconds before you kill him,
Speaker 1: and it's probably the first time you've seen him. Uh,
Speaker 1: you may have had this experience. But like over the
Speaker 1: years of baiting bears, I mean, you'll you'll see bears often,
Speaker 1: Like when you're baiting, you'll learn there like actually see them.
Speaker 1: When you go into bait. There'll be a bear up
Speaker 1: in the woods or he'll try to come in on
Speaker 1: your You'll and so you see this animal, but you
Speaker 1: know you can't hunt him because it's not season. You're
Speaker 1: watching trail cameras and you realize that that animal is
Speaker 1: patterning you, you know, I mean, like you see that
Speaker 1: he was there two minutes before you got there, and
Speaker 1: then he was there thirty minutes after you left, and
Speaker 1: it's like you kind of start playing this like cat
Speaker 1: and mouse game with this animal. Nothing else is like that,
Speaker 1: and so it it it forms kind of a unique
Speaker 1: hunt in my mind because you're you're just I mean,
Speaker 1: you're you're you're feeding this animal and um. And it's
Speaker 1: it's the way that I the reason I like hunting
Speaker 1: over bait in this part of the world. You know,
Speaker 1: every every hunt that I do, I try to find
Speaker 1: a kind of what I want to be the limiting factor,
Speaker 1: like where I want the challenge to be and to
Speaker 1: me hunting in this part of the world, I like,
Speaker 1: I like targeting really big, old mature males, um um.
Speaker 1: And so by baiting you can do that. But it's
Speaker 1: also extremely difficult to kill a big giant bear over bait.
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't understand that. I mean, they
Speaker 1: just think, well, there's just a big dumb bear that
Speaker 1: just walks in. But like the bear I killed an
Speaker 1: Okloma this year, We've been hunting for five years and
Speaker 1: I've never laid eyes on him on property that we
Speaker 1: have hunted extensively. Super I mean, it's bear. He knew
Speaker 1: us better than we knew him. Very difficult to hunting
Speaker 1: him for five years. Yeah, getting pictures of him trying
Speaker 1: to take him and I've never seen him, you know,
Speaker 1: And so anyway, I guess I'm trying to paint the
Speaker 1: picture that it's a challenge. It's uh. It's also a
Speaker 1: great conservation method for managing bears. In Oklahoma. The bear
Speaker 1: population is uh upwards of two to three thousand bears
Speaker 1: and there and their harvest in every year between forty
Speaker 1: and eighty bears per year. And the only way that
Speaker 1: they can do that is through bait. Because a lot
Speaker 1: you get a lot of guys that don't understand bait hunting.
Speaker 1: They're like, well, why do you have to hunt over bait?
Speaker 1: Why can't you hunt them like real men. Well, come
Speaker 1: to Oklahoma and try to kill a bear just spotting stock,
Speaker 1: and let's see how that goes. I mean, you can
Speaker 1: do it, but it's tough, and so bye bye hunting
Speaker 1: him over bait. It's really a conservation tool to manage
Speaker 1: black bears, but it's also a lot of fun. It's
Speaker 1: a ton of fun to get to see that many
Speaker 1: bears to to create a honey hoole, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. You you have all these bears coming in
Speaker 1: and it's just fun to It's fun to be in
Speaker 1: a situation like that because it's you don't you don't
Speaker 1: see that too often you get to see bears interacting
Speaker 1: different stuff. But tell me about killing your bear, Like,
Speaker 1: what was it? Like? Was it? I know it happened quick.
Speaker 1: You killed him on the first morning. Well, one of
Speaker 1: the cool things we talked about, you know, having the work.
Speaker 1: I mean I've actually made it, you know, running the
Speaker 1: bait station. But one of the cool things about this
Speaker 1: hunt is I planned on there being a bear on
Speaker 1: the station when I was getting into blind because actually
Speaker 1: you told me, specifically told me not to go in
Speaker 1: there open the morning. You told me not to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I disobeyed you. So you made it work though, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you you you amended for the thing that I
Speaker 1: was telling you not to do, which is going in
Speaker 1: spookle bear right, Yeah, and one of you so you
Speaker 1: amended for that what I did, what I am doing.
Speaker 1: So I put up a mere step like a pop
Speaker 1: up blind originally, and they kept, you know, breaking that.
Speaker 1: They broke it, and they kept dragging off. Every time
Speaker 1: I put it up, they dragged it and they were
Speaker 1: just they played with it. So what I end up
Speaker 1: doing is I built a wooden blind and I put
Speaker 1: it where my mayor step blind was where they I mean,
Speaker 1: they could tear it up. I guess they wanted to,
Speaker 1: but I would blind. So what I did was is
Speaker 1: I situated a trail and something really thick cover and
Speaker 1: cleared out the ground where it was on dirt and rocks,
Speaker 1: all the leaves and country stuff right for about a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty yards, so you could just slip right
Speaker 1: into the backside of this blind. Yes, and so in
Speaker 1: the dark, in the in the pitch black with no light.
Speaker 1: I don't know if bear are affected by a flashlights
Speaker 1: or not, but we didn't use one whenever we when
Speaker 1: when it came down to crunch time, we didn't use one.
Speaker 1: Um so we actually slipped the blind. It was wet,
Speaker 1: opened the open the back of the blind, which I
Speaker 1: made to be quiet, slipped in. We put carpet on
Speaker 1: the floor to be quiet, and uh shut the door quietly,
Speaker 1: looked out the window. There was a you know, a
Speaker 1: black bear at twenty yards. It was pitch black. Now,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, it was it was pitch black.
Speaker 1: We can make out a blob moving in the in
Speaker 1: the darkness, and then I got my glasses on him,
Speaker 1: and you know, could tell that it was black bear. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it was one of So, like I told you,
Speaker 1: we had different animals coming into the station, and I
Speaker 1: knew that it was one of the not the two
Speaker 1: big ones, but it was one of the other. To me,
Speaker 1: it was a big bear, right, and so what I
Speaker 1: it was one of It was an adult, right, it
Speaker 1: was an adult. And this one will happened to be
Speaker 1: a color phase one that was there. And it laid there,
Speaker 1: and it lay there for over an hour in front
Speaker 1: of We were waiting for the obviously to get legal
Speaker 1: light and for the camera to get light. So once
Speaker 1: the legal light came, we wanted to get a little
Speaker 1: more light for for the camera and to shoot because frankly,
Speaker 1: it's dark in that blind Uh. And he for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: actually not whatever reason I know it was. Now he
Speaker 1: looked up and just scdaddled and you know, they just
Speaker 1: disappeared like that, and as quietly as He's hard to
Speaker 1: explain how quiet these big animals moved through, you know,
Speaker 1: to the timber he disappeared. I was kicking myself for
Speaker 1: not because I mean, he was in front of me
Speaker 1: for obviously hours, but he was it was legal for
Speaker 1: fifteen or twenty minutes. I could have shot him. Uh,
Speaker 1: I was like, Dad, gun I should. I was trying
Speaker 1: to milk it basically, which I'd never do. And he
Speaker 1: walked off with feeling walking off and less than two
Speaker 1: or three minutes later, from the opposite direction, the same
Speaker 1: size bear slipped in and that was the bear that
Speaker 1: end up shooting. And uh, he messed around there at
Speaker 1: the at the at the station for a little bit
Speaker 1: and I drew back him and I shot him. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: he went down thirty yards and you know, right in
Speaker 1: front of the right in front of the blind so uh,
Speaker 1: it was it was pretty surreal, I mean really, and
Speaker 1: then my dad came in. Yeah, we happened real quick,
Speaker 1: and he died basically at the bait station. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so we we drove the quad up there somehow, loading
Speaker 1: him up onto the quad and got out there quickly.
Speaker 1: And my dad actually came in there that night. He
Speaker 1: actually that morning and sat there all night and kill
Speaker 1: one or all day and kill one that evening. You
Speaker 1: know what, what did you estimate your bear away? You
Speaker 1: think I think he was. They did not weigh him.
Speaker 1: I think that he was probably in the high two hundreds,
Speaker 1: mid two hundreds, Frank, I mean that's what I think.
Speaker 1: People that was with they said, and actually the biology
Speaker 1: said he was over three hundred. But I thought he
Speaker 1: was in the high two And I'm only guessing off
Speaker 1: of like picking him up and handling a boar. It
Speaker 1: was a boar. Yes, he had a little bit blaze
Speaker 1: on his on his little white patches chess, which thought
Speaker 1: was cool. I mean, the the one that out the
Speaker 1: target bear he had a you know, from shoulder to
Speaker 1: shoulder and real thick and it was just beautiful. Uh.
Speaker 1: But yep, the one I got was super proud of. Um.
Speaker 1: I haven't ate it yet. I have to text you
Speaker 1: for some uh, for some recipes. Well, you can pretty
Speaker 1: much use it for anything. Anything you're using beef. It's good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you need to you need to eat it. It's good stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm definitely gonna eat. It's in my freezer. I just
Speaker 1: haven't pull it out yet and cooked it. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well you have to try it. That could be something
Speaker 1: I do on my third birthday. That's a good idea.
Speaker 1: Barbecue bear smoked bear smoke it. Yeah, what kind of smoke, Uh,
Speaker 1: hickory smoke. Thick hickory smoke. That's I really like smoking bear,
Speaker 1: like brisket, like barbecue, barbecue, sauce all over it. Smoked
Speaker 1: the roast, yeah, like smoke a ham like uh, and
Speaker 1: just make smoke bear good. I seasoned it and do
Speaker 1: everything just like I was smoking a brisket or yeah,
Speaker 1: just treated treated just like beef for pork. I mean,
Speaker 1: just kind of like a fatty portion of b for pork.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, trim off most of the fat.
Speaker 1: You're some people say you gotta trim my fall the fat.
Speaker 1: I'm not necessarily had too much problem with with fat.
Speaker 1: But you'll be surprised how good it will taste. Is
Speaker 1: it important to cook it slowly because I know that, Well,
Speaker 1: you need to cook it thoroughly for sure. I mean
Speaker 1: you because of what's the what's the chicken ella is
Speaker 1: what that's what they can have. But what's uh I
Speaker 1: was I was gonna say, cooking slowly to render, you know,
Speaker 1: like that, because they're very there's a lot of I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's called tendons or whatever, there's live
Speaker 1: send you in there. Yeah, it can be tough if
Speaker 1: you don't if you don't if you don't get it
Speaker 1: tender just by cooking it for a long time for sure. Yeah. Well, um,
Speaker 1: I like what you did and that you cleared out
Speaker 1: a path and got in there before daylight. And I
Speaker 1: just want to say that that's a good strategy if
Speaker 1: your goal is just to kill a bear. But let
Speaker 1: me paint a different picture for you. Let's say you
Speaker 1: had a five pound bear that was the only bear
Speaker 1: that you were interested in taking, you know, on a bait.
Speaker 1: That's when I wouldn't do that because it was a
Speaker 1: little bit risky. Right. Well, because you know how risky
Speaker 1: it was. Is the my number one bear, which he
Speaker 1: wasn't a five pound bear, but he was probably mid
Speaker 1: three hundreds or high three hundreds, really good bears. He
Speaker 1: was on there in about twenty minutes before I got there, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So I was that close
Speaker 1: to spooking him well, And and you think about when
Speaker 1: you watch a lot of these bears and how they
Speaker 1: interact with bait. They're just when they leave and art
Speaker 1: in front of your camera. It doesn't mean that they
Speaker 1: just disappear from the planet. They might be out in
Speaker 1: the woods fifty yards bedded down, and so you like
Speaker 1: walking in and you know you could have you could
Speaker 1: have bumped him or something. But again, good job you
Speaker 1: made it work. But that's the reason I always tell people,
Speaker 1: especially if you're targeting like a ultra, I mean, just
Speaker 1: an animal that you really want to kill and don't
Speaker 1: want to mess up. I like just hunting afternoons, because
Speaker 1: I promise you if you spooked a bear, a big
Speaker 1: bear like that off of bait, most of the time
Speaker 1: he's not gonna come back. I mean for a long time,
Speaker 1: or at least during the daylight. Let me let me
Speaker 1: say that. In Oklahoma and Arkansas, I can't speak for that,
Speaker 1: and in Canada you can do whatever you want. In
Speaker 1: some other places bears are just not as a tune
Speaker 1: to being bumped. But these big bears are. They just
Speaker 1: know how to do. So that's why I'm like ultra
Speaker 1: careful because I'd rather come in there in the early
Speaker 1: the late afternoon, gets set up and then kill him
Speaker 1: right it dark when he's coming back in from being bedded.
Speaker 1: So do you run in so you whenever you run stations,
Speaker 1: do you run in there with the quiet or some
Speaker 1: type of trucker. Yeah, I don't have any problem just
Speaker 1: with with driving actually to the bait site and making
Speaker 1: a little bit of noise and leaving. Said, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't try try to make noise, but um, what
Speaker 1: I say is just whatever pattern that you established for
Speaker 1: baiting bears, don't break it. So like if you like,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of guys that are challenged by the
Speaker 1: time frames that they have to work inside of baiting bears,
Speaker 1: and so they might come in after work one day,
Speaker 1: it might come in before work the next day to
Speaker 1: bait bear. So you know, they might be there at
Speaker 1: seven o'clock in the morning. There might be there at dark.
Speaker 1: And I think that's the worst thing that you can do,
Speaker 1: because you're trying to create this safe space for this
Speaker 1: big old bear that's ultra smart to decide that it's
Speaker 1: okay to be here during daylight. And so if he
Speaker 1: if you're extremely predictable, he will be more predictable because
Speaker 1: because after you leave it, you know, I pretty much
Speaker 1: have a window from like ten thirty to two that
Speaker 1: I will bait my best places. I might have some
Speaker 1: fringe places that I'm testing out that I might roll
Speaker 1: in there at six o'clock and throw it. But I mean,
Speaker 1: it's like I'm just not that concerned about it. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a two and pound bear on the bay. But
Speaker 1: like when I was trying to kill Batman last year,
Speaker 1: and it's like, you gotta do a ton of stuff
Speaker 1: right to make it work. And so I would I
Speaker 1: would rather let the bait go dry than go in
Speaker 1: there at six o'clock in the afternoon a week before
Speaker 1: season and put out bait. That's my philosophy. And so anyway,
Speaker 1: just the more predictable that you can be, the more
Speaker 1: predictable they'll be because they feel safe. That's basically the
Speaker 1: essence of it. But well, that's I will definitely take
Speaker 1: that to heart. I will follow that more. Next year,
Speaker 1: I will be after a little I mean, next year,
Speaker 1: I'm gona hunt again, and I'm gonna be after a little,
Speaker 1: bigger bear. And so maybe it'll be like I said,
Speaker 1: it depends on what you're trying to do, right, I
Speaker 1: was trying to kill a bear with black for you know,
Speaker 1: that was what I was good. You got it done well.
Speaker 1: The main thing that I I take from a conservation
Speaker 1: perspective of of kind of what we're talking about. We
Speaker 1: talked about your slam with killing these five big game
Speaker 1: animals and in Oklahoma, is that I was thinking about
Speaker 1: this from a macro perspective. Man, those animals are there,
Speaker 1: and the habitat for those animals is there because of
Speaker 1: hunters for real, like hunters of the ones that are
Speaker 1: hundreds of the ones that reintroduced bear essentially back into
Speaker 1: Oklahoma hunters. I know elk. I'm pretty sure the elk
Speaker 1: were reintroduced their native over there, but they were reintroduced
Speaker 1: at some point because they were extra payd out of Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: It you know, it wasn't the anti hunting organizations that
Speaker 1: put those elk there. It was guys that had ultimately
Speaker 1: the first love that they have was for wildlife. But
Speaker 1: the second thing is is they wanted to hunt elk.
Speaker 1: I mean, so Brandon always, you know, everything that we're
Speaker 1: doing is especially being bear hunters. You know, bear hunters
Speaker 1: are the low hanging fruit for the anti hunting community,
Speaker 1: and we see it firsthand here at Bear Hunting Magazine.
Speaker 1: A lot of people, even hunters, don't understand why we
Speaker 1: hunt bear. They're like, you know, they ask us if
Speaker 1: we eat it, They ask us why we want to
Speaker 1: hunt a bear? And uh So I always always bring
Speaker 1: it back to these kind of conservation principles, of of
Speaker 1: of why we well of of why we even have bear.
Speaker 1: And in in Oklahoma we have bear because of hunters.
Speaker 1: That's essentially what I'm saying. We have elk in Oklahoma
Speaker 1: because of hunters, I mean, and we're the ones that
Speaker 1: are historically I've been protecting habitat and putting money into
Speaker 1: habitat and wildlife conservation. And so really it's a testament
Speaker 1: to the North American mile of wild wildlife conservation that
Speaker 1: Oklahoma has five big game species like it does, which
Speaker 1: is incredible. And so really what I see when I
Speaker 1: see you doing what you're doing, it's really a celebration
Speaker 1: of of a celebration of a celebration of conservation working,
Speaker 1: you know. And and at the same time, it's just
Speaker 1: really cool to be able to do that, to do
Speaker 1: with the bust. So there's all these like hunting feats
Speaker 1: that is really cool about it. But also there's a
Speaker 1: bigger picture to me that's really cool that a lot
Speaker 1: of people wouldn't have known about. And um so yeah,
Speaker 1: well Colby, you hadn't said a word. I know. I'm like,
Speaker 1: haven't you haven't. We haven't given you a place to
Speaker 1: step in. You know. I really like podcasting. The live
Speaker 1: version is just as good as when I listened to
Speaker 1: my truck. Yeah yeah, except every now and then you
Speaker 1: hear your voice like popping in on the when you're
Speaker 1: in the truck. Yeah, I'm saying stuff like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well any uh any closing, let me go to Kobe
Speaker 1: and then we'll end with you closing thoughts called it
Speaker 1: what observations comments thoughts? Man? I think uh, I think
Speaker 1: the quote that keeps coming in my mind is the
Speaker 1: dream is free and the hustle is sold separately. Yeah
Speaker 1: that's right. Yeah, No, the the whole thing is really cool.
Speaker 1: I mean, especially to do it with the bow, you know,
Speaker 1: I have to get that close. And uh yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: always surprised that guys can get an antelope with the bow,
Speaker 1: Like it always just blows my mind because they have
Speaker 1: such a good sight, and they're so fast, and I
Speaker 1: don't know, I was surprised too. Yeah, i'd assume them
Speaker 1: any five yards. You said that was the hardest hunt
Speaker 1: out of the Out of the five in Oklahoma, the
Speaker 1: antelope was the hardest one to get on the ground. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because for a couple of reasons. One, like you said,
Speaker 1: the eyesight. But in Oklahoma, there's a bunch of control
Speaker 1: hunts starting in the beginning of September. They go they're
Speaker 1: all rifle hunts. There's a limited amount of area that
Speaker 1: you can't even hunt antelope in Oklahoma. You know, there's
Speaker 1: a county and a half and uh so they've been
Speaker 1: hunted for a month. I showed up at the end
Speaker 1: of the archery season. The archer seasons from October the
Speaker 1: one fourteenth. I showed up. My first day was the
Speaker 1: tenth day. I had five days the tenth to four
Speaker 1: and uh and and so so I had at the
Speaker 1: very tail end of over a month of hunting. So
Speaker 1: these animals are spooky. They've been hunted. They've been spooked
Speaker 1: from here to there across the county. And plus there's
Speaker 1: I was numbers. I think I was number sixty two
Speaker 1: or sixty something that was checked into that check station,
Speaker 1: which that means there was more because there's another check
Speaker 1: section down the road. So let's just say there was eighty.
Speaker 1: There was eighty less antelope to kill. Um presumably the
Speaker 1: dumb ones exactly, it's the smart ones, right, and to
Speaker 1: boot when I get there. The day I'm pulling in,
Speaker 1: uh uh, it's three degrees and the snowing and so.
Speaker 1: And it had been raining the entire because traditionally when
Speaker 1: people think of a bow hunt for antelope, they think
Speaker 1: of sitting over water because that is by far the
Speaker 1: most productive. Yeah and so, and it's post rut too,
Speaker 1: So I had a decoy, but they weren't responsive. You know,
Speaker 1: it's middle October now, and it's everything's wet, so there's
Speaker 1: nowhere to go. So it's just it's it's a crap shoot.
Speaker 1: And I got fortunate. I've used that word a lot,
Speaker 1: but you know, I was fortunate. I was very lucky
Speaker 1: to to have a buck that was bettered in a
Speaker 1: certain spot. Recordst You were just lucky, Brandon, Yeah, that's all.
Speaker 1: It was just purey brother, I'll take it. I had
Speaker 1: a very lucky season. I did. No, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't like it when people use that word because you know,
Speaker 1: inside of a hunt, like Hoby said, the dream, it's
Speaker 1: the quote that I used. All the dream is free,
Speaker 1: the hustle is sold separately. So I mean you did
Speaker 1: a ton of work on this. You know. I think
Speaker 1: inside of an individual hunt, like a guy could be fortunate,
Speaker 1: could be lucky, like favorable circumstances. But you gotta hustle
Speaker 1: to find a favorable circumstance. And that's what successful hunters
Speaker 1: do as they hustle and work and work and work
Speaker 1: and work until they get lucky. Yeah, that's very true.
Speaker 1: It's the truth. You mean, you're just you're searching for
Speaker 1: that moment of a good fortune when the winds in
Speaker 1: your favor, the animal stalkrble, you make a good shot,
Speaker 1: and everything comes together. So you know, and you know
Speaker 1: that and most people that are hunters that are listening
Speaker 1: to this podcast would know that too. There. Luck is
Speaker 1: probably not the best way to describe it, but it
Speaker 1: does play a part in it. Well, if you if
Speaker 1: you don't think that you're lucky, then you're a liar. Uh,
Speaker 1: every every opportunity, no matter if you have a deer
Speaker 1: and animal bear anything, if you have a pattered down
Speaker 1: to a t like, you know, it's gonna walk by
Speaker 1: this tree at three forty five every single day, and
Speaker 1: it's done it for ten days in a row. Guess
Speaker 1: why if you're gonna sitt there the leventh thing, it
Speaker 1: has to do it the eleven times in a row.
Speaker 1: You have to get lucky for that anim want to
Speaker 1: do it, you know, no matter no matter how smart
Speaker 1: and how good you think you are, you have to
Speaker 1: be lucky. And every one of the kills that I
Speaker 1: had this year, Yeah, I put a lot of work
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of mental preparation that went
Speaker 1: into this whole endeavor um. But to have the animals
Speaker 1: in front of me and for me to capitalize on them,
Speaker 1: that's luck. And yes, there was a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of work, you know, but you gotta to get there.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of luck to Yeah, well that's awesome. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, we really didn't get into the nitty gritty
Speaker 1: of like every animal. We'll leave that for the show.
Speaker 1: We'll leave that for people later this fall to be
Speaker 1: able to see the details of every of every hunt
Speaker 1: and uh. Closing thoughts, you're at the man, You're at
Speaker 1: the global headquarters, this is like the This is like
Speaker 1: the bear hunting mecca of the world. I believe it.
Speaker 1: Looking around the room, I can tell that that's exactly
Speaker 1: what it is. There is dead bear and bear paraphernalia
Speaker 1: and white tell paraphernalia all around me. I love it.
Speaker 1: I I greatly appreciate you helping me out on this,
Speaker 1: On this project, You're gonna provide a tremendous amount of insight.
Speaker 1: When we did a couple of interviews, right, Yeah, we
Speaker 1: didn't really explain that. Yeah, So what you did is
Speaker 1: you did some interviews to provide some insight for the
Speaker 1: history of the black bear and you know, just overall
Speaker 1: information on on black bear and black bear in Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: Uh something that I can't provide because I don't know
Speaker 1: any of it. Uh. So I come to people like you,
Speaker 1: experts like you, and um lucky to have you know,
Speaker 1: like bar Running mag and you know, a bunch of
Speaker 1: other organizations helped me out. For the other end. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do a podcast sometime really soon with a bear
Speaker 1: biologist in Oklahoma and a lady that's done more bear
Speaker 1: research in Oklahoma than anybody else. So that's coming. That
Speaker 1: would be a total total nerd outilogical session. Yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: be listening. That would be it'll be really good. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I greatly appreciate your help and uh, you
Speaker 1: you definitely knocked out of the park with your interview.
Speaker 1: So uh, I'm just grateful to have the opportunities I had,
Speaker 1: and um, we did. We haven't mentioned this, but you know,
Speaker 1: I was fortunate to be the first one to ever
Speaker 1: We didn't even say that. Yeah, I'm the only one,
Speaker 1: not only so I didn't know this going into it.
Speaker 1: We'll close with this. I didn't know that going into
Speaker 1: I didn't know that I was going to be the
Speaker 1: first one to ever tag all five of those animals
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma. And yes, there may have been someone that's
Speaker 1: done it before, probably not in the same not in
Speaker 1: the same season with the bow though. Well no, well
Speaker 1: I can't imagine. I thought if I thought, if I
Speaker 1: could pull that off, I might be the first one
Speaker 1: to ever do that. But it turns out I'm the
Speaker 1: only one to ever tag all five and then period. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no one's ever done with any weapon. Uh. And then
Speaker 1: to to get it all in one year with the bow, Um,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be hard to top that season. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: until the sequel. Ain't gonna be a sequel for that,
Speaker 1: not in Oklahoma. So trad yeah, the game trad bow
Speaker 1: next time, Oh my gosh struggles. Well, hey, so you can.
Speaker 1: You can check out Brandon Adams on Instagram be Underscore,
Speaker 1: Underscore b A Underscore atoms, or check us out on
Speaker 1: Major League Owner at Major League Bow, go follow us
Speaker 1: on YouTube, you know, all the whole one yours watching
Speaker 1: someone sports to channel Starry get Q three, which is
Speaker 1: in July. Yeah, and then check out Sland it'll be
Speaker 1: this fall, probably in August sometime. Uh, we don't have
Speaker 1: that boy, good time. Check that out. Definitely it'll be online,
Speaker 1: you know probably yeah, right out, Thanks Brandon, Well keep
Speaker 1: the wilds Wild Bears.