Ep. 739: Sunday Hunting and Sage Grouse | MeatEater Radio Live!

Summary

Episode Summary: Ep. 739: Sunday Hunting and Sage Grouse | MeatEater Radio Live!

Release Date: July 25, 2025
Host: Brody Henderson
Guests: Adam Eckley (Pennsylvania BHA Chapter Chair), Ted Cook (Executive Director, North American Grouse Partnership)

---

1. Introduction

In this engaging episode of The MeatEater Podcast, host Brody Henderson welcomes regular co-hosts Corinne Schneider and Seth Morris to discuss a range of outdoor topics, including recent legislative changes, conservation efforts, and exciting bucket list adventures. The trio sets the stage from Bozeman and Prince of Wales Island, sharing their current activities and teasing the episode's main segments.

Notable Quote:

• Brody Henderson (01:04): "Today we're going to be talking with Adam Eckley from Pennsylvania backcountry hunters and anglers about Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania. We're going to talk with Ted Cook from the North American Grouse Partnership about sage grouse and some other stuff."

---

2. Moultrie Trail Cam Photo Contest

Brody announces the second round of the Moultrie Trail Cam Photo Contest, shifting the focus from humorous and odd photos to capturing the best velvet buck trail cam images. He shares a personal story about spotting impressive velvet whitetail bucks in an alfalfa field, highlighting the quality of deer that remain elusive to hunters.

Notable Quote:

• Brody Henderson (02:10): "Send us your velvet buck trail cam photos. This time we're doing it different."

---

3. Safari in Tanzania: Banter and Experiences

The hosts delve into their recent safari trip to Tanzania, sharing humorous and insightful anecdotes about their encounters with wildlife and dealing with insect bites. Seth recounts his experience with TTS fly bites, while Phil describes a tense encounter with a puff adder snake, illustrating the unpredictability and challenges of safari adventures.

Notable Quotes:

• Seth Morris (04:02): "They bite you, it's like getting electrocuted."
• Phil (08:59): "We were not the deadly snakes that we saw..."

---

4. Legalization of Sunday Hunting in Pennsylvania: Interview with Adam Eckley

Brody introduces Adam Eckley, the Chair of the Pennsylvania Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) Chapter, to discuss a landmark legislative achievement: the legalization of Sunday hunting across all Sundays in Pennsylvania. Adam provides a detailed timeline of the BHA’s advocacy efforts, highlighting key milestones from identifying Sunday hunting as a priority in 2017 to the successful passage and signing of the bill in 2025.

Notable Quotes:

• Adam Eckley (12:30): "2017, the newly formed BHA Pennsylvania chapter identifies Sunday hunting as our top legislative priority."
• Adam Eckley (16:11): "We were able to, you know, certainly have lots of conversations with all the different stakeholder groups. And we really arrived at a place where I think everybody could kind of come to the table and agree."

Adam explains the opposition's concerns, such as fears of increased trespassing and hunting accidents, and counters them with data from other states, demonstrating that these issues have remained unfounded. He emphasizes the positive reception from the hunting community and the potential for expanding the number of Sundays available for hunting.

Key Outcome:

• Adam Eckley (18:49): "I think that that was really the catalyst that kind of got the ball rolling."

---

5. Sage Grouse Conservation: Interview with Ted Cook

Brody welcomes Ted Cook, the Executive Director of the North American Grouse Partnership, to discuss the critical state of sage grouse populations and the recent declaration of their extinction in North Dakota. Ted elaborates on the sage grouse’s dependence on sagebrush habitats and the broader ecological implications of their decline, affecting species such as mule deer, pronghorn, and various songbirds.

Notable Quotes:

• Ted Cook (53:00): "Grasslands, including sagebrush steppe grasslands, are the most threatened ecosystem on the continent and in the world."
• Ted Cook (56:24): "We want to pay these landowners who want to save lesser prairie chickens and other prairie grouse species what it actually costs to keep grasslands in grass."

Ted explains that the primary driver of sagebrush habitat loss is the invasive cheatgrass, which alters fire regimes and outcompetes native species. He emphasizes the partnership's efforts to empower ranchers and land managers to maintain healthy rangelands, reducing soil disturbances that facilitate cheatgrass spread.

Key Outcome:

• Ted Cook (57:03): "We want to work with the people that manage the lands and even own the lands, the ranchers, to empower them to make sure that they're avoiding chronic soil disturbance in the form of overgrazing."

Ted underscores the importance of conserving sage grouse as an umbrella species, which, if protected, can help preserve entire grassland ecosystems vital for numerous other species.

---

6. Top Three Bucket List Hunts/Fishing Trips

In a lively segment, the hosts share their top three hunting and fishing bucket list adventures:

• Phil's Bucket List:

  1. Iguana Hunting in Florida: Seeking the invasive yet flavorful green iguanas.
  2. Bighorn Sheep in Montana: A challenging and highly sought-after big game.
  3. Fishing for Giant Kubera Snapper in Panama: Combining excitement with diverse marine life.

• Seth's Bucket List:

  1. Fishing in Norway: Experiencing the vast and pristine fishing environments.
  2. Hunting Rios in Oklahoma: Completing his slam with elusive Rio hunters.
  3. Witnessing the Caribou Migration: Observing the awe-inspiring natural spectacle with his sons.

• Brody's Bucket List:

  1. Fishing in the Bahamas: Enjoying spear fishing and the vibrant marine ecosystem.
  2. Bighorn Sheep in Montana: Joining Phil in pursuing this majestic species.
  3. Witnessing the Caribou Migration: Sharing the experience with his family.

Notable Interaction:

• Phil (28:16): "For wild berries, we try to get out. It's coming up on huckleberry season around here."

---

7. Hot Tip Off: Fishing Tips

Listeners submitted their valuable fishing tips, which the hosts evaluated in a friendly competition. Two standout tips were presented:

1. David McMurray (68:15): Using a Clam Knife to Scale Big Bluegill

   • Benefit: The clam knife’s dull edge prevents cutting through the fish's skin, while its stiff blade allows for effective scale removal without damaging the meat.
   • Technique: "Once I remove the scales off the main part of the fish's body, I like to point my knife down to get along the edges of the fins."

2. Adam Smith (69:18): Using a Backpack Cooler to Carry Fish While Walking

   • Benefit: Keeps fish cool and fresh without occupying hands, preventing damage during transport.
   • Technique: "Pack it with three or four or five pounds of ice, and carry your fish around on your back. It works great."

After audience voting, Adam Smith’s tip prevailed, winning him a MeatEater hat, hoodie, and T-shirt combo.

Notable Quotes:

• David McMurray (68:15): "Using a clam knife to scale a big bluegill."
• Adam Smith (69:18): "Carry your fish around on your back. It works great."

---

8. Q&A from Listeners

The hosts engaged with listener questions, providing practical advice and sharing personal anecdotes:

• Moose Hunting with a Cow-Only Tag: Recommendations included scouting areas, identifying timber cuts, and using effective hunting techniques.

• Cooking and Taxidermy Tips: Corinne shared her experience with taxidermy and handling game, while Seth offered insights into preparing fish and building fleshing beams.

• Favorite Game to Try: Phil, Seth, and Corinne shared their experiences with different game species, highlighting unique and memorable hunts.

Notable Interaction:

• Phil (49:04): "The antelope jackrabbit is the one I want. And he said we can make that happen when the rabbit populations recover because it's the hemorrhagic virus that knocked out the population."

---

Conclusion

The episode concludes with the hosts encouraging listeners to participate in future segments, such as Chester's cheticate series, and promoting upcoming events and merch. They express gratitude to their guests and audience, maintaining the show’s friendly and interactive atmosphere.

Notable Quote:

• Brody Henderson (83:36): "Thanks everyone for tuning in and have a great weekend. We'll see you next week."

---

Key Takeaways:

• Legislative Win for Hunters: Pennsylvania's legalization of Sunday hunting is a significant advancement, providing more opportunities for hunters with limited time.

• Conservation Alert: The extinction of sage grouse in North Dakota serves as a critical warning about habitat loss affecting multiple species. Efforts by organizations like the North American Grouse Partnership are vital in reversing these trends.

• Community Engagement: Interactive segments such as contests, top lists, and listener Q&As foster a strong sense of community among outdoor enthusiasts.

• Practical Tips: Sharing fishing and hunting tips empowers listeners with actionable advice to enhance their outdoor experiences.

This episode effectively balances impactful discussions on hunting rights and conservation with lighthearted segments and community interaction, offering valuable insights and fostering engagement among listeners who are passionate about the outdoors.

Transcript

[Phil]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Brody Henderson]

You ever drive past a piece of land and wonder who owns that? Or maybe you need to know where exactly a property line runs. Well, that is where ONX Hunt comes in. And it's not just for hunters. There are folks using Onx for their jobs every day throughout the country. If you need the best land ownership maps, aerial imagery and property boundaries in your pocket, Onx Hunt is the tool for the job. Try it free for 7 days. Download onx Hunt in the app or Google Play store or visit onxmaps.comhunt to get started.

[Corinne Schneider]

Smell us now, lady.

[Seth Morris]

Welcome to Meat Eater Trivia.

[Brody Henderson]

Meat Eater Podcast.

[Seth Morris]

Foreign.

[Brody Henderson]

Welcome to Meat Eater Radio Live. I'm your host, Brody Henderson and I'm joined today by Corinne Schneider and seth Morris. It's 11 o' clock here in Bozeman and it's 9am out on Prince of Wales Island. We were just talking about going out to the fish shack. So that's what time it is out there. That's that. We're headed out there soon. Today we're going to be talking with Adam Eckley from Pennsylvania backcountry hunters and anglers about Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania. We're going to talk with Ted Cook from the North American Grouse Partnership about sage grouse and some other, some other stuff. And we'll also be sharing a hot tip off and we're going to do a crew top three segment. Before we get to all that stuff, I gotta let you know that it's time for round two of our Moultrie trail cam photo contest. Yeah, yeah. This one is a little different than the last one, which is like weird, funny photos. This, this time we want your best velvet buck trail cam photos. I've been driving to work lately and I drive through a couple miles of farm country. You know, there's this one alfalfa field where there's three, like really nice velvet whitetail bucks right now. And I like, I surprised like how far along they were in like antler development. Three big ones, man. And they'll never get shot. They're living where they won't get hunted. But anyway, send us your velvet buck trail cam photos. This time we're doing it different. You need to go to the meat eater.com website and look for trail cam photo contest. We'll have an article up there and you submit through that. And this is all for next week's show. July 31st. Next. I'm not even sure. I think we got like some, some Southerners in here for that show. Don't we, though?

[Phil]

We do.

[Corinne Schneider]

We got. We got Clay and Tony and. Is it.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, not. We just got all Southerners.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, I was gonna say if you got all southerners, you need like a translator in here.

[Brody Henderson]

Some big whitetail guys. Let's call. Let's say that big whitetail in here next week. So we'll. We'll see what we get. What. What comes in for those photos, and we'll select a few of them, and those guys are going to pick a winner. And you'll get an awesome package from Moultrie and some of our other partners.

[Phil]

That sounds like a really nice winning.

[Brody Henderson]

You know, I've never owned a trail cam.

[Seth Morris]

Really?

[Brody Henderson]

No.

[Phil]

Well, I'm with you there too. So my wife wants me to.

[Brody Henderson]

My wife wants me to get one just put next to the bird feeder.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, that'd be fun to watch.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, you guys are back. Back from safari in Tanzania.

[Seth Morris]

It feels like we've been.

[Phil]

We were gone forever for a lifetime. Back and bitten. How are your tetsy fly bites healing up, Seth?

[Seth Morris]

Oh, I'm all good on the tetsu fly.

[Brody Henderson]

You know, I gotta let you mention those things. When I was a kid, there's this thing that, like, if you got bit by a TTSE fly, you were just going to fall over and just be dead.

[Phil]

Oh, really?

[Brody Henderson]

It was like this weird thing, like, surrounding TTSE flies. Is that. How do you do you say TTS or TSI or.

[Phil]

I've heard.

[Seth Morris]

I heard both. Yeah. And use both.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. I just remember it like, oh, my God, you're going to die if you go there and get bit by a TTS fly.

[Seth Morris]

Well, we would be most certainly dead.

[Phil]

If that was the case because under.

[Seth Morris]

We got bit by hundreds.

[Phil]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Is it like a painful bite?

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, something.

[Brody Henderson]

It hurts when they get you. Hurts like afterwards.

[Phil]

It depends what some of them, when.

[Seth Morris]

They bite you, it's like getting electrocuted.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

For some reason.

[Brody Henderson]

Are they like the size of a house fly?

[Phil]

They're a bit bigger.

[Seth Morris]

They're like a horse. Like a horse fly?

[Phil]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're hard to kill. Like, they have pretty tough exoskeletons. So we were told to slap the. And schmear. And that's how you, like, kill them against a surface.

[Brody Henderson]

Are they slow enough you can get them?

[Seth Morris]

No. Apparently this is what Rick Smith was telling me. Apparently when you go to slap them, they can feel the pressure change and they fly. So it was kind of hard to just like, smack them.

[Brody Henderson]

Yep.

[Phil]

Yeah. Have to wait for Them to, like.

[Seth Morris]

I. I found coming in from the side and like, almost grabbing them out of the air when they go to take off. That was like, the best way to get them.

[Brody Henderson]

Well, you survived the. The Tesi Fly fly attacks thanks to.

[Phil]

A lot of anti histamines.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, elephant burning old elephant in like a bucket.

[Brody Henderson]

Like a insect repellent.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, it was like the best repellent that we.

[Phil]

Yeah, that is the hot tip from nature provides.

[Brody Henderson]

Right. Set. Before you left, man, you were not too excited to be going on. You were bombed.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Missing walleye season, all that.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

But so I got to ask you, like, after spending more than two weeks there, like, what's your opinion now?

[Seth Morris]

So, yeah, overall, it was a cool trip. The coolest part was just seeing the culture and, like, hanging out with the people there. The trackers and stuff. The whole safari hunting thing is still. It's not my cup of tea. Our experience, I will say, was probably different than most people's experience because we. So how this far went. There was. There was two vehicles front. One had Steve and the camera dudes and trackers. And then the back vehicle, which Corinne and I spent all of our time in, was like the overflow vehicle. And you just drive around for 11 hours a day just eating dust like you.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, yeah, you guys are in the.

[Seth Morris]

We didn't see shit because, like, the front vehicle spooks all the animals before you get there. It's just. It was.

[Phil]

So they had a different experience.

[Seth Morris]

A different experience than what we experienced.

[Phil]

So it was, you know, anyone, I think probably going on safari at various. Various countries in Africa would probably have more of a first vehicle experience than our second vehicle experience. But, yeah, I mean, we were in an area the size of Yellowstone National Park. Right. And you can't exactly just set off from camp and imagine to get very far and, like, do spot and stalk. So it's, you know, you close the distance between you and game. Yep. And you're looking for tracks and then following tracks. So the method's a bit different.

[Seth Morris]

So there was days where, like, you know, the. The front vehicle would be like, oh, we saw this, this, this, this, and this. And we're like, yeah, we saw, like, some grasshoppers and.

[Phil]

Yep.

[Seth Morris]

A couple birds.

[Phil]

We focused on a praying mantis. We had a lot of fun watching.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. Well, do you have any, like. Seth, did you have any, like. Like the coolest or most surprising moment or experience? Like, would you say it was the culture? Was there something that stuck out for you?

[Seth Morris]

It was totally the culture. Yeah, we went to a village the one day and gave some meat to a family that one of the guys who worked for Robert. Robert Herd Savaris, he had what, 16 kids?

[Phil]

Yeah, 14 or 16 up there. All. All the same.

[Seth Morris]

And so we went to the local village where they lived and dropped meat off to that family the one day. And that was cool.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. Corinne, I heard there were. Maybe you guys weren't present when this happened, but I got to bring it up just because who was involved? There were some run ins with some potentially deadly creatures. Dirt myth, who famously, like, rode on top of the back of a charging brown bear for a short period of time. Also got charged by a black mamba on this trip.

[Phil]

They come for him. So we weren't. The. One of the deadly snakes that we did see was a puff adder. It's a very slow moving, large fat.

[Brody Henderson]

They're like an ambush. They just sit there.

[Phil]

Yeah, yeah. No, it was kind of, you know, going across the road and going back into. Into cover and we. We kept our distance, but that apparently if you do get bitten, like, you're. You're done.

[Brody Henderson]

Yep.

[Phil]

And the black mamba incident, we were not present for. We were.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, that was a front.

[Phil]

Front vehicle experience.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Phil]

Which is okay that time, but dirt.

[Brody Henderson]

Because those things are like, super aggressive. Like, they'll chase you.

[Phil]

Yeah. Just. Just hearing. Just hearing people describe what the behavior tendencies of this snake are, it's terrifying because you don't really think of a snake as being like an attack predator, you know, and so this snake kind of got, like it. I guess it was. They're territorial around their area. So I guess the first truck, you know, it felt threatened by the first truck as it was, like, crossing the road. And then it apparently turned around and stood up and almost got on, like, the front hood of the truck. And dirt was, I guess, sitting on the roof rack and filming. So that was the scare there. And then. And then the. The snake turned around apparently, and like, one of the trackers ran after it. That's. That's what we saw. Like Celimani with a. With a. With a short stick and. And a machete. Or was it just the stick? Yeah, he was. He was looking for it.

[Brody Henderson]

No, thanks, man.

[Phil]

Totally. No thanks.

[Brody Henderson]

Crazy. Well, I'm sure we'll be getting a lot of good footage from all that stuff at some point.

[Phil]

Yeah, that will. Those episodes will probably drop, what, this winter, right, for season 13?

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, whenever season 13 drops. Yeah, two or three episodes.

[Phil]

Stay tuned, guys.

[Brody Henderson]

Well, cool. We should probably move on to Other stuff. Phil, do we got Adam on the line yet?

[Corinne Schneider]

Adam's on the line. Sorry, I thought you were going to queue him up first. There he is.

[Brody Henderson]

I'll cue him up. Now we've got Adam Eckley, who is the Pennsylvania BHA Chapter chair here with us today. And Adam, man, let's get straight to the big news out of Pennsylvania for, for all the people out there who like aren't aware, going back many decades, Adam may know the exact time period, but I think it's maybe 100 years back, Sunday hunting was illegal in Pennsylvania and under what's called a blue law, which is like these, these laws that were originally implemented to ban certain activities on Sundays to encourage church attendance. There's some other details surrounding blue laws, but that's like the basic gist of it. And in recent years there's been a big push to legalize Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania. And I think a few years ago they finally got like through state legislators finally approved Sunday hunting for three Sundays each fall. Adam, is that correct?

[Adam Eckley]

That's correct, yep.

[Brody Henderson]

And now finally, just a couple weeks ago, Pennsylvania's governor signed a bill into law that allows hunting on all Sundays. And it's a really big win for hunters, especially like working stiffs and school age kids who can only hunt on weekends. So Adam, tell us about like the role that BHA played in getting this legislation passed.

[Adam Eckley]

Sure thing. Thanks, Brody. So the, the BHA Pennsylvania Chapter, we were really the first national level organization to put out a statement on this subject in Pennsylvania. So a little history and a little bit of how we kind of we got to where we are. 2017, the newly formed BHA Pennsylvania chapter identifies Sunday hunting as our top legislative priority. 2018, the chapter releases statement on Sunday hunting. We had chapter leaders speak out at a Sunday hunting meeting at the Pennsylvania game commission headquarters. 2018, 2019 at the Great American Outdoors show, we had multiple parents of young kids stop by our booth specifically because of our stance on Sunday hunting. So we realize at this time this is something that's really, really important to our members and it's really important to Pennsylvania hunters. My predecessor, Estate Chair Don Rank, who now serves on the BHA National Board, personally promised a 10 year old kid that we were going to get this done and that kid is probably now eligible for an adult license. But here's where we are. So 2019 Senate Bill 147, that was Senator Dan Laughlin's bill passes which allows three Sundays open to Sunday hunting starting in the 2020 and 2021 seasons. So we got a Sunday in archery season that falls in November, which sort of coincides with the peak of the rut, which is awesome. We got the first Sunday of bear season, which is the second day of the season, so we have a full opening weekend for bear hunting and also the first Sunday of our regular rifle deer season. So we get our first full weekend of deer hunting in Pennsylvania with a rifle. So I think that that was really the catalyst that kind of got the ball rolling. Then in 2021, our chapter received a donation which helped pay for a full time lobbyist, my good friend and mentor, John Klein, which our Pennsylvania chapter now primarily funds on our own. So our chapter leaders really ramp up visits to the Capitol to garner support for a lot of different things, but primarily with the goal of pushing Sunday hunting across the goal line. Over this time, our membership responds to numerous calls to action. Legislators receive thousands of letters, emails, phone calls. And I think one of the main keys to success here in getting our legislators to understand how important this issue is to hunters was through that correspondence. 2022, we have representative Mandy Steele out of Allegheny county who arrives in the House. And this is where it really gets interesting. So Senator Laughlin, he's a lifelong hunter from Northwestern pa. We have Representative Steele out of Allegheny county, which is, for all intents and purposes, Pittsburgh. And she's not even a hunter at this point. We've got bills coming from both chambers. We have from the House and from the Senate at this point. And BHA really jumped on board in support of Sunday hunting. Now, this is in 2024, we did have some reservations with some of the language. I personally testified for the House Game and Fisheries Committee last year and expressed both our support, but also some of our concerns in the spring.

[Brody Henderson]

What concerns? What was in there that you were worried about? A little bit.

[Adam Eckley]

There were some things that were related to some of the things. And we can get into this as far as the role that farmers and agriculture kind of played in this. But there were some things that, from that side of the table that they were looking for some things and representation on the Game Commission board and things like that that we weren't necessarily really in favor of. And we pushed back pretty strong on that.

[Brody Henderson]

Yep, yep.

[Adam Eckley]

So we were able to, you know, certainly have lots of conversations with all the different stakeholder groups. And we really arrived at a place where I think everybody could kind of come to the table and agree.

[Brody Henderson]

So.

[Adam Eckley]

But 2024, there was a lot of amendments that came into the end in. At the end, a lot of Those there was just, just we weren't quite there yet. So it did fail to pass through both chambers in the last session.

[Brody Henderson]

So before you move on, I'm going to jump ahead a little bit and then we'll go back just so people are aware, because it's just like, so foreign to people like here in Montana or any other state where Sunday hunting's like, always been legal. Like, what are some of the things that the opposition is saying? Like, this is why we shouldn't have Sunday hunting. Because I've heard some of the arguments in the past and they're like, some of them are really like, ludicrous. But like, what. Where are they coming to these legislators saying this is why we shouldn't have Sunday hunting?

[Adam Eckley]

I've heard all kinds of things. I've heard stories of how bad trespassing is going to become by adding one more day to hunt. I've heard hunting accidents. I've heard that there'll be no whitetails left in Pennsylvania if we allow folks to hunt on Sundays.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, they can't even sell all the leftover doe tags that they have now.

[Adam Eckley]

Absolutely.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Adam Eckley]

I mean, and all of those things have proven to be false. You know, we saw, you know, really no increase in hunting related shooting incidents, you know, with harvest rates are pretty much, you know, on parallel with what neighboring, other neighboring states have had. I know, I know. Some of the things I've seen was like Ohio, Delaware, when they introduced Sunday hunting, they saw, you know, 3 or 5% maybe in that first year or two. And then everything kind of stabilized after that. They've got plenty of deer. I can personally attest to that, at least in Delaware, which I've hunted extensively. You know, plenty of deer in this state. Certainly when we added those three Sundays in Pennsylvania. Lots and lots of whitetails left in the woods. So, you know, all the, all those kind of things that we had heard, really all of those proved to be false.

[Brody Henderson]

Great. So moving on to 2025, like, tell us about this year.

[Adam Eckley]

Yeah, so 2025 was a little bit different. So we've got a lot of learnings. Both, you know, hunting conservation groups, certainly us at bha, we really understand kind of at this point how this pathway has taken us. And we know what it's going to take to be able to get this thing through the legislature and onto the governor's desk. Representative Steele and Senator Laughlin introduce almost identical bills. I think we all knew, as I said, we all knew what it was going to take to get to this, this, to the Governor's desk. So that language was, was already incorporated right out of the gate. We had strong support from bha, from other hunting conservation groups. We had, at this point, we had the support of the agricultural community, specifically the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, and we had strong support from the Pennsylvania Game Commission. So Representative Steele's House Bill 1431 becomes the official vessel for Sunday hunting. It flies through both chambers. July 9, the governor signs it into law, which is for me one of my most honorable moments in my entire hunting career. I mean, I can't express the gratitude I have for everybody who worked on this bill and how much this is going to change. I would argue this might be the most significant change to hunting in Pennsylvania in my lifetime and in maybe many life.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, for sure. Like for people that can't wrap their head around it. Like when I was. Both Seth and I grew up hunting in Pennsylvania. And like, as a kid, like with school and sports, like hunting time is just like extremely limited. I'm sure it had to be the same way for you. Like in the fall, I was going to practice after school. Like maybe I'd get home in time to hunt for an hour before it got dark. You know, if you're, if you're in sports and you're doing something on Sunday or maybe you've got a job or whatever, like not having Sundays was just like brutal as a kid for me. I'm sure it had to be the same.

[Seth Morris]

Oh yeah. If you were. Well, if you were back in those days. Right, the. Right. If you're just a rifle hunter.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

The rifle season started on a Monday.

[Brody Henderson]

Yep.

[Seth Morris]

And then which most. Most in Pennsylvania get that day off for the first two days off. So you got the hunt that. And then after that you have two. You had two more weekends. So basically, if you were just a weekend warrior, you had two days, two other days to hunt.

[Phil]

Wow.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Ted Cook]

Yep.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, absolutely. It's like for pe. Like people out here in Montana, five weeks of rifle season, you know, it's crazy. Yeah, it's. It's a huge win, man. What, like, what is the, like, what's the vibe from the hunting community? Is it like, I assume everyone's like fist pumping and high fiving out there?

[Adam Eckley]

Oh, oh, for sure, for sure. I mean, I'm sure that there's, you know, there might be other opinions out there, but everything that I've seen, everything I've heard is a hundred percent positive. I don't think I've talked to anyone who isn't completely stoked. As soon as this passed, got signed into law. My phone, my email, lit up, my social media. Everybody's stoked. Pennsylvania hunters have been calling for this change for a long time. And one of the really cool things is to see everybody so engaged. It's awesome to see hunters getting together and agreeing that this is something that we need to affect this change and jumping on board and signing those letters and making those phone calls and just getting engaged and just in convers conversation about how important this really is for all of us for opportunity. It's just, it's. Everything has been positive from everyone I've talked to and to actually, I guess to add to that positivity, our game commissioners meet on July 28. One of the top agenda items there may be, the top agenda item is to add, I think it's a total of 10 more Sundays onto the calendar for the 2025 season. So if this goes through, which certainly we hope it's going to, from September through December, we're going to have a lot more Sundays to hunt.

[Brody Henderson]

So explain that because like a lot of people probably saw the headline that the governor signs this into law, but it's like not been implemented yet. Right. So like it's still got like the regulations still have to change, the season dates have to be adjusted, things like that. So like, it's not like the board has to decide how this legalizing Sunday hunting is actually implemented.

[Adam Eckley]

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So the law repeals the ban on Sunday hunting, but it's of course left to our game commissioners to make the decisions and to set our seasons and bag limits. So yeah, so they, they have to actually approve the changes on what Sundays we're going to hunt. So that's, that's really what their objective is there. And it also takes 60 days for the law to take effect. So once that 60 days is up, then they can actually put those Sundays into place once, once it officially becomes law.

[Brody Henderson]

If that board of commissioners were to be like, you know, it's legal now, but we're only going to give you three more. Like they're going to be like, there's going to be like a revolt in Pennsylvania maybe.

[Adam Eckley]

Yeah, Hunters. Hunters want to hunt, right?

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. Yeah. So hopefully they do the right thing and just give you all 10 of those Sundays, which is, which is basically mean, you know, all fall you can go hunt whenever you want.

[Adam Eckley]

Yeah. Which would, that, that would be awesome. I mean, it really means a lot to me personally. Of course, of course I want to be in the woods as much as possible. I, I have two Student athletes at home. So, you know, my. My weekends are pretty well taken up. You know, fall baseball, we've got soccer, all those kind of things. So, yeah, I want to be able to spend as much time in the woods as I can.

[Brody Henderson]

For sure. Adam, before we go, I want to give you a little time to plug BHA's muster in the Mountains event that's coming up soon. You want to tell us about that?

[Adam Eckley]

Absolutely, absolutely. So Mustard in the Mountains. This is kind of our, you know, kind of east coast rendezvous, if you will. We have this August 1st to 3rd this year. It's at West Kill Brewing in West Kill, New York. It's up in the Catskills. It's a beautiful area. You come out, meet BHA Vice President of Operations Frankie McBurney Olson. We've got some great events planned. We've got a 3D archery shoot. The New York chapter is representing with some interesting demonstrations. They've got one on saddle hunting, I think they have one that I think is really cool on DIY taxidermy. And the PHA chapter is going to be represented by my good friend Ethan Breininger, who's going to do a flint, like flintlock muzzleloader introduction. I personally hunted flintlocks with Ethan. He's a guy who really knows his stuff. He's a great instructor. I'm sure that that's going to be a fantastic event. And you can find details for [e-mail] go to our events page. We have a direct link there for it.

[Brody Henderson]

Great.

[Seth Morris]

Sounds fun.

[Brody Henderson]

Have. So you're not able to make it to that one.

[Adam Eckley]

I'm not sure if I'm going to be there. I might be there for part of it. I do have planned on Sunday, but.

[Brody Henderson]

So we'll.

[Adam Eckley]

We'll see.

[Brody Henderson]

I'm sure there'll be a little partying at night. I would say so if you're in that part of the country, go check it out. Thanks a lot, Adam. We may check back with you in a couple months to see how this Sunday hunting thing is actually implemented.

[Adam Eckley]

Yeah, hey, I would. I'd absolutely love the opportunity. I really appreciate you guys having me on.

[Brody Henderson]

All right. Thanks a lot, man.

[Seth Morris]

See you, Adam. Thanks.

[Phil]

Thanks.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, good news, but hopefully it's great news here in a couple.

[Seth Morris]

If the PGC commissioners don't implement that.

[Brody Henderson]

It'S gonna be you. You remember Joel, my buddy.

[Adam Eckley]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

He's like, those guys, I don't trust them. They're gonna screw it. Like which? Like with some game Commission boards or, like, wildlife boards. Like, it's, like. It's tough with those people these days, man.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

But hopefully it just ends up being more good news. All right, guys, next up, we got our. We got a top three segment. We do these now and then where we share various top three lists. Things like favorite game meets favorite whatever, favorite places to fish, things like that.

[Corinne Schneider]

I'm not letting you get away with it, Phil.

[Brody Henderson]

There's no pause in there for sound. I didn't see it.

[Phil]

Look at the light effect in the room.

[Corinne Schneider]

It's incredibly complex.

[Seth Morris]

This gets me fired up.

[Corinne Schneider]

It's not just me moving my finger on a slider back.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, thanks, Bill. Thanks for sliding that in there.

[Corinne Schneider]

It was really important. Everybody loved it, and it wasn't a waste of time.

[Brody Henderson]

Not at all. I forget how the we do these. Do we have one person do all three, Phil, or do we go like.

[Corinne Schneider]

We go like, number three? Number three. Number three. Number two. Number two. Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Okay. Okay, gotcha. All right, Corinne, we're. We're going, like, from number three to your favorite.

[Phil]

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna switch this up. My number three is gonna be. Brody was giving me, you know, crap for this earlier because I think my. My. My scenario here misunderstands maybe what they tastes like, but I had put a blacktail jackrabbit in Arizona.

[Brody Henderson]

Well, I. I was more making fun of you because we got plenty of jackrabbits, like, right here, but either way, it's like, you know, it's your choice.

[Phil]

Yeah, I just. The. The Sonoran desert atmosphere is like, an area I've only been to once, but really, really loved it. They look just fun to. To get after when you watch one.

[Brody Henderson]

Of those things covering ground. It's pretty impressive.

[Phil]

Oh, man.

[Brody Henderson]

I've.

[Seth Morris]

I've hunted. Been hunting deer in eastern Montana, and I glass up jackrabbit, and I watch him just run in a straight line for miles.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, yeah.

[Seth Morris]

Like, what are you doing?

[Phil]

Yeah, like, it looks like, like, the perfect thing if you have. I don't know, ad, like, you're just. You know, it's just like, a different kind of focus would be required.

[Brody Henderson]

And.

[Phil]

And also, I. I guess I'm mistaken that they probably don't taste like cottontail bunnies.

[Brody Henderson]

Definitely not like, a stronger flavored, darker meat, which, you know, I've eaten them. Not my favorite. Not when I got deer. Elk in the freezer.

[Phil]

Yeah, sure.

[Brody Henderson]

I'm sure I'll catch some. Some hell for saying that, but. Yeah, but look man, it doesn't have to be about me. It's your bucket list. Right. Seth, what's your. What's your number three?

[Seth Morris]

My number three is hunting rios in Oklahoma.

[Brody Henderson]

Why Oklahoma?

[Seth Morris]

It's a state I've never been to, and I want to get a Rio to complete my slam.

[Brody Henderson]

So the nice thing about those rios, because I used to hunt them in, like, southwestern Nebraska, they've got them in Colorado too, but I didn't hunt them much out there. But the cool thing about those Rio, it's almost bad for those turkeys. Right. Because they lit. It's like open country is wide open and then like Cottonwood Creek and river bottom. So, like, you know where they're at. You know where they're at. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it. That was it that when I used to hunt them in that kind of country in Nebraska, it was super, super fun.

[Seth Morris]

I was torn between Oklahoma and. And I really want to hunt turkeys in Mississippi one of these days.

[Brody Henderson]

You want to get. You want to go on a super hard. Yeah, yeah.

[Seth Morris]

But I've killed easterns before, so I really want to get that Rio.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

[Phil]

What about you, Brody?

[Brody Henderson]

Let's see what. Oh, this is number three. Was a tough one for me because I wanted to make it a fishing trip, and I really want to go like, north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska and fish those. She fish.

[Phil]

Oh, yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

But if I advise, like, had to. Had to choose, it would be to go down to Panama to fish for those giant kubera snapper. Like, God, like, I'm just, like, fascinated. And you catch other cool stuff down there, like rooster fish. And it's not like blue water offshore fishing.

[Seth Morris]

Yep.

[Brody Henderson]

Like, you're fishing close to shore and these big rock piles coming out of the ocean and there's jungle and like, it just. It just seems super cool like that. That's like, fishing wise, I would probably choose that over sheep fish in Alaska.

[Seth Morris]

Nice.

[Brody Henderson]

For sure.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah. That sounds wicked fun.

[Brody Henderson]

Back to crin's crazy stuff.

[Phil]

I love how your. Your. Your. Your guys's bucket list is, like, kind of grand and, you know, oh, those.

[Brody Henderson]

Kubera snapper get huge. Huge. Yeah. But anyway, back to Corinne's crazy stuff.

[Phil]

My b. Is iguana in Florida.

[Brody Henderson]

Nice.

[Seth Morris]

I kind of expect nothing less.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Phil]

Like, you know, I just. I think more of it is about tasting different game species that I haven't tasted before. And then you know that that leads the kind of different.

[Brody Henderson]

Sure. And you'd be. You'd be doing some good work taking Those invasive green.

[Phil]

Right. I mean, I've also heard that they're very, very tasty.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Phil]

Probably not a super hard hunt.

[Brody Henderson]

No, but that's. You fill up a boat with those.

[Phil]

Trees and yet air gun them or.

[Brody Henderson]

I've seen on Instagram a couple times. I don't know if this dude has, like. Like an actual guide service for shooting iguanas, but he has a bird dog, like a wire hair pointer or some. Some. Some bird dog. And that bird dog goes around in the boat with him, and they'll crack an iguana on the bank. That dog rockets out of the boat and grabs them and brings them back.

[Phil]

That. Now that seems more fun. Yeah, that. Huh. Okay, I've just evolved my.

[Brody Henderson]

I'm a little torn on the iguana thing because when I was in college, I had a pet iguana.

[Phil]

Oh, what was his name? Or her name?

[Brody Henderson]

God, I can't even remember now. Chuck.

[Phil]

Chuck.

[Seth Morris]

That's a great name for him.

[Brody Henderson]

And he had that iguana. Had like. I had this big chunk of driftwood. I just let him run around my apartment, but he would always. I had this chunk of long driftwood in the corner he'd climb up on, and it was right above one of those old radiators, you know, and they like that. And that thing would, like, launch onto that radiator, and a couple times he'd, like, break an arm or a leg or something. And he'd always heal up eventually. But eventually I had to leave, and I couldn't take him with. With me. I'm gonna get in trouble for saying this.

[Phil]

Oh.

[Brody Henderson]

Anyway, I gave him to my buddy to care after this thing. And he just got to the point where he had busted so many legs he couldn't get around anymore. And so my buddy put him in a P in the middle of winter, put him in a pizza box and threw him in the dumpster.

[Phil]

Oh, jeez.

[Brody Henderson]

Right. Which for a reptile, isn't a bad way to go. They just get cold and go to sleep.

[Phil]

Oh, I thought you.

[Brody Henderson]

So much hell for.

[Phil]

I thought you said, like, you know, we just released into the wild and I was gonna say I'm part of the invasive problem, but. Yeah, he had a good Pennsylvania.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, I should have eaten him, I guess.

[Adam Eckley]

Yeah, yeah.

[Phil]

No waste.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Seth, get me out of trouble.

[Seth Morris]

My b. Is fishing in Norway. Yeah, it's kind of like the. Well, the. The ocean fishing there, from what I gather is kind of like fishing southeast Alaska, but everything just seems so much bigger.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. And those fjords Are. That's super cool looking country.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, it looks awesome. Yeah, there's just big fishing community there and then interior stuff. There's like those Xander and those big ass perch.

[Brody Henderson]

Yep. Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

It just looks like a fishing paradise over there.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. And the people in Norway are like the happiest people in the world.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Be a cool trip. Where are we at? My second.

[Phil]

Your second?

[Brody Henderson]

My second would be bighorn sheep. Right here in Montana is definitely like, definitely a species of big game that I get to see a lot. Never get to hunt. I mean, this is like a lot of people will have big horn on their list. Right. So, you know, hopefully someday it'll happen. Who knows if it will? I'm gonna keep trying, but like that's, that's kind of like the glam species that interests me the most like once in a life because, you know, I got a moose last year, but like bighorn sheep are even harder to get tags for.

[Phil]

What's the percentage now? 0. 0?

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, it depends where you're at. But it's like point Nothing to like 1% maybe it's like a high draw odds hunt.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah. And here in Montana, they're cutting tags.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, yeah. There's problems with pneumonia. I mean, there's problems with the pneumonia everywhere. But I, I, I'm still applying in Colorado, but I got higher hopes for Montana.

[Phil]

Okay. We're going to keep our fingers crossed.

[Brody Henderson]

For you, Brody, someday. Yeah. Yeah. I almost, I almost like caved and was like, I'm just going to put my points towards a bighorn U tag. But then I had enough points where I'm like, that's just silly.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

You know what?

[Seth Morris]

I might as well keep going.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Moving on to number one of Corinne's crazy bucket list.

[Phil]

Okay. So for really, really going, like dream experience. I would love to be on a commercial boat in Japan just seeing what, what the fishermen there do to get bluefin.

[Brody Henderson]

Are you talking about those ones where they just drop it in? Flip them over their back, drop it in. Have you seen those?

[Phil]

No, I have just like the biggest. I just want to see like big ass fish because I don't know that tasty fish maybe.

[Brody Henderson]

I'm not sure that the Japanese are the ones doing all the commercial fishing for bluef. I think they're coming from.

[Phil]

They get shit or like.

[Brody Henderson]

No, no. Like here there's bluefin west coast, West Andes.

[Phil]

Okay. Okay.

[Brody Henderson]

And I know like there are other places, but I don't know, like, maybe I'm wrong, but I think like a Lot of the bluefin that ends up in Japan is coming. Like they overnight those things, they flash freeze them, send them a sushi markets and then some. There's this big bidding process.

[Phil]

Yeah, right. So those are not coming out of the. The Pacific waters right there.

[Brody Henderson]

Well, then I. Maybe. But someone. Maybe someone.

[Phil]

If I'm mistaken there. That's why I had a real number one. My real number one.

[Seth Morris]

Back up.

[Phil]

Sea cucumbers in Alaska.

[Brody Henderson]

I want to be at the shack and just watch Corinne wandering around filling up a wheelbarrow with sea.

[Phil]

Sea cucumbers. That'll be me. I'll put on like an 8 millimeter suit and just spend the entire afternoon, like diving in shallow water.

[Seth Morris]

You don't even need to dive for them. You will.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

You will foul hook them when you're halibut fishing.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

And there's places where at low tide, you can just go pick them up.

[Phil]

That'll be me. I'll focus on nothing else but wheelbarrows full of sea cucumbers.

[Brody Henderson]

And you can be the, like, cleaning specialist. That's how you break into the fish cleaning table. Like, you have to graduate to it. And you start by cleaning sea cubes.

[Phil]

No, I'll. I'll have fun doing that all day.

[Seth Morris]

After that first wheelbarrow that you clean, you're gonna be like, I am done.

[Phil]

Well, then I'll start. I'll start the. I'll start. The other method of taking care of those is just air drying them. You know, like the, like, you know, Asian. Asian market, like dried glass, you know, dried.

[Brody Henderson]

And then do they just rehydrate them to eat them?

[Phil]

Exactly. And they'll eat the whole. The whole thing. You know, the slimy wart bit. And unlike. Yeah, yeah. They. It's not. You're actually just not cleaning them. You're. You're. You're purging them of, you know, the mucky stuff that's inside.

[Seth Morris]

There's a thing that those things do. If they sit in the bottom of your boat long enough, they basically turn inside out.

[Phil]

And it is the grossest thing. Interesting.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, yeah, but they are, man, they're good. Fried cuke strips are good for sure. Well, that's interesting, Corinne.

[Phil]

Out of all the stuff you could.

[Brody Henderson]

I love it.

[Phil]

I love how my bucket list are, like, probably easily accomplished things, you know?

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Phil]

Then I'll. Then I'll go.

[Seth Morris]

You can fly into Ketchikan and walk right from the airport right down to the. The water's edge and get yourself some cucumbers.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. Seth's interested in something a little bigger than a sea cucumber for his number.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah. My number one's moose interior. Alaska. You know that ridge hunt that. That we've all done is awesome. Love it. But I want to go further north. North slope. North of the Arctic Circle.

[Brody Henderson]

Yep.

[Seth Morris]

Just check out most. The biggest reason, just because I want to go up there and see that country.

[Brody Henderson]

Totally.

[Seth Morris]

I also want to get a moose.

[Brody Henderson]

No, that. That ridge top hunt is fun. The place we're currently. Where Steve's currently locked in is like. There's not like there's like one spot, right?

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

And that stuff, like you're sitting there once that stuff up on the north slopes, more open.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Classable, hikeable, all that stuff. So I could see that being a super fun hunt. Someday I'll go back and do a float hunt for them.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, that would be fun too. I've done the float stuff, which is awesome because you're just looking at new country every day.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

But yeah, I just. I guess more so I just want to be on that north slope for sure.

[Brody Henderson]

See that country. Definitely mine. Mine number one is. Could take place same place as your moose hunt. I want to take my. My boys to do a caribou hunt. Not necessarily because it's like this super challenging hunt. Like, you're probably gonna get one, right?

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

But to be able to watch that migration is like. It's one of the coolest. Like, just for days. Just thousands of caribou rolling by. And granted, you got to hit it right. To experience that. But it's like the most impressive thing I've ever seen in nature. Like, by far. Just like waves of those things going by day after day. And I don't necessarily care about getting one myself, but yeah, I'd love to take my boys and up for a fly in. Yeah.

[Phil]

Awesome.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. All right, Phil, let's see what the chat has to say about sea cucumbers.

[Corinne Schneider]

Nothing about sea cucumbers so far.

[Brody Henderson]

Jack rabbits.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Get.

[Corinne Schneider]

Get your. Get your comments in while Corinne's here. But Nathan asks Seth and Corinne was what was the best thing you guys ate in Africa and what was the weirdest?

[Seth Morris]

God, it's so weird. Africa has everything. We ate in Africa was just like the best table fair you'll ever come across. One thing that stuck out in my mind which surprised me was the warthog.

[Brody Henderson]

Backstraps.

[Phil]

Heck, yeah.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah. It's just. I don't know what. What.

[Brody Henderson]

It was fatty.

[Seth Morris]

It wasn't fatty. It was just. It was. It was Very similar to just eating, like, pork tenderloin without the fat, but just like the sauce they made with that meal. And it was just. The whole thing was just phenomenal.

[Phil]

It was very clean tasting.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Phil]

Meat, you know, it's just like a delicious, you know, pork chop.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. Something. Something I heard Steve mention in passing the other day. I wasn't involved really in the conversation, but he's. He said, like, everything is cooked well done. Like, they don't do, like, medium rare there.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Which was surprising.

[Seth Morris]

Well, they. The chefs there did do, like, the back straps and stuff.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, they did, yeah.

[Seth Morris]

They did it like medium rare or medium.

[Brody Henderson]

But he said there's a lot of meat that would just cook to oblivion.

[Phil]

Yeah, that's, I guess, the way that folks over there are used to eating meat. You know, some of it's, like, charred on the outside. It's all well done and that they don't really like meat prepared the way a lot of us.

[Seth Morris]

I think, though, a lot of the meat that we ate is not how they.

[Phil]

Yeah, right.

[Seth Morris]

Typically prepared.

[Phil]

It wasn't exact. Yeah. It was more, you know, maybe how they thought we would like it. Slightly western, eastern.

[Seth Morris]

Yep.

[Phil]

You know, preparations.

[Brody Henderson]

So if you could, like, have an elk in the freezer or some of that stuff.

[Phil]

Oh, Seth, what about the rowan?

[Seth Morris]

Oh, the roan.

[Phil]

Yeah, the rowan, which is an antelope. Species. Species. Steve shot this beautiful old bull, and I think that might have been the oldest of all the four that he harvested. I think they said, what, like, 11, like at least 10, 11 or 12 years old, maybe. And I thought that that was the most tender meat.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Phil]

Sweet. It. I mean, that. Five times better than elk. Like, than the best elk I've ever.

[Seth Morris]

You know, like a phenomenal tasting antelope here. You know, like, it just. Most of it's just all tender and tastes good. That's like, how everything is there.

[Brody Henderson]

That's. That's super cool. Yeah. Yeah. And I, you know, it's great that you guys got to, like, eat a bunch of stuff.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's one. I mean, it's cool that you get to share that meat with all the villages and the people there, but it's like, it may be nice just to bring all that stuff.

[Brody Henderson]

Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

[Phil]

Selfishly, be, like, spreading, you know, Cape buffalo oxtail. Cape buffalo tail. Stewart.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, yeah. We had buffalo oxtail soup the one night. God, that was good, too.

[Brody Henderson]

All kinds of, like, fat and, like, gelatinous.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, gelatinous. Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Who's next?

[Corinne Schneider]

Phil, this question seems silly. To me, but I could just be very ignorant. Maybe it's a question about humidity, but since you and Seth have both hunted a lot in the east and the West, Zach asks, should a western game hunter store hunting clothes similar to Midwestern or eastern deer hunters? As far as scent control is concerned.

[Brody Henderson]

Man, I don't worry about that stuff.

[Seth Morris]

I store my hunting clothes in a musty basement.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, I definitely think, like, if you're talking spot and stock rifle hunting, there's no reason in the west, there's no reason to be paranoid about, like, storing your clothes with a pine bow outside or something like that.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, I don't. I don't do the whole scent control thing much. Cool.

[Corinne Schneider]

Braden commented that he hit a deer with his truck at the same time we went live today. So is it edible?

[Brody Henderson]

Is he still there?

[Corinne Schneider]

I don't know. Braden, if you're still watching, go ahead and follow up, but you're probably dealing with something else right now. I don't know if there are a lot of moose hunters in this room right now, but. Vermont millennial homesteader says. My wife and I both drew a coveted moose tag here in Vermont. I declined my permit to hunt with her as a sub permittee. Any tips on moose hunting with a cow only tag?

[Brody Henderson]

Well, I don't know what kind of country they're in, like, if you can glass them. I don't know if it's the hunts during the rut. I would. What I would do is, like, right now is the time to be out looking for those things. Like, I don't know anything about that area and hunting moose in Vermont. So I would be doing a lot of scouting.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, I don't. I know some dudes that have hunted in Maine, and it was kind of like a lot of covering. Yeah, it's probably country, Tim, like, covering a lot of roads, like in timber.

[Brody Henderson]

Looking for timber cuts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go find them.

[Corinne Schneider]

Luke says. Seth, let's get an update on the Alaska shack. You got it fixed up nicer than the neighbors. Are you getting some use out of it?

[Seth Morris]

Oh, yeah, it's. It's fixed up fairly nice at the moment. At least the outside here. In a couple weeks, we're putting a roof on the back porch, which will be nice.

[Brody Henderson]

That'll be real nice.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah. Be able to hang some wet stuff out there.

[Brody Henderson]

God, man, all the upgrades. Seth, you're like the high roller in the COVID now. You got a new boat, got a fixed up shack. Making Steve look bad.

[Seth Morris]

I know. I'm just trying to make the Neighbors jealous.

[Corinne Schneider]

Let's do one more, and then we can hit some more. At the end of the show here, Joe says, what's Phil's favorite game he's tried so far? This is such a boring answer, but I've tried a decent amount since I worked here. Like, I've had gator, I've had mountain lion, all kinds of stuff. But when Michael Hunter from Toronto. What's his restaurant's name again?

[Phil]

Antler.

[Corinne Schneider]

Antler. He came in here to shoot some stuff with us. And Brody brought in some elk steak he had, and Michael just, like, with his hands tied behind his back and blindfolded. Not literally, but he could have done it in his sleep. He pulled out some single burner, induction burner and made the most incredible steak I've ever had with, like, this huckleberry sauce on top. I just melted in my mouth, and I could not believe it. And he just acted like it's just what he does well for a living, which is literally what he does. True.

[Brody Henderson]

You know, I deserve partial credit there, Phil.

[Corinne Schneider]

It was a great taste in elk.

[Brody Henderson]

Brody.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Phil]

Can I. Can I make one live correction? Jim Heffelfinger texted me that it's.

[Brody Henderson]

Knew it was coming from Heffelfinger.

[Phil]

The antelope jackrabbit is the one I want. And he said we can make that happen when the rabbit populations recover because it's the hemorrhagic virus that knocked out the population.

[Brody Henderson]

I thought he was gonna contact us.

[Phil]

Jackrabbit and not black.

[Brody Henderson]

I thought he was gonna contact us saying they're the best thing to eat on the planet.

[Phil]

I know he eats them.

[Seth Morris]

So Jim's on it.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Phil]

Thanks, Jim.

[Corinne Schneider]

Yeah, thanks for watching, Jim.

[Brody Henderson]

Let's move on to our next interview.

[Corinne Schneider]

Let's do it.

[Brody Henderson]

We got Ted up.

[Corinne Schneider]

Ted's up.

[Brody Henderson]

Okay, next up, we got Ted. It's Cook, right, Ted. Ted Cook.

[Ted Cook]

That's right.

[Brody Henderson]

Ted Cook, the executive director of the North American Grouse Partnership. Ted, thanks for. For joining us today. Before we get started with. With the conversation, I want to give the listeners a little background information about why we've got you on the show today. We've been seeing. This is, like, not news. Like, we've been seeing declines in sage grass populations for years. And we've talked about it here. We did a mediator television show that talked a lot about it, and there's this, like, iconic species of sagebrush prairie, like, across their range in the western United States. And they've been struggling, which, like, maybe it would come as a surprise to like, some bird hunters and places like Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, where you can still go out and hunt them. Some people might be surprised that they're like, not doing well in places. But with all that said, like, about a week ago, some news came out that the sage grouse were officially declared extinct in the state of North Dakota. And it's really, you know, news like that is obviously a huge bummer, but it's also part of this bigger picture concerning what's going on with sage grouse and in the last however many years. So, Ted, just to like, clarify your bona fides, besides being the executive director of the North American Grouse Partnership, why don't you first, like, tell us about your experience working with endangered species and then we'll kind of get into to what's going on with sage grouse all over the place.

[Ted Cook]

Yeah, so thanks for having me on. Before I became the executive director of the North American Grouse Partnership, I worked for 30 years as an endangered species biologist for the U.S. fish and Wildlife Service, including five years working on sage grouse conservation, specifically back in the early 2000 and tens when we were evaluating whether or less sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act. And so from there I went on actually, and ended my career in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I worked a lot on lesser prairie chickens. And I retired and the board of the Grouse Partnership asked if I wanted to apply to be executive director. And I thought no. And here I am, here you are talking. It's hard to quit. It's hard to quit.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, I hear you. So you can correct me if I'm wrong here, but like, what happened in North Dakota and, and with other sage grass populations that are struggling, like the, the Gunnison sage grass in Colorado, that's largely related to issues surrounding loss of sagebrush prayer to prairie habitats. Is that correct?

[Ted Cook]

Exactly right. Yep. It's called the scientific term sage step. Step is S T E P P E step means grassland. So stage step sage grassland loss of habitat. In fact, Brody, grasslands, including sagebrush steppe grasslands, are the most threatened ecosystem on the continent and in the world.

[Brody Henderson]

Yep, yep.

[Ted Cook]

And so this inexorable decline and loss of prairie grouse species, including sage grouse from North Dakota, is just a part of a much larger long term trend that the North American Grouse Partnership is committed to trying to stop. In reverse.

[Brody Henderson]

Can you give folks a sense of like, how, like how common and how widely distributed sage grouse were at one time compared to where they're at now?

[Ted Cook]

Sure, yeah. Sage grouse used to, well, Sage grouse are sagebrush obligates, so they have to have sagebrush to survive. And pretty much anywhere where there was enough sage brush, you'd have sage grouse. And that was across, I think at least 13 Western states historically. But now the range has been reduced by roughly 50% and the population of sage grouse has been reduced by almost three quarters.

[Brody Henderson]

Like, what's the best estimate? Like, at a high point? How many do you like? What, what's. I know, I can't pinpoint it, but how many millions of them were there?

[Ted Cook]

Yeah, don't know. And I know some folks have speculated that it's really hard to say. Yeah, Many millions. Yeah, several million. And now we're down to just a few hundred thousand.

[Brody Henderson]

Gotcha. Can you explain? We kind of hinted at this earlier, but you can explain why, like, it's not just that sage grouse are on the decline. Like, their decline also has implications for other species that use the same habitat as sage grass, like pronghorn and mule deer and songbirds and all other, like a whole host of species. So can you kind of touch on that a little bit more?

[Ted Cook]

Yeah, you know, we, all of us hunters know that mule deer have been in decline for a long, long time. And it's no accident that they've been in decline along with our grassland habitats. And in some places, game managers are getting particularly concerned about the continued loss of mule deer pronghorn. You know, I mean, what I like to challenge us hunters to think about is, well, maybe you don't hunt prairie grouse very much, but you love mule deer, you love pronghorn. How far away are we from a scientist finding a local population of pronghorn, say in part of the southwestern Great Plains, and we end up listing that under the Endangered Species Act? Keeping in mind, pronghorn are already listed in Arizona and I think maybe even California under the Endangered Species Act. So this is not far fetched. All of these other species, then you've got Cassin sparrow and Bobolinks and monarch butterflies and regal fritillary butterflies. That's a hard one for me to say. But all of these grassland dependent species are declining along with prairie grouse. Now prairie grouse are a great umbrella species because they require such a, they're a landscape scale species that require such large patches of intact grasslands. And so we're hopeful in the grouse partnership that if we can conserve prairie grouse populations that we can help conserve mule deer and pronghorn and everything else.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, the chips will just fall into place. So, like what are, what are your main goals? Like what are you guys doing to. To help sage grouse and those, those prairie habitats?

[Ted Cook]

Yeah, so actually two slightly different prongs there because one of the, I guess, well, differences. I don't know how much of a benefit it is with sage grouse is that there's a fair amount of public land that provides good sage grouse habitat.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. Luckily it didn't all get sold off.

[Ted Cook]

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Thanks to a lot of good work by hunters and anglers and others. But, but even there, even though we have, you know, say, you know, 80% of the, of a patch of habitat is public land, some of the most important habitat, the lower elevation, stream bottoms, the deeper soils, the wet meadows, are still privately owned.

[Brody Henderson]

That's very common out here in the West.

[Ted Cook]

Exactly. Right. And so, but, but really with sage grouse, the. The biggest drive. Here's a sad fact. Of the, whatever 50 million, 40 million acres we have left of sage grouse habitat, we're losing sagebrush habitat at the rate of 1.3 million acres per year.

[Brody Henderson]

And what's happening there, like building houses? Like what? Just like residential, commercial, all kinds of different development?

[Ted Cook]

Well, yes, all of that is happening, but in a word, it's cheatgrass.

[Brody Henderson]

Wow. Okay.

[Ted Cook]

Cheatgrass. Now, keep in mind, a lot of your listeners may know the name Aldo Leopold in a book that he wrote, published in 1949, called A Sand County Almanac. In that book, Aldo Leopold has a chapter called Cheat Takes over, where he foresees what is happening to sagebrush ecosystems today. That's how visionary this guy was.

[Brody Henderson]

For, for people who don't know what we're talking about, explain what cheatgrass is and what it's. And what it's doing.

[Ted Cook]

Yeah. So cheatgrass is an invasive annual grass from Asia that was accidentally imported here to North America. And it's taking over in areas like the Western, like the Great Basin. The western half of the range of sage grouse and even is becoming more of an issue into Wyoming and some of the eastern parts of the range. And so cheatgrass is fire loving. It's designed to burn frequently. Sagebrush is not okay. And so the driver for the 1.3 million acres of loss of habitat a year. A lot of people will say it's fire and invasives because they see the fire and they say, well, that's the cause and it's caused by this invasive species. We at the North American Ross Partnership, we disagree. It is not fire and invasives. It's invasives and fire.

[Brody Henderson]

Gotcha.

[Ted Cook]

And What I, what I mean by that is fire has been a part of sagebrush ecosystems for millennia. The difference is cheatgrass. The reason why cheatgrass exists is chronic overgrazing. What Aldo Leopold said. I'm sorry, chronic soil disturbance. What Aldo Leopold said is it's overgrazing, which is true. Back in the days, you know, in the 1940s, remember, the Taylor Grazing act was passed to try to get hold of massive overgrazing on public lands way back when. And that's still a legacy today. But there's other disturbances like ATV use and other things, so, so it's the cheatgrass driven by fire and all of these other things that's causing that 1.3, the bulk of the 1.3 million acres per year of sage grouse habitat loss.

[Brody Henderson]

Gotcha.

[Seth Morris]

Wow, that's great.

[Brody Henderson]

And so that, that's your main focus. Like, like, like what, what does it, what does that like mean though for like is, is there like, how do you get rid of it? And can you get rid of it?

[Ted Cook]

Yeah, no you can't. You know, you drive i80 through central Nevada. That's always going to. Well, as far as I'm alive. Yeah, you guys do. It's probably always going to look like it does that, you know, these golden stands of grass that look pretty to the untrained eye, but it's all cheatgrass. And, but at higher elevations, other native grasses and plants can win out. But here's the good news. Most of sage, most of grasslands, not just for sage grouse, but greater prairie chickens, less prairie chickens, sharp tails are managed as rangelands, both public and private land. And ranchers don't want cheat grass either. And so what the Grouse Partnership's goal is to empower ranchers to recognize the opportunity they have to avoid chronic soil disturbance through overgrazing, which is less of an issue now. But site specifically on a lower elevation, south facing slope could still be an issue. And so our goal is to work with the people that manage the lands and even own the lands, the ranchers, to empower them to make sure that they're avoiding chronic soil disturbance in the form of overgrazing. And then other things, ATV use, you know, one of the things, one of the vectors that spreads seagrasses, county road crews blade the side of a gravel road every spring, take up the native plans, what comes in behind a cheatgrass. They do it in the name of fire breaks along the roads, but then end up providing perfect habitat for cheatgrass, the most fire loving of all species to grow in alongside the Road. So there's a lot of opportunities to do better.

[Brody Henderson]

Great. Well, we're in a, we're in a. Before there's not just sage grouse out there and you guys assume work with other grouse species. So I want to ask you if there's any major conservation issues surrounding other species of grouse. You know, like, we've got five species of grouse here in Montana that hunters can go after, and we had a boom year for sharp tales last year. You know, our, our dusky and rough grouse seem to be doing well. But like back east, in states like Pennsylvania, rough grouse are really struggling. The flip side of that is I just heard, I think yesterday that Wisconsin is opening up a hunting season for sharp tail grouse after a long period of, of them being off limits to hunters. So you got, you got anything for us about other grouse species?

[Ted Cook]

Yeah. And so you, you just, you got it right, Brody. You know, rough grouse back east not doing well because of reforestation of lands that used to be either open meadow or for rough grouse. What they like is the edge habitat between the meadow and the timber. A lot of people value trees more than grass and think that anybody trying to cut a tree is a bad person. And so ruffed grouse are in trouble because of that social phenomenon, which is interesting back east, but out west, you know, here, same thing here where I live here in Idaho, you know, we got great rough grouse habitat and they're doing pretty well.

[Brody Henderson]

Yep.

[Ted Cook]

And then for, for sharpies in Wisconsin, what great news? You know, they, they feel like they've been doing enough habitat work to rebuild populations enough to offer a few special tags. Sharpies. And that's good. Good for them.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, great. Great having you on. What, what can people do to help you guys out before you go?

[Ted Cook]

So, you know, sage grouse, this news in North Dakota, I'll tell you interesting story. I was talking to Jesse Kohler, he's the biologist for North Dakota Game and Fish about this. He said, ted, you know, the sage grouse blinking out in North Dakota, sadly is something that we've seen coming for some time.

[Brody Henderson]

Right.

[Ted Cook]

He said, but what really scares him is that 30 to 50 years from now, sharp tail grouse in North Dakota might be in the same boat for.

[Brody Henderson]

The same reasons, I'm assuming.

[Ted Cook]

Yes, habitat. That's right. Grasslands are the most threatened ecosystem on the continent and in the world. But it's such a slow burn. It's like boiling the frog. Right. We've heard that saying where you Throw a frog into hot water, it jumps out. You throw into cold water, turn on the heat, it'll die. It won't jump.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, so.

[Ted Cook]

So it's like we're in this hot water and it slowly gets hotter every year and we're just not waking up to it. So what the Grouse Partnership really is focused on right now is trying to save lesser prairie chickens, which were recently listed under the Endangered Species Act. Keep in mind that as recently as 11 years ago, you could hunt for lesser prairie chickens, and today they're listed under the Endangered Species Act. And what we've done is we've reached out to the best landowner, rancher, conservationist heroes we could find in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado. And we've joined forces with them to pay them fair market value for the ecosystem services they have to provide on their healthy rangelands. Services like clean air and water, healthy soils, vegetation, wildlife habitat, carbon storage. They don't get paid for it. They don't get, they get cost share programs, but it doesn't, it costs them money out of their pocket to save an endangered species. That's not right. If Americans want to save endangered species, they should pay for it. And that's what we're trying to do. 84% of remaining grasslands are privately owned. Most of those are rangelands. Ranching pays less than any other form of land use. It's no wonder why grasslands are the most threatened ecosystem. Renewable energy, energy transmission, oil and gas, farming, feedlots, even woodland habitats, and leasing for hunting can pay more than ranching. And that's why grasslands are the most threatened ecosystem on the continent and in the world. We want to pay these landowners who want to save lesser prairie chickens and other prairie grouse species what it actually costs to keep grasslands in grass.

[Brody Henderson]

Well, great. Thanks. Thanks for all the good, good work you're doing and keep up the good work and maybe we'll check back with you in a few months and see how things are going.

[Ted Cook]

Well, thank you for having me and for asking great questions. Glad to be here.

[Brody Henderson]

Thanks again.

[Seth Morris]

Thanks, Ted.

[Brody Henderson]

Okay, that one. That's kind of some sad news there, but, you know, you got to pay attention to what's going on.

[Seth Morris]

Yep.

[Brody Henderson]

We're gonna lighten things up with a fan tip off. And it says to pause for sound here, Phil. H O T T I P off let's all do a hot tip H O T T I P R let's.

[Corinne Schneider]

All do a happy bop I trimmed that one down and made it shorter because even I was like, this is this is too much.

[Phil]

Oh, I love that.

[Brody Henderson]

Not my favorite. One of your. One of your. Your song intros, Phil.

[Corinne Schneider]

I know, but variety is the spice of life.

[Brody Henderson]

I'm just being honest.

[Corinne Schneider]

That's fine.

[Brody Henderson]

Okay, if you're not familiar, the hot tip off segment is where two of our listeners go head to head with competing nuggets of hunting and fishing wisdom. And then we decide which one is hotter before we we watch these hot tips. If you've got a hot tip, take like one minute, don't make it longer than a minute or we'll toss it in the trash and send it to radio atthe meat eater.com. as long as it's like some what you feel useful tip that has like something to do with hunting fish in the outdoors, gear, whatever. We'll look at anything as long as it kind of falls under our umbrella and put the subject line hot tip off in there and it'll eventually get to where we can take a look at it and you might make it on the show.

[Corinne Schneider]

Oh, and one. Really, I don't see it in the script here, Brody, but you. The live chat will be deciding the winner of this.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, we're not deciding.

[Corinne Schneider]

You guys are not.

[Brody Henderson]

We're in a way in, though.

[Corinne Schneider]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Corinne, Seth, and Brody will weigh in. Maybe that will sway your vote. But I will, I will open a poll.

[Brody Henderson]

My bad.

[Corinne Schneider]

After the video. And you guys are going to choose the. The winner of the hot.

[Brody Henderson]

I like to influence the voters.

[Corinne Schneider]

Yeah, that's good. Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

All right, so for today, we're, we're talking fishing with hot tip offs today. And we've got David McMurray from Cairo, Cairo, that says pronounced Cairo, Cairo, Georgia. And Adam Smith, he's from somewhere in America, and they've got a couple of hot fishing tips. So roll the tape, Phil. David McCurry.

[David McMurray]

Hey, meat eater. This is David McCurry from Cairo, Georgia. And my hot tip is using a clam knife to scale Brent. As you know, a clam knife is pretty dull so that when you're putting pressure down on these big bluegill to remove the scales, the knife doesn't cut down through the skin into the meat, which makes the scaling process pretty difficult after that. Also, it has a real stiff blade so that when you're pulling against these thick scales on a big bluegill, the blade is not flex, so you are able to pop the scales off relatively easy. And then the last thing I like about the clam knife is this rounded point. Once I remove the scales off the main part of the fish's body. I like to point my knife down to get along the edges of the fins.

[Phil]

And he's doing a great job.

[David McMurray]

Do that with his clam knife as opposed to a regular clean knife. You don't take a chance of stabbing the point down into the fish again, making it difficult to clean or in your hand. So my hot tip. Using a clam knife to scale a big bluegill.

[Brody Henderson]

Interesting, huh?

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Adam Smith.

[Adam Smith]

Hey, this is Adam Smith coming at me with a fishing tip straight from the lake. I'm out here walking the banks and I'm keeping a few bass. And I've got a great way for harvesting fish while you're walking. Instead of a change stringer or a basket where you're having to carry it around, it's taking up space in your hands or you're hanging off of you and your fish are going in and out of the water and getting all beat up. Go down to the store, pick up for real cheap a backpack cooler, pack it with three or four or five pounds of ice, and carry your fish around on your back. It works great. The fish are right on you. Your hands are free. Fish aren't getting beat up. They're staying cool. If it's hot out, it's a great way to keep fish while you're walking around. I hope you like the tip. Talk to you later.

[Seth Morris]

There you go.

[Brody Henderson]

I liked them both.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

But as a kid who dragged a lot of fish around on a stringer, they're, like, dying and getting warm and, you know, they look pretty bad by the time you get them home. Yeah, I like the cooler tip.

[Seth Morris]

I like the cooler tip, too. You know, one time when I was a kid, I caught a bunch of trout one time in Pennsylvania and didn't have a string or anything. And I had one of those, like, you know, like the. The fishing vest.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

You wear in Pennsylvania.

[Brody Henderson]

It's got the bat.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah. Well, I threw the trout back there, got home, pulled them out, flayed them up, and then a couple days later, like, I washed it out. Thought so. At least a couple days later, I'm like, what in the hell is stinking? Guys looking around and figured out that I had left a trout. Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

What do you think?

[Phil]

Nice fermented.

[Seth Morris]

So the backpack would have been better.

[Corinne Schneider]

Pretty close. Close.

[Brody Henderson]

Pole.

[Corinne Schneider]

Right now it's neck and neck.

[Phil]

So try and influence it. The clam knife technique.

[Brody Henderson]

I kind of figured you'd go.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Here's why. I think it's a. It's cl. It's. It's a good tip, but it's like, it falls second for me. It's because, like, anglers in Wisconsin ain't buying clam knives to scale stuff. You know what I mean? Or, you know, they could, but there's a lot of tools you can use to scale.

[Phil]

Right? Right. Yeah. I mean, I think I'm looking at the clam knife in the same way. I might like the. The back of a butter knife or, you know, just like a different. Just having a different, more blunter edge, you know, tool to do.

[Brody Henderson]

You got enough info yet, Phil, or.

[Corinne Schneider]

Do we need to keep talking? It is neck and neck. So if you. If you are in the chat and you have not voted, the poll is open.

[Brody Henderson]

Get in there.

[Seth Morris]

One thing I like about swing state.

[Corinne Schneider]

Right.

[Seth Morris]

One thing I like about the. The clam knife is, like, I like finding something that's not meant for that thing.

[Brody Henderson]

Right.

[Seth Morris]

And using it for that. Like. Like catfish pliers.

[Brody Henderson]

Yep.

[Seth Morris]

Like. Like, I think that's a crucial tool to have for a lot of fishing things. Like, I use those to pull bones out of salmon. I use them for filleting. It's just like. It's not just made for.

[Brody Henderson]

You might be affecting the outcome here. While Phil's waiting for people to vote, our. Our winner today is going to receive a. A meat eater hat, hoodie, and T shirt combo. And the T shirt. Phil, do you got the graphic ready? The T shirt is our new badass gnome T shirt. It's almost archery season, so we made a shirt with a gnome making a real lifelike 3D unicorn archery target.

[Phil]

What is he, like, carving it out of a tree stump?

[Brody Henderson]

He's making his own 3D target.

[Phil]

You guys vote. Come on, folks.

[Brody Henderson]

And I think this shirt comes out tomorrow on the website. Not positive about that, but I think it's tomorrow, and they'll probably sell out pretty fast. So if you want one, you're going to want to hop on the website and get it ordered tomorrow.

[Corinne Schneider]

All right. Voting has slowed down. And wait. Someone has pulled ahead. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and end the poll. And with 59% of the vote now the winner is Adam with the backpack. Cooler.

[Brody Henderson]

Backpack.

[Seth Morris]

Nice.

[Brody Henderson]

David. Sorry, man. This is a great hot tip, but Adam wins here. I don't. We don't know where Adam is from, but we'll have to. We'll have to get in touch with him and contact him about his. His. His prize.

[Seth Morris]

Keeping his fishing spot secret.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Corinne Schneider]

Casey thinks he's in the witness protection program.

[Seth Morris]

I also like that you could Throw some cold beers in that cooler too.

[Brody Henderson]

Totally, man. That's the thing, like keeping that fish cold.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

And like, because it just like, if you're like, for a shorebound angler, it's tough out there.

[Seth Morris]

It is. Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

It's not like being a boat where you just like have room for a big cooler full of ice. So I, I think it's a great tip as long as you're willing to lug the weight around.

[Seth Morris]

Yep.

[Brody Henderson]

So that's. That's it for that. We got our winner there. Are we going back to the chat one more time?

[Corinne Schneider]

Yeah, chat's pretty light, so. But I'll, I'll hit a couple here. If you've got stupid, even incredibly shallow, you have a great chance of being picked.

[Brody Henderson]

I guess we're just not that interested.

[Corinne Schneider]

Well, honestly, Mogor was getting the most questions in the chat. People kept asking him about Hungary. What's it like to live there, what kind of stuff does he eat? What's the game like? A couple people said we should have him on as a guest. Maybe we'll have him on for the. For our year anniversary, which is coming up in a month, which is crazy to think about.

[Phil]

We totally should ask Mogor or some questions about.

[Corinne Schneider]

We're going to have you on the show soon. Andreas asks Corinne what her favorite hunt or hunt adjacent trip has been since she's worked here thus far.

[Phil]

Ooh, I think I love the water so much. So I'm gonna have to give it to the Bahamas trip. A couple years ago for Kimmy Werner's show, we were there with. With Cam, Kirk Connell and Steve for her first. No, I think it was the third episode of her series. And we did a podcast down there too. So it was watching them dive and spear. And Steve put me on my first fish that I was able to spear in very shallow water because I had a hard time holding my breath for so long to die. But I would say that being. Being in the ocean and watching those three pros do what they do, that was probably the most eye openening, exciting, wonderful trip for me. Yep.

[Seth Morris]

Cool.

[Corinne Schneider]

Nate asks, any secret talents from us in the room that we just don't talk about? Cause we're. It's not. Not a part of the four verticals. Do you guys have anything that's not hunting related that you.

[Brody Henderson]

That you pride yourself on is Corinne's weird taxidermy.

[Corinne Schneider]

I think that.

[Brody Henderson]

I think that counts.

[Phil]

I haven't done a thing in a while. I probably need to go back and you know, make some. Make Something out of squirrels.

[Brody Henderson]

Seth, you got any hidden weird talents that we don't know about?

[Seth Morris]

Not that I can think of off the top of my head.

[Corinne Schneider]

That's the thing about working at Meat Eater. Like, aside from me, like, the people who are part of the crew, they work here because they're really. Their talent is they put on display here at the company.

[Phil]

Yeah, I mean, I'd say you guys, like, are handy as heck. No, I mean, like, with. With building, with fixing stuff.

[Seth Morris]

Well, you know, like, I fix stuff. Thanks to YouTube, I'm actually getting ready to rebuild my trolling motor.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, are you?

[Seth Morris]

Which is going to be a project.

[Corinne Schneider]

A project?

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Phil]

I mean, a lot of people don't close the gap between, like, going to YouTube, empowering themselves with the skills. They'll, like, call someone else, but. So I'd say that you guys have that.

[Brody Henderson]

I'm real good at growing cucumbers, Phil. Like, really good at growing cucumbers.

[Phil]

I would say tomatoes, too. I think you're.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, yeah, they're coming in Steve's. I forgot about that. Yeah, yeah, I remember your tomatoes.

[Seth Morris]

Is your garden just kicking butt this year?

[Phil]

Every year. He, like, brought in great lettuce the other year.

[Seth Morris]

Mine's doing great.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, yeah, it's been. It's been a pretty good gardening year.

[Phil]

Green thumb, Brody.

[Corinne Schneider]

Let's see. There was one about just general Colorado elk archery tips from Andrew.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, I don't know where to start.

[Corinne Schneider]

I know. That's the thing I said. I said, even if they were shallow, Brody.

[Brody Henderson]

I don't know where to start.

[Seth Morris]

Walk further than most people will walk.

[Brody Henderson]

That works.

[Corinne Schneider]

Any. Getting into berry season, do you guys forage berries? Oh, and what's your favorite one?

[Seth Morris]

I'll tell you a little bit about my berry patch in my backyard this year exploding.

[Brody Henderson]

Did you guys transplant wild ones like Steve did, or you just grew from. From.

[Seth Morris]

Well, they came with the house when we bought the place. Yeah, but we've expanded it just by letting them grow. Yeah, but I don't know, our berry patches, maybe.

[Brody Henderson]

What kind of berries?

[Seth Morris]

Raspberries. It's maybe 30. 30ft long. Just like a row of raspberries. And we got probably close to 6 gallons of berries off of them this year.

[Brody Henderson]

That's nice.

[Seth Morris]

And they're just. They just. Every day, it's.

[Ted Cook]

Wow.

[Seth Morris]

We pick them every single day.

[Phil]

How do you even keep them in a row? Aren't they, like the. What do you call them?

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, yeah. If I just let her yard go for a couple years, the whole damn thing would be Raspberries, but. But, yeah, we just pull them out with the mower and stuff.

[Brody Henderson]

For wild berries, we try to get out. It's coming up on huckleberry season around here. That's the main thing around here for sure. In Colorado, we used to do service berries, which are okay, but they're very seedy. Again, like, a seedy. It's not a pit. They just have a lot of seeds, and they're. They're good if you cook them down. And, like, there's plenty of service berries around here, but compared to huckleberries, I.

[Phil]

Don'T even know what a serviceberry looks like.

[Brody Henderson]

Is it bushy thing?

[Phil]

Are the actual berries, like, yellow it. They look.

[Brody Henderson]

No, they look like a blueberry almost.

[Phil]

Oh, okay. Okay.

[Brody Henderson]

Okay.

[Seth Morris]

We're gonna be hitting some. Some blueberries here.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

On Prince of Wales.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, we'll be. There's probably a lot of bears around, because we'll be there during.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, I'm hoping it's not. It depends. Last year, we were, like, kind of borderline late for the berries, which we might be too late this year, But I know with those up there, they get. Get pretty wormy.

[Brody Henderson]

They go so bad fast.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah. We pull them and, like, if you let them soak for a little bit in some water, the worms come out, and then you can.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

Kind of, you know, whatever. Throw them in some pancake batter.

[Brody Henderson]

Yep, yep.

[Corinne Schneider]

Chase says flip flop, flesher. I have a frozen beaver that I still need to take care of. I've never flushed one myself. Should I buy a fleshing beam or try to build one? Have you ever.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, you can build them pretty easily. My. My beam is like a chunk of that log siding that, like, only one side of it is actually. It's, like, dimensional lover. Except for one side that's, like, rounded.

[Brody Henderson]

Yep.

[Seth Morris]

So we just took that and. And kind of, you know, tapered the tip down and then mounted it on a stand. The stand's probably the hardest part. You either gotta know how to weld to build a stand, or there. There's other options. You could. Could, you know, mount it to, like, a big, heavy stump or something like that.

[Brody Henderson]

Do a video tutorial on building them.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, Yeah, I could do that. Mine's a welded metal stand. I've seen them where, like, guys have mounted them just to, like, you know, something heavy that's gonna.

[Brody Henderson]

But you need that thing to. To get it done.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, yeah. But. Yeah, for the most part, I know I've seen some guys where they'll just, like, throw them over their Knee and, like, flesh them with a knife.

[Brody Henderson]

God, I'd stab myself.

[Seth Morris]

That's just. Yeah, some guys are good at. John Hayes, the taxidermist, he does stuff like that. He can do real quick.

[Corinne Schneider]

But Master Butcher says Phil, my son got cast as Gaston. Any tips to prep for such a character?

[Brody Henderson]

Phil, who's Gaston?

[Corinne Schneider]

I'm guessing referring to Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. And I would say the person. I would say just watch a lot of Andrew Tate videos. No, for the love of God, don't. Don't do that. That was a joke.

[Phil]

Fill with the fast one.

[Corinne Schneider]

I would say a character like Gaston who thinks he's the hottest shit in the world, but is actually not. When you walk on the stage, you want to project that you're the hottest shit in the world, but have a secret character trait where he just is afraid of something very silly like mice or spiders. And don't tell anyone, but just kind of think about that when you're on the stage to kind of. And maybe that insecurity pokes through.

[Brody Henderson]

That's.

[Corinne Schneider]

That's my tip.

[Phil]

Hot deep advice, Bill.

[Brody Henderson]

It's almost like method acting, almost.

[Corinne Schneider]

Yeah. And then just. Yeah. Pretend to be Gaston for the next three months until you get on stage.

[Brody Henderson]

All right. Is that it today?

[Corinne Schneider]

Let's call it. Let's call it there.

[Brody Henderson]

Okay.

[Corinne Schneider]

It's a long show. It's a good one.

[Brody Henderson]

All right, we're almost done, but I gotta ask you guys one more favor. Chester's real bored out. Out in Wisconsin. Constant. He's got nothing to do. So we need you to send him. Send in some questions for Chester's cheticate series that we do here on the show where he answers various outdoor related ethical conundrums. Do we have. Is there a chatticate email? I should have found this out there.

[Phil]

There is not. They just radio, probably. Yeah, they've come in multiple ways, like sometimes to our regular inbox. But let's have them go to radio. Radio. Ad Radio. We'll do that and then just put it chatticket in the subject line.

[Brody Henderson]

All right, there you go. That's it for today. Thanks everyone for tuning in and have a great weekend. We'll see you next week.

[Seth Morris]

Later, folks.

[Phil]

This is an I Heart podcast.