Ep. 868: Clay and Bear’s Alaskan Coast Black Bear Hunt | 12 in '26

Summary

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The MeatEater Podcast – Ep. 868: Clay and Bear’s Alaskan Coast Black Bear Hunt | 12 in '26

Date: April 28, 2026
Host: Clay Newcomb (with guest/co-host Josh Landbridge)
Special Guests: Bear Newcomb (through stories), David Bennett (Alaskan guide, discussed)
Companion Episode for the film: "Southeast Alaska Boat Based Bears" (available on the MeatEater YouTube channel)

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Episode Overview

This episode serves as an in-depth, behind-the-scenes companion to the MeatEater film "Southeast Alaska Boat Based Bears," chronicling Clay Newcomb’s Alaskan black bear hunt with his 19-year-old son, Bear John, guided by veteran Alaskan hunter David Bennett. The show explores not only the technical and physical aspects of hunting in Southeast Alaska's challenging environment but also the meaningful, intergenerational experiences and reflections that come from sharing wilderness adventures. Topics span gear used, the technicalities of Alaskan black bear hunting, primitive vs. modern weapons, wild food, lessons learned, and the thrill—and heartbreak—of the hunt.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Southeast Alaska?

• Extraordinary Setting:
  • “There’s just some landscapes in the world that just seem to just grab you… this place is like exotic and wild and dangerous and beautiful and just has a whole different vibe.” – Clay [02:34]
  • Noted as one of the world's premier places to hunt black bear for both numbers and size (due to skull measurements).
  • Bears gain size from long, productive growing seasons and abundant food, but most notably, they don’t hibernate as long as interior Alaska bears, enabling longer feeding periods.
• Hunting Logistics:
  • Navigating formidable tides is a constant concern; if you miss the cycle, you may be stranded for hours.
    • “If you get out of the boat and you’re gone for an hour, you could come back and your boat could be on dry land… and it might be the middle of the night before the tide comes back in.” – Clay [10:03]

2. On the Water: Wild Food & Boat Life

• Crabbing & Shrimping:
  • The Sandpiper, captained by David, is a commercial crabbing and shrimping vessel. Harvesting and eating spot shrimp and Dungeness crab is an indulgent (but labor-intensive) highlight of the trip ([12:17]–[16:10]).
  • Strict regulations: Non-residents must report shrimp catch to Alaska Game & Fish.
• Cooking on the Boat:
  • Meals simple and protein-heavy, though Clay missed Southern staples: “What I realized was how critical hush puppies, french fries and coleslaw are…” – Clay [16:43]
  • Propane cookers, minimal seasoning compared to gulf coast traditions.
  • Memorable quote:
    • “Have you ever been to Captain D’s?... It’s almost as good as Captain D’s.” – Clay, joking about seafood quality [14:20]

3. Bowhunting with Primitive Weapons

• The Self Bow:
  • Clay and Bear planned to hunt with self bows they made themselves—a primitive, one-piece osage orange bow (handmade with copperhead skins and turkey feathers).
  • A legal technicality: Bear couldn’t bowhunt in Alaska because he lacked a certified bowhunter education card required by state law. He used a rifle (borrowed from Giannis Patelis) instead ([19:54]–[21:04]).
• Why Go Primitive?
  • “Everywhere that I’ve ever bear hunted, to me the landscape… kind of dictate what kind of weapon I’m going to use.” – Clay [24:39]
  • Southeast Alaska offers enough opportunity and numbers to warrant bringing primitive weaponry, but it's a challenge: 19 separate stalks before a shot presented itself.
  • Clay imposed a strict 10-yard limit for shots due to expected weather and variable stalk circumstances.
• Self-awareness:
  • “There are times when I love to limit myself to the extreme and then there are other times when I’m like thrilled to be out there with a rifle.” – Clay [33:49]
• Traditional Know-how:
  • Bow details: Bear’s bow was 50 lbs—“just about the right weight” for black bear.

4. Stalks, Strategies, and Struggles

• Stalking in Alaska:
  • The terrain and environment made closing from 50 yards to within 10 yards uniquely hard. The abundance of rain, noise, wind variance, and bear sensitivity to sound made boots and gear critical ([63:43]–[64:13]).
• Key Tactic:
  • “Volume is what [guide David Bennett] finds that kills bears. He would rather you get out of the boat and just do the boldest move possible….” – Clay [66:20]
• The Emotional Rollercoaster:
  • 21 stalks over 6 hunting days. Multiple near-misses. One shot taken at close range (10 yards) ended with a nonlethal hit to a bear’s shoulder, a major letdown for Clay.
  • “It’s a bummer to hit a bear and not recover it, but my hunt’s over. Such is the drama of the self bow.” – Clay [72:19]

5. Traditional Skills & Reflection

• Flint Napped Knives:
  • Bear skinned his bear with stone tools for a primitive/ancestral experience: “If all you had was a flint knife and a way to sharpen it, you could skin any animal in North America.” – Clay [47:00]
• Artifacts at Home:
  • Clay finds ancient stone points in his mule pasture in Arkansas—“Evidence of ancient bow hunting right here…” [49:21]

6. Wild Encounters & Natural Wonders

• Whale Carcass:
  • They encountered a beached humpback skeleton, with bear, wolves, and eagles scavenging it for over a year. Memory of its stench and the scale of its bones lingered. [51:07]
  • Memorable quote: “Bear didn’t believe in whales. He had to see one first before he believed it.” – Clay [50:39]
• Humpback Sightings:
  • Humpbacks appeared daily, sometimes popping up fifty yards from the boat.

7. Meat Recovery & Legalities

• Getting Meat Home:
  • Meat was kept in a commercial freezer, packed in ice chests, and shipped via local seafood transporters to Arkansas ([44:48]–[45:16]).
  • “You can also check a cooler, you know, duct tape the cooler… it’s not cheap.” – Clay [45:24]
• Bear Aging:
  • “That bear was 15 years old. Somebody made a good comment. They were like Bear and that bear were almost the same age.” – Clay [41:45]
  • The process of aging via cementum annuli (growth rings in teeth).

8. Hunting Ethics & Hard Lessons

• The Missed Recovery:
  • The bear Clay hit with a self bow was eventually found by another hunter who recovered the embedded broadhead weeks later—a moment of bittersweet closure ([78:19]–[78:41]).
  • “You don’t want an animal running around with the broadhead.” – Clay [79:03]
  • Legally/in good conscience: drawing blood tags out the license.
• On Carrying Firearms:
  • Not the norm for black bear bowhunters to carry backup firearms; more common and advisable in grizzly country ([79:50]–[80:31]).
• On Failure and Skill:
  • Clay’s humility in admitting the hunt was harder than expected, lessons learned, the value of bold stalks, and the difficulties of interpreting bear anatomy versus deer at the moment of truth.

9. Family Reflections

• Hunting with Bear:
  • Deeply proud to share this experience with his son and observe Bear’s passion develop organically: “Of the kids, [Bear] is the one who’s kind of taking it the furthest so far, you know.” – Clay [50:19]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Emotional Impact of Wild Alaska:
  • “It’s hard to describe this place is like exotic and wild and dangerous and beautiful and just has a whole different vibe… I’m really excited to see what Bear brings home.” – Clay [02:34]
• On the Danger of the Sea:
  • “If we went down right now, would we survive? And everybody’s like, no, you’re dead.” – Clay [11:13]
• On Traditional Bowmaking:
  • “Osage orange is the king of North American wood for making bows. This is the most primitive archery tool.” – Clay [18:14]
• On Bear’s Big Moment:
  • “I don’t think I’ve ever shot a bear in such a pretty place… That was one of them.” – Clay [39:16]
  • “Bear and that bear were almost the same age.” – Clay [42:35]
• On Primitive Skills:
  • “If all you had was a flint knife and a way to sharpen it, you could skin any animal in North America. People have been doing that for longer than we had steel… It’s pretty kind of a neat idea.” – Clay [47:00]
• On Limiting Himself as a Hunter:
  • “I knew in Southeast Alaska I would have a lot of opportunity and I just felt like it would be the place to get really close to bears. Yeah, and I wanted to.” – Clay [32:11]
• On the Thrill and Uncertainty in Stalking:
  • “21 different stalks… after over the course of how many days?… Eight days. Well Bear bear hunted kind of two days, so really six days. Okay, seven days.” – [63:15]–[63:22]
• On Missing the Shot:
  • “It’s a bummer to hit a bear and not recover it, but my hunt’s over. Such is the drama of the self bow.” – Clay [72:19]
• On Ancient Connections:
  • “Evidence of ancient bow hunting right here, where we’re recording this podcast.” – Clay [49:21]
• On Daily Motivation:
  • “Success in hunting is all about just going.” — Clay [26:58]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Setting the Scene – Alaska’s Draw: [02:34]–[06:52]
• Tide and Travel Challenges: [08:59]–[11:51]
• Seafood Harvest & Cooking: [12:17]–[17:00]
• Self Bow Story & Technicalities: [18:14]–[21:16]
• Why Go Primitive?: [24:10]–[26:09], [32:11]–[34:00]
• Hunting Tactics and Stalking: [35:00]–[36:09], [62:10], [63:15]
• Primitive Tools on the Bear: [45:45]–[48:44]
• Failed & Successful Stalks: [54:41], [70:07]–[72:19]
• On Bear Aging and Skull Sizing: [41:39]–[44:23]
• Transporting Meat Home: [44:48]–[45:24]
• Reflections on Family and Passing It Down: [50:00]
• Ethics, Regulations, and Wounding: [81:42]–[82:17]

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Lessons, Takeaways & Audience Questions

• Hunting Drama Is Real: Even experienced hunters encounter setbacks—wind, noise, rain, and target anatomy all present unique challenges. Humility is key.
• Alaska Tactics Differ: Volume and boldness trump meticulous, slow crawling in this setting.
  • “Do the boldest move possible. And if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.” – Clay (quoting David Bennett) [66:32]
• Primitive Techniques Remind Us Where We Came From: Flint knives, self bows, and ancient arrowheads connect today’s hunter to thousands of years of human experience.
• Family is the Heartbeat: The joy of watching Bear succeed organically—without pressure, living out his own passion.
• Hunting Is Not Just the Kill: The process, wild food, the struggle, the setting, and personal growth all matter as much as, or more than, the success of the harvest.

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Recommended Viewing

Watch the companion film "Southeast Alaska Boat Based Bears" on the MeatEater YouTube channel for visuals of the hunt, the landscape, and memorable stalks and close calls.

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Final Reflection: This episode is a candid exploration of the raw reality behind wilderness hunting: the glory and disappointment, ancient skills and modern logistics, and the bonds forged through wild adventures that span generations. Clay’s humility, humor, and thoughtful storytelling blend for a rich and honest account—equal parts tradition, challenge, and awe for wild Alaska.

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Transcript

[Clay Newcomb]

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[Clay Newcomb]

this is Bear Newcomb's first time to Alaska. He's 19 years old. I really think it's going to impact probably the rest of his life. There's just some landscapes in the world that just seem to just grab you. It's hard to describe this place is like exotic and wild and dangerous and beautiful and just has a whole different vibe. That's what's so incredible about Planet Earth is you go different places and you bring something home with you that's unique. I'm really excited to see what bear brings home. Hey everybody, this is Clay Newcomb and the clip that you just heard is from our film Southeast Alaska Boat Based Bears that's on the Meat Eater YouTube channel. And it was. This film's about when me and my son Bear John went to southeast Alaska last spring 2025 and hunted with our friend and outfitter David Bennett's on his big old crabbing boat and shrimp and boat, the Sandpiper. It was an incredible hunt, an incredible time. And it's episode three of Meat Eaters 12 and 26. And this what you're listening to, what you're watching. So there's, there's a video of this on the Meat Eater podcast YouTube channel, but you could also listen to this on audio if you're listening to this. This is the companion podcast where we're going to give behind the scenes. And, and like I said before, there's only so much that a video can show. I mean, imagery is beautiful and powerful and you can see, but there's just so much that goes on behind the scenes. And that's what we're going to talk about today. I have with me my main sidekick, Josh Landbridge, spillmaker. And we are about to talk about this whole hunt with bear, which was really special. I mean, kind of the key features of it were first of all, Southeast Alaska, which is just a phenomenal place. I mean anybody that loves wilderness, hunting, epic landscapes, I mean, southeast Alaska, yeah. Rivals any place I've ever been on planet Earth, number one. Number two, what was cool about this film was I got to go with my, with my son bears, now 20 at the time, he was 19 years old and it was his first trip to Alaska. There, there's, I've heard somebody say it. People have said it since they saw the film. But there's a pretty famous quote about somebody saying, don't go to Alaska when you're young.

[Josh Landbridge]

Oh, really?

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah, they, they're like, don't go to Alaska when you're young. Because everywhere else you go after that will be, you know, a lesser place. I mean, that's kind of the, right, the, the idea and obviously the intent of that.

[Josh Landbridge]

So you've ruined your son, basically.

[Clay Newcomb]

Well, really what the guy is saying is that Alaska is an incredible place and you should go. But I took Bear John there for the first time and it was, it was, it was really awesome.

[Josh Landbridge]

Well, great. Well, this is like Clay said, this is a companion podcast. If you haven't watched the film, go to YouTube, search the meat Eater channel and watch the film called Southeast Alaska, Both boat based bears. And you'll, you'll get to see the film and then get to follow along with what we're talking about today. Also, if you're listening to this podcast on one of our audio platforms, know that there's a video of it on YouTube as well. So come enjoy the video of this companion podcast. But we've got some great clips. You know, you kind of mentioned Alaska and that it's, it's a special place. Is there anything specifically that, that makes it a special place specifically for hunting?

[Clay Newcomb]

Well, just the, I said early in the film that it's, it's arguably the best place in the world to hunt black bears for, for numbers of bears that you're going to see and for even size of bears. I mean for, for many, many years the biggest bears, black bears in, in North America in, in the world. Black bears are endemic to North America. They only live here, was on Prince of Wales island which we were hunting within 100 miles of Prince of Wales Island.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay. Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

So the bears, they're big, have big skulls. Bears are measured by their skull. Right. So that's not necessarily weight. The biggest bears weight wise in the world are typically in the southeast North Carolina. The growing seasons are longer. But for skull size, southeast Alaska has big bears. So bears just get old there.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

I mean southeast Alaska is a, is a rainforest. They get over 100 inches of rain per year and that's one of the biggest challenges of hunting there. But it also makes for this like incredibly productive and rich environment that just causes animals to bears to grow big. And it's partly because, well, southeast Alaska is, is not, I mean it's sea level.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

It is far north.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

But like it doesn't have really extreme winters. So the bears actually stay out of their density. You know, typical to, to what bears in the lower 48 would like. Okay. Now a bear in the interior of Alaska would be sleeping for as many as, as much as six months of the year.

[Josh Landbridge]

Wow.

[Clay Newcomb]

In my bear book that's coming out spring of 27, we cite the longest hibernating bear ever recorded by science, which it was in Alaska interior. Okay. Not going to give that number. You're going to have to check the book out. But it was an Incredibly, it was. It was more than half of the year. Bear was hibernating.

[Josh Landbridge]

Wow. But these bears.

[Clay Newcomb]

That means smaller bears does that.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right, Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

They're just out less. They're eating less.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

These. These coastal bears are out for longer and they grow bigger.

[Josh Landbridge]

And they're eating primarily.

[Clay Newcomb]

I mean, they're eating a lot of vegetation. But in the early spring, the woods, the berries haven't produced yet. I mean, think about the cycle of the spring. It's wintertime, there's no berries.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

Vegetation has to grow, and then berries grow. So, like, mid summer is when berries. Through the end of the summer is when berries and stuff come out.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

So early spring, I said it. Southeast Alaska has really big tide swings, which means. And I don't understand the science of it, but there are places where tide swings are much less. So, like, the water would go down, like, say, a foot or two. It would expose just, like, small amounts of the shore every day, man. In parts, we were seeing places where the tide would push out, like, hundreds of yards daily.

[Josh Landbridge]

Really?

[Clay Newcomb]

Yes. Like in daily. Daily.

[Josh Landbridge]

Wow.

[Clay Newcomb]

Like multiple times per day. It would. The. The. The edge of the water would be way up there, and then four hours later, the edge of the water would be hundreds of yards.

[Josh Landbridge]

Well, you mentioned the difficult. At one point, you mentioned the difficulty of getting to the shore without, you know, without having to get water above your boots.

[Clay Newcomb]

That's one of the biggest challenges that, like, somebody like me who wouldn't know just the ends. I mean, I've been there several times, but still, like, the ins and outs of how to navigate that country. Anytime you go to the shore, you got to be thinking about the tide.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

Because if you get out of the boat and you're gone for an hour, you could come back and your boat could be on dry land, and you'd be sitting there for six, eight hours, whatever the cycle is. And it might be the middle of the night before the tide comes back in, and then you can't drive in the night. So there's all kind of challenges. And that's probably the biggest thing that stands out to me when I go there. And honestly, why going with somebody that's a veteran like David Bennett or.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

I mean, to. I don't even know that I would have enjoyed it if I had gone by myself because of how treacherous it is.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

I mean, you're on big water. We were crossing, like, this big channel that took, you know, I don't. I don't want to say multiple hours, but huge channels like out on, like, big open water and like, these small scales, just which to me is scary, because if you go down, you. You die, right? Like, I don't want to jump ahead, but like you asked, I, I in that intro, said Alaska is, like, scary and exotic. And it is. To me, that's like, the top of the list. Like, if I were just listing the things that stood out to me on any hunt in southeast Alaska, it's. It's a little bit of fear. And that may just be me, but I mean, just like being on that big water and so many times I've been with Steve Rinella, I've been with David, been with others, and I always ask the same question. Will be like a quarter mile from the shore. Like, you just feel like you could just, like, jump in and just, like, swim, right? And I say, if we went down right now, would we survive? And everybody's like, no, you're dead.

[Josh Landbridge]

There's a high potential for risk.

[Clay Newcomb]

There it is. And those guys just don't think a thing about it. It's just every. They just go, wow.

[Josh Landbridge]

Wow. Well, we've got. We've got some great clips coming up. We've also got some questions and comments from our audience who've watched the film and left comments on social media and on YouTube. So without further ado, let's do it. Let's jump into our next clip.

[Clay Newcomb]

So we're open to this and shrimping. A little crabbing this week, eat some good food. We're gonna get back into a little. A little cove that's secluded from the wind, and we're gonna anchor, we're gonna set out our pots, and then this afternoon, we're hoping to do some bear hunting. This bear hunting. With weather like this, it's really only gonna be good. Probably the last couple of hours of daylight, but the days are long. It's middle of May, but maybe we'll catch some shrimp. Oh, yeah, we got some shrimp. Look at there. Sweet. Wow, those are a lot bigger than I thought. You know, there's some meat on that one. Good Dungeness crab. Look at that, guys. Go ahead.

[Josh Landbridge]

You cut up some more bait.

[Clay Newcomb]

Bear rebate. These. Ain't got lots. Good. Let have friends over to an inlander like me. The availability of this exotic protein is wild and is one of the coolest parts of being with David on the Sandpiper Seafood. Dungeness crab and spot shrimp are a rare delicacy, but we'll need full bellies for the long afternoon hunt. Man, that's good.

[Josh Landbridge]

We're crawling around the bottom of the

[Clay Newcomb]

ocean about two hours ago.

[Josh Landbridge]

So for guys here in Arkansas going to Alaska, tell us what it was like to be able to add that as part of your trip.

[Clay Newcomb]

Have you ever been to Captain D'?

[Josh Landbridge]

Once or twice, yeah. Is that what it's like?

[Clay Newcomb]

Oh, it's almost as good as Captain D's.

[Josh Landbridge]

That's the only thing we have to relate to. Captain.

[Clay Newcomb]

Captain D's. You get there, like, seafood combo platter, and you get an actual, like, shell of a crab. Yes, like a real crab.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

Captain D's.

[Josh Landbridge]

So this video is sponsored by Onx and Moultrie trail cameras, but not by Captain D's.

[Clay Newcomb]

Not by Captain D's. You know, that was always one of the things. I've known David for a long time and follow him on social media, and we've been friends for over a decade. And that was one of the most intriguing things he always showed pictures of, was his shrimp and crab. And he. He. David's a commercial crabber, which is Dungeness crab, and that's what that boat primarily is used for. And yeah, it's. It's a lot of work. You know, it seems to me when I watch this, any of these videos, you know, just like, shows it's just like pitching a pot in the water and coming back shrimping it. Like, that was hours long work.

[Josh Landbridge]

So you guys pitched those off like in the morning and then went back in the evening and got them.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah.

[Josh Landbridge]

Was that. Was that.

[Clay Newcomb]

We let them sit for a night.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay. Overnight.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah. So we put them out the first day on the way into the bay. And the logistics of the thing, I said it, but you can't just park that boat out in, like, the main channel. Right. Sleep. I mean, the water just gets too crazy.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

And so you got to find this. Like, we found this. David knew it. This little secluded cove that. That was really tight and just like, kept you, you know, away from the wind and stuff. And so we would. On the way there, we dropped our. Our shrimp pot.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

And there are real specific rules about non residents shrimping. And, you know, original. In the original cut, we had this whole section about the legality of us catching shrimp and how many we could keep and all this.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

We ended up cutting it, but, you know, there's a lot of regulation. You have to report to the Alaska Game and Fish, how many, how much shrimp that you catch.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

It's pretty wild. Like, they're keeping track of all that, you know, so he's got a log of all that? Yeah, yeah. And so we, we submitted all that.

[Josh Landbridge]

Did you guys eat shrimp and stuff every day?

[Clay Newcomb]

No, not every day. We had two big cookouts.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

Where we ate Dungeness crab and shrimp. I'll be honest with you. What I realized was how critical hush puppies, french fries and coleslaw are because we had all this incredible first rate seafood. And I was kind of like, hey, man, where's the.

[Josh Landbridge]

Where's the carbs?

[Clay Newcomb]

Where's the coleslaw and the potatoes, you know? Yeah, I can't complain. It was, it was really great.

[Josh Landbridge]

Cut. Camashika Xbox.

[Clay Newcomb]

This is a YouTube commenter.

[Josh Landbridge]

This is a YouTube commenter. Said I wanted to see more of the cooking on the boat. The meals looked amazing.

[Clay Newcomb]

He. He basically boiled all that. He had a propane cooker, a big pot.

[Josh Landbridge]

He season it all. And I mean, was it pretty just

[Clay Newcomb]

straightforward, man, if it. If we'd have been in Louisiana, he. We would have. He seasoned it some, but it wasn't heavily seasoned. Yeah, it's pretty.

[Josh Landbridge]

Shrimp were huge.

[Clay Newcomb]

They were. You'd be surprised how much they cook down, though. Like those, those spot shrimp would be as long as your hand. Like it. I mean, for real, that long and. But when they would cook down, they would be like that long.

[Josh Landbridge]

Oh, really?

[Clay Newcomb]

And you know, yeah. Big as your thumb? You know, bigger. Little longer, but yeah.

[Josh Landbridge]

Cool. Well, let's. Let's go to our next clip here. For those of you on the audio platform, we're watching a video of Clay shooting the self bow on the deck. Orange bow of the boat.

[Clay Newcomb]

This Osage came off our property, but I made this bow last summer. Killed a couple critters with it. But it's got copperhead skins on the back there, some turkey feathers. Pronghorn Osage orange is the king of North American wood for making bows. This is the most primitive archery tool. I mean, we could have used like a sinew string. This is a modern string. Our broadheads are going to be modern metal broadheads. But the actual bow itself is as primitive as they come. It's one piece. It's called a self bow. And a self bow means that it's. What does that mean? It relies on itself for strength. Yeah. It doesn't mean that you made it. A self bow means that it relies on its own self for strength, as opposed to a laminated bow. And this thing is full. This thing will kill any animal in North America, period. But you're limited. I mean, you need to be close, and I'm gonna try to be within 10 yards. And so it's gonna take probably a lot of stalks. We're gonna have to try to find the right bear that's doing the right thing, that's in the right place, and then bear with his rifle, looking for a big one, going after a bear. Yeah.

[Josh Landbridge]

So in the film you mentioned the hunter education requirements for bear. You're hunting with the bear. The bow that bear made. Now, was the original intent for bear to hunt with that bow?

[Clay Newcomb]

Yes, it was.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay, so tell us about that.

[Clay Newcomb]

So Bear Newcomb and I were headed to Alaska. Both of us with our self bows that he made. We were going to do. We were both going to hunt with them. And on the way there.

[Josh Landbridge]

So you had two self bows.

[Clay Newcomb]

We did.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

And on the way there, I woke up like in the night just like, my eyes just like sprung open. And I remembered from like 10 years ago when I bow hunted in Alaska. I had to get a bow hunters education course and card to be able to bow hunt in Alaska.

[Josh Landbridge]

From the.

[Clay Newcomb]

Not from Alaska, but just like a certified bow hunter education course.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

I was able to take it here in Arkansas, but you get this card.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

And it, it's good. You know, all the states honor it. And I realized that bear didn't have that. And so I go, bear, you. You can't legally bow hunt in Alaska, which is just such a technicality. But, but obviously we. We had to honor. And so we were able to get. We actually borrowed that 6.5 PRC from Giannis Putellas.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

Just like at the last minute.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

Send it up there. And so, yeah, bear was really bummed, but it ended up working out good. I wish I could have shot the rifle and bear could have bow hunted though. Right, you know?

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

Because it was just way harder than I thought it was going to be. It just, I mean, well, we can, we can get into it. I want to, I want to say something else about that clip. Misty Newcomb, my wife, keyed in on this comment. This guy tagged that section and he said, typical dad move. Son builds a bow with his own hands. Dad explains. There were a couple of people that were like, my goodness, Clay sure talks a lot. You know, And Misty loved those comments. She was spreading them. She was like showing everyone she was reposting this. She was like, oh, yeah.

[Josh Landbridge]

I mean, so in the, in that same vein, tell us a little more about that bow.

[Clay Newcomb]

Like, I gladly tell you about bear's self bow that he made.

[Josh Landbridge]

How many pounds was the bow?

[Clay Newcomb]

The bow was 50 pounds.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

Which is, you Know just about the right weight. And I had some people say, oh, that bow's way more. You, you could shoot an animal further than that. And you absolutely could.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

That was like a self, self induced regulation of my own. You know, I just knew for my proficiency and I have hunted with a traditional bow enough to know that I just wanted to be inside of 10 yards. Honestly, I wanted to shoot one at five. And so I just in my mind just committed to that. And it was harder than I thought. And I just felt like there was going to be more terrain features that would help us get close to bears. That's what I thought.

[Josh Landbridge]

That makes sense.

[Clay Newcomb]

And I found a lot more of these bears just on these like wide open beaches. There were sections of where we were hunting that was like real rocky, like big bluffy stuff like on the ocean. But it was, first of all, why would a bear be there? The beaches where there was all this grass, right. And the, the low tides where they were coming out to feed on muscles and different stuff like that's where they wanted to be. So we were trying to find one like up in the rocks, but we just never truly did. Well, you would see them but, but then the wind might be blowing so hard that like you couldn't get the boat up there without, without problems. And so we just kept making stock after stock.

[Josh Landbridge]

But so you know, you, you talked about the gamut of, of hunting, you know, modern versus primitive. You know, most modern would be a, you know, a rifle like, like that, a precision rifle like that with a scope all the way to, you know, like, you know, kind of down the list would be like a compound bow and then like a recurve.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah.

[Josh Landbridge]

And then you've gotten all the way to a self bow which is, you know, homemade, one piece of wood.

[Clay Newcomb]

Right.

[Josh Landbridge]

Tell us, you know, for, for those who wouldn't have a lot of knowledge of hunting with primitive weapons, like what's the motivation in doing that? Why, why limit yourself? Why use something that wouldn't be as effective as a rifle? What, why those self imposed restrictions?

[Clay Newcomb]

So everywhere that I've ever bear hunted, to me the landscape and the numbers of bears and the numbers of opportunity kind of dictate what kind of weapon I'm going to use. I've hunted out west in Montana, spot and stalk before. And you can go out there and hunt for a full week and just see a handful of bears and maybe get one opportunity. Okay. I would never dream of taking a self bow there.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

Because it's, I mean in my experience I think I've been to Montana seven times and hunt in the spring for like a week at a time. And typically on average, I get one to two opportunities at a bear in a whole week, you know, so, yeah, southeast Alaska. I knew we would see multiple bears per day. What the. I don't know how we didn't say this in the film, but one day we saw 19 bears. Wow. Couple of days we didn't see any bears because it was just raining and we didn't hunt.

[Josh Landbridge]

How many miles of coastline would you

[Clay Newcomb]

say that David Bennett is a wild animal in that skiff he would drive. I'm telling you, we, we were in that skiff sometimes for. I don't want to exaggerate, but I want to say 12 hours. I mean, like, really driving. Wow. I mean, we were going 50, 60, 70 miles. I mean, like, wow. It was more than I wanted. I hope David doesn't watch this. David, I love you so much.

[Josh Landbridge]

The stories you told me about David Bennett's is, that dude is hardcore.

[Clay Newcomb]

He is, he is a veteran Alaskan hunter and. God, and just relentless. Like that first day, you know, when, when I said it was just pouring rain and cold and we got in that boat and we went on like a six hour afternoon run, I, you know, I was like, did you expect, are you surprised we didn't see a bear? And he was like, no, I didn't think we'd see one. I mean, what I wanted.

[Josh Landbridge]

So I just wanted to spend six hours.

[Clay Newcomb]

Like, why didn't we stay in the boat and drink coffee? I mean, I'm usually on a hunt, the one wanting to go. And I would much rather have a hunting partner that was wanting to go rather than one you were like dragging around. I mean, that's kind of a, to me, a, a requisite for in a good hunting partner. Somebody that just wants to go.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

Because we all know, I mean, man, I can tell you success in hunting is, is all about just going. I mean, we all know people that, that, that maybe just don't have quite as much drive and they enjoy hunting for different reasons. I mean, just being there and the experience. But David is David, David's hardcore. And we spent some brutal days in that dang boat.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

And, and he was used to it. I mean, it's just like if you went mule riding with some of these guys that I ride with over here, we might ride. We might ride for 12 hours and maybe we don't think much of it.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

You take somebody that's not been on a Mule much. And they would be going, holy cow, how do you do it? Same way being in a boat on that water, cold, wet, windy. To me it was like that. It was just like, holy cow. And I mean, a film can only show so much. The other thing is that I kept talking about bad weather and like every scene it opened up with me going, man, the weather.

[Josh Landbridge]

It's true, it's true.

[Clay Newcomb]

I thought about that. I mean, obviously we only filmed during good weather, right? So in eight days you saw all the windows of good weather, if that makes sense. I mean, there were, there were, I think two full days that we pretty much lost. And then even on those good weather days, there would be periods that it would just be bad weather.

[Steve Rinella]

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[Josh Landbridge]

Decorators.com Meater Mr. Spacely3021 on YouTube said, I guess when you get to Clay's level, you try to make the hunt as difficult as possible for the thrill of it. Is that your, your motivation of no, I.

[Clay Newcomb]

That I. It. I didn't finish what I was saying about why I chose what I chose. I knew in southeast Alaska I would have a lot of opportunity and I just felt like it would be the place to get really close to bears. Yeah, and I wanted to. I mean I, I used to for seven. A little trad history for seven years, probably from 2015 to 2021 or two. Traditional archery was my primary weapon. Like I didn't always, sometimes I rifle hunted, but that was my go to thing that I brought. And I killed multiple bears killed, deer killed. I mean I had success with it. And then, man, just to be completely frank about it, it was so much work and so hard that I just kind of was like, hey, I did it. I think I'm going to go back to the compound. And it's kind of funny, inside of hunting circles you'd have people that would be like, oh, you know, he shouldn't have done that or a sellout or something, man. I don't view it. I used to. Would have.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

I've also learned that it's kind of problematic to have opinions about hunting because people can disagree with you. But I mean I grew up with a very exclusive mentality about bow hunting being like the superior way to hunt. And I just don't. It's just not true. Yeah, I, I don't believe that anymore. There are times when I love to limit myself to the extreme and then there are other times when I'm like thrilled to be out there with a rifle.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

And so that's just the way I think about it. And I wanted to use that bow because bear had made it. I wanted to. I mean really, that was honestly why I did it.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

Like if I had just gone with somebody else, I might have taken a compound or might have taken a rifle. I, I just wanted to kind of.

[Josh Landbridge]

So you, you limited your range to the self bow to 10 yards. Had you had a compound, what would be the difference between shooting the primitive bow and the modern bow?

[Clay Newcomb]

I would have killed a bear probably on the first or second day.

[Josh Landbridge]

And, and effectively you could reach out how many yards?

[Clay Newcomb]

I mean that's again a subjective question, but I would have shot a bear for sure out to 40 yards.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

And I mean, you know, and you had many opportunities. I wouldn't say, I don't want to exaggerate how many of the 21 stalks, but I was within 30 yards of that seven foot bear on like day five.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

I was within 40 yards of several of them, you know, that were so. And I said it. It's kind of not that hard to get to 50 yards.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

To close the distance inside of there, you, you've got to do a lot of things right.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

And I man, you, you see your weakness when you are exposed that much to stalking. I mean I've never stalked that many bears in a week. And so you learn so much. And, and boy, there's, there's a lot of different skill levels. David was critiquing my stocks, you know, I mean he's.

[Josh Landbridge]

Does he primitive hunt?

[Clay Newcomb]

He doesn't.

[Josh Landbridge]

He, he does bow hunt.

[Clay Newcomb]

He, he exclusively bow hunts.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

And most hunting in Alaska spot and stock. So I mean he's a master, I would say. I mean he, that's just the way he hunts.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

I'm probably proficient. You know, most of my hunting for archery stuff has been out of a tree stand or ground blind. I mean, we don't do as much stalking. So I don't claim to be the best spot and stock hunter in the world at all. Or. That's a dumb way to say it, but I mean, like, I don't. It's not like.

[Josh Landbridge]

Let's just say you're the best spot and stock ultra archery hunter in the room.

[Clay Newcomb]

Well, you're probably pretty good, Josh, but.

[Josh Landbridge]

Well, great. Well, let's watch another quick clip here.

[Clay Newcomb]

This is the not fun part of southeast Alaska. Just rains all the time. I was so cold right there. I thought I was gonna die really serious. We didn't see a bear. No. Really cold, wet. I'll tell you, the springtime like the rain. So I'm trying to do the best I can to waterproof these fletchings. That didn't work at all.

[Josh Landbridge]

Really. No.

[Clay Newcomb]

We're gonna be in some serious. David laughed at me when I put that on, and it didn't really work. If I was using, you know, just modern archery equipment, I would be using veins which are plastic fletchings. But these are, these are real, real feathers. And they'll get matted down if they get super wet. And it affects aeroflight. But this little magic powder will help a little bit. May have to do it a couple times over the trip. I was a little bit worried we were going to get stopped by the Coast Guard and they were going to see this little Ziploc bag of white powder.

[Josh Landbridge]

What was that? What was that?

[Clay Newcomb]

It's like a Teflon powder. It's made for archery equipment.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

Perhaps in like a drizzle, it would. It would keep your feathers right up. But just in like non stop downpour, it really didn't do that much. That's another reason why I wanted only 10 yards. Right. Because air flight at longer distance becomes exaggerated by things like if your feathers are matted down or whatever. So like, that was another reason I was just like, I'm probably going to be shooting a bear with wet feathers.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

I want to be close.

[Josh Landbridge]

So the, the weather definitely came into play. I mean, that. That limited your. The amount of time you could hunt.

[Clay Newcomb]

That's right. Yeah. For sure.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay. All right, let's watch this next clip here.

[Clay Newcomb]

We spot a big bear on the shoreline. Sometimes they're stationary and feeding and they're just staying there. But a lot of times they're traveling and this one is moving. We make a move to intercept them. They left me at the boat. They were like, you stay at the boat, young man. That was crazy big bear. I don't think I've ever shot a bear in such a pretty place. That was one of them. I saw the whole thing holding the boat down there. I think we got him. Golly. It looked big. Yeah, he looked huge. He looked huge. Did you get a good shot? I think so. You find him? Yeah. Come here. Oh man.

[Josh Landbridge]

Alaska bear, man.

[Clay Newcomb]

Man. These Alaskan bears have some big old pads on their feet. Yep.

[Josh Landbridge]

So big bear.

[Clay Newcomb]

There it was. What did the bear square the bear squared? Six foot six to six foot eight.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

I can't exactly remember but it was a, it was a top shelf bear. I mean a seven footer is like big.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

In all you hear people. Oh yeah. Let's get on this how big bears are. For years I had Bear hunting magazine and, and for a decade like bears were my entire world. And people writing about bears, talking about bears and I was amazed at all the people that always talked about seven foot square bears. And the square of a bear is you take a green hide, like a freshly skinned hide, stretch it out, measure from the base of the tail to the tip of the nose. That's one measurement. Right. And then measure claw to claw on the front arms of the bear. Take the average of that number. Okay. So add those two together, divide by two, that's the square.

[Josh Landbridge]

Are they typically close?

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah, yeah, usually they are. And I've always been amazed at how many people told me that they had killed seven foot bears or seen seven foot bears. The only I've seen like with my own eyes in a camp. And I, I used to hunt a lot in Canada and would be at camps where multiple bears per week were being killed. And I have personally only seen with my own eyes maybe two 7 foot bears that were killed. So they're incredibly rare. Wow. It's kind of like a typical 170 whitetail. It's like there's just not that many of them. And maybe people say yeah, as a 170 but really when you scored is 163.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

You know, so I find that to be with bears. And so when I say that a six and a half foot square to six foot eight square bear is top shelf, I think that's pretty accurate that bear. So we, we, when we checked it, we sent the tooth. They took a tooth in the Alaska game of fish does a really good job. They sent bear a letter and that bear was 15 years old.

[Josh Landbridge]

Tell me what the name of that process was.

[Clay Newcomb]

You said Cementa Manula. It's so you know they too, they, they give tooth age estimates on tooth wear for deer. Like you just kind of look at a jaw and guys give estimates and we all know that those vary in accuracy. But cementum annuli is basically like they cut a tooth in half and look at the annual growth rings like a tree.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

Diet. Look at it under a microscope. It's done at a professional lab. Me and you could take the teeth of any animal that we wanted. You could pull one of your teeth and we could send it in to have it. Cementum annuli aged okay at the Matson lab in Montana. But bears, Bear was 15 years old. Somebody made a good comment. They were like bear and that bear were almost the same age.

[Josh Landbridge]

That's true. It's true.

[Clay Newcomb]

Another thing that's interesting to me is that if you'd have told me bear was going to kill a 15 year old boar, I would have been tempted to be like, oh man, I better be a Boone and Crockett animal. I better be 7 foot square. Boone and Crockett and bears are just like people. Me and you are about the same age, but like I'm just smaller than you. Smaller frame. Bears are the same way. So that bear wasn't getting any bigger.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay. And would that bear have changed skull

[Clay Newcomb]

size over the years I've debated that with so many people talk to biologists all over the country and I don't think anyone really knows the full answer. It's. But like a bear, like is your skull getting bigger with age? I hope my brain is getting. Your ears are. And your nose.

[Josh Landbridge]

Then my mustache.

[Clay Newcomb]

That's actually fact. I wasn't, you know, poking fun at

[Josh Landbridge]

the size of their mustache.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah. Size of their mustache. It's possible that a bear could calcify parts of its skull and get a little bit bigger. But really I've never had a biologist tell me in like science isn't necessarily trying to understand the answer to that because there's not a big reason for it. So I don't know if they get bigger. They obviously get bigger up until the time they're fully mature. The biggest bear that I have ever killed on the Booner's Crockett scoring system was six years old. The bear weighed 360 pounds and had a 20 and 816 inch skull. Okay. That's a Boone and Crockett skull. And I have also killed more than one 500 pound bear that did not score Boone and Croco that was much older.

[Josh Landbridge]

Wow.

[Clay Newcomb]

I've killed an 11 year old, 9 year old and another older bear. And none of them scored Boone and Crockett. The six year old bear scored Bunukraka. So it's genetics.

[Josh Landbridge]

That was 140 pounds lighter.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yep.

[Josh Landbridge]

Wow. Okay, interesting. We had, we had an Instagram question talking about how did you get the meat back to Arkansas?

[Clay Newcomb]

So David has a commercial freezer on the sandpiper, recorded that bear up, put it on there, and then put it completely frozen in ice chests and just had it shipped back to Arkansas. So in, in the town we were in, they ship a lot of salmon.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

And so there were commercial companies that shipped frozen goods. So we took it to this place.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

And they packaged, they ship whole quarters. Yeah. Just shipped it right here.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yep. Pretty wild.

[Josh Landbridge]

Awesome.

[Clay Newcomb]

You can also check a, a cooler, you know, duct tape the cooler. I mean, it's not cheap. It's never cheap to do that, but yeah, it was good.

[Josh Landbridge]

Do you know how many, approximately how many pounds of meat you got?

[Clay Newcomb]

I don't even remember.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay, well let's. We got another clip here quickly following that bear kill.

[Clay Newcomb]

So these are some stone knives. This one I made this one a buddy made me. But these are flint napped and they're razor sharp. But this is what people would have skinned animals with for long before we got here. And so we're gonna try them out on this bear. It's believed the first humans to come onto the North American continent pass through Southeast Alaska, and without a doubt, they use stone tools to kill and butcher game. In a world where a lot of young people spend a lot of their lives behind screens, I'm glad to see bear John interested in primitive hunting technology. I'm grateful for steel blades and technology, but I think skinning a bear with a rock put the modern world in perspective.

[Josh Landbridge]

So tell us what that was like. So using this, do you feel like how effective were they? Were they. I mean, did you find yourself at a significant disadvantage using the flint knot knives over a modern steel knife?

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah, I would say if you characterize it like that, it would. It would take a lot longer to use a flint knife. It just would have.

[Josh Landbridge]

But still effective.

[Clay Newcomb]

It works like if it's all you had, you could absolutely skin it.

[Josh Landbridge]

And those were flint. Yeah, those blades were.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah, yeah. And. And they can resharpen them. So we did a video a couple years ago where we, me and Steve Rinella and Ryan Callahan and Spencer Newharth skinned a entire bison using stone tools. And we had a guy there that was sharpening them for us as we went. And because they get dull just Like a knife, nap it. Get it sharp again. And I mean, it probably takes twice as long, but, I mean, that's not that big a deal. Like, if it took you like an hour to skin a bear, it would take you maybe two.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

And. And again, the video can't show everything. And we weren't trying to be. We were trying to show exactly how it happened. You see a picture of David helping him skin that with a. With a regular knife. And David did.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

Like, we. Bear just was jumped in there, and it was getting dark, and I had to get back to the boat before dark. And so we had some time constraints, so we didn't. I didn't want to be like. I mean, I. I guess in some ways you might think, well, he skinned the whole bear by that, with that. But David actually helped him, you know.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

But you absolutely could. If all you had was a flint knife and a way to sharpen it, you could skin any animal in North America. People have been doing that for longer than we had steel. You know, that's. That kind of blows your mind when you think about it. How long have we had steel as humans? I mean, a couple thousand years. Right. You know, that we were using. I mean, we were using stone technology for who knows how long.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

Way longer.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yep.

[Clay Newcomb]

We've had steel. And humans survived. They lived, they ate, they butchered meat. We know that. I mean, it's pretty kind of a neat idea. And. And I really. Bear. It is cool that he is focused on those things. Speaking of that, I actually didn't even mean for this to happen, but I was. We had a big rain last night in Arkansas. I was wandering around the mule pasture this morning and picked up these stone tools out of my front yard. These are broken stone points. Airheads or, you know, Atlanta dart heads.

[Josh Landbridge]

Wow.

[Clay Newcomb]

That were in the mule pasture this morning by someone. Evidence. Evidence of ancient bow hunting right here, where we're amazing recording this podcast.

[Josh Landbridge]

So what was it like getting to watch bear kill that bear from a distance there and just seeing him do that? It had to be pretty rewarding and fulfilling.

[Clay Newcomb]

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was cool.

[Josh Landbridge]

You know, you've got four kids, and they've all at times hunted, you know, different differing levels of engagement and passion about hunting. But watching bear do something that you're also passionate about, man, that's got to be. Got to be cool to see.

[Clay Newcomb]

It really is. And I. It may seem like this was all planned for bear to just be a really passionate hunter, but it really wasn't. I mean, we Never, like, made our kids, you know, follow these passions that I had.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

We just kind of took them. It was a major part of their life. And Bear is of. Of the kids, is the one who's kind of taking it the furthest so far, you know. But all the others like to hunt, too.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah. All right, here's our next clip.

[Clay Newcomb]

Bear didn't believe in whales. He had to see one first before he believed it. Didn't believe him. Wasn't totally convinced that there's a giant fish that just jumps out of the water. A mammal, of all things, that suckles its young with milk. This is ridiculous. But now we believe they're right there. Wow. This was a humpback whale.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yep.

[Clay Newcomb]

This was so crazy. I would have given anything to bring one of those rib bones back. If we pick it up.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

We just can't take it home. You can't. You can't keep them.

[Josh Landbridge]

I mean, they're just going to get to our oil.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah. That's a rib bone, I guess. Yeah. What will have ribs? Looks like a dinosaur. Yeah. Wow. That is. So you said, David, that for a year and a half after this whale died, the. The wolves, eagles and bears were just having a heyday over here. Yeah.

[Josh Landbridge]

It lasted a long time. It was a soupy mess.

[Clay Newcomb]

You can see the bears.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

Look at how chewed that. Look.

[Josh Landbridge]

That is. These are.

[Clay Newcomb]

These are all teeth marks. Now what? This is the skull. Yeah. Look. That's like the. The. Gosh, the. I wonder if I got that name right. Magnum Foreman. How's that from? R. That's.

[Josh Landbridge]

Wow.

[Clay Newcomb]

That's.

[Josh Landbridge]

That's unbelievable, that vertebrae.

[Clay Newcomb]

I'm a believer. Oil.

[Josh Landbridge]

So tell us more about that. I mean, that's. That's unbelievable.

[Clay Newcomb]

Did I get the. The name right? The Magnum Foreman? Magnum Foreman. I was. I was. For those of you who aren't watching, I was looking at the skull of a whale and like the hole in the back of the neck, like, where the spinal column comes into the. To the. To the skull. I believe it's called the Magnum Foreman. That was. I mean, almost one of the highlights of the trip for me. I don't. I don't really know why.

[Josh Landbridge]

Forum and Magnum.

[Clay Newcomb]

Oh, Foreman. I reversed the words. David said that that carcass for, like. Did I say two years?

[Josh Landbridge]

Year and a half.

[Clay Newcomb]

Year and a half.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yep.

[Clay Newcomb]

Was rotting and just. I don't know if every time you drove by there, but, like, that's where the bears were. And he actually let a client shoot. As I remember it, a client killed a Bear close to there. And after he skinned it, he said, I'll never do that again. The smell was so putrid, I can't imagine. And the bear had just been rotting

[Josh Landbridge]

meat for a year and a half.

[Clay Newcomb]

The bear had just been all over it. He said that even the. The bones, after all the flesh had been gone for a long time still smelled terrible.

[Josh Landbridge]

So how long ago had that?

[Clay Newcomb]

I couldn't tell you. Probably three or four years. Probably three or four years, and you could still smell a little bit of that bone.

[Josh Landbridge]

Unbelievable.

[Clay Newcomb]

But, yeah, there were. There were humpback whales all over the place. I mean, just every single day, without exception, we would see humpback whales.

[Josh Landbridge]

How close would they be?

[Clay Newcomb]

Well, you just be driving your boat, and they would just pop up. You know, sometimes we were seeing their spouts. They see the spouts of water that goes up, you know, 10, 15ft in the air. You can see that from, like, a mile away. You just see. But then just randomly, you're driving, and one just pops up like, 50 yards away. Or. Or maybe. Maybe you see him and you're going that way, and you have to kind of drive by them just to get where you're going, you know, and. Yeah, Pretty incredible.

[Josh Landbridge]

Holy cow. Wow, that's. That was really interesting to watch on. On the film. Okay, here's. Here's one of the first.

[Clay Newcomb]

I'm still bummed about this stalk.

[Josh Landbridge]

Watching Clay stalking a bear, and then all of a sudden, he takes off into the woods.

[Clay Newcomb]

It's embarrassing to watch yourself run. Waiters, swirls. The bear wins me while he's inside at 10 yards, but still quartering to me. And when he spooks, I opt to chase him and try to run him up a tree. It actually works, and I just can't get a shot. He was about 8 yards, but still didn't get a shot. Such as tread hunting.

[Josh Landbridge]

So was that a spontaneous move? Was that something you thought, hey, if. If I see a bear and he goes in the woods, I'm gonna chase him?

[Clay Newcomb]

It's kind of just in the bag of tricks of.

[Josh Landbridge]

You ever done that before?

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah, yeah. And it. It's worked before, too. So to. To. We did weren't able to show that whole stock. That stock was money. Okay. Right at dark, we see this bear just trucking down the wood line. We're able to get way in front of it. I'm able to get out, walk down the wood line towards it, duck down deep in the timber. And he's. He had just been walking down the wood Line for a quarter mile, just right on the edge. And I get tucked in behind this tree and just am waiting for him. And peek out and here he comes. He's been walking for a quarter mile. The wind basically, when he got 10 yards, just kind of swirled. I mean, just like inside of this small perimeter of, of a human, right? And in, in that kind of turbulent environment with like waves and water and the wood line and the open area, like you just. It's hard to predict what the wind's gonna do. I was on the downwind side of it. The winds hit me in the face. But when he got. He was inside of 10 yards but quartering to me. Okay, right. Because he's walking towards me, right? So I mean like he's in range, but I can't shoot him. He's got to like come past me or at least get even with me. Because with that trad bow, you don't want to shoot one quarter into. You gotta be broadside, right? And so he gets like right at 10 yards and makes a. And kind of throws his head up. And I'm just like, no. And he makes a loop. And basically I knew this. It was busted. But he was so close, I thought maybe I can run him up a tree, right? And I would have shot him out of a tree, you know, and basically you can't see it, it's so dark. But he ran, he jumped up on a tree. You could see it in the video if you stopped it. The bear is, has his head out from behind the tree looking at me. And I'm very close to him, but all I can see is his head. He's like around the tree. And then he ended up not running up the tree but running off. But originally he jumped up on the tree when he saw me coming and it was like, what is this guy doing? And then he took off. And so it was over. But in British Columbia one time I stalked the bear actually through a culvert. It's on the old, it's on the bear grease channel.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay?

[Clay Newcomb]

There was a bear. There's this big road, this big like commercial gravel road for log trucks. Okay? Imagine a four foot culvert under this deal. I'm watching a bear feed right beside the end of a four foot culvert that has water running through it, coming away from the bear. I sneak up on the other side, walk through the culvert. The air is pushing down with the water and I basically poke my head out and there's a bear like five yards from the mouth wow. And I. I wish I would have taken the bear. It was a boar, but it was young and it was early in the hunt.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

I. And I've got my trad bow. This is British Columbia several years ago. And I see the bear and I'm wearing a GoPro on my head. You can watch it on YouTube. Wow. And I just go, hey, bear. And it looks at me just coming out of the culvert and just takes off. And then I just chase it and it goes right up a tree and I just stand there. Wow. But anyway, so that, that can work pretty good chasing them. I've never killed one like that, but yeah, it works.

[Steve Rinella]

Hey, it's Steve Rinella from the Meat Eater Podcast. If you're putting together an outdoor space and you want it to really stand out, here's something worth knowing about. Decking with surestone technology is made through a patented process that uses, get this crushed rock instead of wood fiber, which is what most composite boards rely on. That difference matters. It gives each board a level of strength and durability that holds up in the real world. Weather, moisture, heavy use, all of it. Decorators also engineered the surface to give you better traction when it's wet, which is a big deal if you live in a rainy area or you've got people moving in and out with wet boots. And one thing I appreciate, you're not locked into one look. With more than 40 different color and size combinations, you can build a deck that actually fits your home and feels like something you designed, not something you settled for. It's comfortable, it's safe, it's durable, and it's going to stand out. Build season is coming up fast, so order a sample today. Visit decorators.commeater to get your free sample of decking made with Surestone technology. That's decorators with a K again. Decorators.comeater this episode is sponsored by BetterHelp Now. When I was coming out of college, man, I had. I was trying to be a writer. I had no idea what was going to happen to me. I was at times despondent about trying to make a living as a writer. Had I known about therapy back then, that could have been pretty helpful. And therapy isn't about, like, financial advice. It wouldn't help in that way. But it's about managing stress or shame or anxiety that can come with it. And money worries often bring anxiety, sleep disruption, and even depression. And they are one of the leading sources of conflict for couples. Well, with over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 6 million people globally with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on over 1.7 million client reviews. BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences and their 12 plus years of experience means they typically get it right the first time. If you aren't happy with your match switch at any time, BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the us. When life feels overwhelming, therapy can help. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com me eater that's better h e l p.com Meeater Herobred delivers the stacked

[Clay Newcomb]

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[Josh Landbridge]

we're going to be watching.

[Clay Newcomb]

That's a three legged bear primarily had to do really what? Look at him. Not bar you see.

[Josh Landbridge]

Look at that.

[Clay Newcomb]

He's missing a front left leg.

[Josh Landbridge]

Well for our listeners right now we're watching kind of a montage of man. It took us an hour a few of the 21 different stalks that Clay did on bears.

[Clay Newcomb]

Hard to stalk but this part of Alaska doesn't have a ton of grizzly. I find black bears easy to stalk. Within 50 yards the bear finally breaks the 10 yard mark. This is the good one. 7 yards. But now he's facing me and he's way too close. I can't move. I try to shift my weight to get in better shooting position and he hears me, sees me and finally spooks. This was a big bear probably nearing the seven foot square mark. And once again I got to inside of 30 yards but just couldn't close the distance. I'm starting to doubt if I can make it happen.

[Josh Landbridge]

21 different stalks. 21. So after over the course of how many days?

[Clay Newcomb]

Eight days. Well bear bear hunted kind of two days so really six days. Okay, seven days. We'll give bear One day of full

[Josh Landbridge]

stocks of those stock. I mean, from those stalks and. And being in a place that's unique for hunting bears. Tell us some of the things that you learned and maybe some things that you would have done differently.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah. Number one, I would have planned on wearing some type of moccasin. You almost had to wear rubber boots because it was so wet.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

But I started carrying some little stockisons, little. Little. Little shoes that you put on. But it was so late in the game. I never. I actually never used them. I. I would have used them a lot more. It's very hard. Those bears were hearing me.

[Josh Landbridge]

Really?

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah. And. And I had a cameraman with me, like, right on my heel. So it's like two people walking. And those bears hurt us probably 30% of the time.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

And again, they wouldn't have heard us. Like, if you're just trying to get to 30 yards, you'd be okay, right? From 30 to 10.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah. There's a lot more you hear in 10 yards that you don't.

[Clay Newcomb]

And they can hear. They can hear so good. They. They just hear. They hear so well. And, you know, a bear is not a prey animal like a deer, so they don't have quite that response. But they are very concerned with other bears sneaking up on them because they'll kill them. I mean, it was grizzly country, too.

[Josh Landbridge]

Like, did you see any grizzly bear?

[Clay Newcomb]

No.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

No, not a lot of grizz. But, I mean, it was in bounds for grizz to be, Especially on the Alaska mainland side we were on. And so bears here very well. So your feet. Number two, the wind. There's just nothing you could do. You're just at the mercy of the wind. And where you could park the boat. And again, getting inside of 30, 40 yards, the wind would typically stay pretty good. But in. In that inner cone, you know, inside of 30, even if the wind's hitting you in the face, like, we've all felt it when the wind is blowing consistently, and then it stops.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

And there's like, a little bit of a drag, and the wind just kind of eddies. And, man, it just got me almost every time, really. Like, now we may talk about the successful stock, but the successful stock had two things going for it that the other 20 stalks didn't have. Okay. Number one, that bear was within 20 yards of a creek that was.

[Josh Landbridge]

Let's actually, we have that coming up here in just a second. Let's save that one. But anything else that maybe you would have specifically done differently besides the Stalkerson man,

[Clay Newcomb]

David. David Bennet has guided hundreds and hundreds of bear hunters. And he says the thing that most people do is they're too slow.

[Josh Landbridge]

Oh, really?

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah. He said, he said on this kind of hunt, volume is what he finds that kills bears. And he would rather you get out of the boat and just do the boldest move possible.

[Josh Landbridge]

Really?

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah, do the boldest move possible. And if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. What I was doing was getting out and like, just like trying to be like, this is the stock. I have to give it my everything. And we'd end up spending an hour on this bear that was probably going to be blown whether I took my time or I didn't. Does that make sense?

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

And so David is just, was just like, clay, you're too slow, you know. And I'd be like, you think? And he'd be like, yep. You just. He said, why did you try to get up in the woods and sneak around? I was like, well, I didn't want him to see him see me. And he was like, he wouldn't have seen you if you'd have just laid low and just like walk straight towards it. And so. But again, it's like taking instructions from a pro basketball player when you're playing in the G League, you know, it's like, that's the way I felt. I really was humbled. Not that I thought that I was going to do good.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

I don't mean it like I had high expectations for myself, but it was harder than I thought it would be. And I mean, I've stocked plenty of bears.

[Josh Landbridge]

Joe Ettlinger, 3423 says, Clay, there is no rule in bow hunting that you have to stalk every animal to the point of failure. If 30 yards is the closest you can get, just stay put and see if he comes your way. Seems like you may have learned that one on that, that, on the one that went up the tree.

[Clay Newcomb]

Joe T. Linger. Three, four, two, three. That's a, that's a good comment. I understand what you're saying. You don't have to like push, push, push until the animal spooks. What Joe doesn't understand is the constraints that were bigger than just what you see on the film. Yeah, like, like hard to get a

[Josh Landbridge]

full picture by a 48 minute film.

[Clay Newcomb]

Well, and just like what David was saying, he was like, clay, don't mess around. Just get in there and try to do it. If you spook one, no big deal. We'll go on to the next one. And eventually you're going to find the one that's just right. So I see what he's saying. And in some cases, like if you were in a place where you were going to see three bears in a week, you better do what Joe Linger 3423 says is don't push it. Just get to where you can get and then just wait.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah, I probably could have done that. This was a volume hunt, though.

[Josh Landbridge]

Sure.

[Clay Newcomb]

And there was also a time stamp with David sitting out in the boat navigating the tides.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

You know, he would pull me most of the time. He would pull me up, I would jump out, then he would go back out because the. The waves are just, like, slamming the boat.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

So he's out there just, like, you know, like, messing around, waiting for me. It's not like I had three hours that I could see what the sp. How long.

[Josh Landbridge]

Joe, did some of those stalks last?

[Clay Newcomb]

Well, I mean, a couple of them lasted two hours. Most of the time they lasted ten minutes.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay. Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah.

[Josh Landbridge]

Off road Tech Double zero said. Great episode. The Alaska shows are full of amazing scenery. Except Clay's butt. There was way too much of it. Must remember, stalk hunts equal watching butts.

[Clay Newcomb]

Hey, brother, you ain't wrong. That's the first thing that I noted when I watched the draft. I was like, wow, this is like, feature Clay was watching.

[Josh Landbridge]

He's like, does this stock make my butt look fat?

[Clay Newcomb]

Feature length film of Clay's butt. I am so sorry, people. All right. He ain't wrong.

[Josh Landbridge]

Well, we've got one more clip here. We're gonna show Clay's butt.

[Clay Newcomb]

The bear is tucked in more of Clay's butt, which offers some great cover to get close. He's just feeding on grass. And there's also a running stream really nearby that covers my sound. This is perfect. This is what I've been waiting for. I hit it right where I was aiming. You aimed in the wrong place, Clay. I got on the other side of that tree. Bear was laying down right there. Air hit right where I was aiming, but it didn't go in very deep. Oh, no.

[Josh Landbridge]

Oh, my God.

[Clay Newcomb]

Not good at all, David. I don't think it penetrated past the broadhead. I felt like it hit him right behind the shoulder, but I must have touched the tip of his shoulder. His elbow must have been back because it broke that broadhead. And I mean, we're going to come back in the morning and look. But that bear is not mortally wounded. And that was my biggest fear. And that is why I limited myself to 10 yards and I hit right where I was aiming. And so I don't know what to say other than I messed it up. But that's just part of the game. I think that bear will be fine. It's a bummer to hit a bear and not recover it, but my hunt's over. Such is the drama of the self bow.

[Josh Landbridge]

So kind of walk us through that thing.

[Clay Newcomb]

Well, so that stalk was so good and it took, it took 21 stalks to get one that was just perfect. That there was a fallen tree that completely shielded the bear from anything going on the direction I was. Okay. There was also a stream that flowed out into the ocean there that did two things. Flowing water typically pulls air currents. So my wind was kind of like going out on the water. You know, you'd puff and it would just be going out of the water by that, by that little creek. That Creek was like 20 yards from the bear. And then number two, it was loud, the sound of that water. So I mean it was like the perfect. Right. So I just peek out around that tree and that bears there. 10 yards.

[Josh Landbridge]

Is it a good bear?

[Clay Newcomb]

It was just a average male bear. I mean, we know because the bear got killed.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

Like two weeks later. And I was told that it was like, you know, just a decent younger type boar. Right. Probably a 200 pound animal.

[Josh Landbridge]

Okay.

[Clay Newcomb]

You know, it wasn't a big one.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

And I, I wish we could have got better footage of the actual shot, but we were so worried about spooking game.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

Dirt was being so close. Just.

[Josh Landbridge]

Dirt Myth was your camera.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah. Garrett Smith, Dirt Myth was my cameraman. And, and he just did the best he could without, you know, having to get out further than me.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

Spook the bear. And as I watched the film, I said it like three times and it could come across as me trying to make an excuse. And, and maybe I probably was, but I was like, I hit right where I was aiming. I hit. I mean, I, I kind of kept telling myself, well, I hit where I was aiming. Well, I mean, I aimed in the wrong spot then, you know, and I, I've, I've said this for years and it's hard to compensate for, but on a, on a shorter haired animal, like a deer. Okay. A deer has, you know, this like half inch to one inch fur.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

See the contour of that animal? You can see a shoulder. A black bear is like shooting at a black trash bag that's been blown up like a balloon.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

Like you don't see the contour of its body quite as much because the longer hair. Okay. Number two, the difference between shooting a bear and shooting a. A deer is that a bear has a lot more ability to contort its body. And what I've always told people is a bear can make itself into a sea. Like, envision a bear being broadside, right? But his butt and his shoulder are closer than to you, than the middle. Like his last rib, like the middle of his body. It's like a dog. He can, like, curve his back. A deer really can't do that, right? Think about that. So when he's. When that bear is like curved like a c. If you're aiming, like, kind of where the vitals should be at this black trash bag that you can't see much contour on, you will hit his shoulder, right? Does that make sense?

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

Like, it folds in, and so it narrows the.

[Josh Landbridge]

The picture.

[Clay Newcomb]

So you could actually shoot in the place that on a 3D target, you would shoot. But if that bears cups toward you in a circle, you're going to hit his shoulder. And that's what happened. Like, just in the moment, I wasn't able to see that that bear was actually maybe just slightly cupped, right? And like I always say that a bear can do so many things that a deer can. A bear can sit on his butt. That bear was actually laying on his belly when I first saw it, like, laying flat on its belly with its paws flat on the ground like this really chomping grass. I mean, just. And like, if I had come up and that bear would have been like that, that shooting target would have been compressed and. And different than if it was just standing there with, like, its ribs kind of like fully extended, hanging down. So most people, including me, mess up on a bear. When a bear is doing something unusual and. And it's not like he was. He was just standing there broadside in my mind, and I just whop. And just hit that shoulder. I knew that a lot of air was sticking out, but actually thought that everything was okay because, you know, I'm telling myself I hit right where I was aiming, right.

[Josh Landbridge]

Do you feel like you're. Did you feel like you're. You had a full draw? You feel like all the shot was okay?

[Clay Newcomb]

I mean, that's where any traditional archer will tell you it's easy to what they call short stroke when. When you're in the heat of the moment, right? Where you're just like, in such a hurry, you don't like, get your full extension I don't know. It's possible. I mean, I was so Josh being inside of 10 yards, and I mean, I had time and I, I walked through my shot sequence consciously. I was like, bow, arm up, focus on you, where you want to hit, draw to your anchor point. I mean, I did everything. But, yeah, who knows? I, I, I think so much of human memory is flawed, right?

[Josh Landbridge]

It's true. I mean, it's true.

[Clay Newcomb]

You know, like, even me saying I hit right where I was aiming, it's like, I wish the foot, the foot. You cannot see it. You cannot see the arrow in the footage. I don't know why. You just can't.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

Who knows if I truly did? I do know I hit the shoulder, because we know that for a fact. Because a couple weeks later, and this is maybe the most bizarre part of the story. So we go check bears, bear with the last game of fish. You have to take the animal, actually, to a biologist that pulls the tooth, that takes a hair sample, that does all this stuff. And so we're talking to him and, you know, and, and I'm like, man, I shot one, got away. You know, I mean, I told him.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right, right.

[Clay Newcomb]

And, and so David knew the guy that we were with really well.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

And a couple weeks later, David sends me a text message and said, found your broadhead. And I'm pretty sure some guys from Texas killed that bear with a rifle.

[Josh Landbridge]

Really?

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Landbridge]

And they pulled the broadhead out.

[Clay Newcomb]

They, they just were skinning it and found a broadhead and thought it was interesting. And when they took it into the game and fish, they were like, hey, we found this. And the guy was like, I think I know whose that is.

[Josh Landbridge]

Wow.

[Clay Newcomb]

And, you know, I was true. I, I almost, you know, part of me didn't want to tell that part of the story because, I mean, animal, the, the ethics of, of just the, the treatment of animals, it's not the right words I'm saying there, but you don't want to shoot a bear and not find it.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right?

[Clay Newcomb]

You don't want an animal running around with the broadhead.

[Josh Landbridge]

You guys went back the next morning to look for it.

[Clay Newcomb]

Oh, we did. We, we did. We went back the next morning, looked for it, found nothing.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

You know, and the bear was fine except for he got shot by a guy from Texas, you know, so, so I, I don't know if it's from Texas. That's what I remember being sad. But. So that's the story.

[Josh Landbridge]

Well, that, that was great, man. The film was fantastic. And we, another Comment here. Did you feel fortunate the bear ended up okay after you hit it? And also I didn't see any firearms on your stalks as a safety backup.

[Clay Newcomb]

Man, I've read that comment and nobody carries firearm back up on black bear hunts. And when I say nobody, obviously there are exceptions to that rule.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

But I would say 80 plus percent of people hunting black bears are not, if they're bow hunting, are not carrying a firearm backup. Now if you're hunting Grizz country, you probably would. There's been times when I've carried a pistol almost just for the fun of it, but I would say 95% of my black bear hunting, I've never had firearm backup. Grizz, totally different story.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah.

[Josh Landbridge]

Much more aggressive.

[Clay Newcomb]

So just, just, it's just not. You're just not going to be attacked by a bear while you're hunting them. You might be attacked by a bear while you're at your camp, you know, wants to eat your food or you run into a sow with a cub while you're out hiking.

[Josh Landbridge]

Another comment here. He says, Caleb Allen says just finished the episode. Still can't believe what happened to Clay's arrow. Do you think maybe the constant moisture may have weakened the wood at the broadhead point? I would have imagined that even the self bow with that type of broadhead would have struggled to get. I, I can't imagine even with a self bow to that, that type of broadhead would have struggled to get more penetration.

[Clay Newcomb]

Yeah, that's a good point. I, I don't know. I don't think, I don't think wet wood necessarily means weak wood. If that, if I'm understanding his comment. It's possible though. Definitely. The water on the string and water on the feathers would sure would have slowed the boat to some degree.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

But again that's why I was limiting myself to 10 yards because I felt like at that distance it really wouldn't have mattered. I mean the bottom line is I hit the shoulder.

[Josh Landbridge]

Right.

[Clay Newcomb]

And, and with any, I mean even with a compound, if you hit the shoulder, potentially you're going to have problems.

[Josh Landbridge]

And so hitting that, hitting that animal ends your.

[Clay Newcomb]

It does. There's legality of such is different in many states. But in Alaska, if you draw blood on an animal, that's your, that's your tag.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

And in most places and most people that I've been around, even if that's not the law, that's typically the way that I would manage something.

[Josh Landbridge]

Yeah.

[Clay Newcomb]

If you have, if you have a one bear tag and you wound one. Just check your tag. Yeah, you know. Yeah, that. I wouldn't. I would say most of the time that's what a lot of people would do. Anyway, man. Thank you guys so much for watching this companion podcast for Meat Eaters 12 and 26 film. This is episode three of our Southeast Alaska boat based for bears. Check it out on YouTube. If you haven't watched it, please go watch it. It's. It's a lot of action. I tell you what, it's a lot of action and it was a really special time to get to spend that with my son, Bear John. And man, I hope you guys get to get out and hunt this spring. And thanks so much for checking this out. A Better Help Ad Financial stress affects the majority of Americans, often causing anxiety, sleep disruption, and even depression. It's also one of the leading sources of conflict for couples. When money feels uncertain, it can weigh on your thoughts, your relationships, and your sense of stability. And that emotional weight can be hard to carry alone. Finding the right type of support can help. Therapy can give you the space to talk through what financial stress brings up for you and help you build tools to manage uncertainty with more confidence. With BetterHelp, you can connect with a licensed therapist from the comfort of your home on a schedule that works for you. It's flexible, convenient, and designed to make getting started feel simple. If you've been feeling the impact of financial stress, you don't have to navigate it on your own. See if therapy's for you. Visit betterhelp.com for 10% off, that's betterhelp.com

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[Clay Newcomb]

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