Field Leaders Ep. 3 - Representative Neil Riser || Louisiana State Representative

Summary

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The Origins Foundation Podcast

Field Leaders Ep. 3 – Representative Neil Riser || Louisiana State Representative

Date: February 26, 2026
Host: Ashley Smith (The Origins Foundation)
Guest: Rep. Neil Riser, Louisiana House of Representatives

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Episode Overview

This episode features a compelling conversation with Louisiana State Representative Neil Riser, widely regarded as an extreme outdoorsman and veteran legislator passionate about hunting culture, wildlife conservation, and protecting the traditions—and future—of sportsmanship in Louisiana. Riser shares captivating survival stories from the field—ranging from polar bear and brown bear hunts to a harrowing 43-day ordeal in the Alaskan wilderness during the 9/11 attacks—and reflects on his approach to fair chase and conservation leadership. The discussion turns to vital policy issues, including the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) task force he pioneered, highlighting the intersection of outdoor culture, science, and public policy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background & Introduction to Rep. Neil Riser

• Riser's legislative background and committee service (Natural Resources, Commerce, Homeland Security) ([04:02]).
• Deep roots in rural Louisiana and personal history as an “extreme outdoorsman” ([03:40], [04:44]).

Quote:
"Extreme outdoors is what I have heard about you...not only have you championed sportsman's issues in the Louisiana legislature for a number of years...but you're just an avid outdoorsman."
—Ashley Smith [04:36]

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2. Early Hunting Roots & Tradition in Rural Louisiana

• Grew up immersed in hound-based deer hunting culture (84 hounds as a family operation) ([05:07]).
• Evolution from dog-based hunting to still hunting and bow hunting ([10:13]).
• Hunting as an intergenerational tradition (“it’s a way of life, it’s culture”) ([10:23], [10:44]).

Quote:
"It's a way of life is our culture where I'm from."
—Rep. Riser [10:23]

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3. Philosophy of Fair Chase and Pursuit of Extreme Hunts

• Defines "fair chase" as hunting on horseback or on foot, sleeping outside, refusing to use hired packers or guides when it would reduce personal effort ([13:19]).
• Personal ethic: When he can no longer physically undertake such hunts, he’ll “leave it for someone else to live their dream” ([13:26]).

Quote:
"That's my moment in time where I need to turn loose and leave the conservation component of it and leave it for someone else to live their dream."
—Rep. Riser [13:22]

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4. Extreme Adventures: Survival Stories from Around the World

a. Polar Bear Hunt in the Arctic ([13:49]–[27:23])

• Preparation, cold weather survival (60 below zero, “if you get cold, it's basically too late”) ([14:08], [14:46]).
• Suffering temporary blindness from snow glare and the dangerous beauty of the Arctic ([19:34], [20:52]).
• Gripping encounter with a charging polar bear—rescuing a young Inuit guide in an intense, near-fatal episode ([21:41]–[26:49]).

Memorable Moment:
"The bear comes across, hits when we run and hits the, hits the sled, flips it about 11 foot and the air comes back. Stuff goes everywhere...the boy's running, I put my arm out... Now he's fighting for his life. The bear's about a foot away from my left calf...How she didn't bite me, I don't know...It was enough that we got back, it didn't sound believable."
—Rep. Riser [24:53]–[27:02]

b. Stranded in Alaska after 9/11—43 Days of Survival ([27:55]–[41:39])

• Story of how a 10-day brown bear hunt became a survival ordeal when 9/11 grounded all flights ([29:57]–[32:43]).
• Subsisted on salmon, berries, and minimal rations; lost a pound a day; psychological and physical toll ([32:07], [34:52]).
• Transformation into a “wild animal” mindset; hypersensitivity to nature; culture shock returning to civilization ([34:53]–[39:04]).
• Describes the surreal feeling of turning on hot water for the first time in weeks ([38:10]).

Quote:
"Time quits meaning anything. It's not torturous... After day 20, 21, you made it past...you've turned kind of in the wild...The next night was the same thing. Finally, I said heck with this. Got my sleeping bag, went out, lay down on the ground in the yard."
—Rep. Riser [34:53], [39:03]

c. Effects on Family & Personal Habits ([39:12])

• Family expected his long absence; ongoing communication on the outside, but none reaching them.
• Still prefers sleeping outdoors, built a sleeping porch over a lake ([39:04]).

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5. Chronic Wasting Disease Task Force — Legislative Initiatives ([42:21]–[47:06])

• Creation of a state CWD task force to confront the spread of CWD in Louisiana deer populations.
• Impact of feeding bans on hunting culture and rural economies; working toward practical, science-based solutions through collaborative task force ([42:56]–[46:56]).
• Emphasizes open communication among opposing stakeholders as a breakthrough ([46:30]).

Quote:
"When you sit down and hear the whole story, normally you don’t come out feeling the same way...Communication has been good."
—Rep. Riser [46:31], [46:56]

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6. Protecting the Future of Hunting & Conservation ([49:08]–[51:52])

• Concerns about access for new generations of hunters, especially with shifting land use and decline in public hunting opportunities ([49:08]).
• Advocates for policies that protect hunting/fishing rights and the Second Amendment; stresses the risk of incremental erosion of these rights ([51:22]–[51:52]).

Quote:
"We gotta watch for...not restricting that where somebody says well, they only need to use a slug...you can gravitate in the wrong direction inch by inch without...noticing it."
—Rep. Riser [51:22]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote / Context | |-----------|-------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 04:36 | Ashley Smith | "Extreme outdoors is what I have heard about you...you've championed sportsman's issues in the Louisiana legislature..." | | 10:23 | Rep. Riser | "It's a way of life is our culture where I'm from." | | 13:22 | Rep. Riser | "When it comes my time, you can hire packers to carry your stuff...But I won't. I refuse to do that..." | | 24:53 | Rep. Riser | [Describing the polar bear attack:] "The bear comes across, hits the sled, flips it about 11 foot...he's chasing the boy to kill him." | | 34:53 | Rep. Riser | "Time quits meaning anything...you've turned kind of in the wild." | | 39:03 | Rep. Riser | "Got my sleeping bag, went out, lay down on the ground in the yard and went to sleep right there." | | 46:31 | Rep. Riser | "Everyone has worked good with us...the communication has been good." | | 51:22 | Rep. Riser | "You can gravitate in the wrong direction inch by inch without...noticing it." |

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Important Timestamps & Segments

• Rep. Riser’s legislative/committee service – [03:41]–[04:02]
• Louisiana hunting tradition: hounds & evolution of deer hunting – [05:07]–[10:13]
• Fair chase philosophy and ethics – [13:19]–[13:30]
• Polar bear hunt and arctic survival – [13:49]–[27:23]
• Survival during 9/11 in Alaska – [27:55]–[41:39]
• CWD and legislative collaboration – [42:21]–[47:06]
• Protecting hunting traditions, access for youth, and Second Amendment rights – [49:08]–[51:52]

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Tone and Language

The conversation is marked by camaraderie, authenticity, humor, and a deep respect for the outdoors—from harrowing life-and-death tales to reflections on family and tradition. Riser’s storytelling is vivid, sometimes gritty, but always suffused with humility and an earnest sense of mission. Ashley Smith steers the discussion from tales of survival to policy insights with warmth and admiration.

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Conclusion

Rep. Neil Riser offers unique, hard-earned perspectives on the value of outdoor sports, the essential role of hunters in conservation, and the need for courage and collaboration to protect those traditions for future generations. His blend of hard-fought adventure and active legislative leadership embodies the spirit The Origins Foundation seeks to champion.

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Transcript

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[Ashley Smith]

Hi, this is Ashley Smith. Thanks for joining us today. I have a very cool guest on with us today, Representative Neil Reiser, a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. He serves on the Committee on Natural Resources and Environment, the Committee on Commerce, the Committee on Homeland Security. He was formerly a member of the Louisiana State Senate from 2008 until January of 2020. Neil is what I would call an extreme adventurer. He has hunted and fished all over the world in extreme manners, from polar bears to grizzly bears, every kind of apex predator in between and has some really amazing stories including being stranded in the outback, the Alaskan outback, for over 40 days after 911 happened when the airspace was closed and almost not surviving it. So I think you will really enjoy some of these stories. They had me on the edge of my seat, so please enjoy listening to Representative Reiser.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

So five years ago there was a reason why I started this movement and the truth then is the truth now that we need to champion our narrative. We need to champion the truth around what we do and who we are.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

There's a sweet spot where they got, you know, too heavy and it's a burden to, to walk with too light and you whipping it.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Why is the project so important to the hunting community?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

It's, it's a, I think it's not only important, I think it's, I think it's vital. I think it's, it's just in time.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

It's like snakes and ladders.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

You guys are climbing the ladder and

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

then Somebody does something stupid and you just slide down. That is such an amazing analogy. Snakes and ladders.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

You know, ivory in, in my opinion, was the plastic of its age. Okay.

[Ashley Smith]

The expenses are going up. It goes a long way with families. We have families that do need it.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Let me close this door because I have a little wiener dog. What you are. You're laughing because I said wiener.

[Ashley Smith]

I'm really glad you finished the sentence out. I'm sorry. The first half we doing here today,

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

you're telling the whole world.

[Ashley Smith]

All right. I am sitting here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a new friend of mine. I am sitting with Representative Neil Reiser of the Louisiana House of Representatives, also formerly of the Louisiana Senate.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Correct.

[Ashley Smith]

Former president of the Senate, Correct.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No, no, no, no, no. John A. Was president Senate. Joe. Joe Chasson then John Leo for.

[Ashley Smith]

Okay, okay. But you've held a number of.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

I served as. I served as a money chair there though.

[Ashley Smith]

Okay. Yes.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Appropriations Chair, Ways of Means.

[Ashley Smith]

Ways and Means.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Revving Fisk.

[Ashley Smith]

Ways and Means. Okay. And then you are currently on the Natural Resources Committee, correct?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

I serve on Commerce and Natural Resources and I never had served on Natural Resources prior to being in the House. But it. He can be quite controversial at times, needless to say.

[Ashley Smith]

I would say that's an understatement for sure. And you are district, is it District 20? District 20.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

That's Caldwell, Lasalle, Catahoula and Franklin.

[Ashley Smith]

Catahoula. Everybody seems to know about Catahoula Parish for whatever reason. Is it because the hunting so good

[Representative Neil Reiser]

around there just getting that way? Yeah, it's gotten better in the last years. So genetically there's some good deer there and have been killing some real good ones.

[Ashley Smith]

So one of the reasons I wanted to have you on today is because you are known as a legendary sportsman.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

I like extreme outdoors.

[Ashley Smith]

Extreme outdoors is what I have heard about you. And you. Well, not only have you championed sportsman's issues in the Louisiana legislature for a number of years and we'll talk about that a little bit, but you are. You're just an avid outdoorsman. So tell me kind of about your background and just growing up in hunting and fishing.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

And hunting and fishing. My daddy we deer hunter a lot, squirrel hunter a lot. When I was a young fellow, maybe three years old, we had ran dogs a lot during that time. So we had. Between daddy and two of his friends had 84 hounds. So 84, 84 is my. Running a mini Angola Walker hounds. They. You've got any experience with them? They're good at escaping out Of a pen and yeah, it was, it was a job.

[Ashley Smith]

So is that deer dogs or rabbit dogs?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Never do it. Correction. Yeah, they were deer dogs.

[Ashley Smith]

All 84 deer dogs.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

It was when we hunted down Mississippi River.

[Ashley Smith]

Okay.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

We hunted around Shaw, Turnbull and right around Deer park and later on on the other side of the river.

[Ashley Smith]

How do you dealt with 84? How do you even feed 84?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

It's a job. So we take two, two by twelves and. And block them off at the end and just take a sack of feed running out there, hit the water hose and let them go.

[Ashley Smith]

I mean I, that's. I can't even imagine how much money that cost to feed 80.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah, it was. We kept that up till I was probably. I was born in 62, probably around 68. And it got to be more trouble probably, I guess than what daddy thought it was worth at the time.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah, he must have had a lot of property.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No, we hunt, like I say, all that down around in that part of lower Concordia Parish.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Yeah.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Leasing and prices of land was not like it is now.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Okay.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

So they won that. And then the deer was so sparse during that time that, you know, everybody use dogs.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

And where I live in Caldwell Parish, I can remember in College around 83, 111 days before I saw two deer. One of them was a little three point. And that's all I saw. Never getting off the stand. You know, it's a different world as far as deer hunting now we have a lot more deer than what we used to then. So running dogs was a way, you know, still hunting was pretty tough.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Well, I didn't still, I didn't know what. Still hunt. I remember people still hunting during that time. I didn't, I didn't thought, I thought, I didn't know what that was.

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[Representative Neil Reiser]

Good luck.

[Ashley Smith]

Well that's, you know, deer dog hunting still really popular in Mississippi and Louisiana.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Oh it is? Yeah.

[Ashley Smith]

Down by where we have our farm, there's still a Lot.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

It's a way of life is our culture where I'm from.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Yeah.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Now, Louisiana is not in the top 10 per capita of hunters in the nation. If you get in the 43 rural parishes, you'll feel that way. But the 43 rural parishes aren't very heavily populated. But inside those parishes. Absolutely. For a captive there is strong.

[Ashley Smith]

Right, right. You're exactly right. It's a way of life. It's a way of life.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah, it is. It's culture. I mean, it is for me. Yeah.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah. Well. So do you still have deer dogs?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Oh, no. Like I say, it's probably about eight years old. We started evolving out of that, started seeing more still hunting during that era, you know, seeing the value of still hunting. I started bow hunting, I guess when I was a 9, 9 or 10 with a recurve and then later on the compound. And I don't use a bow as much now. Just stay busy enough. I, I, you know, I want to be good with a bow if I'm going to be using one.

[Ashley Smith]

Right, right.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah.

[Ashley Smith]

Okay. So you say you're into extreme, extreme sportsman's pursuit. So tell me, tell me what you mean when you say that.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Well, I'm a fair chase advocate. Now, deer hunting per se is not that, but any other time, fair chase being on a horse or on foot with the pack.

[Ashley Smith]

Okay.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

And the reason for that we'll get. I know we're going to get into a little bit. I spent a lot of time in New Mexico mountain lion hunting, bear hunting. Started doing that around guess. Elk hunted out there when I was about 17 with a good friend of mine and with a Mike Root. He's a hit. His name will come up. He's a former Force Recon Marine. A lot of respect for him.

[Ashley Smith]

How did you get into that? Like what made what was the first time you went? You 17.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

It's just I got a little grandson right now that turned two years old and he thinks about Baron. I mean, so he's got a bear rug of mine right now. My great grandfather was from Lincoln Parish. Owned a sawmill he would work six months out of the year. The other six months he would go to Tensile Parish, around in that area and bear hunt for six months. You mentioned dogs. I kind of think is something you're born with to a large degree.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah, you think it. So we were talking lunch. Somebody asked how the name Blood Origins came. And I said, you know, Robbie said, you know, hunting is in your blood. You think it's just that was in your blood. To have this urge to go out and do the kind of.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

I started hunting frogs when I hunted the carport when I was two years old. Yeah. But back to the fair chase. What that actually is, is that on horse or foot and don't stay inside a structure. Right. Either sleep on the ground or sleep in a tent. The reason I say that is that some of these hunts that I feel like when I can't physically able to go, that's my moment in time where I need to turn loose and, and leave it, the conservation component of it and leave it for someone else to live their dream. I never thought as a young man that I had never had the opportunities that I have and the things I've done, I would never, never dreamed I would do it. So that's one of the reasons I'm so adamant about that. When it comes my time, you can, you can hire, hire packers to carry your stuff, carry all that. But I won't, I refuse to do that. Yeah. And I'm not going to. And I said when that time comes, it's time for me to turn loose and let's save it for another generation.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah, yeah. No, I respect that.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah, I'm real adamant about that.

[Ashley Smith]

I respect that. So you started mountain lion hunting, elk hunting, when you were in your.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

In the Rockies.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah, in the Rockies.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Correct.

[Ashley Smith]

Went out. Yeah. Because we talked earlier about Lionheart and the film we put out about mountain Lionheart.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Backpack a lot through the Gila.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

All through there. Go train out there.

[Ashley Smith]

So. So what are some of the more extreme and just cooler things that you've done? Like.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Well, I've polar bear hunted in the Arctic in, oh, six.

[Ashley Smith]

Okay. How is that?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

It's cold. It's cold. But it's a different cold in that they say, what do you feel cold? No. And when you're talking about 50, 60 below and winds up to 60 miles an hour, you can't get cold.

[Ashley Smith]

How do you even prepare for that?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

You really can't. Now we did five days of cold weather survival stuff.

[Ashley Smith]

Where do you go to do that? Where do you go?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

They did it on site.

[Ashley Smith]

Okay. Up there.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Flew in a Resolute Bay. That's the furthest town you can go or settlement you go into. And the emphasis has been that you got to keep your car bake intake up. They had with this what's called a banya and it's more like a beignet. I think the French, the French explorers came in and I think they just called it by the wrong name. It's basically like a beignet. So when you're out, when you're out, you got to stop every 30 minutes, drink a hot fluid, pull your carbs back up. But if again, if you ever get cold, it's basically you're getting too late.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Okay.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

They told us one of there's a good news. Don't travel by air. If you hear some. You freeze so fast and it. People will say like here in Louisiana that it's a different cold. Different like that it. Yes. If it's 28 degrees, it's going to feel colder because it's taking longer to get into hypothermia. Yeah, it's 60 below. You've got. You got four minutes or so.

[Ashley Smith]

Right.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

You know, on exposure. You have exposure times at that point in time then. So the. Because you can freeze to death or you can get hypothermia, 75 degree water. So it pulls you. It pulls you slower and it's more torture. I've had advanced hyperthermia twice and that's hypothermia. One time I was in New Mexico. We had a front that came in. It was roughly 45 degrees and I had on combat fatigues, got wet and then it came in and got real cold behind it and it shocked kind of it froze. My clothes was on a horse, knew better, but I didn't get off and lead to keep my body temperature up and lost consciousness on there.

[Ashley Smith]

You lost consciousness?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah. I mean, I went through the phases. I rode enough that I can sleep on a horse and it was leave me. But I never got gotten off and I went through the violent stages of shaking. I had a hypothermia.

[Ashley Smith]

What happened? Did someone see you and say we wrote.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

We wrote. We've riding. I was riding medal on the line and there's three of us, three riders. We got back to a ranch house and stayed there and came out of it there. And I've had advanced hypothermia in Alaska. But my bright big toes, about 50, 50% frostbite. My finger here on the right hand next to my pinky, about 30%. I got frostbite on my eyes and arctic. So we got a little experience with that. Hypothermia though, when you enter into it. So the danger is it's very euphoric. So it's not like I've had water deprivation and dehydration. That's torture. I don't know anything that's more torture than that. But hypothermia, though, it's real calming. It's just like you feel like you're floating on a cloud. So you have to keep more. Basically what I see is working from the brain stem is you got to keep going, keep going because you just want to just lay down and go to sleep because everything feels. You don't, you don't feel much anymore.

[Ashley Smith]

So it's better to die of cold than of dehydration.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah. Oh, in my opinion, absolutely. One, one's very calming. The other one is horrible.

[Ashley Smith]

Who knew?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Dehydration is horrible. Terrible.

[Ashley Smith]

Oh my goodness. Okay, so you, you got hypothermia in New Mexico and lived through that. You.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Okay, I want to talk about hypothermia in New Mexico and came real close and died from the water in New Mexico on a, on a, on a backpack and trip that was. They got very real severe.

[Ashley Smith]

So you've had two very close calls

[Representative Neil Reiser]

in the lower 48.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah. So I want to go back to this polar bear hunting for a minute. That's not the one that you got stranded up.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No, that, that was on a brown bear hunt in 9 11.

[Ashley Smith]

Okay, we're going to go back to that. We're going to come to that.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

We're going to come to that.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah, I want to talk about the polar bear hunting because I don't know, we may have done a podcast about. Robbie may have talked to somebody that was horrible hunting about. What do you even, what do you wear to polar bear hunt in the Arctic? Like, what do you put on your hands to be able to shoot a gun?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

That's, that's a, that's a very good question. For your hands, you'll wear anti. Anti contact gloves.

[Ashley Smith]

Okay.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

So you'll wear mitts. Now I had bought.

[Ashley Smith]

Are they, I mean, are they. Can they make them thin enough that you can actually shoot?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

You can take it off. So you got like, at that. Whether you have like five minute exposure time. Now that's the bare skin. So when you, when you pull that glove off, you'll. After about five minutes, you'll feel in that kind of cold. What you feel is a sting. It'll be like a sharp stain. And after that the outlier skin just frosted over.

[Ashley Smith]

So you have five minutes in 50 degree below weather, roughly. I'm surprised you actually have five minutes like that seems like kind of a lot.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

You take a glass of water, hot water, throw it in there and it'll freeze in there.

[Ashley Smith]

But your skin doesn't necessarily.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

But it, you, you, you'll. If you're there, I bet you didn't

[Ashley Smith]

keep for a full five minutes.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Well, I've got a cut on my left hand that show how cold it is on your blood circulation. I had a true 40 below sleeping bag and it. And it was in like a plastic, you know, wet sack that would. And it got hard and I cut the top of my hand with it. It didn't heal till I got home because I couldn't get enough circulation. Now inouettes are different in that their torsos are long and their extremities are short. They have. Their hands are small and their blood circulates a lot faster. So they're able to live up there. Yeah, their exposure time is greater. They have a. Grew a beard. They say don't grow a beard, but it'll freeze. That was a mistake. Their capillaries in their face. They can withstand that kind of code.

[Ashley Smith]

That's crazy. So did you harvest the polar bear?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

I did. I killed one.

[Ashley Smith]

Did you? How? I bet you didn't keep that glove on for five minutes, did you?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No, I did not. That's a story with all in itself ended up. But anyway we want to go into the other story.

[Ashley Smith]

No, no, I want to hear about it.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

We got time that we ended up that was it beautiful.

[Ashley Smith]

I mean was it. I just would think that would be amazing.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

The astronauts go to train there because am I getting my refraction rate and light rates wrong? On the beach you're getting somewhere around 20% light refraction. On bright. Bright in the Arctic on that ice. Cause where you're at on the planet you're getting over 90% light refraction. So you can't. It's so bright you don't have depth perception. So I'm only making the some this. Assuming you see astronauts can have that weird walk and that's caused the gravity. But you'll do that in the Arctic too because you don't have any. You don't have the depth perception because

[Ashley Smith]

you can't tell what you're.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

You lose, you lose. You lose that depth. If you got to have sunglasses, the real good sunglasses that said I don't take them off will be in the redneck I am had to try it and you'll. It's so bright it did a red out which either the pubic was track and did permanent damage to mine. But are you just yoked? I went temporary blind, but it came back. Yeah.

[Ashley Smith]

How long?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

I'll say five minutes or so. And it started coming back.

[Ashley Smith]

Did it really freak you out, did you think?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah, I didn't know Whether it locked down for good. Yeah. You asked question. Yeah.

[Ashley Smith]

Oh my gosh. Who are you with?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

I went, I go on trips like that by myself. I learned that.

[Ashley Smith]

You have a guide with you?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ashley Smith]

Did you say am I, am I blind forever?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No. I met some friends there, you know. This one was just still doing some of our training. A guy from brain. Yeah. From Reno to body, Jerry Scolari. You know, Scolari foods. We end up being good friends. He's far exceeding my hunting is what I've done. But Jerry was there, so I had somebody I felt kind of friends with. Kind of get through that part of it.

[Ashley Smith]

Golly. Okay, so tell me about seeing the polar bear that you ultimately harvested. How was that? Did you see a family in a solitary. What?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No. Number one, polar bears. The, from what I know is the only animal other than humans that kill for the support of it. So we saw a young male one day, to give an example that was up on an ice break. He had blood all over him. And he was showing, you know, that he was a great hunter. His interest in watching. I mean he would just reach down and get that solid ice and break it. Polar bears were left handed, big grave. And he'd just wipe himself off until he got all that blood off. But he was showing what a great hunter he was. Now on that hunt, it was on the 11th day I was inside the circle. 21 days total on the trip. But there was. You can't have the weapon with you. So it was on a. It's a dog sled. You stay on a dog sled that's pulled. They don't run a dideride style. They run the ski ropes and they put them together and we ended up. There was a. There was a good male bearer that I ended up killing ultimately. And you pull the gear with the, with the snowmobile with a sled. And so the, the guy, the oldest guy, he had got. He had been head born on the ice. The other, the other, the younger guy, he was about 20, 21. And to achieve in their tribe or their group, to be a man, you have to be a owner. Kill a polar bear yourself. So we saw this bear, but he was going towards broken ice. And you can see just before the human eye can see. And so I was on the back of the sled, my rifle was on the dog sled. And we went down just to get a better look. When we did, he was probably a mile away, not be respected. We left side by side vehicles and then we go Maybe a mile off in the bear and a mile across to him. And the bear at that time, they're not, they're not afraid. They're king of the ice. So he, he made a turn and started coming back. When he started coming back, the dogs on the sled realized, hey, this must be showtime. So they start running towards them. And I'll abbreviated getting on time, but start running towards them. The young guy ends up getting on the front and starts trying to pull the slip knot, slip knot loose. But it wouldn't come loose until he got about like 200 yards away from him to get it done. The dogs run out there, surround him with the bear. He didn't have him bait. So they're on open eyes. So he's had an advantage. And he just starts walking. But he's walking towards the young guy. And we're coming back and you can see things are about to go bad. So they start, start walk, coming back, and then he starts trotting and then start. Start saying, run, run, run. So we're coming back. We, we can see, we can see the situation going back. We didn't have a rifle, we didn't have any kind of weapon. And so now the bear's trotting and now we're going faster. And they have arctic charred in the back of the sled. Just like a little plywood box kind of. They feed the dogs. He reaches in the back, like to get a 30, 30. Had the stock sawed off of it, but the salt had froze it up. He turns around like a club. But now he decides he go, drops it, takes off running and we're coming and he's hollering Inuit, you know, run, run, run, run. So it's getting. I mean, the face picking up. The bear comes across, hits when we run and hits the, hits the sled, flips it about 11 foot and the air comes back. Stuff goes everywhere.

[Ashley Smith]

The bear hits the sled, hits the

[Representative Neil Reiser]

sled and he goes everywhere. He's chasing the boy to kill him. Okay, so to get the visual. Yeah. Now the boys on foot and everything's like in slow motion. It gets real surreal at that point. We get up beside the boy and I'm on that sled and I just have my hand, I guess, rodeo style, twisting the rope back there with all the tight already and get up beside him and have arm hooked out and get him where I can grab him, grab him. He's pulling on me like somebody's drowning about to pull me off. You're.

[Ashley Smith]

Wait, you're Grabbing the boy or.

[Hex Hunting Advertiser]

No, he.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No, I'm on the sled. No, not grabbing the bear. At the lowest grade. I'm on the sled. And so the boys run as we pull beside the young. The young guy running, I put my arm out, my left arm and put it hook it. And so he grabbed into it. Now he's trying to obviously, you know, fighting for his life. Literally. He's about to pull me off the sled. My left foot's coming out. And they told us that as long as a bear is snapping with his head not turn, he's ranging. You kind of like somebody pointing the fingers, wanting to fight. They're subconsciously ranging. So I look back and that this is the part did happen though. So the bear's about 3 foot, 2 foot and he snaps and then he's closer, maybe at the most a foot away from my left calf. And then he turns his head sideways and how she didn't bite me, I don't know. But it's the strangest thing at the time. The only thing that I just. Everything kind of slowed down. I thought those teeth sure are white. So. But he missed. He. That was his. That was his go right there. And he. And he missed it. We went on out. The bear was tired, went on out and the young guy was like. He said I thought you. I thought I'd die. And I'll be honest with you, I thought you were too. You know, obviously he was upset. Took a while to get him out of composed. But then I guess some degree the bear was kind of anti climatic after all that.

[Ashley Smith]

Is that the bear you ended up?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah, it was full body man at the house. You know, I have him walking. I had to stand him up.

[Ashley Smith]

That is crazy.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah.

[Ashley Smith]

Oh my gosh. What a story though. That is amazing.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

It was enough that we got back. It didn't sound believable. I mean the. They came back and the young guy told the story and they didn't want to believe it so they separated us, separated us out and we ended up having a tribal deal. We went to and had to tell the same story if he. My story wouldn't have matched his. They thought he wasn't telling the truth and. But it did though. He ended up being a rock star

[Ashley Smith]

there and that they didn't believe that he almost got eaten by a bear.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No, it sounded too dramatic to even to somebody might be listening now. But no, it was maybe a little more intense than that.

[Ashley Smith]

That is crazy. What a story though, that you can. I mean that's when you pass down and your grandkids pass down. But I mean I honestly don' that as incredible as that is, it sounds like the next one you're about to tell maybe even better. And I haven't even heard the full story. I've just heard about the full story. I want to hear about you being in is it Alaska?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

9 11.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah, 9 11. Okay, tell me you're not 11 story.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Okay. So Alaska is one of those places anybody is listening that doesn't think they're going to have an opportunity. You just never know. And I mentioned at the beginning of this I never dreamed I would do the things I've done. Okay. So I mean I had an elderly gentleman that told me that that I would never hunt up there. Okay. But my buddy Mike Root have already mentioned called me one day and said hey you know look, you know you want to go brown bear hunting in Alaska which I with Mike we've hunted mountain lions, elk, deer, mountain and black bear. I said man it's too expensive for me to go. He said well somebody had a deposit and and they're keeping half of you'll pay the other half. And at that time it wasn't a good financial time for me in life but I borrowed a little bit of the money and decided I would go. So I went and now one if not my closer friends close friend Ben Stevenson. So I was hunting with his dad Ed. So we got there. That airdrop is just a beautiful place. And it was a 10 day hunt.

[Ashley Smith]

What part of Alaska was it?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

We were hunting in tow Keating arrange in there was on the, it was on Sheep River. So that have been just right, right in that area. So, so this, this would have been, this would have been more of an interior brown. You get, you get the coastal brown, you know that and then you have the Kodiak and then have on, on on the peninsula. We get there and there's a 10 day hunt and we hunt on the river. So when you're hunting bears you just, you're hunting but you know they come to the fish and the fish comes and you're hunting like that. But every five days you have an airdrop. So we're hunting out of the backpacks. So we had an airdrop usually 185 most commonly sometimes a super cub combined you at that time. Let's keep where we're at in perspective and time there were no sat phones we had everything was no communication out. Now there was a base little cabin in Alaska. You can't, the hunter can't Stay in it. But there was a Radio shack there.

[Ashley Smith]

They had like a two 25 years ago now.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah, yeah. So they had a two way radio there. But Hunter can't stand that. It is real small. I mean I'm talking about it's big enough for like a little wood stove and that's it. So we'll come back to that. It had one airdrop and then it got to be on September 11th comes up, you know, nothing that you know, I didn't have any Clue. But on September 11th we were to get another airdrop. It's like you turn your radio on and you wait for the pilot and then nothing else. You click back and forth and they find you and you. And they'll just drop it out the plane. Well on September 11th nothing happened but you know, no big deal. And they have a different view on life up there. I'm like what do you think happened? I don't know, plane broke down or something. So what you do is if you know you can get resupplied. Already had experience in this and lower 48. Well you eat your food up pretty much so you can get your energy back because you proportion your food out. You can be out 10 days or five days. You know what it is. So we'd already ate all our food up to that on the, on the 11th just happened to be the 11th that happened on the 11th we'd already ate all our food up. So we didn't eat that day thing. We'll get a food drop on the 12th nothing happens. So on the 12th we start morning salmon. And as I know you've seen the movie Jeremiah Johnson, but you can't. If you try to hit a fish with a stick that water compresses and nothing happens. So at that point became experienced with salmon. I'm not big on salmon now, but we got them out with our hands and just got them and ate them there in the fire Day number three. We figured something was wrong, you know, then didn't know what it was. But looking back now, there you go planes, the, the airways. There's always planes flying, you know there you don't see that. But there was not no traffic. You kind of start noticing that Nan made her way back to that, that line that cabin I was talking about real small and got on a. This where mental imprinting comes in. Made it back to there. It was a two way radio. It was like a five relay out. We're so back far in there and the relay we got back in was this. Was that the Lower 48 was a war. The East coast had been attacked. 175,000 were killed the first day. And Barksdale Air Force had been bombed.

[Ashley Smith]

That was what that.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

And so if you message that you got, and I do believe you polygraph me today, that's what I would think. So I told him, look you up pretty close to Barksdale, like you know what you're going to do. That was kind of the attitude. And from there it turned into a real life survival show. I went at 194. I've probably gone a total duration about 57 days from home. But I was losing a pound a day. So you can't. Without your carbohydrates, you can't. You can't hardly eat enough fish. One day we went and we think.

[Ashley Smith]

I mean, did you. Were you not seeing any bears that you could harvest to eat?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No, it was. Now I've been up bear hunt a lot since then. I've sheep hunt and I've goat hunt and move everything up. There weren't so many bears. Ultimately I did kill a bear, end up killing one. But let's kind of walk through what it's like to be out that long is that I'd been out 20 days before in the lower Rockies. And I don't know, those have been out around day five on a hunt. That's when people. Yes. Do I go with anyone? Normally I don't. Because you'll start whining, you know, like there's nothing here. There's nothing here. Day number five is always a hard day. Day number 10 or 11 is day number 20th. Yeah. So that's the longest I'd been out. But there's some psychological about those days. But after day number 20, it was. Ended up being one of the best experiences I had because you start reverting into basically a wild animal at that point. You start seeing what a. What a deer sees, you know, as a. As a human being, a predator. You're looking for geometric changes. So you see some of the winds blowing this way. The smallest movement is picked up. You just take it very quick. And the older guide, Ed. I mentioned that Ben. Ed died I think two summers ago now. But you can hunt up there as long as you're not using artificial light. So you'll hunt to sunset, come in, make 10, or sleep on the ground, wherever the case might be, get some, you know, eat the salmon.

[Ashley Smith]

But don't those rules go out the window when you're in survival mode, your

[Representative Neil Reiser]

mind, you'd be surprised. And anybody can get there. But you. Yeah, you start going into.

[Ashley Smith]

I mean you don't have. You don't like, you start.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

You don't recognize it much. You think.

[Ashley Smith]

But I mean like the hunting regulations, you throw those out the window once you're.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Well, it's bad, right? There's nothing to eat on the shoot up there. Really that make a difference now the fish. You know, if it would have been, yeah, I would have done it. You know, park, Alaska wildlife fishers. I didn't do it, but yeah, I would. I would have shot something easy.

[Ashley Smith]

You weren't saying elk. You weren't seeing anything?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No, no, no. We was eating and we went one day up and got berries. But the calorie burn on that climb, it's a negative loss.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

But here's kind of the component that, that was major on it. Around day number 21, as I mentioned, when you stay until sunset and then when moonrise starts, you go back and home the river again so that you know. And that's what the animals do. You kind of realize that then that the animals are waiting for the moon to come up with moon rise. And then moon says, then you go back to sleep again. And then you go to sleep a couple hours and go back to hunting again. Just in that mode. Around day number 21, I was sitting out on the river and Ed comes and sits beside me. He says, you're doing all right. And I'm like, no, I'm doing fine. No, you're not. You're changing. I said, no, I'm fine. You know, kind of you get an attitude at that too. I said, I'm fine. He said, no, you're not. He said, let me explain something to you. He grew up on a big ranch. He was. His father was older when he had him. His father was friends with Tom Horn that even air. And he said, he said, look, he said, I grew up on a ranch. He's. Once a month we'd go into town. Other than that we're on horses. He said, when you get back, he said, remember this? Anything that's a man made noise machine or anything. He said, cars are going like they're going up 200 miles an hour. People talking will drive you crazy. You know, tv, anything. Is manmade noise going to drive you crazy. And so I just kind of discounted that to some degree. And you end up just gravitating from there stronger and stronger as the days go by. Time quits meaning anything. It's not, it's not torturous at that point. You Made it past day 20, 21 as folk up. I don't. Other than just basically starving to death, you know, I was already in the right set of mine. So it really didn't have that much of a bearing on me. One of the unique deals was, is that we had a Super Cub on the ground. And on the merchant radio on that, it said that, you know, if you're flying, there's not a warning, that's not a drill. If you're flying, you will be shot. Now repeating, that's Alaska pike line up there. And two F15s come about every day. One, about nine, they came in formation. So they scrape. Come over that Super Cub about 9 o' clock in the morning, about 3 o' clock in the afternoon. But we ended up. When we finally did come out, I don't know, whoever did the movie cast away, they had their stuff down though. And I stayed in a little. I call it a Herm building with a little building came back to. And when I walked in there, had I still all geared up, keeping my hand taking a bath. 43, 44 days now. Come in and turn the light switch. And that's just one of the most amazing things you've ever seen, you know, that you can do it. Yeah, but turn the light off. Didn't want the light on. And then you think, well, I'm going to call home. And it's just what Ed has said, the anxiety of calling home was just. I just laid on the bed and I'm like. Hour goes by, two hours. And you think, well, I need to. And you do. And the conversation was real short. You just don't want conversation. And then I'm laying there and I think, well, I probably need to take a bath. I don't think we're thinking of a psycho.

[Ashley Smith]

How long was your beard?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

You know, that growth rate is, you know, down here. So I go and turn on the. Turn on the hot water. And that was most to that point in life. That's the most amazing thing I'd ever seen that the water, you could turn it on, it'd be hot. Your mind had gravitated that far away from civilization that quick.

[Ashley Smith]

How many days was that at that point?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

43.

[Ashley Smith]

43 days.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

43. Okay. So when I get back home, driving back from the airport, it all starts coming to me. Yeah, Cars look like they're going so fast, you can't believe. And I come home and I get, get. And I was so tired, I wanted to go to sleep. You lay down in the bed, but sleeping Inside even like this room we're in right now there's not much air move. And I couldn't go to sleep because it felt like I was just having to cut the air out and chew it. It was so much. Yeah. And the next day didn't mind. You can ask my children that. You know you didn't want any noise. You don't. You don't realize really basically say how weird you've gotten but you've really got him. You've turned it kind of in the wild. The next night was the same thing. And I just finally said the heck with this. Got my sleeping bag, went out lay down on the ground in the yard and went to sleep right there.

[Ashley Smith]

Really.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

So later on I built me. I live on a lake. Built a sleeping porch over the lake and I still spend a lot of time. My preference is still to sleep outside.

[Ashley Smith]

Really. Did your family think you were dead?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No. They. They kind of guess kind of expected from me.

[Ashley Smith]

Did they?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No. They were. They were having communication with the Ed's wife, Ben's mom. They just wouldn't have. Nothing was getting relayed into us. Okay so we didn't. We didn't get any updates on the relays. It.

[Ashley Smith]

So whatever you were sending out was getting to them.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

They.

[Ashley Smith]

Nothing was getting back into you guys.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No. With it. You know they didn't. I. I guess you know if something would happen they would have called and said they're really thinking about that. I don't guess there'd been any way from the no until. Yeah. Something negative would have happened.

[Ashley Smith]

So did you eat salmon the entire. Did you eat anything besides salmon and berries?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

We had. We had a few freeze dried meals that played out. Mountain house meals. Berries. Only one day just because it's not further up that little rolling hill in the mountain what it looks like. Yeah. You probably burn 5,000 calories on that climb going up and I was on what? No. Huh. No. Yeah. That. That I shoot a 375 H&H Remington and it still has oil stains from that being on my hand. I kept that sleeping bag just because it meant something to me. No. It was all in your hair, all over your clothes and my. I got you know a sealed bag that I travel with but when I brought it back home, you drop it on the floor. It took a long time to get. Yeah. It was strong. And to this day you can ask any more friends anybody served with to say I couldn't eat salmon. But that's not true. We went on. I went on a trip Business trip about two years after that. And they had some kind of sushi grade salmon. I thought, well, I know I probably should eat that. I went to the bathroom and regurgitated that right on up. I mean, it was just. There was. There was nothing tempting about that.

[Ashley Smith]

I'm surprised you even tried, Sam. So. So you said you did or did not harvest a bear.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

I did. I did.

[Ashley Smith]

What day. Do you remember what day that was on?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

I don't have a clue.

[Ashley Smith]

Did y' all eat them right there?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No. Bear, they have a lot of parasites. I ate, I ate that. I always eat the heart.

[Ashley Smith]

Okay, you eat the heart. Seal got some cranberries. There was no way. Like did you use even the fat on the bear?

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Parasites.

[Ashley Smith]

Too many parasites.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Okay. And there, there was no way there to.

[Ashley Smith]

To get it out of there.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

To get it out soon enough and be able to cook it to the. The temperature necessary to kill any parasite.

[Ashley Smith]

Oh, I bet that was just disheartening.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah, it was. But you know, I didn't want. After that, I didn't want to take a chance on it.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah, but you didn't want to get. You would lose more calories with the parasite.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

No, that. You're asking about the beginning of the conversation about hunting dog or being naturally someone wanting to hunt. My grandson, my youngest Grandson, Walt turned 2 years old on November 20th. November 22nd. Anyway, he. He has it in him. I mean he, he. He's one. He's seen the animals at the house and he. And he had. I gave him the bare rope. So he. He comes home from his little preschool thing and every day he runs and jumps on and he likes to sit on his nose, but it's his. It's his to tear up if he wants to.

[Ashley Smith]

That's so cool. That's so cool. Okay, well, let's talk about the legislature for a second.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Ashley Smith]

You passed something that I think deal good in the state and that's the CWD task force quit. Talk to me about that, why you thought that was important and what you want to accomplish through that.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Well, chronic wasting disease. Those I think most probably listening know what that is. Is started in the Rockies and gravitated across work wildlife and fisheries. They. They did a complete feeding ban. But other states and it's. It's going to spread through the state. We ended up in Tensile Parish. We had another point which occurs to

[Ashley Smith]

where our farm is actually.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah, right. Yeah. It's right across from you when you go to right in that area. Point of incident. It's going to be almost straight across the river from you. Another point last year in Catahoula Parish in my district. And we potentially have another positive now inside the state. It's. It's disrupted our. When you do a complete feeding ban, it disrupts. We talked about our culture, our way of life, getting young kids out. And today's world is harder to go. You don't. You don't have the hardwood forest like used to go find a stripe of oak. You're hunting on company land usually. And it has, you know, takes feeding to get it done. Right now we work Wildlife and fisheries on a kind of a hybrid. We had Arkansas came in and they do a deal where they feed deer in season and the baiting, the educated men of baiting is for the purpose of harvest. Feeding is for entertainment or, you know, just feeding ducks. We're throwing out for bird food, whatever it is. But we've met, I think four or five times now. That was a resolution to get a not chair of the chronic wasting task force. And it goes so far beyond now. It just has such an economic impact on the sporting goods stores, which I come from a town of 300 people. That sales tax has lost the feed stores. The farmer had passed legislation where you can sell the shelled corn long as you're a producer. That was one of the first in the nation on that helped out young farmers doing that. So we're trying to work here with Wildlife and Fisheries to get it back where we can do some kind of ban, where it's ultimately that we have people back out in the field. We don't want to lose a whole generation. No. Regardless of what happens, I'm going to keep hunting. But if you have a young child now I'm being introduced to it and dad or mom just doesn't have time to go or they go out and they don't see anything. We haven't came to complete resolution yet, but I think we're going to come to something that's going to be satisfactory, though. As satisfactory as we can get to everybody. Yeah. Where we can't. Where we can bait some again inside those. Are you going to stop it? No. One of the reasons for spread we mentioned at the end of this podcast that I'd hunted 11 days before I saw a deer. The population, the deer are coming to contact a lot more with each other than what they used to. So some areas are. These areas that we're having these instances in are heavily concentrated deer populations. And everyone has worked good with us. You know, nobody's happy about it. I'm not happy about it. But. But it's here to stay.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

It's not going away.

[Ashley Smith]

You can't, you can't please everybody on any side of the equation.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

It's been very contentious.

[Ashley Smith]

It's very contentious. I think it's going to stay contentious and you know, unfortunately it's just a bad situation that we are going to have to deal with and learn as much as we can and continue to study and continue to try to find the best possible scientific solution and practical solution that we can. So that's why I appreciate that you guys are proactively working on it because the more we can collaborate together and work together and study it and task force like this I think are doing good. Especially in a state like yours where you have the split jurisdiction between the wild deer and the captain deer and getting all those people at the same table and legislators and commissioners and the agency and AG all together. I just commend you for doing that. Thank you. And I just wish you all the success we have.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

All those that you mentioned we have represented at the table.

[Ashley Smith]

Right, right.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

And that's done a lot for everybody at the table to sit down on all points of contention. If you sat down and talked to opposition or who you think the guilty party might be versus the other one. When you sit down and hear the whole story, normally you don't come out feeling the same way.

[Ashley Smith]

It's huge because I, you know I've worked with a number of those parties that we just mentioned for years down here and there used to be a lot more complaining back and forth and now those people are communicating.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Yeah. And that's one thing that came out of this task force. Communication has been good.

[Ashley Smith]

Right, Right. Which is half, half the battle, you know, just getting people to talk to each other.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

But during the 911 I wouldn't communicate. It took me a long time to get back to developing. Not to say I got good communication skills now but. But that to be a very life changing experience in the outdoors. That definitely was. Shows you exactly what you can do. Yeah. And when you don't think you can that where you can put your mind at. And. And I could, I think I could revert back to that state pretty quick or within a day.

[Ashley Smith]

Yeah. That's crazy to me that you can change that drastically in that amount of time.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

You will. And it did run that day 21 and we're out on time. But people a lot of time they'll ask you what's your favorite meal? You know you campaigning or whatever it might be. So I ended up at some point in the time hunting with Ben. And at the time me and Ben didn't know each other like we do now. But just in your pack it belongs to you. So my favorite. We were sitting down on the river and had her back. Had her pack slipped off and it's combated bank but behind us was leaning up against it. I mentioned it. Nobody's talking and just all hand signals maybe once a day. And here it's back a zerp kind of go like that. I look and I kind of see something yell. He's got a butterfinger. Might have been thinking some adjectives at the time. And when he pulled that wrapper on that, I mean it was like it was fresh baked. Your senses get so enhytend. Your eyes noise, anything, smell it gets this hyper enhyten. I'm not going to say nothing. I think well you know I've done enough backpacking prior to that. And he got it and he started taking bite of it and he stopped, he broke in half, gave it to me. And I think that's where we became best of friends there. But that. That's my all time favorite meal is that half a butterfinger.

[Ashley Smith]

Oh my gosh. I bet. So if there's one thing that you could see come down the pipeline, legislatively regulated, you know, regulatory. Anything you could see happen in Mississippi for the outdoors or for sportsmen, what

[Representative Neil Reiser]

would you do as far as pro or just anything? Yeah, I think right now what we both states are dealing is as we mentioned is the chronic wasting disease. And the value of it is what exactly what you said is bringing people together and we're seeing larger groups of landowners that we don't see as much public land hunting. When I was young you can hunt over you talking about because there wasn't a lot of deer. So the demand there was with that I think we were coming in the future is that we. We make sure that we realize that. That there's larger tracks of private land and we don't cut off young hunters that we always leave legal place. We have a lot of public land not to over hunt it. And maybe in some areas that go to draws like other like states out west have done, you go to a draw system on some stuff is someone wants to trophy hunt, you know, be like that. Someone wants to do substance hunting. Well we have those locations too. I think we got to move towards some kind of model on that that

[Ashley Smith]

is to maybe allow more public access but make sure it's done in the

[Representative Neil Reiser]

right way so that, that we're, that we're not cutting off those young. I've got a grandson is two granddaughter three and a five year old grandson that we want mobile in New Orleans between the two different families is that we allow, we allow them the outdoor opportunities that we have to do that with that hunting, fishing, wing shooting. That's the legislation that we've got to watch for is not restricting that where somebody says well you know, they only need to use a slug. They'd only need to use where you start slowly taking those rights away. And that could easily happen. Oh yeah, I can remember when I've lived in the same home since I was 4 years old. Absent other than about 5 year period off working and stuff. You shoot a 22 out any day of the week, go around shoot snakes with a 410. Those days are gone. So you can gravitate in the wrong direction inch by inch without. When someone has that platform and gets out there and starts talking about that, that's what concerns me.

[Ashley Smith]

Got to protect our hunting and fishing

[Representative Neil Reiser]

rights and second amendment and second amendment rights. Yeah, 100 and second amendment second amendments being is an extension of your arm. So that's because that's all weapons, you know. So you know an arm is, you know, drive to keeping bare arms is anything extension of your arm. Now we most commonly speak as a firearm and when you're talking about a knife, you're talking about a pencil or above whatever it might be. And we gotta be all inclusive and I know exactly what we're talking about.

[Ashley Smith]

Right. Well we need more legislators like you.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Well, I love my job.

[Ashley Smith]

I'm glad you do. I hope you keep it up for a little shy and I appreciate you coming on today. We don't have that many legislators on the podcast and we need to start having more on and after speaking with you it's, it's inspired me to start inviting more to come on. Of course they don't all have as many exciting.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

We could tell some more stories when you come back, aren't we? Yeah.

[Ashley Smith]

Well, thank you for being on today as a representative and I wish you all the best this legislative season and whatever we can do to help you, please let us know.

[Representative Neil Reiser]

Same here. Thanks again.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Well, that's it for today. I appreciate you listening as always, leave a review, share it with your friends and most importantly, do what's right to convey the truth around hunting.