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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 bear. We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation,
Speaker 1: who will also bring you into some of the wildest
Speaker 1: country on the planet chasing battery. On this episode of
Speaker 1: the Bear Hunting Magazine Podcast, I sit down with my
Speaker 1: good friends Trail Autry and Michael Lanier and Brent Reeves
Speaker 1: and we talk about a squirrel hunt that we went
Speaker 1: on last Friday January in National Forest here in Arkansas,
Speaker 1: and we were using mules. We were using mules as
Speaker 1: our primary mode of transportation, and we were using these
Speaker 1: fast dogs to treat these squirrels. We had a fantastic
Speaker 1: time and we actually made a film about this hunt
Speaker 1: that's gonna be released sometime next week in around uh
Speaker 1: January eight, sometime in that range, we're gonna release this
Speaker 1: film about squirrel hunting with face mules and it's a
Speaker 1: ton of fun. So on this podcast you're gonna hear
Speaker 1: a few excerpts from our actual hunt, but we're just
Speaker 1: gonna sit down with Trey and Michael and Brent. We're
Speaker 1: gonna hash out while they hunt with feist, hunting on
Speaker 1: mules and just some good stories. I think you'll enjoy this,
Speaker 1: and many of you might, uh well, if you ask
Speaker 1: this question, maybe this is in the podcast for you.
Speaker 1: But the question would be, if this is the Bear
Speaker 1: Hunting Magazine podcast, why are they talking about squirrel hunting
Speaker 1: with mules? And the answer is, Man, this podcast is
Speaker 1: so much fun because we've just got liberty to to
Speaker 1: to report on stuff that we're doing, and the bears
Speaker 1: are asleep right now, and man, we're having fun and
Speaker 1: other parts of the outdoors and and we're the Bear
Speaker 1: Hunting Magazine podcast. We're gonna be talking about whatever we're
Speaker 1: doing and just bringing to you positive things that are
Speaker 1: going on in the outdoor world. And hey, let me
Speaker 1: tell you what's going on that's positive right now in
Speaker 1: the Ozark Mountains. Of Arkansas. It's some squirrel hunting. It
Speaker 1: was tough. There's not much natural food this year. Squirrels
Speaker 1: are There's just not a lot of squirrels, and the
Speaker 1: squirrels that are here, they're hard to find. But we
Speaker 1: had a great time. We made this film. We cooked
Speaker 1: these squirrels that we did kill. We cooked them in
Speaker 1: some bear fat from some lard that I rendered down
Speaker 1: back in the fall. You're gonna enjoy this episode at
Speaker 1: the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast Squirrels fice mules. How within
Speaker 1: ten minutes of dropping the dogs off the mules, they
Speaker 1: were treated. There's very little natural food in the Ozarks
Speaker 1: this winter, and squirrel hunting has been extremely tough. We
Speaker 1: were happy to get a quick treat. Here he is,
Speaker 1: he's timber, and Michael h here he is. Bam. One
Speaker 1: shot to see that Ozark Mountain gray squirrel right there.
Speaker 1: Some people might look that I'd appreciate it. The three boys, dude,
Speaker 1: don't you Oh yeah, oh yeah, hey keep talking like
Speaker 1: he's doing you know it. Today we are all recovering
Speaker 1: from our from our hunt. Just a few days ago.
Speaker 1: We went on a We went on a squirrel hunt,
Speaker 1: and we use mules we use feists. We were trying
Speaker 1: to cap lies on a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: different trained animals to give us a little bit of
Speaker 1: an advantage over these Ozark Mountain squirrels. But today I've
Speaker 1: got to my left, my good buddy Trey Autrey. I've
Speaker 1: got Caddy corner Brent Reeves, who was with us on
Speaker 1: this hunt. And we got our other buddy, Michael Lanier. Um, hey,
Speaker 1: you guys, introduce yourself. Just Tray, tell us who you got.
Speaker 1: You gotta start, Tray, you gotta start. I'm try all, Trey. Uh.
Speaker 1: I live in Prairie Grove out of Cove Creek. Uh,
Speaker 1: master squirrel hunter. I wouldn't go that far, but I
Speaker 1: do like it and enjoy it. And uh, well what's
Speaker 1: a great place to live a lot of things to
Speaker 1: do outside? And uh, you know which where I live in?
Speaker 1: I guess distance wives to that National Forks we were in,
Speaker 1: and I actually the place I live. It's kind of
Speaker 1: like a golfer living on the course because I can
Speaker 1: go outside and do anything I want to within about
Speaker 1: five minutes. Man, I forgot how rugged that country is
Speaker 1: over there. I mean, just driving down the county road
Speaker 1: to get to your house. You drive past some bluffs
Speaker 1: that looks like something out of Lord of the Rings
Speaker 1: was a big old you know, these these these limestone
Speaker 1: bluffs and the oz artist they crumble over just geologic time,
Speaker 1: and then they if they're on the north side of
Speaker 1: the ridge, they'll just be these huge boulders the size
Speaker 1: of your car, covered in moss. But there's some pretty
Speaker 1: country out there. There's not much dirt. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of rocks and a lot of hills. And that's why
Speaker 1: I got that new That's why you got that mule.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna walk too much anymore if I can
Speaker 1: have it. And Michael, who tells who you are? Michael,
Speaker 1: and there living in a prairie grove? Average squirrel hunter,
Speaker 1: I mean try quite a bit. You guys are, I
Speaker 1: mean you're a big time squirrel hunters. I mean these guys,
Speaker 1: these guys hunt all the time. You train dogs, you
Speaker 1: keep dogs. And now, Michael, you grew up on horses,
Speaker 1: but these are trays mules that we use the other day.
Speaker 1: And uh, now you'd rather you'd probably rather just walk
Speaker 1: on foot though in most cases that right, Well, I
Speaker 1: mean last week was good. Just the squirrels are so
Speaker 1: thin you're you're going so far between a tree, which
Speaker 1: is it's nice to be riding something, but when they're
Speaker 1: down and thick walk hunting, I enjoy it. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: Mr Brent Reeves, I am pretty well the brains behind
Speaker 1: this whole operation so far. I'll do all of my
Speaker 1: own stunts and on this wonderful day, fun eventful day,
Speaker 1: I was tasked with carrying the camera and filming this
Speaker 1: for the episode that's coming to us, didn't meet Kicked
Speaker 1: by Mule. I was on a four wheeler and it
Speaker 1: was it was kind of unique as the first time
Speaker 1: I had hunted or filmed a hunt like that where
Speaker 1: my transportation was different than everybody else's. So it was
Speaker 1: it was cool. I could get ahead of you guys
Speaker 1: and get some probably got some some shots that we
Speaker 1: wouldn't normally have gotten. You know, it would have took
Speaker 1: a lot more time. You know, I was able to
Speaker 1: go around. Luckily we were hunting where you know, it
Speaker 1: was permissible to do that, so so it was it
Speaker 1: was it was good, it worked out good. Um, we
Speaker 1: we we can do that. So what we're what we're
Speaker 1: talking about here is that last Friday, January eight, Brent
Speaker 1: filmed and I filmed some, but we filmed squirrel hunt
Speaker 1: on mules and like, we just watched the video with
Speaker 1: with Michael and Trade. They saw it for the first
Speaker 1: time and it's a on video. It's it's a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. And it was kind of a logistical challenge
Speaker 1: doing all the filming and still hunting. But I think
Speaker 1: it'll be it'll be pretty fun. But really, what I
Speaker 1: want to talk to you guys about is your dogs.
Speaker 1: Tell me whoever whoever wants to wants to go. Oh,
Speaker 1: they're pointing back and forth to each other. Now, so
Speaker 1: these fights, Like so inside a squirrel hunt, there's gonna
Speaker 1: be these categories of dogs and they're typically not hounds.
Speaker 1: We've talked about coup hunting in the past, and hound
Speaker 1: is a bigger animal that's gonna bark on the track
Speaker 1: and then also it's gonna bark on the tree. These fights, Well, Michael,
Speaker 1: what are what are the general categories of dogs that
Speaker 1: are squirrel dogs. There's fists and cur you know, a
Speaker 1: fist is typically I think the max is around eighteen
Speaker 1: inches pounds. I that's like a stand under eighteen inches,
Speaker 1: under thirty pounds. I believe I could be wrong. Uh,
Speaker 1: definitely on an authority on the subject. And then occurs
Speaker 1: a little bit bigger dog. I believe the fist was
Speaker 1: recognized by the u k C. And is that right?
Speaker 1: I believe that recently. Yeah, I think so. I could
Speaker 1: be wrong, but because that's super recent. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: my dogs are mixed up. Dog gets champ bread fast,
Speaker 1: uh Feller down in Alma, Bill Douglas got him from her. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He pretty much raises a lot of the chimp bread
Speaker 1: fast in this area. And then James Quick down in
Speaker 1: I hold down close to Waldron's got some Yeah, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: So kurd dogs and fights are pretty much gonna be
Speaker 1: your square dover brand. Is that your experience? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know I grew up in Southeast Arkansas and kurb
Speaker 1: Kur and combination of curring fast was what is all
Speaker 1: historically always have been. You know, I see a wide
Speaker 1: a wide variety or large variation and color and size
Speaker 1: and stuff with feist. Is there any consistency like your
Speaker 1: your fast is like slid black, got a little bit
Speaker 1: of white on it? Maybe? Is that right? Will be
Speaker 1: different colors in every litter, Okay, So and then and
Speaker 1: then Susie Trays feist is kind of almost looks like
Speaker 1: a Catahoula color. I mean, she's got her little rental
Speaker 1: color tour and in her litter. She was only puppy
Speaker 1: that looked like that. Oh really, what the other ones
Speaker 1: look like kind of look like Lanier's dog, you know,
Speaker 1: black yellow, you know, they're just all the different colors. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you kind of get the feeling that these fists are
Speaker 1: just a kind of a conglomeration over two hundred years
Speaker 1: of people breathing for little dogs and tree squirrels. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I believe the Week's chance, the one that
Speaker 1: started the Champlain, he was mixed up. He was half
Speaker 1: Stephen's cur and half moment spiced. Okay, now can you
Speaker 1: go into any more detail on the I was gonna
Speaker 1: ask you that, like there's mountain curves, black mouth curves,
Speaker 1: which those aren't typically used for scrawn. Not the mountain
Speaker 1: curves are. But I mean like Stephen spice, like Steven's curve,
Speaker 1: that's Stephen's curt Yeah, that's another line of curs. Uh
Speaker 1: now that but it's in uk C it would only
Speaker 1: be like that. I'm not sure, but it's a totally
Speaker 1: different breath of dog like a Steven's curve is different
Speaker 1: than uh some other kind of curve. Uh. Well, they're
Speaker 1: all curves, but the Stevens curve is definitely different. You know.
Speaker 1: They're typically black, a little bit of white, open on track. Uh,
Speaker 1: I mean most all of them are open on track sports. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: so when I chel and that guy is wide open
Speaker 1: on a S World track, Okay, A little bit bigger dog, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got a nail that's probably heck, that's as big
Speaker 1: as a hound. Huh So. But you guys like the
Speaker 1: little feists you underscore, that's your favorite, now, Okay. I
Speaker 1: I understand dogs and mules and horses enough to know
Speaker 1: that in any type of situation where you're using an
Speaker 1: animal to gain advantage, there's there's gonna be lots of
Speaker 1: ways to skin the cat. But everybody has like a
Speaker 1: method that they like for maybe not even a good reason.
Speaker 1: You know. It's just like I like ex dog because
Speaker 1: and there's I say, it's not a good reason, it's
Speaker 1: actually a great reason. It might be my grandpa used
Speaker 1: that kind of dog. Yeah, you'll find out a lot,
Speaker 1: especially in the culture where I grew up, and probably
Speaker 1: I'm serious, you know, trace from Mississippi. I'm surious very
Speaker 1: similar down there. You know, Grandma or grandma whoever you know,
Speaker 1: had one certain type of dog that was proven. It
Speaker 1: seems to be in my world the way the way
Speaker 1: you went. You know, there's an emotional connections you're with
Speaker 1: a dog, just like with a pet. I means like
Speaker 1: people like a certain type of dog, and so if
Speaker 1: you grew up around FCE, you're probably like him. But
Speaker 1: why do you all like face? Why do you like
Speaker 1: ice tray? Well, you know if you if you get
Speaker 1: a good one and the squirrels are down and moving,
Speaker 1: you'll kill every one to because you know, with five stools,
Speaker 1: use its nose, it ties, and its ears. So the
Speaker 1: first paying seriously will dude, when you let her out
Speaker 1: of turner loose, she will just start looking up because
Speaker 1: she figures in squirrels from that tree. Now, the other
Speaker 1: types of squirrel offs that don't do that, Or is
Speaker 1: that that's what makes him a squirrel of them? I
Speaker 1: don't know. I've tried to hind a big old hound
Speaker 1: one time, and it would it would smell him up
Speaker 1: in the tree, and they had if they had been
Speaker 1: there all night, and you know, if they weren't moving,
Speaker 1: That wasn't another alternative to pick up a squirrel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but now yeah, I just like, uh, I just like
Speaker 1: that fast. Yeah. I didn't want to hunt a lot closer,
Speaker 1: you know, or are some some of closer. There's always
Speaker 1: there's there's no people are gonna lose them, like, oh
Speaker 1: well that ain't right. You know, my cur dog hunts,
Speaker 1: you know, saying the value yards in front of me
Speaker 1: or whatever. But there's always an exception to everything. Why
Speaker 1: do you like the fast? I mean, squirrel ain't that big.
Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't take a great big dog to
Speaker 1: tree one. They're a little easier to keep. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've had curs. When I first moved up here, I
Speaker 1: had curs, and it seemed like most all of my
Speaker 1: head were just a little harder to keep around the house,
Speaker 1: bark a lot in the pan. Uh. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it was the line I was hunting or what,
Speaker 1: but I've just had really good luck with the fast. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're telling me the other day while we're noting how
Speaker 1: smart that the Jessee dog is. Oh yeah, Like, would
Speaker 1: you do you told her not to go in the
Speaker 1: one room of the house one time? Yeah? She i mean,
Speaker 1: let her in the house, walking there on the carpet
Speaker 1: in the bedroom, tell her not to come in there.
Speaker 1: She'll stopped at the door every time. Now, I mean
Speaker 1: they just pick up on a quick so they're smart
Speaker 1: and that that makes it fun. And then now to me,
Speaker 1: what surprised me when we were hunting the other bay
Speaker 1: on mules, which I thought was really cool and I
Speaker 1: think it's a cool part of the video too, is, uh,
Speaker 1: you carry these dogs on the mules. So we we've
Speaker 1: parked the trucks where we had just stopped, and then
Speaker 1: we were going about I don't know, probably not a
Speaker 1: half a mile, but maybe maybe half a mile to
Speaker 1: where we're gonna hunt. And they didn't want these dogs
Speaker 1: just free ranging and going and treating a squirrel somewhere
Speaker 1: where we couldn't get to because at barbware of fences.
Speaker 1: We carried these dogs just right on top of the
Speaker 1: beetle and then just pitched him off the mule when
Speaker 1: it was time to hunt. I thought that was pretty handy. Now,
Speaker 1: you never tried it, but you're wanting to put the
Speaker 1: mule or the dog in your game pouch. I think
Speaker 1: she dried in it one time we looked up and
Speaker 1: and Jesse, Michael's uh little dog has had her both
Speaker 1: the speet on the side of the horn. He's like
Speaker 1: standing up just like he was rigging for bear. You
Speaker 1: know that these guys are bear dogs. They have these
Speaker 1: big dog boxes and they have places where the good
Speaker 1: time to the top of the dog box. And that
Speaker 1: dog will was to be riding down the road just
Speaker 1: bothering its head. But yeah, she look like she was
Speaker 1: trying to rig a bear on that mule, catching the
Speaker 1: drafts that mule he was on. When you're back to
Speaker 1: being in front, well, and so between your mules, Willie
Speaker 1: was the Willie was the one you didn't trust as much, right,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I think he's got a crazy stray can
Speaker 1: and he's say shafeing h. Yeah, but he may decide
Speaker 1: you're going up this hill and he's gonna drag you
Speaker 1: through the prods in the way. Yeah, So that's why
Speaker 1: Michael got the ride. Michael got the riding. Well, I
Speaker 1: could tell, right and I'm literally Michael with tight Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's he's kind of got that mules right now. You know,
Speaker 1: when you're when you're around the equal of animals a
Speaker 1: little bit, which I still consider myself pretty green. Really
Speaker 1: when it comes to horses and mules. I can always
Speaker 1: tell somebody that's been around in their whole life, and
Speaker 1: and you can tell by very nuanced things that they do.
Speaker 1: And I could tell when I saw Michael get on
Speaker 1: on his mule that he had ridden in this whole lot.
Speaker 1: I knew he had. I didn't know to this this second,
Speaker 1: to both of those were trains. I thought. I thought
Speaker 1: Michael was riding Michael's mule. Now to this verious second,
Speaker 1: I was not aware that, yeah, are you? You can
Speaker 1: always tell about about how relaxed somebody is when they
Speaker 1: get on, how they throw their leg over, how they
Speaker 1: position their feet in the stirrups, because these are all
Speaker 1: things I'm learning. But and this mainly just sound comfortable.
Speaker 1: But I could tell you knew what you're doing. We'll
Speaker 1: lose a good mule, you know. He trade and now
Speaker 1: I want to talk about dogs more, but maybe we'll
Speaker 1: talk about mules from neut here. You well, let me
Speaker 1: let me let me tell a little about you, Mr Autrey.
Speaker 1: So trade. I've scrolled with the trade A couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. We couldn't hunted a little bit, and uh,
Speaker 1: trade just calls me or text me or something. It's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I bought some mules and we talk and uh I
Speaker 1: was I was like, I mean, I was really glad
Speaker 1: you got a mule. I was afraid you were gonna
Speaker 1: be disappointed once you got just because just like I
Speaker 1: was when I got mules, I just had this idea
Speaker 1: that it was like buying a four wheel. I really didn't.
Speaker 1: It's an exaggeration to make a point, but that's kind
Speaker 1: of the mentality that I had years ago. It's like,
Speaker 1: now I'll get a mule and then I'll be able
Speaker 1: to ride in the mountains. Man, it's not like mine
Speaker 1: four ward. There's a whole lot more to it, a
Speaker 1: whole lot more to it. And I learned from buying
Speaker 1: a Greenbrooke mule and then break my ow mule that
Speaker 1: you got to become muleman a hand on and so
Speaker 1: trade was like me, he didn't have a ton of experience.
Speaker 1: You wrote him when you were a kid. Is that right? Now?
Speaker 1: I'm my aunt had some horses, and I've been on
Speaker 1: her horses, but he had the first time I had
Speaker 1: all about the mule when when you said you got wound,
Speaker 1: and then I don't remember who told me this part?
Speaker 1: But they got they can see all four feet, so
Speaker 1: they're gonna be more sure footed. And I'm thinking, well,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I don't want to fall off for having
Speaker 1: following me so it hurt. Yeah, so I thought that
Speaker 1: might not be a bad idea. Well, when you told
Speaker 1: me that you went and bought this mule like a
Speaker 1: mile from where you live, the guy that just happened
Speaker 1: to hold game, we'll eat. So you live like pretty
Speaker 1: close to this guy, you said, coming down there and
Speaker 1: bought the mule and just rode it home and you
Speaker 1: had trouble a ridge. And when you told me what
Speaker 1: you did, I was like, this guy, this guy has
Speaker 1: got some guts. Are doing enough not to know that? Well?
Speaker 1: In fact, I was totally impressed that you were able
Speaker 1: to manage those mules like you did, because I have
Speaker 1: a lot of after that, after some of the stuff
Speaker 1: I put out about mules, I have a lot of
Speaker 1: people message me saying, hey, don't think about getting the mule.
Speaker 1: Do you think do you think it would work? And
Speaker 1: I give everybody the same spiel. It's like, yeah, it'll
Speaker 1: work if you really wanted to, and if you're willing
Speaker 1: to get name, that was it. That was a couple
Speaker 1: of times after I thought P and I had old
Speaker 1: Willie peemed up out there and I hadn't even a
Speaker 1: pastor here, and man if it took me a while
Speaker 1: before he let me catch him. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: rode into the house and all he was just as
Speaker 1: good as he could pay, you know, besides that Waterdale,
Speaker 1: And then he decided he didn't want me to catch him.
Speaker 1: So that took a little walk to thinking all that
Speaker 1: figured out. Now when I pulled up on my wife,
Speaker 1: does both MutS just come up, you know, because I
Speaker 1: won't to hear your buddy, I guess I want to
Speaker 1: tree you or from you showed the move was loss. Well,
Speaker 1: I was still like, sure who he is? I think
Speaker 1: we tolerate each other, you know. Well, I was impressed
Speaker 1: that the regular hamm onim like you did. I really was.
Speaker 1: I don't know abody impressed. But I hadn't gotten mad
Speaker 1: enough about it that I had too much money out
Speaker 1: there on that and it was a pot hunter around
Speaker 1: when you WILLI is, yeah, yeah, there's a lot. There's
Speaker 1: a whole conversation we had about and that's the way
Speaker 1: you put Michael one that's my book it. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: if I didn't watch somebody only well, and I was
Speaker 1: impress that they're matching mules too. That was just the accident.
Speaker 1: I got smokey because Danny couldn't keep him in the fence.
Speaker 1: He was always out in the middle of the road.
Speaker 1: When I come home there and I opened the gate
Speaker 1: and let him back in, and he had told him
Speaker 1: me that that mule was really good. Uh, And I
Speaker 1: didn't know the difference. It was a little time and uh.
Speaker 1: He said, well you'll be able to tell the difference
Speaker 1: and then you can, I guess. Uh. But anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 1: if in fact mule hadn't kept getting out of Danny's spence,
Speaker 1: they probably wouldn't have sold him. Well you do good
Speaker 1: Now for people who don't understand mule culture, your street
Speaker 1: crid goes up exponentially when you had matching mules. So
Speaker 1: just to let you know, I mean when I when
Speaker 1: I saw two white mules come out of each other,
Speaker 1: I was like a different He's a big deal. Boys.
Speaker 1: That's why that's why I did what I did, And
Speaker 1: now I have matching mules. Yeah, street cred, you drink care. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had heard this though. I had learned this from
Speaker 1: a real mulemate over in Oklahoma. That helped me get
Speaker 1: matching mudles because when he had a now I have,
Speaker 1: I have two mules right now. I got rid of
Speaker 1: my elivate mule. The first mule I had. Right now,
Speaker 1: all I've got is Izzy, and I have Issy's full
Speaker 1: brother named Banjo, who was colored just like her sorrel
Speaker 1: with white white sox. And when when when this guy
Speaker 1: had this this cold, he called me, send me a picture,
Speaker 1: and he's like, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta have
Speaker 1: this mules. He basically saved it when till it was
Speaker 1: seven months old. And I might pick it up last week.
Speaker 1: But hey, let's talk about let's talk about swirls and
Speaker 1: squirrel halls. How do you how do you train a
Speaker 1: squirrel hall? Michael? Well, you know, start up by picking
Speaker 1: the a little bread one. I mean that goes a
Speaker 1: long way right there. You know. Hunts, what how you like? Uh? Well,
Speaker 1: if you could turn them loose till they start treeing,
Speaker 1: and then penel mop and just keep letting run looser
Speaker 1: in the place were out of get compars of boots,
Speaker 1: taking them hunting as much as you can. Where do
Speaker 1: they do start treeing. Lasha might at the tree to
Speaker 1: where they'll stay, which is you know, when I first
Speaker 1: got up your hunting card dogs, they might go four
Speaker 1: hundred yards outside of the mountain and take me half
Speaker 1: an hour to get up there. And I really like
Speaker 1: the dogs stay with them probably about two hundred yards.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're hunting where squirrels are, there's gonna
Speaker 1: be spore roles within two d yards of him. You know,
Speaker 1: we get there pretty quick, at least a month. A
Speaker 1: lot of people will road hunt them down in the
Speaker 1: forest on the National Forest Trails. Get him on a
Speaker 1: hot squirrel and you want to cross out the road
Speaker 1: in front of them. Uh. Some people throw them in
Speaker 1: the training pin. Uni, let's start training, Yeah, basically just
Speaker 1: to have a corn figure in the pin. So these
Speaker 1: I think that's something that people don't understand that I
Speaker 1: didn't really understand it until I started training coon dogs.
Speaker 1: When I was a kid, we had coon dogs and
Speaker 1: we kind of just turned the loose and if they
Speaker 1: made a dog, we were happy, and if they didn't,
Speaker 1: we you know, got rid of him. But I mean,
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of all the stuff is already
Speaker 1: inside of that dog. He's gonna he's gonna he's gonna treat,
Speaker 1: he's gonna trail, he's got the desire to hunt. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's all these things that you can't really train that
Speaker 1: are just inside of him. But you're trying to put
Speaker 1: that dog in the best situation to bring out those
Speaker 1: positive traits and reward it for a positive behavior, which
Speaker 1: would be treating a swirtl staying on tree, showing desire, game, desire,
Speaker 1: you know, and then you would you would discourage it
Speaker 1: from bad behavior, which would be if it random deer,
Speaker 1: if it did something you didn't like, you you would,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, so it's kind of like you're
Speaker 1: it's kind of like you're you're trying to put it
Speaker 1: in the best scenarios possible for it to start treating,
Speaker 1: because you're not gonna really teach it to treat that.
Speaker 1: That's the way you describe it. Absolutely. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: when they're young, if they were to bump a deer
Speaker 1: running the little ways, I probably wouldn't. I'd probably just
Speaker 1: ignore them, you know, I wouldn't shock him or anything
Speaker 1: like that or try to correct it. I mean, once
Speaker 1: I got a little older, I mean, I wouldn't want
Speaker 1: to kill them chasing game right off the bath, right
Speaker 1: because you like that desire, yes, sir, yeah, yeah. But
Speaker 1: so do you take it out with an older dog too?
Speaker 1: That helps? I guess. I think when they're really young,
Speaker 1: it probably doesn't hurt. I mean a lot of people
Speaker 1: just hunt their dogs strictly by themselves. Locally independent dog.
Speaker 1: You know, trace dog was to go treat, they wouldn't
Speaker 1: want their dog to go over there with him. I
Speaker 1: don't competition hunt, but I mean I don't mind my
Speaker 1: dog falling in with his. But some people they really
Speaker 1: like an independent If his dog trees, they wanted to
Speaker 1: move on down the road and find it their own squirrel.
Speaker 1: So you get that by hunting and by themselves. Yes,
Speaker 1: And it kind of just clicks for a dog when
Speaker 1: they treat it and then shoot it out. They see
Speaker 1: that squirrel fall of the ground. Then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden they're like, I if I stay here in barn,
Speaker 1: I get the reward getting a little fur in my mouth.
Speaker 1: I had a little white dog that I hunted or
Speaker 1: would race doing with Susie. And if Susie tree first,
Speaker 1: she'd go over there about twenty yards and just pull
Speaker 1: up on the tree and start barking, and you could
Speaker 1: tell her right off the bat she didn't have a squirrel.
Speaker 1: She just sit there and look at you. No, I
Speaker 1: just want your attention, you know that. The other day
Speaker 1: when we kill those two pretty quick. Uh, Jesse was
Speaker 1: on a tree and Susie was on a tree. Susie
Speaker 1: left her tree to go over with Jessie, and then
Speaker 1: she went back to that tree. So I figure we
Speaker 1: had a squirrel there because she said, I went pretty
Speaker 1: tight and we're shooting over there. So that's the way
Speaker 1: it's supposed to. It was a squirrel in there, you know.
Speaker 1: I like it when you got two dollars independent and
Speaker 1: you're going to shoot a squirrel over here, and just
Speaker 1: as fast as you shoot that, when you got to
Speaker 1: go to that other dollar real quick and get to
Speaker 1: that squirrel. So that's a lot upon and when it
Speaker 1: happens like that, it just didn't happen like that all
Speaker 1: day time. How did you How did you start Susie
Speaker 1: now se five or six years old? Man, that's a
Speaker 1: great question. I had to look at the papers, but
Speaker 1: I think she's back five and back five or six.
Speaker 1: You had her since she was a new I bought
Speaker 1: that dog I bought already started and I'm not really
Speaker 1: sure how I started. She was when I got her,
Speaker 1: But I bought her from a fellow named Kenny like them,
Speaker 1: and he's wor over now and around old East central
Speaker 1: Mississippi for being a pretty good guy with a you know,
Speaker 1: trying squirrel dogs. But the other first time I hunted
Speaker 1: with her, she bought first squirrel I killed. Whether she
Speaker 1: barked at one time, and real code and Wendy and
Speaker 1: I'm thinking old my and darn if there wasn't a squirrel.
Speaker 1: It was a little bitty slick tree and it was
Speaker 1: just on the opposite side we were looking at. And uh,
Speaker 1: she does pretty good, But I will take her and
Speaker 1: I would maybe with a a postum or whatever, we
Speaker 1: could put him cage or even a squirrel and we
Speaker 1: would turn the squirrel out and you and a field
Speaker 1: and there's one tree. You know where the squirrel is
Speaker 1: going when you give her a head spot and then
Speaker 1: let that doghood and watch the squirrel the dog across.
Speaker 1: The dog would chase it out of chase it out
Speaker 1: through that field up a tree. But as soon as
Speaker 1: you got really good, the first time she got bit
Speaker 1: knocked a squirrel out of the tree. Tree wouldn't dead
Speaker 1: and she got bit and from that point own maybe man,
Speaker 1: he didn't have to do any training. She was mad.
Speaker 1: She's mad at him now, she really is. She don't
Speaker 1: like him now. Year dog is a year, she about
Speaker 1: a year and a half. A year and a half.
Speaker 1: And did you start her yourself? I bought her from
Speaker 1: Bill Douglas. She had just started tree and and she
Speaker 1: wasn't staying at all. And uh, and that's when I
Speaker 1: got her. Okay, she wasn't staying on the true No,
Speaker 1: she'd bought a few times and then try to go
Speaker 1: find out. Okay, how did you break her? That? Tired
Speaker 1: to the tree? Just get there quick, tied to the tree. Yeah,
Speaker 1: stay there with her. Here's a here's a general question
Speaker 1: for both of you. I am not asking for specifics
Speaker 1: because this would be like asking a cattle farmer how
Speaker 1: many I mean cows it has. It's just a bad deal.
Speaker 1: You can't do that. But what is a what what
Speaker 1: does a scrom do cost? Like a like a started dog? Man,
Speaker 1: I don't know if we didn't talk about that, listen
Speaker 1: to this a lot of range? How about it from
Speaker 1: a good blooded puppet to a finished dog? What what
Speaker 1: something in that range? We all know everything is. It's whatever,
Speaker 1: man as will. I haven't gonna guess that it's about
Speaker 1: the same as coon dogs. And I'm gonna guess too,
Speaker 1: it's about the same as mudles. I'm serious, all these
Speaker 1: animals that you're devoting a lot of time to training.
Speaker 1: I find a coon in, a kun dog, and a
Speaker 1: mule are almost on the same gradient in times of
Speaker 1: in terms of finances, five hundred dollar muddle by like
Speaker 1: a five hundred dollar Kueon dog. Yeah yeah, uh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go say five hundred dollars to four thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: okay for a really copy and finished dog. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I give four thousand, especially if I come from a town. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you spend. A month ago, I had a
Speaker 1: guy friend of mind from Kansas called me and I'm
Speaker 1: looking for you know, I called you clay to be hearing.
Speaker 1: But it's got a good started squirrel dog. They'd be interested.
Speaker 1: And I've talked to several people and I got prices
Speaker 1: everywhere from you know, twelve hundred dollars to five thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: And that was just not even trying to serve. It's
Speaker 1: real hard. Just people I've talked to and that I know,
Speaker 1: you know in the squirrel on the world. And so
Speaker 1: it's you can pay just about what you want to
Speaker 1: pay or what you're gonna forward. But he need depends
Speaker 1: on the day that fell up watching the dog. That's
Speaker 1: now that doll coming or just a red letter day
Speaker 1: and every time and stopped for picking up the squirrel.
Speaker 1: And yeah, but the near he has some he has
Speaker 1: some really here dogs. At times he he's like a
Speaker 1: doll trigger he is. I can tell them, oh, he
Speaker 1: locks him things. So what was your what's your story?
Speaker 1: I want a good squirrel would cost like starry dog
Speaker 1: to like a finished out. I mean you get a
Speaker 1: pup that's about ready to start out of good breeding,
Speaker 1: probably five hundred dollars, you know, one that's not even
Speaker 1: start of training, and then uh, I mean one that's
Speaker 1: started twelve hundred. You find one a little cheaper and
Speaker 1: Scott's a limit on the finished dog. Especially you get
Speaker 1: a cur dog that that's combo coon it is world dog.
Speaker 1: Yeah you yeah, yeah, that's about that's about what I figured. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right in the battle in Land with what you were,
Speaker 1: But that's the same way with a with a coon dog,
Speaker 1: it's just about the same way with a dog dog.
Speaker 1: It's about the same way with a bear dog. I mean,
Speaker 1: you buy a good pub from a decent breeder, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna pay two to three hundred dollars for a pub.
Speaker 1: I mean that's kind of like standard. And now some
Speaker 1: of these top end guys that have a real specialty,
Speaker 1: a lot of name that everybody wants to pub like,
Speaker 1: they can get about whatever they want for a pub.
Speaker 1: But most times, even with good bear dog lines, it's
Speaker 1: almost like gentleman's honor that you sell six weeks old
Speaker 1: pubs for two to three hundred dollars. You start asking
Speaker 1: more than that. Your your egos getting the way. Now,
Speaker 1: women and children don't understand this. When we had we
Speaker 1: had literally we've had two litters of plot pups. My
Speaker 1: wife's family they were not hunters, and when they had pups,
Speaker 1: they had like registered boxers and registered something else, uh,
Speaker 1: dogs that served no purpose whatsoever. And they raised pups
Speaker 1: when she was a kid a kid, and they sold
Speaker 1: them for money, you know, I mean, they sold like
Speaker 1: the point of it was, let's have a litter of
Speaker 1: pups to make money. So when I said, hey, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have a litter of plot pups, she was like great,
Speaker 1: and uh. She was like how much we gonna sell
Speaker 1: these for? And I'm like, oh man, hey, plots are
Speaker 1: hard to come by. This line of dogs is really
Speaker 1: in demand. There'll be guys wanting these dogs from Michigan
Speaker 1: and from everywhere. And she's like, good, we can sell
Speaker 1: these things for seven hundred dollars apiece. And I was like, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'll be selling them for I can't remember what I asked.
Speaker 1: Most of them a boy, which she didn't understand. So
Speaker 1: I was like, this is bear Hunter's code of conduct.
Speaker 1: You give a peace offering of puffs people that you
Speaker 1: want to cultivate relationship with. You know, that has gone
Speaker 1: as far as like social media too. You can find
Speaker 1: I mean you Google or Facebook or whatever you want
Speaker 1: to do. You can find whole pages and communities. There's
Speaker 1: nothing but strictly squirrel dogs. And you know, by selling
Speaker 1: trade or however however they listed there, and you go
Speaker 1: through and that the averages right along what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: You know, it's so it's i'd say, it's pretty common knowledge.
Speaker 1: And the people on. There will be from you know,
Speaker 1: not just Arkansas, It'll be all over the United States,
Speaker 1: so you know, in Florida to Michigan or you know, Ohio.
Speaker 1: The dogs are all you know, very similarly priced or whatever.
Speaker 1: So Michael, do you you I mean, like, of all
Speaker 1: the outdoor activities that you do, squirrel hunting with vices
Speaker 1: at the top of the list or number two or
Speaker 1: number three? What what is it like? I can describe
Speaker 1: why I like the things that I like. Like, why
Speaker 1: do you like squirrel hunt with dogs so much? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean you're not You're not confined to sitting in
Speaker 1: a stand. You get to move around, get to visit
Speaker 1: with the folks that you're going with. I mean, you
Speaker 1: can hunt in Arkansas. We're pretty blessed as far as
Speaker 1: hunting season and public land. You can hunt from May
Speaker 1: till in the February. Sometime in May to land in February.
Speaker 1: I don't really hunt during the summer, but I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, well, we've got two million acres of public
Speaker 1: land to hunt. I mean, it's just plenty of opportunity.
Speaker 1: There's typically this year there's not a lot of squirrels,
Speaker 1: but there's typically squirrels around for you to shoot at.
Speaker 1: I mean, I just really enjoyed that. My son loves it.
Speaker 1: We always get to visit when we're out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I forgot how much fun it was two see a
Speaker 1: squirrel timbering across the trees while you're trying to shoot it.
Speaker 1: It's a whole different thing when you got a gun
Speaker 1: in your hand and you're trying to shoot. I mean,
Speaker 1: you see squirrels all this every day, you know, cotting
Speaker 1: up a tree and jumping around. I mean just I
Speaker 1: got watched him out of my office window every day,
Speaker 1: and my heart doesn't start to beat fast. But when
Speaker 1: you're underneath a tree with a dog tree and and
Speaker 1: that squirrel breaks from cover and starts just screaming down
Speaker 1: a limb, I mean, it's like, yeah, this is pretty fun.
Speaker 1: Did you grew up she grew up doing it with dogs, Michael, No, sir,
Speaker 1: I got my first squirrel dog. I think when I
Speaker 1: moved over Right before I moved over here, I was
Speaker 1: living in Jonesboro and a friend of mine, his dad,
Speaker 1: gave me a pup. Uh, I just had bagles living
Speaker 1: in Jonesborold how many places rabbit hunt over here? So
Speaker 1: I switched squirrel dogs. You know, to me, it's a
Speaker 1: great It's the biggest thing about it that is so
Speaker 1: intriguing is the opportunity for access. Just like you know,
Speaker 1: if you deer hunt, it's so hard to take somebody
Speaker 1: deer hunting that's never hunted before. It's it's you have
Speaker 1: to deal with, you know, a hundred pounds of meat.
Speaker 1: You gotta not a hundred pounds if you kill a deer,
Speaker 1: but you gotta you gotta deal with a bunch of meat.
Speaker 1: You gotta sit, you gotta be proficient with a some
Speaker 1: type of pretty high powered weapon. You gotta you know,
Speaker 1: there's all these barriers. But man, all somebody's gotta do
Speaker 1: to go squirrel hunt with you is by Arkansas hunting
Speaker 1: license and borrow a twenty two of the four or ten,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, they're hunting and they're doing
Speaker 1: something that's fun and exciting. You don't have to be
Speaker 1: you don't have to be quiet, That's what that's that's
Speaker 1: the main thing. And and encouraging for kids. Kids out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't you're not constantly be still, you know any of that.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of stuff for them to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I traded. You grew up squore hunting with dogs. Now
Speaker 1: with dogs? Uh? Probably ten twelve years ago my timetrist,
Speaker 1: a fellow named Dan Windham in Pearl, Mississippi, had hunted
Speaker 1: with us a my uncle Ed, and after Ed died,
Speaker 1: I've met old Dan Windham and we got to best
Speaker 1: in and man, I had more fun going with him
Speaker 1: squirrel hunting than I did deer hunting. So then he says, well,
Speaker 1: you need to get you a dog too. Ah. He
Speaker 1: why he poked me up with Kenny like thing. But no,
Speaker 1: I didn't grow up squirrel hunting with dogs. But I
Speaker 1: do enjoy I enjoy watching the dog trying to figure
Speaker 1: out where that squirrel is. And you know what's really fun.
Speaker 1: The best part about it if and it doesn't happen
Speaker 1: too terribly often, but when that squirrel starts timbering like
Speaker 1: you were talking about, and that dog is following it,
Speaker 1: that's when it's fun. That's some high level squirrel dog
Speaker 1: action right there. Oh man, that's that's that's that's big
Speaker 1: time right there. Yeah. Um, But the dog, you know,
Speaker 1: I guess the thing about that fast I really like
Speaker 1: that dog, you know, does develop a bond with you
Speaker 1: and it's really trying to please you. You know, everything
Speaker 1: that dog does once it hits the ground, it's trying
Speaker 1: to please you. So now they're like a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: It's it really is an amazing connection between uh, a
Speaker 1: hunter's animal. I mean it's it's you know, you see
Speaker 1: inside of the non hunting society how crazy people are
Speaker 1: with their pets. I mean, to the point of ludicracy,
Speaker 1: you know, thinking these animals are humans. I mean giving
Speaker 1: them the same dog understands what he's saying, and I
Speaker 1: do too. You know, we may be worse than all
Speaker 1: in pot no, no, but but listen, and that's these
Speaker 1: are pests that don't do anything. So when you have
Speaker 1: that kind of connection with an animal that is serving
Speaker 1: a purpose like tree a squirrel to put dinner on
Speaker 1: your table, I think that's a higher level. So I
Speaker 1: think it's pretty cool. Oh, it's it's a lot of fun. Hey,
Speaker 1: let me tell you all before we before we close down,
Speaker 1: let me tell y'all and and and we'll go through
Speaker 1: and I'll hit any closing comments you guys have. We
Speaker 1: would coon hunt an other night when it's snow. The
Speaker 1: day after the nineteenth of January, the day after that,
Speaker 1: we squirrel hunted. It's snow the next day, and I
Speaker 1: had never coon hunting in the snow, so I want
Speaker 1: to see how the dogs would do. The wind was
Speaker 1: blowing probably ten the fifteen miles per hour, and it
Speaker 1: was twenty five degrees. I mean, it was a for
Speaker 1: northwest Arkansas. It was not the night you want to
Speaker 1: go coon hunt. But me and the two of my
Speaker 1: buddies went and we uh turning the dogs out front
Speaker 1: and jed just I mean, I just took them right
Speaker 1: where I thought they'd strike, and sure enough they struck
Speaker 1: him the creek and uh and went way up this creek,
Speaker 1: and the track started out real hot and just kind
Speaker 1: of fizzled, fizzled, fizzled, and then I saw him start
Speaker 1: circling the tree on the garment. I could see they
Speaker 1: made a big loop, and then they came right back
Speaker 1: down the creek, and I felt like they went the
Speaker 1: wrong way on the track and got to where the
Speaker 1: coon had come out of the tree. Sure enough, that's
Speaker 1: what happened. So they start trailing it back down the
Speaker 1: creek towards me, and the coon made a spin off
Speaker 1: through this real thick, nasty stuff. I guess he was
Speaker 1: I don't know what he was hunting for, but he
Speaker 1: was hunting for something. And the dogs got hung up
Speaker 1: in there, and A pretty much felt like they were treated,
Speaker 1: except they were in about a twenty yards square area
Speaker 1: and I can just see they just weren't moving. So
Speaker 1: we went in there to see what was happening. Got
Speaker 1: there and there's coon tracks in the snow all around there,
Speaker 1: and the dogs are just going crazy, you know, but
Speaker 1: they can't find it. They can't find it directly. Fern,
Speaker 1: my my good coon dog, kind of peels off and
Speaker 1: the track heats up, and I'm like, okay, well maybe
Speaker 1: they got straightened out. And she goes down there a
Speaker 1: hundred yards and trees is just treat Jedi, who I
Speaker 1: don't have as much faith in, not because he's not
Speaker 1: a good coon dog, but he just is always on
Speaker 1: Ferns Kurt, you know, coattails, and so you know how
Speaker 1: it is when you have a good dog, you never
Speaker 1: really know the potential of the other dog. But I
Speaker 1: hunt them together all the time. Ferns over their tread.
Speaker 1: Jed pulls in and doesn't go to her, and he
Speaker 1: starts barking like crazy down in this creek, bank in
Speaker 1: a hole and he's he doesn't treat he doesn't get
Speaker 1: after armor deals or something. But anyway, who do I
Speaker 1: go to first? I go to Fern. I go to
Speaker 1: Fern and it's a dent tree that I really don't
Speaker 1: think has anything in it. And uh, and we've shine
Speaker 1: the tree and there's no coon directly. Jed is over
Speaker 1: here just I mean about to lose his mind, about
Speaker 1: eighty yards away. But he's down in a little creek
Speaker 1: bank and so you can't you can't really I don't
Speaker 1: know what's going on, but I'm like, well, let's go
Speaker 1: see what Jed's got. I come around this corner and
Speaker 1: look up this creek and Jed has his head in
Speaker 1: a hole in a root ball and he's just his
Speaker 1: eyes are bulging out of his head. And I go
Speaker 1: over there and there's a coon about that far from
Speaker 1: his face. I got six inches for his face, bawled
Speaker 1: up in a hole, and Jed is chewing the roots
Speaker 1: and and he just can't get that coon. That's that's
Speaker 1: a fun coon. Nun get out a hole. And uh,
Speaker 1: we got the kun, Yeah, yeah, we got the We
Speaker 1: got the coun out of the whole, got the kun. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was funny though, because it was classic of trusting
Speaker 1: this dog but not trusting the other one. You know. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's that's fine. Well hey, um, so the video. We
Speaker 1: made a really cool video of this squirrel hunt with
Speaker 1: mules and it's gonna come out sometime next week on
Speaker 1: the Bear Hunting Magazine YouTube channel. So if somebody's listening
Speaker 1: for the first time you hear is talking about a
Speaker 1: YouTube channel almost every time Bear Hunting Magazine YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: you might ask yourself, why are these guys talking about
Speaker 1: squirrel hunting if they're Bear Hunting Magazine. Well, that's just
Speaker 1: what we do. We squirrel hunting, deer hunting, everything else.
Speaker 1: Hunt and the bears are asleep right now, are they not?
Speaker 1: They are asleep, So we're hunting squirrels. But we got
Speaker 1: this neat video and it's coming out on Bearhunting Magazine
Speaker 1: YouTube channel sometime next week, probably to Tuesday is what
Speaker 1: I'm thinking. Maybe Wednesday, maybe Monday, don't no, no for sure,
Speaker 1: but it'll be out next week. So go check that
Speaker 1: out and you'll get to meet Mr Trey Autrey and
Speaker 1: Michael Lanear see some of Brent's videography. You get to
Speaker 1: meet Izzie Smokey and Willie Susie jesse Man. The Castic
Speaker 1: characters is big and and and here was the cool
Speaker 1: thing that we did is that we took these squirrels too.
Speaker 1: We killed two squirrels in the morning, took the squirrels
Speaker 1: and we fried them in some barrel oil that I'd
Speaker 1: rendered down. And it was fantastic, was it not? And
Speaker 1: you don't eat you don't eat squirrels fried Barry grease.
Speaker 1: We had them. We at those squirrels. We had those squirrels.
Speaker 1: We did a good stuff. Whoa closing comments, Michael, did
Speaker 1: we not cover anything inside of squirrel hunting that might
Speaker 1: be relevant? I mean, I know it's a giant topic
Speaker 1: or breeding dogs and how dogs hunt, and we we didn't.
Speaker 1: This really didn't cover it totally. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we're pretty good. We're covering a
Speaker 1: lot of it. Yeah, I mean it was a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. Yeah. It really was advantageous to have the mules.
Speaker 1: I mean it was advantageous because we if I didn't
Speaker 1: have my garment turned on, and see how far we walked,
Speaker 1: But I bet we walked five to seven miles. I
Speaker 1: think we did that. Maybe more because we will went
Speaker 1: in on that other road. We walked a long way
Speaker 1: as if you'd have been on foot, you had been
Speaker 1: in pretty good sho oh man, we wouldn't have made
Speaker 1: it happy day. It's too many hills. That's when hills.
Speaker 1: Too many hills. When I got the mules far and
Speaker 1: that's like playing golf without a car, what would you
Speaker 1: want to do it? Well? And when the scrupt Michael
Speaker 1: said it before, but when the squirrels are thin, the
Speaker 1: mules are really havn't take you because you're able to
Speaker 1: cover a lot of ground. Like if we had gone
Speaker 1: into that little block of timber where we didn't treat
Speaker 1: the squirrels and we had stayed in there like all
Speaker 1: day tree and squirrels and killed two limits of squirrels
Speaker 1: out of there. You know, maybe having a mule wouldn't
Speaker 1: have helped it that much, but probably not. We were,
Speaker 1: but we were at one point we went on probably
Speaker 1: a mile and a half end and a mile and
Speaker 1: a half back out on that other road over there,
Speaker 1: and we were hunting. We were hunting, and we wouldn't
Speaker 1: shooting them Buchem, Yeah, yeah, what about you, mister auctory
Speaker 1: closing comments, Man, We just had a good time the
Speaker 1: other day, just like we do every time we get
Speaker 1: to go outside, and you know, uh maydeing Brant and
Speaker 1: having you there, Mane. It was just a lot of
Speaker 1: fun and UH appreciate you uh coming out there and
Speaker 1: hunting with us at any time. I told my wife
Speaker 1: after that day, I said, I mean, I travel and
Speaker 1: hunt and do a lot of stuff, and there's some
Speaker 1: days that are just fun, like you just get home
Speaker 1: and you just just everything about it, from the people
Speaker 1: you were with, how the hunt went, to the weather too,
Speaker 1: and I had just it more fun than I thought
Speaker 1: I would. I had a blast. I really did. We did.
Speaker 1: We did, And for me, it was a combination of
Speaker 1: you know, the more I get into these mules, the
Speaker 1: more I'm looking for ways to use them and looking
Speaker 1: for ways to use them inside of hume and and
Speaker 1: that makes it really enjoyable to combine hunting and these mules.
Speaker 1: So I mean, for me, it was that was a
Speaker 1: big part of it, Like being able to shoot off
Speaker 1: Izzie again in the video people people will see me
Speaker 1: shoot off Izzie. It wasn't the first time I shot
Speaker 1: off I've read shot of twenty two off over but
Speaker 1: it was the first time I shot shotgun, which was loud,
Speaker 1: and to me that was like a massive training win
Speaker 1: to uh to shoot off her, man, that was great
Speaker 1: watching that. That's motivating me to get one of mine
Speaker 1: where I can do. You don't even have to walk
Speaker 1: at all. If you can train your mule to shoot off,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna walk. You won't even get off. We'll
Speaker 1: bring a lab to pick up the squirrels. Fars a
Speaker 1: sousy'll retrieved squirrels. She runs around when them more than
Speaker 1: you were treating. It's gonna look like she's a lab.
Speaker 1: But I do have a buddy named Old Todd Turner
Speaker 1: that went hunting with Milbury and Carrolton a couple of times.
Speaker 1: And uh, myn he had this big, old, big, old
Speaker 1: black lab and we would shoose squirrels and that dog
Speaker 1: would bring him to us. Oh it was it was fun.
Speaker 1: Yep retreating does Mr Brant closing coins? Man? Uh, it
Speaker 1: was so fun. Unlike these guys. You know, I grew
Speaker 1: up hunting, and you've I talked about a hundred times.
Speaker 1: I grew up squirrel hunting off of horses, and that
Speaker 1: I mean from when I came my first hunts were
Speaker 1: off a horse behind you know, a dog, squirrel and
Speaker 1: with my dad and our family friends, you know, my
Speaker 1: brothers and everything. So that was so meding memories that day.
Speaker 1: It's just awesome, awesome time. And though there's one constant
Speaker 1: that I found true with with growing up, the memories
Speaker 1: I had a growing up with my um, with my dad,
Speaker 1: my uncle's and our family, uncles, you know, everybody you
Speaker 1: want to call it um. All these guys, the main
Speaker 1: thing they're doing is having a good time and the
Speaker 1: respectful one another and respectful of the resource. And they
Speaker 1: just they see, you know, what's really going on out there.
Speaker 1: It's not how many squirrels we can put in a
Speaker 1: saddle bag, it's how much fun we can have before
Speaker 1: it gets dark. And it was. It was a good time,
Speaker 1: and we we gotta do this again. Yeah, we gotta
Speaker 1: do it again. A lot of fun. It was a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. I think that's the refreshing part of
Speaker 1: hunting with dogs for me, is that coming from such
Speaker 1: a strong, big game, kind of so low mentality for
Speaker 1: deer hunting and bear hunting like I do, it's just
Speaker 1: kind of a breath of fresh air to just go
Speaker 1: out and have fun. And not to say we all
Speaker 1: know it's not the big game hunting and fun, that's
Speaker 1: not it. But it's just different. It's just different, and
Speaker 1: it was. There was a lot of fun the other day.
Speaker 1: It was our pleasure to hunt with you guys. Tray,
Speaker 1: I mean, really, y'all let us come along and so
Speaker 1: for that week, thank you. Oh man, anytime, let's let's
Speaker 1: do it again. Yeah. Well, hey, thanks for listening to
Speaker 1: the Squirrel Hunting Magazine podcast, I mean Bear Hunting Magazine
Speaker 1: podcasts um a. Check out our print magazine. Bear Hunting
Speaker 1: Magazine is the only print bear hunting magazine in the world.
Speaker 1: We are the big squirrel in the small tree. You know,
Speaker 1: we we are we are we are the bear Hunting
Speaker 1: Magazine and uh yeah, you can support our cause, which
Speaker 1: our cause is broader than just bear hunting. Our causes
Speaker 1: to continue the hunting lifestyle and freedoms that we have
Speaker 1: in this country, to see those persist through generations as
Speaker 1: we continue to steward wildlife resources as well, and then
Speaker 1: the hunters ought to be able to to utilize those
Speaker 1: resources wisely and build traditions and culture and just have
Speaker 1: a great time and the outdoors. That's what we do
Speaker 1: so hey, keep the wild places wild because that's where
Speaker 1: the squirrels live.