Speaker 1: Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Rieves
Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share
Speaker 1: my stories and the country skills that will help you
Speaker 1: beat the system. This Country Life is proudly presented as
Speaker 1: part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best
Speaker 1: outdoor podcast.
Speaker 2: The airways have to offer.
Speaker 1: All right, friends, pull you up a chair or drop
Speaker 1: that tailgate. I think I got a thing or two
Speaker 1: and teach you the Black Bear Bonanza. I just got
Speaker 1: home from the third annual Black Bear Bonanza, hosted by
Speaker 1: the Arkansas Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. I had
Speaker 1: the pleasure of visiting with old friends and making new ones.
Speaker 2: I want to tell you.
Speaker 1: All about it, but first I'm.
Speaker 2: Going to tell you a story.
Speaker 1: The long and widened road that brought me in front
Speaker 1: of this microphone was a couple decades old from my
Speaker 1: old pal, Clay bow Nukman. I traveled to Saskatchewan in
Speaker 1: twenty and seventeen.
Speaker 2: He needed a.
Speaker 1: Cameraman, and his luck would have it, I needed a
Speaker 1: free trip to Canada. What a coincidence. That trip seven
Speaker 1: years ago was one of the things that got a
Speaker 1: lot of industry eyes looking at my old padna. Now,
Speaker 1: that and his incredible foundation of work in printing broadcast media.
Speaker 1: But a viral video never hurts unless you're robbing a
Speaker 1: liquor store or filling fish full of trot line weights.
Speaker 1: But that video, you know, the video, the one where
Speaker 1: the bear pokes his nose in our makeshift blind and
Speaker 1: his nose touches Clay's arrow. That one, if you hadn't
Speaker 1: seen it, I applaud your ability to fly under the
Speaker 1: radar because people send it to me all the time.
Speaker 1: Apparently they think it's a pretty cool bit of footage
Speaker 1: and are unaware I'm the guy that filmed it. Anyway,
Speaker 1: there we sat, after riding in a boat for a
Speaker 1: couple hours in the Canadian wilderness, waiting on a bear
Speaker 1: that had been in and out of that area that
Speaker 1: was described as being the bear. They said, that's the
Speaker 1: bear you're looking for. They didn't have a picture to
Speaker 1: show us, but they said you'll know it when he
Speaker 1: see Okay, boys, if you say so. Ah Now, even
Speaker 1: though it was an afternoon hunt, we were in no
Speaker 1: hurry to get set up after we got there. The
Speaker 1: sun never sets up there that late in June, and
Speaker 1: there was never a time that I couldn't have found
Speaker 1: my way around outside without the aid of a light
Speaker 1: at the darkest time of night, unless it was cloudy,
Speaker 1: but even then that didn't last long. We settled into
Speaker 1: blind that was made from small jackpine and limbs that
Speaker 1: had been tied together by waist tie against a back
Speaker 1: drop up was standing trees. There was just big enough
Speaker 1: for us to get in with all my camera gear,
Speaker 1: and we sat facing the bait barrel. I set the
Speaker 1: camera up and we were finishing up shooting our introductory
Speaker 1: video when the first bear of the afternoon walked into
Speaker 1: the frame just as I was stopping recording. Now quickly
Speaker 1: I started recording again, and you can see the brief
Speaker 1: split in the final production. Now, normally I'd have kept
Speaker 1: running footage once the interview stopped, to have plenty to
Speaker 1: edit with later, but this was the first day of
Speaker 1: a seven day hunt in the land of the Living Skies,
Speaker 1: and I was hoarding digital space on my hard drives
Speaker 1: like those folks on A and E stored newspapers and
Speaker 1: dirty clothes. I didn't want to run out. Turned out
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna need near about all the space had
Speaker 1: brought anyway, well after that initial bear came in, and
Speaker 1: there was a steady stream of bears coming to the bait.
Speaker 1: One after another.
Speaker 2: They came.
Speaker 1: There was never a time when there was only one,
Speaker 1: and never a time when there weren't multiple bears behind us.
Speaker 1: And when I say behind us, I mean right behind us.
Speaker 1: Like when you're driving and someone is tailgating you. They
Speaker 1: are following too close the person riding with you in
Speaker 1: the back seat. That's how close they were. And what
Speaker 1: I mean when I say they were right behind us,
Speaker 1: there was so much going on in front of us.
Speaker 1: I never had a chance to turn around to film
Speaker 1: the back seat bear. You believe that was taking place
Speaker 1: at our six o'clock They were standing behind us, within
Speaker 1: arm's reach of where we sat, watching the bears in
Speaker 1: front of us as the bait, jocking for position and
Speaker 1: deciding on where everyone was going to get some child
Speaker 1: without starting a hockey game or a fight. Now, Clay
Speaker 1: was there to shoot a bear, and I was there
Speaker 1: to film him doing it. For me to do my job,
Speaker 1: I have to operate the camera and watch the viewscreen
Speaker 1: to keep everything framed up properly. I glanced behind us,
Speaker 1: and I saw three bears close. Now, let's review. They
Speaker 1: were right behind us.
Speaker 2: Close. I could hear them breathing.
Speaker 1: I could hear him shuffling back and forth as they
Speaker 1: looked through the back of our blind, which, if you'll recall,
Speaker 1: was only a handful of standing jackpines. Now that could
Speaker 1: have no more kept a bear out than it could
Speaker 1: have kept out the wind.
Speaker 2: And I wasn't watching them.
Speaker 1: I whispered to Clay, there's some bears behind us. He
Speaker 1: didn't seem too concerned, and understandably so. There were bears
Speaker 1: all around us, but the ones behind us were closer
Speaker 1: to us than the ones in front of us, and
Speaker 1: the ones in front of us were from twenty five
Speaker 1: to five yards away. I probably should mention about now
Speaker 1: that the only thing we had for self defense was
Speaker 1: clay stick bow that had a maximum killing range of
Speaker 1: twenty five yards, some bear spray that's useful out to
Speaker 1: about ten yards, and anything beyond that was about as
Speaker 1: effective as talking about about the bear's mama. Now, I
Speaker 1: glanced back and momentarily took my eyes off the view
Speaker 1: finder to see that two of the three bears had
Speaker 1: walked up to the very edge of where we were sitting.
Speaker 1: They couldn't get any closer.
Speaker 2: Without getting into blind with us.
Speaker 1: It's no exaggeration to say, from where I was sitting
Speaker 1: that I could have grabbed one of them by the ear. Also,
Speaker 1: had they wanted to, they could have grabbed a hold
Speaker 1: of mine. They appeared to pay no attention to us.
Speaker 1: Their immense focus was on the bears at the bait,
Speaker 1: and it made me feel even less significant. They were
Speaker 1: moving and bobbing their heads and looking around and over
Speaker 1: us at the at the other bears. I knew they
Speaker 1: had no concern or fear for us, and if the
Speaker 1: mood struck them that they just walk in and monkey
Speaker 1: stomp us on the way to the bait barrel. It
Speaker 1: was like being betwixt the biggest hog in the trough.
Speaker 1: When someone hollered, Suey, you didn't want to be there, Clay,
Speaker 1: the bears are right behind us.
Speaker 2: He didn't respond. Clay.
Speaker 1: He half turned around towards me and nodded without looking
Speaker 1: back behind me, acknowledging what I was saying, but obviously unconcerned.
Speaker 1: He was focused on the bears in front too, rightfully,
Speaker 1: so they were laying at the bait, they were walking
Speaker 1: around off within twenty five yards of us, and one
Speaker 1: of them came to within a few yards, none of
Speaker 1: which were as close as the bears behind us, who
Speaker 1: at that time were more or less sitting in the
Speaker 1: same row as me watching the show Clay these bears.
Speaker 1: He turned around, I guess, realizing that I needed his
Speaker 1: attention finally, and his eyes got big. He didn't say
Speaker 1: a word, and I didn't either. He paused for a second,
Speaker 1: and he turned his head back around to the bears
Speaker 1: out front. Now I didn't need him to say or
Speaker 1: do anything. There wasn't anything to be said or done.
Speaker 1: I just didn't want it to be a shock to him.
Speaker 1: When the donnybrook broke out behind him, I focused back
Speaker 1: on the view finder and I never looked back the
Speaker 1: two that were so close I could see out of
Speaker 1: the corner of my right eye the whole time they
Speaker 1: stood there. They eventually walked on around to the right
Speaker 1: of us and made their way toward the others. The
Speaker 1: third bear I lost track of. I didn't know where
Speaker 1: he went. Then the target bear appeared, and we knew
Speaker 1: immediately that it was him. He was a biggot jet
Speaker 1: black dark muzzle on a big old punkin head. It
Speaker 1: was him, no doubt. He eventually moved around and Clay
Speaker 1: took his shot and he missed. It was it was
Speaker 1: a sad moment. He was sick and upset with himself
Speaker 1: for missing. I let him stew on it for about
Speaker 1: twenty seve ack and said, I told him knock another
Speaker 1: air and get back in the game. We were working
Speaker 1: and it was time to get back to it. A
Speaker 1: small boar and a young blond sal came in. We
Speaker 1: watched them, as Clay so eloquently said in the film,
Speaker 1: frolic around in front of us until their courtship was
Speaker 1: rudely interrupted by a big color phase bear that no
Speaker 1: one had ever seen before. He came in like a
Speaker 1: boss and chased him away from the area out of sight.
Speaker 1: Less than a minute later, he returned and sewed the
Speaker 1: couple bears behind us. I just happened to look back
Speaker 1: when he ran the happy couple off to see the
Speaker 1: two bears within ten feet that had watched the whole
Speaker 1: ordeal just as we had. I had no idea how
Speaker 1: long they'd been there, and I'm still amazed at how
Speaker 1: quiet they can be when they want to. My only
Speaker 1: defense at this point in this whole struggle was trying
Speaker 1: to look like I didn't taste good, or at least
Speaker 1: not as good as Clay. They paid no attention to us.
Speaker 1: The big board that erected the at party was making
Speaker 1: his way toward the bait now, and he paused to
Speaker 1: stand on his hind legs and sniff up a tree.
Speaker 1: It was then I fully realized how big he was.
Speaker 1: He then continued his path, walking directly toward us, past
Speaker 1: the bait, getting closer with each step and offering no
Speaker 1: shot for Clay to take. I kept filming, he kept
Speaker 1: getting bigger. I knew what I was filming was good,
Speaker 1: and I was determined to keep it rolling and framed
Speaker 1: up well, if for nothing else, so the mountagers could
Speaker 1: fill out the report.
Speaker 2: On what had happened to us.
Speaker 1: I could hear that bear breathing as he walked closer,
Speaker 1: and I concentrated with all I had on what my
Speaker 1: job was, and that was to watch the viewfinder to
Speaker 1: make sure I captured as good as possible what was happening.
Speaker 1: Camera focus, framing, remaining calm, working to keep claying the
Speaker 1: bear and the shot kept me from being distracted from
Speaker 1: the fact that the bear was now as close as
Speaker 1: he could be without getting inside with us. Then the
Speaker 1: bear half stood up and poked his head into blind,
Speaker 1: touching the tip of Clay's arrow in the process. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that little poke is in what stopped
Speaker 1: him from coming on in and beating us both up.
Speaker 1: I wasn't scared, and I didn't think I was about
Speaker 1: to die, But I'll be honest with you, I didn't
Speaker 1: know that we weren't going to get chewed on a
Speaker 1: little bit. The bear turned to walk away, and Clay
Speaker 1: drilled him with a lethal hit. That was a fatal
Speaker 1: wound as you could ask for. That shot might as
Speaker 1: well have been a hand grenade, because that bear stopped
Speaker 1: at twenty five yards to fall over. Then Clay made
Speaker 1: the best shot I have ever seen with a stick
Speaker 1: boat and twelve ring that bear, who jumped out of
Speaker 1: the frame and died right out of sight, right then
Speaker 1: and right there. I looked away from the camera long
Speaker 1: enough to see the bears behind us had gone. Satisfied
Speaker 1: we were both going to live through this, I went
Speaker 1: back to work filming my brother have his come up part.
Speaker 1: While reflecting on what had happened, neither one of us
Speaker 1: fully understanding the gravity of what each of us had
Speaker 1: just done. We released that film on the Bear Hunting
Speaker 1: Magazine YouTube channel and survived the death threats to us
Speaker 1: and our families from the commenters who said the bear
Speaker 1: spared us, so we should have spared him. I guess
Speaker 1: they overlooked the fact that we were there legally, ethically
Speaker 1: and the primary goal to shoot a bear, all of
Speaker 1: which we did. Anyway, that fourteen minutes and eight seconds
Speaker 1: of footage bolstered clays bona fides and helped him on
Speaker 1: his way to where he is now. And I'll tell
Speaker 1: you this, it didn't hurt my resume either. It's easy
Speaker 1: to forget sometimes that all the stuff you're seeing folks
Speaker 1: do on the screen and hear it on your speakers,
Speaker 1: that there's another person there seeing it from the other
Speaker 1: side of the lens with a microphone. Clay's fond of
Speaker 1: saying a right and tide raises all ships. I'd say,
Speaker 1: I am proof of that. And that's just how that happened.
Speaker 1: Last Saturday, me and over a thousand of my closest
Speaker 1: friends gathered in Bentonville, Arkansas, to celebrate Ursus americanas the
Speaker 1: American Black Bear.
Speaker 2: I absolutely love these curious creatures.
Speaker 1: I love how they hunt, how they live, how they
Speaker 1: spend the winters, and how they taste. I was there
Speaker 1: for the third annual Black Bear Bananza, hosted by my
Speaker 1: friends in the Arkansas chapter of the back Country Hunters
Speaker 1: and Anglers. Now I've been to every one of them,
Speaker 1: good Lord will, and I'll be at a bunch before
Speaker 1: my tenures over. The event grew out of ideas from
Speaker 1: a group of black minded souls who wanted to celebrate
Speaker 1: the resurgence of the black bear in the ozarks of Arkansas,
Speaker 1: Missouri in Oklahoma back around twenty nineteen. Now, those initial
Speaker 1: ideas got the ball rolling and it hasn't slowed down.
Speaker 1: The first was scheduled from March or twenty twenty. I
Speaker 1: was scheduled to tell a story at that one, but
Speaker 1: it was canceled due to the pandemic. Then in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two we had the first one, and for the
Speaker 1: last three years the black Bear Bonanza has been growing
Speaker 1: every year. They moved to a bigger location this year,
Speaker 1: and it's a good thing. We couldn't have gotten all
Speaker 1: those folks at the old place. But don't let that
Speaker 1: keep you from planning to come visit next March. The
Speaker 1: crowd was big, but the feeling was as much of
Speaker 1: a small town as you could get. The BHA volunteer
Speaker 1: gals and guys put untold numbers of volunteer hours to
Speaker 1: put this event on and never get enough credit or recognition.
Speaker 1: Now some had their family members they're helping out as well.
Speaker 1: It truly is a community run operation, and the some
Speaker 1: people who attend there are as much of that community
Speaker 1: as those working. Clayton Newcomb and I rolled up a
Speaker 1: little after nine that morning and there was a line
Speaker 1: of folks waiting to get in. I talked to so
Speaker 1: many people that like meat eater, that listened to bear
Speaker 1: grease in this country life and sharing affinity for bears
Speaker 1: and all the other outdoor pursuits that were represented. There
Speaker 1: so many activities for kids to participate in, and there
Speaker 1: were whole families represented with kids from infants, teens to
Speaker 1: adults with their parents. James Brandenburg is the Arkansas BHA
Speaker 1: Chapter president and is quick to give the credit of
Speaker 1: the success of the whole event to all the volunteers
Speaker 1: and the folks working behind the scenes. Now, I was
Speaker 1: talking to James this morning and I asked him how
Speaker 1: it all went on his end, man, let me tell
Speaker 1: you that Cat was fired up about how it all
Speaker 1: came together. And while they don't have the specific numbers
Speaker 1: talied up yet, he said he could testified that there
Speaker 1: was well over a thousand people in attendance and hundreds
Speaker 1: more kids than last year's. It's free admission for twelve
Speaker 1: and under, and it was an absolute wonderful sight seeing
Speaker 1: all the kids that were there. A young man named
Speaker 1: Gunner drew and colored me a picture after listening to
Speaker 1: a recent podcast I did, and I have it hanging
Speaker 1: in my office now. It's besides the one that Owen
Speaker 1: drew me last November when I got sneak attacked by
Speaker 1: that kidney stone. The bonanza was where I met Owen.
Speaker 1: Last year, Owen returned with his dad John and messed
Speaker 1: around and won the title of the Black Bear Bonanza
Speaker 1: al Hooton Junior Championship of the Civilized World. I saw
Speaker 1: him visited with a man that I met at the
Speaker 1: first Black Bear Bonanza. I met him and his wife,
Speaker 1: and I remembered him because he was wearing a stetson
Speaker 1: hat like the one President Johnson made famous. Well from
Speaker 1: Dallas I also saw their toddler playing and pushing a
Speaker 1: buggy around that they pushed her around in when she
Speaker 1: was an infant the first.
Speaker 2: Time I met him.
Speaker 1: I have literally seen that child grow up in the
Speaker 1: Black Bear neighborhood. I met new folks from Michigan that
Speaker 1: gave me a recipe for biscuits and making butter that
Speaker 1: I can't wait to try. The Tucker family, the Ramsays,
Speaker 1: the Walkers. I could go on and own about the
Speaker 1: people that were there and how that singular event but
Speaker 1: so many different people from different points of the compass
Speaker 1: in one spot to celebrate more than just Black Bears.
Speaker 2: I met a fellow from Ontario.
Speaker 1: That drove down that's overseas in Canada for goodness sakes, California, Florida,
Speaker 1: New York, and I'm pretty sure half of the population
Speaker 1: of Oklahoma. Probably be easier to list the states that
Speaker 1: weren't represented there than it was to list the ones
Speaker 1: that were. I looked forward to seeing the little folks
Speaker 1: more than anything.
Speaker 2: Every year.
Speaker 1: Like James said, this year there was way more than
Speaker 1: any year before. It was fantastic. My brothers in Blue
Speaker 1: always show up. Thanks for the coins. Don I talked
Speaker 1: to several folks that were in the military, but there
Speaker 1: was one fellow that stood out to me and I
Speaker 1: met him backstage right before the al Hooton Contest started.
Speaker 1: He was talking with some of the other volunteers who
Speaker 1: were keeping the event wheels greased and rolling smooth, and
Speaker 1: I first assumed Will was one of the Arkansas BHA volunteers.
Speaker 1: Turns out I was only half right. He was a volunteer,
Speaker 1: but he'd driven down the day before from Idaho, and
Speaker 1: since he was a day early and with nothing else
Speaker 1: to do, he decided to do a little recon. Will
Speaker 1: drove to the fairgrounds and walked in the building where
Speaker 1: all the volunteers were busy as cats in a sandbox.
Speaker 1: Will asked if they needed any help. They put that
Speaker 1: joker to work, and he jumped round in working alongside
Speaker 1: everyone else. Now I've hosted the Al Hooton Contest for
Speaker 1: the last two years, and between the rounds, the event
Speaker 1: gives away a ton of door prizes that are donated
Speaker 1: by area businesses and corporations. I snatched up an FHF
Speaker 1: gear chest pack from the Meat Eater South headquarters before
Speaker 1: we left Clay's house that morning and decided I'd give
Speaker 1: it away to whomever had driven the farthest.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: After some lively debate, Will from Idaho won with eighteen
Speaker 1: hundred plus miles driven. It was close, but everyone agreed
Speaker 1: that he was the winner. I brought him on stage.
Speaker 1: I gave him his prize that I'd robbed from Clay's house,
Speaker 1: and James Brandenburgh thanked him for volunteering, and then I
Speaker 1: asked him what he did for a living. Will said
Speaker 1: he'd just retired after twenty one years in the military,
Speaker 1: and that place went crazy, erupted with cheering. That's why
Speaker 1: I know there's more than just hope for this country.
Speaker 1: There's promise to It. Moved me a lot, it does
Speaker 1: still just thinking about it. I handed him a case
Speaker 1: knife from my pocket and I thanked him first service
Speaker 1: to our nation, and I shook his hand. He went
Speaker 1: on his way and we continued the contest and Cameron
Speaker 1: Tidwell took home the Grown Folks Division championship of Alhudrie.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Later on, as the event was closing down around five o'clock,
Speaker 1: I was standing in the back visited with some friends.
Speaker 1: When I saw Will walking up. I assumed he was
Speaker 1: going to say goodbye. He said, I got something for you,
Speaker 1: and he handed me a bench made tactical knife that
Speaker 1: he carried on five combat deployments.
Speaker 2: Ooh, man.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to say, but I understood the gift.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just a gift. It wasn't just a knife.
Speaker 1: He was entrusted me with something I know that was
Speaker 1: special to him, just like the one that I'd given
Speaker 1: him was special to me, along with my family's legacy
Speaker 1: with case. That knife I gave him was a Christmas
Speaker 1: present of last December from Alexis and Bailey, a replacement
Speaker 1: knife for the one I donated to the mide Eater
Speaker 1: auction last fall. Now that auction was for a great cause,
Speaker 1: but I whined so much about it being gone that
Speaker 1: they bought me another one just like it, so i'd
Speaker 1: shut up. I say all of that to say this.
Speaker 1: I can't think of a better thing to single out
Speaker 1: and pay homage to you than people from all over
Speaker 1: this continent gathering under one roof, singularly focused on one thing.
Speaker 1: And I don't think it was black bears. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: risk losing a dollar bet that there was more than
Speaker 1: one percent of the crowd there that had ever bear hunted.
Speaker 1: It was a celebration of bears, true enough. But of
Speaker 1: all the literal hundreds of conversations I had with people,
Speaker 1: not one of them that I can remember was about
Speaker 1: bear hunting.
Speaker 2: There's good folks.
Speaker 1: Out there everywhere, and if you set a date and
Speaker 1: a time and invite them over, they'll come. Some of
Speaker 1: them will bring their youngest too, and you'll always find
Speaker 1: something to talk about, some common ground if you just
Speaker 1: listen and take turns. Don't forget the dates and times
Speaker 1: are set for the Meat Eater Live tour that's heading west.
Speaker 1: Tickets are available now and you can find out all
Speaker 1: the info at meadeater dot com. I did one last
Speaker 1: December in Kansas City, A man, it was a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. These will be too, y'all. Be sure and
Speaker 1: check out the meti Eater YouTube channel for a turkey
Speaker 1: hunting catfish and trip to me and o'clay Bow did
Speaker 1: in Missouri last spring. You look for our Mississippi expedition
Speaker 1: for them from January that's dropping very soon. I think
Speaker 1: you'll like them both. And hey, before I get out
Speaker 1: of here, remember when I said at the close of
Speaker 1: this week's story about the people that work behind the
Speaker 1: scenes of the cool stuff you see and hear. Well,
Speaker 1: there's a farm girl from Iowa that works as hard
Speaker 1: as anyone on this show and a.
Speaker 2: Lot of others. She's the best.
Speaker 1: Thanks Dan. Until next week. This is Brent Reeves signing off.
Speaker 1: Y'all be careful.