Speaker 1: Smell us Now, lady, Welcome to Meet Eater Trivia mea podcast.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Meet Eater Radio Live. It's eleven am Mountain
Speaker 2: Time on Thursday, January sixteenth, and we're live for met
Speaker 2: Eater HQ and Bozeman, Montana. I'm your host, Spencer new Arth,
Speaker 2: joined today by Seth Morrison Corey Halkins. On today's show,
Speaker 2: we'll interview Joel Collander from Rock Island Auction about some
Speaker 2: super rare guns that are for sale. Then we'll get
Speaker 2: a migration report from Matt McCormick, followed by one minute
Speaker 2: fishing with Chester in Wisconsin. After that, we're rank the
Speaker 2: three coolest places we've ever camped. And finally we'll talk
Speaker 2: to Phil Muskett about one of the most coveted public
Speaker 2: lands jobs in America. But before we do anything, Corey,
Speaker 2: I need to issue an apology to you. Do you
Speaker 2: know why? No, there's not a chance you know why.
Speaker 2: Corey and I were el Conning in October and it
Speaker 2: was a big full moon that night, and I was
Speaker 2: talking about how I am very entertained by doctors and
Speaker 2: school teachers and nurses who say that like the hospital
Speaker 2: is the worse place to work on a full moon.
Speaker 2: Kids are to deal with on a full moon. And
Speaker 2: I said, all these studies have shown that that's not true,
Speaker 2: but I'm glad that they think that that's true. But
Speaker 2: there's multiple studies they are like, that is not the case.
Speaker 2: Which Corey said that he sleeps worse on a full moon,
Speaker 2: and I said, Corey, you fool, there is no chance
Speaker 2: that's the case. Earlier this week, I was having a
Speaker 2: tough time falling asleep, looked out the window, full moon,
Speaker 2: and so I'm like, it was Corey, right, So I
Speaker 2: googled it. There were like six to ten studies saying
Speaker 2: that that is the case. People a harder time falling
Speaker 2: asleep on a full moon and they wake up sooner
Speaker 2: on a full moon. They conducted these studies in South America,
Speaker 2: in the United States, in rural areas, in urban areas,
Speaker 2: in laboratories where you didn't even know like what the
Speaker 2: moon was doing that night, and it's like pretty consistently
Speaker 2: agreed upon by science that you sleep worse on a
Speaker 2: full moon. So Cory, I'm.
Speaker 3: Sorry, that's all right.
Speaker 4: I hate to say I told you so, but I
Speaker 4: mean that was just my own life, you know, things
Speaker 4: I noticed in my life. I mean, there's like, what
Speaker 4: three nights in a row where it's.
Speaker 2: Almost full happened this week? Did you notice that you sleeped?
Speaker 2: Slept any worse?
Speaker 4: You know, my house has been in shambles. We had
Speaker 4: a little water leak, so we got fans and dehumidifiers
Speaker 4: going nuts. So actually I slept great. But yeah, typically
Speaker 4: full moon, like my kid doesn't sleep well. My dog's
Speaker 4: up roaming around, needs to go outside and howl at
Speaker 4: the moon or something. So yeah, it's typically a rough
Speaker 4: night to sleep, especially out camping. You know, it's a
Speaker 4: little bright.
Speaker 2: See if you ever noticed that full moons they messed
Speaker 2: with you.
Speaker 3: Then, just the fact that it's light out, especially like
Speaker 3: right now when there's snow cover, I just like so,
Speaker 3: I like, yeah, I like darkness when I sleep. So
Speaker 3: but I can't say that I've noticed a difference because
Speaker 3: of the full moon failure.
Speaker 2: Are your boys rowdier on a full moon? You think?
Speaker 3: I don't know, I've never noticed any sort of pattern
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 5: I know a lot of a few days astology people
Speaker 5: would would beg to differ a few days ago.
Speaker 2: Were they a real pain in your butt?
Speaker 5: You know, actually, for the first time, they they they
Speaker 5: weren't a pain in my butt for a while. So
Speaker 5: maybe it's like my kids are just the opposite, which
Speaker 5: you know, Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: So Corey, going back to our Elk Camp conversation in October,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, that's all right, thank you for the apology.
Speaker 4: I yes, I wonder why that's the case. Must be gravity.
Speaker 2: One of the studies I saw said it's actually more
Speaker 2: rare in children than it affects their sleep, and so
Speaker 2: it's something that's been baked into us by the time
Speaker 2: we're adults. That just messes with you.
Speaker 4: Wild Wild world.
Speaker 2: All right, we're gonna go to our first interview. Joining
Speaker 2: us on the line now is Joel Callander from Rock
Speaker 2: Island Auction and he's here to show us some legendary
Speaker 2: guns that are coming up for sale. Joel, Welcome to
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 6: Yeah, pleasure to be here. Thanks for having us on.
Speaker 2: First thing, Joel tell us about what Rock Island Auction is.
Speaker 1: The short way to put it is Rock Island Auction
Speaker 1: House is the number one auction house in the world
Speaker 1: for final historic firearms. A lot of people associate us
Speaker 1: with six and seven figure firearms. Those are what we're
Speaker 1: most known for. But I love con on shows like
Speaker 1: this and saying but there's guns for everybody. I mean,
Speaker 1: you just want to something to go out to the field,
Speaker 1: you need a pre sixty four Winchester Model seventy.
Speaker 6: You know we're gonna have that.
Speaker 1: We're really catering to collectors at all levels, not just collectors,
Speaker 1: but people use these things too.
Speaker 2: You mentioned six, six and seven figure guns. What's the
Speaker 2: most expensive firearm you've ever sold?
Speaker 1: That would be a pair of firearms that was in
Speaker 1: May twenty two, a pair of Remington New Models Russian Revolvers,
Speaker 1: mint condition and graved by one of the finest engravers
Speaker 1: of the century, L. D. Nimshki, and they were presented
Speaker 1: to Ulysses S. Grant Uh That pre sold for five
Speaker 1: point one eight dollars.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Five Is that what you expected those
Speaker 2: guns to yield?
Speaker 1: No, we had a I believe a pre auction estimate
Speaker 1: between between one and three, so we had a seven
Speaker 1: figure estimate on it.
Speaker 6: We knew those were special and above and beyond.
Speaker 1: Once you start adding those historic figures, a lot of
Speaker 1: times there's you know, there's no precedent for that.
Speaker 6: There's no precedent on you.
Speaker 1: Know what what should are ulysses as grant revolver self
Speaker 1: for So when it comes to auction time, it's sometimes
Speaker 1: you get some fireworks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's worth what somebody will pay for it.
Speaker 2: How many guns a year do you guys move.
Speaker 6: Anymore?
Speaker 1: So we're changing a lot of auction formats, trying to
Speaker 1: do a lot of new things on with online platforms.
Speaker 1: UH currently just about just about underd fifty thousand guns annually.
Speaker 2: Okay, fifty thousand guns moving through Rock Island auction. Now
Speaker 2: I see that you're wearing some gloves today. I assume
Speaker 2: that that's so you can delicately handle some of the firearms
Speaker 2: that you're about to show us. And you've got some
Speaker 2: guns that are coming up for auction in February, what
Speaker 2: do you have to share with us?
Speaker 6: Sure?
Speaker 1: Well, these are in our February twenty first through twenty
Speaker 1: third Sporting Collector Firearms Auction of the full catalogs on
Speaker 1: our website, so people can do that. You don't need
Speaker 1: to be present, although we certainly encourage people to come.
Speaker 1: If you're in that Dallas Fort Worth area, come see
Speaker 1: the new facility that's in Bedford.
Speaker 6: We can talk about that later.
Speaker 1: But one of the ones, when you ask about the
Speaker 1: most expensive guns, one that was on our list for
Speaker 1: a long time was a Cult Walker. You know, it's
Speaker 1: the very very first revolver with the Cult name actually
Speaker 1: on it. And we have one of those coming up
Speaker 1: in February. So it's a model eighteen forty seven. That's
Speaker 1: when Colt would have started using the Walkers absolute just
Speaker 1: as you maybe you can tell just a unit, just
Speaker 1: a unit of a revolver. I mean, the cylinder is
Speaker 1: multiple inches in diameter. They saw hard use. To see
Speaker 1: them in any condition is absolutely phenomenal. They're only one
Speaker 1: thousand made for a military contract, one hundred made for
Speaker 1: the commercial, for the commercial market, and they really, you know,
Speaker 1: our President Kevin Hogan likes to say, you know, they
Speaker 1: really gave Samuel Colt the keys to the men.
Speaker 6: They opened up doors for him.
Speaker 1: It was just the start of military contracts as well
Speaker 1: as getting, you know, introducing people on a more powerful
Speaker 1: scale to the to the repeater or to a repeating pistol.
Speaker 2: For our audience members who are listening to this show,
Speaker 2: i'd suggest you go over to YouTube and watch this
Speaker 2: one because Joel is handling these guns on the camera here,
Speaker 2: we're going to get to see all these expensive guns.
Speaker 2: What was the original price of that gun when it sold?
Speaker 6: Well, the thousand that were sold to the US government,
Speaker 6: they sold for twenty five dollars a piece and an
Speaker 6: extra three dollars per revolver for accessories in acouterments.
Speaker 2: Wow, okay, And what do you guys expect it to
Speaker 2: sell for next month?
Speaker 1: The Colt Walkers do set the top of the market.
Speaker 1: We've sold examples commercially and otherwise we're right around one
Speaker 1: point eight million. Those are fine condition, all original, but
Speaker 1: there's still examples out there, and like I mentioned, a
Speaker 1: range of conditions. I believe we have the estimate of
Speaker 1: this one twenty five to fifty thousand. It's a really
Speaker 1: good way for someone who, you know, if you don't
Speaker 1: want to spend the moon on a Colt Walker, things
Speaker 1: like this provide a really easy way to do it,
Speaker 1: to get an original, authentic you know, Texas Ranger History
Speaker 1: cult walker and their collection.
Speaker 2: That is a beast of a gun. I see somebody
Speaker 2: in the comments of the live chat saying that they
Speaker 2: would be the unlucky person who would put a dent
Speaker 2: in one of these things. Out of the fifty thousand
Speaker 2: guns that you guys sell a year, I imagine some accident
Speaker 2: has happened along the way right where somebody has fumbled
Speaker 2: a gun, and uh, you guys had a little accident there.
Speaker 1: Have it happened here too much? But again, a lot
Speaker 1: of the guns that come to us, you know, we
Speaker 1: have our premiere auctions, which are kind of the world class.
Speaker 1: Just the best guns in the world are gonna be
Speaker 1: at our premiere auctions. Those you don't see too many
Speaker 1: on with the Sporting collector auctions or some of our
Speaker 1: other arms and accessories auctions. You know, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of really good history in those that aren't in pristine condition.
Speaker 1: You know, they've been used, they've been there, they've done that,
Speaker 1: they've seen combat or they've seen the firing.
Speaker 6: Range, so you know, some of them have some marks
Speaker 6: on it already.
Speaker 1: And some people prefer that they'd like a gun that's
Speaker 1: been there and done that instead of a safe queen
Speaker 1: or one that missed all the battles. You know, they
Speaker 1: want they want something that a Texas Ranger might have
Speaker 1: had in their holsters.
Speaker 6: So it's like I said, we we cater at all.
Speaker 2: Levels, all right, Joel what else do you have to
Speaker 2: show us today?
Speaker 1: Well, this next one's gonna be two hands. One of
Speaker 1: our most popular videos of all time is me and
Speaker 1: another gentleman here firing some rifles by J. D.
Speaker 6: Jones. JD.
Speaker 1: Jones invented like the Whisper line of cartridges, which of
Speaker 1: course gave rise to three hundred blackout, Famous handgun Hunter,
Speaker 1: Famous Wildcatter also did some rifle cartridges and rifle rounds,
Speaker 1: and this is one of them.
Speaker 6: This guy's chambered in seven hundred JD.
Speaker 3: Jesus wall Oh, doesn't break like that's ambitious.
Speaker 1: Giant fluted cylinder makes these things out of phoenix and
Speaker 1: just no ATF or it's ATF exempt, so you don't need.
Speaker 6: An ATF letter on a gun like this.
Speaker 1: The host cartridges actually made from a fifty b mg
Speaker 1: brass that's been necked out to accept that seven hundred
Speaker 1: caliber cartridge.
Speaker 3: How much is that thing weighed, Joel?
Speaker 6: Too much? Now, I mean this has got to be
Speaker 6: like thirty five pounds.
Speaker 2: Joel can hold that for the whole interview, because that
Speaker 2: that is quite the workout, and he can't even fit
Speaker 2: the whole thing in the frame of his screen. This
Speaker 2: is another beast of a firearm.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're gonna want to wait, frankly with a with
Speaker 1: a round like that. I did some napkin math and
Speaker 1: it's about twenty eight thousand foot pounds of force. Wow,
Speaker 1: like a thirty got six is generating twenty nine hundred
Speaker 1: foot pounds of force.
Speaker 2: And what what was this gun used for back in
Speaker 2: the day when when people are tilting these things around?
Speaker 1: Nobody nobody was that's the good use, like it has
Speaker 1: sling swivels on it, But I don't know for what
Speaker 1: nobody's going to want to carry this. You can see
Speaker 1: it is in this heavy bench ress stock. So it's
Speaker 1: really just testing the boundaries of cartridge, which is what
Speaker 1: Jad Jones is doing with the wildcatting and the and
Speaker 1: the handgun hunting. He's testing the boundaries for things like that.
Speaker 1: So target shooting, it's also made for watching your friends.
Speaker 6: Shoot it, not you a whole bunch of times. That's
Speaker 6: probably more entertaining as well.
Speaker 2: Uh huh. The kind of guy who would haul that
Speaker 2: around in their back, I think that's exclusive to someone
Speaker 2: like Dug Duran. What what was the original price on
Speaker 2: that gun?
Speaker 6: That?
Speaker 1: I don't know the original price, but it's pretty modern.
Speaker 1: So these the seven hundred JDJ that's just developed as
Speaker 1: recently as nineteen ninety five. So I don't have the
Speaker 1: original price on Our estimate for that weekend for the
Speaker 1: February auction will.
Speaker 6: Be fourteen thousand to twenty two five.
Speaker 1: These big bords are becoming more desirable all the time,
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't be surprised to see it float a
Speaker 1: little higher than that.
Speaker 2: Okay, and that thing you could shoot it if you
Speaker 2: bought that, right that that's one that you take out
Speaker 2: to the range.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, it comes with a bunch of solids, so it
Speaker 1: comes with copper solids and soft points as well as
Speaker 1: the dies. And you you would laugh if you saw
Speaker 1: the reloading dies for this. They're just they're just comically large.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, and what's what's the last gun you
Speaker 2: have to show us today?
Speaker 1: Last gun? Kind of a classic got ourselves as sharpsck.
Speaker 1: I'll flip it around. You can see the good side.
Speaker 1: Oh that's beautiful Sharpeen seventy four. And if you love
Speaker 1: you know nineteenth century a mare hunting or even Civil
Speaker 1: war history, boy of Sharps is the way to go,
Speaker 1: I mean, pre Civil War history, Civil War, and in
Speaker 1: the eighteen seventies like this one.
Speaker 6: You know, you're come into those American bison hunts and
Speaker 6: all the hunting that was going on there. The sharps
Speaker 6: were extremely popular for that.
Speaker 1: They come in a variety of calibers and sizes and lengths,
Speaker 1: and they were going to configure them just about any
Speaker 1: way you wanted it. So they're popular for that reason,
Speaker 1: and you can great for collectors. So if you want
Speaker 1: to collect a variety of them, you can sure find them.
Speaker 2: And so when that gun was on the market in
Speaker 2: the eighteen seventies, do you know what the selling price was.
Speaker 6: A base model gun?
Speaker 1: So again, short barrel, short octagon barrel and no kind
Speaker 1: of extra features, right around thirty five bucks.
Speaker 2: And what do you think it's going to sell for
Speaker 2: next month?
Speaker 6: Let me check, yesterdait on that guy. We had at
Speaker 6: seventy five to ninety.
Speaker 2: Five hundred, okay, thirty five dollars.
Speaker 6: In the future.
Speaker 1: Not fancy stock, but we do have a half octagon
Speaker 1: half round barrel, not as many of those produced that
Speaker 1: the full round barrels or the rarest the least produced
Speaker 1: out of the model eighteen seventy four, But like I said,
Speaker 1: great model. It's you know, kind of got its fame
Speaker 1: with the Quickly Down Under movies. So that was in
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy four. And in this same chambering as well.
Speaker 1: When the forty five to one to.
Speaker 2: Ten thirty five dollars gives me a little sticker shock
Speaker 2: for eighteen seventy four, I'd assume that thing would be
Speaker 2: half of that price. Yeah, Joel, if some listener is
Speaker 2: interested in one of these guns, how do they make
Speaker 2: a bid?
Speaker 6: Rock Island auction dot Com best way to do it.
Speaker 1: You can set it up where you just sat in
Speaker 1: a sealed bit, you tell us what your max is.
Speaker 1: You can also request just right on the website to
Speaker 1: get a phone call. You can bid live via phone
Speaker 1: in the auctions. Just click a button and one of
Speaker 1: our folks will call you, maybe five lots before the
Speaker 1: auction or before that lot comes up, and says, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, this is Joel with Rock Island Auction Company.
Speaker 6: What the let's talk about this gun a little bit
Speaker 6: and what your plans are for it? So any number
Speaker 6: of ways a bit. I like to joke it just
Speaker 6: about We'll take bit anyway except for smoke signal.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's it is pretty painless. Rock Island Auction is
Speaker 2: actually where we bought our punt gun, and I've heard
Speaker 2: rumors in the office that it may get fired next month.
Speaker 2: Oh so if you're in the Gallatin Valley and you
Speaker 2: hear a big old boom, someday you'll know what was
Speaker 2: going on. Joel. I. I had saw on an email
Speaker 2: recently that there was a gun you were supposed to
Speaker 2: tell Phil about. That was once upon a time in
Speaker 2: your auction house.
Speaker 1: Phill we uh we set a Guinness Book World record
Speaker 1: for the most expensive movie prop firearm ever sold, and
Speaker 1: that was for a for the Han Solo DL forty
Speaker 1: four blaster.
Speaker 3: Oh nice. Over a couple of years, you beat me
Speaker 3: to the d L forty four.
Speaker 5: I was gonna come in with that with that that
Speaker 5: that name. But no, yeah, that sounds that sounds great.
Speaker 5: Where where was I for this? How could I have
Speaker 5: gotten a notification?
Speaker 6: Question?
Speaker 1: We told a few people about it, but it went
Speaker 1: for just over a million dollars.
Speaker 5: And you know what, I take it back, I take
Speaker 5: it all back. You could have had that easy.
Speaker 2: A million dollars.
Speaker 6: Wow, biddings free. It's just the winning gets a little.
Speaker 3: That's a great point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, Joel. Uh, well, we're definitely gonna check
Speaker 2: if you check in with you later this year to
Speaker 2: see what other cool guns you guys have at the
Speaker 2: auction house. Already looking forward to that next interview. Thanks
Speaker 2: for joining us.
Speaker 6: Hey, pleasure be here. Thanks very much, Thanks Joel.
Speaker 2: All right, our next segment is the Migration Report.
Speaker 7: When you can sun food and the tam sasso, then
Speaker 7: you suffer, alright, Chrishan is the West.
Speaker 2: The Migration Report is where Matt McCormick gives it a
Speaker 2: waterfowl hunting forecast for each flyway. Take it away, Matt.
Speaker 8: Hey guys, I'm Matt McCormick was flying V and welcome
Speaker 8: to the meat Eater Migration Report for January sixteenth, twenty
Speaker 8: twenty five. It's been a little while since we've done
Speaker 8: one of these, and for good reason. We've been hunting hard.
Speaker 8: And as you can see here in the Pacific Flyway
Speaker 8: of Montana, which is where I am right now, we
Speaker 8: are all the way snowed in, iced up, and the
Speaker 8: birds are pushing. We ended our season on January tenth,
Speaker 8: and let me tell you it was a banger of
Speaker 8: an ending. And those birds on the front ende of
Speaker 8: this storm pushed all the way down into Utah down
Speaker 8: to the Sack Valley. Everybody in the Pacific Flyway had
Speaker 8: a hell of a season this year, So kudos to
Speaker 8: everybody that was able to get out and do some
Speaker 8: hunting in the Pacific Flyway. In the Central Flyway, some
Speaker 8: seasons are starting to close, same with Mississippi. But as
Speaker 8: we're pushing south, and if you've been paying attention, there
Speaker 8: are birds pouring out to the north down to the
Speaker 8: south on the front and back end of this recent storm.
Speaker 8: I see you guys got some snow down there. Talk
Speaker 8: to some guys. You guys are getting massive pushes of
Speaker 8: birds as we dive into these last few weeks of
Speaker 8: the season. So if you're looking to get out and
Speaker 8: do some hunting, find a state that's open. Hit the
Speaker 8: road with your buddies. If you're in one of those
Speaker 8: states that's still open, good luck, have fun with these
Speaker 8: last few weeks, because in about a month or so,
Speaker 8: all of you, including myself, are gonna be wishing that
Speaker 8: season was still open. We're gonna hit the road tomorrow,
Speaker 8: go find some birds somewhere else because we just can't
Speaker 8: handle it.
Speaker 3: And hey, it's hunting season.
Speaker 8: Boys, it's still here, So get in the truck, go
Speaker 8: find birds and keep hunting.
Speaker 3: Good luck and be safe. Now.
Speaker 2: I believe that is the last migration report we'll have
Speaker 2: for the year. But for more waterfalling content from Matt
Speaker 2: and Flying v be sure to go watch the show
Speaker 2: on the Media YouTube channel. A new episode just dropped today,
Speaker 2: Corey Seth. You boys take advantage of the final stretch
Speaker 2: of the Montana season here.
Speaker 3: No, I did actually got out like for the first
Speaker 3: time this year in the last week or so.
Speaker 2: How'd that go?
Speaker 3: It was good, got a couple birds, not many. Weren't
Speaker 3: taking it too serious, uh huh, but just something to
Speaker 3: do on the weekend.
Speaker 2: What was the hunt like? You were just like waiting
Speaker 2: down some stream.
Speaker 3: Just local public stuff around here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fancy, he's saving those ducks in for a special occasion.
Speaker 2: What are you going to do with them?
Speaker 3: We ate some of them already, Oh yeah, okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: we usually don't let them things sit around too long.
Speaker 3: My wife loves them. So if we have ducks, were eating.
Speaker 4: Them pretty fatty too, I'm sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they're delicious.
Speaker 2: All right, let's take a break for some listener feedback, Phil,
Speaker 2: what's the chat?
Speaker 5: I have to say, Yeah, well, I see that doctor
Speaker 5: Randall and Steve and Ronella are both in the chat currently. Hey, gentlemen,
Speaker 5: if you have a question for the crew, feel free
Speaker 5: to drop it in right now. Mitchell has a question
Speaker 5: for Spencer. I mean, you can be as specific or
Speaker 5: non specific as you like. But he says, this is
Speaker 5: his first year hunting in South Dakota as a resident.
Speaker 5: What West River zone do you think I should try
Speaker 5: putting in.
Speaker 2: For Well, if this is your first year, then I
Speaker 2: assume that means you have zero points and you are
Speaker 2: going to be quite limited, Mitchell, to draw like a
Speaker 2: pretty quality unit in western South Dakota as a resident,
Speaker 2: you probably need three or four points. What I would
Speaker 2: say is probably just avoid Gregory County. If this is
Speaker 2: your first time going West River, you're probably going to
Speaker 2: be drawn to that zone. When you look at a
Speaker 2: public landmap and see your draw odds that unit has
Speaker 2: an incredibly low retention rate because people get fooled by
Speaker 2: the reasons I just said, and then they go there
Speaker 2: and they're super disappointed and they never go back again.
Speaker 2: And you may think at that point, oh, that it's
Speaker 2: what it's like to hunt western South Dakota. It's it's
Speaker 2: I would say, just plan on drawing some preference points,
Speaker 2: make a quality trip in like twenty twenty seven, and
Speaker 2: for this first year in twenty twenty five, just don't
Speaker 2: do Gregory County.
Speaker 3: Sounds good.
Speaker 5: I'm actually curious about this because I don't know how.
Speaker 5: I don't think any of you guys are much of
Speaker 5: waterfowl people as far as I know. But Eric's asking,
Speaker 5: with duck season coming to a close and after that
Speaker 5: migration report, does any of the gang have a good
Speaker 5: waterfowl story from this season.
Speaker 2: I hunted zero waterfowl.
Speaker 3: That's what I saw. Corey.
Speaker 4: I'm too big of a skier to waterfowl hunt. When
Speaker 4: I get old al waterfowl hunt, that's all I always say.
Speaker 3: I the best. Well. I photographed a waterfowl hunt this
Speaker 3: year with Max Barta, and it was phenomenal. That dude
Speaker 3: is just a ducky dude, uh huh. And yeah, he
Speaker 3: did a bunch of scouting and found this spot the
Speaker 3: spring pond. The ducks were flying flying two between there
Speaker 3: and like a grain elevator that had some spilt grain
Speaker 3: laying around. And yeah, Max knocked on some doors and
Speaker 3: it was just a phenomenal, Like, you know, a thousand
Speaker 3: ducks over your head in the morning.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 2: And you didn't have a gun in your hand.
Speaker 3: You had a Candra, I had a camera. Yeah.
Speaker 4: But they're amazing shots though.
Speaker 3: Oh they're great as always.
Speaker 5: Yeah, let's see Jova and figure Roa.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 5: Thoughts about passing off venison as something else when cooking
Speaker 5: people like the joke that you can't tell the difference
Speaker 5: between beef and venison. He says he's against it, but
Speaker 5: his wife is not. Have you ever done this before?
Speaker 2: I wouldn't like openly misdirect someone and say it's beef,
Speaker 2: But if I feel like someone would be hesitant to
Speaker 2: eat it, I maybe wouldn't volunteer. Yeah, it's venison. I
Speaker 2: don't know. There's plenty of good ways to make venison
Speaker 2: where it doesn't matter what kind of red meat it is,
Speaker 2: specifically with like a ground meat recipe, you can get
Speaker 2: away with damn near or anything, and it doesn't matter
Speaker 2: that it came off of a white tail rather than
Speaker 2: a cow.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I love having people over for dinner that like
Speaker 3: are wishy washy about eating wild game and then just
Speaker 3: like not telling them what it is, yeah, and then
Speaker 3: then like them eating it and being like, oh, this
Speaker 3: is delicious, and then I tell them yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4: It blows my mind how folks would rather eat a
Speaker 4: Walmart cow steak versus a wild deer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and there's a lot of them there are.
Speaker 2: I feel like the people who are against it, or
Speaker 2: more so, they had a bad experience when they were
Speaker 2: a kid and like their dad cooked their venison steaks
Speaker 2: to a well done of course, no one's gonna like that.
Speaker 2: If that's all the exposure you had for a while,
Speaker 2: just show them how dang good venison could be without
Speaker 2: lying to them.
Speaker 5: I'm not sure why this is directed at you, Seth,
Speaker 5: but I'm curious, Seth. Can you eat the velvet from
Speaker 5: deer antlers? Have you guys ever done that before?
Speaker 3: I don't know why that stretched towards me either, never
Speaker 3: even thought about.
Speaker 2: Deer eat it. I feel like there's some photos like
Speaker 2: when they're shedding their velvet, Dey'll eat it. There was
Speaker 2: also famously Ray Lewis, the linebacker Hall of Fame or
Speaker 2: from the Baltimore Ravens. He got busted with I think
Speaker 2: it was a banned substance at the time. If it
Speaker 2: wasn't a bad banned substance, they were going to make
Speaker 2: it band. But it was a deer antler spray, which
Speaker 2: I don't know how that was applied if it's oral
Speaker 2: or if you'd like you have an inflame knee, so
Speaker 2: you spray it there. But interesting deer eat their own velvet. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I think I think you could do it too.
Speaker 4: Didn't your wife kill a cactus buck covered in velvet?
Speaker 3: Yeah? She did.
Speaker 4: I wonder if that's what they're referring to.
Speaker 3: But you did, Maybe, No, we didn't. It's it's still
Speaker 3: on the antlers.
Speaker 4: They always say you can't eat the antlers, but maybe.
Speaker 2: Did you When you got that mounted? Did they strip
Speaker 2: it off and reapply it or did they freeze drive?
Speaker 2: I think they not freeze drive, but like flash freeze.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I I think they stripped it and reapplied it, huh,
Speaker 3: which I don't know how that works.
Speaker 2: But I also killed a velvet book. That one they
Speaker 2: just like did a flash freeze on it, and it's
Speaker 2: held real good. It doesn't smell at all. There was
Speaker 2: one there was a couple of spots where it was
Speaker 2: starting to peel a little bit, and I noticed that
Speaker 2: will peel like an extra eighth of an inch every
Speaker 2: two years. Oh really without it ever being handled. So I imagine,
Speaker 2: you know, when I'm old and gray, that thing is
Speaker 2: going to be peeling a little more. But right now
Speaker 2: it's it's holding real well.
Speaker 3: I one time in Pennsylvania was shed hunting and found
Speaker 3: shed antler that was still in full velvet. It was
Speaker 3: peeling off in places and it was cold outside. So
Speaker 3: I just like picked up was like, oh, this is cool,
Speaker 3: and then I brought it in the house. Yeah, not
Speaker 3: think like because I couldn't smell it. It was just like
Speaker 3: frozen live flesh. Yeah, And it brought it in the
Speaker 3: house and once it fell it out, it was just
Speaker 3: the most miserable smelling thing.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I imagine you handled the same way when Kelsey
Speaker 2: killed her cactus buck. But when I killed my cactus buck,
Speaker 2: through the whole head in the freezer until I could
Speaker 2: get it to the taxi permis.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we took it like right away.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So Steve says that question was directed at you, Seth,
Speaker 5: because it looks like he needs some help. I don't
Speaker 5: know what that means.
Speaker 3: Uh, thanks is in the.
Speaker 2: Chat today as well as Randall Williams. And I know
Speaker 2: Randall was saying something before our show today that the
Speaker 2: Sharp's rifle plays a heavy role in their upcoming UH
Speaker 2: mountain Man history project. Maybe Randall can tell you more
Speaker 2: in the chat about that.
Speaker 5: Oh sure, yeah, I'll do one more here, Doctor Randall
Speaker 5: Williams is asking about the stream athon. Great question, Randal.
Speaker 5: For those of you who didn't hear Phil Trivia, I
Speaker 5: proposed a twenty four hour stream of red Dead Redemption
Speaker 5: too to raise money for the Meat Eater Land Access
Speaker 5: an initiative. Unfortunately, the person in charge of content is
Speaker 5: on paternity leave right now, and I'm very disappointed he
Speaker 5: didn't drop everything he was doing, including his baby, to
Speaker 5: come tell me what the best idea that that was.
Speaker 5: But I'm still fighting for it. I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 5: pitch it officially at the next round of pitches that
Speaker 5: come through.
Speaker 3: So I've got faith. I have faith. Thank you for
Speaker 3: that question, Randall.
Speaker 9: All right.
Speaker 2: Our next segment is one Minute Fishing. Do I feel lucky?
Speaker 9: We'll do you bunk, go ahead.
Speaker 4: Make my cast.
Speaker 2: One minute Fishing is where we go live to someone
Speaker 2: who's fishing and they have one minute to catch a fish,
Speaker 2: and if they're successful, we'll make a five hundred dollars
Speaker 2: donation to a conservation group. This week, our angler is
Speaker 2: Chester Floyd, who's on a frozen lake in Wisconsin and
Speaker 2: he's fishing for a donation to Muskie's Ink. Chester, Welcome
Speaker 2: to the show.
Speaker 10: Hello, it's windy as all heck out here.
Speaker 2: It looks cold too, and I'm cold. Chester is the
Speaker 2: first person in the history of one Minute Fishing to
Speaker 2: join us on the hard wall. Tell us about what
Speaker 2: you're after today, Chester.
Speaker 11: Well, we're really after some bluegill, but they're not biting,
Speaker 11: so we switched to baby little perch.
Speaker 10: Okay, that's what I got here.
Speaker 2: And how long have you been on the ice today?
Speaker 10: About an hour?
Speaker 2: And how many fish have you caught? Uh?
Speaker 10: Thirty?
Speaker 2: Oh okay, so there's a chance. I thought the answer
Speaker 2: was going to be three.
Speaker 3: How many beers have you drank?
Speaker 10: Chest, none? It's a workday.
Speaker 3: Oh, you're in Wisconsin and you're fishing.
Speaker 10: And Chester is a stake.
Speaker 2: Ike famous from the eighteen inch wheel song Chester Stole
Speaker 2: Your Bike and the Sturgeon Spearing episode with Giannis's right.
Speaker 10: Yeah, he's a cookie guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and uh, Chester has the camera very tight on
Speaker 2: his face. You almost can't even see both of his ears.
Speaker 2: I think he's trying to hide his location. So nobody
Speaker 2: goes out there and catches his baby little perch that
Speaker 2: he's at.
Speaker 10: When do you guys want to do this?
Speaker 2: Chester's getting real cold. I imagine his fingers are getting frostben.
Speaker 2: First thing, Chester, tell us about what you're doing to
Speaker 2: try to catch one of these perch. What tactics we
Speaker 2: use in looks.
Speaker 3: Like it involves a live scope. Oh no, that's a camera.
Speaker 11: Yeah, that's just down it two D sonar. Uh, we
Speaker 11: don't really need it. Literally, we're just in weeds. And uh,
Speaker 11: there's a little perch everywhere, so I hope they're there
Speaker 11: right now.
Speaker 2: And what were you dropping down there? A little waxy
Speaker 2: worm or what waxworm?
Speaker 10: And a little tongusten jig yep.
Speaker 2: Okay, Chester, hand that phone over to Ike and your
Speaker 2: one minute of fishing starts as soon as that waxy
Speaker 2: wor hits the water. Okay, okay, he's he's picking up
Speaker 2: his rod. Oh, he's showing the camera that that is
Speaker 2: bait for a little itty bitty fish. And uh, we're
Speaker 2: ready We're ready, go for it, all right, the worm
Speaker 2: is in the water. Your sixty seconds starts. Now.
Speaker 3: I'm on the edge of my seat already.
Speaker 2: We've only had a few successful anglers in the history
Speaker 2: of one minute fishing. Pat Durkin, Oh seconds, and he
Speaker 2: pulled off a perch that I would say if I
Speaker 2: described it as four inches long, that would be generous.
Speaker 2: Show us that fish. Chester, Yes, wow, that was thirteen seconds.
Speaker 2: My gosh, thirteen seconds. Chester caught a little perch to
Speaker 2: make a donation to muskies Ink. Well done, Chester, Thank you, guys.
Speaker 10: I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Are you gonna eat that thing?
Speaker 3: He's allergic?
Speaker 10: Oh it's back back. That works kind of catching.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Oh he's running. Oh he's running another what are you
Speaker 3: running to? Chester?
Speaker 10: Where bluegill?
Speaker 2: Sorry on the Okay, he's gonna show us the hot
Speaker 2: bluegill bite the whole show.
Speaker 3: Like, apologies to whatever I'm coming up.
Speaker 10: Oh yeah, this is like the size you know.
Speaker 2: Uh huh perfect, you're keeping those I'm cold. Okay, all right,
Speaker 2: we will see you later.
Speaker 3: Chester.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us congrants on getting that five
Speaker 2: hundred dollars donation for Muski's inch.
Speaker 4: Nice job, good work.
Speaker 10: See you guys.
Speaker 4: Man, it looked like it could have been twenty or
Speaker 4: dirty below zero with the wind chill.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, Chester makes it look colder, and I trust
Speaker 2: that it was very cold out there.
Speaker 4: Sound cold.
Speaker 3: Incredible stuff. Wow, there you go.
Speaker 2: I think our third successful angler for one minute fishing.
Speaker 2: We had Pat Dirkin, we had Yannie in Louisiana, and
Speaker 2: now Chester Floyd joins the hall of fame.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 2: Our next segment is Top threes three.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry this one is so.
Speaker 12: Long's the other way, Phil, you should apologize for the
Speaker 12: ones that are short.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, it's a real treat.
Speaker 3: That's not the right thing. All right.
Speaker 2: This week we are ranking the three coolest places we've
Speaker 2: ever camped. Corey, you go first, what's the third coolest
Speaker 2: place you've ever camped?
Speaker 4: The third coolest place I've ever camped would have to
Speaker 4: be in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. I used to guide
Speaker 4: back in the Bob. We'd run fishing pack trips. There
Speaker 4: were six day pack trips. We joked that we were
Speaker 4: professional campers back there because we were helping other folks
Speaker 4: get back there obviously and get out successfully without getting hurt.
Speaker 4: That was our biggest goal in and out. I did
Speaker 4: the math over eight years of running those trips, I
Speaker 4: did three hundred and forty to three hundred and sixty
Speaker 4: days back in the wilderness, camping and sleeping on the
Speaker 4: ground under a tart if it was threatening rain. But yeah,
Speaker 4: that's a picture of me when I was a cook
Speaker 4: back there, an old chef. I would have been twenty
Speaker 4: years old probably in that photo years.
Speaker 3: It looked to be about thirteen in that photo.
Speaker 2: Couldn't even enjoy a beer yet.
Speaker 4: In that photo there's a pile of baby back ribs
Speaker 4: and some looks like baked beans, beans bushes, baked beans
Speaker 4: of course.
Speaker 3: Nice.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a photo of me with the river in
Speaker 4: the background. I'm probably shmegan dishes in the river, Megan.
Speaker 2: Have never heard that TERMO, Yeah, just giving it a
Speaker 2: quick shmeg, okay.
Speaker 3: Want just to get the food off?
Speaker 2: Do you do you shmeg your dishes at home? That
Speaker 2: exclusively when you're outside?
Speaker 4: No, I shmeg before they go on the dishwasher. Helps
Speaker 4: your dishwasher outgs.
Speaker 2: I mean I think I do, but I don't say
Speaker 2: it that I.
Speaker 3: Don't have a dishwasher.
Speaker 2: So Seth is a washer.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you got a shmeg. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, by
Speaker 4: far top three.
Speaker 2: Third coolest place was right here in Montana then, yep. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And if seeing those cool guns that Joel was showing
Speaker 2: us earlier wasn't enough to get you to come over
Speaker 2: to YouTube and watch, we're going to be showing you
Speaker 2: pictures of the coolest places that we've ever camped as
Speaker 2: well and maybe in some cases video. All right, seth,
Speaker 2: what's the third coolest place that you've ever camped?
Speaker 3: So my third coolest place is along the Missouri River,
Speaker 3: also in Montana. This was the view basically right outside
Speaker 3: my tent, but there's you can kind of see there
Speaker 3: in the background there's an old homestead. I don't know
Speaker 3: the history of it, but would love to know, but
Speaker 3: it this was like one of the most peaceful. It
Speaker 3: was like in the spring, everything's green. It was like
Speaker 3: one of the most peaceful camp spots I've ever slept.
Speaker 3: That yeah, looks like it. And it wasn't like a
Speaker 3: designated camp spots, just like off a two track. Turkeys
Speaker 3: were gobbling, coyotes are running around just outside of camp there.
Speaker 3: It was just a cool spot to be in after
Speaker 3: like a long hard winter in Montana and It's cool
Speaker 3: to just lay there at night just thinking about like
Speaker 3: Lewis and Clark came, like saw that country, the exact
Speaker 3: country that I was sleeping in.
Speaker 2: And so much of the Missouri River today looks very
Speaker 2: different how it looked one hundred years ago or two
Speaker 2: hundred years ago. But that part of the river that
Speaker 2: looks like it did when Lewis and Clark came floating.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so how are the skiers at night? They were
Speaker 3: not great?
Speaker 2: Yeah, really Yeah, pretty green in that photo.
Speaker 3: Yeah, lots of stage all right.
Speaker 2: The third coolest place I've ever camped is Death Valley
Speaker 2: in California. It was March of twenty twenty three. That's
Speaker 2: the hottest place in North America. It's the biggest national
Speaker 2: park in the lower forty eight. Went there on a weekday,
Speaker 2: so it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves,
Speaker 2: Me and my wife. That picture you're seeing there, that's
Speaker 2: the sailing stones, and that's at the racetrack. Ply those
Speaker 2: are rocks that move on their own. No human is
Speaker 2: helping them create that giant skid mark behind it. It's
Speaker 2: all about ice and water and wind that pushes these
Speaker 2: things around. This dried lake bed and you can see
Speaker 2: I'm in shorts and a T shirt there. It was
Speaker 2: blazing hot at that time, but you got like the
Speaker 2: full effect of being in the desert because by that
Speaker 2: night it was freezing cold and there were no moon.
Speaker 2: There's no moon that night. The stars were super bright.
Speaker 2: And a good barometer when you're camping and when you're
Speaker 2: stargazing is if you can see the Seven Sisters, if
Speaker 2: it's a good stargazing that night, if it's a good
Speaker 2: stargazing night, And the Seven Sisters that night were so vivid.
Speaker 2: I'd never seen anything like it. It felt like every
Speaker 2: other time I'd seen the Seven Sisters in my life
Speaker 2: that was wrong. And in Death Valley that night that
Speaker 2: that was the correct way to view the Seven Sisters.
Speaker 2: And there was no moon out, which which makes for
Speaker 2: better stargazing. So Phil's got some more photos there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was that was you know, only a few hours after,
Speaker 2: I was in the shorts and a T shirt at
Speaker 2: the racetrack plaia On. We were camping in the national park,
Speaker 2: which you can't do a lot of in places in
Speaker 2: national parks where you're dispersed camping. Dispersed camping would be
Speaker 2: what we were just talking about where you're not in
Speaker 2: a designated camping spot Death Valley, because it's so big
Speaker 2: and remote, they allow you to do some some disperse camping.
Speaker 2: And that's what we did do. Younique thing about that
Speaker 2: trip to we were on a road trip. We were
Speaker 2: on a seven day road trip, me and my wife,
Speaker 2: and the next day we were going to Phoenix.
Speaker 3: From there.
Speaker 2: We were camping in Death Valley. The night before the
Speaker 2: clocks changed for daylight Savings, but we didn't have cell
Speaker 2: signal for like twenty four hours, so the clocks changed
Speaker 2: that night. We come out of the park. We're heading
Speaker 2: to Arizona. We're going to Phoenix, who does not recognize
Speaker 2: daylight savings. Oh yeah. They're also crossing a time zone
Speaker 2: going into Arizona. So my brain was totally in a
Speaker 2: pretzel trying to figure out what time I was going
Speaker 2: to get to Phoenix. I didn't know if it was
Speaker 2: going to be five PM or ten pm, just because
Speaker 2: again daylight savings happened, didn't have cell service, crossing a
Speaker 2: time zone, going into a state that doesn't even do
Speaker 2: daylight savings. It felt like a mess. Yeah, but we get.
Speaker 4: There for sure, all right.
Speaker 2: The second coolest place you've ever camped, Corey.
Speaker 4: Second coolest place I've ever camped would have to be
Speaker 4: on Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia. In twenty thirteen,
Speaker 4: my wife and I booked a reservation. Cumberland Island is
Speaker 4: part of the National Seashore National Park System, so only
Speaker 4: three hundred people are allowed on the island a day
Speaker 4: and x amount of people I forget how many are
Speaker 4: to camp.
Speaker 2: Is that a gator or a croc in your photo?
Speaker 4: I think it's a gator and a wild horse wild
Speaker 4: horse in the background, but as a kid from Montana
Speaker 4: used to seeing the horses obviously, but seeing the gaters
Speaker 4: and the teeny tiny little ticks on there. The Spanish
Speaker 4: moss covering all.
Speaker 3: The trees was really cool.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of amazing American history on that island.
Speaker 4: I don't need to bore everybody with that.
Speaker 2: How'd you get to the island?
Speaker 4: You have to take a ferry yep from Saint Mary's, Georgia.
Speaker 2: And hauling your own camping gear there yep.
Speaker 4: So we just had everything in our backpacks. Water, like
Speaker 4: drinking water is tricky, so you want to carry around
Speaker 4: some water. There's a couple spicots of fresh water. But
Speaker 4: obviously you're along the ocean, so you gotta be careful
Speaker 4: what you drink. So yeah, I highly recommend it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna steal Seth's question. How are the mosquitoes.
Speaker 4: Mosquitos non existent? Yeah, we were there in April, late April,
Speaker 4: I think. But the ticks, I mean, I'm used to
Speaker 4: the bigger ticks we have here in Montana. Teeny tiny
Speaker 4: little ticks like if you left your zipper rope and
Speaker 4: on your tent long enough, they just crawl right in there.
Speaker 4: And otherwise it was amazing, Seth.
Speaker 2: Second, coolest place you've ever camped my.
Speaker 3: Number two, also in Montana. It's wasn't so much the place,
Speaker 3: it was just kind of what we saw that night.
Speaker 3: One of the nights while we were out there, came
Speaker 3: this is a deer camp in November. Wow in Montana.
Speaker 3: But actually Chester and his brother Ike were here at
Speaker 3: this the moment this photo was shot. But we were
Speaker 3: kind of just sitting around the campfire at night and
Speaker 3: someone like, I don't know, he got up to take
Speaker 3: a leak or something, and because you can't really see
Speaker 3: the sky too well, like around the campfire, you know,
Speaker 3: with Someone got up and was like, hey, I think
Speaker 3: I can see the Northern lights, and we all like
Speaker 3: jumped up and went away from the fire and you
Speaker 3: could just it was just like a beautiful northern lights show.
Speaker 3: That night out on the plains in eastern Montana is
Speaker 3: just like one of my favorite places.
Speaker 2: And it looks like you were successful. I see some
Speaker 2: see some Ana.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we we. I think almost everyone filled their
Speaker 3: tag on that trip.
Speaker 2: Yeah, beautiful photo Seth is showing us you can see
Speaker 2: the northern lights and every star in the sky.
Speaker 4: Is that the Seven Sisters I can see above to
Speaker 4: the right of the.
Speaker 2: Oh, you know what I think it is. If you
Speaker 2: don't know what the Seven Sisters is, go take a
Speaker 2: look online about the Seven Sisters. And one you've you've
Speaker 2: certainly seen it before, but maybe you didn't know what
Speaker 2: you were looking at. But but again, that's a good
Speaker 2: way to judge just how good the stargazing is. Is
Speaker 2: how good you can see the Seven Sisters? And I
Speaker 2: think Seth was just showing it off in his photo there.
Speaker 3: Wow, all right.
Speaker 2: The second coolest place I've ever camped was the Valley
Speaker 2: of the Gods in Utah, And this was just this
Speaker 2: last September. That day, I visited Monument Valley in Arizona.
Speaker 2: And where I'm sitting there on this highway is where
Speaker 2: Forrest Gump famously stopped running. That was where he had
Speaker 2: He had his whole posse behind him, and he stood
Speaker 2: right where I'm sitting and he said, I'm I'm pretty
Speaker 2: tired now, And so that's where he delivered that line.
Speaker 2: And that is the Monument Valley behind me, which is
Speaker 2: in Arizona. But the place that I had camped was
Speaker 2: in the value of the Gods, and that's part of
Speaker 2: the Bears Eers National Monument that you hear a lot
Speaker 2: of talk about when it goes from one presidency did
Speaker 2: the next based on what they do to that bit
Speaker 2: of public lands where we camped. You need four wheel
Speaker 2: drive to get there and a high clearance vehicle and
Speaker 2: that keeps out, you know, a whole lot of folks.
Speaker 2: And value of the Gods was so cool. I would
Speaker 2: rank it over the Grand Canyon as far as just
Speaker 2: like pretty places that I've seen. So getting to camp
Speaker 2: there and be among all that was real special. And
Speaker 2: again that is that's more dispersed camping. You don't need
Speaker 2: a reservation somewhere you just pull off on a road.
Speaker 2: And opposite of when I camped in Death Valley. It
Speaker 2: was a full moon that night and it just really
Speaker 2: lit up the value of the gods, and so you
Speaker 2: could see every butte in every mesa long after the
Speaker 2: sun went down. I took that photo and it'll probably
Speaker 2: around midnight. Wow. Yeah, you can see everything that's happening
Speaker 2: miles off in the distance. Cool, all right, Corey. The
Speaker 2: coolest place you've ever camped, The.
Speaker 4: Coolest place I've ever camped. It had to have been
Speaker 4: in Iceland underneath the auf fet Ya Yokiyo volcano.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, it was erupting. Sounded like you said that correctly.
Speaker 4: I hope I didn't, butcher do do it again? A
Speaker 4: fet yeah Yokio.
Speaker 3: Wow wow.
Speaker 4: But I mean when you camp under it, you better
Speaker 4: better know the damn name of it.
Speaker 2: Is it erupting all the time.
Speaker 4: I don't believe it's always erupting. In twenty ten, if
Speaker 4: anybody remembers it, it erupted from March to June, I believe,
Speaker 4: off and on, and it disrupted the entire globe, like
Speaker 4: flights from Europe through Asia and I think almost all
Speaker 4: the way into the US were disrupted from the ash
Speaker 4: cloud that came from it.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 4: But I circumnavigated the island it's called the Ring Road
Speaker 4: Highway one for four weeks spent on the road, hitchhiking
Speaker 4: my way around Iceland. It was an amazing time. Highly
Speaker 4: recommend just visiting if you can just get there for
Speaker 4: a long weekend. But I spent a month there and
Speaker 4: I hitchhiked for half the way and then the second
Speaker 4: half hitchhiked.
Speaker 2: Yeah, tell me about that.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 4: I had heard that it was one of the friendliest
Speaker 4: places in the world, so hitchhiking is a very easy
Speaker 4: way to get around. I mean, there's the locals are amazing,
Speaker 4: lots of farmers just moving from town to town. So
Speaker 4: it was actually very easy to get on highway one,
Speaker 4: stick out your thumb and make it to the next town.
Speaker 4: And then there's hostels everywhere, so it was really easy.
Speaker 4: There's a photo of me with most people know Dorito's
Speaker 4: or most Americans with no Dorito's as cool Ranch in
Speaker 4: the blue bag. But in Europe, or at least in Iceland,
Speaker 4: I'm assuming Europe, they're called cool American.
Speaker 2: Cool American, just like Cory yeahs holding the bag of
Speaker 2: cool American doritos.
Speaker 4: And then this is this is me in front of
Speaker 4: the Folological Museum. To the Laymans. That's the Penis Museum
Speaker 4: in Iceland. I highly recommend if you make it to
Speaker 4: the island.
Speaker 2: Did you wind up in any sketchy situations hitchhiking around
Speaker 2: for a month?
Speaker 3: No, not at all.
Speaker 4: No, it was so easy. Huh, I would do it again.
Speaker 2: Did it make you think about picking people up on
Speaker 2: the side of the road back here in the States?
Speaker 9: Oh?
Speaker 4: Not in the States. No, But I rented a car
Speaker 4: on the second half and then was able to camp
Speaker 4: in that scene right underneath the volcano. I woke up
Speaker 4: to it erupting. There was lightning, and it sounded like
Speaker 4: cannons going off underneath.
Speaker 9: Wha.
Speaker 3: It was wild.
Speaker 4: I didn't pick up any hitchhikers because I never saw any,
Speaker 4: but I you were willing totally all.
Speaker 2: Right, seth see if you can top that. The coolest
Speaker 2: place you've ever camped.
Speaker 3: My number one is in Alaska on a doll sheep
Speaker 3: hunt with Steve and his brother Danny. We camped up
Speaker 3: on this like finger ridge coming down from the main
Speaker 3: Ridge the one night and below us that's just a
Speaker 3: huge That whole valley is just a huge glacier. And
Speaker 3: the the cool thing about camping by that glacier, and
Speaker 3: there was there was a couple of nights where we
Speaker 3: camp closer to it than this.
Speaker 2: But so is that water behind you or that's the glacier, that's.
Speaker 3: Just ice damn. Yeah, that glacier made the craziest noises
Speaker 3: all night long. Oh really, just like big pieces sloughing off,
Speaker 3: smacking the valley floor and just hit like popping and
Speaker 3: just making crazy like moaning noises. Is wild.
Speaker 2: Anyone who's ice fish knows what Seth is talking about,
Speaker 2: or you know those sorts of noises that might wig
Speaker 2: you out if you're new to ice fishing. I can't
Speaker 2: imagine what a glacier sounds like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that it was cool. And then this photo Phil,
Speaker 3: if you zoom in, there's two white dots right behind Steve. There.
Speaker 3: We woke up the one morning there's some doll sheep
Speaker 3: below us. Not legal, but it was cool to wake
Speaker 3: up to that. And then the next photo there, Phil,
Speaker 3: is just the valley. This is from from where we camped,
Speaker 3: looking up valley.
Speaker 2: Amazing. All right, I don't think I can beat either
Speaker 2: one of those. But the coolest place I've ever camped
Speaker 2: was off Cape Flattery in Washington, and Cape Flattery is
Speaker 2: the northwesternmost part of the Lower forty eight. If you
Speaker 2: look at a map and you see that little point
Speaker 2: that's way on the edge of Washington's that's Cap Flattery.
Speaker 2: And from there you're standing on a cliff that's like,
Speaker 2: you know, a two hundred and seventy degree view around you.
Speaker 2: You were just on the edge of the United States.
Speaker 2: So we visited that, and then we couldn't camp there
Speaker 2: because that's a reservation. But we did camp down the road,
Speaker 2: and on our way out of the reservation, stopped in
Speaker 2: some small town and bought some smoked salmon from someone's
Speaker 2: smoke shed. And then this is where I pulled my
Speaker 2: truck right onto the beach and camped there nice and
Speaker 2: just listened to the waves all night. And I wish
Speaker 2: I could like bring that home with me. I've since
Speaker 2: then like tried to listen to waves crashing on spot
Speaker 2: or something just not the same yea. So that that
Speaker 2: was probably the coolest spot I've ever cammed. And then
Speaker 2: you could sit there and watch the ships come in
Speaker 2: at night and try to figure out, Like, what does
Speaker 2: that thing caring? Oh, that's a cruise ship, or like
Speaker 2: that one you know is three times as long as
Speaker 2: any boat I've ever seen in my life. That that
Speaker 2: was fun to watch. All Right, That is the end
Speaker 2: of the top threes and we have one interview left
Speaker 2: for today. Joining us on the line next is Phil Musket,
Speaker 2: the president of the Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides. Phil
Speaker 2: is here to talk about being a guide at Gettysburg,
Speaker 2: which is one of the most competitive public lands jobs
Speaker 2: in America. Phil, welcome to the show.
Speaker 9: Hey, how you doing.
Speaker 3: We're doing.
Speaker 2: First thing, Phil, explain to us why being a guide
Speaker 2: at Gettysburg is such a coveted job.
Speaker 9: Well, this is the mecca of the American Civil War.
Speaker 9: So we get thousands of visits. We get about nine
Speaker 9: hundred thousand visitors a year, which is down from the
Speaker 9: two million we used to get. But people come here
Speaker 9: to learn, and people come here and they hear the
Speaker 9: stories of the men who fought here, and it's works
Speaker 9: of fire in them. And these people continue to come
Speaker 9: back and they find out about guiding and they hey,
Speaker 9: I can do that. So they want to aspire to
Speaker 9: be a licensed battlefield guide and spend the rest of
Speaker 9: their lives on the battlefield telling the stories of those
Speaker 9: men who fought here.
Speaker 2: And to be a guide there, you have to pass
Speaker 2: a very thorough test. I read a quote recently in
Speaker 2: a Wall Street Journal article from a lawyer saying that
Speaker 2: the Gettysburg Guide test was harder than the Bar exam.
Speaker 2: Will you walk us through what the testing process is?
Speaker 9: Yeah, sure, will so. I've also heard it as hard
Speaker 9: as the Harvard entrance exam. But it's a four tier process,
Speaker 9: four step process. The first step is a written exam,
Speaker 9: which is fill in the blanks, recognizing pictures and describe,
Speaker 9: you know, writing out what that is. That's the first
Speaker 9: part of the test. That's three hours. In part two
Speaker 9: is essays, and you've got five essay choices and you've
Speaker 9: got to write three. You've got three hours to get
Speaker 9: that done too. You're taking this exam this past when
Speaker 9: we just did, we had one hundred and fifty three
Speaker 9: fifty two people taking the test. As of today, which
Speaker 9: is after the exam we have, we only advanced twenty
Speaker 9: out of those one hundred and fifty yes.
Speaker 2: And how many of those twenty sorry, Phil, how many
Speaker 2: of those twenty one? Maybe five five of them.
Speaker 9: Because the second step is a panel interview, because yeah,
Speaker 9: it's great, you know all that knowledge, but you got
Speaker 9: to get it from here to here to where people
Speaker 9: can understand it, so that weeds out a lot of
Speaker 9: people as well. To Step three is what they call
Speaker 9: the field practicum. They you spend three days working with
Speaker 9: a mentor who is a guide, and you will write
Speaker 9: up your two hour tet or your two hour tour
Speaker 9: that you're going to give to people when they visit.
Speaker 9: You give that to the mentor and practice that. They
Speaker 9: also drop you on a place in the battlefield, i e.
Speaker 9: Little roundtop and tell us what happened here. You got
Speaker 9: five minutes and see how well you do. And if
Speaker 9: you pass that, then you get into the oral examination,
Speaker 9: which is you could go around with your mentor all
Speaker 9: right until they fail you you're ready, and then you
Speaker 9: schedule with the National Park Service superintendent and you get
Speaker 9: two shots to go around the battlefield. It's twenty five
Speaker 9: square miles and you got two hours and fifteen minutes
Speaker 9: to tell the story. So all of that minutia you
Speaker 9: learned past tier one is out the window because you
Speaker 9: can't fit all that in. So you've got to tailor
Speaker 9: it down to where it's still a story where you're
Speaker 9: telling the basics. You get two shots at that. If
Speaker 9: you pass that, you become a guide, and if you
Speaker 9: fail that, you start all over again.
Speaker 2: And another important detail from that Wall Street Journal article
Speaker 2: was it said that the test hadn't been offered in
Speaker 2: seven years. So it's not like five people per year
Speaker 2: past this thing. It's five people almost once a decade
Speaker 2: past this like the test to be a guy to Gettysburg.
Speaker 9: Now, back when I passed the exam back in twenty ten,
Speaker 9: they were doing it every two years, and they were
Speaker 9: on that schedule until twenty seventeen, and then for whatever reason,
Speaker 9: the Park Service did not do the exam until we
Speaker 9: got down. We're down to one hundred and thirty guides.
Speaker 9: When I started out, we had one hundred and fifty six,
Speaker 9: so we're losing numbers and we need new blood. So
Speaker 9: we finally got this new exam, and we're hoping we
Speaker 9: get more than five. And we're hoping the Association of
Speaker 9: Bottleful Guys, we're hoping that this will start on another
Speaker 9: regular two to three year cycle like it used to
Speaker 9: be to replace the average dage of the guide force
Speaker 9: right now is seventy two. WHOA, I'm keeping it down.
Speaker 9: I'm fifty seven.
Speaker 6: I'm keeping it that.
Speaker 2: I'm doing my part with. Soh yeah, it's go ahead
Speaker 2: with the stakes being so high. Have you ever heard
Speaker 2: of somebody cheating?
Speaker 9: I have not heard of anybody physically cheating and being
Speaker 9: escorted out. I'm I'm sure it's happened, but I'm not
Speaker 9: familiar with it. What I have witnessed is, you know,
Speaker 9: sitting at the people sitting at the table and they're
Speaker 9: looking over now if they're writing the same thing down
Speaker 9: the person you know, I don't know, but that's the
Speaker 9: limit of what I've seen as cheating. Because not only
Speaker 9: are you you're trying to become a guide, but you
Speaker 9: on this exam.
Speaker 2: So what are what are some examples feel of people
Speaker 2: uprooting their lives for a chance to take this test.
Speaker 9: Well, we've got people from all over the country that
Speaker 9: are currently guides, and uh one of our guides sees
Speaker 9: a lawyer out the same Forrancisco, and when he was
Speaker 9: studying to be a guide, he would fly in, he'd
Speaker 9: do his reading out there and his walking the battlefield.
Speaker 9: When he'd come here here and hanging out with friends
Speaker 9: and spending the days on the battlefield. And once he
Speaker 9: passed the test and became a guide. He now he
Speaker 9: still works in San Francisco and he'll fly out here
Speaker 9: and spend a month or two out here doing tours,
Speaker 9: then go back to San frian and work. We've got
Speaker 9: other guides. We had an Ohio state trooper for a while.
Speaker 9: Basically he'd drive in on the weekends, do some tours,
Speaker 9: go back do his job. So I you know, another
Speaker 9: example I thought of yesterday was we used to have
Speaker 9: a nurse who worked down in Tampa, Florida, and he
Speaker 9: would come up here for a month straight. And at
Speaker 9: that time, we had quotas, so we had to do
Speaker 9: so many tours a year, and he would do his
Speaker 9: ninety tours in thirty days. So he was doing cukoo
Speaker 9: tours all at once. And then he goes back to
Speaker 9: Florida and we're he used all of his vacation to
Speaker 9: come here and give a tour.
Speaker 2: Give those it must yeah, it must be a pretty
Speaker 2: rewarding gig for how bad these people want to do.
Speaker 2: But what what's your favorite part of the job.
Speaker 9: Well, my favorite part of the job is sharing the stories. Uh,
Speaker 9: you know, taking people out on the field, spending two
Speaker 9: hours with them, that's the bare minimum tour so uh.
Speaker 9: And putting people in places where important events happened. Yeah.
Speaker 9: I enjoy that. People with ancestors coming here and being
Speaker 9: able to take those ancestry, those descendants to where their
Speaker 9: ancestor was fought, where he might have been killed, where
Speaker 9: he might have been capt sure, things like that, that
Speaker 9: is what you know, I enjoy doing. And even with
Speaker 9: our school groups, we have school groups come in. We
Speaker 9: jokingly sometimes called March California Month because we get a
Speaker 9: whole bunch of California kids coming in. We get to
Speaker 9: tell these kids the stories and maybe that'll spark some
Speaker 9: interest in their lives and that'll bring the next generation
Speaker 9: into guiding and the Civil War and history of America.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And Gettysburg is like six thousand acres, all of which
Speaker 2: is managed by the Park Service. What can you tell
Speaker 2: us about the wildlife and conservation work that takes place there?
Speaker 9: Well, what we got here, We've got a big deer population,
Speaker 9: which they do every year. They'll have a big deer
Speaker 9: hunt here. Now, what they do is only federal employees
Speaker 9: are authorized to participate so they come out here and
Speaker 9: they then out the herd because it damages the vegetation
Speaker 9: around here and the local farmers' crops. But then they
Speaker 9: take all of the meat that they get and they
Speaker 9: donate it to the shelters here in the south central
Speaker 9: Pennsylvania area, so it goes to a good cause. Our
Speaker 9: current controversy on the battlefield deals with beavers. We've got
Speaker 9: some beaver dams in front of Little Round Top, which
Speaker 9: was a marshy area during the battle on July first,
Speaker 9: second third, eighteen sixty three. But now we got these
Speaker 9: little ice skating ranks now this time of year, so
Speaker 9: we're dealing with that and the park Service they can't
Speaker 9: do anything to remove the beavers until they start to
Speaker 9: damage the asset, and they've done some mitigations which have worked,
Speaker 9: so the beavers are staying, much to the chagrin of
Speaker 9: many historians. We've got a bald eagle that's seen around
Speaker 9: here periodically. We got a whole bunch of hawks, which
Speaker 9: they're fun to watch too. Watch them dive bomb onto
Speaker 9: a field mouse or something that's really amazing. Occasionally we
Speaker 9: get a black bear in here coming down off South Mountain,
Speaker 9: which y'all would call a hill, but that type of thing.
Speaker 9: The park maintains the tree lines as best they can
Speaker 9: to what it was at the time of the battle,
Speaker 9: so they're constantly working on keeping that and then the
Speaker 9: landscape correct, even down to the fence rails and fence
Speaker 9: lines that were here during the battle. So all of
Speaker 9: that stuff they do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great. Last question, Phil, is your last name
Speaker 2: really Musket?
Speaker 9: It really is. That's what my daddy gave me all
Speaker 9: those years ago. And I have actually had a guy
Speaker 9: on a bus argue with me and I had to
Speaker 9: pull out military IV and show him. I mean, he
Speaker 9: was just adamant. I had people that have made bets
Speaker 9: and at the end of the tour they've settled their
Speaker 9: bet by asking that question. Oh yeah, I get it
Speaker 9: all the time. I get it all the time. We
Speaker 9: got a Chris Army here. We got a Steve Slaughter
Speaker 9: as well too.
Speaker 2: Whoa Okay, you used to have an Andy Custer, but
Speaker 2: she got.
Speaker 9: Married, Oh Andy donaheo, okay, but we had a Custer
Speaker 9: for a while as well too.
Speaker 2: There's some there's some desty involved, and maybe that helps
Speaker 2: you pass the test at the end when your last
Speaker 2: name is Musket or Custer or oh.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, you know, at least you got to get
Speaker 9: one question, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, Phil, thank you for guiding us through what it
Speaker 2: takes to be a guide, in joining us on media radio.
Speaker 9: Okay, and in anytime you're out, check out Gettysburg tours
Speaker 9: Guide Gettysburg Tour Guides dot org.
Speaker 2: All right, well we're gonna do that.
Speaker 9: We'll get your tour guide and get you out on
Speaker 9: the battlefields.
Speaker 2: Phil Seth, you grew up I don't know how far
Speaker 2: from Gettysburg, but in the same state you ever been.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I uh went when I started college. I started.
Speaker 3: I got my forestery degree from penn State mont Alto,
Speaker 3: which is a branch campus to Penn State, which that's
Speaker 3: it used to be the Pennsvan Pennsylvania Forest Academy, which
Speaker 3: was started by Gifford Pinchot. But anyway, that college is
Speaker 3: not far from Gettysburg. And like he mentioned South Mountain,
Speaker 3: the mayor coming off coming down from South Mountain. We
Speaker 3: used to do all sorts of like forestry classes and
Speaker 3: stuff on South Mountain. So I know the area well.
Speaker 3: And I've only actually been to Gettysburg, like a handful
Speaker 3: of times, like I think three, three or four times
Speaker 3: something like that. But when I was younger in elementary school,
Speaker 3: my grandparents took me down there and we did like
Speaker 3: a like a motor tour like we bought uh it
Speaker 3: was at the time. It was a cassette TAPA and
Speaker 3: we put that in the in the cassette player in
Speaker 3: the car and drive around the park and it kind
Speaker 3: of like told you, like all the history.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I assumed you were there every weekend. You
Speaker 2: took a field trip there every year.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, did not, but it's I recommend it.
Speaker 3: It's like it's a really cool place. You can still
Speaker 3: see like bullet holes and walls and cannon ball holes
Speaker 3: in buildings and stuff. It's really cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what, I grew up in South Dakota.
Speaker 2: I've only been in Mount Rushmore once, so same thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, same thing.
Speaker 6: All right.
Speaker 2: That brings us to the end of this week's show, Phil,
Speaker 2: let's get some final feedback from the chat.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think people were just asking Steven Randall questions live
Speaker 5: in the chat, so we don't have a lot, but
Speaker 5: we've got a few. Jude says that he shot his
Speaker 5: first deer while listening to Media Radio Live. Hell yeah, thanks,
Speaker 5: we learned a lot. I don't think it was today,
Speaker 5: but I would guess recently.
Speaker 2: Okay, So congrats Jude, Jude.
Speaker 3: Let's see wapity Woods, says Spencer. Is it?
Speaker 5: Is it specifically Hams Special Light that you love so much?
Speaker 5: I had a six pack of original Hams up in Rogers, Minnesota.
Speaker 5: Curious your thoughts of Ham's Original Ham's Heavy.
Speaker 2: My origin story with Ham Special Light. It was the
Speaker 2: cheapest beer that you could buy at High V. It
Speaker 2: was eleven ninety nine for a thirty pack. So when I'm,
Speaker 2: you know, an underage high schooler and I got to send, like,
Speaker 2: you know, one of the college kids I know there
Speaker 2: to buy me. I got a Summon twelve dollars bill
Speaker 2: and that'll get me a whole thirty pack of Ham
Speaker 2: Special Light. The other thing is Hams has a reputation
Speaker 2: of just not tasting good. Ham Special Light was like
Speaker 2: a classic American light log or like a like a
Speaker 2: Bush light or a Coors Light's tasting thing. But because
Speaker 2: it said Ham's on the can, nobody would touch it.
Speaker 2: When you go to a party, like I didn't have
Speaker 2: to worry about my thirty rack of Ham Special Light
Speaker 2: walking Away Nice. So it was it was the cheapest beer.
Speaker 2: It was the beer that was least likely to be stolen.
Speaker 2: So that that was my origin story of Ham Special Light.
Speaker 2: It's not really about the taste. It's just like the
Speaker 2: nostalgia of it that it's it's just what I've always tried.
Speaker 3: And the light is discontinued now right, discontinued.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, and I'm hoarding my I'm into my third
Speaker 2: to last case.
Speaker 3: Colin asked what you're switching to when your Special Light
Speaker 3: is all gone?
Speaker 2: I don't. I'm not loyal to anybody. So I might
Speaker 2: be sitting at the bar one time and attentions light.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 3: Hit him up on a slide into his DM Miller.
Speaker 3: Light does not matter.
Speaker 5: A question for Seth from Eric, what is your favorite
Speaker 5: kind of hunt to film photograph?
Speaker 3: Well, a lot of my favorite photographs come from Southeast Alaska,
Speaker 3: which oh we got when it comes out. You can
Speaker 3: go sit next to Seth and you want to.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 2: Seth was just talking about his favorite hunts to capture
Speaker 2: through a camera.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I was saying some of my favorite one
Speaker 3: of my favorite places photographs Southeast Alaska because everything about
Speaker 3: it's cool and pretty, but the big Alaska hunts like
Speaker 3: that dull sheep hunt. The photos I showed earlier and
Speaker 3: then the move stuff is always cool to photograph.
Speaker 2: Steve, you have any live feedback from today's show.
Speaker 6: It seems like it's going great.
Speaker 2: Okay, boys are running over time? Yeah, yeah, Phil. Phil
Speaker 2: had mentioned that Steve and Randall were in the chat.
Speaker 2: If you go back and watch this when it's not live,
Speaker 2: you'll get to see the whole chat replay. So if
Speaker 2: you're curious what Randal and Steve were talking about for
Speaker 2: the last hour, you'll just get to read their comments
Speaker 2: there on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Cool. Well, just we are over time.
Speaker 5: So last question, because now that Steve walked into the
Speaker 5: room as well, Henry's asking, how's that beaver season coming along?
Speaker 3: Seth and Steve, you can I haven't said a beaver
Speaker 3: trap yet, all right, I've got.
Speaker 6: A couple, but I haven't gotten it really. I haven't
Speaker 6: gotten real hardcore into it yet.
Speaker 3: And I mean I got a few.
Speaker 6: I got a few.
Speaker 3: I like trapping beaver in the spring when they're realactive. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's a lot of fun. I'll get out there in
Speaker 3: the spring.
Speaker 2: Yeah, last thing, before we get out of here. The
Speaker 2: Me Theater Movie Club returns next week. Randall and Crewe
Speaker 2: will be reviewing the nineteen eighty eight movie The Bear,
Speaker 2: which you can stream on Amazon to be oor Pluto.
Speaker 2: Make sure you watch it before the next episode if
Speaker 2: you want to join in on the discussion. All right,
Speaker 2: thanks for listen, Thanks for watching. We'll see you guys
Speaker 2: back here next week.
Speaker 6: By Suckers