Ep. 795: Exploding Deer, Counting Elk, and MeatTheater | MeatEater Radio Live!

Summary

The MeatEater Podcast – Ep. 795: Exploding Deer, Counting Elk, and MeatTheater | MeatEater Radio Live!

Date: November 21, 2025
Host: Randall (with Corey, Seth, Phil, and guests)
Summary Prepared For: Listeners seeking a complete, structured breakdown of the episode

---

Episode Overview

This wide-ranging live episode, hosted at MeatEater HQ in Bozeman, Montana, brings listeners the latest conservation science, memorable hunting stories, quirky humor, and the debut of the "Meat Theater" segment. Discussions cover the challenges of managing elk populations in remote Montana, a viral “exploding deer” story, new approaches to accessibility in hunting, tips and practical hacks, and holiday food talk. The show also features audience Q&A and playful banter throughout.

---

Key Segments & Highlights

1. Opening Banter and Recent Adventures

Timestamps: 01:38 – 10:06

• Recent hunting updates: The crew shares highlights from their personal hunting seasons and misadventures with backyard chickens.
• Unique harvests:
  • Randall: Killed a unique bull elk, “He’s got five on one side. And then just a big black club that hangs down on the other… I think his mother kicked him when he dropped out of her womb.” (05:06)
  • Corey: Had to deal with a brutal rooster in his chicken coop, ending up with more poultry in the freezer.
  • Phil: Credits his son for shooting a deer before he did, emphasizing changing family traditions.

---

2. Elk Research in Montana with Biologist Franz Engelfinger

Timestamps: 10:16 – 25:42

The Situation in Northwest Montana

• Unique management challenges: 500 million acres of public land, dense forests impacts hunting and elk surveying methods.
• Population Trends: Elk numbers have dropped to “lows we haven’t seen in decades.” (16:12)

Research & Wildlife Management

• Collaring Project:
  • GPS-collared elk to track survival, pregnancy rates, vital statistics, and movement.
  • “We use aerial captures with hired helicopters but, in wilderness, we use ground captures with clover traps baited with alfalfa.” (18:47)
  • “If our animals stop moving, we get a mortality report. I get a text or email that says, your animal is down and it’s here.” (19:09)
• Field hardships: Extreme cold, days-long ski trips: “I lost 10 pounds... we were eating breakfast sandwiches cooked in bacon grease every day and still couldn’t put on enough calories.” (20:51)
• Why the work matters: “I feel indebted to the sportsmen, sportswomen here who care about our game populations. We owe them an answer.” (23:11)

Where Listeners Can Learn More

• Annual elk reports and research updates: “Google FWP R1 Elk Report or FWP elk research.” (24:35)

Notable Quotes

• “Region 1, we kind of say, we force elk to be moose—we bury their groceries in four feet of snow and make them eat shrubs.” – Franz (12:56)
• “I feel like we owe [sportswomen/men] an answer at least to try and find an answer.” – Franz (23:11)

---

3. Meat Theater: Hemingway Goes AI

Timestamps: 28:50 – 35:39

• Concept: Classic Hemingway (“Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”) run through AI, recast as a live, unrehearsed script read by the crew—with props like cap guns and makeshift stage lights.
• Plot summary: Follows Macomber’s journey from cowardice to courage on African safari, ending in tragic happiness.
• Memorable moment (laughter): “Francis McComber lived 35 years but he was truly alive for only 30 minutes. In those 30 minutes, he was happy...” (35:32)
• Crew acknowledges it’s a niche segment: “We were well aware this would be a polarizing segment.” (41:13)

---

4. Audience Feedback, Q&A, and Community Tips

Timestamps: 36:39 – 66:30

Thanksgiving Food & Hunting Traditions

• Favorite turkey prep: Most prefer traditional oven-bake, some fried.
• Holiday hunting: Traditions vary—Seth notes, “Usually if I’m in Montana for Thanksgiving, I do some sort of hunt Thanksgiving Day...” (39:35)

Wildest Outdoor Discoveries

• Weirdest findings in critters: Embedded broadheads, air rifle pellets, and even a live fish with a garter snake dangling out the back end (42:04–43:33).

Conservation Calls to Action

• Sandhill Crane Hunt in WI: “Nobody’s going to stand up and advocate for hunting seasons if hunters themselves don’t do it.” (40:50)

---

5. The Exploding Deer: Viral Story with Derek Demun

Timestamps: 44:31 – 57:23

Derek’s Incredible Hunt

• Background: Paraplegic, adaptive hunter using ATVs/mountain bikes and wheelchair-accessible permits to hunt.
• The shot: Hits the lithium battery in the collar on a collared deer, causing it to explode on camera. “I thought the deer went sky high…there was a 15-foot-tall pile of smoke.” (50:06)
• Video reaction: Wildlife officials were supportive: “They even emailed me the migration charts on [the deer].” (52:21)
• Collar’s migration info: Deer made a 21-mile roundtrip between ranges.
• Viral aftermath: Some “ignorant” comments online about hunting from a vehicle; Derek takes the opportunity to advocate for accessibility.
  • “Every state out there offers a shoot from a vehicle [permit]…We’re all just trying to feed our families.” (55:33)

Where to find Derek

• Instagram/YouTube: t8_outdoorsman
• Podcast: “T8 Outdoors” (focus on hunters with disabilities)

Notable Quotes

• “Just trying to fill the freezer like anyone else.” – Derek (54:07)
• “Don’t rush to judgment about who’s shooting from a vehicle and why.” – Corey (55:16)

---

6. Hot Tip-Off: DIY Hacks & Hunting Solutions

Timestamps: 59:37 – 66:30

Segment format: Listeners compete for best practical tip.

• Tip 1 (winner): Use scrap clearance laminate countertop as a giant, cheap cutting board for wild game processing (61:03)
  • “For 120 bucks, we have 12 whole feet of cutting board, basically.” – Ethan
• Tip 2: Siphon hose with check valve for fast, spill-free fuel transfers in the field.

---

7. Last Rounds: Q&A, Gear Advice, Miscellaneous Banter

Timestamps: 66:30 – 78:13

• Gun selling advice: List on GunBroker, consider gun forums, or lower price for a fast sale. “My gun selling advice is don’t sell guns. Hoard them.” – Seth (68:09)
• Most admirable non-game animal? Ranging from grizzly bear and wolverine to “great apes.”
• Outdoor health mishaps: Giardia and a dog with subcutaneous air “like bubble wrap.”
• Would you rather give up beer or hot dogs? “If I could hypnotize myself, I’d say beer because it’s probably the healthier choice.” – Corey (72:07)
• First Lite gear sizing: Crew recommends sizing up in jackets.
• Photography question for Seth: Zooms for flexibility in the field, primes for style and image quality.
• Best whitetail approach on new public land: “Scout for a day and a half, hunt for a day and a half” for max efficiency. – Seth (76:58)

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Franz Engelfinger: “Region 1, you know, we force elk to be moose. We bury their groceries in four feet of snow and make them eat shrubs.” (12:56)
• Phil: “My son, my 12 year old son shot a deer before I did and we have a freezer full of mule deer right now.” (08:44)
• Corey: “Whenever I shoot a deer, I always wonder what its individual story is—and you never get the chance to know that unless it has an exploding collar.” (52:41)
• Derek Demun (on hunting with a disability): “There’s a lot less of us in this position than people tend to think…There’s no really other way to do certain types of hunts.” (54:07)
• Corey: “Don’t rush to judgment about who’s shooting from a vehicle and why.” (55:16)
• Audience member (“Hot Tip-off”): “For 120 bucks, we have 12 whole feet of basically cutting board.” (61:37)

---

Section Timestamps at a Glance

• Show opening & hunting banter: 01:38–10:06
• Elk science with Franz Engelfinger: 10:16–25:42
• Meat Theater – Hemingway AI performance: 28:50–35:39
• Listener Q&A and feedback: 36:39–44:31
• Derek Demun’s Exploding Deer story: 44:31–57:23
• Hot Tip-off segment: 59:37–66:30
• Final Q&A & wrap-up: 66:30–78:13

---

Tone & Style

• Friendly, often irreverent, packed with inside jokes and camaraderie.
• Mix of practical information, expert science, and light-hearted antics.
• Direct engagement with the audience; audience questions and feedback are woven throughout.

---

Perfect For: Listeners interested in wildlife science, hands-on hunting knowledge, wild food culture, adaptive hunting, outdoor community traditions, practical hacks, and “the stories you just can’t make up.”

Skip to the Segments You Love:

• Just want science? – Start at 10:16
• After a wild story? – Don’t miss 44:31
• Like humor & experiment? – Try 28:50 for "Meat Theater"
• Practical field tips? – Jump to 59:37

---

End Note:
Enjoy the show and Happy Thanksgiving from the MeatEater crew!

Transcript

[Announcer]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Venmo Stash Advertiser]

With Venmo Stache. A taco in one hand and ordering a ride in the other means you're stacking cash back. Nice. Get up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash on your favorite brands when you pay with your Venmo debit card. From takeout to ride shares, entertainment and more, pick a bundle with your go tos and start earning cash back at those brands. Earn more cash when you do more with Stash. Venmo Stash terms and exclusions apply. Max $100 cash back per month. See terms at Venmo Me Stash Terms.

[Announcer]

If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Grainger. Grainger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers. Plus, you can rely on Grainger for easy reordering, so you never run out.

[Corey]

Of what you need.

[Announcer]

Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Making the holidays magical for everyone on your list it's no small feat, but with TJ Maxx, your magic multiplies with quality finds. Arriving daily through Christmas Eve, you'll save on luxe cashmere, the latest tech toys and more. So you can check off every name on your list and treat yourself to a holiday look that'll turn heads. Now you know where to go to make all that holiday magic. It's TJ Maxx. Of course, it's shaping up to be a very magical holiday.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Smell us now, lady.

[Corey]

Welcome to meat eater trivia. Meat eater podcast. Welcome to Meat Eater radio live. It's 11am Mountain Time. That's 9pm for our friends in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on Thursday, November 20, 2025. Wish I'd written that out instead of having to go just by the numerical slash thing.

[Randall]

You nailed it.

[Corey]

We're live from Meteor HQ in Bozeman, Montana. I'm your host, Randall, joined today by my dear friends and colleagues, Mr. Corey Calkins, Mr. Seth Morris.

[Seth]

Howdy folks.

[Corey]

We've got a great show for you today. We're going to be talking to Franz Engelfinger, an elk researcher with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. We've got an interview with Derek Demun, who shot an exploding deer. More on that in a bit. We've got a hot tip off and we're debuting a brand new segment. Very exciting stuff, folks, called Meet Theater. It's an innovative concept that I think will perform poorly, but there's a small fraction of you that will really like it.

[Randall]

We're all really excited about it.

[Corey]

Yeah. First things first, we need to tell you about our big Black Friday sale happening now over at First Light. FHF Gear, Phelps, DSD and the Meat Eater stores. This is the time to get killer deals on gear from our family of brands for you and yours today, November 20th through December 1st. Check it out. Pretty amazing deals, actually.

[Randall]

Exciting.

[Corey]

I did a little promo video yesterday for the sale and I think folks are going to be pretty pleased with the offerings.

[Seth]

Good time to knock out some Christmas shopping.

[Corey]

We just bought our first Christmas presents yesterday.

[Seth]

There you go.

[Corey]

Trip to the bookstore. Oh, yeah.

[Seth]

Gift of books.

[Phil]

It's great.

[Randall]

I believe we have books at the Meat Eaters.

[Corey]

We do. We do. We have cookbooks. You can also buy a digital copy of any of our Meat Eaters American history audiobooks, wherever you get your audiobooks. And support the fine publishing team here at Meat Eater. They're good folks and they work hard. One more, one more detail here. Throughout our 12 day Black Friday sale, we have a fun little photo contest happening again. Submit your favorite hunting or fishing photos [e-mail] for a chance to win a $50 or $500. That's not a typo. That's no $50 or a $500 first light gift card.

[Seth]

Wow.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Randall]

There's $50 daily prizes and then there's the overall $500 gift card just by submitting a photo.

[Corey]

And somebody's gonna be.

[Randall]

We'll pick the winner.

[Corey]

Sitting high on the.

[Seth]

There's some good photos in there already.

[Franz Engelfinger]

I know.

[Corey]

Yeah, I've heard good things.

[Seth]

I scrolled through them this morning.

[Randall]

It's gonna be tough to pick a.

[Corey]

Winner, but, fellas, I'm happy to have you here today on another Thursday.

[Seth]

Happy to be here.

[Corey]

Just wondering what you've been up to recently. This is the part of the show where we discuss our. What we've been up to casually.

[Phil]

I. I kind of can't chat.

[Seth]

I can't really function mentally until I kill a deer. And that's where I'm at right now.

[Corey]

Oh. So this should be a good show.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Corey.

[Randall]

Yeah. I killed an elk last week, which I'm pretty tickled about. Freezer's full. So now it's time for me to go deer hunting.

[Seth]

Yeah. There you go.

[Corey]

That was a weird, weird bull.

[Randall]

Yeah, he's funky. He's got five on one side. And then just a big black club that hangs down on the other. I think his mother kicked him when he dropped out of her womb.

[Corey]

And he's got, like, a real tall tine on that side as well.

[Randall]

I call it his brow tine. Sticks up very strangely up. And then the main beam just goes straight down. And it's all black from just the blood. Gravity falling out.

[Corey]

Man, he's cool.

[Phil]

That's cool.

[Randall]

He's a snowflake. Very unique.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Randall]

And he tastes so good. Been eating him up the last couple nights.

[Phil]

Is he tender?

[Corey]

Very.

[Randall]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Was he. Was he young?

[Randall]

I'd say he was 4. Yeah. If I had to guess I'd ever asked him.

[Seth]

My elk is like chewing on a damn boot.

[Randall]

Oh, no. Really?

[Seth]

I don't know why, but, my goodness. You got to get out the meat mallet if you want to do any sort of steak.

[Corey]

I did a little freezer filling of my own last night.

[Seth]

Oh, last night, Last night. Yeah. You didn't tell us about this.

[Corey]

Right before I went to work, our rooster was pecking one of our other chickens to death. So I. I put her in solitary confinement to let the wound heal up.

[Seth]

I see where this is going.

[Corey]

And went home last night and stuck a. Stuck a little poultry in the freezer.

[Randall]

Yeah.

[Seth]

That's great. I love to hear that.

[Corey]

Yeah. And we had a better rooster that I really liked. And then Snort killed that rooster. And then when Snort killed that rooster, this imposter took his throne and learned to crow and do all the rooster things. But I've never really felt any affection towards him.

[Seth]

Well, he didn't earn it.

[Corey]

He didn't. He didn't. The other one was, like, this beautiful red rooster, and Snort killed it unceremoniously. But no one's upset about that. But, yeah. So that's the excitement over at our house.

[Seth]

Did Cal offer to replace the poultry population after that, or. No.

[Corey]

Well, yeah. We got three other chickens because his mom was moving.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Corey]

And so she gave us three of her chickens. It just happened time. The timing coincided with the untimely death of our rooster. And, yeah, one of Cal's mom's chickens was the one that the imposter, the heir to the throne, was pecking at. So now it's almost like another coup because these outside chickens have now dethroned the master rooster.

[Seth]

Wow.

[Corey]

I don't know anything about how any.

[Seth]

Of this works, but all you know is that that rooster had to be in the freezer.

[Corey]

Yep, yep, yep. So now we've got two roosters in the freezer. Cal did the. Cal did a fine job with the first one.

[Seth]

Oh, good.

[Corey]

As penance for his dog's sins. So, yeah, a lot of fun. Phil, what's going on with you lately?

[Phil]

Oh, goodness, you really do not want to know because the most exciting thing that's happened to me in the last few days is that I. I beat Act 3 of a video game called Hollow Silksong.

[Randall]

All right.

[Phil]

It's got the secret ending which is very important to those who know. What's the Internet parlance.

[Corey]

Is it Hollow Knight? I I Y k Y K. Oh, Hollow Knight Silks.

[Phil]

Hollow Knight Silk song. It's a sequel to a video game.

[Corey]

Just called Hollow Knight.

[Phil]

Called Hollow Knight. That's correct.

[Corey]

I was just trying to think of. Is it like an Ocarina of Time type deal?

[Phil]

You do acquire items that allow you to progress to new areas, much like a Zelda game. So you're not on the wrong track. It's called, the genre is called a Metroidvania because it's games like the Metroid series and the Castlevania series. They kind of made a portmanteau of that.

[Corey]

I'm going to dig us out of this hole.

[Phil]

Phil, you play as a character called Hornet and you're protecting the bug kingdom of Pharloom. You want to keep. Should I keep going?

[Corey]

No, I was going to say, have we talked yet about. Are you eating a deer at your house? Has that come up yet?

[Phil]

It has not, no. My son, my 12 year old son shot a deer before I did and we have a freezer full of, of mule deer right now.

[Corey]

Speaking of family coups and imposters to the throne, it says a lot about.

[Phil]

Me that you asked how I was doing and instead of saying, oh my God, I'm so proud of my son who shot his first mule deer, I said, I completed a very difficult video game.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Phil]

Yes.

[Corey]

No, but that's exciting. It's exciting.

[Phil]

It is. It's been a lot of fun because we also signed up for this farm CSA and from this farm that's less than a mile down the road from our house. So we've been making a lot of meals with, with fresh ingredients. Fresh ingredients and, and harvested deer. It's been great.

[Corey]

How's. He is a couple of weeks out now. How is he? Is he ready for next fall?

[Seth]

Is he.

[Phil]

He seemed kind of just nonplussed about the whole thing. Like, yeah, I did it. What's the big deal? But now this was his last year of being able to do it as like an apprentice. Yeah. He's going to have to go through hunter safety next year, and I'll see if he has the motivation for that. But he loves going out on. On grandpa's. Grandpa's ranch and trekking about and looking for animals. So I think. I think he'll do it. I think he'll go through the process.

[Corey]

Hopefully he won't get to the point like Seth is, where his brain won't function until he can kill a big buck. Because it's important to keep some perspective.

[Seth]

It's an illness.

[Phil]

Okay.

[Seth]

It's an illness.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Phil]

Maybe I'll. Maybe I'll pull him back then.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Just have a little before it gets too bad. Well, should we. Should we move on to our first guest today?

[Phil]

Let's do it.

[Randall]

Do it.

[Corey]

Today we are joined by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Kalispell area wildlife biologist Franz Engelfinger. Franz oversees wildlife monitoring across some of the most remote terrain in the lower 48, including an ongoing elk research project in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Franz, thanks for joining us today.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Hey, it's great to be here. Thank you for making the time to talk to me and hear about some of the work we're doing up in northwest Montana.

[Corey]

Yeah, we're excited to hear about it.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Yeah.

[Randall]

Hey, Franz, Corey here. When you hear about elk in Montana, most conversations focus on areas where herds have an air quoting over objective population. But Region 1 in northwest Montana, where I was born and bred, is home, which is also home to a sixth of Montana's public land, which should be an eye opener to a lot of folks. Region one faces a very different set of challenges. Franz, can you lay out what makes elk management west of the Continental Divide unique compared to the rest of the state of Montana?

[Franz Engelfinger]

Yeah, sure, Corey. I think first off, one of the unique things is in region one, we have an opportunity to grow elk on public land. And I think some of the things that make Region 1 unique is a abundant access. Like you talked about. We have over 500 million acres of public land, as well as an additional half a million acres of private land enrolled at our bark management program. So a lot of opportunity to get out in the woods and have a great hunt. Region one is also in northwest Montana, forested, which makes hunting complicated. I think a lot of people come up here for the first time and they're like, didn't think we'd have so many trees. And so that changes how you can hunt. It also changes as biologists how we can survey our populations and monitor trend. Flying and doing aerial Surveys is really only effective where you can see to the, you know, through the canopy or where there are no trees. And so we have very few districts where we can actually, you know, do aerial surveys. And then finally, you know, with so much of the landscape forested, our changes in our elk populations are closely tied to changes in our forest cover. And so when you look at, you know, history of forest extraction, Montana, where you had a big boom from about the, you know, 50s through the 90s, and then a real drop off after that, some of those timber cuts that really provide a great habitat for a number of our ungulates have played out at this point. So you can't talk about changes in ungulate population without talking about forest management, forest fire. And then finally, region one, we're also known for our recovered carnivore populations. We have healthy populations of wolves, bears, lions. And so that's also in the mix. Region one, you know, great whitetail deer hunting. 20% of the state's harvest comes from northwest Montana. Good black bear hunting as well. Mule deer, you know, we harvest about 3% of the state, and for Elk, it's about 5% of the overall state harvest. And in Region 1, we kind of say, you know, we force elk to be moose. We bury their groceries in four feet of snow and make them eat shrubs. So, you know, no surprise. But again, you know, many some of our hunting districts are under objective. And again, that's where we have this opportunity to grow elk on public land.

[Randall]

Well, speaking of populations, you work primarily in and around the great Bob Marshall wilderness complex, specifically up and around the south fork of the flathead drainage. What have historical elk populations been like in that area? And what are today's most recent population estimates?

[Franz Engelfinger]

Yeah, you know, the south fork has a long history of elk numbers and elk fluctuations. I think when I think of the bomb marshall in the south fork, I think of three herds you've got which all summer within that south fork drainage. But two of them, those that go over to the sun river to the east, and those that migrate south to the Blackwater Clearwater, they go. They're kind of our winter birds. They bug out in the winter to better winter range conditions outside the bog. And so my research right now is focused on those hardy souls that spend the entire winter or their entire life cycle within the south fork. And there they deal with, you know, deep snow and e kindle living on the valley bottom and then those south and southwest facing slopes. So in terms of the history of that population, that that winter in the South Fork, you know, back around the start, you know, 1900s, they first started to document elk overwintering in the South Fork. And there was a series of conditions, you know, fire, isolation, limited hunting and, you know, also limited pressure from predators that allowed that population to balloon such that by, you know, the late 30s, we saw a high of over 3,800 elk in wintering in the South Fork. Granted, they were also becoming alarmed by the impact that these elk were having on range conditions. But again, you know, back then, you know, things blew up and it made for some of the best hunting in the country. You know, the Bob Marshall Wilderness is isolated, it's rugged, it's beautiful, and elk numbers like that really supported a, you know, wonderful hunting opportunity. Things have changed. Several things have conspired that today, over the last 20 years, we've seen numbers decline. Now, when I give you population estimates from the 30s, those are estimates based on winter track counts and walking boots on the ground in the winter. And then when I talk about our estimates days, it's not so much estimates as they are minimum counts. These are the number of animals I see when I fly. So it's sort of oranges and apples comparison. But what I will say is it appears that we are at lows we haven't seen in decades. And know, although it's orange and apples comparison, there's certainly less fruit on the table.

[Randall]

Well, with that, what steps is FWP taking to understand what's driving this decline and in turn support the long term herd health of these elk?

[Franz Engelfinger]

Sure. I think, you know, this comes down to the question of, you know, what drives population change or elk populations. And, you know, I tend to think of, you know, elk kind of middle. They're supported on the bottom by forage production and little pressure on the top from predation. It's this question of, you know, is it bottom up processes, habitat and forage or predators that are limiting populations? And I kind of like to think of, you know, elk sitting around the table playing a friendly game of poker. And every season is a, you know, is a hand. And I know that, you know, habitat conditions, forage production that will moderate all things. And so if, you know, you have a wet spring and you got good forage production, that's like getting dealt a sixth or seventh card. But if you got drought, you know, fire that whips through your rental range, maybe you're playing with only four or three cards. And then if you have a big, big snowstorm, you just fold. So, you know, every season it changes. But again, habitat is a big player that helps moderate the other factors, namely climate and predation. In terms of what FWP is doing, we use information research to inform and adapt our management. And so in northwest Montana, we've got a couple different projects going on. I'll briefly touch on one and then we'll dive into the work we're doing in the South Fork. So we have the Nox and elk study, which is a comprehensive study looking at elk survival, sources of mortality, predation, looking at forest management and how that affects forage quality and production. And there They've got about 150 callers on Cow Elk. They've got another 150. They put on neonates that you know right after birth and tracking survival, tracking sources of mortality that will help inform our management statewide and especially here in northwest Montana. The work I'm doing we're going to talk about today a little more in depth is coloring elk in the South Fork to try and tease out some of the things that are causing that decline and preventing that recovery of elk in the South Fork. So, yeah, using research to inform management.

[Randall]

So this collaring project has got must have a lot of specific details that you have to figure out. So how are you capturing these elk? What are these collars trying to measure? And what kind of data are you hoping to collect from this study?

[Franz Engelfinger]

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So we got two approaches to catching elk. We can do aerial captures. That's with hired team that comes in with a helicopter and darts and immobilizes elk from the air and then goes on and slaps on the collar. That we can do when we're outside the wilderness. But wilderness designation provides with it some additional challenges. Our other option for capturing elk can we do this both in wilderness and outside is ground captures, where we use clover traps that are baited with alfalfa hay and there's a trip wire. They're basically, you know, metal cages with netting. And we bait the elk in there and they set off the trap. And then once they're in there, we've got trap transmitters that then tell us something's there and we can go and collar them. What we have is we've got GPS collars. These are collars you can program. They'll give us, you know, six to 12 locations a day and a tremendous amount of information. You know, day, night, bad weather as well. And if our animals stop moving, we get a mortality report. I get a text or an email that says, your animal is down and it's here and I can go in very Quickly, if I can get there and start to look at some of the factors and causes of that mortality. What we hope to get out of this, you know, we have very limited information about elk movement and vital rates within the South Fork. So simple things like, you know, adult survival, pregnancy rate, some of the things that, you know, people thought might be limiting, that's information we can tease out from this limited study, as well as some of those seasonal movements in habitat selection. And again, all this is to help us think about ways we can help this population recover.

[Randall]

Well, specifically, the wilderness portion of this study, being in an extremely remote setting, and correct me if I'm wrong, you're trying to pull this off during the winter months, sounds like a logistical nightmare. So what are some of the key challenges of this project and also what keeps your team motivated to keep pushing on?

[Franz Engelfinger]

Sure, sure. I think, you know, to be clear, you know, the men and women I work with at fwp, they all work in remote settings doing, you know, stuff in rugged terrain. So what makes this unique is that wilderness aspect. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some of our project supporters. You know, this project is funded, you know, through Pittman Robertson dollars. These are excise taxes on hook and bullets. So that's provided the funding for the collaring and the helicopter captures. But it was a grant from the Rocky Mountain Elk foundation that allowed us to actually extend this work into the wilderness. And so what we need is, you know, they, they help pay for aluminum traps that are portable enough that we could pack them in. And then, of course, partnering with the U.S. forest Service, they, they have crews that go there in this area in the winter to do snow surveys. They've got the technical skills as well as, you know, they wrap their head around working remotely very well. So they've been a critical partner as well. But again, in terms of some of the challenges, you know, access for sure, we're talking it's a two day to three day ski in at a minimum, and it depends on conditions. Last year when we went in, you know, it took my crew about eight hours to get up over Gordon Pass. The next crew that was coming in to relieve us, they got hit by snow. It took them over 13 hours. And they were getting to the halfway point at about, you know, 9pm at night in the dark. So access is a challenge. And that makes also planning difficult. You know, if I forget something, I'm not running out to the truck. We got to make do. If we have a binding break like we did last year. You got a kind of MacGyver, a fix. And so there's that challenge as well. Physical demands, like I said, traveling in snow, just keeping your body fat. I lost 10 pounds, and I don't have 10 pounds to lose. We were eating candy. You know, we were, you know, breakfast sandwiches cooked in bacon, soaked in bacon grease. And, you know, I just couldn't put on enough calories. And. And then obviously, the environment. We saw temperatures from, you know, 50 degrees to negative 30. And I have a frame of reference of what, you know, negative 20 is, but you get down to negative 30, and it's just like, you know, that's new.

[Corey]

Everything's hard.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Oh, yeah. Sounds like an adventure. Yeah, you know, it was an adventure. It was also, you know, you know, hard work and I think important work. And yes, kind of what. What keeps me motivated. I think two things. One is, you know, I feel indebted to the sportsmen, sports women here that, you know, enjoy the Bob Marshall, you know, care about our angular populations, our game populations, wildlife in general. Curious, you know, what's going on. You know, I feel like we owe them, you know, an answer at least to try and find an answer. And then I think the other thing that keeps me motivated is, you know, biologists that came before me that did a lot of work to get some of the information we have, we had, you know, back in the 70s, 80s, 90s, there were a few coloring studies where, you know, they go out, they slap these collars on, but then they'd have to go to get locations. They'd have to fly and use VHF radios to triangulate. So took on a. An immense amount of effort as well as risk to get those. Those locations. I can sit now at my desk. I don't, but I can sit, you know, back and every morning sip a cup of coffee and see, you know, what my elk are doing. And I can get a tremendous amount of information from these callers. And I feel sort of, you know, you know, that it's important for me to put the effort into trying to getting them out.

[Seth]

Wow.

[Randall]

Fascinating.

[Seth]

Yeah, that's cool.

[Randall]

Well, for people who want to learn and follow along as the study progresses, where can they find updates or learn more about your work?

[Franz Engelfinger]

Yeah, FWP has some, you know, Fishwife and Parks has some great resources. The first off is every year we put out an annual elk report that looks at harvest throughout the region. You can just Google, you know, FWP R1 Elk Report, and you'll see that that's a Great resource. But in terms of the research we do, you can also just Google FWP elk research and that will bring you to our research page. We also have that for mule deer and other species, but FWP elk research. And you will see, you know, project annual reports and summaries for just about every project we're doing. And when I get to it, you'll have one for this one too. So that's where information will appear.

[Randall]

Great. Well, I could talk about this all day just as somebody who grew up and used to live and work in the. In the wilderness. But thanks for your time and giving us just a glimpse into your work. Research like this plays a huge role in how Montana manages wildlife. And we appreciate all your hard work, dangerous work that you guys are doing to try and wrap your heads around what's going on up there. So we thank you for that.

[Franz Engelfinger]

No, thank you, Corey, Randall, Seth, I really appreciate you having me on and yeah, it's been fun.

[Corey]

Yeah, thank you.

[Randall]

I do have one more really important question, maybe the most important. Cats or Grizz this Saturday?

[Franz Engelfinger]

Oh, well, my son's down in Bozeman, so. Go Cats.

[Seth]

Lighting works, Corey.

[Randall]

All right, well, go Grizz.

[Corey]

Go Grizz. Thanks, Fran.

[Seth]

Thank you fr.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Yeah, thank you.

[Corey]

Take care, man, that's. That's wild stuff.

[Randall]

Yeah. Sounds like fun.

[Corey]

Oh, yeah, I know. Sounds.

[Seth]

Sounds like a lot of work. Multi day fun work.

[Corey]

Yeah. Like a multi day ski trip is.

[Randall]

Yeah.

[Corey]

I could count on like one hand the number of times I've skied in somewhere and camped. And it's not, not, not very. I mean, it's fun, but it's, it's a lot of work. Just being stressful.

[Randall]

Being in ski boots for 24 hours. I mean, you sleep a little, but, you know, he was saying how hard it is to get in there. A couple days worth of just skiing in. Imagine living in ski boots. For those who have ever slipped their feet into them, they're not comfortable. Those guys are living in them while they're back there.

[Corey]

Yeah. Mine make me cry. Yeah, Most days.

[Randall]

Most people.

[Corey]

Most days.

[Randall]

A lot of tears. Blood, sweat and tears.

[Corey]

Hey, here's one of the cooler gifts for people. It's called the aura frame. We have one in our house. My mom has one. It's a picture frame you send to someone you love. You send to your mom, your grandma, your aunt, I don't know, whoever you feel like. They plug it in and set it on the counter and then you load it with pictures of your family and pictures of people they want to see and it just like it's a little gift to them. Every day they come in there's like new pictures of the grandkids. Super cool. It takes about two minutes to set up a frame using the Aura app. You have complete control over who has access to your frame. And the Aura app lets you share photos more securely than with email. And email is what many other digital frames require. Share photos or videos from any device and they will instantly appear on that distant frame wherever it is in the world. There's no memory card required for a limited time. Visit aura frames.com and get $45 off Aura's best selling Carver Matte frames named Number One by Wirecutter by using promo code Me eater at checkout. That's Aura Frames. You spell it a U R auraframes.com use the promo code Me Eater. This exclusive Black Friday Cyber Monday deal is their best of the year, so order now before it ends. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply within Mustache A.

[Venmo Stash Advertiser]

Taco in one hand and ordering a ride in the other means you're stacking cash back.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Nice.

[Venmo Stash Advertiser]

Get up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash on your favorite brands when you pay with your Venmo debit card. From takeout to ride shares, entertainment and more, pick a bundle with your go tos and start earning cash back at those brands. Earn more cash when you do more with Stash. Venmo Stash terms and exclusions apply. Max $100 cash back per month. See terms at Venmo Me Stashterms.

[Announcer]

If you've got a thirst to put the world on notice, Sprite's for you. Whether you're shooting a masterpiece on your phone, filling notebooks with sketches, or turning your bedroom into the booth, keep going. Obey your thirst, Sprite.

[Corey]

Speaking of tears, now it's time for a new segment. Meat Theater. Meet Theater is a concept that we came up yet with yesterday, where we take outstanding hunting literature and feed it into artificial intelligence and ask the AI to generate a short dramatic script to be performed live by untrained actors. And as we're brainstorming for today's show, we wanted to tie in the latest episode of meat eater season 13, which, as we all know, captures Steve's first African safari. And what better way to do that, I thought, than perform a hasty stage adaptation of a classic Ernest Hemingway short story, the Short Happy Life of Francis McComber, originally published in the September 1936 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. Guys, ready oh, man.

[Randall]

Born ready.

[Phil]

And we did this.

[Corey]

We just did this once yesterday to make sure that it wouldn't take 10 minutes.

[Phil]

And it didn't.

[Corey]

So let's give her a rip, boys.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Seth]

Not a lot of practice went into this. So.

[Corey]

Action. The short happy life of Francis McComber. Oh, nice lights, Phil. Scene one. After the lion.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Oh, no.

[Phil]

That's the wrong one. I'm already screwing this up. There we go.

[Randall]

We're live.

[Phil]

It is late afternoon at a hunting camp in Africa. Francis McComber has just run like a coward from a wounded lion. His wife watched it all happen. So did their ph, Robert Wilson. No one has spoken directly of it, but everyone knows how.

[Corey]

Is your drink, Mr. Wilson?

[Randall]

Fine. Just fine.

[Seth]

We got that line eventually though, didn't we?

[Randall]

Yes, we did.

[Corey]

We got him. How interesting. Margot, I. I'm gonna clean up before dinner. You were lovely today, darling. Really impressive stuff.

[Phil]

At the moment, Margot turns her back on her husband and walks away.

[Seth]

I bolted. I just bolted like a scared little boy. I've never done anything like that before.

[Randall]

It happens to everyone at some point.

[Seth]

Does it happen to you?

[Derek Demun]

Oh, hold on.

[Phil]

Oh, it's double sided paper.

[Corey]

Double sided paper.

[Phil]

No.

[Seth]

She saw it all. She'll never let me forget it.

[Randall]

Women are difficult in these situations.

[Seth]

Can we go out tomorrow? Go after something else? I need to. I need another chance.

[Corey]

Buffalo.

[Randall]

We'll go after buffalo in the morning.

[Seth]

Yes.

[Venmo Stash Advertiser]

Buffalo.

[Seth]

Thank you, Wilson.

[Randall]

Don't thank me yet.

[Phil]

That night, Margot McComber visited Wilson's tent. Francis knew. Wilson knew that he knew. But nothing was said. In the morning, they would hunt buffalo.

[Corey]

Scene 2 the buffalo.

[Phil]

Morning. The hunt begins. Well. Francis shoots three buffalo. For the first time in his life, he is not afraid. He feels it. That thing he had never felt before. Perhaps this is what courage is.

[Randall]

Good shooting, Macomber. Damn good.

[Seth]

Did you see? Did you see them drop?

[Corey]

Yes, I saw.

[Seth]

I wasn't afraid. Not at all. I felt. God, Wilson. I felt alive.

[Randall]

You shot magnificently.

[Seth]

Did you see, Margo?

[Corey]

I saw.

[Randall]

Which page?

[Phil]

It's Wilson. One of them's just. One of them's just.

[Randall]

One of them's just wounded. We'll have to go in after him.

[Seth]

Good. Let's go.

[Randall]

The bush. A wounded buff in the bush is one of the most dangerous.

[Seth]

I don't care. I'm not afraid anymore. Can you understand that? I'm no longer afraid.

[Corey]

Is it safe?

[Randall]

Nothing's safe. But we have to finish him.

[Seth]

Then let's finish him. Margot, stay here with the gun bearer. We'll Be back.

[Phil]

And there it was. Francis McComber had crossed over just 30 minutes ago. He had been a boy, and now he was a man. His wife knew it, Wilson knew it, and Macomber himself knew it. Most of all, he was happy, perhaps for the first time in his life.

[Randall]

There he is.

[Franz Engelfinger]

12 yards away.

[Seth]

I see him.

[Phil]

Christ.

[Corey]

Oh, no. The cap gun's not going off.

[Phil]

It went off.

[Corey]

We got it. Do that line again, Corey. Quickly.

[Randall]

Christ.

[Corey]

Francis. Oh, God. Francis. Is he. He's dead.

[Randall]

The bullet hit him in the back of the head.

[Corey]

I tried to hit the buffalo. I had to shoot. It was an accident.

[Randall]

Of course it was.

[Corey]

I thought I could kill the buffalo. You saw it was charging.

[Randall]

That's right. The buffalo was charging.

[Corey]

Oh, God. Oh, God.

[Randall]

You were afraid, weren't you?

[Corey]

What?

[Randall]

Just now, just these last 30 minutes. You were afraid of him for the first time.

[Corey]

I don't know what you mean.

[Randall]

No, I don't suppose you do.

[Corey]

Scene three, epilogue.

[Phil]

They said it was an accident, of course. A tragic accident. During a buffalo hunt. These things happen in Africa. Mrs. McComber was distraught. Naturally. She had tried to save her husband from the charging animal. No one could blame her for what happened. Robert Wilson. He had seen that look in her eyes. When Frances McComber stopped being afraid. When he became, for perhaps the first time and last time in his life. A man she could not control. A man she did not recognize. Frances McComber lived 35 years. But he was truly alive for only 30 minutes. In those 30 minutes, he was happy. And perhaps that is longer than most men ever manage. The short, happy life of Francis McComber. Emphasis on short. Emphasis on happy. Make of it what you will.

[Corey]

End of play. Audience goes nuts.

[Seth]

Do.

[Phil]

Do we still have viewers, Phil?

[Seth]

Are people still watching?

[Corey]

Who dropped off the live stream?

[Phil]

I think I. I mean, I think we're at peak viewership, so.

[Seth]

Man, we locked him in.

[Corey]

Wow. Lights are back on. Thanks for the stage lights, Phil.

[Phil]

Yeah, of course. There's dried leaves everywhere back here.

[Corey]

That filled seven minutes.

[Phil]

That was great.

[Corey]

I thought the computer did a really nice job with that script. I added a few touches this morning to make things clearer. I thought it left a little too much up to suggestion and innuendo. But I really liked what the computer did with that.

[Phil]

Yeah, the. The power that it took for the AI to. To create that, it. It only drained late. Late Lake Mead, like, a couple of inches, so. Wow.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Phil]

I think it was worth it.

[Corey]

Hopefully Hemingway is not rolling over in his grave in Ketchum, Idaho, directly Across from the old First Light HQ, we.

[Phil]

Have 45 new live chat comments that I'm too scared to look at.

[Corey]

Well, Phil, unfortunately it's time to take a break for some listener feedback.

[Phil]

Well, I haven't read the new one, so let's just look at the old ones that I've seen.

[Randall]

Oh, good.

[Phil]

Let's see here. This is. You know, it's almost Thanksgiving and we have more news about next Thursday's show that Randall will talk about at the end of the show. But Kenneth would like to know. Favorite turkey preps. Smoked, fried or oven baked?

[Randall]

Oh man, you can't beat a fried turkey.

[Seth]

Fried's pretty good. I'm usually a traditional oven bake guy.

[Corey]

Yeah, just the oven roast brine and oven roast.

[Randall]

Yeah, I got it, Brian.

[Corey]

I feel like the. The taste of a smoked or fried turkey is soured by how often people like to talk about how good they are.

[Seth]

That's true.

[Corey]

You know, I. I don't think there's anything wrong with the good old fashioned turkey.

[Randall]

Nothing's wrong with it. Just the last couple of years I've brined and fried and it's hard to beat that crispy skin.

[Seth]

It's.

[Randall]

It's not easy though. Yeah, a lot of accidents can happen.

[Corey]

A lot of houses dangerous.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Yes.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Randall]

Be careful out there, kids.

[Corey]

Be careful. Thanksgiving is coming up. Never. Bad idea to refresh yourself on fire safety. Make sure those extinguishers are where they should be, etc. Etc.

[Seth]

Don't fry it in your garage.

[Corey]

That's for Rick Hutton. He'll tell you all about fires.

[Phil]

I'm going to bring this up live just to hold everyone responsible accountable. Mogor says that he still hasn't received any news about his cookbooks, so. Oh, so me, Jake, Corey.

[Randall]

I'm in on that.

[Phil]

Whoever. We need to get this man his cookbooks.

[Corey]

I don't have the backstory on this. Do we owe him?

[Phil]

We owe Mogur won a silly. What was it? Like? Sort of a caption contest thing. I don't remember what, but Brody picked him as one of the winners and he's embarrassing. He's supposed to receive signed cookbooks.

[Corey]

As much as I want Mogor to get his cookbooks, I think we should have swept this under the rug because.

[Phil]

It'S a bad one. We've done that. We did that. We did that a couple weeks ago. I refuse. I respect the man too much.

[Corey]

Mogor, we'll figure these cookbooks if I have to fly over to Hungary myself and deliver them.

[Randall]

Morgo. Just to put Water under the fridge here I am replying to your email with the tracking number of your cookbooks.

[Seth]

Oh, that's some CS right there.

[Corey]

Wonderful.

[Phil]

There you go, Mogor. Hopefully that clears everything up.

[Corey]

Apologies, Mogor.

[Phil]

Let's see, holiday hunting traditions. On either Christmas or Thanksgiving. What do you guys do, if anything? That's from Trey.

[Corey]

We don't have traditions. We'll probably go out this Thanksgiving morning to shoot a. Sydney's still looking for a deer and, yeah, shot my first bull the day after Thanksgiving. I actually don't really like how many people are in the woods around Thanksgiving. Not that it's a bad thing, but for my own enjoyment of the woods.

[Seth]

It'S a big tradition.

[Corey]

I feel like around Montana it's big. People just go out in huge numbers right around Thanksgiving.

[Seth]

Yeah, yeah. Usually if I'm in Montana for Thanksgiving, I usually do some sort of hunt Thanksgiving Day or. Yeah, Thanksgiving Day morning. Whether it's like a doe hunt or upland hunt or something. Um, but this year I'm going to be back in Pennsylvania and the rifle season opens the Saturday after Thanksgiving there.

[Corey]

Oh, that's.

[Seth]

So it's like Thanksgiving. Then Friday go to deer camp and then Saturday wake up and deer hunt.

[Randall]

Beautiful.

[Seth]

I love it.

[Phil]

Yeah, all lined up right on. This is sort of a call to action. This is from Ben and I. I was unaware of this mostly because I edit Cal's podcast and I don't think he's talked about it, but he probably will on Monday's podcast. But Ben says, any of my fellow Wisconsinites in the chat, please be sure and call. Email your reps for the sandhill crane hunting bill. Apparently there were lots of opponents at the public hearing yesterday, and I looked it up and apparently in 2010 there was a management plan developed by the Mississippi and Atlantic Flyway councils that would call for a potential crane hunt once numbers exceeded a range between three 30,000 and 60,000 birds. And estimates are now in the 100,000 range. So get out there, Wisconsinites. Let them know that you want a sandhill crane hunt.

[Corey]

Nobody's going to stand up and advocate for hunting seasons if hunters themselves don't do it. So get out there, gang. Thank you, Ben, for bringing this to our attention.

[Phil]

I haven't looked at all the comments regarding meat theater yet, but this is from Afroman. I don't know about this, boys. What happened to one minute fishing?

[Corey]

That's a fair point.

[Seth]

Yeah, yeah, that is a fair point.

[Corey]

I'll be honest.

[Phil]

I'm sure this is the only negative one. And all the other ones.

[Corey]

I'll be honest, Mr. Man. We were well aware that this would be a polarizing segment.

[Phil]

Adam says, is it safe to return yet? Yes. Adam, we're now in the listener feedback section. If you dipped out, please come back. But Derek says it's going to be nominated for an Emmy, so I'm excited to put that on my mantle.

[Corey]

Yeah. I mean, even if we don't win an award, I hope it inspires some audience members to go out and read the Short Happy life of Francis McComber. It's a great story if you like gunshot accidents. Or maybe not accidents. Cuckolded marriages and hunting in Africa. So highly recommend some of Hemingway's finest work.

[Seth]

Sure.

[Phil]

Dan is asking what the weirdest thing you guys have ever found inside a critter is.

[Randall]

Broadheads.

[Corey]

Yeah, I shot a bull one time that had a broadhead that had gone through the. The spinal. What do you call this? The little bone, the ridge that goes.

[Seth]

Along the back of the spine.

[Phil]

What's it called?

[Corey]

And it had. It had gone through and then lodged in the opposite side, back strap poking out. So when I was cutting down, my knife hit the. Like where you'd thread it onto the shaft? Oh, yeah, into the shaft.

[Seth]

I shot a turkey this spring that had an air rifle pellet in it.

[Corey]

Oh, really?

[Phil]

I.

[Corey]

We ate rabbit. I can say this because the restaurant's closed. Fabulous restaurant in Missoula. And we got a rabbit that had an air rifle pellet in it at the restaurant.

[Randall]

Really?

[Corey]

Yeah. And we called the restaurant and they were like. These are raised in the bitter. Like in an open. Not. I mean, it was not like open range. But they're like some kid might have driven by and plunked one.

[Phil]

Geez.

[Corey]

So, wow, Corey. Weird stuff in animals.

[Randall]

Let's see. I had a client catch a cutthroat that had a snake coming out of its anus. I believe it was a garter snake. I couldn't help myself when I pulled it out and it just kept coming.

[Corey]

Was it digested like it had gone in the front end, or was it still thrashing around like it had gone in the back end?

[Randall]

The snake was dead. Fish was very much alive, but it was. The tail of the snake was already coming out of the fish. So I just couldn't help and pull out.

[Corey]

He was still hungry, too. Phil's still playing with the cap gun over there.

[Phil]

Just hurt my finger.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Oh, no.

[Corey]

I think the critics.

[Seth]

Phil just ad the cap gun back.

[Corey]

I think the critics of that performance should know that Phil brought In a cap gun, that would have really added a lot of real.

[Phil]

I'm still on the fade mode.

[Derek Demun]

Yeah.

[Corey]

The gunshots would have been far more realistic had the cap gun functioned. And also, Phil, in practicing for his match strike, when Wilson lights his cigarette, Phil burned one of the microphones in the studio just before we went live.

[Phil]

I also didn't. I didn't hold the match close enough to the mic, so it wasn't as impactful. I'll do it again here.

[Corey]

Yeah, that's cool. That sounds good.

[Phil]

Sounds nice.

[Corey]

Anything else in the chat there, Phil?

[Phil]

Yeah, I think we can move on and tackle things at the end of the show.

[Corey]

All righty.

[Randall]

Art.

[Corey]

Is it a Christmas ornament?

[Seth]

It is.

[Randall]

Or a wiffle gnome Christmas ornament, if anybody would like.

[Corey]

Are we supposed to talk about Shameless Plug?

[Randall]

No, we kind of are. It's hanging right here.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Phil]

Oh, great.

[Seth]

@The meteor.com part.

[Corey]

Our next guest today is Derek Demun, a hunter, photographer, and the host of the T8 Outdoors podcast. You might know him from the viral video where a routine deer hunt turns surreal after his bullet hit a collared deer and made the collar explode on impact.

[Randall]

What?

[Corey]

Yeah. Derek, welcome to the show.

[Derek Demun]

Hey guys, thanks for having me.

[Corey]

So for folks who may not know you yet, can you give us a little background on your story?

[Derek Demun]

Yeah. My name is Derek. I'm a T8 paraplegic. I down Utah on a CWMU hunt. That's, that's a tag that they give out in Utah for landowners who have more than like 5,000 acres. Because I'm like tax revenue and stuff like that. But yeah, it was a, it was a couple day hunt and we're, we're going for known giants in the area, so we're going for a giant. But yeah, I didn't expect the smallest deer I've ever shot to be the most popular deer I've ever shot.

[Corey]

So tell us about. We're going to pull up the video here in a second, but tell us about how, as you mentioned, you're a paraplegic. How, how are you hunting? What's the, what's sort of the, the style or sort of adaptive equipment that you use to hunt.

[Derek Demun]

So on. Out here in my local mountains, I like to mountain bike in. We'll strap a little. Made a little MacGyver to trailer and we'll, I'll throw gear and stuff on the trailer and me and a buddy will smash out on the mountain bikes and, and get, get as deep as we can. Either that and I got One of those action track chairs. It's, it's the wheelchair that looks like a tank and so those work. Those work well. Although the battery dies pretty quick and you want to get stuck up on the backcountry with the. Yeah, 500 pound wheelchair.

[Corey]

Yeah, that, that's not ideal.

[Derek Demun]

No, not at all. But on this particular hunt I was able to. So since I'm a paraplegic and I'm in a wheelchair, I have a license through the state of Utah DNR to hunt from a vehicle, any four wheel drive vehicle. So, so that's what this hunt was able to. So you accomplish.

[Corey]

So you guys are out looking for deer in the morning and you're, you're hunting from the vehicle. What did this deer did you know it had a collar on? I mean, just sort of walk us through like what you were thinking up until the moment of the shot.

[Derek Demun]

Okay, so we, it was actually the very last day, last afternoon of the hunt. So it was. And there's probably 20 minutes of legal shooting light left. We're driving back down the lodge and at this point I just told the landowner he was driving. I was like, hey, you know, anything with antlers, I would like to at least put some meat in the freezer. Because I was, I, I like taking my old man on hunts with me. So just anything we could munch on. But we're coming, coming around the corner and it's absolutely pouring rain. You can't really, you can't hear it in the, in the video that I posted, just microphone wise wasn't working out well. But we come around the corner and this little forkies pops up out of his bed and is staring at us because like I said, it was pouring rain and we weren't expecting to see anything. So this guy popped up and just staring at us probably, probably about 10 yards off the road. And land landowner's like, here's your chance. I was like, all right, cool. Got, got my rifle set up and he had, he had glass on it, he had his binos on it. And I got in the optic, I was like, it's got a collar. He's like, it, it's all good. You can, you know, take it at will. And so he wanted me to shoot it where the neck meets the body. Since it was raining so hard, the, you know, if you would have hit it somewhere else, the blood trail would have probably been washed away pretty fast. It was rain raining really hard that day. So I aimed right where the, the neck meets the, meets the chest right there in the brisket area. Saw the collar trip, aim underneath of it. And I hit the lithium battery on the collar. And. And yeah, the.

[Randall]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Let's. Let's let the video.

[Derek Demun]

Big explosion. I thought the deer went sky high. And there's.

[Corey]

Phil, can you pull up that video?

[Phil]

Yes.

[Corey]

And. And I. I told Derek before we got started, like, I. Someone sent this to us and said, have you seen this video of a deer exploding when the collar gets hit? And I thought, oh, we're gonna get like a little sizzle, you know, or like a couple sparks. But the video is something. You can see here. The.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Getting the audio shot coming through.

[Phil]

So apologies.

[Randall]

Takes aim. Kaboom.

[Corey]

And it's. It's like a. Yeah. I mean, looks like tannerite for folks that aren't listen or are watching.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Excuse me.

[Corey]

For the folks who are listening and not watching. Yeah, it looks like a tannerite went off. So Derek, what. What's the first thing in your mind that. I mean, it's crazy. So you pull the trigger and there's one big boom and then another big boom. What's the first thing goes through your mind?

[Derek Demun]

Well, it was funny because there was. There was a good 15 seconds of silence in the truck. Like, we all just sat there and just stared at the truck. 15 foot tall pile of smoke. And we're. We all just literally just sat there and I was like, like kind of deer you guys got out here, you know, and. And the landowner's like, I've been hunting my. My land for 50 years and I have never ever seen that. And weird. Yeah. It was just mind blowing and wasn't expecting it. And honestly, going. Going up to the deer, I thought there was going to be a lot of damage, but there was absolutely no damage to the deer.

[Randall]

Wow.

[Derek Demun]

It was literally just. The battery exploded and you could see where my bullet went through the. Went through the neck. Dropped it right in its. Right in its track. So it was a good.

[Corey]

Yeah, you'd hope so with that impact.

[Derek Demun]

Yeah.

[Phil]

Right.

[Derek Demun]

It was shooting a243 and it hit the. Yeah. Hit that battery and it's crazy. You could slow it down. And there's a giant flash of light, sparks flying 10, 15ft in the air. And then that smoke got a good 15, 20ft in the.

[Randall]

Wow.

[Derek Demun]

Up in the forest there.

[Phil]

So, Derek, we got a question from Seth who asked how far did it run after that?

[Derek Demun]

About 2 inches. Luckily, it was a clean ethical shot. So he dropped right. Right in his track.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Franz Engelfinger]

No.

[Corey]

No blood trailing. Needed. Did. Did wildlife. I mean, you so you posted this on your Instagram channel and. Or on your Instagram feed and then it went viral. Can you tell us like, did wildlife officials reach out to you at all or what was sort of the reaction that you got after you posted this?

[Derek Demun]

So we were driving down to the lodge when this happened. Before we got to the lodge, after we threw the deer in the truck, we were already on the phone with Utah DNR and, and they, they congratulated me. They said, you know, great shock, congratulations. And they asked what condition the caller was in and it, you know, we explained it and they're like, oh, you go ahead, keep the collar. It's no of use to us. And they even emailed me the migration charts on.

[Seth]

Oh, cool. Oh, nice.

[Derek Demun]

So I got to see where this, the summer range, it's winter range and it's year round range. And that deer specifically migrates 21 miles round, round trip from its summer ground to the winter grounds.

[Corey]

That's amazing.

[Derek Demun]

That was pretty cool. That deer put on some miles.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Whenever I shoot a deer, I always like wonder what its individual story is. And it's like you're never going to get the chance to know that unless it's like.

[Seth]

Unless it has an exploding collar.

[Corey]

Unless it has an exploding collar. Yeah. So is that going to go on the, you're going to do a Euro mount and hang the collar on it or what's the plan there?

[Derek Demun]

I have a Euro amount and I have the collar hanging. Hanging from it. Yeah, I do. So it was, it was cool. I got, you know, and you asked about like the, like what people said about it afterwards. But I got a lot of people, you know, people who don't read the captions because I, I listed what happened in the entire hunt, why I was shooting from a vehicle.

[Phil]

Right.

[Derek Demun]

Why it exploded. Xyz because they got a lot of hate from shooting from a vehicle. But people that are, you know, special situation.

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah. Derek, I know you use your platform to advocate for hunters with disabilities and it's an important message. And I think what you just brought up there, like, there's a lot of, you know, ignorance out there, not only in the hunting community, but outside of the hunting community about folks getting outdoors in different ways. Can you, can you share some of your, like, advocacy message with, with our audience and kind of what, what would you want other hunters to understand about what it takes to get, you know, for example, a paraplegic like yourself outside?

[Derek Demun]

Yeah, it's, you know, every, every state out there offers a shoot from a vehicle. It doesn't have to be a car. It could be any, any wheeled vehicle from the road. You can go out, you can get those. It's, you know, it's tough. Like, I was, I wasn't born paraplegic, you know, I got. Got into a bad accident and just, Just trying to fill the freezer like anybody else, you know, and there's, There's a lot less of us in this position than people tend to think. People tend to think, oh, you know. Yeah, I don't know. Shooting from a car does get abused by a lot of people. But in reality, like, there's no really other way to do certain types of hunts. Like, I still like to hop. Hop in the blind, you know, choke points, food plots, water sources, all that. That, That's a lot funner. But sometimes when you're hunting big, steep, rugged mountain terrain, you know, you're obviously not going to be rolling your wheelchair through that. So.

[Corey]

Yeah, hopping.

[Derek Demun]

Hopping in the side by or a car, really.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Yeah.

[Corey]

So maybe it really helps, you know.

[Derek Demun]

They'Re trying to fill the freezer.

[Corey]

If folks see someone shooting from a vehicle, don't rush to judgment about who's doing that and why. Right.

[Derek Demun]

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Some. Some disabilities are super visible, you know, and some aren't.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Derek Demun]

If you see me rolling down the street, you're like, this guy's in a wheelchair, you know, but there's a lot of, There's a lot of disabilities out there that you can apply for a shoot from a vehicle, car that you, you couldn't tell just by looking at somebody. You know, you have to dive deep into their story, hear what they're all about. And so, yeah, just don't rush to judgment. We're all out here just trying to feed our families.

[Corey]

Well, Derek, if. If folks want to hear more about your story and, and learn more about your work, where can they find you?

[Derek Demun]

Yeah, so my. I, I do a lot of video logging about my hunts and stuff on Instagram, the t8_outdoorsman. And it's the same for my YouTube channel, t8_outdoorsman. And if anyone has a chance to hop on or would like to listen to T8 Outdoors podcast, the podcast I started for people with disabilities who go out there and hunt and just their extraordinary stories and how differently logistics apply to their certain hunts about. I got buddies and shooting big old elk, dragging them out with chairs and so just. Yeah, if you hop on and give it a check out and see what we have to do, logistically, it'd be cool just to bring awareness.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Well Derek, thanks. Thanks for sharing your story. Thanks for chatting with us and appreciate the work you're doing. And yeah, hopefully the next year you pull the trigger on will be a little less eventful, surprising, combustible.

[Derek Demun]

Yeah it was the the most popular forky there on the Internet for probably about two weeks.

[Corey]

Well Derek, hope you're having a good fall and maybe we'll chat with you again here soon.

[Derek Demun]

Appreciate it guys.

[Phil]

Thank you.

[Corey]

Thank you.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Thanks Derek.

[Corey]

Man, every time I watch that video it doesn't get old. It still shocks me. It's still crazy. I encourage everybody. If you're just listening, go either check this out on YouTube or check out Derek's Instagram page because it's a wild.

[Seth]

Wild visual wild video with Venmo Stache.

[Venmo Stash Advertiser]

A taco in one hand and ordering a ride in the other means you're stacking cash back. Nice. Get up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash on your favorite brands when you pay with your Venmo debit card from takeout to ride shares, entertainment and more, pick a bundle with your go tos and start earning cash back at those brands. Earn more cash when you do more with Stash. Venmo Stash terms and Exclusions apply. Max $100 cash back per month. See terms@venmo me stashterms everyone's got a thirst.

[Announcer]

A drive to be the next big thing to put the world on notice if you answer when your thirst calls. Sprites for you. Sprites for the makers and the creators, the visionaries putting in the work to build their dreams. Whether you're shooting a cinematic masterpiece on your phone, filling notebooks with sketches, or up all night turning your bedroom into the booth, keep going. Thirst is everything. Obey your thirst Sprite.

[Phil]

Football season is only getting more exciting.

[Corey]

And you've gotta get a Samsung TV.

[Franz Engelfinger]

If you want to experience game day.

[Phil]

In all its glory. From game winning touchdowns to momentum shifting hits, Samsung TVs are designed to showcase every moment in unbelievable clarity. Even day games look Great on Samsung.

[Corey]

TVs with glare free tech that keeps reflections from distracting you when the sun.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Shines through the window.

[Derek Demun]

And most importantly, even on the biggest.

[Corey]

2025 TVs like 115 inches big, there's no blur thanks to supersized picture enhancer.

[Phil]

With Samsung TVs you can finally watch.

[Corey]

Your favorite team on an elite screen. Select Black Friday deals start now. Go big and save big on the.

[Phil]

Ultimate fan worthy [e-mail] Sales dates vary by model.

[Derek Demun]

Supersize Picture Enhancer utilizes AI based formulas.

[Phil]

Available on 85 inch and larger TVs.

[Derek Demun]

On models QN70F and above.

[Corey]

Which brings us to our next segment. And that's a hot tip off.

[Phil]

H o T T I P R.

[Corey]

Let'S all do a hot tub.

[Phil]

Hot tip. H o T T I P Off. Let's all do a hot tip.

[Randall]

Love it.

[Corey]

Hot Tip off is where two listeners go head to head with competing pieces of advice. And after we hear each tip, we'll declare which one is better. And that will be by wheel. I mean the audience will choose which one's better.

[Phil]

I will throw up a poll in the live chat after we watch the hot tips.

[Corey]

Yes, if you don't mind Phil, please do that. And if you have a hot tip, take a one minute video on your phone and email it to radio the mediator.com with the subject line hop tip off. This segment is brought to you by our good friends at Case Knives Handcrafting. High quality knives since 1889. And the winner of this showdown will receive a Mediator branded Case Trapper knife. Uncle Brent will be very pleased with that.

[Seth]

Uncle Brent will like it.

[Corey]

All right Phil, let's hear this week's hot tips.

[Seth]

Ethan. Ho.

[Corey]

Hey, this is Ethan from Fond Dac, Wisconsin. And my hot tip is, as we.

[Franz Engelfinger]

All know, we need a lot of.

[Randall]

Room to do our cutting when a lot of times big cutting boards aren't cheap.

[Franz Engelfinger]

So what we like to do is we go down to the local home improvement store and for $30 you can get a whole four foot piece of.

[Corey]

Scrap cut off clearance laminate countertop that works great as a cutting board. And we have three of them.

[Franz Engelfinger]

So we get 12ft of counter space.

[Randall]

For cutting and butchering.

[Corey]

So for 120 bucks we have 12.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Whole feet of basically cutting board. Thanks, bye.

[Randall]

Nice.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Billy Shaw.

[Corey]

Hey everybody, Billy here in Minnesota with a hot tip for you. In response to Spencer's question about the best type of gas tank to use.

[Derek Demun]

I've got a better solution.

[Corey]

Buy a siphon hose anywhere on the Internet or maybe at a hardware store. It's got a check valve on this side. You put your fuel tank anywhere above the fuel fill on your vehicle, put it in the vehicle and then you take this end and you just jam.

[Franz Engelfinger]

It down like this. And that gets the fuel flowing from.

[Corey]

The tank into your vehicle. This way if you don't have a.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Fuel gauge you can look inside and.

[Corey]

See how full full it is. So you're not Going to spill everywhere. If you're using a regular tank, there's no leaking from the tank. And then when you're done, you just pull it up from the fuel tank and the rest of it siphons down into your vehicle. Much better solution for filling things like snowmobiles, four wheelers, and side by sides.

[Randall]

Amen.

[Seth]

Very familiar with that device.

[Randall]

Keep that clean.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Yeah.

[Randall]

Good thing to have in your truck.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Get one at Harbor Freight.

[Phil]

I wonder if poll is live.

[Corey]

Pole's live. Get in there.

[Seth]

I wonder if Chester knows Ethan from Fond du Lac, because that's where Chester's from.

[Phil]

Get out.

[Randall]

Fond du Lac, man. A lot of great hot tips coming.

[Corey]

How many people could possibly live in Fond du Lac?

[Seth]

I don't know. I don't know what the population is.

[Corey]

Do you like the countertop trick?

[Seth]

I do. Yeah.

[Randall]

When we redid our counters, I saved two big sections just for that very thing. So I do that.

[Corey]

You know, it's funny, when we redid our counters. When we redid our counters, I saved all of the butcher block and I just cut it into weird shapes.

[Randall]

Yeah.

[Corey]

I've got a piece of butcher block with a. With a barrel vise on it. So I can pull barrels and stuff on my truck bed. And I can also put a reloading. I can put a press on there and reload cases at the range if I'm doing some experimenting with seating depth, things like that. But I have all this countertop just leaning up against the walls in my barn. Yeah, I just like that. I mean, you could go to. You don't even have to go to Home Depot. You just go to like the. The home salvage store.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Where I like to find all my weird stuff.

[Seth]

We. We did butcher block as well. And yeah, my leftover chunk is a cutting board now.

[Randall]

Yeah, I love any hot tip that involves recycling stuff.

[Corey]

Yeah, it's good.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Corey]

But I also feel like anything we can do to get at Big Gas can, you know, fight the man. Fight the man and his. His fume mitigating gas cans. Yeah, I like that.

[Phil]

It's kind of tight. So I'm going to give you another 30 seconds to get these last votes and maybe you can sway. Sway the. The tide here.

[Corey]

How many votes total do we have, Phil?

[Phil]

Right now we have 88 votes.

[Corey]

Oh, but there's 300.

[Phil]

300 people watching.

[Seth]

Come on.

[Corey]

Democracy is a right.

[Randall]

Yeah. Even if you're driving. Get on it.

[Corey]

Turnout is embarrassing.

[Phil]

This, this is. This does kind of match up with the American electoral as far as population to People who actually vote.

[Corey]

We're probably higher.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Probably outperforming.

[Phil]

So take that back. You guys are doing great.

[Corey]

Let's give it another five seconds and then we'll call it. Because that's how they do elections.

[Randall]

Too close to call.

[Corey]

Sorry. That's. That's it.

[Phil]

No. Okay. Pulls over.

[Seth]

I was going to say I. I've the. Which Steve has one of these now, but we first saw it from the. The guys that do some flying for us when we moose on up in Alaska. But they have one of those siphon hoses with. In the middle of it, they have a shutoff valve.

[Corey]

Oh, yeah.

[Seth]

So when. You know.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Seth]

When it gets full, they can just hit that shutoff valve.

[Corey]

That's smart.

[Seth]

Yeah. Which is like a hot tip.

[Phil]

With 59% of the vote, the winner.

[Seth]

Is.

[Phil]

Ethan with the lemon at countertop.

[Corey]

Congrats, Ethan. I also think my favorite part about Ethan's video is just the inside of that shop.

[Seth]

Oh, yeah.

[Corey]

Or barn or whatever it is. It's like that guy is deadly serious about cutting up deer.

[Randall]

Yeah.

[Seth]

I mean, the folks in. In the upper Midwest take their shop serious, I think. Yeah.

[Corey]

It's good shop culture.

[Seth]

They like to hang out in the shops, which I enjoy.

[Corey]

Well, Ethan. Or should he email Email radio atthe meat eater.com our producer will.

[Seth]

We should probably email here.

[Corey]

Ethan, our producer will reach out to you and get you that meat eater branded Case Trapper knife. Congrats on your victory and thanks for submitting your tip. And thanks to our good friends at Case Knives for sponsoring this week's hot tip off. All right, Phil, let's get back in the chat.

[Phil]

People are saying I've been. I've been kind of absent from the chat for a little bit.

[Corey]

Oh, turning knobs.

[Phil]

Knobs back here. Yeah. If Steve were here, he'd be act in the exact same way he did. Talk about how he's already posted the. The job listing. Looking for a new podcast. But Randall, I think you're going to like this one. This is a question from Mason. I need some gun selling advice. I am trying to sell my grand prize. 25th anniversary Christensen's arms Travers and 300 win mag serial. Yeah. Okay. Serial number. He says. He says it's been on Gunbroker for a while and I'm not getting much traction. I live in northeast Ohio. Hey. And thought about shipping it to a gun shop out west. Do you have anything to add here?

[Corey]

It's a good question. It's a good question. I would be. I mean, I'd get it on Gunbroker. I don't know what you'd. What you'd get for that. If it's not getting much traction on Gunbroker. Yeah. I mean, you might reach out to some gun shops out west that do a lot of. I mean there's, there's services and shops that'll list your stuff on Gunbroker and do like a very high end bespoke auction page to maybe get some eyeballs. But I mean, I always sell stuff just by plugging it into different forums. And this may not be what you want to hear, but when I'm trying to sell a gun, I lowball myself. So I lower my standards so that I just sell it quickly. I don't have a lot of experience like selling high value items for what they're worth. Or more typically, I just am moving something to move on to the next thing. So, Seth, you have thoughts on that?

[Seth]

I mean, my, my gun selling advice is don't sell guns. Just keep them, hoard them.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Seth]

Put them in a safe.

[Randall]

Get ready for the apocalypse forever.

[Corey]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Randall]

That's a beautiful rifle.

[Corey]

Oh, yeah. Phil, what else we got here? Good luck to you. Mason.

[Phil]

I picked this question because it's incredibly vague, but I, I think it could open up a discussion of what this actually means. But Cisco Grant 26 asks what's. What is the most admirable non game animal? I think you could. Yeah, admirable could mean different things to different people. I think it's pretty subjective. So. So if you guys want to hash that out, I think that'd be fun.

[Randall]

Probably a grizzly bear for me.

[Corey]

Yeah. I guess in the lower 48.

[Seth]

Yeah, I guess.

[Corey]

Depends on where you're at. I think that's cheating. I would say if we're going globally, I would have to say it's one of the great apes. Either a gorilla.

[Phil]

You're here.

[Randall]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Chimpanzee or an orangutan.

[Phil]

You have a lot of respect for those creatures.

[Seth]

I like the wolverine, but you can get them in Alaska.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Sure.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Randall]

Not down here though.

[Seth]

Yeah. Canada.

[Randall]

Wild animal.

[Seth]

Yep.

[Corey]

Yeah. I don't know. I'm wondering about things like possums.

[Seth]

You can get them.

[Randall]

Yeah, all over the place.

[Corey]

But I wouldn't call it like a game. Game ape.

[Seth]

It's a furbearer.

[Corey]

Yeah, that's fair.

[Randall]

Armadillo.

[Phil]

Yeah. You're talking to the trapper here.

[Corey]

Armadillo.

[Randall]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Nah.

[Randall]

Cheating with that shell.

[Corey]

No, I think, I think the great apes. I'm gonna plant my flag and These guys don't have good answers. So that's it.

[Phil]

Great. We locked it down.

[Corey]

Phil, did we. Did we get it? Did we squeeze enough juice out of that?

[Phil]

You know, I thought you guys might squeeze a little bit more, but, hey, we'll work with it.

[Corey]

I think there's a lot of good questions in there.

[Phil]

There is. Cord asks. I think I know the answer. That Seth's answer. What is the weirdest health condition slash diagnosis y' all have contracted from the outdoor lifestyle? This includes dudes, friends, or pets.

[Corey]

Just mostly diarrhea.

[Seth]

Okay.

[Corey]

Just a lot of diarrhea.

[Seth]

Oh, yeah. Giardia.

[Randall]

Yeah. Kept it pretty safe and healthy out there. I don't know. Seth's mental breakdown here not shooting a deer kind of got me concerned, but.

[Seth]

Oh, yeah, it's.

[Randall]

That'll get fixed here.

[Seth]

It's something I got to work through myself.

[Corey]

I mean, I'm like, there's cuts. There's. I don't have any trichinosis stories.

[Randall]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Weird insect bites and bee stings. Including pets. We had one of our dogs this past winter. I wish I could remember the name of it. But essentially what she did was poke a hole in her abdomen with a stick, and then it filled up with air because her body was working like a bellows, and it sucked all this air up under the skin, and it was like she had bubble wrap under her.

[Seth]

Oh, wow.

[Corey]

Which I always think it's fun when there's something weird with your dog's body and you, like, Google what could this possibly be? And then you figure it out. But, yeah, it was a bizarre one. I wish I could remember what that was. Interesting. And then. And then we told a doctor friend of ours about it, and he was like, oh, yeah, bubble wrap. And we're like, yeah. And he's like, oh. He's like, that happens all the time when you give people chest tubes. I was like, all right.

[Randall]

Drain the air.

[Corey]

Yeah. So wild. Anyway, that's what I got.

[Randall]

So far, so good.

[Corey]

Great hitting these out of the park, huh, Phil?

[Phil]

Yeah, you guys are doing great. On the note of diarrhea Friday, arrows. Ask Randall. Would you rather give up hot dogs or brewskis?

[Franz Engelfinger]

Now, that's a question.

[Corey]

Randall's getting real serious, I think. I think the honest answer. Well, there's two answers. If I could give up beer, I would.

[Phil]

That's a big if.

[Corey]

But I don't think I can. I've never been able to make that commitment to myself and my loved ones. So I think the honest answer is I would have to Give up hot dogs. But if you were gonna like, you know, brainwash me somehow, like office space, hypnotize me, I'd probably say get rid of the drinking because the drinking actually leads to more hot dog eating.

[Seth]

Yeah, but he says brewskis.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Could you.

[Seth]

You could, you could resort to like become a wino. Brown liquor or something, you know.

[Corey]

Oh, I can't drink the spirits.

[Phil]

Oh, yeah. That's an early grade.

[Corey]

I get out of control. I get out of control. Well, yeah, before we.

[Randall]

I mean.

[Corey]

Yeah, it's a good question. I wish I had a better answer for you.

[Randall]

If.

[Corey]

Yeah, if it was like someone said, you have to give up one or the other and it's all on you and your self control. Otherwise they'll find you and, you know, put a bullet in your head, I'd probably say hot dogs. It would be easier to do.

[Randall]

Wow.

[Corey]

But if I could hypnotize myself, I'd say beer because it's probably the healthier choice.

[Randall]

Great question.

[Corey]

Knocked another one out of the park. Keep them coming, Phil.

[Phil]

Here's one. Here's a question that I can contribute a little something to. This is from Wally Bloomer. Not sure what size Brooks down sweater to buy.

[Randall]

Oh, there you go.

[Phil]

I wear a long large sweatshirt and a medium T shirt. Which way would you go? Yes, I would say large because I wear a large T shirt. So I'm guessing I'm like a slightly bigger than you and my large Brooks down sweater is like just barely smaller than what I would want. So I think it would fit you pretty well. Then again, I brought I. Mine's. I think mine's like a different. I bought mine years ago, so it might be a different sort of cut or something that they do now, but I would say large for sure.

[Randall]

Should be about the same. Same. Yeah, I'm kind of in that same boat there. Wearing large items and medium items. I go big because the Brooks down you can still wear it just a tad big. If it's too small, you're not gonna.

[Corey]

And you might want to layer under.

[Seth]

Yeah, you can layer under it and.

[Randall]

They'Re so light, you're not going to feel the difference. If you're worried about packability. The difference between a medium and a large is.

[Corey]

Yeah, I like to wear that. I like to wear the Brooks down with like a fleece hoodie underneath.

[Randall]

So put it on over your bino harness if it's a little bit.

[Seth]

I like to wear with that hoodie underneath the furnace man.

[Phil]

I've been my combo.

[Corey]

I. I was I've been wearing this one a lot.

[Randall]

Yeah, you have.

[Corey]

And I got another one for like a nice looking one. And now this one's just like mucking around hoodie. Yeah.

[Randall]

Are you mucking around right now?

[Corey]

I will be later.

[Derek Demun]

Ready?

[Corey]

Yeah. This is my mucking around hoodie.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Cool.

[Phil]

Let's do one more here. And this is going to be kind of like. This is going to be a double plug question. Since we just did a very practical but first light question. Ro says Phil, I have a question. Most weeks I stream the live show as a podcast the next day. Do y' all see that a lot? That is how we see it most of the time, Ro. Like only, you know, sub 1000 people will dip in and out live. But then, you know, it gets thousands of views as it goes on. And that's only on YouTube. The podcast gets tens of thousands of downloads after that. So. So like you're, you're not alone. But I will say, because since we don't do this enough, in my opinion, we never plug our own YouTube channels or the podcast one. Really. We, we, we. I think we said, hey, you should go subscribe to it. Yeah. When it first launched years ago. But please subscribe to the Meat eater podcast network YouTube channel if you have not done so. I think most of the people here live probably have. But if you're a podcast listener, dip on over there and hit that subscribe button. Yeah.

[Corey]

The Meat Eater Podcast, is it Meat Eater Podcast Network?

[Phil]

Yes, I believe so.

[Corey]

Meat eater Podcast Network YouTube channel. It's a separate channel from the just standard Meat Eater channel. And you'll. If you'd ever wondered what Corey looks like and you don't have social media, you'll want to check that out.

[Randall]

Yeah, get up on that.

[Seth]

Get a look at him.

[Corey]

Yeah, get a good look at this guy.

[Phil]

You won't regret it.

[Corey]

He said he's a large.

[Phil]

Sometimes a medium, sometimes a medium.

[Randall]

That should explain it all.

[Corey]

Phil, we got any more? We got any more.

[Phil]

Well, how long do you want to keep? We've got some more questions. Yeah, there are just some. It's hard because a lot of people come in with good intentions and ask pretty good questions, but it's a question that we answered a week ago or a couple weeks ago. And I don't want it to be too repetitive, but we can just keep digging through some of these questions if you want. Some of them are kind of are vague, like for some reason or for. For example. This is from Jordan. We're heading to Kentucky today to hunt for three days on public with no information. What is the best plan to start hunting white tailed deer? Because it's kind of open ended, right? Like scouting.

[Seth]

Yeah. I would say scout for a day and a half and hunt for a day and a half.

[Corey]

Ooh, that's good advice.

[Seth]

I'd say you'd spend three days sitting in a spa where there's no deer.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Seth]

But if you scout, you can really narrow it in and, and execute.

[Corey]

Make half your trip real productive. Yep, that's a great idea.

[Randall]

That's pretty good.

[Corey]

Because if you double your productivity of a day and a half by scouting for a day and a half, you essentially get those scouting hours back by the double productivity. So it's like you get to hunt for three days and scout for a day and a half because you're doubling the productivity of those day and a half.

[Phil]

Absolutely.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Corey]

That's a great point.

[Seth]

That pencils out.

[Randall]

I can't top that tip.

[Phil]

Oh, here's a question for Seth Photography. Question. Do you prefer faster, lightweight prime lenses or heavier, slower zooms when out in the field?

[Seth]

Well, I typically go with the zooms because I can cover a lot of things with just one lens. But I prefer a prime. Specifically a 50.

[Corey]

Wow.

[Seth]

Primes are just cooler. They look better. But you know, you can't always get the shot with the prime, especially in hunting situations where things happen quickly and, you know, it's nice to have the. The range.

[Corey]

Phil, Is that it?

[Phil]

Well, how we can keep going? It's your show, Randall. Tell me what you want to do.

[Corey]

Let's call that it. I'm looking at the clock. I realize we're keeping people late here. Um, we do have one last item, and that is a bit of housekeeping. Before we go today, we've got to address the elephant in the room. Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, so none of us will be here in studio for our weekly Thursday broadcast. But the show must go on. So this time next week, we'll be airing a pre recorded podcast episode with Steve and some of the crew. As always, please tune in, especially if you already need a break from the kitchen or your family. But please know that the chat will be unsupervised. And so if you have a pressing question that you'd like addressed on the show.

[Phil]

Well, actually, I need to interrupt you here. It is not a radio live episode. This is a. It's going to. It's a meat eater podcast episode crew episode. I don't think we're going to be live streaming it. It's just Gonna drop. It's gonna drop.

[Seth]

Randall, you really got some bad information.

[Phil]

Yeah, I don't.

[Randall]

Can we redo this?

[Corey]

Well, you should have told me that before we went. We're live now.

[Seth]

Should we just end it now?

[Phil]

Hey, Randall, if you have a problem with the way I run the show back here, can we just. I don't want you to talk about it behind the mic. It's embarrassing for me.

[Corey]

So if you have a pressing question for.

[Phil]

Pull it together.

[Corey]

If you have a pressing question for the crew.

[Phil]

Randall, ask questions.

[Corey]

David. Until our next Meat eater live on December 4th.

[Randall]

December.

[Phil]

This is a really bad look for you.

[Corey]

Thursday, December. I think it's a bad look for you. I mean.

[Phil]

No, I'm fine.

[Corey]

I was told to address this. I was told to address this and prepare the audience for next week's schedule, but I was given incomplete information, and so now I look like a fool.

[Randall]

You're right.

[Seth]

I think you guys should hash this out a little later.

[Corey]

As always.

[Phil]

Do you want to grab a beer after this?

[Corey]

Yeah, as always.

[Seth]

And a hot dog.

[Corey]

As always. Thanks for tuning in, guys. Hope you enjoyed the show. We'll review some of the feedback and decide whether there will be another segment of Meat Theater. I'm thinking it's likely. Doubtful.

[Phil]

No, it's happening.

[Corey]

But appreciate you falls and. And enjoy the hunting this time of year.

[Seth]

Happy Thanksgiving.

[Randall]

Early.

[Corey]

Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving. All right, Phil, play the cut music.

[Announcer]

Everyone's got a thirst. A drive to be the next big thing. To put the world on notice. If you answer when your thirst calls. Sprite's for you. Sprite's for the makers and the creators, the visionaries putting in the work to build their dreams. Whether you're shooting a cinematic masterpiece on your phone, filling notebooks with sketches, or up all night turning your bedroom into the booth, keep going. Thirst is everything. Obey your thirst. Sprite.

[Venmo Stash Advertiser]

With Venmo Stache a taco in one hand and ordering a ride in the other means you're stacking cash back.

[Franz Engelfinger]

Nice.

[Venmo Stash Advertiser]

Get up to 5% cash back with Venmo stash on your favorite brands when you pay with your Venmo debit card. From takeout to ride shares, entertainment and more, pick a bundle with your go tos and start earning cash back at those brands. Earn more cash when you do more with stash. Venmo Stash terms and Exclusions apply. Max $100 cash back per month. See terms at Venmo me stashterms.

[Announcer]

We know no one's journey is the same. That's why Delta SkyMiles moves with you from earning miles on reloads for coffee runs, shopping, and things you do every day to connecting you to new experiences. A SkyMiles membership fits into your lifestyle, letting you do more of what makes you you. It's more than travel it's the membership that flies, dines, streams, rides, and arrives with you. Because when you have a membership that's as unique as you are, there's no telling where your journey will take you next. Learn [e-mail] SkyMiles this is an iHeart podcast.