Ep. 831: A Wildlife Officer and Skier Walk Into a Bar | MeatEater Radio Live!

Summary

The MeatEater Podcast — Ep. 831: A Wildlife Officer and Skier Walk Into a Bar | MeatEater Radio Live!

Release Date: February 6, 2026
Host: Giannis Patel, with Seth Morris, Randall Williams, & Phil
Main Guests:

• Biathlete Paul Schommer
• Paul’s coach & Olympic shooter Matt Emmons
• Colorado Wildlife Officer Demi Wright

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Episode Overview

This lively MeatEater Radio Live episode dives deep into the intertwining worlds of outdoor sports, conservation law enforcement, and the personal adventures of the show's crew. The bulk of the show features two standout interviews: an Olympic biathlete and his coach discussing the high-stakes sport and its hunting roots, and a dedicated wildlife officer recounting an egregious poaching case. From behind-the-scenes banter to detailed exploration of ice fishing, habitat restoration, and weaponry, the tone remains as informed and irreverent as ever—perfect for listeners passionate about hunting, wildlife science, and the culture that connects them.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Crew Updates and Banter

[01:16–23:43]

• "Butcher and Bambi" Hoodies:
  • New hoodie design flips the "anti-hunting" narrative of the film Bambi by turning the cartoon deer into a butchering chart.
    • Notable Quote (Giannis): “It takes a anti-hunting idea, this thing that was made up Bambi the movie and completely flips it upside down and makes it into a pro hunting thing.” [04:47]
• Shoutouts to International Listeners:
  • Dan Hernandez (UK) and “Mogul Mogar.”
• Dog Aging Reflection:
  • Randall muses on the bittersweet reality of aging dogs and shares dog birthday rituals.
    • “She's got like a 110 volt dog plugged into a 220 outlet.” [08:45]
• Imminent New Arrival:
  • Seth expectantly preparing for the birth of his first child.
    • “Five weeks out. The wife... Kelsey is very uncomfortable and sleeping poorly, but she feels good... It's just like. Like she's not sleeping well...” [11:19]
• Local Ice Fishing Report:
  • Warm winter means sketchy ice, with dangerous conditions and a close call for Jimmy Rinella, who suffered hypothermic symptoms after burbot night fishing.
    • “If you can even get to 150 beats a minute, try shooting a gun accurately with your heart doing 150 beats a minute. That's insane.” [28:37]
• Wisconsin Oak Savannah Restoration Project:
  • Giannis describes a prairie-savanna habitat restoration, burning slash piles, and planning for planting native forbs/grasses with the help of local Audubon conservationists.
    • “If it's good for the birds, it's good for the bees.” [19:15—Ashley Steinke, as relayed by Giannis]

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2. Interview: Biathlon & Olympic Training with Paul Schommer & Matt Emmons

[23:43–48:29]

Biathlon Origins & Rules

• Paul draws a direct line between biathlon and hunting, highlighting its roots in Scandinavian hunting and wartime border patrol.
  • “It’s really connected to a lot of things that make us, that we hold dear to us as humans...” [25:36–26:48]

Physiology of Competition

• Resting heart rate (~33 bpm), max during racing (~175 bpm), and shooting heart rate (~150 bpm).
  • Paul focuses on controlling breathing more than heart rate, aiming for calmness under pressure.
    • “Control your breathing because you can control breathing, whereas your heart rate is kind of like... heart's going to do what it wants.” [28:07]

Paul’s Comeback Story

• Overcoming two knee surgeries, lack of team support, loss of health insurance, persevering alone, and regaining a national team spot:
  • “I really don’t know what happened other than maybe my body responded in such a way that I was able to get back and slowly made my way back...” [32:54]

Olympic Goals

• Personal: Top 10 finish (has achieved this venue before), but open to a podium finish.
• Team: The so-called “last first medal”—the only Winter Olympic sport where the US has never medaled.

Biathlon & Hunting Connections [35:21+]

• Coach Matt Emmons shares experience hunting chamois in Italy’s mountains, while Paul notes fitness and shooting skills directly transfer to hunting scenarios.
  • Matt Emmons: “We kind of go on autopilot... you just do the things you’ve been trained to do, the things that you’ve done, you know, thousands and thousands of times.” [40:14]
  • Paul: “When that target shows up and the heart rate goes up... focus goes immediately to the things that I want to do to take a good shot.” [39:40]

On Good Shooting & Practice

• Both stress that being an excellent or poor shot is not innate—it's about correct, consistent practice.
  • Matt Emmons: “If you practice a lot, you’re doing it wrong, you’re just going to get good at doing it wrong.” [41:33]
  • Paul Schommer: “I see it in... biathlon and if I'm watching hunting videos...they don't have any good trigger work and then they are just popping their head up to see if they hit the target before the shot goes off.” [42:08]

Biathlon Gear [43:00+]

• All athletes use the Anschütz Fortner straight pull rifle; custom stocks are made for individual fit.
• Ammunition: Almost all use Lapua Polar Biathlon—precision factory .22 LR optimized for cold weather.

Olympic Schedule & How to Watch

• Races begin this Sunday (Feb 9), all trackable at NBC, Peacock, or Biathlonworld.com.

Notable European Well-wish

• Paul Schommer: “Instead of just saying good luck, what you would say is, ‘in bocco al lupo’... and you would respond, ‘crepi il lupo,’ which means the wolf is dead.” [47:48]

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3. Interview: Colorado Wildlife Officer Demi Wright on Poaching Cases

[48:54–65:00]

Recent Poaching Bust

• Six illegally taken deer by active duty soldiers on Colorado’s Fort Carson; gained major press due to military connection and scale of violation.
  • Demi: “It was pretty egregious. So I think people were really upset with how many animals were taken.” [50:04]

Why Poaching Matters

• Poaching isn’t hunting; it robs legitimate hunters and undercuts funding for conservation.
  • Demi: “Legal, ethical, responsible hunting funds wildlife conservation...when you’re not paying into that pot, you’re robbing legitimate sports persons.” [51:25]

Path to Becoming a Wildlife Officer

• Grew up outdoors, joined Colorado Parks and Wildlife via internships, loves the constant variety and public service aspect.
  • “I’ve never lived the same day twice.” [54:55]

Day-to-Day Life:

• “No two days are the same.” Activities range from bear wrangling, deer handling, bighorn sheep relocating, teaching hunter ed, to full-on investigations.

Poaching Case Investigation Breakdown

• Case started with a tip from a law-abiding hunter who found a buck with only antlers and scant meat removed.
• Used boot prints, vehicle tracking, and a photograph from local wildland firefighters to ID the suspect—a primary break in the case.
  • “Followed the boot tracks off the installation, found some tire tracks...and firefighters saw a vehicle, took a picture of it.” [58:06]
• Ultimately, social media provided further incriminating evidence, as the suspect posted illegal kills online.

Penalties for Poaching [61:08+]

• Offenders fined, potential multi-state revocation of privileges under the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact; weapons destroyed as public nuisance per state law.

Advice for Aspiring Wildlife Law Officers

• Four-year natural resources degree required in Colorado; much of the job is about patience, listening, and hard-won experience.
  • “Listen more than you speak and yeah, just stick with it. It’s tough, but once you get in, you’re in.” [64:07]

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4. Throwback Photos & Lighthearted Crew Reflections

[65:29–80:22]

• The hosts and producer Phil share photos from ~20 years ago, trading stories about early hunting, band geek glory, and the gear (and eyebrows) that defined their youth. Banter is spirited and the nostalgia strong.

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5. Listener Questions, Feedback & Quick Hits

[80:43–99:31]

• Ice Fishing Tips (for PA): Start with a simple hand auger, basic short rod, safety gear like ice picks and a spud bar, and yes, maps matter!
• On wild game tartare: Most say they enjoy it, though prefer a good burger.
• Bowhunting, pistol chest packs, bullpup rifles, injury-preventive running, and game law trivia all fielded with detailed responses and product suggestions.
• Shoutouts to young listeners, youth hunters, and questions about MeatEater Kids and other upcoming shows.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Giannis Patel, on hoodies & Disney: “It takes a anti-hunting idea, this thing that was made up Bambi the movie and completely flips it upside down and makes it into a pro hunting thing.” [04:47]
• Paul Schommer, on shooting under pressure: "Control your breathing because you can control breathing, whereas your heart rate is kind of like... heart's going to do what it wants." [28:07]
• Matt Emmons, on practice: “If you practice a lot, you’re doing it wrong, you’re just going to get good at doing it wrong.” [41:33]
• Demi Wright, on why poaching matters: "When you’re not paying into that pot, you’re robbing legitimate sportspersons." [51:25]

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Memorable Moments

• Paul Schommer’s candid detailing of his injury-ridden journey back onto the Olympic stage.
• Warm and humorous recollections about aging pets, first hunting seasons, and adolescent adventures—offering a personal touch and connection to their audience.
• Demi's breakdown of a modern poaching bust: boots-on-the-ground detective work meets social media sleuthing.
• The exchange of good luck in Italian: “in bocco al lupo” — “the wolf is dead.”
• Listeners' throwback photos ranging from fur trapping to high school band metal, keeping things goofy and real.

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [01:16] — Show start, crew banter, hoodies, dog & family updates
• [13:29] — Wisconsin oak savannah restoration update
• [23:43] — Biathlon intro and Paul Schommer interview
• [32:54] — Paul’s injury, comeback, and Olympic goals
• [43:00] — Biathlon gear, ammo, logistics
• [48:54] — Wildlife Officer Demi Wright interview
• [57:03] — Poaching investigation deep-dive
• [61:08] — Punishments and wildlife law
• [65:29] — Throwback photos: crew young and wild
• [80:43] — Listener questions and feedback
• [99:31] — Episode outro, closing thoughts

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Conclusion

This episode skillfully blends the practical and the personal, showcasing high-level outdoor athletes, frontline conservation officers, and the everyday realities that connect their worlds. It celebrates not only the dedication required to succeed in biathlon or conservation law enforcement, but also the joy, heart, and humor that sustain the outdoor community. Engaging, educational, and filled with the kind of stories and tips that make MeatEater a leader in outdoor media.

Transcript

[Giannis Patel]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[iHeart Podcast Announcer]

Guaranteed human. Okay, so you know, t mobile 5G home Internet is easy on the wallet, but here's some big news. It's now the fastest 5G home Internet according to the experts at Ookla Speed Test. And yeah, it's a great value because you get a 5 year price guarantee. T Mobile 5G home Internet. It's the fastest 5G home Internet at a great price with savings that stick. Check availability@t mobile.com homeinternet price guarantee. Exclusions like taxes and fees apply. It's the fastest, based on OOKLA Speed test intelligence Data from the second half of 2025. All rights reserved.

[Paul Schommer]

Smell us now, lady.

[Giannis Patel]

Welcome to meat eater trivia.

[iHeart Podcast Announcer]

Meat eater podcast.

[Phil]

Now.

[Giannis Patel]

Welcome to Meat Eater radio live. It's 11:00am Mountain Time, Mountain Standard Time here in Montana. Whose phone's ring? Oh, sorry, you know, said you're in airplane mode. It's connected to my computer and I. I am in airplane mode, but it still connects. That was Stephen Rinella.

[Randall Williams]

We got. We got to clean this thing up here, guys.

[Giannis Patel]

I'm bothering. We do not have to have to.

[Seth Morris]

You should tell Steve to come down.

[Giannis Patel]

Steven's like, call me. I'm going to tell him just to come down here if he's here. Hold on one second. He is here. I got to text Steve. Come to studio.

[Randall Williams]

Oh, this one's off to a real weird record.

[Seth Morris]

Can't wait to get a text message from Spencer that says, this is the worst radio.

[Giannis Patel]

Spencer can sign whenever Spencer's not hosting.

[Phil]

You guys don't know those listeners. At home, Spencer brews himself a warm cup of coffee, sits in a. In a recliner and turns on the show and takes notes and judges.

[Giannis Patel]

Pulls out a legal pad and just is like, ha. Watch those boys burn.

[Randall Williams]

There may have been a text at one point that said, that was the worst radio live we've ever done.

[Giannis Patel]

Who was hosting that one?

[Randall Williams]

I was involved.

[Seth Morris]

I was involved, too. I think it might have been Cory, me, you and Corey.

[Randall Williams]

Is it. Is it 11am Mountain time in Bozeman, Montana?

[Giannis Patel]

Yes. Do you want me to continue?

[Randall Williams]

I'm just trying to get it back on the tracks here.

[Giannis Patel]

That's 7pm for our fellow Americans in Italy on Thursday, February 5th. And we're live from Meat Eater World headquarters in Spring, like Bozeman, Montana. I'm your host. Giannis Patel is joined today by Seth Morris and Randall Williams. We've got a great show for you today, including an interview from Cortina, Italy, with Olympic biathlete Paul Schomer, maybe Schomer. I didn't ask him. And his coach, Matt Emmons. We're also talking to Colorado wildlife officer Demi Wright, who recently wrapped up a big poaching case involving your mule deer. Then we'll look at photos of ourselves from about 20 years ago. And as always, we'll answer questions from the live audience. But first, let's get a few updates from the worlds of Seth Randall and yours truly on this fourth to the last episode of Meat Eater Radio Live. Oh, but don't fret. Meat Eater Radio Live is going to be replaced by the Meat Eater News with Cruz show. Now, that's a working title. That's just. I think, I think Steve wants the.

[Phil]

Title to be the news show. Meat Eater colon, the news show.

[Giannis Patel]

That doesn't sound great either. But, you know, he's. He's the boss and whatever he chooses, that'll be it. It's gonna be. So what you can expect out of that show, updates from the crew. Spencer came up with a good thing that I liked. It's like our news, your news and the news. And what you can expect from that would be like cruise stories, updates from us and then kind of how we do stories, questions, corrections from you guys, and then the news being like what really matters right now in conservation news. So that'll be starting, I believe, March 9th. And it's, it's going to be a great show. What else? Butcher and Bambi hoodies. Can you see it? Yeah. This is what I was pestering Steve about because this is his idea. In my opinion, it is one of the best T shirt hoodie designs we've ever come up with. I do like it because it takes a anti hunting idea, this thing that was made up Bambi the movie and completely flips it upside down and makes it into a pro hunting thing. Any thoughts on that, boys?

[Randall Williams]

It's beautiful.

[Seth Morris]

I love it.

[Randall Williams]

It's a very subversive concept.

[Seth Morris]

It has all the cuts on there.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

Cuts of meat.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

It's just like your classic butchering chart of a deer.

[Randall Williams]

Flank, ribs, shoulder.

[Giannis Patel]

But it just uses Bambi.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Randall Williams]

As a whole is going to sell like hotcakes.

[Phil]

Yeah. Have our, have any lawyers from the Walt Disney Company reached out to us about someone?

[Randall Williams]

I don't know Bambi in the public domain?

[Phil]

I don't know and I don't think he is. Bambi's a boy, right?

[Giannis Patel]

Yes. I don't know.

[Phil]

Yeah, that's a buck.

[Randall Williams]

Maybe if we don't talk about that aspect of It. It'll just go unnoticed by. Yeah, a giant.

[Giannis Patel]

That's right. A buck over here. I'm so sorry. Anyways, the H just popped, just landed on the website. You all should get one and wear it proudly and then make sure you can speak about what's going on here. That's what I was bothering Steve about this morning. He says, call me when he texts me. And then I said, no, just come down to the studio. And he replies, I'm on a call. Yeah, how is that going to work? Okay, enough about hoodies, Randall. Looks like what you've got going on in your life is. Well, first let's hit the international shout out. We have our. We have our favorite. Well, I don't know, is he? I think our favorite international, like guess is Mogul Mogar, one of the most.

[Seth Morris]

The.

[Randall Williams]

The. I mean, I think he has a perfect attendance record. If this were high school, he'd be recognized at the end of your assembly. But someone pointed out to me that he's not the only international listener out there. So we want to give a big shout out to Dan Hernandez, who's currently stationed in the uk, tuning into Meat Eater Radio live.

[Giannis Patel]

Shout out, Dan.

[Seth Morris]

Thanks for tuning in, Dan.

[Phil]

Dan, if you're in the chat, let us know. If not, why did you lie to us?

[Randall Williams]

He seems like a good guy. We traded some, traded some messages on the ig. Seems like a real, real good guy. So just want to give a big shout out to Dan. And then the big news in my household is when I left this morning, it was my last time saying goodbye for the day to Dolly, our five year old dog. She's dying. She's turning six tomorrow.

[Giannis Patel]

You really made it sound like she.

[Randall Williams]

Deliberately set that up. No, she's turning six tomorrow. So today's the last day with a five year old dog in the house. Tomorrow we have a. We'll have a 6 year old dog and two 10 year olds. Soon to be 11 year olds. So I basically feel like I have three loaded guns pointing at my head because when you get into the big breeds, I feel like every year's. Every year past, you know, like six, seven is real precious.

[Giannis Patel]

So especially with. I was gonna say past ten. You feel like it's past six.

[Phil]

Oh yeah.

[Randall Williams]

I feel like labs.

[Seth Morris]

I feel like with the Labrador.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah, Labs. Can. Can. Can take a quick turn downhill.

[Giannis Patel]

Geez, what do you feel like a blue tick Coon hound?

[Randall Williams]

I don't know. You run them hot. I don't know if that's good for the engine or Bad for the engine. You know, some engines like to be run hot. I'd guess that a blue tick coonhound would probably.

[Seth Morris]

That's probably good for Mingus.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah. But I don't know, I mean these are just, these are just fluffy.

[Seth Morris]

So.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah, Dolly's turning six. Huge. She's kind of got a weird personality. She was a Covid dog. We thought what better time to raise a third dog than when we were forced to stay at home for a few months. But then she didn't really get socialized and so she's got a lot going on in her own head with herself.

[Giannis Patel]

How will you all celebrate her birthday?

[Randall Williams]

Typically we'll take her swimming at the river. That's what she likes to do. She likes to just be active. Uh, she's, she's got like a. She's a 110 volt dog plugged into a 220 outlet. And so yeah, whatever we can do to just, just wear out. But yeah, it's big day in our household. We usually don't do a cake, but I'll often use, you know, cheese whiz to write their ages on their food.

[Giannis Patel]

Oh, that's fun. Yeah, they enjoy that.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah, it just depends on. Depends on how much time we're investing each year in the celebration.

[Giannis Patel]

Okay. Any I'm imagining you'll have a couple beers. Do you ever like give him half a beer in the water bowl?

[Randall Williams]

Our first dog used to drink a lot. He was. When we first had him, we would take him to this brewery in Missoula called Bayern and they have all these old German guys came over for the summer to like, you know, work on the brewery and exchange. They do like exchange stuff with German breweries. And these old guys loved to feed Arlo beer when he was tiny and he developed a real taste for it. Thankfully he couldn't drive, so that was never an issue. But he liked whiskey, he liked wine, he liked beer and died 10 days shy of his 10th birthday. But I don't think the booze had anything to do with it. Sorry. This has gone way darker than I.

[Giannis Patel]

The boost went out.

[Randall Williams]

I thought it was going to be like a. This was going to be a light hearted celebration of Dolly's sixth birthday. But really I've taken some. Now we're just talking about morbid turns here.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah, yeah. You know, well, we all know that's the, the worst part about dogs is that they die.

[Randall Williams]

Oh, it kills me.

[Seth Morris]

What does Cal call it? Prolonged suffering or something?

[Giannis Patel]

I don't know.

[Seth Morris]

When you Get a dog. Because you just know they're gonna die.

[Giannis Patel]

Oh, yeah. See, we had, like, Mingus is really my first dog as an adult. Like, I married my wife and she had a dog. And so, yeah, of course I adopted her, but I still, you know, didn't feel that attached.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

So, yeah, this is. I'll be going through it, according to Randall, maybe in just a year or two.

[Randall Williams]

I don't know.

[Phil]

I just.

[Randall Williams]

Life is a degenerative process, biologically speaking, so.

[Giannis Patel]

Yes, yes, yes. On let's talk about life. Seth, I'm sure you've. You're talking about this all the time these days. Oh, God, nonstop. You're going to be a dad soon. How's that all coming along?

[Seth Morris]

Five weeks out. The wife.

[Giannis Patel]

That's it.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

Mackerel.

[Seth Morris]

Kelsey is very uncomfortable and sleeping poorly, but she feels good. Like, you know, she's not. She's not struggling with, like, how she feels. It's just like. Like she's not sleeping well thing. That's her only struggle.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

At this point.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah. Yeah. She's probably just ready for it to be over.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

Get on out.

[Phil]

Our first was two weeks early, so.

[Seth Morris]

You closer than you think, man. Everyone we talked to is like, we had ours at 35 weeks, you know, or within, like, that 35 to 40 week period. Like, it seems like it could happen at any moment.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah. So we were one time in a Pier one Imports, like, nice.

[Phil]

It's perfect. Perfect date night.

[Randall Williams]

We just finished up brunch at first watch.

[Giannis Patel]

I'm not saying that was a date night.

[Randall Williams]

No, no.

[Giannis Patel]

We were looking for candles for the birth. Right. We were gonna have my oldest at home. We had both ended up having both of them at home.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, nice.

[Giannis Patel]

And for whatever reason, like, a lot of candles is a thing when you have a home birth. And so we're at Pier 1 getting some candles, and we were still like a solid week out. But, you know, you start having these little baby contractions, and if you're. If you've been around pregnancies or then when those early contractions happen, you're like, oh, yeah, okay. It's like your body's practicing to get ready to give birth. Yeah. And we're chatting with a lady, and Jennifer goes like, oh, wow. Oh, little contraction there. And the girl looks at us and it's like, please don't have that baby in here. We're like, come on. It's not gonna happen.

[Randall Williams]

It's not that nice of a store.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah. Are you cleaning something over there, Phil?

[Randall Williams]

No, there's no, I'm using solvents in the new studio.

[Giannis Patel]

Oh.

[Phil]

I think they're like scraping tile off the concrete.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah, it smells like. I just. I oftentimes flood our garage with acetone fumes and it lingers for a few days and I'm getting real strong vibes of that.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah. Yeah. If you guys notice there while you're watching this live show that we're all getting a little drowsy, sleepy, please let us know in the comments.

[Randall Williams]

Call 911.

[Phil]

Yeah, there's not a lot of ventilation in this room.

[Seth Morris]

It's getting stronger. It's getting quite strong.

[Phil]

They might just be pumping it directly into this. Is this, is this how they get rid of us? Yeah. Guys, have fun in Radio Live. Remember, you can't leave.

[Giannis Patel]

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Just like in one battle after another.

[Phil]

I was going to make that reference, but I wasn't sure who had seen the movie.

[Giannis Patel]

Seth, you've also been doing a little bit of ice fishing. Yeah. What's the, what's the ice fishing report?

[Seth Morris]

I mean, ice fishing reports not good. There's not much ice. There was enough ice on Canyon Ferry for which is the local lake here for. I don't know. I fished it twice, but it's been fishing for two weeks or so. But it's like, it's just not the first time I fished. It was a little sketchy. Had about 4 inches of ice and it was moving a lot like pressure ridge. Pressure ridges were building while we were there and, you know, just not what you want. And you couldn't really get to the stuff we wanted to get to out further. But then last weekend we hit it and had a good walleye bite, which was fun. Kind of like a morning walleye bite. And then, yeah, I think it's kind of done now. We've had.

[Giannis Patel]

Because it just warmed up too much.

[Seth Morris]

A warm week. And what's supposed to be 60 degrees.

[Giannis Patel]

Today now is it early enough where it could turn around again or is it now you're like, yeah, halfway through February, it's pretty much no matter what happens, it's done.

[Seth Morris]

No, it could definitely turn around again and get, get cold and make ice enough to fish. But at this point in time, I'm like, let's bring on open water and get a boat.

[Giannis Patel]

Right.

[Seth Morris]

Just kind of over watching the weather for ice. But there's still places around where there's guys skating on the pond out back here this morning. There's obviously enough ice there. But I don't know fishing these little Ponds around here kind of gets old after a while. Yeah, I want to get out in some big water.

[Giannis Patel]

School kids. Yeah, the high school kids, the hardcores, they love pounding the local pun.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, I know. Jimmy Renell has been tearing it up.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah, yeah, I heard he had. I heard from his little sister and I haven't got corroborated with Stephen, but I heard that he was like having hypothermic symptoms from being recent ice fishing trip. You heard this story?

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, he told me about it.

[Giannis Patel]

He was on a sound legit.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, he said they were fishing for burbit and night fishing and apparently the temperatures over that. That period of time when we got that cold snap.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

And yeah, apparently the temperatures dropped into negatives and we got hypothermia.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah, I heard that his, his partners were getting ready to take him to the emergency room because of his. He was being so symptomatic.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, he didn't tell me that part. Yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

Speaking of a place where it is really cold right now and they're having a heck of a winter. Wisconsin, little update on my oak savannah project. If you don't know, if you haven't heard this, we're turning about 7 acres of our 40 in Wisconsin into an oak savannah, which basically meant. Meant we cut out a lot of trees with a logging project, left a few and then instead of regenerating oaks there, we instead killed all the oaks and everything else that was going to grow there and are now going to try to grow forbes and native grasses instead underneath the few oaks that are left. And the part of the project where we were at, we had piled all of the slash that was left over from the logging and these giant piles had to get burned. I couldn't do it since I'm a thousand miles away and I needed help. So a friend of mine, Ashley Steinke from the. He is the Wisconsin grassland ecologist for the Audubon Great Lakes and leads the Audubon conservation ranching program in Wisconsin. And so he offered to burn these piles for me, which I had have roughly 30 of hanging out. And they're giant piles, like easily the size of the studio that we're in right now. Go ahead and show us some pictures. Phil. Yeah.

[Phil]

Do you want to do that first picture?

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah. There's a picture of Ashley with the big old fire going behind him. You can see the size of the pile. It's legit. So we had to get these things burned so that we have like a clear space to then do our seeding, which is going to Happen very soon here. We're going to do a frost seeding which basically means they just sprinkle the seeds all over while they still have, you know, snow and basically a freeze thaw cycle which will help the seeds get great contact with the ground. Go ahead and show those three Moultrie photos in a row. So this is the day that he burned. There's a. We have a stand kind of on this wildlife opening. The oak savannah is actually to the north, but you can see this is like well 11am and then a little bit later Ash got them all burning. And then by I think 3:34 in the next photo you can. Oh no, already by. That was only at noon. Well, that happened fast. So they continued to burn and they, the piles got even a little bit smaller as you'll see in the video coming up here. But I was asking Ashley, I'm like, man, this is going to take a couple of days and you can't just take time off of work. And he's like, oh no, I will be working while I'm doing this. I'm like, but we don't have a contract or anything. And he goes, yeah, man, but our sort of attitude at the Audubon Society is like if it's good for the birds, it's good for the bees. Sort of like meaning like we don't have a project with you, but what you're doing like helps the whole landscape around here and it just, it has an impact. And so gladly come up and, and help you and put some of my work time.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, that's cool.

[Giannis Patel]

Into your project. Yeah. Can you show that video, Phil, of.

[Phil]

The, the first one here?

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah. This is a still when they're burning pretty good with the exception of ones on the very south facing hillside. Oh boy. All I can think of is large scale landscape level restoration like this and sitting here in September and listening to elk bugle in this landscape.

[Paul Schommer]

Have a good day.

[Giannis Patel]

We can, I think we spent enough time on this. We don't need to play that other one. But the next video would just show all those piles basically being a lot smaller. And it's, it's cool for me, you guys are just looking at like basically bonfires and going like why is this really that interesting? But for someone that's been involved in this project now for two years and knowing that the end is really. Well, there is no end to it, but sort of like, hopefully it looks like the oak savannah that it's in my head in about another three years because it's going to take three years for these seeds to really establish themselves and get going. But just the change from what it looked like when I was there in the fall with all these giant piles and now to see those piles gone and you can really get that sort of just like unobstructed view across those seven acres and just looking through, like, the few leftover giant oaks. It's sweet.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, that's cool.

[Giannis Patel]

I had major FOMO when Ashley was there the other day.

[Seth Morris]

Do you guys have plans to. To keep burning that area?

[Giannis Patel]

Oh, yeah. Yep.

[Seth Morris]

Yes.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah. A big part of my work now is making sure that my fire breaks and my roads act as fire breaks. And I've got that dialed so that when it's time to burn, whether I do it or, you know, someone else. I was talking to Ashley about, like, having someone else do it, and it's a lot cheaper if they roll in and your is tight and your fire brakes are tight, you and they're just like, oh, great, we're just going to burn and we leave. If they have to start doing, you know, manual labor to make your fire breaks legit, it's going to, you know, the price is going up big time. This month, iHeartRadio is celebrating the stars of the 2026 Winter Games. Michigan natives Madison Chalk and Evan Bates are the undisputed leaders of American ice dance. As reigning world champions, they arrive in Milano Cortina with a reputation for storytelling and and seamless chemistry that captivates judges and fans alike. After years of climbing the ranks, the duo is poised to cap their illustrious careers with the ultimate prize. They take the ice with one bringing Olympic gold home for more Winter Games Gold Search olympics on the iHeartRadio app.

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[Giannis Patel]

All right, enough BSing. Let's get on with our first interview of the morning. We're going to play a little video before we start.

[Phil]

Oh, yeah.

[Paul Schommer]

When I'm skiing into the range, there's a lot going through my head. In 30 seconds, feels like the race could change. Hands are freezing. Snow covers off and my heart rate's high. Magazine in. Close the action. Fumble. Slow it down.

[Seth Morris]

Focus.

[Paul Schommer]

Pressure on the trigger. Don't fight it. Smooth first shot, clean second shot on the left. Just third, fourth. Sometimes I'm not even really thinking. It all goes silent. And after that last shot, it all comes rushing back. Breathing, heartbeat noise. And I'm not even on snow yet. This is biathlon.

[Seth Morris]

Sweet.

[Giannis Patel]

Our first guest today, joining us from Ant Holtz, Italy, are biathletes Paul Schommer and Matt Emmons. Now, Matt might not consider himself, I'm guessing he still skis as a bad athlete in some version, but he is Paul's coach now. Welcome to the show, fellas.

[Paul Schommer]

Hey, nice. Nice to join you guys.

[Giannis Patel]

Good to hear that. The first time I watched that video, I was like, oh, man, he's just, he's not even on snow. But when I just watched it, for whatever reason, man, it kind of got me fire fired up. And I was feeling the pressure that you feel when you're out there trying to shoot those little targets. All right, fellas, welcome. Like I said, for those that don't know, can you guys just give us a 30 second explanation of what biathlon is?

[Paul Schommer]

Yeah. So I think just to start, I think it's what's really cool about biathlon is I think it's really connected to a lot of things that make us, that we hold dear to us as humans, which I think are one, hunting and two, protecting and providing for those that we love. Because it was really came about from people in northern Scandinavia back in the day, hunting on snow in the winter on skis, and then eventually got turned into border patrol during World War II. And then, and then basically from that practice, they had some mini competitions and that's what turned into biathlon. Biathlon is first and foremost a race. So the clock starts when you leave the start and ends when you cross the finish line. And it's a ski race where you stop and you have shootings, either two or four different shootings from an equal amount of prone and standing. So if you have a two shooting race, it's one prone, one standing. A four shooting race, it's too prone, too standing. And for every missed target, you have a penalty, either by having to ski a penalty loop or a time penalty. And so it's all about skiing fast, being efficient on the range, and hitting targets.

[Giannis Patel]

Okay. Obviously, heart rate must play just like a huge, huge. It's got to be a huge factor in, like, being able to execute what you're doing. So tell me before we get into, like, how you do it, but, like, what's your, like, resting heart rate? And you're like, racing when you're on skis, and then the heart rate that you're trying to actually, when you're shooting what you're trying to get your heart rate to.

[Paul Schommer]

Yeah. So I mean, resting heart rate, I would say most nights I'm in the low 30s, so I'd say, like, if I'm in, like, a good spot and I'm waking up, I'll have my heart rate. I have an aura ring, but the Oura ring only tracks to 33. And so there'll be some times where I'll be under that and there'll be, like, gaps in it. And then heart rate variability is another one that you look at for recovery on the range. I have a pretty low heart rate in this grand scheme of things when it comes to, like, max heart rate. So my max heart rate is probably going to be like 175 throughout the season, whereas, like, some competitors, they'll be up over 200.

[Seth Morris]

Wow.

[Giannis Patel]

Okay. And then so that. That's your max when you're skiing and you're going full bore. What's the heart rate that you're trying to be at when you're trying to make these shots?

[Paul Schommer]

Oh, man. I mean, honestly, I don't really look at my heart rate too much. I think that the breathing is what I really focus on mostly because that's kind of like the anchor of focus sometimes. So you, like, control your breathing because you can control breathing, whereas your heart rate is kind of like. Kind of like, all right, heart's gonna do what it wants. I would say I'm probably shooting around 150 beats per minute most times. That I'm. I'm on the range or more.

[Giannis Patel]

For those of you at home, like, I don't know if you can even get to 150 beats a minute, but like, go ahead and try shooting a gun accurately with your heart doing 150 beats a minute. That's insane. All right, Paul, because we've interviewed you before on the show on. Not on this show, but on the Mediator podcast. So I have an idea of like, the things that you've been through. I follow you on Instagram. Give us the. The sort of rundown of the hurdles I was talking with recently. The. The. One of the main folks over at Crosscut, which is Bozeman's biathlete, sort of center, shooting center, and I mentioned your name and she's like, yeah, that guy has been through more to get to what he's getting to do now than like anybody else I know. I mean, it's just like, it's amazing. So give us a short rundown of like the hurdles that you've had to go through to be able to race this next week.

[Paul Schommer]

I mean, yeah, I think that when I was last sitting in your Guys Studio in 2022, I was asked the question like, oh, how long? How much longer are you going to go? And at that point I was kind of like, I don't really know, like, and I didn't really see myself competing for another four years. And I think that decision was almost kind of made for me. In 2023, I had a knee injury that I actually had to get a knee surgery. So I had to finish my season early, came home, got surgery, rehabbed back from that surgery, made a full comeback, qualified for World cup, was at the pre World cup camp in Finland and my knee just totally blew up. Like, just. I didn't know what was going on. I thought maybe it was just the travel, some other things wasn't getting better. So I ended up flying home from Finland and at that point, not only was I having some knee issues, I was actually having a lot of other stuff going on in my personal life as well. And I just remember sitting across the table from my coach when I was in Finland and just saying, like, I'm going home and I don't know when I'm coming back because, like, it just seemed like everything was pretty chaotic at that point. I ended up going home and I realized that my knee had re injured itself, so I had to get a second knee surgery. And basically what happened was the first surgery, the injury that they had repaired just had failed And I was right back to where I was. And it was a knee scope, so they're like, oh, hey, you should be good to, like, ski pretty soon. And my knee just was not responding. I would ski for about 30 minutes. My knee would be swollen for two days. And so at that point I was like, I don't even know if I can compete, much less if I want to compete. And that kind of like put me in a really interesting spot because it was kind of like maybe the decision was made for me. I felt like my life at that point was maybe steering me in a different direction. Priorities that came that come before sport were things that I think I was prioritizing at that time. But as that year unfolded again, I think some decisions were made for me, maybe decisions that I would have made for myself. And I ultimately felt like I should train back. I went down to Steadman Clinic in Colorado because my knee wasn't responding. And they said that I should get another knee surgery, but they were going to put metal in my knee, and I was just not ready to put metal in my knee at my age. It would have just kind of started me down another path that I didn't really feel like was necessary. And I actually kind of started to get back into training and then got to a point where I was like, man, I finally feel like my knees responding. I can train enough to be able to get back to a high level. And I really don't know what happened other than maybe my body responded in such a way that I was able to get back and slowly made my way back at that time, because I didn't compete that year before I was left off the national team. So I didn't have any support from the national team. I lost my health insurance. I was just training on my own and thankfully was able to re qualify for the team this past year. Had to work my way back up through the ranks, was at world championships and qualified for that basically like last minute amidst a lot of other chaotic things going on. And that. That makes me being here in Italy right now, talking to you guys, something that I'm like, really grateful for, because I definitely don't take it for granted. There's plenty of things that could have derailed me along the way and makes it. Makes it really special to be able to compete this winter.

[Giannis Patel]

Awesome. Okay, so you. I don't know if I'm going to phrase this properly, but, like, what you've made it to the Olympics, which I think is, you know, for most of most people that that would be in of itself, like, it is an amazing.

[Randall Williams]

For everybody.

[Phil]

Just.

[Giannis Patel]

Just generalize anybody that it's an amazing accomplishment. But obviously, you've got a little bit more ger in you than most of us. So you've. You're here.

[Seth Morris]

What's.

[Giannis Patel]

Like, what is your focus set on now? What's your goal that you're there now?

[Paul Schommer]

Well, I think, like, for this year, I've set the goal for myself. Top 10 at the Olympics. I've gone top 10 at this venue before on the World cup, and so that's something that I've really thought of. I think another goal for our entire team that we have and something that we hear about all the time at the Olympics is biathlon's the only winter sport the US has yet to meddle in at the Winter Olympics, and it's kind of dubbed the last first medal. And so I think our goal is really to see the US Win that. That medal. I think we have some chances in individual events, especially with my teammate Campbell, who last year won two silver medals at World Championships. But we've been fourth a couple of times and realized this year on the World cup, so I think we really have our sights set on hopefully bringing home that last first medal.

[Randall Williams]

Love it.

[Giannis Patel]

Listen, man, if you're telling me that you're. You're planning on possibly breaking top 10, I immediately think, well, if he can do that, he could also go podium. Like, you're only. That' only a few. Few spots. And I know you guys know way more about this than I do, but, yeah. All right. Awesome. I love to hear it. Let's talk a little bit about how this biathlon business, like, relates to hunting. Matt, I was told that you actually have hunted Shammy in the valley that you guys are. Are compete well that Paul is competing in this week. Is that right?

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah.

[Matt Emmons]

Actually, I've been here four different times hunting for Shammy. It's a beautiful valley. I call it like my second home. Even though it's not just love coming here. I love mountain hunting. And I've lived in Europe now for 13 years, and one of the things I missed about living out west in the US Was just mountain hunting. And so I got an opportunity to be able to come here and hunt Shammy. And it's. It's just awesome. So wasn't able to do it this past year, but hopefully this coming year.

[Giannis Patel]

I'll be able to do it again. What. What does a champ. Is that what you guys call it, Shammy? Or do you. Do you Pronounce it shamo.

[Matt Emmons]

I say shammy. I don't know if that's right or not, but yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

So like what's a shammy hunt in, in that area look like? Just gives a real quick rundown of like a normal morning shammy hunt.

[Matt Emmons]

All of my hunts actually have been morning hunts. Pretty much what we do is we get up before, before sunup, get up in the mountains. Usually we drive up with a car up to a certain point and then you gotta hike. And sometimes it could be, you know, maybe just a 15 minute hike to get to a spot where you're gonna be spotting or it could be a longer hike. One year we actually did go into about midday. So we were moving around trying to spot some animals. This isn't what we're looking for. Let's go over here. And then we found some different ones, not what we're looking for. Let's go over here. So it took a little bit longer, but once you get one down, usually you're up above, above 2,000 meters, which is over 6,000ft up above tree line. So once you get it down, then it's a matter of gutting it. Put it in a backpack hole. They put it in the backpack hole. They don't cut it up because they only weigh about probably 60, 65 pounds roughly. Put it in the backpack and then you're hiking back down. So it could be, you know, a short hike depending on where you parked, or it could be a fairly long hike. I mean, nothing like elk hunting in Colorado or something. But sure, you know, you get it down and take it to the cooler where, where we go and let it hang.

[Giannis Patel]

Are they pretty spooky critters or like how sneaky do you have to be to get within rifle range?

[Matt Emmons]

They see really well. So it depends on where, where you're at last year, well, not last year, the year before last. I don't know if that one was just stupid or whatever, but we actually went across this opening where he could see us. And I got to about 350 yards and decided, okay, he's, if we go any closer, he's going to bust. So I was able to take the shot. Knock him down. Depends on where you're at. There's a lot of times where you're trying to sneak in, sneaking in to get to rifle range or good rifle range, which I would say is, you know, 250 to 300 yards. The closest shot I've ever taken, there's probably about 230. You gotta kind of sneak behind rocks, try to keep yourself hidden because they see well. And especially if you've got a big group of them, you know, maybe there's 10 animals there, you got 10 different sets of eyes looking at you. Then you got to be a little bit more careful, especially if there are females in. If there are females with little ones, then. Then you got to be really careful to get in on a buck.

[Giannis Patel]

I know both of you guys hunt. Hunt a fair amount. Are there times when you guys are actually in the field, maybe right after a shot or getting ready to preparing for a shot, where you have a thought where you're like, oh, my biathlon training is really paying off.

[Paul Schommer]

Yeah, I mean, for sure. I think the biggest thing that I've noticed is that one, I'm fit enough to be able to get places that I need to be, which is like a. A huge benefit. But, yeah, I think that there's been a few hunts. Like, in Montana, I was hunting the Missouri breaks, and, like, we just, like, found a spot, and it was no problem to hike in 6. 6 miles or whatever. And I mean, we were just on elk all day, every day. And then I think a couple years ago, I actually drew a moose tag in North Dakota. And hunting there, I think that, like, one. The persistence just, like, waking up every single day as an athlete, you just know, like, hey, it's a new opportunity and just gotta be in the game if we're gonna be there. But then also, like, when that target shows up and the heart rate goes up, I'm. I'm just like, okay. Yeah, we're just like. Doesn't mean that my trigger has to be any bit different. Doesn't mean that my anchor points, my sights, everything else, like, my. My focus goes immediately to the things that I want to do to take a good shot. And I think a lot of that comes from the fact that, like, I shoot tens of thousands of rounds every single year.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah.

[Paul Schommer]

With a rifle, whereas with my. With my moose, I shot it with my bow. But, like, shooting and shooting, and I think that's the biggest thing as a biathlete. Like, I just. I know I'm a better shooter than. Than I was when I was younger, and I wasn't shooting nearly as much as I do now.

[Matt Emmons]

Well, I also think, Paul, the mental part of it, because when you're. We kind of go on autopilot, it's like, we've done this so much, whether it's in biathlon or precision shooting, you perform so often under pressure that when we're hunting. You get to that moment and you just do the things that you've been trained to do, the things that you've.

[Paul Schommer]

Done, you know, thousands and thousands of times.

[Matt Emmons]

So that, that training comes in very helpful. You just, you don't even think about it. You just do the work that needs to be done.

[Giannis Patel]

Right. Okay, so you guys have both shot. I don't even know you guys. Do you guys have a rough number in your head about how many rounds of 22 LR you've, you've put down range?

[Paul Schommer]

Well, I want to make a distinction here. Matt is a, he was an Olympic shooter. And how many medals do you have in the Games? So he has three shootings in just three medals in just shooting. So that's, I mean he, he probably shoots more as an athlete than I do. I probably shoot about 15 to 20,000 rounds of 22 a year.

[Matt Emmons]

Yeah, it wasn't, I probably shot about maybe 25,000 a year.

[Giannis Patel]

And how many years.

[Matt Emmons]

I competed for, gee whiz, over 20 years. So I, it, it's, it's a lot.

[Randall Williams]

That's fabulous.

[Seth Morris]

Oh my.

[Giannis Patel]

Fabulous powder. So.

[Randall Williams]

But your fingers still stink like powder.

[Giannis Patel]

I think for a real, like a real take home for folks watching and listening would be coming from you guys. Like, what are like each give me two reasons of why, like what makes someone a, I'm going to use air quotes, a bad shot. Go ahead. Matt, you first. All right.

[Matt Emmons]

Practice, practice. Everything comes down to practice. I mean also if you practice poor things. If you practice a lot, you're doing it wrong. You're just going to get good at doing it wrong.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah.

[Matt Emmons]

So I think proper practice is number one. A lot of people don't understand what proper technique is. And it's as simple as position, breathing, trigger control, follow through. If you can do those things right, you're going to hit a lot of targets or animals or whatever it might be. So I think proper practice, learning what proper technique is and then just simply doing it.

[Giannis Patel]

Doing it a lot, Paul.

[Paul Schommer]

Yeah, and I think, I think like I see it in, I'm going to say biathlon and if I'm watching hunting videos, sometimes you see someone, man, they're just, they don't have any good trigger work and then they also are just popping their head up to see if they hit the target even before the shot goes off. So like if your head's coming up before the recoil goes, you're more concerned about if you hit the animal. I think that's a big thing. It's just having that patience to be able to have that trigger squeeze, watch it through the scope or your sights and see that bullet hit the target. I think that's a, that's a huge one.

[Giannis Patel]

So it sounds like being a bad shot is not an innate thing. Everybody just needs to shoot more, shoot more often.

[Matt Emmons]

It's a skill. And I always say skills are trainable.

[Randall Williams]

Yep. Love that.

[Giannis Patel]

Randall, Seth, any questions for these fellas?

[Randall Williams]

Man, real quick. I don't need the full breakdown on your rifle, but it looks like it's a straight pole. A lot of stuff hanging off of it. I'm curious if you could give like the 32nd rundown of what you compete with in terms of firearms and then also you must travel internationally with, with your firearms quite a bit. So I'm curious about that as well.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah.

[Paul Schommer]

So pretty much every single biathlete is going to shoot the exact same action and barrel. It's an on shoots Fortner and it's just the straight pole action. Reason being is because of that action and also a reliable good barrel, there's ammo testing and barrel testing. That's done. So every once in a while you'll have to get a new barrel. But pretty much everybody's shooting the same thing where the differentiating like factor is going to be for each athlete is in the stock. Unfortunately, I don't have my rifle here because they're all in rifle storage up at the venue. Otherwise I'd be able to show you. But my stock, I got a new one back in 2019. It was made by a stock maker in Germany. He's kind of renowned as being one of the best stock makers in the world. And it's all about balance and fitting me anatomically, my hand size, my arms, my cheekbones, everything. And it's all open sites. But then it weighs about three and a half kilos, just over seven pounds. And yeah, and then you have a harness on so you can put it on your back while you're, while you're skiing. Now, traveling with a rifle, honestly, as an American sometimes really sucks because we don't have paperwork because all the Europeans, they all have rifle passports. So when they show up to a country, they can show them their rifle passport. They're like, okay, good, you go. We show up here and they're always asking us, oh, do you have like your firearms license? Do you have this? And we're like, we're American, we that. Like, my passport is my firearms license. Like, I don't know what you're talking about. And so a lot of times they're just sitting there like, wait, you don't have any. I'm like. And usually what I show them is just the customs form, the, like, 4, 4, 5, 7, which is the. The form that allows you to bring it back into the US and they're just like, okay, cool. So, yeah, it can be a real pain. I would say, like, South Korea was a huge pain. China, they didn't even let us touch it. Like, they took the rifles from the airport and they put them in an armored vehicle and then drove them to the venue for. For us. But once you get in, it's. It's pretty simple. It's not. Not anything crazy paperwork.

[Randall Williams]

Cool.

[Seth Morris]

What's the. What's the ammo that you guys are shooting? Is that like all factory stuff or someone, like, loading that for you guys? And is everyone using the same ammo?

[Matt Emmons]

Yeah, it's all. That's all factory ammo. So 22 is. It's not impossible to reload, but nobody does it.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Matt Emmons]

The way the priming system's done, the powder and all that stuff. So most everyone on the World cup is using Lapua ammo, and it's called Lapua Polar biathlon. This was a 22 long rifle round that was developed for shooting in cold temperatures. So it uses a different type of powder that's less sensitive to temperature changes, because whether it's, you know, I don't know, 35 degrees Fahrenheit or zero, we're using the same stuff. And we need to make sure that the velocity is not going to change drastically, as some other powders might. That way we keep the accuracy. It also has a special lube on the bullet, which functions better in cold weather. Most everyone's using the same stuff. There are some teams that are using RWS now, and they've also developed a similar type of bullet and powder combination. But most everyone uses Lapua.

[Giannis Patel]

Nice.

[Randall Williams]

Love this.

[Giannis Patel]

Okay, lastly, tell us, I guess, what day you're racing, and I'm assuming that NBC Peacock is the best way, but maybe there's another place on the Internet to watch your races. Paul.

[Paul Schommer]

Yeah, so we, we had. Biathlon has, I think, 10 race days in the. In the Olympics. Here we have. That's going to be split between both men's and women's. The first race is going to be this Sunday, the mixed relay, and then the men's individual is on Tuesday. The men's sprint is on Friday. Pursuit is on Sunday.

[Matt Emmons]

Is it Sunday?

[Paul Schommer]

Sunday. And then the relay is the next week on the 17th, which I think is a Tuesday or Wednesday. But yeah, you can find it all on biathlon world.com or biathlon results.com or on NBC. And Peacock.

[Randall Williams]

Love it.

[Giannis Patel]

Awesome. Thank you. Well, good luck to you guys. We'll be cheering you on from Bozeman, Montana and usa.

[Randall Williams]

Usa. Usa.

[iHeart Podcast Announcer]

You.

[Paul Schommer]

Hey, I want to share one last thing with you guys. As you say good luck, I think one thing that's really cool here in Europe or in Italy specifically, if you're wishing someone luck, it's kind of a call and response. Instead of just saying good luck, what you would say is in boco alupo to the person you're wishing good luck, which means in the wolf's mouth. And the person would respond, prepi lupo, which means the wolf is dead.

[Seth Morris]

So imboco alupo prepy lupo imboco elupo.

[Giannis Patel]

In the wolf's mouth. And you respond with, the wolf is dead. I love that.

[Seth Morris]

That's fantastic.

[Giannis Patel]

Paul, you're crushing it, dude. I see a top 10 finishing your future, buddy. Thanks again for coming on and we'll. We'll be watching you here shortly.

[Paul Schommer]

Thanks, guys.

[Seth Morris]

Good night, fellas. That's great.

[Giannis Patel]

That's cool.

[Randall Williams]

That's awesome. I love that conversation.

[Giannis Patel]

Spencer, if you don't like that, you know what I'm going to say to you.

[Randall Williams]

Should we turn to our next guest?

[Phil]

Yeah, I was going to say, let's move. Listener feedback. We'll just do a super sized listener feedback at the end of the show. So we just do back to back interviews here and then hit throwback and then question.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah, we don't want to. We don't want to keep our next. Our next guest waiting too long. So now we are joined by wildlife officer extraordinaire, Demi Wright from Colorado. Demi, welcome to the show.

[Demi Wright]

Hi, guys. Thanks for having me. Super excited to be here.

[Giannis Patel]

Are you a. Were you watching that last interview?

[Demi Wright]

I was, yeah. Those guys are awesome.

[Giannis Patel]

Are you going to be watching. Are you a fan of the Olympics? Are you going to be tuning in?

[Demi Wright]

Yeah, absolutely. Definitely gonna watch the Olympics. I can't. I can't believe how many rounds those guys shoot every year. Oh, my gosh.

[Seth Morris]

Lucky.

[Giannis Patel]

I guess if you have the right sponsor, you get to shoot all that for free. Probably.

[Demi Wright]

Yeah, that's. Yeah, that's amazing.

[Giannis Patel]

All right, Demi, we came across you, I think most of us, I mean, I'm sure a lot of people watching and listening probably have seen your face or know your name because recently you had a. A big, I think a big Poaching bus. And it got a lot of press. So tell us a little bit about that. That specific case and sort of, I guess, why did it get so much brace?

[Demi Wright]

Yeah. So the recent cage case was a poaching case with some active duty soldiers on Fort Carson, an army military installation here in Colorado Springs in Colorado. I cover that installation, and they allow hunting and recreation opportunities on that installation. And it's an incredible resource for civilians to hunt on and for members of the military. But that poaching case involved six illegally taken deer. And, you know, it got a lot of attention, which I wasn't expecting at all. We have a lot of military in. In Colorado Springs, and so I think people always want to know what's going on, and it was pretty egregious. So I think people were. Were really upset with how many animals were taken. And, you know, it's just. Yeah, it got some. Some more attention than I thought it would.

[Giannis Patel]

Okay, remind everybody. Because I think a lot of times when we hear about a poaching case, you're like, well, it's just one. Or maybe even if it's just six deer, right. Or, oh, someone had to eat. And it's. It's. Sometimes it can be easy to be like, well, it's not that bad until you. Until you see, like, 30, you know, giant racks that were poached. But remind everybody why. Why poaching is bad.

[Demi Wright]

Yeah, I mean, so hunting and poaching, two different things, right. You know, hunters are doing it legally and ethically, responsibly. They've got a license in their pocket. They're out there, you know, to fill their freezers or carry on tradition and heritage, have time with family and friends, you know, doing all the right things and reaping the rewards of it. And then poaching is just. Is a crime. It's just straight up taking or pursuing wildlife illegally and ultimately legal, ethical. Responsible hunting funds wildlife conservation in Colorado. And like many other states, hunting and fishing licenses fund wildlife conservation and habitat management. So when you're not paying into that pot, you're robbing legitimate sportspersons. And as a legitimate sports person, I'm. I'm not cool with that. And I just happen to have a patch that enforces those rules. So.

[Giannis Patel]

Okay, we'll get back to the case itself. I want to do, like, a few questions to just kind of set us up here. What, like, why did you want to become a wildlife officer?

[Demi Wright]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

Or how'd you get into it?

[Demi Wright]

I've thought about that a lot recently. Yeah. I mean, I grew up outdoors. I was outside since. Since I was just a little one. You know, I have Barbie fishing pole in my hand way back when. And, you know, I grew up around being outside, hiking, camping, boating. I grew up around a hunting family. Hunting wasn't passed down to me when I was. When I was younger. It just kind of skipped my generation. But, you know, I grew up butchering and processing, you know, all the animals that were brought home, and so I loved it. And then I realized when I got older, I could. I could get paid for this. And I actually have, you know, family members in the agency that I work for. And so I spent a couple days in the summer being voluntold to do some things. So I realized, yeah, I want to do this. And then, you know, I knew I wanted to work for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. I didn't really know in what, you know, what aspect I did. Then I realized I could be a wildlife officer and serve a community, and so it all kind of worked out. I'm also a people person, so I didn't want to be a biologist because I need people to talk to. Our biologists do incredible work, but I'm kind of a yapper, so wildlife officer worked for me.

[Giannis Patel]

Okay, what's a. What's a normal day look like for you when they're. When you don't have to, like, go and, you know, check up on some illegally shot deer? You're just going. And I know that I'm very aware of the breadth of what you do, so there might not be an easy answer, but what's a normal day for you look like?

[Demi Wright]

Yeah, there is definitely no normal day. Every day is different. And that's. That's certainly the appeal of the job. Right. My truck's my office, so a normal day starts and starts in my office in my truck. And, you know, maybe it's hunting season and it's that time. You know, it's fall time, and I'm. I'm checking hunters for 12 or 14 hours a day. And maybe that's what my whole day is. Or, you know, maybe it's summer when, you know, in Colorado Springs, it's the urban wildlife interface and so moving bears around and wrangling deer and. Or maybe I'm teaching hunter ed or I'm in a school doing, you know, a career topic. I mean, no two days are the same. Which is truly the best part of this job, is I've never lived the same day twice.

[Randall Williams]

So that's awesome.

[Giannis Patel]

That is a great reason to have Your job. Okay, so that's normal day, which sounds awesome. Tell me about how many years have you been doing this job?

[Demi Wright]

Yeah, I would classify myself as a baby officer. So I've been an officer now for three years. I started with agency as an intern, and then I did some seasonal positions, which was the most fun jobs ever. All the fun stuff, none of the responsibility. And so, yeah, officer for three years now.

[Giannis Patel]

So get in those three years. What's the most exciting day that you've experienced on the job? What happened?

[Demi Wright]

Oh, man, we have some exciting days. I'm not going to lie. I handle bears all the time. I've got a lot of bears in my. In my district that I cover. So I usually have my hands on. On a bear or two. Those days are exciting, especially when they're being ornery. You know, you can't predict what wildlife is going to do, especially when you're trying to pick up a bear. You know, we. We do some really cool stuff. You know, we have bighorn sheep traps that we do, and that's for some relocating to create different sheep herds, and that is literally just going out and wrestling sheep. So there's a lot of exciting days.

[Giannis Patel]

Okay. Okay, fellas, any questions right now before I move on here?

[Randall Williams]

No, I'm just like, the hands on stuff always just grabs my imagination.

[Demi Wright]

Yeah, stuff is why you do the job, right?

[Randall Williams]

Yeah, totally.

[Demi Wright]

I want to touch a bear.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah. All right. So the article that I read, the many that I read, said there was a moment identified where you identified or associated a vehicle with this crime that happened on. On Fort Carson, but it didn't really say exactly how you did that. Can you explain, like, how you all of a sudden, like, figured out what vehicle was associated with the crime and then tell me, like, was that a sort of crux of the investigation?

[Demi Wright]

Yeah, so I was, you know, this, this tip came in from. From a legitimate hunter who found a buck that had the antler sawed off and. And very minimal meat taken. And, and he called the Fort Carson conservation officers, who are absolutely incredible to work with. And so, you know, they kind of called me in and said, you know, we. I think we have a poacher. So went out there, you know, looked at the buck. Obviously this is not a legitimate harvest that, you know, quarters aren't taken, tenderloins aren't taken back, straps. I mean, just one. One small roast and the antlers cut off. And so looking around for a spent cartridge, which is pretty impossible on an active military installation, by the way, there's A lot of sped cartridges and you know, find. Find another doe with the exact same, same rump roast taken and that's it. But near those two carcasses, found some boot tracks. Followed those boot tracks off of the installation.

[Giannis Patel]

Sorry to interject, but dirt tracking or snow tracking?

[Demi Wright]

A little bit of both. There wasn't a lot of snow on the ground. There was snow in some parts, but it was. Yeah, it was mostly dirt. So yeah, Followed the boot tracks off the installation, found some tire tracks. It happened to be near a wildland firefighter housing. So, you know, we just, me and the conservation officers for Fort Carson popped in there and firefighters saw a vehicle there within the last couple days. And I, I knew that those carcasses were one, maybe two, two days old. So they're like, yeah, this, this vehicle was here. It was weird. We took a picture of it. So that kind of linked up my guy and found the registered owner of that vehicle because they took the picture, ran him through our systems, never had a license. Which of course led me to his social media, myself and the conservation officers to his social media, where he certainly had some animals on there, but no license.

[Randall Williams]

Wow.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah, that brings up the question because we've talked to enough wildlife officers over the years and more and more it seems like what's bringing these fools down is social media and like, and we've heard, like, it's a big part of your job, right, where you can actually, like, get a lot of work done just by perusing social media.

[Demi Wright]

Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, everybody takes pictures of what they do, you know, and especially if you think it's something cool and everybody's got a cell phone in their pocket. And so, yeah, in this case, for this case, 20 something people definitely take pictures of the things that they shoot at. And so we use that to our advantage. I mean, we're going to use every. I'm going to use every tool I have. So if I've got to get a warrant for your social media, that's fine. I can do that.

[Giannis Patel]

Unreal.

[Seth Morris]

Unreal.

[Giannis Patel]

What else was I going to ask you? Oh, as, as a part of the punishment, I read that they're giving some pretty hefty fines and then they're still sort of waiting to see what kind of revocations is that the right word will happen of their hunting and fishing licenses. And it might be countrywide because of the interstate compact that we have in place now. So. That's awesome. When I saw the numbers, I was like, oh, good, they're going to get hit Pretty hard. But you're also taking their rifle. The rifle, though, is being destroyed. And oftentimes that can, like, it gets a little like people get upset when guns are destroyed. So why. Because I've heard that oftentimes heads and hides can be auctioned off that are heads and hides that come from poaching cases, and then that money can get put back into wildlife. So why destroy this weapon versus possibly auctioning it off and using that money for, for wildlife?

[Demi Wright]

Yeah. No, that's a great question. And everybody asks it and, and the answer is, you know, it's, it's state law, so it's Colorado state statute that this, this firearm has been deemed a public nuisance. And so that happens judicially. That's not something that Colorado Parks and Wildlife makes the call on. And so, you know, we, we follow the law and we listen to what the, the court system tells us. So it does get destroyed. We do have some hides that go to auction and those are like roadkill mortality. Hides that will go to auction and that money comes back into the general pot. But with the firearm. Yeah, it's the court's decision, but I heard everybody loud and clear on that one.

[Randall Williams]

Well, I don't want to be a snob and I didn't get a good look at that thing, but I don't think it's going to bring in a ton of conservation funding.

[Demi Wright]

It's not anything to write home about.

[Giannis Patel]

Randall, you're not going to bid on that one?

[Randall Williams]

No, no, I don't think that's even worth the gun broker, you know, bumping it up with the listings, like paying for extra photos and stuff like that.

[Giannis Patel]

All right, Debbie, for folks that, you know, hear this or they've been thinking about it, young folks out there thinking about what they're going to do with their lives, thinking they could possibly do the job that you do. Sounds pretty awesome. Give us some advice and maybe some sort of the baseline education that you need to get involved in doing what you do.

[Demi Wright]

Yeah. So in the state of Colorado, you do have to have a four year degree in a natural resource field. And then you go through a whole onboarding process, you know, that, that you would for kind of any peace officer position. So your background checks, polygraph, psych eval, all the fun stuff. And then when you get the job, you go to police academy for six months and then after that you go to Colorado Parks and Wildlife Academy. They teach you all kinds of fun things. Snowmobile training, horseback riding training, wildlife forensics. It's all the cool Stuff that you got into the job for. So that's kind of the education and then what you can expect if you're hired. But, you know, if you're. If you're looking at this job, just get involved with whatever state agency that you can volunteer, Spend your time with people, show them that you can work hard, go on ride alongs with the officers. You know, if you want to be an officer, I'd say, you know, really understand the job before. Before you get into it. It can be a really huge commitment. It's one of the most rewarding jobs in the world. I can't. I can't picture doing anything else, but just really understand what you're signing up for and get involved as much as you can and just stick with it. Listen more than you speak and yeah, just. Just stick with it. It's tough, but once you get in, you're in. So.

[Giannis Patel]

I like that you said that. I, like, always like the quote about you have two ears and one mouth. You should use them in equal.

[Randall Williams]

That's good advice for any. Anyone interested in any career field, I think.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah. Yeah, it is. Seth and Randall.

[Randall Williams]

I don't have any questions. I just, you know, I always appreciate folks out there putting themselves in uncomfortable situations to protect our. Our shared resources. And there's just like everything that we love depends on people committing themselves to protecting that. So hats off and promising start. A young career, but a promising start, you know, Let us know when you have your next big bust. We'll get you back on here.

[Demi Wright]

Thanks, guys. Yeah, thanks so much for the kind words. Really, really happy to be here and yeah, share a little bit of what's going on in this world.

[Giannis Patel]

Thank you, Demi. Good luck in the future.

[Randall Williams]

Thank you.

[Seth Morris]

Thanks, Demi.

[Demi Wright]

See ya.

[Randall Williams]

Two stellar guests today. Ani.

[Giannis Patel]

Hey, good on you. Good lineup. Good on you, buddy. I can't take. I think I can take credit for Demi because I did send the article to. To Jake, our producer, and asked him to line that up. And then I don't know exactly who lined up Paul and Matt, but yeah, I've enjoyed that. It's time for some listener feedback. Phil.

[Phil]

Yeah, well, what. We're probably only going to do one listener feedback, right? Let's go ahead and do throwback and then we can just hit.

[Randall Williams]

Keep going. We can keep this thing going, Phil.

[Phil]

We'll say that for March 5th.

[Giannis Patel]

Who wants to go first on our throwbacks? I'll go first.

[Phil]

Oh, this is very important. I'm gonna milk all these.

[Seth Morris]

Calm down. Milk feast.

[Phil]

For the next month.

[Giannis Patel]

Throw back.

[Phil]

I can't believe it.

[Giannis Patel]

Did I mention Steven Brody, our old ass? I don't think I had heard that one yet.

[Phil]

Fantastic. That's one of my faves.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

Oh, Corey Calkins just texted me. He must be listening. And he said I lined up. Paul, come on, bro. Sorry, Corey. Sorry, Corey.

[Randall Williams]

Shout out to the whole team here.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah, it's a group group effort. It's not just us. Group.

[Randall Williams]

I didn't do shit for this one group effort.

[Giannis Patel]

All right, who's going first?

[Seth Morris]

Doctor?

[Randall Williams]

I'll go first. I don't think Yanni realized when he sent out this, this query for photos from 20 years ago. I don't think he realized that Seth and I were both still in high school.

[Giannis Patel]

No, I 100% realized this. Yeah. I was half hoping that we could even have a fourth person in here that was even younger and all of a sudden we'd have a picture in diapers.

[Randall Williams]

Phil in the corner there.

[Phil]

Yeah, you're not going to get me in diapers 20 years ago, but I do, I do have a picture.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah, I wanted to share.

[Giannis Patel]

Oh, good.

[Randall Williams]

I wanted to share my, my high school football photo, but is that it? No, it's not it.

[Giannis Patel]

I've seen that photo. It's a good one. Maybe bring it out for the grand finale. Yeah.

[Randall Williams]

And I realized that was 20. That was 2024. So, you know, it's not quite. But this is 20 years ago. This is me living my best Life. Summer of 2026. Actually, I was probably home from my first 20. Oh, I'm sorry, 2006. I think I was probably actually home for my first year at college working for a company called Pro Clean Restoration Incorporated. We had an office on Columbia Parkway there in Cincinnati. I sound like Rain man when I do that. Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio, 808 Oak street or whatever. But yeah, so I bring up where I'm working because as you can see on this T shirt, it's covered in paint and deck stain.

[Giannis Patel]

Okay.

[Randall Williams]

And also that hat is a Bass Pro Shops hat that was, I used as a wiping rag. And so it actually weighed perhaps two and a quarter pounds with all of the cedar tone deck stain, as we called it, C Dub, that I'd absorbed into this hat. Fully weatherproof, wore it for a real long time fishing with nightcrawlers in the Little Miami River. That is a Bass Pro Shops bait casting combo. I think it's probably got some pretty heavy mono on there, judging by the reflection of the light.

[Giannis Patel]

Looks real heavy.

[Randall Williams]

And just a real simple nightcrawler. On the bottom. Looks like I got an egg sinker there and a really crappy landing net that the foam had ripped off the handle. But, you know, it's always fun to. To net fish instead of just dragging them up on the bank.

[Giannis Patel]

Let me guess, like a seven pound channel cat? Is that what I'm looking at?

[Randall Williams]

Yeah, I think that's a good estimation.

[Giannis Patel]

Did I get the species right?

[Randall Williams]

Yes, but what I like about that one. Well, what I like about that one in particular is that the. The tail is hanging out of the net, which I think always adds to. Always adds.

[Seth Morris]

Makes it look bigger.

[Randall Williams]

Exactly.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah. Looks like it's gonna slap you in the face.

[iHeart Podcast Announcer]

You get a.

[Randall Williams]

You get a king salmon in the net, and you got the big tail flopping over the side. That's a good fish, no matter how big the net is.

[Giannis Patel]

Oh, I need to go catch one of those one day.

[Seth Morris]

Buy small nets.

[Randall Williams]

Let's go right now.

[Giannis Patel]

All right, Seth, let's go back 20 years ago, see what Seth has.

[Seth Morris]

Almost 20.

[Giannis Patel]

Almost 20.

[Seth Morris]

Well, we'll say it's 18. This is 2008. Oh, look at that guy doing some fur trapping. Had a. Had a. What looks to be a good day of raccoon trapping. I used to. Back when I was in high school, I used to run a line every. Every season, basically. And I would get up and check the line before school and then go into school. But, yeah, this was just a day of coon trapping. Got the one on the left there is, I'll point out, is quite a large one. Back in those days, raccoons were going for a decent price. I remember I got like 58 bucks for a raccoon back then one time.

[Giannis Patel]

And that was flashed and stretched. Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

Sold it through the North American fur Auction, nafa, which is no longer a thing.

[Randall Williams]

What I like about this picture is that it could be from 20 years ago or it could be from 40 years ago. It's time. It's a timeless image.

[Seth Morris]

It's 2001 Dodge 1500.

[Randall Williams]

What's the sticker on the left? Is that a monster energy drink sticker?

[Seth Morris]

No, no, that's a hunter specialty sticker.

[Randall Williams]

Oh, good.

[Seth Morris]

And on the. On the right, there's Thompson center and hunter safety system there.

[Randall Williams]

God.

[Seth Morris]

And if I'm repeating it, if I'm doing what you did, I'll go with, I'm wearing a scent lock hat and an antler king T shirt. Back when I was planning a lot of food plots and stuff, and.

[Giannis Patel]

And how old were you?

[Seth Morris]

14.

[Randall Williams]

Was your.

[Seth Morris]

Was Your.

[Giannis Patel]

Oh, gosh, youngster.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

Could you drive that?

[Randall Williams]

Could you zoom in on his face? No, I wasn't able to do.

[Phil]

No, I must not have quickly, I think.

[Randall Williams]

Don't worry about it, Phil.

[Seth Morris]

My math's terrible.

[iHeart Podcast Announcer]

Seth, was your.

[Randall Williams]

Was your father an American flag and your mother a issue of Fur Fish and Game magazine? Because you just look like you. If you asked AI to make a. To make the American. The young American trapper, this would be it.

[Seth Morris]

It was Trapper and Predator Collar magazine.

[Randall Williams]

God, it's good. This is good.

[Seth Morris]

Yep.

[Giannis Patel]

Yep. The first thing that caught my eye is that Seth has been rocking the same eyebrows his entire life. Pretty much. Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

That runs into family. They've actually just been getting. I noticed these days that they just get wilder with every year that passes. I'm getting, like, the Ryan Callahan.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

Eyebrows lately.

[Randall Williams]

I'm sorry. Trimming mine every now and then. I'll get a white one because I'll get a long one that curls.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'll get a long one that comes down and is. I can see it in my vision.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah. Next thing, they'll poke you in the eye. That happens to me every now and then if I don't stay on top of it. All right, Phil, let's see your photo from approximately 20 years ago.

[Phil]

Okay. Sure. Yeah. Well, so I. I already showed. We did a throwback Thursday where Spencer asked people to bring in fishing photos. And I actually had one from almost exactly 20 years ago that I already showed.

[Giannis Patel]

No, but you didn't do that one.

[Seth Morris]

No, I didn't.

[Phil]

I'm not doing that one again. So I decided to choose a picture. Pictures from my natural habitat in high school school, which was. Which was the band room. I lettered in band in high school. There's me in the middle there. That's what my hair was for most of high school. I was very cool.

[Randall Williams]

That is amazing.

[Giannis Patel]

I love it.

[Phil]

You should bring that back. I did pretty much any extracurricular band activity I could do. It was my thing. I was very cool, you could say.

[Randall Williams]

Did you have a MySpace page?

[Phil]

Of course I did.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah.

[Phil]

You know, I. You know, I spent way too much time choosing the music that would play. You know, I actually. I had a zanga before MySpace.

[Randall Williams]

Did you ever tell your parents? You'll never understand.

[Giannis Patel]

I wasn't that bad.

[Phil]

I probably had the thought a few times.

[Randall Williams]

The hair is pretty intimidating.

[Phil]

The hair's very good. I might bring it back. What do you guys think?

[Randall Williams]

I love it.

[Giannis Patel]

Yes, please do. I would totally go for it.

[Phil]

That's good.

[Giannis Patel]

What would your gal say?

[Phil]

Well, my hair was about that long when I met my wife and it worked back then.

[Randall Williams]

Fill out boy is a good. That's a good play on words.

[Giannis Patel]

Is that a trombone?

[Phil]

That is a trombone. It's a large bore trombone with a little valve that helps you play the lower notes a little bit more easily.

[Randall Williams]

Were you wearing untied skater shoes in this photo?

[Giannis Patel]

Probably, yes, actually. With a DC or a dc?

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Phil]

No, it would have been like vans or something.

[Randall Williams]

You're probably too young for Janco jeans to have still been in style.

[Phil]

I never owned a pair of Jancos, but my cooler cousins had Jenko jeans.

[Randall Williams]

Nice.

[Phil]

All right, there's that.

[Giannis Patel]

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[Randall Williams]

God, it's good, Phil. Thank you.

[Giannis Patel]

This photo I believe is circa 2000. This is the first bull elk that I killed and recovered. Unfortunately the year before when I was. This is my first year that I was guiding and I was able to take off the first rifle season Colorado hunt with my dad and a couple other of our friends. And unfortunately the year before the outfitter taken me out on the last day of our DIY hunt. He realized that we hadn't seen an elk, let alone killed one. And I shot one close range and probably shot him in the guts. We looked for day and a half, couldn't find him. It was found maybe, I don't know, a week later by another guide bear on top of the carcass. So lesson learned there. When the elk is at 50 yards, you don't have your scope cranked up to 9. Hard to know where the bullet's gonna hit, right? Yeah, but great morning. This is opening morning and I, I wanted to hunt the top of this particular. Let's call it a mountain. It's. It's mountain. Makes it sound a little too big. It's, it's a nice. It's, it's got it's a big ridge, you know, that has an apex to it, and the elk like to go up there. And a lot of the other folks hunting that area, it's too big of a climb form, so it's kind of left, left to those that wanted to make the walk up there. And I'd hunted basically my way all the way up to the ridge to the very tippy top and hadn't seen nothing. And it was pounding snow, just a full blizzard a lot of times, you know, visibility less than 100 yards. And I'm kind of. Once I turned around on the top, I kind of gave up and said, ah, you know, I'm just gonna. I have my rifle like, slung on my shoulder and I'm more kind of mosey and ding dong and back down the same ridge heading, heading back towards camp than hunting. And I think because of the snowstorm, limited visibility, I stop at one point and I look and there's a bull standing there close 50, 60 yards, you know, and he's looking at me, but just couldn't fig. Make me out or whatever. And it had enough time to take my model 700 BDL. Randall. Huh? Which I did a little searching on this this morning, and I'd forgotten what ADL bdl CDL stands for. Can you answer that question?

[Randall Williams]

Well, the ADL is, is the blind mag, right?

[Giannis Patel]

Yes.

[Randall Williams]

And then the BDL is. Is a floor plate. Is a CDL a box mag?

[Giannis Patel]

I think the CDL is still hinged floor plate, but there's just some other fancy, you know, more satin on the walnut and it's just a little bit fancier. But what I found really funny is that the DL stands for deluxe.

[Randall Williams]

Oh, yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

The A stands for average. And yeah, so you go from average deluxe to better deluxe to better deluxe to classic deluxe. So no matter which 700 you buy, you're getting a deluxe rifle, but just average better or classic.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

My dad gave me that rifle when I was, I don't know, 15, 16 years old. And it was one of those deals. I wasn't expecting a rifle. I hadn't asked for a rifle. But he just comes up to me, we're actually at a Latvian, like, social function, and he just whispers in my ear, I just got you a rifle. I was like, oh, that's nice. That's never happened to me in my life where someone just like, like, am I.

[Randall Williams]

Am I a man now, dad?

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah, well, like, it's one of those things, like you're not expecting the. A present like that, but, like, it it was secret, right? And it was kind of like, yeah, don't tell anybody because it cost money. We need to just like, we'll just work it into the. He was law and divorced from my mother at that time. But anyways, yeah, so I shot the bull. Remington Coro. You can see where this story is going to go. I shoot him once. Later to find out in the heart. He jumps. I shoot him again. Another part of this story is when he jumps, he jumps a couple yards, whatever. He's standing in a new spot. I look back to where he was just standing. Now this is a night. This is a. If you're not looking at the photo, this is like a very small probably two year old four point bull. Where he was standing is probably a three year old five point. I'm like, oh, look at that. You know. So I've got two shots in him and he sort of like in that moment starts taking off and I just take off after him and I get another shot in him. I don't know where that, that one hits. He keeps going. I run, I don't know, close to another hundred yards and kind of end up in the timber. And his downfall. And he kind of gets caught up. I'm sure he's going to die at that point, but he's not dead yet. So I put a fourth shot into him. He ends up having three in the heart and one in the lungs. Whoa. And again, maybe would have died from the first one, but it's just like I'd already been around long enough to know that. Like with those elk, you just keep shooting until they're not, they're. Till their tongues hanging out. If you want to go through the attire, I want to say that was a Eldora ski resort. Like just like a wool beanie I was wearing, I was wearing probably a Patagonia fleece with a. Probably a Patagonia capeline underneath it. Cabela's chamois. Or chamois. Remember that? It was like a soft brushed cotton.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

We love those pants because they were so quiet and for whatever reason I thought that suspenders were also a hip at the time, but yeah, my first bull elk.

[Randall Williams]

Love it.

[Giannis Patel]

2000.

[Seth Morris]

That's cool.

[Randall Williams]

What was the rifle chambered in?

[Giannis Patel]

30 06. I forgot I missed mentioning that. Yeah. Ought six. Probably was shooting 180 core locks.

[Randall Williams]

To guess killed a lot of animals with 180 core locks.

[Seth Morris]

Yep.

[Giannis Patel]

Yep. All right, now the long awaited. We're only 17 minutes behind, but let's do some listener feedback.

[Randall Williams]

Bill.

[Phil]

Sure. A Couple shout outs here. First, this is from Bryson. I'd love to get a shout out to my son who turns 2 today and was the only 3 month old when he attended the Boise Meat Eater Live show two years ago, which made him the youngest attendee.

[Giannis Patel]

Happy birthday.

[Randall Williams]

Happy birthday.

[Seth Morris]

Happy birthday.

[Phil]

And we also had another shout out here too that I will find at some point.

[Randall Williams]

But first, McCullough was going on a javelina hunt.

[Phil]

Oh yes. Did you see that one somewhere?

[Randall Williams]

I saw it live.

[Phil]

Okay, I'll find it later. Cranky Sverf when is Randall's haircut? Will there be a raffle to determine how much is cut off?

[Randall Williams]

Still don't know when my haircut is. We have a listener who's a barber who's offered to cut my hair on the radio. Media to Radio Live Finale Grand Finale Spectacular. But he lives in Maine, so I haven't yet been able to determine whether that will happen. As far as how much is getting cut off, pretty much just the stuff that's getting in my ears. I need to keep it long in the back because it's sweet and I need to keep it long on top to hide the bald spot that has grown and grown in recent years. So I'm just hanging on by thread to my youth. So the haircut would be the word you would use. The haircut. If I cut it all off, it will be surrendering to Father Time. So.

[Phil]

Mogor asks Yanni, how are the little or big kitties doing in your area?

[Giannis Patel]

I'm Mingus and I have not been bothering them, if that, if that. Hopefully that answers your question. As far as I know, the population is doing great. But yeah, we've just had like sort of a streak of bad luck. We've had tracks, a lot of tracks have gone on to Private, which we haven't been able to follow. We've had tracks that have just filled in with snow. We've had tracks that have. We've lost on bear hillsides which are common around these parts right now. We have caught a bobcat this year, which was quite the accomplishment for Mingus. He caught his first bobcat, but the big ones, I have not seen one in a tree yet this year. I will be going out, I believe, Friday or Saturday and keep after it.

[Seth Morris]

Great.

[Phil]

Will there be more Meat Eater Kids episodes coming soon? This is from Chad. Chad, we are. They're not going to be in the same format that we did the first three seasons in, so we're currently cooking up some new kids content. How's that for alliteration but it's probably still a few months down the road. But keep your eyes peeled and keep him on that podcast feed. There's a question for Seth. Seth, how much experience do you have with drones for photography? Do you have any?

[Seth Morris]

None.

[Phil]

Okay, then I will not ask you. This guy who was looking for a drone.

[Randall Williams]

Right above you is the shout out.

[Phil]

Oh, yeah. Oh, it's from Leland.

[Randall Williams]

Oh, Leland.

[Phil]

Arizona youth javelina opens for my daughter. Could I get a good luck to McCullough on her first javelina hunt?

[Seth Morris]

Good luck, McCullough.

[Randall Williams]

Good luck, McCullough.

[Giannis Patel]

That's right. Just remember what we learned earlier. It was. What was it? Breathing position, trigger pull, and follow through those four things.

[Randall Williams]

Knowing Leland, I'm sure she's already got plenty of practice.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah, I imagine so.

[Phil]

Here's a Seth1PA and fishing related. It's just Steven. He's looking for some basic gear, some beginner gear to get into ice fishing. If you had sort of like a quick kit, you could.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, I would start with an auger. Doesn't have to be anything fancy. You get one of those hand augers. They work pretty good as long as the blades are sharp. Basic ice pole, which is just a short fishing pole with a. You can honestly just use. If you have a spin reel, you don't have to buy a new reel. You can just throw that on. On a ice pole. And then from there, as far as safety wise, Pennsylvania doesn't always have great ice. They do this year. But I would get a spud bar and those, those ice picks that you put around your neck. So if you, you kind of wear them around your neck like a necklace. If you go through the ice, you can grab those things and use them to pull yourself back up on the ice. That's good to have, especially for beginners that don't have a lot of experience on ice. And then from. I mean, that's basically it to start. You can go super deep on it with electronics and you know, having a sled to haul your stuff out there.

[Giannis Patel]

Is nice, but Sandfella can't do the electronics part. That's kind of where I'm at. I feel like I have all the other gear, but I feel like without electronics, you're like, how am I ever going to find the fish? So how do you find the fish with no electronics?

[Seth Morris]

Well, back when, back when I used to fish with, without electronics, we were just, just trying to find like points that go out into the lake or whatever you're on.

[Giannis Patel]

Like read a map.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, basically if you have access to a map, that's helpful because you can just, you know, look at the map. But if you don't have access to, like, underwater mapping or whatever, I just try to find, like, points that are coming out into the water or, you know, if. If you're. If you can see the bank and there's like, it's like a sandy bank that transitions to a different type of, like, rip rap or something, like finding transitions like that or, you know, it's. It's totally doable. I used to do it all the time.

[Giannis Patel]

Bad form, because I was going to say, well, you'd pull up and then see where all the other shanties are or people are fishing.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patel]

And then go near there or start asking them questions like, is that bad form just to roll in and be like, hey, man, let me take a.

[Randall Williams]

Look at your live scope.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah, I'm new to this. Like, would it be okay to drill a hole 10 yards away from here? Is that a good spot? You think most people would be open to that?

[Seth Morris]

Totally, yeah. And if you're going to go that close, I would definitely talk to someone. But you can definitely find the general area where people, you know, or fishing or if you go, like, early in the morning, wherever you can find last or yesterday's holes, basically, and. And try those spots, too. So. Yeah. Good luck.

[Randall Williams]

What else you got?

[Phil]

Phil Giannis. This is from Judah. Do you have any tips on trying to stay injury free or for trying to stay injury free over years of running?

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah, I've been lucky to. I think I've. I have been able to stay injury free. I mean, I've had a bad ankle sprain once. I'm dealing with a little bit of, like, a cartilage issue. And it's just. I think that's no matter if you're running or just living, you're going to have those issues in your knees. But I don't know. I think doing it, that was. I recently had to go through this knee kind of a process of figuring out what was going on in there. My last appointment was with an orthopedic surgeon, and she said, the worst thing you can do is stop. Stop doing what you're doing. I said, you even mean, like, running 100 miles? She goes, yes, do it. It is good for you. Do not stop. It's going to get worse if you stop, so don't stop running.

[Phil]

Bow hunting at full draw asks who of who all of you guys are going to be at NWTF next weekend.

[Giannis Patel]

Well, I guess you two Are not.

[Randall Williams]

Nope.

[Giannis Patel]

I am full draw.

[Seth Morris]

I wish I will be Wild Turkey.

[Randall Williams]

I'll be at the Hunt Expo that weekend.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah. And if you're gonna be at nwtf, a good place to run into us is going to be the Grand Slam after party that meat eater is hosting. You know, it's a big fundraiser. They're gonna have a bunch of cool hunts and guns, shotguns, rifles to auction off. And we're going to tell some turkey stories. We're going to try to get all of you to buy as many raffle tickets for these items as possible. We're going to have an owl hooting contest. The Clay is going to mc. So if you're a good owl hooter and in your nwtf. Now, this is voice. Voice only. And then we're also going to play some trivia. So, yeah, it's the Grand Slam after party. Be a great place to bump into us. Or on Saturday, most of us will be at the booth, the first light booth all day, and you can see us there.

[Randall Williams]

And if you want to find me at the hunt Expo, I'll be slumming in the beer line with everybody else.

[Seth Morris]

I'll. I'll make mention that the Great American Outdoor show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is kicking off. And my. The family boot shop will have a booth there. Center Boot company. Look them up. They'll have some first light gear there and I think some meteor stuff, too.

[Randall Williams]

Brett Reeves is at the. At that show, I believe.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, really?

[Randall Williams]

Yeah, I think he's doing something with Case.

[Seth Morris]

Oh, we'll look him up, too.

[Randall Williams]

He's a nice guy. Go talk to him.

[Giannis Patel]

He's extremely nice.

[Randall Williams]

Have him tell you a bedtime story.

[Phil]

Ian asks, do you guys have more episodes of Roasts on the Way?

[Giannis Patel]

Yes, Ian, we do have more episodes of Roasts on the Way. They're. They were, they were hounding me yesterday to put my notes in on an episode which I believe they want to release here in the next week or so. So don't fret. And then behind that one, there are many more coming. We have been hard at it. We have been cooking, roasting our tails off here recently.

[Randall Williams]

So Phil and I judged an episode together.

[Phil]

Yeah, we did. I think we did a pretty good job.

[Giannis Patel]

I haven't seen a cut of that one yet, but I'm expecting great things.

[Randall Williams]

I think it's going to take a lot of work to cut that one.

[Seth Morris]

Entertaining.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah, I think I gave the editor.

[Phil]

Specific instructions on camera of things to do. So whoever's cutting that, I apologize. Guys, let's see what will you guys be doing on Thursdays at 11am after March 5th. That's from Moore.

[Seth Morris]

Answering emails.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah, that if I'm in the office it'll be something. Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

Moore working on a book, editing video, editing photos.

[Randall Williams]

But to be honest, when I look at my calendar after March 5th, it's nothing. Nothing there. My world is ending on March 5th.

[Giannis Patel]

Hey Spencer. Spencer, if you're still out there, has he commented?

[Phil]

Phil Spencer Newharth has not been in the chat.

[Giannis Patel]

No.

[Phil]

I shamed him for being too active in the chat one week and I think he.

[Giannis Patel]

If he is out there listening, I would like him to give us a rating between 0 and 10 on how well we did on this episode.

[Phil]

Oh, this is a nine, five. At least it's up there. This is one of the better ones. Another Mogore one. He's We've got some good questions this week. This is, this is for Randall. It's a specific one. You're the weapons expert, Randall. Have you heard of the Walther or Walder RS 3 straight pull bullpup hunting rifle family? The one with the integrated suppressor. And is that monocoque?

[Randall Williams]

I would imagine that's a one piece receiver.

[Phil]

Yes. And then he had more to say. But that was basically it.

[Randall Williams]

Yes, I saw that it was recently released. I'm really intrigued by bullpup rifles. There was a, there's a company called Defensive Edge out of Idaho that makes something called the Long Range Killing Machine and it has a 30 inch barrel, but because of the bullpup arrangement, the overall length is much shorter. So it's designed basically to ride it up to the top of the mountain on your back on a dirt bike. But bullpups offer the advantage of having a longer barrel length compared to the overall length of the rifle. Walther. I've never owned a Walther, but interestingly enough I think they made like a police sniper rifle, like a marksman rifle that was a semi auto bullpup. So they have a bullpup legacy. I'm also really intrigued by guys on forums that are making their own bull pups with like homemade trigger linkages and weird stocks. And it intrigues me and scares me at the same time.

[Giannis Patel]

So you're gonna have to explain it because I'm looking at pictures and there's like, looks like a thousand variations of what a bullpup might be. So like, is there a definition of what a bullpup is?

[Randall Williams]

A bullpup is essentially the action is, is further back in the stock, then the trigger is ahead of the action.

[Seth Morris]

So the action's almost like where you're.

[Paul Schommer]

Yeah, you're.

[Randall Williams]

You're almost resting your cheek on the action itself. So instead of the. Instead of the action being in front of the grip or like the wrist of the stock, the action is back further so that, you know, you can have. You can have this much barrel, but it starts back here instead of starting out here.

[Giannis Patel]

Okay. And obviously, I guess the sort of the. I don't know if it's the issue, but you got to figure out how to connect the trigger to the. To the action.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Randall Williams]

And, yeah, there's like some. You know, there's a lot of, like, factory bullpup options, but you can also find people sort of. There's some companies that make like, a bullpup style chassis for Remington 700, and you have basically a trigger linkage. But in the age of suppressors, you know, overall length is a very important consideration. So, yeah, when I think about big magnum cartridge, want to get a big, long barrel on there. A bullpup would be mighty nice. That's weird enough.

[Giannis Patel]

Interesting.

[Randall Williams]

That was a weird enough tangent for me.

[Giannis Patel]

Anything else?

[Randall Williams]

The lrkm, though, if you want to. If you want to have your hair stand up, look up an LRC and the prices they fetch on the used market.

[Phil]

Leland's asking your opinions on wild game tartar or tiger meat or cannibal meat or whatever, all the terms are for it. Do you guys. That's something you guys consume or prep, prepare often? Yes.

[Giannis Patel]

Oh, really?

[Seth Morris]

I think a burger is just better. We.

[Randall Williams]

If you cook it, we like eating. We like eating, like, beef tartar. Like, if we go to a restaurant that has some sort of raw beef preparation, that's typically what we'll get as a starter. And so, yeah, when we get, like a fresh animal home and hey, we have some back straps, we'll do some tartare.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah, I enjoy it. I just often don't remember to make it, and I should do it more often because it is delicious. But yeah, I just. Yeah, for whatever reason, I don't know, my family's probably only eaten it a couple times.

[Phil]

Nate, Pow, pow. Looking for recommendations on a pistol, chest pack and chest holder. Handgun needs a proper safety. You guys have any recommendations?

[Giannis Patel]

Oh, geez.

[Randall Williams]

As far as how to carry it, I think. So I go back and forth on the chest.

[Phil]

I think he's looking for, like, specific items, like from FHF or something you guys could help him out with.

[Randall Williams]

FHF doesn't make. I mean, they use A. It's a Rasco holster that's attached to the bino pack, right?

[Giannis Patel]

It was.

[Randall Williams]

It was. Yeah.

[Seth Morris]

They make a system that attaches to the bottom of a bino harness or chest rig.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah. There's a company called Gunfighters Inc. That makes a chest rig that you would wear under. They also make one that you would mount to your bino pack, but they make one that you wear, you would wear under your bino pack because it's just sort of free, like it's, it's literally just meant to be worn on its own with nothing else rigged to it. And I like that quite a bit because you can take your binos off, like if you're, if you're butchering an animal and you can just have that gun on your chest when your hands are all bloody and you don't want something hanging off, like the big bino rig hanging off. But I also go back and forth between, like a belt holster. Sometimes I'll put a belt holster on my hip belt of my pack. But then you end up carrying two holsters because you also want one that you could wear if you drop your pack. So it all comes down to individual, individual preference, I think. But there's a lot of options out there.

[Giannis Patel]

Well, Paul, I think trying to solve for some of this now instead of like, he doesn't really offer a holster anymore. It's basically the holster hanger.

[Randall Williams]

It's like the blade. It's a blade.

[Giannis Patel]

Yeah. And there's a quick detach system so that you could have one holster, but then have this attachment that could be under your bino harness. You could have another one on your hip belt of your pack and then you can just move it around. I personally find it to be too much when it's all on my chest, and so I like to go to the hip. But yes, every time I drop my pack.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah, I also started wearing. I started wearing like a short thigh drop, like a drop panel. And I thought, I've like seen people sit back and forth say, oh, you don't want to wear that when you're hiking. You don't like. It's. It's too cumbersome, but I don't really notice it. And then I have that gun on my hip at all times. Take my pack off, take my bino harness off. It's one less thing when you want to shed a layer to mess with.

[Seth Morris]

Right.

[Giannis Patel]

And yeah, yeah, send me the link to that. Whatever you're using.

[Seth Morris]

Yeah, yeah. I run this thing that it's. It's just a clip so, like, I can open it up, put it on my pack, and then if I want to drop my pack, I just pop it off my pack and put it on, clip it onto my belt. Works pretty good.

[Giannis Patel]

Phil, anything that has to be answered yet or can we save for next week?

[Phil]

There's this one for me. Okay, we'll have this be the last one. I mentioned this, like, lo fi pixel art fishing game that came out recently called Cast and Chill. Cast and Chill. And Cole is asking if I've played it yet. I have it downloaded on my switch too, and I've been holding off because I thought I might stream it the first time I played it, which I still might do, but I haven't played it yet.

[Randall Williams]

Oh, I didn't realize you got a switch too.

[Phil]

Oh, yeah.

[Randall Williams]

I just got my first switch.

[Seth Morris]

Yes.

[Phil]

And that's the thing is maybe if I stream, after we play some Cast and Chill, I'll play some Breath of the Wild because Randall getting a switch and playing Zelda had me restart a playthrough of Breath of the Wild.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah, Verizon. I got some sort of Verizon deal where I got a free switch, so I'm getting back into video games. Never too late to start something new.

[Phil]

Couldn't agree more, Randall. Let's call it.

[Giannis Patel]

Kids, go outside.

[Phil]

This might have been our longest. I think this is our longest episode.

[Giannis Patel]

Forget. Forget your video games. Go outside. You know, find a healthy balance.

[Randall Williams]

An hour and 36 minutes. That's a hell of a warmup for the grand finale. Spectacular.

[Phil]

That's right.

[Giannis Patel]

I hope you guys all enjoyed it. Look like most of them stuck around for the entirety of it. Thank you all for watching and listening and we'll see you again next week, same time, Meat Eater Radio live, same place. Deuces later. This is an I heart podcast.

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