Ep. 663: MeatEater Radio Live! | 02.13.25 | Steve's Birthday, Leather with Heather Douville, and Grayling in Michigan

Summary

The MeatEater Podcast - Episode 663: MeatEater Radio Live! | 02.13.25 | Steve's Birthday, Leather with Heather Douville, and Grayling in Michigan

Released on February 14, 2025, Episode 663 of The MeatEater Podcast features a lively Radio Live session hosted by Steven Rinella. Celebrating his 51st birthday, Steve engages with his colleagues and guests in an episode filled with camaraderie, insightful discussions, and exciting conservation news.

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1. Celebrating Steve's Birthday

The episode kicks off with Steve Rinella greeting listeners and announcing his 51st birthday live from the MeatEater headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. Joined by Brody Henderson and Seth Morris, Steve shares humorous anecdotes and heartfelt birthday wishes from friends and listeners.

Notable Quote:

• Phil (02:21): “You've sure inspired millions of people, including myself.”
• Yanni (10:32): “In Tlingit, that translates to G year old. Happy birthday, Steve.”

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2. Fur and Leather with Heather Douville

A highlight of the episode is the new segment “Fur and Leather with Heather Douville,” where Heather discusses her craftsmanship in tanning deer and seal skins. Joined by Yanni, Heather delves into the natural, non-toxic methods she employs, such as using tree bark tannins for buckskin and innovative techniques for seal skins.

Notable Quotes:

• Yanni (17:04): “This is a harbor seal. You can't see the whole thing, but you can see the back of it.”
• Steve Rinella (21:05): “I love to learn the different ways to use the materials that we have and then also teach.”

Heather showcases her tanned products, including a custom seal skin coat, and discusses the challenges and successes in her tanning projects. The segment emphasizes sustainability and maximizing the use of harvested materials.

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3. Grayling Reintroduction in Michigan with Randy Claremont

A significant portion of the episode features a conversation with Randy Claremont, Fisheries Division Chief for Michigan's Department of Natural Resources, regarding the exciting reintroduction of Arctic Grayling to Michigan waters. Steve and Randy explore the history of Grayling in Michigan, their decline due to habitat changes, and the meticulous planning behind their comeback.

Key Points:

• Historical Context: Last recorded Grayling in Michigan's Upper Peninsula was in 1932.
• Reintroduction Strategy: Source gametes from the Cheno River in Alaska, selecting three streams—Manistee River, Boardman River near Traverse City, and Maple River—for release.
• Conservation Goals: Establish a self-sustaining, breeding population while maintaining ecological balance and ensuring minimal competition with other trout species.

Notable Quotes:

• Randy Claremont (59:12): “We expect that this highly migratory population will find the cold groundwater and thrive in Michigan’s streams.”
• Steve Rinella (67:35): “I am really hoping that during my tenure I can catch a wild grayling in Michigan and snap that picture and release that fish.”

Randy emphasizes the collaborative efforts with nonprofits, tribal governments, and angling groups to ensure the success of the reintroduction. The discussion highlights the broader implications for Michigan’s fisheries and the importance of restoring native species.

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4. Listener Feedback and Q&A

Listeners send in a variety of questions ranging from hunting practices to gear recommendations. The hosts and guests provide thoughtful and often humorous responses, sharing personal experiences and expertise.

Notable Interaction:

• Listener (41:10): “I lost an inch of my pinky in a framing accident. Torn between turning it into a fishing lure or sending it to you guys.”
• Steve Rinella (41:21): “If you send it over, if it's nice and frozen, I'd like to eat it. Because I'm trying to find a way to be like a subject matter expert on cannibalism without killing anybody.”

This segment fosters a sense of community, illustrating the podcast’s blend of serious topics and light-hearted banter.

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5. Throwback Thursday: Memories and Stories

In the “Throwback Thursday” segment, Steve and his colleagues reminisce about past hunts and memorable experiences. They share photos and stories from early adventures, highlighting the enduring bonds and the evolution of their hunting practices over the years.

Notable Stories:

• Seth Morris (49:08): Recounts his first hunt with Steve, describing the hike, the eventual kill, and the vintage gear they used.
• Heather Douville (49:19): Shares a video of a massive beaver caught during a trapping trip, showcasing the camaraderie and excitement of past endeavors.

These nostalgic reflections not only entertain but also underscore the podcast’s deep roots in outdoor traditions and the shared passion among its hosts and guests.

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6. Closing Remarks and Call to Action

As the episode winds down, Steve encourages listeners to participate in the "Hot Tip Off" challenge by submitting their own outdoor tips via video for a chance to win prizes from MeatEater’s partners. The hosts reiterate upcoming events, including tours to colleges and continued conservation efforts.

Notable Call to Action:

• Steve Rinella (80:07): “Send a video of what you believe to be your outdoor tips to our radio live email address with ‘Hot Tip Off’ in the subject line.”

This invitation fosters engagement and continues the podcast’s tradition of building a vibrant, active community around outdoor pursuits.

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Conclusion

Episode 663 of The MeatEater Podcast masterfully blends personal celebration, practical craftsmanship, and impactful conservation efforts. From Steve Rinella’s heartfelt birthday celebrations to Heather Douville’s expert tanning techniques and the promising reintroduction of Grayling in Michigan, the episode offers a rich tapestry of stories and insights. Engaging with listeners through Q&A and nostalgic Throwback Thursday segments, Steve and his team reinforce the podcast’s commitment to fostering a knowledgeable and passionate outdoor community.

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Featured Segments:

• Fur and Leather with Heather Douville
• Grayling Reintroduction in Michigan with Randy Claremont
• Listener Feedback and Q&A
• Throwback Thursday

Notable Quotes:

• “We expect that this highly migratory population will find the cold groundwater and thrive in Michigan’s streams.” — Randy Claremont (59:12)
• “I would rather hunt one day with my kids than like three days without them. It's just more fun, man.” — Steve Rinella (78:14)

For more insights and stories from the outdoors, subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast and join the conversation.

Transcript

[Steve Rinella]

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[Brody Henderson]

Smell us now lady.

[Steve Rinella]

Welcome to Meat Eater Trivia. Meat Eater Podcast Holy. It's Me eater radio live 11am Montana time. That's kind of like mountain time. Mount Yep Mountain time. Thursday, February 13th I it's my birthday. I turned 51 today live for media headquarters in Bozeman, Montana, I'm your host Steve Renell and I'm joined today by Brody Henderson and Seth Morris. And not, I will point out, by the man who's supposed to be here. I'm glad he's not because I Like seth better than Dr. Randall.

[Seth Morris]

Now that you're a doctor too, what.

[Steve Rinella]

Do.

[Phil]

Well, we've actually got Randall on the line. Should we talk to him?

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah. Don't say that because that's not a thing.

[Seth Morris]

That's not a thing yet.

[Heather Duville]

Not a thing.

[Steve Rinella]

Today's show we're going to check in with our friend and newly added meat eater colleague Heather Duville to see what sort of critter, hides and fur she's working on. We're gonna take a trip down memory lane, do some throwback Thursday. And we're gonna talk about some very exciting news that a lot of people might not recognize as exciting, but we're gonna explain why it's so exciting. Is a. A grayling. An arctic grayling reintroduction in Michigan pretty cool? No, it's super cool, man. It's super cool. We're gonna get into that first we're gonna try to hear what. Why Randall couldn't make it. I called him earlier. He had no problem answering the phone. He's supposedly stuck in the snow, but here he is. It doesn't look snowy where you're at, Steve.

[Dr. Randall]

I'll point out to you that I'm in my garage and there's. There's a fair bit of snow in the garage this morning.

[Steve Rinella]

We.

[Dr. Randall]

I was told we got up to 87 mile an hour winds last night in Livingston.

[Heather Duville]

Here.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, home. Every time you talk, I'm gonna make the noise that I hear when I hear that someone can't make it to work because of the snow. Ready? Every time you talk, I'll do it. Go ahead. I.

[Dr. Randall]

We got some good drips here. We got some good drips going.

[Steve Rinella]

I.

[Dr. Randall]

Why did I call that?

[Heather Duville]

Why did I call it?

[Steve Rinella]

Because you're done. The nice thing because you didn't come to work because you chicken. Because you got snow now. Let me see.

[Dr. Randall]

Well, it's blown away from everywhere else except for the driveway and the road.

[Steve Rinella]

Let's see.

[Dr. Randall]

So we got some good drifts here. This is right in front of the garage.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh that. Wow, look at that.

[Heather Duville]

Dang.

[Dr. Randall]

And yeah, that's. That's what happens here's.

[Heather Duville]

Looks like your truck is out.

[Steve Rinella]

Well, I need the truck. Looks fine. And it looks like it's on the other side of the drift. The issue.

[Dr. Randall]

I'll just go through this drift here. There's a massive drift here. I don't know if you can see the bend in the road out this way. And I got the can. Am stuck trying to plow that out. So I had to get my truck out to pull the Can Am out. And yeah, there's an excavator on the way, but it's got to dig its way out here. So I'll just be here if you.

[Steve Rinella]

Guys need me, you know. Phil, can you. Oh, go ahead.

[Dr. Randall]

I. I was, I was trying to remember. I had to do one thing on here.

[Heather Duville]

Oh, Happy birthday to you.

[Steve Rinella]

All right. Good talking to you, Randall. Phil, you. Can you do Randall a favor and save that clip? Because when we cut him loose, when we fire him.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

For not coming to work, he can maybe use that and try to get one of those jobs where you talk about how bad the weather is and you're like the weather guy.

[Phil]

Oh, that's really kind of you to think of him.

[Steve Rinella]

After, like, you know, there's a big snowstorm in Buffalo, New York, and then they send a guy out there with a parka and he's like, look at all the snow on these cars.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah, Randall would be good at that.

[Steve Rinella]

The wind's picking up. Yeah, Be great job for Randall. Got some business to talk about it for you. For those of you. I know that you, those of you in Michigan are already excited as hell about the Grayling reintroduction that's coming that we're going to talk about. But if you're in Nashville, you might be saying to yourself, what could I be? What, what should I be excited about? Well, I'll tell you. If you're in and around Nashville and. Or attending the National Wild Turkey Federation convention. I'm reading this. And, and that's, that's not, that's not a great way of putting it because it shouldn't say and. Or because you follow me.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah, I got you.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, no, because they could be far away right now. So you say in Nashville. And they're like, well, I'm far away from Nashville. But then you say, or attending the NWTF convention in Nashville, they might be like, oh, I better pay attention because I'll be in Nashville on Saturday.

[Seth Morris]

Right?

[Heather Duville]

Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

So, yeah, if you're around Nashville and. Or attending the NWTF convention and sports show this week, that's a hell. I like that show. It's a hell of a good time. Our colleagues, Yanni, Yanni the Lavian lover, Ocal Clay Newcomb, Spencer Newharth are all there and they're hosting the Grand Slam after party in the Tennessee Ballroom tomorrow night. Valentine's Day night. The event starts at 8:45pm okay, this is for NWTF. Get your tickets for 40 bucks. Buying a ticket enters you to win one of six Dream Turkey Hunts. They're also gonna be raffling off a boatload of guns and a bunch of new turkey gear from first light. FHF and Phelps game calls. Plus Spencer's going to be hosting a meat pole style trivia. How meat pole works is you survey everybody that comes in the room and then you do a trivia show around. You do it basically being asked trivia questions about the people in the room. Percentages. What percent of the people in the room tonight? Blank. Right.

[Seth Morris]

You got to figure out what they're thinking.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, like 1% P sitting down. I don't know, whatever the hell Spencer wants to ask him. And you can win stuff that way.

[Heather Duville]

That'll be fun.

[Steve Rinella]

No, I'd go if I was there where we're sitting right now. Oh, so we did Randall. My former colleague, Dr. Randall. Oh, Spencer chimed in. He says I'm on a plane headed there now. Okay, that's great to hear.

[Heather Duville]

Safe travels, Doctor.

[Steve Rinella]

My former colleague, Dr. Randall and I did. Did our first of our little mini tour, our mountain man mini tour where we're going to colleges to give. We're going to colleges to talk about the mountain man era. We did our first one the other night, which is very fun. We did it at Montana State University. We're going to University of Montana on February 20th. And we're going to University of Wyoming and laramie, Wyoming on February 26th. So go check those things out. Like they're supposedly sold out. But I gotta figure that. I mean, they are, but I feel like there should be more room there. Oh, I'm supposed to look at the tv. My. My cue says look at tv. Hey, happy birthday, Steve. Rinella, man, we respect the heck out of you. Hope you have a great birthday. I have not forgot that you don't know how to blow a crow call though. If you just put a little more. A little body coming from the chest right here. Sound way better than that blue jay call you make. Happy birthday. Oh, hey, Steve. Happy birthday. This is kind of awkward.

[Yanni]

In Tlingit, that translates to G year old. Happy birthday, Steve. I hope you have a great day.

[Heather Duville]

Hey, happy birthday, Steve.

[Phil]

You've sure inspired millions of people, including myself.

[Heather Duville]

It's almost as if you're getting younger.

[Phil]

And yeah, it's really cool to see and keep as an example of how to live a life.

[Heather Duville]

So here's to another 50 years.

[Steve Rinella]

Hey, Steve. Happy birthday from Minnesota. It has been just an honor to get to teach you how to bow, hunt and fish. You've been a pretty good student and I like that. So I hope you have a good birthday buddy. Hey, happy birthday, Steve. Happy birthday.

[Brody Henderson]

Happy birthday, Stephen Rinella. From me and my boy Mingus here. We're out on the Mountain Lion Mountain. No tracks today. It was still a fine day. I was thinking for your birthday Radio Live episode, you could do a hot tip for everybody on how to keep your head warm in these super cold conditions. Especially when your hair is getting so thin on top. Like if you have to wear two hats or maybe put a hand warmer up there. I don't know exactly what you do. You can go ahead and say it.

[Decoy Dave]

What a dick.

[Brody Henderson]

But that's what friends are for. On your birthday, you got so many friends wishing you happy birthday. I heard Corey Culkins had to give them all a first like gift card to make these videos, but it's all good. But in all seriousness, be grateful for what you do have on your birthday. That awesome family of yours, this awesome thing called Meat Eater that you've created. And as always, I'm grateful to call you a friend. And let's get out here soon. Look at him. Mangus, come here.

[Steve Rinella]

Come here.

[Brody Henderson]

Are you ready to go? He's ready to go. This boy's ready to get a lion for you.

[Steve Rinella]

Let's go. Yo, Steve. Happy birthday, man. Hope you're having a good one.

[Brody Henderson]

Hey, buddy. It's Decoy Dave over here in Oregon trying to get over Covid. I just wanted to say happy birthday from me and from all of us at dsd and thanks for all your hard work and inspiration in creating all this and hope that you and your family have a great one.

[Steve Rinella]

Happy birthday, Steve. For me and old Whaler. I remember when I was 51. Think.

[Heather Duville]

All right.

[Steve Rinella]

Thank you, everybody.

[Seth Morris]

Happy birthday.

[Heather Duville]

Happy birthday, Steve.

[Steve Rinella]

What dirt didn't bring up. Oh, look at this. Thank you, Bill.

[Seth Morris]

There you go.

[Steve Rinella]

That's so cute. What dirt didn't bring up in his message is me and him struck a deal where I gave him a brand new climbing rope and he was supposed to give me a little picture frame thing. Nothing. Haven't seen it.

[Heather Duville]

Hasn't happened yet.

[Steve Rinella]

No. Very asymmetrical deal anyways. And I got screwed on it. Yeah.

[Heather Duville]

That was the trim piece in your camper, right? Yeah, Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

I didn't want to confuse everybody. It took me too. It would take me too long to explain. It's actually a trim piece for my camper.

[Heather Duville]

But it's going to look like a picture frame.

[Steve Rinella]

It is. And I. Because I ripped out the microwave in my camper. Because anytime you want to microwave something in my camper, you got to go turn the generator on. So if you're like, I'm going to heat this cup of coffee up, go outside, turn the generator on, come back in by that point, I'll just heat it up on the burner.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

You know, to make any sense. So I ripped it out. We keep loaves of bread up in there, but I just don't like the way it looks now. It looks like something used to be there. So dirt supposedly finding a way where it looks like God put it there. That way. Like it grew there, you know?

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

All right, we're going to Heather Duville. Heather, you know what? Can Heather see us good?

[Phil]

Not yet, but I. I prepared a drop for this, Steve, because I was told to prepare a drop.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, okay.

[Phil]

So it. Do you want to read what the script says?

[Steve Rinella]

There's no script here.

[Seth Morris]

Number three, buddy.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, I'm looking at it. Ready?

[Phil]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Steve Rinella]

Next up, we're going to check in with Heather Duville for a new segment we're calling Fur and Leather with Heather.

[Seth Morris]

Phil, that's your best one yet.

[Steve Rinella]

That was the best one ever, man. You know what he did is he cut right to the good part of the song.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah, that's great, Phil.

[Phil]

I'm glad you clocked that.

[Steve Rinella]

Here's how I'm going to intro the segment. Watch.

[Yanni]

That was a total surprise. I did not know about the song. Or over here laughing. But, yes, that caught my eye. Sitting on your table.

[Steve Rinella]

Phil, can I verify that what people can see? No, no, make it narrow again because you're blowing the whole effect.

[Phil]

Sorry.

[Steve Rinella]

Here. Yeah, make it really narrow.

[Phil]

I mean, that's a narrow thing.

[Steve Rinella]

So is that what it looks for people at home? Does it look that narrow?

[Phil]

Yes.

[Steve Rinella]

Okay, now check this out. Watch how long it takes for this to pass all the way.

[Heather Duville]

All the way through.

[Seth Morris]

Come on. We've only got an hour for this podcast, Steve.

[Steve Rinella]

I mean, watch how long this takes.

[Yanni]

Oh, it's going over to the other you watch.

[Steve Rinella]

Can you believe this? When we had those ladies on that were mauled by a river otter.

[Heather Duville]

Wow, look at this.

[Steve Rinella]

And people are like, well, how could a river otter kick your ass? Oh, the angle's bad. Oh, here, let's do it again where the angle's better. How could a river maul you? That's 5ft, 10 inches tall.

[Yanni]

Wow.

[Heather Duville]

That'S a big one.

[Yanni]

What are we going to sell out of it?

[Steve Rinella]

And that? I think I might just keep it as a wall hanger. I was going to do a hat, but I don't know. But the point being that's river otter and, and Heather's dealing with sea otters and that. That's river otter that weighs 25 and a half pounds. What's a big sea otter, Heather?

[Yanni]

I got my biggest sea otter this winter and it weighed 99 pounds.

[Steve Rinella]

Jeez, imagine that thing kicking.

[Seth Morris]

Bigger than a coos deer buck.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah.

[Heather Duville]

Oh, that's crazy.

[Steve Rinella]

Heather had. I think I posted it. Did I put. I think I posted it. Yeah, Heather had. She went out hunting. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

[Yanni]

Oh, it's bigger than my deer that I got.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, sick.

[Steve Rinella]

She had a buck in a otter laying in the bottom of the boat and the otter looked bigger than the buck laying in the bottom of the boat.

[Heather Duville]

That's crazy.

[Steve Rinella]

All right, so how. How's how's winter going, Heather? What's going on?

[Yanni]

It's going well. You know, we, A lot of people celebrate new year, you know, January 1st, but our new year is coming up with the resurgence of life in springtime. So we spent a lot of time in the winter here just in my shop and just like the rest of the environment, hibernating, resting. And then as things awaken in the spring, we come to life and start our harvest season. And that kind of marks our. Our new year. And. Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

Is that, Is the new year. Is the new year a day or is it the new year just sort of like regarded as a window of time, like a broader window of time.

[Yanni]

Seasonal, you know, awakening things come out of hibernation, new plants.

[Steve Rinella]

Got it. So there's not like a specific day when you announce it.

[Yanni]

No. But springtime always feels like the new year for us.

[Steve Rinella]

Sure.

[Yanni]

I've been a nice job I've been working on. I've been learning how to tan deer skins with tree bark. And I have a. I tan my first seal skin at home. So it's here stretched on a frame.

[Steve Rinella]

Can you grab that and let us see the other side?

[Yanni]

Yeah. So, Steve, this is the seal skin that was hanging in the drying shed when you were here.

[Steve Rinella]

Okay.

[Yanni]

And I tanned it. It's pretty big, actually.

[Steve Rinella]

This frame is huge. Yeah.

[Decoy Dave]

Five feet tall.

[Yanni]

But this is a harbor seal.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh.

[Yanni]

You can't see the whole thing, but you can see the back of it.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, that turned out nice.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

This is not done, but you can see where I've dry scraped it and where I haven't got it. So as you. It'll lighten up in color and It'll soften up. So. Takes a lot of elbow grease. So working on that.

[Steve Rinella]

So what? What? So as you're learning to do your own seals. I remember you telling me that. I remember you saying that it's hard to find. There's not a lot of good places to send seals. Yeah, seals like you haven't been satisfied with. With sending them in to get them tanned.

[Yanni]

Yeah. Seals are really oily. You have to wash them right away after you skin them, or else the oils will oxidize on the fur and turn the fur yellow.

[Steve Rinella]

Okay.

[Yanni]

They're really rubbery, so they'll stretch like 10 times their original size. And I think they're hard to thin. It's just a really unique art when it comes to tanning them. And I really. I haven't found a tannery that tans them in a way that I guess produces the end product that can be sewn with. So I decided to try it myself. And yeah, just learning as I go.

[Steve Rinella]

So at. With. With Coastal Fur. Coastal Fur and Leather Sewing shop. Will you eventually. Do you think you'll get where you are able to have enough volume that you're selling products made from the seals you harvest and tan and so where like, the whole process becomes in house, or do you think that'll be too hard to ever have that level of volume?

[Yanni]

I think with sea otters, no, but with seals, we. So sea otters, the usable parts are the fur. But with seals, we eat the meat, we render the fat, and we use as much of the. The seal as possible. So we only harvest like two a year.

[Steve Rinella]

I see. Okay.

[Yanni]

For seals, we can definitely, you know, tan them here and convert them into sellable items. We're not able to sell whole pelts. The Marine Mammal Protection act requires us to convert them to a sellable item. So hat scarves and things like that in order to try to recoup caso. Definitely feasible with seals, but not sea otter because we hunt those in greater volume.

[Steve Rinella]

Now walk me through what's going on with learning how to bark tan your deer skins.

[Yanni]

I brought my two totes here. I'm gonna grab the computer and show you. So I have in here. This is whitetail. It's buckskin.

[Steve Rinella]

Damn, look at that.

[Heather Duville]

Wow, that looks awesome.

[Yanni]

I didn't know that buckskin just means, like, hair off. I thought it meant like a buck deer.

[Steve Rinella]

Like a.

[Yanni]

Like a deer. But buckskin means the hair is off. I didn't know that. So this is white tail hide, and this is like a tree bark tea. I'LL show you. You can see all the bark in there.

[Steve Rinella]

Yep, yep.

[Yanni]

So this is called a drench and this is the tanning agent. So tree bark. Some trees have a lot of tannins in them.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah. What trees are you using? Are you using hemlock?

[Yanni]

This is actually oak. But the local trees here that have a lot of tannins are alder and spruce and hemlock. And this drench is oat bran. So what, what we did was we soaked this in lime to deer, which is, you know, real high ph, and then we put it in this drench, which lowers the ph back down in preparation to put it into the tanning solution. So I'm really excited to learn this process. It's all natural and non toxic. So all of these products, when I'm done with it, can be composted or, you know, put back the earth and not cause harm. And yeah, I hope to learn this and, and be able to teach this soon.

[Steve Rinella]

So when you come down to head, I know you're working on this plan where you're going to come down to headquarters. You're going to help people tan their deer skins that people save up next. So will we be able to do, like, if we get all set up in our kitchen area, how many can we run through, do you think?

[Yanni]

Yeah, so we can, we can make these solutions to tan, you know, one. One hide or hundreds of hides, you know, just adjust the different measurements. But one of my goals is, you know, we try to use as much of what we harvest as possible and reduce waste whenever we can. So I love to learn the different ways to use the materials that we have and then also teach. So if I can come there, if you guys want to save your deer skins and if I'm able to teach you guys, I would love that. And.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, we're definitely doing that, man.

[Decoy Dave]

Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

What is it like, what would the timeline be from like killing a deer and skinning it and to turning that into what you're doing there.

[Yanni]

So you could put it like if you were to skin it and immediately tan it or. Okay, so you would skin it and you want to make sure you skin it close so you don't have to skin it twice. But if you leave flesh that on there, you know, we can always flesh it, I would say about two weeks.

[Seth Morris]

Okay.

[Steve Rinella]

Okay. So you'll get us set up like we'll, we'll save deer high, whoever wants to save a deer hide and, and we'll kind of instruct them on what they want to you know, so everything's ready. We'll get set up, you'll come down, introduce the process, make sure everything's going good and then we can kind of carry on once we get started in your absence. Yeah, yeah.

[Yanni]

You could in the lime and that takes, you know, like three days or it could, you could soak it for a week. So that's like you do this and then you wait and then you put it in the next solution and wait. So there's a lot of time there where we can work or we can.

[Heather Duville]

So Heather, if you wanted to do it hair on, do you just skip the lime process or is there. Is it. You have to do it totally different.

[Yanni]

It's a little different with seals. Yeah. You skip that bucking process.

[Heather Duville]

Gotcha.

[Yanni]

Put it right in. Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

No, man, I want the. I want buck skin. If you're like me, you've spent the last couple of it seems crazy but decades now handing over a ton of money to the big wireless carriers who really want to hang on to your money and more of it. If after years of overpaying for wireless, you're finally fed up with crazy high wireless bills, bogus fees and free perks that actually cost more money in the long run, then head over and switch to Mint Mobile. You say bye bye to your overpriced wireless plans, jaw dropping monthly bills and unexpected overages, Mint Mobile is here to rescue you with premium wireless plans starting at 15 bucks a month. All plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. If you like money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop [e-mail] Me Eater that's mint mobile.com Me Eater upfront payment of $45 for 3 month 5 gigabyte plan required equivalent to $15 per month. New customer offer for the first 3 months only. Then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra C Mint Mobile for details, anywhere worth going is worth going in good boots and find your perfect pair with to Covas. To Cova's crafts quality western boots for everyone from generational ranchers and lifelong cowboys. The first time boot buyers born in Texas in 2015 to Covas makes it easy for anyone to find their perfect boot. Whether it's a long day or a big night, your Tokovas are built to last and impress. That's why Esquire loves them and says there's a reason we keep going back to to Covas. In fact, my good friend Yanni, the Latvian evil was just bragging up to Me how comfortable his new to covas are. Ever wondered if you can pull off boots with your personal style? You owe it to your feet to pull off a pair of to covas. Plus with Tokova's best in the west guarantee, you get free returns and exchanges for 30 days. Right now, get 10% [e-mail] Meater when you sign up for email and text. That's 10% off at T C O V A S.com Meater toas.com Meat Eater C site for details to covas Point your toes West. This show is sponsored in part by Liquid iv. Now, I'm not one, I'll tell you, I'm not one for generally not one for new year's resolutions because, you know, I just feel like you should. That should be happening all year long. You should be improving yourself all year long. And all year long, I'm always telling myself, man, you gotta do a better job staying hydrated and drinking more liquids. And that is where liquid IV comes in because it helps me stay hydrated because I love the taste and it makes drinking water, which is normally a drag, pretty fun because you put a little, you know, little pouch of liquid IV in your water and all sudden it tastes phenomenal. Keeps you moving. I love it. And they're always kicking out new flavors like the new hydration multiplier. Sugar free raspberry lemonade, a bright zero sugar flavor combining notes of ripe, freshly picked raspberries in citrusy, zesty lemon. Break the mold and own your ritual. Just one stick plus 16 ounces of water hydrates better than water alone. Embrace your ritual with extraordinary hydration from Liquid IV. Get 20% off your first order of Liquid IV when you go to liquid I.com and use code Meat Eater at checkout. That's 20% off your first order when you shop. Better hydration today using promo code me eater@liquid I.com and I need to use that promo code myself because I'm headed to Mexico and I will be bringing a couple liquid ivs for every day that I will be there. Thank you. You know, Heather, my old man saved up a bunch of his deer skins and he had this super 1970s buck skin jacket. Oh, that's like, you know, in the 70s, they put the belts on everything and everything. Y. Yeah, but he had a dyed black and it was all his own deer skins. I don't know what in hell happened to that thing. Like someone hked it when he died. Like, we had a lot of different family members kind of running off of Stuff. I mean, you know, they're right.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

But someone horked that jacket.

[Seth Morris]

Did you guys have, like, during deer season, people would put out, like 55 gallon drums, just like out in the country in spots. And there'd be a sign there said, dump your deer hide in here.

[Steve Rinella]

No, but when our fur auction was Raven. A fur auction. And when you went to the fur auction that everything was bid on. Like, I would take this. Like, this otter would go up on the auction table, Right. And you might. You might have your. You might have. Let's say it was otters. You'd have them divided large, medium, small, male, female. And every one of those things is a lot. And they all get bit on individually. So if. If your trapper divides his muskrats into four piles, every pile gets bit on. Every trapper's. Every pile gets bit on. The way they would handle deer skins is the first deer skin that came across the table. They'd bid on that deer skin. And then that buyer entered into a contract, and he bought every deer skin at that price. And it was usually like four or five, six bucks.

[Seth Morris]

And he. That's all going to a tannery to get turned into buckskin.

[Steve Rinella]

And guys would be out in the parking lot cutting them in half and stuff, you know, to roll it up and sell it as two. But it was real common to sell them. But see, like, I don't think the price has changed. So in the mid-80s, it was five bucks. Now I think it's five bucks now. And now that's like a buck. And I think that people just don't. It's just. There's not money in it. And that leather mostly goes to gloves. Yeah. So I would. Dude, I would love to learn how to make my own. I just been too lazy to do.

[Yanni]

It during the winter. I work on, like, I try to make new patterns and try new things. I made a seal skin coat, which I have here.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, put that coat on real quick. I want to see that. Then we got a. Then we got a question for you. A fan question. See, that is badass, man.

[Heather Duville]

That's beautiful.

[Steve Rinella]

Put that thing on. Oh, you trimmed it in too.

[Seth Morris]

That's like some natural camouflage there.

[Steve Rinella]

That's what I tell. It's snow camel. Yeah.

[Yanni]

A fully removable washable liner.

[Steve Rinella]

What?

[Yanni]

This weighs eight pounds. It's so heavy.

[Heather Duville]

It's like a weighted blanket now.

[Steve Rinella]

That is amazing, though.

[Yanni]

It's so old here.

[Steve Rinella]

Have you been running around in that?

[Yanni]

Oh, I wear it just in the house. I can't. I Just love this thing.

[Steve Rinella]

Would you, would you be allowed to sell that jacket? Would that be. Would that fit the definition of made into something?

[Yanni]

Yes. I can't even hear you.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah. What would you have to get for that jacket?

[Yanni]

Oh, I don't even know. I don't think you could put a value on things like this. I mean, this is a custom like pattern. I made the pattern from a coat that I really liked and saved. And yeah, I do have. I have one other new pattern I'm going to show you guys.

[Steve Rinella]

And then amazing looking.

[Yanni]

Somebody wrote in and has a question.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, we're gonna hit with that question.

[Yanni]

But this other. This is super special. So I've never done this before, but do you guys know what this is?

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah. No. Yeah.

[Heather Duville]

A heating pad.

[Steve Rinella]

I was gonna say electric blanket, but then I was like, that's a very small electric blanket.

[Seth Morris]

Blanket.

[Yanni]

When you get old, everything hurts. So for Steve's birthday, I am making a custom fur cover for this heating pad to help soothe all of those aches and pains and midlife crises.

[Seth Morris]

Perfect.

[Steve Rinella]

That's a novel product. Yeah. I'm going to plug it in, get a long extension cord, take that power battery.

[Heather Duville]

Going to have 100amp hour lithium battery sitting next to him.

[Steve Rinella]

Okay, here's a question from a fan. This is a.

[Yanni]

Have it here, help with the traditional words.

[Steve Rinella]

Okay, you want, you want to do the question? I, I was going to read your.

[Yanni]

Question, but this, there's some flingit in there, so I thought.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, then you do it.

[Yanni]

Go ahead.

[Steve Rinella]

Okay, I'll do it. Then you do it.

[Decoy Dave]

Okay.

[Steve Rinella]

So Heather was asked, how far are you typically shooting when sea otter hunting? I'm Kixidi.

[Yanni]

It's Kixadi. That's the clan he belongs to, which is Raven.

[Steve Rinella]

Okay. I'm kick Saadi out of Sitka and hoping to harvest my first sea otter this weekend, weather permitting. That's cool. Any she. Any other tips? They ask.

[Yanni]

Then it says.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, sorry.

[Phil]

Oh, yeah, Heather. I didn't, I didn't give that last part to Steve.

[Steve Rinella]

So.

[Phil]

Yeah, that's my fault.

[Decoy Dave]

Okay.

[Yanni]

Goodness cheese. You and the meat eater crew. Gunischeesh means thank you. And this is from N. That's his traditional name.

[Steve Rinella]

That's great.

[Yanni]

He's Tlingit from Sitka. Raven, which is my opposite. I'm Eagle clan. So how far? Okay, so typically you're shooting from the boat and I would say within 100 yards up. Sometimes you can get off on a rock and shoot and you know, get a rest and aim farther. But that really Rarely happens. Any other tips? I would say it helps to have a good driver who, of course, they have to be eligible to participate by the Marine Mammal Protection act guidelines, but. Well, it's not guidelines, it's the law. But I would say when you're approaching sea otter, make sure you go with the swell or the chop instead of against it. That way you're getting a smoother approach. And it helps to have a really light, like a hair trigger, real light trigger. And just takes a lot of practice. You're gonna miss a lot. And we shoot everything that we harvest. So whether it's a sea otter, seal, deer, we shoot. We try to shoot everything in the head so it doesn't suffer. And that way we ensure that the pelt isn't damaged and the meat is not damaged. So what.

[Decoy Dave]

What.

[Seth Morris]

What cartridge are you shooting them with, Heather?

[Yanni]

I started out shooting with a.222, and now last year I got an AR, so a.223.

[Steve Rinella]

A thing I noticed about Heather's shooting, and she explained it to me as well, is she's not. It's kind of hard to describe. Maybe you can help me when I bring this up. She's not fighting the movement. She's not fighting the movement of the boat.

[Seth Morris]

Like, using the movement.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, she's like. She was saying you had this tendency to kind of want to, like, somehow rule out the movement of the boat or overcome it. But she's. She's jiving. She's like, jiving with the movement, you.

[Seth Morris]

Know, time in it.

[Yanni]

Yeah, you got, like, having a good dryer. My dad knows how to hunt, so he knows how to put you on the sea otter. But you want to shoot before they dive under. So they're kind of laying there eating, and then they. When you approach them, they. Sometimes they go see what's coming at them. You want to get a shot off right then. So you want to be ready. Because when they start to dive, it turns into this. It reminds me of those games at the arcade where you, like, are whack a mole. These are popping up and you just don't know.

[Seth Morris]

Yep.

[Yanni]

And it becomes more difficult. But yeah, so the boat is moving with the swell. They're moving at in a distance at a different rate. So I kind of go on my tippy toes and bend my knees, and you want to, like, move with the swell, and you're not going to get a steady aim and get those crosshairs on them for very long. So you just want to shoot right when your crosshairs past There. Head. And. Yes, it just takes practice.

[Seth Morris]

And is there any danger of those otters sinking like a seal mite, or do they just stay afloat after you kill them?

[Yanni]

My first sea otter ever got sunk, but they. They rarely sink. You want to shoot them in the head, and their fur is so. Yeah, dense, and it traps that air, you know, in the undercoat, they'll float. But occasionally, if you shoot a little low and they dive, they might try to take a breath and breathe in water and then sink. But that doesn't happen very often. And I would. You need to skin them right away. Because of the fur density, they hold on to their heat. Even if it's zero degrees out. They'll stay warm for a really long time, and the belly will get green and they'll spoil. So skin them right away and. Yeah, make sure you take good care of the materials that you get.

[Steve Rinella]

But, like, right.

[Heather Duville]

Right away. Heather, you mean, like, you're. You're skinning them on the boat, like, as soon as they come in?

[Yanni]

Yeah, either on the boat, if. If you can, but usually you're cruising, trying to hunt and get as many as you can. And as soon as I get home, I skin them on a tailgate, which is the perfect height. We don't hang them when we skin them. I just roll them, you know, on my tailgate. And that seems to work best for me.

[Steve Rinella]

Good deal.

[Heather Duville]

Cool.

[Steve Rinella]

Well, thanks for joining, Heather.

[Yanni]

Yeah, thank you. Happy birthday, Steve.

[Steve Rinella]

Thank you very much. We'll talk to you again soon. It's great to have you on, and I look forward to talking to you next time.

[Yanni]

Me, too.

[Steve Rinella]

All right, Phil. Listener feedback. You got it, buddy.

[Phil]

Yeah, we've got a few. Just a reminder to everyone, get some questions in if you want. We're gonna do another one of these at the very end of the show, or I might be able to catch them right now. Be fast. First one. Let's see. This is about hunting history. Steve, Episode two. Someone's asking. Grant is asking, have they not used any LiDAR technology on those glaciers? Seems like you might find some fun stuff.

[Steve Rinella]

That's one thing no one brought up to me. Okay. Yeah, I'm trying to even think of. Boy, I don't. You know, I've been with people using lidar. I don't even know how. You know, I honestly don't know how that technology works up against all that. That. All that ice and, like. Yeah, a glacier's got a lot of air in it. Yeah. I have no. I'm way out. I'm Already over my waiters, I have no idea. I had. No one mentioned that to me, though, I can tell you that.

[Phil]

Yeah. Colin asks. Well, I guess she. First he says, steve, I lost an inch of my pinky in a framing accident. Pinched it in a lift. He's torn between turning it into a fishing lure or sending it to us to put in the Werner Bratzler machine.

[Steve Rinella]

Well, that's a great idea. If you send it over, if it's nice and frozen, I'd like to eat it. Because I'm trying to find a way to be like a subject matter expert on cannibalism without killing anybody.

[Seth Morris]

I tried to explain my kids the other day that cannibals, they would call human meat long pork, and they were sure they weren't buying it.

[Steve Rinella]

No, I've heard that.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, I'd like a little long pork. How much you got? Is it meaty? If not, I would put it into a. I would. I would. If I had that happen to me, I would put it into a little jar of formaldehyde. Formaldehyde. And then people would come over and display it and I'd be like, guess what that is.

[Seth Morris]

You turn that. That pinky bone into a little pendant for a necklace.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, that's what my boy's collar, his little surgery stuff they removed. I made a necklace.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, you put it in epoxy.

[Steve Rinella]

That's right. Resin. Yeah.

[Phil]

Next question Andreas asks. Well, he specifically asked you, Steve, when you use fur as a wall hanger, do you leave it dried or do you get it tanned before hanging it?

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I get it tanned. I get it tanned. What I'm holding right here is flesh stretched. Fleshed and stretched. And this lasts a long time. I can't get my angle right before you can appreciate the immense. But no, you'll get. And also, this is leather out, so when you tan it, it'll flip and then I'll. I use those as wall hangers.

[Phil]

Jove and Figueroa, I guess, asks or first he says, happy birthday, Steve. Question for everyone at the table. Has anyone ever had any awkward situations dragging deer through permitted public hunting areas like parks or conservancies?

[Steve Rinella]

No, but I'm sensitive to it.

[Heather Duville]

I don't think.

[Seth Morris]

Well, I mean, awkward for who is the question? I guess not awkward for me, but yeah, I've carried some mule deer bucks down an escalator at a ski resort one time. That was pretty interesting.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, I know what you're talking about. And I have tended to. I actually had this Discussion with a friend of mine once where it wasn't a deer, but we were carrying something up to a public parking lot, and I was wanting to hide it. He's like, nothing to be ashamed of. I'm like, I'm not ashamed. I just, like. It's not like a matter of shame. I'm just. I like to be low. Pro.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

Like, I just don't. It's just. I just prefer to be low profile about it. It's like. It's like zero shame. I would just be like, why? If it's a place I'd like to hang out, why even draw, like, a little bit of a. Or get someone pissed off or create some headache or someone calling. Even if you didn't do anything wrong, the fact that they're going to call the cops, someone might know that it's.

[Seth Morris]

Wrong, and then you're gonna have to explain yourself even though you didn't do anything.

[Steve Rinella]

So I usually just go, like, low profile on any kind of situation like that. Like, even at a public. If there's. If you're parking and duck hunting at a spot and other people are using the same parking lot, I don't come out just like, you know, throwing ducks all over the place. Yeah, I'll throw them around later, but I just kind of go, like, slip out of here. Not make a scene.

[Heather Duville]

I used to hunt a bunch in New Jersey back in the day, and it was often, like, real small wood lots. And you would always have to, like, be real careful about shot placement because you didn't want it to, like, get on the run over, die in the neighbor's yard. Like, especially if there's snow on the ground.

[Steve Rinella]

Yep.

[Heather Duville]

I just heard some horror stories, like deer dying in swimming pools and.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, like.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah, it was, you know, it was something you kind of had to watch out for when you're hunting those small parcels.

[Steve Rinella]

Yep. Reducing tensions.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

Next question.

[Phil]

Kentucky Thunder Outdoors says, happy birthday. If you had to choose, would you wear a cowboy hat for a month or eat vegan for a year?

[Steve Rinella]

I'd go cowboy hat.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah. That's not even a question.

[Heather Duville]

Kentucky Thunder. I like that. I like that name.

[Steve Rinella]

That is a good name. Yeah.

[Heather Duville]

Got a big strut and gobbler.

[Steve Rinella]

I know if I was going turkey hunting with a dude named Kentucky Thunder outdoor Ours, that'd be like, we're gonna get something.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

And you'd be wearing a hat. Cowboy hat.

[Phil]

We'll do one more for this round. Jeremy from Australia says, asks if you've. Have you ever had any encounters when predators harassed or attacked your pack animals when you were hunting.

[Steve Rinella]

I have certainly heard of them. I have had. But I have witnessed personally only the opposite, where elk would take a great interest in. Take a great interest in livestock at a couple locations. But no, I've definitely heard that. I've never seen that. But I don't hunt with livestock a lot. I'm like. Like, I'm the last guy I would ask a livestock question to.

[Heather Duville]

Yes.

[Seth Morris]

No. I mean, I've had my dog run into a bear a couple times, but no livestock issues.

[Steve Rinella]

I'll get you. I'm going to give you a different piece of advice if you're going to ask livestock questions. I've learned that you can only ask a livestock question. This is going to sound like this is going to annoy people. You can only ask a livestock question to someone that was raised around livestock. Yeah, like, it's not one of those things you can come into late in life.

[Seth Morris]

Right.

[Steve Rinella]

There's just too much subtlety to it. You know, like guys that really know about horses. Like, you'll see a horse be like, oh, it looks like a horse to me. And people be like, oh, no, he, like, is having whatever problem or he's. You know what I mean? They just. They can just sense it. Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

I feel like I looked at a horse that maybe had like one little lameness in its leg. I wouldn't see anything. But that guy would be like, you can't ride that one.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, they'll know. Like, they'll be able to tell you about its parents and stuff. You can't get that.

[Seth Morris]

No.

[Steve Rinella]

It's amazing the people that grew up around it, you know, it's just one of those things you got to absorb. So, yeah, I'd go find. I wouldn't talk to me about it, but no, I'd be able to tell you if something showed up in a bear, ate something. That's never happened, but it. It happens. I think just to be a little more helpful, I've more. I guess even what I'm saying, I've heard more about stuff coming for the feed that makes, like, bears getting tuned into the. To the. To the supplement the grain and stuff for the horses.

[Seth Morris]

I think a bigger danger than predators killing your livestock is livestock killing you. If you're using horses or mules, you know, doing things right.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, If I had a pistol with me, that's what my pistol be for. Shooting the horse, trying to defend myself from the horse.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah, I've seen some horse wrecks.

[Steve Rinella]

All right. Throwback Thursday. This is going to require 10 minutes from 11:35 to 11:45.

[Seth Morris]

What time is it, Phil?

[Steve Rinella]

It's 11:41. We're already screwed.

[Phil]

It's over.

[Seth Morris]

Throw back on a Thursday morning. Stephen Brody, Take me back to 1974. This is my favorite one of his songs, man. Did I mention Steven Brody are old as.

[Phil]

It's fitting cuz you're one year older today.

[Seth Morris]

He's past the point where birthdays matter, though.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, dude, it really doesn't matter. Yeah, it really doesn't matter. My kids today were so funny. My little boy, my older boy and he's in wood shop and he'd made a honey dipper. You know, what do you call them? Honey.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, the little thing with the grooves in it.

[Steve Rinella]

But the kid who was responsible for staying in the mall put like a lead based stain or something on this. So my boy's like, he gives it to me. He's like, you can't really though. It's more like just for show because he says because it's got like actual stain on it. Oh, look at that.

[Decoy Dave]

A lot more.

[Seth Morris]

You can set them down.

[Steve Rinella]

Can I eat my cupcake?

[Heather Duville]

We'll get them.

[Seth Morris]

You can eat while we're. We're doing our little throwback.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, I put my ring on too.

[Phil]

This shouldn't take very long. It's gonna be one of our shorter throwbacks.

[Steve Rinella]

Phil's kind of underselling the shorebat throwback segment.

[Seth Morris]

Not real interested in it.

[Phil]

Oh, no, it's a good one. It's just not as jam packed as other ones because Steve's not participating. Seth, we'll have you go first here.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah, this photo here. I just had to go through my cell phone real quick to see what I had on there because it was, you know, late notice since Randall ditched us here.

[Steve Rinella]

But that's a giant beaver.

[Heather Duville]

This was, I think the first time we went trapping together. We filmed that little thing for YouTube. And yeah, we caught a few nice beavers, but this was the biggest one.

[Steve Rinella]

I can tell it's a long time ago because I don't have a blue shirt like that.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah, I think it was 21, maybe. Wow, 20. That might have been 20.

[Steve Rinella]

God, I was probably 20.

[Phil]

And then we've got this video. Seth.

[Heather Duville]

And then. Yeah, this is just a video from the fish shack. This was an old rusted double barrel that Steve has up there. We're, we're curious if it's still shot or it blows blow up. So he had that helmet on.

[Steve Rinella]

I don't even Remember this? Oh, it's got a rear trigger.

[Seth Morris]

It's hard to keep guns working up there, huh?

[Heather Duville]

At the end here, he says, I'm gonna hang that up and let it rust some more.

[Steve Rinella]

Hang that back up, let it rust some more.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah, Good times.

[Phil]

Let's see. We got some pretty.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, yeah. Show the other one first, Phil.

[Phil]

Oh, sorry about that.

[Seth Morris]

There's an order to this.

[Steve Rinella]

God, look like jester.

[Seth Morris]

This is B. This is Steve and I's first hunt together that we did for Meat Eater. And I found him, this buck. We were hiking in. In the morning in the dark, I remember. And it was real hot for November. And we were hiking in. And after, like, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes, maybe a mile of hike, and Steve's like, brody, Brody, what are we doing?

[Decoy Dave]

Where are we going?

[Seth Morris]

Like, he's getting real irritated because I think he was well sweated up.

[Steve Rinella]

That's not why.

[Seth Morris]

But then we got to the glass and spot, and he's like, oh, I like this spot. Then we found that buck a few minutes later, and later that day, Steve killed him. And then. Yeah, then I killed that little dinker later. Later in the hunt. But you can see we're wearing some vintage first light, though.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, yeah.

[Heather Duville]

I look like Chester, Even vintage fhf.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, that deer's got a bad hole in it. He ain't walking away from that situation.

[Seth Morris]

Nope.

[Heather Duville]

Nope.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, There we go.

[Phil]

Cool.

[Steve Rinella]

God, you were young, Brody.

[Seth Morris]

Well, so are you.

[Steve Rinella]

Good Lord.

[Heather Duville]

How. What year was this?

[Seth Morris]

Was this. Probably not. I think it's at least nine years ago, maybe 10 years ago.

[Steve Rinella]

So what happens to a man, age is like a disease. Old age, it's like a disease.

[Seth Morris]

But I feel like I'm. I don't know. I'm hiking around just as good now as I was back then.

[Steve Rinella]

I was reading about last night. I'm reading this book that my friend Ben has coming out called the mysterious Mr. Nakamoto. It's about the inventor of blockchain and bitcoin.

[Seth Morris]

Yep.

[Steve Rinella]

And anyways, dudes in that world are big into. I had no idea. But dudes that are big into that world, like, that were big into early Internet and then up into the 2010, 2009, big into cryptography and stuff. They also happen. Like that mindset. They're also big into cryogenics, where they're, like, getting their. They get a lot of these dudes as they're dying. They're getting their brains frozen or their whole body's frozen, and they just feel it's like health care.

[Seth Morris]

Right.

[Steve Rinella]

Because someday they're going to get rebooted. But if you really had faith in that, if you really had faith, you'd go in right now, right?

[Seth Morris]

Not gonna happen.

[Steve Rinella]

Come back later when you're kicking ass.

[Seth Morris]

Yep.

[Steve Rinella]

Because if you're going in, if you're going in an old dead guy and they bring you back, you still got a problem.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

[Heather Duville]

True.

[Steve Rinella]

But if you. If you really believed. Go now.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah. I don't know. Like, I don't mind being my age. Like, I feel like hunting and hiking. I'm better than I was back then because, you know, you got the mentality to just go.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah.

[Heather Duville]

I gotta say, ever since I started hunting with you, I don't know. I don't know. It's like any sort of slowdown.

[Steve Rinella]

No, no, you're just charging.

[Heather Duville]

Charging ahead.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah. See, for me, what's happening is I've always been too skinny. But when you get old, it winds up being you're glad you were too skinny.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

You know what I'm saying? Like, don't.

[Heather Duville]

To carry around extra weight.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah. You used to be weak. Now you're just not old. Do you know what I'm saying? It winds up working out in the end.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

All right, where are we at? What happens next?

[Phil]

Well, I. I was actually told to supply a Throwback Thursday picture, Steve. And you know, I was thinking about all. Just an endless trove of memories that we have together, Steve. And the one that I pulled out was this tiki bar. That's right, In Nashville, when I was trying to go to this tiki bar by myself because I was ashamed. And then you, Katie, Cal and Roark Denver all joined.

[Seth Morris]

It looks like you're there with Vince Vaughn. Man, Steve's got a Vince Vaughn thing going.

[Steve Rinella]

I forgot about that.

[Phil]

It's kind of a crappy quality picture, but. Yeah, that was. That was February 2020, a month before everything. Everything shut down.

[Steve Rinella]

That was before I quit drinking.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

Anyway, here we are.

[Phil]

Fun times.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah. Me and Phil making out. If you're like me, you've spent the last couple of. It seems crazy, but decades now, handing over a ton of money to the big wireless carriers who really want to hang on to your money and more of it. If after years of overpaying for wireless, you're finally fed up with crazy high wireless bills, bogus fees, and free perks that actually cost more money in the long run, then head over and switch to Mint Mobile, you say bye bye to your overpriced wireless plans. Jaw dropping monthly bills and unexpected overages. Mint Mobile is here to rescue you with premium wireless plans starting at 15 bucks a month. All plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. If you like money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop [e-mail] me eater that's mint mobile.com meater upfront payment of $45 for three month five gigabyte plan required equivalent to $15 per month new customer offer for the first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. If you have a family, you have an obligation to plan for your future, meaning planning for their future, as in what happens to your family if you're not there to provide for them now. You can protect your family by securing their future with life insurance. You can use Policy Genius to get it Policy Genius makes finding and buying life insurance simple and ensures your loved ones have a financial safety net they can use to cover debts and routine expenses, or even invest that money to earn interest over time. With Policy Genius, you can buy life insurance policies that start at just $292 per year for a million dollars of coverage. Some options are 100% online and let you avoid unnecessary medical exams. Think about for a minute all the expenses your loved ones might be exposed to if you weren't around to help. And keep in mind this even mortgage payments can be covered by life insurance. Secure your families tomorrow so you have peace of mind today. Head to policygenius.com or click the link in the description to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. That's policygenius.com hey folks, Steve Rinella here. Just like in archery or marksmanship, in the world of architecture, engineering and construction, precision is key. That's why over 3 million pros trust Bluebeam for digitally marking up PDFs, collaborating on projects, and optimizing their processes. Whether you're an architect, engineer or project manager, Bluebeam's got you covered from start to finish. It helps you be more efficient, minimize risk, and deliver high quality projects every time. Beyond saving time and improving your work, Bluebeam helps protect our environment. Bluebeam customers have reduced up to 73% of their paper consumption by using Bluebeam for reviews and submittals. Try bluebeam free for 14 days. No credit card needed. It's no brainer. Head over to bluebeam.com today and see how it can make a difference in your work. You won't regret it again. That's bluebeam.com. check it out. All right, where are we at?

[Phil]

Oh, we've got Randy coming in.

[Steve Rinella]

No, I'm excited about this, man. This is a good story. Next up on the phone, we have fisheries Division chief for Michigan's Department of Natural Resources. Randy, I'm going to go out on a limb. Well, ask him what the hell his last name is. Claremont. Hello, Randy. Thanks for being here, and welcome to the show. What's going on? Hit me with your last name. I want to make sure I got it right.

[Decoy Dave]

Yeah, you did. You did great, Steve. It's Claremont. And happy birthday, by the way.

[Steve Rinella]

Thank you, buddy. All right. Bunch of questions. Yeah. When telling you how to. How to do this in good order. When did Michigan lose, Like, what was the last grayling?

[Decoy Dave]

You know, it's funny you say that, because the last grayling was actually in the upper Peninsula in 1932. Is. So there's. There's. You know, you go back to the historic record, there's some debate about that, but the. The distribution in the Upper Peninsula was actually pretty small. It was not as big as the northern Lower.

[Steve Rinella]

Okay.

[Decoy Dave]

And I understand you're familiar a little bit with the Muskegon area of Michigan.

[Steve Rinella]

Yes, sir.

[Decoy Dave]

So I pulled out an article from Ben East. This article was published in Journal of Outdoor Life in May of 1930.

[Steve Rinella]

You mean the Ben East?

[Decoy Dave]

Yeah, the Ben East.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh.

[Decoy Dave]

And he's trying to figure out if they're still grayling around Michigan or if they've been extirpated. In particular, he talks to an angler that's been fishing for grayling for years in the Muskegon area, and he cites them in this article.

[Steve Rinella]

No way.

[Seth Morris]

That's pretty cool.

[Decoy Dave]

The angler was initials E.S. magoon of Muskegon, Michigan. I'm reading the 1930 article right now, and he said, I fish for grayling in the early 1880s. I catch one after another in Carlton Sand, Cleveland, and Silver Creeks and empty into the White river and.

[Steve Rinella]

You got to be kidding me. Really?

[Decoy Dave]

No.

[Steve Rinella]

That's cool.

[Decoy Dave]

You're probably familiar with some of those streets.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah.

[Decoy Dave]

In any case, he said he was very concerned about the. The grayling being extirpated because he only caught one the previous year and none that year, and that was 1930. What.

[Steve Rinella]

What did a man.

[Decoy Dave]

What.

[Seth Morris]

What did them in Randy? Like, why did they disappear?

[Decoy Dave]

Yeah, yeah. It's, you know, well understood that in Michigan streams, you know, we have sandy soils, relatively low gradient compared to mountain streams, you know, but the deforestation, just clearing all the vegetation it allowed those streams to warm up and then all the sediment, organic sediment, not the, not the sand and the, you know, when you have sandy soils, but a lot of vegetation, the water will seep through the ground quickly and then flow groundwater in the streams. So you've got cover that keeps them cold and cold groundwater. When you take all the vegetation off and deforest what happened in Michigan, a lot of other Midwestern states, that water just becomes surface water. It runs right into the streams. And that pretty much decimated grayling. In addition to. We didn't have a department of Natural resources, didn't have any kind of protection. So unregulated fishing and grayling are super fun fish to catch. They're, they're really enjoyable. A little bit easier to catch the summer trout species, so they were easy to fish for.

[Steve Rinella]

Hey, what. Where were you able to find. To do a reintroduction? Where are you able to find grayling? That seems like it's. Yeah, you know, that seems like it'd be like the right grayling. Right. Or the closest to the right grayling.

[Decoy Dave]

Yep. Well, so, you know, we looked at the lower 48 and tried to determine if any populations existed that could serve as a source population for Michigan. The only remnant population that we are aware of is the Big Hole river in Montana. And actually Montana's rehabilitation program. You know, we're, we're mirroring a lot of things that Montana's been doing, but that population isn't at the level where it could serve as a gamete source. So we ended up going to the Chino river in Alaska for the gamete source. And really, you know, a lot of people say, you know, with warming of streams and things like that, is this the right time? But what we find these populations is that they're highly migratory in their native range. So they're going to find the cold groundwater and they're going to go where they need to go. We expect that. And it's part of the reason we selected the Cheno river stock.

[Steve Rinella]

How many? How many and where are you going to try? Are you going to try to cut them loose?

[Decoy Dave]

Yeah. So, you know, we went through a stream candidate selection process where basically we wanted stakeholders, partners in this to nominate rivers that they felt grayling reintroduction should, should occur. We then went and looked at the habitat suitability in those rivers. We did a lot of work before we ever went to Alaska to get the eggs and by the way, shout out to Alaska. You know, those staff up there did a phenomenal job and really helped Michigan out a lot. So we went through the habitat suitability and that habitat suitability. We want to make sure that, you know, that all the things that led to the demise have been addressed, as well as competition with other introduced trout and salmon species. And we have very strong partnership with nonprofits, angling groups, tribal governments, you name it. And that really, a combination of those factors led to a selection of three streams. The upper and oftentimes the grayling. You're talking about the upper part of the watershed. These are the headwaters of the streams, headwaters of the little Manistee river, headwaters of the Boardman river near Traverse City.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, yeah, The Maple river.

[Decoy Dave]

And in all three. And these are really northern, lower, northwestern lower.

[Steve Rinella]

And that is so cool, man. What do you think? How confident are you in success and what success look like for you? I mean, are you. Does success look like a breeding population or what is it?

[Decoy Dave]

Yeah, you know, I think if we saw grayling reproducing successfully within their historic range, you know, that'd be a great technical definition of, hey, we've reached success, right? To me, it's more than that, because I would get questions a lot over the years. I've been working in fisheries for over 25 years. Originally from Michigan is why aren't we going to bring back grayling? We have a town, city Grayling, named after the fish that we no longer have. So this means a lot. And trying to make a commitment, you know, we're not going to be successful in day one, nor have we tried. Have we been successful. This has been tried half a dozen times, really. And really, the Montana model, where you're putting the eggs right into the streams. And again, addressing some of the other things about partnership and habitat suitability, those are all important factors to why we think we can be successful now in the rehabilitation. But like anything else, what it really boils down to is, are we committed to doing this? Do we. Are we committed to bringing grayling back to Michigan? We are.

[Steve Rinella]

So what happens. What's going to happen when down the road a dude's out fishing brookies or whatever, steelhead, and he hooks a grayling? You, presumably, you're not going to close down stream sections. You're not gonna. You're not gonna, like, remove fishing from these stream sections. So it'll have to be that people know they're there when they get one to be careful, turn it back because. Because it's not. It's gonna be a while till there's like a harvestable number. I mean, that's like a really? Best case scenario, right?

[Decoy Dave]

Yeah, absolutely. We already removed the regulations prohibiting targeted fishing. So if you catch a grayling, you can take a picture of it. Yeah, immediate release. We've had a lot of interest and so I expect anglers, you know, they're really going to seek out these opportunities. We're still a couple of years down the road, but myself included, I've caught grayling in Alaska. I really, really am hoping that during my tenure I can catch a wild grayling in Michigan and snap that picture and release that fish. And right now, regulations allow for that. So we're just hoping the, the fish will cooperate, man.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah. That's amazing. I would, I would make that trip back there to see that happen, to do that. You know, there's a thing I've really appreciated about, you know, I, I haven't lived in Michigan for forever. I left in the late 90s, mid-90s. But the thing I've appreciated about just the Great Lakes angling community in general and fisheries management there in general, is going back and really the work people are doing to really put an emphasis on those native fish. You know, like the way I've seen anglers come to have a much greater appreciation for lake trout, for instance, the enthusiasm around, the enthusiasm around getting sturgeon back in the rivers, people treating whitefish with a lot of respect, work to bring Arctic grayling back. Like, I love seeing that stuff, man, where people are kind of having that ecological awareness of where they live of kind of getting curious about what this place used to look like, what went wrong, why does it look like it does now? What are the implications of invasive, you know, aquatic invasive species, and how do we start turning back the clock and bringing back some of these really cool, unique features fish to that area? I know you guys do work in that space and people in the conservation movement do work in that space. I think it's phenomenal, man. I love to see it.

[Decoy Dave]

Hey, I appreciate it. And just, just because you say you haven't, you know, really seen it since the 90s, I'll tell you, we just recently announced kind of Lake Superior lake trout populations fully restored. But if, if you did eat lake trout, you know, back in the 80s and 90s, a lot of people didn't think that they had a lot of table fare, put it that way. The lake trout today are some of the best tasting Great Lakes fish out there. And there's a lot of reason for it. Much is to do with the health of the Great Lakes, the diverse diet items. But I tell you, if you can get an episode where you have somebody flay a lake trout caught out of the Great Lakes. Now that that meat is just bright orange and fabulous. Absolutely incredible. So, yeah, attachment to native species increase angling opportunity, but the end goal is that people can use that. And we. And we hear more and more about, you know, fish as food by recreational anglers, you know, across the state.

[Steve Rinella]

Sure, man.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

Keep up the good work. I love seeing it and I love hearing stories about those native fish come back. Like, it's a really unique environment, all that whole great lake system. And, you know, if we. If we let our guard down, we're going to wind up where more and more and more, no matter where you go in the world, where you ever go in the country, you're going to see these kind of same things. And to have that, all that biodiversity and like, these unique fish from these unique places just makes it so much more exciting to travel around. So, I mean, I wish you guys the best of luck on that project. I think it's super cool.

[Decoy Dave]

Excellent. Yeah. Thanks again for the opportunity, and I really appreciate the attention of grayling, and hopefully we can, you know, achieve what we're set out to do.

[Steve Rinella]

So send me a couple fillets.

[Decoy Dave]

Yeah. This spring is our first big introduction. May 12th.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, excellent. All right, Good luck, dude. Appreciate it.

[Decoy Dave]

Thank you.

[Steve Rinella]

Yep. All right, Phil, about to the end of the show, but what about that? What about that? Listener feedback, buddy.

[Phil]

Yo, let's hit it. Kyle, here's kind of a heavy one. What does the crew think about Indiana introducing a bill to legalize the sale of venison and another one to legalize the release of CWD resistant farm deer into the wild?

[Steve Rinella]

I don't like either of them.

[Seth Morris]

I didn't know about the Indiana thing, but it's not a good idea. Neither is, like, we are. We've talked about the releasing.

[Steve Rinella]

It's. It's pissing in the wind. Yeah, I don't think, like. I think it sounds like a great idea, but when you look in, in, like actual, like, genetic transfer. Genetic transfer that you're somehow gonna like, overcome like the. The. The native genome and overwhelm it and. And actually, like, create a strain of it. And I think it's pissing in the wind. And I definitely don't like the idea this. This people keep wanting to go down this path of commodifying deer meat and selling deer meat. Listen, if you think right now. If you think right now it's getting harder and harder and harder to find hunting spots because of because of the. The takeoff of, like, leasing for deer. Like, farms where there used to be, like, 10, 12 people hunted the farm. Now two guys hunt the farm because they lease it. You think that you're seeing a reduction in acreage available to you to come hunt? Wait till a person looks, and each of these deer is worth 2, 300 bucks, right? Come on. I don't like it at all.

[Seth Morris]

Not only that. Like, I mean, he's. He's parents selling deer meat with cwd, and it's like, how are you ever gonna sell deer meat when.

[Steve Rinella]

I know.

[Seth Morris]

You know what I mean?

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, I know. Yeah. Be like, you're gonna kill all these deer to sell. Someone's gonna check them for cwd. It's just. It's. It's. It's like people looking at complicated problems and thinking they got these little solutions for them. I think it's. I think it's stupid. I mean, I don't mean to be so blunt. Not. I don't want to say it's stupid. I don't. I don't. Yeah, I definitely don't want to say it stupid, because that sounds like not being productive ain't a good idea. How's that?

[Heather Duville]

Ain't a good idea.

[Phil]

Do you guys have favorite. Favorite mounts or skins you have in. In. In your houses, respectively?

[Seth Morris]

I haven't got my favorite still sitting at the taxidermist or the. Whoever's beetling it right now.

[Steve Rinella]

What are you missing?

[Seth Morris]

That moose.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, your moose. Yeah. Yeah. That'll be good. Yeah. I should call.

[Heather Duville]

I got a couple hides I like a bunch. One being a red fox that Steve and I trapped last year, and I also have another red fox from. From Pennsylvania. That's beautiful. And skull mounts. I like the co deer. I just like how tiny their little skulls are.

[Seth Morris]

Put them anywhere.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah. Easy to move. They just look cool. So.

[Steve Rinella]

All right, well, this is a tough.

[Phil]

One, but if you don't know it, maybe you could direct this person to someone who does. Is there a way to rehabilitate house fire, smoke damage, tanned furs?

[Steve Rinella]

I would call. You know what I would do? Call. He's gonna hate me for saying this. Call John Hayes at Hayes Tax. Because I. I've had questions like this for John. Like, I'll give you a piece of feedback John gave me one time. I had a very old. I have a really old bear hide. Like, a really, really old bear hide that I never took good care of. And I was, like, wanting to know. It's. I kind of kept it outside over the outdoor Furniture under our patio, protected but outside. And it just got greasy and nasty. And I was like, man, can I, like, like shampoo this thing? You know? And he said, take a little wet, a little patch down. Just take a corner and wet it down. And he says, if you wet that down, try to tear it with your hand when you get it wet. If you can tear that thing with your hand, don't do it. And I got that corner wet, and sure enough, man, you could just rip it like. Like wet paper. So he's got little tips like that. Another thing I had. Another thing John Hayes did for me is I had a bad. Kind of a really long story. I got a mountain goat and I wanted to. I got it rugged out. It's. Oh, it's hanging right there. When I got that rug back, the hair was all slipping. Not my fault. The hair was all slipping. Like, this is a long story. The people involved are not even alive anymore. The person involved is not even alive anymore. The hair was slipping. John Hayes took that rug apart and put an adhesive.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, really?

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, he spread an adhesive on the backside. You couldn't get that hair out if you wanted to.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Heather Duville]

Wow.

[Steve Rinella]

So John Hayes, Hayes Tax Studio, he'll tell you what to do. He's got all kinds of little tricks because when you've been in the business that long, people bring you more screwed up stuff. Do you know? I mean, all you do is deal with people's mistakes.

[Heather Duville]

Oh, yeah.

[Phil]

This.

[Steve Rinella]

This is.

[Phil]

This will be an easy one to answer because we've had someone on the podcast. But just so you can remind this person, Phil is asking for. For an episode on hearing loss. I think we've done a few with grace from Otopro.

[Heather Duville]

Yep.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah, just go back and find those. I wish we could think of the number, but we've done two. We've done two with an audiologist about why that's happening to you. Why when you're laying in bed at night, you're listening to Wee. Keeps you awake. Oh, man.

[Heather Duville]

Yep.

[Phil]

Brody, I'm gonna direct this one to you because maybe you've seen this show, but a lot of people have been asking if we've watched American Primeval on that.

[Seth Morris]

You know, I did watch that.

[Heather Duville]

I did, too. Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

And there's like some cool historical accuracies in it, but it's also, you know, Hollywood. Like, I don't want to give it away to, you know, people that haven't seen it, but there's a really stupid scene with wolves attacking, like, busting through A cabin and trying to attack people like shit. That would never happen. Yeah, but like the Jim Bridger stuff where he was running the fort, that's all. And his run in with Brigham Young, like, that's that, that stuff all happened. It was a cool show.

[Heather Duville]

I thought it was good. Cool.

[Phil]

I think you gave an update on this, Steve, for an episode that maybe hasn't aired yet or it was trivia or something. But someone's Dakota is asking for a punt gun update because I know you've made some. We made some strides in that department from Dakota punts.

[Steve Rinella]

We're getting very close to shooting it. We just last week we were out, but we were working on kind of a way to. You can't mount it rigid. You got. It's got to move. So we're working on a mount, but yeah, we would have shot it, but we're just having a real streak of bad weather right now. Just not fun. Time to be out blowing your hand off, trying to shoot your punt gun.

[Heather Duville]

29 below this morning. Yeah, it's warm up.

[Phil]

Well, we will do one more. And this is kind of like a very, this is a very broad, generic question, but hey, it's your birthday, Steve, so I'm going to put you on the spot in, in your 51 years. This from Tyler. What is. Do you have a favorite hunting memory?

[Steve Rinella]

No.

[Phil]

All right, thanks, Tyler. That'll do it for today's episode.

[Steve Rinella]

Just the whole pack, the whole package of it. I like a lot. I, I, I'd have to think about that, that for a long time.

[Phil]

Yeah, it's a tough question.

[Steve Rinella]

I know.

[Heather Duville]

One you talk about a lot with a lot of enthusiasm is the, the youth deer season hunt.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh, well, yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, I would say that, but that's pretty recent.

[Heather Duville]

Yeah.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah. I like going, I like hunting. I like hunting. Taking the kids, youth deer hunting. But then taking any kind of. I, you know, younger people can't picture because I wouldn't have pictured when I was younger. You just can't, like, I might as well not even say it because you just can't picture it when you get older, if you have kids and you should. It just, I can't explain it. It just winds up being so much more fun to do stuff with them.

[Seth Morris]

Like when I think about me getting my first buck versus my kid getting, it's like, it's no comparison.

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah. I would rather hunt one day with my kids than like three days without them. It's just more fun, man. You know, I Just like. But I, I wouldn't expect anybody to understand that. But like I said, I recommend having kids if you can have kids. Gives you a good sense of, I don't know, man. Gives you good sense of purpose.

[Phil]

Cool. Well, we've got one more thing to read before the end of the show about a. A call to action for our listeners.

[Steve Rinella]

Oh.

[Heather Duville]

Scroll down.

[Steve Rinella]

I gotta get the hang of this hosting, folks, before we go. We're in need of some fresh hot tip offs. Man, I could make a hot tip off every damn day.

[Phil]

Well, we could use some more, but this is. And that's one of the reasons why we're reaching out to the, to the people.

[Steve Rinella]

I got one for you right now.

[Phil]

Okay, let's hear it.

[Steve Rinella]

When you cook deer meat and you got leftover deer meat the next day, slice it real thin, get a bunch of butter in a pan, put a shitload of Frank's red Hot in that butter and then stir that meat in there and eat that buffalo. Buffalo bun strips. Buffalo leftovers is what they call that. We're in need of some fresh hot tip off. Send us a video of what? Of. This is poorly written. Who wrote this?

[Phil]

I'm not going to throw them under the bus.

[Steve Rinella]

Send a video of what you. No, no, it is well written. Send a video of what you believe to be your outdoor tips to our radio live email address with hot tip off in the subject line. So here's all you do. Make a hot tip off. A hot tip off is where you go, welcome to another hot tip off. And then you explain a hot tip for outdoorsmen.

[Phil]

Quickly explain 30 to 60 seconds. 36 seconds.

[Steve Rinella]

Right. Hot tip off in the subject line and send that son of a gun over to radio@theme eater.com. 30 to 60 seconds. Film it vertically. Okay.

[Seth Morris]

Family friendly.

[Steve Rinella]

Family friendly. If we use, if we use your video, we're going to. It'll be a showdown. These are one to one showdowns. So we'll. You send your hot tip off in. We're going to match it with another hot tip off and see who wins. If you win the hot tip off, the best hot tip off of the week, then you win cool prizes from. We'll send you cool prizes from meat eater brands. We'll send you cool prizes for one of our amazing partner brands. Whatever. You'll be rewarded when you make a 30 to 60 second hot tip and send it subject line hot tip off to radio theme eater dot com. Leave your pants on while making the video that wraps this week's program. I should tell you my story about Greg Fonz.

[Seth Morris]

Does that have to do with pants?

[Steve Rinella]

Yeah. Let's tell real quick. Before I really knew Greg Fonts, you know, he's got his spear fishing shop. I'd like was texting about, like a question I had about how to rig something, and he's sitting there in like an apron, you know, like a shop apron. He's. I don't even know the guy. And he's explaining. Eventually he like, turns toward the other workbench, just this bare ass dude. I was like, what a freak, man. You know? Then later I just realized his sense of humor. But it's all right. Stay classy. Media Radio live. See you next week. Hey, American history buffs. Hunting history buffs, listen up. We're back at it with another volume of our Meat Eater, Breeders American History series. In this edition, titled the Mountain Men 1806-1840, we tackle the Rocky Mountain beaver trade and dive into the lives and legends of fellas like Jim Bridger, Jed Smith, and John Coulter. This small but legendary fraternity of backwoodsmen helped define an era when the west represented not just unmapped territory, but untapped opportunity for those willing to endure some heinous and at times, violent conditions. We explain what started the mountain man era and what ended it. We tell you everything you'd ever want to know about what the mountain men ate, how they hunted and trapped, what gear they carried, what clothes they wore, how they interacted with Native Americans, how 10% of them died violent deaths, and even detailed descriptions of how they performed amputations on the fly. It's as dark and bloody and good as our previous volume about the white tailed deer skin trade, which is titled the Long Hunters 1761-1775. So again, you can buy this wherever audiobooks are sold. Meat Eaters American History the Mountain Men, 1806-1840 by Stephen Rinella.