WEBVTT - Ep. 55: Bear Grease [Render] - Predator Calling Grizzlies and Crackling Fat 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:16.560 Yeah, my name is Clay and Nukeleman. This is a 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:20.680 production of the bear Grease podcast called The Bear Grease Render, 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:25.160 where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:30.040 scenes of the actual bear Grease podcast, presented by f 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:35.320 HF Gear, American made purpose built hunting and fishing gear 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.280 that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:48.400 All right, Corey, go ahead and put that bear fat 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:52.239 in all of it. Yep, let's uh, we just need 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:57.840 to keep it stirring. So we are. We're in Montana 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.319 and we've got a we've got a fire going. We're 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:04.640 on the side of the creek here. We just put 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:11.400 about seven pounds of fresh Montana spring color phase bear 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:17.240 fat into a Dutch oven and maybe the most apropos 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.640 bear grease render of all time. We're gonna render bear 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:26.120 grease while we are talking. So welcome to the bear 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:29.959 Grease Render. Everybody. Like I said, We're in Montana and 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:34.880 I'm joined by two special guests. I have to my left, 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:39.559 Bear John nwcom my son. Hello, how's it going bear, 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:42.399 pretty kid? Pretty good? Bears got a story to tell 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:46.039 us here a little bit. And then Corey Hawkins of 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:49.200 Meat Eater Corey, good to have you, Man, thanks for 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:52.760 having me. We are we're creekside. We've been bear hunting 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:55.440 in Montana, and so for for anybody that this would 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.960 be their first bear grease render, the bear grease render 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:03.920 is when we we generally talk about the previous week's podcast. 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:07.720 On this episode, this is in the field Burghery Surrender, 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.639 which is a little bit different. We're gonna talk about 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:14.200 the adventures that we've had over the last five days. 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:19.720 This is the fifth day of our Western Spring bear Hunt. Corey. 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:22.440 You've been doing this for a long time though, right, Yeah, 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:25.040 sure have up in these parts anyway. Bear this is 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:28.800 your first spring bear hunt, Western spring bear hunt. What 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.600 are your impressions so far? Man, Um, I like it. 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.760 I mean it's a lot different than hunting back in Arkansas. 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.440 I mean, like everything's bigger, so, like you're the hunting 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:43.880 is just way different. Yeah, big mountains, big big mountains. 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:48.400 We're gonna talk some about our last Genuine Outlaw series. 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:51.120 We're gonna talk about that, but we're also going to 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:53.880 talk about that on the next render. But I want 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:58.160 to dive into our hunt this week, Corey. This is 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:03.520 my seventh Montana Spring bear hunt, and I think nine years. 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:07.799 I think it's my seventh hunt. No, No, seventh hunt 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.359 in eight years, because once I came twice last year, 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.320 I came twice to Montana. Um, so I'm counting that 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.280 is two different hunts. Man. You've got it back in 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:19.480 here for a long time, that's right. Tell me what 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:21.280 you used to do before you work for meat Eater, 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:22.600 and then I want to hear what you do for 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:26.240 meat Eater. Well, I guided back here for eight years. Uh, 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:29.919 fisherman in the summer, I should say spring bear hunters, 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:33.200 and then fisherman all summer, and then come September we 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.760 do eight weeks of archery and then rifle elk hunters too. 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.320 Guided back here for a while, and then moved down 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:44.200 to Bozeman and guided fisherman and hunters down around Bozeman 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:47.480 for about seven years after that. So I've been guiding 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:49.600 for about fifteen years until I started for meat Eater. 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.440 You started for meat to your year and a half ago? Correct? 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.360 And now, Bart, did you know that Corey guided for 0:03:55.400 --> 0:04:00.800 a big fancy elk outfit in Montana. In you guided, 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:05.560 I mean like over thirty successful elk hunts for hunters, 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:11.400 Is that right? Yeah, what years would that have been. Really, 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:13.560 did you tell the name of that place or no? 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:16.640 It's the c A Ranch, Yeah, Climbing Arrow Ranch. It 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.440 just sold to its some new owners, So the history 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:22.360 of it has changed quite a bit just in the 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.600 last year. It's not a secret place anymore. It's it's 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:29.120 a well known ranch for both its history and the 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.119 elk hunting. Guys like Will Primos, who's been on the show, 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:34.640 has hunted there. Yeah, so we're bear, we're up here 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:39.280 talking and and Corey had heard Will Primos on this 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.239 podcast and he was like, yeah, I know Wilbur Primos. 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.680 I guided him for elk old Wilbur. Yeah, isn't that cool? 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:50.560 Now you were guiding back into you were doing horse trips, 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:55.039 mule trips back into some pretty wild places. M So 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:59.080 you've been around equine and mules a lot my whole life. Yeah. 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:00.960 I grew up with him. My parents had a couple 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.640 of horses, more show horsing. They'd throw my little cute, 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.280 blonde hair, blue eyed kid on a on a bay 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:09.760 horse and ride me around and we'd win some blue 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.920 ribbons just for showing. And then they my parents did 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.040 some trips back in here on horseback, so I grew 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:18.279 up with them, and then they got a little expensive 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.680 as I got older, so we got rid of horses. 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.480 But then when I started working back here, started using 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.200 horses and mules packing on them. So our hunt this week, 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.400 we're just on foot. We Uh, I didn't the last 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:34.159 I think twice I brought mules for spring bear hunting 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:38.080 into Montana. Um, but this year we're just on foot. 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.640 And uh, we've walked. How much do you think we've 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:45.600 walked over the last four days, Corey, I'd say we've 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.040 we've averaged about ten miles a day, so over forty 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.560 miles fifty miles. Yeah, we've covered We've covered some ground. Bear, 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.599 were you a little bit more out after day through? Yes? 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:58.400 I gotta say though, these Arkansas boys do pretty well 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:00.799 in the Montana Mountains. I will say, well, bears getting 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.320 big enough now where he can outwalk and out hunt me, 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:07.520 that's for sure. But I can see that it took 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.279 him a while to get there, but he's there now. 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.000 We've got this, Uh, we've got a big Dutch oven 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.640 that's just full of very fat. We're gonna have to 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:20.039 get this fire hotter um, that's for sure. Yeah, move that, 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:22.960 So we gotta great over the fire, and we really 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:25.520 want to get that fire right up under that pot. 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:29.159 It's gotta be pretty dr and hot to render it down, Okay, 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:32.400 we gotta we gotta tell. So the the way that 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.839 we're hunting these bears up here is that there's a 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:39.600 lot of heavily forested area, not a lot of openings, 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.440 but there's a lot of logging activity, and so we're 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:47.400 walking roads. So these roads green up before everything else. 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:51.520 And it's no secret about how in the Northwest people 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:55.400 hunt bears. In the spring, there's there's no berries, the 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:59.360 berries haven't ripened yet, there's no hard mask because hard 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:01.599 mask grow was all summer and then as ready in 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:03.880 the fall. Pretty much what these bears have to eat 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:07.000 is insects that are coming out, and then green vegetation 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:11.040 and then anything that could catch as far as meat, 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.440 like they might catch an elk calf for a moose 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:18.280 calf or find winter kill carrying type of stuff. That 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:21.720 means though, that these roads create openings in the timber 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:26.440 where green grass grows, vegetation grows. There's these clear cuts 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.920 wherever the sun can reach the forest floor, there's gonna 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:34.920 be green stuff and man, there's no rhyme or reason. Well, 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.760 there is rhyme or reason, but you're basically just trying 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:41.320 to cover as much possible ground as as you can 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:46.360 find bear sign and then hunt in those areas. And 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:50.400 bear sign would be bear scat along roads. You might 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.440 see bears from a long ways if in places there's 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:57.080 small openings where you can see stuff. But this week 0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:59.800 we've had, we've it's been pretty wild because we've seen Corey. 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:03.560 How many bears have we seen? Thirteen? I believe, well 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:05.480 in fourteen if you count the one that I was 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:10.040 thirty yards from but couldn't see last night, and so, okay, 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:13.000 fourteen bears. And give me the breakdown on the species 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:20.000 of bears. You're getting smoked Corey's getting smoked out. Well, 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:26.400 we've seen three grizzlies from camp four five grizzlies, and 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:30.000 the rest were black bears. So five grizzlies and then 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:38.320 so uh so nine black bears, five grizz nine black bears. Um, 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:42.240 So let's start off by telling what happened on day 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:48.800 two with the incident, as we'll call it. All right, bear, 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.360 I need some input from you on this. So it 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.920 had been raining, it had been raining, and it was cold. 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.440 Temperatures have been fairly cold up here, which I like 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.960 for bear hunting in the spring. M hm. And it's 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:05.560 been raining, and right at last light, we've we've found 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.280 a road that we liked, Corey liked and we decided 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:10.600 to walk it. We started walking it and we found 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:15.920 small amount of small what we believed to be a 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:20.120 small black bear based upon the the gauge of the 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:22.440 bear scat and the size of it, it looked like 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.800 a small black bear. But then as we're walking, we're 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.040 probably a mile from the truck, and we started seeing 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:32.760 some big grizz tracks. And I mean, if you can 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.120 tell a grizz track from a black bear track by 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:39.840 its architecture, you know, uh, black bear, you're typically not 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:43.000 gonna be able to see the claws and it's kind 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:47.600 of rounder and just typically smaller a grizz it's gonna 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.800 be much bigger. You're gonna be able to see the claws. 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.760 And this track was just evidently grizz. Did you think 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:55.960 so bear? I mean, it's like twice as big as 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.360 a black bear track. I think we guessed it was 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:02.120 about seven inches wide seven path, which okay when you're 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:05.680 gauging bear tracks, and we got We tested this theory. 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.199 I've done it a hundred times. We tested it again. 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.839 Pretty much the width of the bear track add one 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.840 inch to it, and that typically gives you the square 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.080 of the bear. So if it's a four inch track, 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:21.320 you go four plus one equals five and so that 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:24.400 means it's a five ft square bear. So if you 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:28.120 have a seven inch track, that's typically an eight foot bear. 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.880 It doesn't always play out just like that, but it's 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.720 get you in the ballpark. And the square of a bear, 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.720 my goodness, was just digging ourselves a hole of having 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.680 to explain stuff. Um, bear, how do you square bear? 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:43.320 Do you know? You measure from claw to claw, like 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.640 the wingspan of the front arms a bear. That's the 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:51.120 high bear stretched out on the ground, and then from 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:53.199 tip of the nose to the base of the tail. 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:57.120 I don't up together divided by two and that gives 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.720 you the square. So like a six ft square bear 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.960 would be like a really solid good bear. Like there 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.120 wouldn't be very many sALS that would square six ft, 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:09.480 even though it's possible, Um, a seven foot bear would 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:12.440 be a giant. I have seen with my own eyeballs 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.320 in all the Canadian bear camps and all the bears 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.200 I've seen and help people skin, I've seen one true 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:24.520 seven footbear, and so everybody and their brother that you know, 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:27.120 I don't know. I've seen a lot of bears, and 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.439 I've only seen one that was a true seven ft 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.080 square bear. That's just that's just the way it was, 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:34.680 Like Andy Brown said, that's just the way it happened. 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:37.160 I loved it when Andy Brown said that on about 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:40.439 Louis Dell and Charlie turn their dogs out in October one. 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:43.760 He just said, Clay, that's just the way it happened. 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:48.520 I've only seen one seven footbear. Um. So there we 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:53.320 are walking the road hour before dark, it's raining. We 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.720 see grizz tracks, we start seeing a little bit of 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:59.720 grizz scat, and we see black bear scat, which is 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:02.920 because typically the griz push out the black bear. That's 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.000 the theory anyway. Yeah, they don't like to hang out 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:10.840 together as far as I've noticed. Yeah, and we get 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:14.120 to the end of this road and we're sitting there 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:19.280 trying to decide what to do and Bear newkem here's 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:23.240 a stick pop way out in the woods. Probably seventy 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:25.360 five yards away, and he says, hey, did y'all hear that? 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:31.079 We stop, and sure enough, pop, we hear another stick pop, 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:33.760 and Corey says, that's for sure an animal. You know, 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.400 when you hear a twig snap, you know, maybe a 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.440 log fell, or you know, just something a squirrel drop 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:42.480 a pine cone or something, you know, you never know. 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:46.920 And it was two distinct crack and then twenty seconds 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:50.839 later crack, and we're like, there's an animal there. And 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.800 then we keep listening and we're keyed up on it 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.559 now and we hear it's scratching. Kind of what was 0:12:57.600 --> 0:12:59.600 it doing, like digging or something. It sounded like a 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:03.920 dig sir, something with claws was scratching or digging. Yeah, 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.160 so it was right away with all the bear sign thinking. 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.440 So Corey goes, that's for sure a bear. But it's 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:14.600 in such thick timber, we don't know, we can't see it. Well, 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.439 I have my Phelps Predator call with me, and so 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.320 I go, hey, let's let's predator call that thing and 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.920 see if he'll come in. And what was cool is 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:26.319 that the whole week Corey had asked me if I 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:30.320 had ever been successful predator calling a bear, and I've 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:34.000 not done it a ton, but I told him that 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:36.720 one time in British Columbia, we called up a bear 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.360 that was probably three yards away by blowing on a 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:43.400 a rabbit squealer and watched it come across the clear 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:45.520 cut like in the bow range. It was a small 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:49.959 bear and um. And then another time in British Columbia, 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.400 on a different hunt, we had a sow out in 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.360 a field bear John Newcomb, and the sow was feeding 0:13:57.360 --> 0:13:59.480 in grasses. Bear we didn't want to kill, We're just 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:03.400 messing around. We are probably eight yards from her, and 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:05.960 we go to whaling on a predator call and we 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:07.920 were thinking she's gonna lift up her head from that 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.960 grass and just come busting into us. She literally didn't 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.000 even lift her head. And I'm not exaggerating. She didn't 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:20.160 even acknowledge us. And we're yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:24.680 just whaling on this thing. It's like didn't affect her 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.480 at all. And then one time in Washington, we probably 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:33.200 made five or six sets of blowing her predator call 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:39.000 for bear, so you know, mixed success. Well, I get 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.560 about five yards behind bear and kind of tuck him 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:43.880 up by a little spruce Corey gets up on a 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.760 bank behind some trees. We've got two guns, were in 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.960 grizz country, and so I pull out my bear spray, 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:53.240 take the take the safety off, and have bear spray 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.160 because we're in a tight quarters. You can see like 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:58.320 ten yards in direction, and we got a bear out here. 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:00.360 We're about to blow on her. Predator call. It sounds 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:03.480 like a good idea. Man that fast looking good? Holy 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:12.880 cow at that? Oh my lands, Wow, it's looking really good. 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:18.480 So bear's ready, Corey's ready. We got two guns and 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:27.600 bear spray and I started. Probably twenty seconds. I make 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:31.000 eye contact with Corey and I can tell he's watching 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:34.240 a bear. And what happened. There was a little black bear, 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.960 maybe a four foot black bear, just bounding across the 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.120 logs right for the call, and from what we could 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:42.880 hear here scratching, Well that must have been what was scratching. 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.480 Twenty seconds of calling. That bear was on us in 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:49.840 ten seconds and bounded to the edge of the little 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:53.440 opening we had and then just hit How close was 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:56.040 it bear? He's probably like ten yards from me, and 0:15:56.280 --> 0:16:00.440 bear has his gun up and pretty much you feit 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:02.480 stepped in the opening. I don't think we would have 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:04.840 gauged much. We probably wouldn't. He probably would have just 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.200 shot it. And so you got your gun up. Bears 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.360 come running in and now you what did you tell 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:13.880 me after that? You said it's kind of you said, 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.720 it's kind of unnerving. Yeah, I mean, like because you're 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:20.080 right behind me, and so like the bears, I mean, 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:23.160 he's coming for the predator call. He's wanted to eat something. 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:25.600 And it sounds like, I mean, you can't tell how 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.160 big he is. You just hear brush cracking. So I 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:30.280 don't know if it could have been a grizz I 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.800 don't know if eight foot grizzlies about to bust out 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.400 of the brush tan yards in front of me or 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:40.880 black bear. So and so here come, here comes a 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.560 brush crashing. Corey goes, there's a bear. I can't see 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:48.040 the bear, and okay, do you take it from here? Corey. Once, 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:49.840 once I could see it bounding and I could tell 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:53.000 what it was. I whispered black bear, black bear, and 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:56.520 both bear. John and I raise our guns up. We 0:16:56.600 --> 0:17:00.400 both had tags both ready to fill it. And the 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.040 bear just came to the edge and stopped like it 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:05.639 hit a brick wall. It must have winded us or 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:09.600 seen us standing there, came to that brick wall, stopped 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:12.719 and just turned and bounded the same speed away as 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:19.120 it did coming in, and took five steps into the woods, 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:24.400 and out of nowhere a big silver back grizzly bear, 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.640 chasing right to left, chases that little black bear right 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:32.240 up into a tree forty yards away from us. I mean, 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.679 the whole scene was twenty thirty yards into the woods, 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:38.439 but it chases the black bear how high into the 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:42.040 tree that's up a tree. That little black bear was 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.160 scared to death and so were we. So this little 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:47.400 black bear comes bound in and I whispered black bear, 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.240 black bear, black bear. When it stopped and turned around, 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:55.200 and I knew we couldn't get a shot. Two seconds later, grizzly, grizzly, grizzly, grizzly. 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.000 It was intense and just Clay and iron bear. We've 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.840 just started screaming, hey bear, hey bear, get out of here. Bear. 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:05.800 It was it went from all right, we're gonna get 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:07.960 a shot here too, we need to protect our lives. 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:09.960 It felt like, I mean, the way it was running 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:13.160 across the woods like that, and it was the wildest thing, 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:16.600 because all you know, you always feel like if there's 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.480 black bear around, there's not a grizz around, and it 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:24.240 is it is an incredible mystery. Why this grizz in 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.600 that black bear were within no way, They couldn't have 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.719 been more than a hundred yards apart because they I mean, 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.360 we didn't call for thirty seconds. The woods are that 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.800 thick though, they could easily be coming down parallel to 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:40.479 each other right without knowing each other. It was wet, 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:44.159 there was no wind. The scent kind of stays around you. 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.600 It's possible they didn't know each other were there. And 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.639 so I mean just a I mean, Corey just said it, 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:54.040 but basically, this bear comes running the end, we're about 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.920 to shoot it. Corey says, black bear, black bears the word, 0:18:57.000 --> 0:18:59.280 just like about to shoot the bears, thinking about it, 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.359 and then he goes grizz, Grizz, grizz, And at that 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:08.119 point we all bear clicks the safety office gun. I 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:10.800 start yelling, hey bear, hey bear, Hey bear, hey bear, 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:13.480 and kind of step out where I can see good 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:18.000 and the black bear shoots thirty feet up a tree, 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.399 probably fifty yards from us, and I look out and 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:25.639 I see the grizz turn and just make eye contact 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:28.280 with me. Out there at about I felt like it 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:31.280 was a bowshot away, you know, forty yards, those beady 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.560 little eyes just looking through the dark timber at you. 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:36.920 It was such a wild scene because there's this grizz 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:39.600 standing there and there's a black bear in the tree 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:43.119 right above it, and bears trying to shoot the black bear. 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:48.840 Bears like shoot it, shoot shoot it. And I absolutely 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.199 would have let him shoot it. But I was thinking, 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.520 is this smart to shoot a black bear? Because we're 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:57.760 gonna have to skin this black bear back here? That 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:00.879 was my thought. Why we know for a fact that 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:04.480 there's a grizz right there the bear, the black bear 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.159 would have landed on the grizzly bear literally, and so 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:11.560 bear has his gun up and he's saying, Dad, I 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:16.679 got my crosshairs on that black bear. You wanted to 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:22.119 shoot it bad you? And then but we're yelling at 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:25.560 the grizzly bear. So we're hey bear, hey bear, hey bear, 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:28.440 And so the black bear is flipping out. He ran 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:30.840 up the tree because the grizz chasing tree, and now 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:35.720 there's three humans yelling at him, and so I mean, 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:38.120 just no, sooner than all this have you know, we're talking, 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:40.280 we've been talking about this for ten minutes. This happened 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:46.160 in the span of twenty five seconds. Absolute chaos and anyway, 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:48.400 the bears coming down the tree, and the bear gets 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.000 halfway down the tree and stops, and bear says again, Dad, 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.160 I can shoot, I can shoot, and I go wa 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.840 wa wa wait wait wait wait wait, I just I don't. 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.080 I just wasn't sure enough, you know. And if you're 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:03.040 not a don't do it. And we weren't. It was 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:07.600 just too much chaos to know what to do. Like, yeah, 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:09.760 I think we made the right decision. That was day two, 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:12.439 so we weren't. If it was day five, maybe you know, 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:15.560 but day two, just take it, take your time, and 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:18.640 we weren't sure. So that so that was a wild 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:22.000 wild experience. Now, Corey, guiding one time you had to 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:25.320 shoot at you know, to scare a griz. Tell me 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:29.399 that story. Yeah, I had an archery hunter um that 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:31.680 I was guiding, and we parked our horses and walked 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:36.040 up this ridge, got onto a little bench and the 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:40.119 same similar thing. Heard an animal cracking in the woods. 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:43.160 But we're elk hunting, so assuming it was an elk, 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:45.360 I mean, that was what we were after, and very 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:50.840 elk heavy zone. And we got set up without even 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.440 calling or anything, without seeing anything. We just got set 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:55.879 up to try and call this whatever it was in 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:58.840 hoping it was a lone bull, elk or something that's September. 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:06.920 And I set my climing up behind a bush ten 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:10.080 ft bush, a big alder bush, and I backed up 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.680 about fifty yards and gave one little cow calf squeal, 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:17.520 and whatever it was was walking towards us. You could 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:20.080 just hear it a couple of cracks here, like it 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:22.520 kind of sounded like a hoof. I was. I was 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:24.600 just thinking, Okay, here we go, here's an elk coming in. 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:27.359 Client was hoping for a big bull, but I was 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:29.280 assuming he was going to shoot anything, Like maybe it's 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:35.280 just a cow coming into the calf call whatever. Twenty 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:39.560 seconds later, a giant grizzly bear stands over the top 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:41.600 of this bush. Now that bush might have been nine 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:45.000 ft tall. I might be over exaggerating, maybe eight ft tall, 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:46.800 but that bear stood a foot over the top of 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:50.040 that bush. Now Montana black grizzly bear, excuse me, don't 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:53.639 get that big. But in the moment it was a giant. 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:56.800 That bear stands up on two legs and is looking 0:22:56.800 --> 0:22:59.240 for whatever is making that noise. Now that bears on 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:00.720 the other side of the USh from my hunter, and 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:02.600 now my hunters on I think a knee or two 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:05.600 knees waiting for an elk to step out from either side. 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:08.280 He has no idea. This bush is so thick that 0:23:08.320 --> 0:23:10.960 he has no idea that there's a bear standing five 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:13.600 yards on the other side of the bush, over the top, 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:16.320 and it's looking around. And when I see that the bear, 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:19.880 I pull out my forty four revolver and fired off 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:22.960 in the air and just start screaming. And the bear 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:26.240 gets down like it turned on two feet, took off 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:27.920