
Loading summary
Steve
This is an iHeart podcast.
Randall
Guaranteed Human.
Clay Newcomb
Hey, it's Clay Newcomb here from Bear Grease, and I want to tell you about my new 12 and 26 film. Presented by Moultrie and ONX. These are 12 of Meat Eater's biggest and baddest hunts from the last year that are going to be released through 2026. These are long form episodes, or what I call films, so you're going to get more of what you love. My film will take us into the deep and cold, rugged country of southwest Utah on a lion hunt with hounds, where we traveled over 80 miles in five days on mules. But the best part, I'm hunting with the legendary lion hunting family, the Mechams, but also one of the country's top mulemen, Ty Evans. This is about mules and lions. This is the kind of place where winter hangs on tight and every track in the snow tells a story. If you've ever wondered what it's like to pursue a mountain lion in big country on mule back then, this is the episode for you. Check it out now on the Meat Eater YouTube channel and be on the lookout for more 12 and 26 in the coming months.
Randall
Welcome to the news show. On today's show, we're covering the ins and outs of Buckfest, which is the national Big Buck Hunter championship. We're going to talk about how South Dakota is is going all in on suppressors. Etsy, like the place where you buy stuff is the devil incarnate. Pennsylvania tweaks their catfish regulations in an interesting way. Spencer Newharth reports on Bigfoots, as though there's anything to say other than that's dumb. But first and more. But first, Randall on Buckfest.
Phil Taylor
Well, yeah, last fall, as Radio Live listeners might know, Phil and I went to Nashville, Tennessee to the national championship of Big Buck Hunter, which is the arcade game that everyone knows and loves, where you have a little pump action gun and shoot the bucks and bulls and rams as they run across the screen. And so Phil and I went down there and Phil has produced, I think, an award winning or at least award worthy, I should say award worthy.
Randall
Like maybe it'll get nominated. Yeah, yeah, a nomination worthy.
Phil Taylor
Phil produced a film of our exploits down there and it's a pretty crazy event. They have over 100 contestants from around the world. There's $125,000 in prize money, and so you have to qualify for the main competition. But they also have an amateur open and the folks there were kind enough to slot me into the amateur open. So I Tried my hand at this, and you'll be able to see how that goes.
Randall
We got your ass kicked.
Phil Taylor
I don't want to spoil video.
Corinne
Did you get a feel for the percentage of actual hunters in that competition pool?
Mark Kenyon
Yeah, that's also covered.
Phil Taylor
That's covered. That's covered in the video. I mean, it is. It is funny because there's, like, people wearing T shirts, like, matching T shirts from their hometown bar in Saskatchewan, like, camo T shirts. And on the image in the back, there's a deer with a crosshair on its head. And you're like, these. These people are hunting. You know, I mean, there's people from all over. There's people from, like, New York City, live in Brooklyn and play at their little bar. But there's a lot of people that, you know, are, like, hardcore Wisconsin, Minnesota types.
Randall
Yeah, but is it mostly, like, drinkers? Are they drinkers?
Phil Taylor
There's a lot of drinking involved.
Randall
Yeah.
Phil Taylor
Like, it's.
Randall
Because there is a lot of bar people.
Phil Taylor
Yeah, it's bar people. It's bar people. And we get into that. We talked to the owner or.
Randall
Sorry.
Phil Taylor
We talked to the founder, the inventor of Big Buck Hunter.
Randall
And is he loaded? He makes a lot of money off. I can't.
Phil Taylor
I wasn't pocket watching the whole time, but I think he's doing well. He also invented the original Terminator arcade game. Have you ever seen, like, the little Uzis and the little pintle mounts and they shoot them at the screen? So this guy's invented probably a lot of the arcade games that you've seen in your life.
Randall
And you were hanging out with him.
Phil Taylor
Yeah, we got. We got a little time with him before. I think before the final championship, which was tremendously exciting.
Randall
Phil, when I was watching the video, you playing the video game, I saw a lot of things that would be illegal.
Phil Taylor
Yes.
Randall
Like, you guys are shooting at salmon and stuff.
Phil Taylor
It's what I represented.
Corinne
I was going to ask if you expressed Steve's grave ethical concerns around surrounding this game.
Spencer
That's the whole video, actually.
Phil Taylor
Yeah.
Randall
No, I wanted to be a talking head in that video. Talk about all the wildlife violations.
Phil Taylor
I saw the one. The one question I did ask him, I don't know if this made it into the final cut, is I had wondered whether Animal Rights act activists had protested.
Mark Kenyon
That is in the final cut. Yes.
Phil Taylor
Because.
Randall
Do they protest it?
Phil Taylor
He said they don't.
Randall
I protest it. Listen, my buddy Jimmy Dorn, when he used to have his pizza joint.
Phil Taylor
Yeah.
Randall
I'd take my kids down there, and I Would forbid my kids from playing Big Buck Hunter. And just to screw with me, he'd give them a roll of quarters and then they'd play it and he would do it just to make me mad.
Mark Kenyon
Well, check out the video.
Phil Taylor
I like Jimmy's style.
Randall
No, I can't support it, man. Shooting fish and all that.
Mark Kenyon
You're also shooting zombies at some point.
Randall
Shooting way too much of everything.
Phil Taylor
Yeah.
Steve
Basketballs you guys will ever see.
Randall
You're taking shots it shouldn't be taken.
Phil Taylor
Yeah. If you're someone out there that's like, I. I really don't like meat eaters. Serious hunting and fishing videos. This might be the one for you.
Randall
You know, another thing I. Another problem I have with the video.
Phil Taylor
Yeah.
Randall
People look dumb playing that game.
Phil Taylor
Come on.
Randall
With that little toy gone and they're
Phil Taylor
like, these are my people.
Randall
It's not like a lot of noises. It just doesn't look like. It's just not a great look.
Steve
Okay. In the second iteration of this video, you know, in a month or so, we'll have Steve screen and screen. Com commentary.
Corinne
They are like using it is like a sawed off pump action.
Randall
It's like a pump that never runs out. Yeah.
Phil Taylor
Yeah.
Spencer
I think the most telling thing that it's not for hunters is that they hold this, what, in like late October, Right?
Phil Taylor
Yeah, that's. That's the tough. That is a tough thing.
Spencer
You wouldn't attract a lot of.
Phil Taylor
The next one is in Milwaukee.
Randall
Oh, really? You gonna go? Are you done?
Phil Taylor
It's. It's just that it lines up real unfortunately with the Montana general season.
Randall
Got it. But you got your ass kicked. Or you can't say yet. What happened?
Phil Taylor
I think you did you.
Randall
If you won all the prize money, I would have heard about it.
Phil Taylor
If you won all the prize money, I wouldn't be sitting in this chair.
Spencer
Here's why I think you should go watch it. I believe this is probably the first Phil Taylor joint.
Phil Taylor
Oh, yeah, Phil Taylor shot it, edited it.
Spencer
I am just special.
Phil Taylor
I am an empty vessel for Phil to pour his creative talents into. No, that's.
Mark Kenyon
That's not so good, everybody. The powers that be were kind enough to let Randall and I get on a plane and go to Nashville. When we. I. We had no plan. We were just like, let's just shoot stuff and we'll put it together later. And I think what we. What we made is pretty fun.
Phil Taylor
And I will say the big Buck Hunter. We should point this out. The big Buck Hunter people invited us out there. They put us up they treated us like royalty. George, Dave, Snipes, they really took care of us, and we had a blast. So, I mean, if you're in the Milwaukee area and you have the slightest interest in, I don't know, drinking Big Buck Hunter, just, like, seeing people having a really good time. You should check this out. In October.
Mark Kenyon
Yeah.
Randall
I thought you said. I thought you said Minneapolis. You said Milwaukee. Milwaukee.
Phil Taylor
Yeah.
Randall
You could go to the meat eater
Phil Taylor
store and then go to Big Buck Fest.
Corinne
Phil, did you find some camaraderie with, like, fellow gamers, or are they not in your circle of.
Phil Taylor
I mean, there, there is kind of.
Mark Kenyon
There's a kind of. There's kind of a wall that separates arcade gamers with, with home. With home gamers. It's not really the same kind of, like, light gun stuff, joystick stuff. It's a little bit different.
Randall
Like, totally different kinds of dorks.
Mark Kenyon
That. That's right. Different breed.
Phil Taylor
But I, I, I wasn't sure.
Randall
It's, like, not all dorks get long. Right.
Phil Taylor
I wanted to make sure that Phil enjoyed his time in Nashville. So we did go to the same tiki bar two nights in a row.
Mark Kenyon
That's right.
Phil Taylor
So, yeah.
Spencer
What a win.
Mark Kenyon
I got my.
Phil Taylor
That didn't.
Corinne
That's a good company. Sources there.
Randall
April 19th. I'm gonna have to review these spent expense reports. It's like, yeah, why around midnight? Or is this like a. A flurry of $21 purchases at a tiki bar?
Mark Kenyon
What the hell's a scorpion bowling? Why did you order eight of them?
Phil Taylor
Scorpions Wildlife Navy Grogs.
Randall
All right, Blood Trail Season 2 is out.
Steve
Yep, it's about to be out on Thursday. April 16th is when the first episode drops. Hosted by our friend and colleague Jordan Sillers, it's our network's outdoor true crime show. This first episode, without saying too much, is actually pretty gruesome and happened outside of Helena, Montana, where a hunter disappeared back in 2011, and his remains were later found in two separate sites. So that's the first of a number of episodes that'll be dropping. And please follow blood trails wherever you listen to your podcast, and you can watch the video episodes on The Mediator Podcast YouTube channel. So please subscribe to that.
Randall
Okay, we got an update from Mark Kenyon on the launch of our brand new 2026 land access initiative, which we're going to hear about right now. This is a real good one. Take it away, Mark.
Mark Kenyon
All right, Mark Kenyon here with an Update on MetEaters 2026 Land Access Initiative project. We Are kicking this latest round off here on April 14th on a really cool deal that we're doing with Onyx. So, so here's what's going to happen. There is a big chunk of land out in central North Carolina surrounding something called the Tucker Town reservoir. This is about 4,000 acres that have been privately owned but historically open to public access. This has been great deer hunting ground. People been waterfowl hunting, turkey hunting, you know, getting access to the reservoir and fishing. Unfortunately, the landowner of this 4,000 or so acres of land has put this ground up for sale to the highest bidder. Alcoa owns this. They are now going to be taking bids, taking offers on this land. That would mean 4000 ish acres of land no longer publicly accessible, no longer open to hunting or fishing. So there's this organization there in the state called the Three Rivers Land Trust. The, that has now started a campaign to try to raise funds, buy some of these lands and transfer that ownership to the state of North Carolina so that it can become officially public land and be accessible for public hunting and fishing forever. That is a pretty awesome idea. That's something that I'm really excited about. That's something that meat eater is excited about, that onyx is excited about. And so we've been brainstorming about, you know, how can we help, how can we make this possible? And here's what we've landed on. We have landed on helping out with a 30 day fundraising campaign for this project in which we, each meat eater and Onyx are going to provide up to $100,000 in matching funds. So what that means is that for every dollar that a participant donates, we will be able to donate a match dollar to that up to $200,000. So we could, if you think about this, if you donate a dollar, Meat eater donates a dollar and Onyx donates a dollar. You're tripling your impact. If you want to participate and help keep the Tucker Town game lands public and accessible, it's, it's super exciting. It's, it's a great opportunity, I think, to make this idea of keeping public lands public tangible. Right. So many of these public land issues seem like they're happening far away from or outside of our control. Well, here is an opportunity to do something real that can make a real on the ground impact. And we don't need to wait for the government, we don't need to wait for a law, we don't need to lobby against a bad bill. We can just put our money where our mouth is. And try to keep this land public. So that's what we're going to do at meteater. That's what Onyx is going to do. And that's what we're hoping that everybody listening can do as well. We're going to be running this campaign from April 14th through May 14th. And you can learn more about it or actually donate and be a part of this by going over to the Save Tuckertown campaign website. You can find that by going to trlt.org/tuckertown or just Google it or go to the Mediator website. You'll see all the details there. But we are thrilled about this. We're excited. It's 30 days. We're matching up to $200,000. That's meteor and Onyx. Plus. All of you guys listening, we can do this together. We can help get some of these parcels made public again. Keep hunting, angling out there on the landscape and keep it public.
Randall
All right, man. Great news from Mark. We're excited about this one. It's a great fundraising campaign again, partnering with On X and Three Rivers Land Trust. Remember, April 14th through May 14th, we're going to match up to 200,000 bucks. So let's make as much of an impact as we possibly can. And also, I've been bugging Mark Kenyon, who's not like, responding to my prods of getting the auction house oddities fired back up because we're like, way overloaded with auction house of oddities items like a brand spanking new, virtually brand spanking new Honda 150 horsepower outboard.
Corinne
I wish my boat would hold that thing. I'd take it.
Randall
A bunch of barn board outboards. Barn boards?
Corinne
Yep.
Randall
We got all kinds of other junk. I was looking at something, my garage the other day. I'm selling the auction house guns.
Spencer
Corey was talking about cleaning out the storage unit and he found a canoe or a kayak in there.
Randall
A kayak gonna be in there, dude. Oh, we're gonna have so much stuff in that auction house. I just thought of something really good the other day. Well, I could put some of my own guns.
Corinne
I might retire from ice fishing and do all my ice fishing stuff, sell
Randall
to someone more north.
Corinne
Yes.
Randall
Yeah, we're not. Who'd have thought we could live this close to the Canadian border and not be north enough for ice fishing anymore? Oh, speaking of ice fishing, I got a favorite ask because of a writing project I'm working on. I need to know from people out there who fish Lake Champlain. Like, is the bite hot? I'M talking hard water, preferably. Is the bite hot? I need to go out there and look around at some things. And when I'm out there, I want to hit the. Hit the hard water. Bite what?
Spencer
What do you think you're going to catch?
Randall
Perch? I don't know.
Corinne
You mean now or in the future?
Randall
In the future. Not now. It's melted off now. No, next winter.
Corinne
Okay.
Randall
I'm looking for a guy. I'm looking for a guy gal, whoever who likes to hit the hard water, who wants to take me out and show me the best of Champlain. And while we're there, I'm going to tell them a story that'll curl their hair about why I'm there.
Steve
So right in, folks.
Spencer
Looking for champy, Right.
Randall
What's that mean? It's Cryptid.
Spencer
Nothing.
Phil Taylor
That's.
Spencer
That's their version of Loch Ness.
Randall
No, that's not what I'm doing. Okay? No, it's way better than that. Even if that was real, this would still trump that. If I could go there and tell them two things, I could say, here's thing one. I found that thing is dead on the beach.
Spencer
There's a plesiosaur.
Randall
Yeah, it's dead on the beach. I can show you right now or I can tell you the story that I'm going to tell you. Okay. They would be better off taking my story.
Spencer
That's good.
Randall
Not my story, but you don't want
Phil Taylor
to alienate these folks. Maybe they're invested in regional lore.
Randall
I'll feel them out. Corrections, Corrections, Corrections. Okay, the winner of this week's correction of the week will get a Moultrie Edge 3 Pro trail camera plus a one year subscription. You know, I'm thinking. You know, I was just talking about auctioning guns off. I'm thinking about giving a gun. I'm like, give a gun out of my personal stash. One of these weeks, just out of the. Out of the blue, damn. I'm going to give a gun for my personal stash to the. To the corrections winner.
Steve
We're going to have a million.
Randall
And they got to make sure they don't have a restraining order because I'm going to send it through an ffl. I'm not mailing it to them.
Spencer
Yeah, maybe there's a correction of the year that's like, Steve's gone.
Steve
Thank you.
Randall
No, it's just gonna be a random.
Corinne
We'll have left handed. Correction. Week.
Phil Taylor
Week.
Randall
Yeah, man, a lot of corrections about our recent hot dog. Our hot dog. I was gonna call the expose it wasn't an Expose episode.
Spencer
It would have been better, though, if you marketed it that way.
Randall
Well, he didn't want to expose. Yeah. I kept being like, what's the nastiest thing you've ever seen him throw into a hot dog at a hot dog factory? He's like, it's all lies. Wow. And I prod him. I said, if it wasn't lies, could you tell me you worked that angle pretty? He says, I would tell you if it was a lie.
Phil Taylor
So we had. We had one correction from Cody Sanders in Alabama, and he's Colonel Sanders. Cody.
Randall
Oh, sorry.
Phil Taylor
He says John mentioned the white gooey stuff that comes out of fish when you cook or smoke. It is fat, but it is actually not. It is called albumin, which is a protein found in fish. Albumin is a water soluble protein naturally found in fish muscle. You'll usually see more of it when the fish is cooked too hot or too fast. Or with lean fish like salmon or cod. It can also happen if the fish wasn't brined or rested beforehand.
Randall
Did he just say lean?
Corinne
That's what I. I've got. I want to get to this after.
Randall
Oh, this guy needs a correction wipe right back in his face.
Corinne
Yep.
Phil Taylor
Best way I've found to deal with it.
Randall
Like, he's like, oh, he's like spiking a volleyball, but doesn't realize I'm spiking it back.
Corinne
Yeah, he's. He's messed up bad already.
Randall
Yeah, it's a volleyball trap.
Steve
But he's right about that.
Randall
Yeah, he's right about that. But lean fish like salmon or cod would be like me saying, trying to think, trying to give him.
Spencer
Give him time here.
Randall
Black things like the two colors on a panda.
Corinne
Black things like that mountain goat in that black bear.
Spencer
No.
Steve
Or what about like, lean meat, like fat or Venice, like pig or venison.
Randall
Brody's right. Things like mountain goats and black bears. That's the equivalent of what he's saying. Go on, Randall.
Phil Taylor
The best way I've found to deal with it is just smoking it low and slow. A Saltwater brine for 10 to 15 minutes helps in keeping temps around 160 to 180. Does, too. Even then, you might still see albumin. You can control it, not completely eliminate it, but it's safe to eat. Appreciate everything. Y' all do love the show.
Randall
Colonel Sanders. Thanks, buddy. That's a good one. I like it. He screwed up a little bit. That's cool.
Corinne
Are we gonna address his screw up?
Spencer
We just did.
Randall
We just did.
Corinne
I don't feel like we explained it.
Randall
Well, it's a good one, though.
Corinne
Salmon is fatty.
Randall
Cod's lean. Sam is fatty. So him saying lean fish like salmon or cod, it's like the fattiest damn fish.
Corinne
And I don't think you're gonna see a lot of albumin.
Randall
You know what it could be? He could be fishing. Spawned out chums. He's fishing spawned out chums. The kind that are going the wrong way down the river.
Phil Taylor
They wrap around your legs when you're waiting in.
Randall
Yeah, it's kind of like you're going the wrong way. Yeah, because he's all, like, half dead.
Phil Taylor
Okay.
Randall
Okay. Another one. This. We got to put TSS to. To the.
Steve
All right.
Randall
TSS to rest.
Steve
It'll be the last time. I am an attorney. This is a gentleman, Mike. I'm an attorney and not a particularly elite attorney. And failing to disclose material fact to a tribunal, a mission constitutes an act dishonesty and could subject an attorney to discipline by the state bar in the jurisdiction where the attorney practices and. Or subject the malfeasant to sanctions. Now, this is not Steve's fault because Korean is responsible for production content.
Phil Taylor
Boom.
Randall
I like that.
Steve
Smack in the face. After listening to the various podcasts recently about tss, I did my duty and ran to my local sports store to see what was in stock stock for TSS so I could buy up everything they had and hoard it as instructed, knowing I live in a state where I'm more likely to draw an elk tag than a turkey tag. It seems there might be some TSS on the shelf and maybe at a decent price. Imagine my surprise when not only did I find a bunch of shotgun shells labeled TSS, but the mug of this familiar fellow smiling at me.
Randall
See the picture below on a pack A third degree.
Corinne
This guy doesn't understand the.
Phil Taylor
The.
Randall
No.
Steve
So. So to the audience, what this gentleman has in hand are two boxes of federal third degree meat eater ammo at Steve's face.
Corinne
He's got some three and a half inches and some three inches and 12 gauge.
Steve
Okay, he says, I don't recall any discussion on the podcast about us mentioning TSS or that we sponsor TSS or federal. It seems like a material omission.
Randall
Yeah, sure, it's a good point. But this isn't made anymore. This is a long time ago and
Corinne
it's only got like a small dose of tss.
Randall
Got a small dose tss. I'm surprised you even found some because that was from a long time ago. I was Fired from the COVID It's got a logo.
Spencer
We retired that logo probably four years ago.
Corinne
It's good ammo though.
Steve
He can probably put it on ebay and get much more than it the it's being sold for, which is like 27.99.
Randall
Yeah, right. Federal letters say I want Steve back on that ammo.
Corinne
This guy offers, bring me some. Like I'll meet him at the exit on 990. He can give me some of this stuff.
Randall
So yes, we did not mention I and talking about tss. Like picture that I was trying to play a shrewd that would have been shrewd. Like let's say I had some kind of financial interest in selling tss. And I'm like, TSS alert. Hoard it now.
Corinne
Right.
Randall
Right. And then he. And then I'm like selling all this tss. But I have nothing to gain from that tss. I have nothing to gain from that tss. But still great. Correction.
Julian Edelman
This is Julian Edelman from Games with Names. You know, I always got something going on. Lifting, chasing my kid, or heading on a family road trip where I'm somehow both the snack guy and the dj. But no matter what's going on in my schedule, one thing never changes. I make sure I stay hydrated. That's where Liquid IV shows up. Clutch. We've said it before. It's the key to faster hydration. You got to have a liquid IV or on you gym bag, glove box. The pantry you swear is organized. Toss one in. Just a stick and 16 ounces of water hydrates you faster than water alone.
Randall
Boom.
Julian Edelman
Efficiency. It's powered by Liquid IV Hydra Science sounds like a playbook term, but it's an optimized ratio of electrolytes, vitamins, and clinically tested nutrients, turning water into a game changer. Worried it tastes like science?
Phil Taylor
Don't.
Julian Edelman
Liquid IV hydration multiplier flavors are delicious. Lemon, lime popsicle, firecracker and cotton candy. Plus sugar free favorites like white peach and rainbow sherbet. That's a win. Tear pour. Enjoy. Even I can handle that. Go to liquid IV.com and use the promo code nuthouse for 20% off your first purchase.
Jordan Sillers
On blood trails. The stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker.
Corinne
I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag.
Spencer
And there was a pool of blood.
Randall
Oh, my God.
Phil Taylor
He doesn't have a head.
Jordan Sillers
Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried. Under brush and silence.
Corinne
Indications where he should be right there. And. But he wasn't.
Jordan Sillers
This season, we're going deeper. From Cold Case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments. And the people left behind trying to piece them back together.
Steve
He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest.
Corinne
Somebody, somewhere knows something.
Jordan Sillers
I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, iHeart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Randall
Another correction, number three. So this guy says, while listening to episode 857, I was especially intrigued when Steve discussed the map showing the locations of the oldest known cervid fossils. He mentioned that no moose fossils older than 15,000 years have been found south of the Alaska Yukon line, which immediately caught my attention. He thought it. He thought it sounded surprising. He did a little digging, pun intended. He says, in the course of my search, I came across a fascinating find from the 1970s. A stag moose specimen. Stag moose specimen discovered in a gravel pit near Jasper park in Polk County, Iowa. Approximately 30,000 years old. He's like, what do you make of that? Well, it's not a moose. Different critter. Different critter. So I don't know what to make of that. Different critter. But still, good point. Now I don't think it's gonna win. I think the winner is here. A lot of guys write it. We picked. We just picked. We randomly picked one. We're talking about smoke phase wild turkey. So when you see a light colored wild turkey. I was saying on the show, someone was showing some pictures. I don't know what we're talking about. And two of my friends unrelated have recently sent me pictures of smoke phase turkeys. I said, when I see a smoke phase turkey, I see domestic turkey. Genetic introgression. Meaning when someone sends me that picture, the first thing in my mind is there's some domestic turkeys around there and they've been getting it on, mixing it up, making love with wild turkeys, throwing these light colored offspring. Okay. Guy writes in and says, I recently heard on Lake Pickles podcast an interview with Dr. Mike Chamberlain. Okay. And he says, Dr. Chamberlain points out on the Backwoods University podcast, that's what Lake Pickle show is called on our network, that he himself used to have similar thoughts. The important word there being that the wild turkey doc, Dr. Chamberlain, says he used to have similar thoughts but has been shocked that turkeys can be 100% wild and have these odd color phases. He states that DNA testing confirms there are multiple paths to which a turkey can display the smoke phase in other unique color phases, including one that does not involve a domestic or heritage cross. Furthermore, Tom glines, a former NWTF regional director, said in 2011 that the partially white or smoke phase turkeys occur naturally. Other sources estimate that 1% of turkeys display or carry the recessive smoke phase gene. They're coming from a feller named Joey. Final correction this kind of blows my mind. This might win, but I think not.
Corinne
Up, up to me now.
Randall
Basically, it's this. Oh yeah, go ahead.
Corinne
Who wrote the title for this one?
Randall
Good.
Corinne
This should be good moose hunting.
Randall
Yeah,
Phil Taylor
Stag moose.
Randall
Good Stag moose hunting.
Corinne
I like this way this guy starts out. No bonafides to start with. Not long ago I would have been in the same boat as the news crew, thinking there are very few moose in North Dakota. I'm not sure exactly what we said last episode, but I was.
Randall
I expressed surprise about there being moose or I screwed up and said, oh no, you know what I said around that poacher had a dead moose. And I said he must have got that from someone else.
Corinne
I gotcha. Hardly enough to hold a season for. Three weeks ago, I was shocking. I was surprisingly shocked to read that North Dakota has a very generous moose season and issues more tags than I expected, especially compared to Texas, where I live. While in Kingsville, Texas, to watch our collegiate son pitch for the Kingsville, Texas Kingsville, Texas A&M javelinas.
Randall
What a flex that is. Yeah, that's like what a. Like out of nowhere.
Steve
Maybe just very proud. He's proud of his kid.
Corinne
But they do have a good mascot, the Javelinas. That's pretty sweet.
Phil Taylor
I like this guy.
Randall
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Corinne
To my pleasant surprise, I read a small article about North Dakota and their big game harvesting reports. The details were unbelievable enough that I took a picture. Yada, yada, yada. Here are the 2025 moose harvest numbers according to the North Dakota fishing game. 292 moose tags issues, 281 hunters. I'm not sure how that works. 245 animals harvested, 147 bulls and 98 cows.
Randall
They got so many moose they're killing 100 cows.
Corinne
Yeah.
Randall
What's up with the two hundred and ninety two tags and two eight one hunters? Like some dudes must have dropped. Some dudes drew and didn't hunt. Didn't hunt because it's not like they're not finding people who want those tags.
Corinne
Exactly.
Randall
Dudes drew and didn't hunt, so.
Corinne
Yeah.
Randall
So they got moose coming out of their ears.
Steve
Yeah, he validated this with his brother who lives in North Dakota.
Corinne
And those are not shyrus moose like we were talking about a couple weeks ago. I think they're Canadians.
Randall
Is that right?
Corinne
I think so, yeah.
Phil Taylor
Yeah.
Corinne
And those things are coming into Montana now. Oh, so like northeastern Montana has a growing population of these Canadians.
Phil Taylor
Yeah. There's a line that you can draw coming down from the Canadian border in central Montana. It kind of cuts along the Missouri river country and then down southeast. And that's the dividing line for Canadian shirus.
Corinne
And you'll see those standing in alfalfa fields out there.
Randall
I'm learning all kinds of stuff. All right, to recap, let's go right into voting. No need to recap. We got TSS the 5 the. Put the TSS to rest. No, no. Albumin. Nope. How do you say it? Albumin. Albumin. Are you sure you put the emphasis on that syllable.
Phil Taylor
I'm sure. We'll hear if I don't.
Randall
Okay.
Phil Taylor
Trail cam on the line.
Randall
Tss. Moose fossils. Smoke Phase Turks. Moose in North Dakota. Oh, well, we weren't voting yet. I was just doing a review.
Steve
Okay.
Spencer
You said no need to review.
Randall
I know that. Changed my mind.
Mark Kenyon
Okay, thanks for passing that info.
Randall
Al Buman. Oh, sorry, no votes.
Spencer
Tricked him.
Randall
Tss. No votes. Moose fossils. No votes. Oh, Smoke Face Turks right here. One vote on Smoke Face Turks. He pays attention, clarifying that North Dakotans are awash. And moose.
Corinne
Yeah, they're overrun by them.
Randall
Big time winner.
Steve
Okay.
Randall
Just got himself a multi trail camera. Got himself a one year subscription so he can put it up and catch some of them moose while he's in Texas. Sends it to his brother.
Phil Taylor
Legendary Texas.
Randall
You know, he can put it up and get pictures of his kid playing baseball.
Corinne
Javelinas.
Randall
Yeah, you can just put it on the. Yeah, the post on the edge of the baseball court. All right, get his kidnare corrections.
Steve
300,000 corrections about baseball court.
Randall
Etiquette question.
Corinne
Okay, I'll do this one. Etiquette. Etiquette question about turkey hunting. I have a family debate. Do we got a picture?
Randall
I don't think. You know what I think? I think let's never mind that it's pure white. Okay, let's never mind this doesn't matter anyway. She shot her neighbor's pet turkey.
Corinne
I have a family debate I would like some outside input on. I'm an avid turkey hunter and have gotten My calling down to the point where I can reliably harvest a bird every year.
Randall
Good for him.
Corinne
Good for you. Yeah. I recently started dating someone and she's a very avid hunter but had never gone after turkeys. We decided to give it a shot last Saturday and she harvested it. Her first bird. Got that picture. Got it in the head.
Spencer
Nice work, Central Texas.
Randall
That's his new girlfriend.
Corinne
Yeah. The only thing is this is no normal Jake as pictured. You can see that sucker's pretty white. My figuring was this was an opportunity of a lifetime. Therefore I told my girlfriend to take the shot. Our issue is, is that we have an. Spencer, move your cursor. I can't read. Our issue is that we have an unspoken no Jake policy on my family's property. Between myself, father and brother. This is in Central Texas.
Randall
It's unspoken.
Corinne
Well, it must have been spoken at some point.
Phil Taylor
I was going to say it seems
Randall
like they're talking about policy. Yeah, yeah. I think it officially just became a spoken policy.
Corinne
I have been ribbed very aggressively over the past two days for harvesting that bird. However, is my understanding that the odds of a jake making it to the next year are low to begin with. Even lower when they stick out like that. I'm standing by my decision and I'm looking for vindication since we likely would have never seen that bird again. Also looking to brag that her first bird was that unique. Anyway, input is appreciated. My input is. I don't like. The only time I got anything against shooting jakes is when it's illegal to shoot them.
Randall
Yeah. That's a good damn girlfriend he's got. It's a great turkey. I don't care like especially with first time hunters and this walk.
Phil Taylor
I would think this is a swan.
Corinne
Yeah.
Randall
Yeah. Let's not have shot that trick. I, I'm all for I 100 like any. Unless they make it illegal because they're trying to.
Corinne
Yeah.
Randall
Curb harvest if it's legal. If your state fishing game agency says you're allowed to shoot a jake. Shoot a jake.
Corinne
Yep. If it makes you happy, go for it.
Randall
You know it's not, it's not.
Corinne
There's.
Randall
You can't like bring morality or something or ethics into the idea of shooting a good to eat turkey.
Corinne
And I don't even think you need to worry about like always probably not going to be around next year.
Randall
Like just like it's a good to eat turkey. The fish and game agency has established it. They got the numbers to. To shoot Jake. Shoot Jake. Especially if it's your brand new damn girlfriend and a white one walks by.
Corinne
Yep.
Spencer
Dad and brother are jealous.
Randall
Yeah, they probably don't have a new girlfriend. They probably got some old girls.
Corinne
If you guys are listening, you should send a DNA sample. That sucker to the people we were talking about earlier at the turkey DNA project. You'll find out if it's wild albino, if it's got some. What'd you say? Domestic introgression. There you go.
Randall
Introgression.
Corinne
Randall. Tax dollars for conservation.
Phil Taylor
All right, this email comes to us. Well, I'll get to that. In a recent episode, Steve briefly said, I'm paraphrasing here. Didn't some state increase their taxes by some tiny amount and it's making shitloads of money for conservation?
Randall
I sound like an idiot when you read it like that. Really sound like.
Phil Taylor
No, no, you say it faster, it
Randall
rolls off the top.
Phil Taylor
Did some state increase the tax, Got some tiny amounts making shitloads of money for conservation. I think he's referring to Minnesota's Clean Water, Land and Legacy constitutional amendment of 2008, which by three eighths of 1%. That money, over $2 billion since 2008, all goes back to various conservation measures. But of particular interest to the meat eater crowd, this funding has helped purchase over 300,000 acres of public land as well as habitat work on hundreds of thousands more. If I was giving one piece of advice to sportsmen, conservationists and public land lovers, mimic what is happening in Minnesota. Because going. Because going in on X every other week. Going on on X.
Randall
Let me hit that line.
Phil Taylor
Yeah, please.
Randall
Because going on on X every other week and seeing a new place to hunt fish and recreate in your home state is amazing.
Phil Taylor
Yeah, you nailed it. Longtime listener. Love the show. Love the news split. Thanks Sabine. And Sabine is the Minnesota state coordinator for Pheasants Forever.
Randall
That's great. And Carl Malcolm has been talking about. Cause he. Carl Malcolm was telling me over dinner recently, like about a tale of two states. The funding mechanism in Wisconsin being so stressed and the funding mechanism in Minnesota being so effective that Minnesota is going around buying new public land for its residents. Meanwhile, Wisconsin's suffering on funding. And so Carl talking about the need to get creative around funding wildlife agencies and they've done a good job. Missouri's done a good job.
Phil Taylor
Yeah. And you can go to. I looked this up after I read this email. You can go to the Congressional Sportsman's foundation website and they have a whole page explaining conservation sales tax in different states and how different states have done it and how well, it's working and all that stuff. Like, they have a whole overview of the subject. So it's kind of interesting to see the different models out there.
Randall
I'd like to see a $0.05 on the dollar sales tax. All goes toward. All goes five cents on a dollar. Would people vote for that? Five cents on a dollar sales tax and it all goes to conservation. That'd be a narrow. That wouldn't win.
Phil Taylor
No, but no one would be mad at you.
Spencer
You wouldn't have to do it for very long. They did $2 billion since 2008. If you did $0.05 out of a dollar, you just gotta put up.
Randall
Yeah, we're just gonna do it one year.
Spencer
Five years.
Randall
Yeah, five years. Don't go back to normal. No taxes. Because then you'd have a. What do you call it when you have a big pot of money, like universities and stuff? An endowment. You build an endowment. If you buy stuff from Etsy, quit.
Phil Taylor
That's right.
Randall
Sons of bitches.
Phil Taylor
That's right. Yeah. This is from the past week. Etsy as of August 11th. So a couple months out from now, what is it, four months out, they will ban the sale of all animal fur, regardless of age or origin, as part of its, quote unquote, ongoing biodiversity efforts.
Randall
Oh, my God.
Phil Taylor
And so they've clarified that biodiversity. They're talking about the fur of animals killed primarily for their pelts. It does not include taxidermy or byproduct materials such as leather, sheepskin, wool or mohair. And it includes stuff like the, the age and origin context is. I mean, like, basically means if you have a fur coat from the 1920s, you can't sell it on Etsy, but you can. Even though taxidermy, even though that animal's been dead for a hundred years. I guess there's, there's a, an organization called Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade. And it's a campaign, the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, that's made up of a bunch of grassroots groups and they've been protesting against Etsy, including a, quote, high profile disruption of a live presentation by the CEO of Etsy at a Morgan Stanley event in San Francisco. So this is a win for the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade. And they've been working on a bunch of different companies lately, including Conde Nat. I don't know how they were, how well they were involved in these, but there's a bunch of companies like Conde Nast, Marc Jacobs, things like New York Fashion Week that are getting rid of fur.
Randall
Man, this has got me excited about starting a Etsy esque fur.
Corinne
I don't think you should, I think you should have kept that up down,
Randall
but bleep that out. Phil. Whatever man. Whatever.
Corinne
Pennsylvania catfish regs, they're proposing to change them. This, this was interesting to me because of, of how it's, how it's going to be playing out like on one side of Pennsylvania versus the other. Presently in, in the state of Pennsylvania, cat catfish are listed similarly to panfish in the regs. You can have a, you can catch and keep 50 a day with no size limit. And it's not like you imagine 50
Randall
big catfish piled up.
Corinne
I don't think they're delineating between channel catfish, flatheads, blues. It's just catfish. Right.
Randall
Like in their mind, catfish, catfish.
Phil Taylor
Yep.
Corinne
So a new proposed regulation that would, that would go into place next year for the Ohio river basin in Pennsylvania, which is almost the entire western half of Pennsylvania. It's aiming to protect native blue and flathead catfish populations in the Ohio river drainage in Pennsylvania. And it, they're pretty, it's a pretty huge change for, for blue catfish they would go catch and release only. And for flatheads it would go to four fish daily with only one over 35 wow inches. So it's a big, big change.
Randall
And I need to, I want to pause on that for a. I just want to reiterate what you just said. That's a big change.
Corinne
Yeah.
Randall
To go from we don't distinguish species and you're allowed 50 a day.
Corinne
Yep.
Randall
To no retention on blues.
Corinne
On blues.
Randall
So like one day you can catch 50 blues, the next day zero.
Corinne
Yeah. And. And they kind of, they describe these, these fisheries in western Pennsylvania as like emerging fisheries, which is not really, I don't think an accurate way to describe it. It's more like recovering fisheries because they're native to that drainage and they're starting to come back. Pennsylvania has a stocking program now to create a self sustaining blue cat population in the Ohio river drainage. So big changes and a couple of quotes is both the blues and flatheads are only native to the Ohio river basin in Pennsylvania. They're not native to Lake Erie drainage, the Delaware or the. And the goal of the blue catfish restoration program is again to establish a naturally reproducing population. The species was extirpated from the area in the early 1900s because of pollution. And as water quality has been restored, they've kind of both flatheads and blues have kind of started coming back on their own. I mean you can catch These things like in downtown Pittsburgh, right next to Three River Stadium.
Randall
But homo. I got a question here.
Corinne
Yep.
Randall
Why? Oh, flatheads are saying not native to. Because. Because flats are. There's flats in the Great Lakes. They're saying they're not native to the.
Corinne
They're not native to the. They're native to the Ohio river drainage, but not those drainage. Other drainage.
Randall
Because Great Lakes have flats.
Corinne
Yeah.
Randall
Yeah.
Corinne
But this is very interesting in the case of Pennsylvania and other places like Virginia, West Virginia. In that area, Maryland, Chesapeake Bay, because you drive a couple hundred miles, not even that far, one side. Basically, like the eastern continental divide in the Appalachian Mountains. Like, you go over that from west to east, and you're now in a part of Pennsylvania where blues and flatheads are considered invasives. And they're doing a lot of damage to native fisheries in, like, the Susquehanna river drainage. They're a big problem in Chesapeake Bay now for native fish. So it's like one side of the state, they're trying to bring them back and you can't keep them. The other side of the state, they're invasive and they want them gone. It's kind of crazy.
Randall
I'm all for it on one condition. I'm all for it on if they feel that. If they see good recovery.
Corinne
Yeah.
Randall
And they see numbers that they'll adjust to be like, okay, you can keep a blue a day, whatever. But I agree, I agree that like that kind of like loosey goosey management of lumping three very different fish together under one umbrella and then making a 50.
Corinne
Yep.
Randall
Fish thing. Because if some guy gets on kind of like a weird bite during the spawn.
Corinne
Yeah.
Randall
And pulls off 20, 30 blues.
Corinne
Yeah.
Randall
I mean, holy cow, man.
Corinne
Especially like big spawning size fish, you know?
Randall
Not that I wouldn't want to be there for that bite, but.
Phil Taylor
Yeah. Yeah.
Corinne
You thank my dad for that story. He sent it to me.
Phil Taylor
Thank you. Brody's dad.
Steve
Yeah.
Randall
He fought at Little Bighorn. He's not that old, but some of Brody's relatives fought at Little Bighorn. They're not talking. They're buried deep
Jordan Sillers
on blood trails. The stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker.
Corinne
I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. And there was a pool of blood.
Randall
Oh, my God.
Phil Taylor
He doesn't have a head.
Jordan Sillers
Blood Trails is a true crime podcast. Born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.
Corinne
Indications where he should be right there. And.
Jordan Sillers
But he wasn't this season, we're going deeper. From cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments. And the people left behind trying to piece them back together.
Steve
He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest.
Corinne
Somebody somewhere knows something.
Jordan Sillers
I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, iHeart, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
Steve
Okay, for all those birders out there, you guys are ahead, potentially ahead of this anti aging game that everyone seems to care about so much. A new study that was published in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests that birding can actually help brain health over time. And one of the leading scientists said mitigate age related decline. More research is needed, but here we go. So the neuroscientist Eric Wing and his co authors with their study, they reveal that parts of the brains of expert birders are denser than those of novice birders when matched in age, gender and education level. They use the neuroscientists use MRI measures to study brain function and the density of brain structures in real time. They found that changes to structural brain organization in several regions. Sorry. They found changes to structural brain organization in several regions that are involved in attention and perception. They looked at how the brain regions responded when people memorized and identified birds. And some regions with structural differences also showed higher brain activities when these expert birders were looking at unfamiliar birds. And that required like more attention to subtle patterns of the birds. And in novices, they didn't see this increase. So they know that larger numbers of people need to be studied over a period of time. So that'd be a longitudinal study. But so far what they've found lets that leads them to believe that there is a benefit to being an expert birder.
Randall
There you have it. So here this if you're dumb, try burden.
Corinne
I, I want to be part of the study because I told Corinne earlier that when I'm observing birds, it's generally like a very high stress, not a relaxing like when I'm looking at a turkey, I'm not like my brain's not growing, it's shrinking because of high stress. Cortisol.
Randall
Yeah, no, I understand. Yeah. But you know when I do do this, so I do like when I'm trying to tell, when I'm trying to think if I just heard a gobble. Yeah, that's interesting to me. But then I feel like I'm slipping Like, I'm losing my hearing. I'm getting old. But it could be that me trying to, like, do that little math in my head.
Corinne
Yep.
Randall
Was that a gobble? How far away was he? I could be getting smarter. Yeah, but I. I'll buy that. I'll buy that. Because you know what? It also, like, ties into, like, this very ancient. I get to get a little fuzzy here. But, I mean, you know, we're, like, constructed to. To interact. Like, our bodies, our physical. Our physical selves are constructed to, like, interact with a wild landscape and identify and. Yeah. To pay it, like, to be at a. At a state of, like, heightened attention, paying to what's going on around you, because that's how you survive or don't survive. You know, like, listening, looking. So the fact that there's some part of your brain or anatomy that flourishes in wildlife viewing and wondering about wildlife, that's not surprising to me. That was a little fuzzy.
Phil Taylor
No, I think that. I think that was crystal clear.
Randall
Someone's gonna put that in quotes and send it back to me.
Phil Taylor
What did he say? I'd crocheted into a little pillow and put it on my couch.
Spencer
Mm.
Phil Taylor
Loves here.
Randall
Who's handling this?
Steve
I can do this quickly. This is. This is a fast one.
Randall
But can you within this, explain to me how this isn't federal? Like, what. Isn't this a federal thing? Go on.
Steve
What? What? I understood it was just a quick news blurb about South Dakota being the very first state to remove suppressors from a list of controlled weapons. So this was right now, it's April. So just at the end of last month, the governor of South Dakota, Larry Roden, signed SB2. So that deregulates suppressors at the state level because it removes suppressors from the definition of a, quote, controlled weapon, you know?
Randall
I see. I understand now they're getting out ahead of it.
Steve
Yes, they are. Yes.
Randall
Because the feds really need to. The feds really need to do this.
Corinne
I wonder if controlled weapons means that at some point, like, no background check, you're just going to be able to
Randall
walk into a store.
Phil Taylor
Oh.
Randall
If it's not controlled at all.
Corinne
Yeah.
Randall
Because right now it's more aggressor and
Corinne
you walk away with it.
Randall
Yeah. Like, it's more controlled than a gun. Yeah. It's like you can buy a gun anywhere, but you just can't make it quiet.
Corinne
Yeah.
Randall
Like, it's like, no, it's okay to have a gun. We just don't want the gun to be quiet.
Phil Taylor
Well, it's.
Randall
We Want to make sure it hurts your ears.
Phil Taylor
Hearing safe. Let's not say quiet. Let's say hearing safe.
Randall
Hearing safe.
Phil Taylor
We don't want to give the impression that these are silencers.
Randall
Yeah, it is to me. I think someday there will be a class action lawsuit and I'm going to be in it. A class action lawsuit where deaf dudes. Dudes going deaf like me. Sue Not. Not guns. We sue the government. Can you take the government. Can you do a class action lawsuit against the government?
Mark Kenyon
Sure.
Randall
A class action lawsuit where people with hearing damage come together to sue the government for having made it so hard to make your gun. Safe level. Safe audible levels. This would be a great way to spend some the summer.
Phil Taylor
Yeah. You do think about like. I always think it makes the most sense when you put it in the context of public health. It's like when you think of all of us that are going to be old people someday.
Corinne
Oh, dude. I lay down at night. The tinnitus is like.
Phil Taylor
Yeah, like. Like, it's just. It's such like a cost sink in health care for hearing angle.
Steve
The cost sink.
Randall
And this is part of it. You could. You want to run the class action suit?
Phil Taylor
Sure. I'll line it up. We got that attorney's email. The guy bought the tss. Maybe when he's here giving Brody his tss, we can.
Randall
Here's the main way I look at the suppressor question. Let's just say guns were naturally the noise they are when you put a suppressor on them. Like the physics that governed the world were different.
Phil Taylor
Right.
Randall
Or we had a different.
Phil Taylor
I don't know what.
Randall
That. Whatever the hell, for some weird reason, inexplicable reason, guns were the loudness. They are unsuppressed. That they are when there's a suppressor.
Phil Taylor
Great thought experiment.
Randall
Would the government say it has. You have to put a thing on there to make it louder because we want it to be loud.
Phil Taylor
Break them all.
Randall
Or would they just be cool with that level of loudness? Yeah.
Phil Taylor
That's an interesting thought experiment.
Randall
I feel it. That's fine. That's just how loud they are. It doesn't really hurt your ears. And we're okay with that.
Phil Taylor
Some chemist out there might be working on low, low volume powder.
Randall
Okay, Spencer.
Spencer
I think it's also worth pointing out in the last story. South Dakota, Sioux Falls is home to silencer central.
Randall
Yeah.
Spencer
Kind of a nod to, you know, one of their more prominent businesses. All right, this week I'm going to talk about Bigfoot. Last month there was a string of encounters that got the Bigfoot community very exciting.
Phil Taylor
Oh, wow.
Spencer
And happen in a place that you might not expect.
Steve
On this map.
Spencer
Northeast Ohio. In a five day span around Portage county, there were seven Bigfoot sightings with four of those happening on the same damn day. That was March 9th. Portage County. It's located on the eastern edge of Cleveland And Akan has 160,000 people. About 60% of them live in urban areas, 40% in rural areas. Randall is our token Ohioan. He's familiar with the area. He'll tell you more about it.
Phil Taylor
Yeah, I was.
Randall
He's taking the story over.
Phil Taylor
Well, I was just going to explain to you.
Corinne
I want to set you.
Phil Taylor
I want to set the stage for you. At first I was very excited when I sort of began to orient myself to Portage county because I thought I can mention Maurice Claret or Jim Trestle. I thought I could mention these are dudes from high school Youngstown. The boys of Youngstown. That's Youngstown, Ohio. If you just dig into the soil there, you'll find pure football excellence in Akron, the home of LeBron James.
Spencer
Then I realized all very important details,
Phil Taylor
they fall outside of Portage County.
Randall
You know what you're doing? He's doing that thing. There's a word for it. It's a rhetorical device. It's a rhetorical device where you say something by saying how you're not going to say it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Phil Taylor
I did find out that Portage county would go like.
Randall
Not to mention. And then you mention it. All right.
Phil Taylor
Clark Gable went to high school in Portage county briefly.
Corinne
Oh, wow.
Spencer
Okay.
Phil Taylor
And then also Marvin Chester Stone, as we all know, the inventor of the modern drinking straw.
Corinne
That's a real.
Spencer
This is good background.
Randall
The turtle, the sea turtle. Blood on that man's hand.
Phil Taylor
If you'll indulge me just for one moment.
Mark Kenyon
He's got. Scroll down in the. In the Wikipedia page. He's got open.
Phil Taylor
As I was digging into this to this place, I thought to myself, what other notable people are from Youngstown, Ohio, who could be there? Because the list of football excellence just goes on forever. So I ended up on a page called Dog sports, which is the University of Georgia football. So I found this. Thomas Bopp, an amateur astronomer noteworthy for discovering the Hale Bopp Comet.
Randall
No. No kidding.
Phil Taylor
Did you know where that's what.
Randall
Yeah. Cause some dudes killed themselves on that
Spencer
comet and they were wearing what, purple Nikes?
Randall
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Phil Taylor
And the time.
Randall
Good bunch.
Phil Taylor
Bop was employed as a constructions material. He was employed at a construction materials company. And actually made the discovery using a telescope he borrowed from someone else.
Spencer
Wow.
Steve
Wow.
Randall
That guy's got to be pissed.
Phil Taylor
Fascinating stuff.
Randall
Like the guy that owns it. Yeah. Think of how bummed he is. If he'd just been looking through his own telescope, he'd have named it.
Corinne
That'd be like me borrowing a rifle from Steve and shooting the world record mule rifle.
Phil Taylor
Yeah, so. So with that, I feel like I've pretty well grounded our audience.
Randall
I know because at first I was like, yeah, who cares? I don't know anything about that area. But now I'm really invested.
Phil Taylor
But again, Youngstown is outside of Portage County. It's just to the east.
Spencer
Good. Good table setting for the rest of this story.
Randall
So now I like. I get where we're at, man.
Phil Taylor
I won't even get into Mount Union football.
Spencer
Now these sightings are gathered by the bigfoot society. Who interviews every single witness. And then I read their accounts. And I'm going to tell you about some of my favorite ones from this string of seven sightings. From March 9, 8pm Route 303 west of Streetsboro near tinker's creek. This is, you know what these people were seeing.
Phil Taylor
Classic country.
Spencer
A mother and daughter driving westbound. When they spot a six and a half foot figure walking in the roadway. They cautiously drive around it, Getting as close as three feet away from the bigfoot. The squatch then ducks into the woods. And the motorists decide not to turn around to investigate. Out of fear of what they just saw.
Randall
I would have grabbed about a ball so hard, dude, I'd still be holding it. Man.
Corinne
I gotta ask.
Randall
Maybe we'll get there.
Corinne
Spencer, is there any visual evidence from.
Randall
No. This picture was taken after the bigfoot went away. I understand, but I'm not in there.
Spencer
I've got a Google street view of this.
Mark Kenyon
Just like Randall Spencer's trying to put us in a time and place right now.
Phil Taylor
Three feet would have been prime photo opportunity.
Spencer
Yeah, that thing would be like standing on the white line. And you know you're where that X is in your lane. He's real close. So they drive around it.
Randall
Chemtrails that day. I bet at first there's six chemtrails.
Spencer
Now they describe it as being lean.
Randall
I saw weed smoke.
Spencer
Yeah. They should drug test these people. That should be part of the interview. Witness statement. They described it as being lean with tightly grouped facial features. It was all brown with facial hair that was lighter color than the body hair. It had long legs and long arms. And they described it having a stilt like gait. So there you go. Now here's some commentary from the Bigfoot society regarding their interview with the witnesses. Here's the quote. The proximity of this sighting three feet and the corroboration between a mother and her 18 year old daughter make this an elite level report. The Description of a 6 and a half foot lean brown subject matches another sighting from the same evening suggesting this may be a juvenile or sub adult traveling the same corridor.
Randall
Here's where they always go. They always go where they like. Try to legitimize it with like you tackle.
Spencer
Yeah.
Corinne
How many miles does that the path
Spencer
cover did you like like from each sighting?
Corinne
Because you said it was on the same day right?
Spencer
Yeah. There were a number of them in the same day. This next one I'm going to talk about. This happened 20 miles in east of that sighting. Same day moving 3-9-noon. Car he's run at the headwaters trail near Garrettsville.
Randall
Oh is that him up on the right?
Spencer
I don't think it is.
Phil Taylor
A trash can.
Corinne
The trash can, that's him.
Spencer
Jacob Taylor and an anonymous secondary witness. So Jacob Taylor, he was willing to put his first and last name out there. Other witness? No, he says I'm going to be anonymous. They see an 8 to 10 foot tall figure on a trail. Yeah. They said it had extremely broad shoulders with arms extending well below human proportions. It also had a stilt light gate which is language we heard from the last sighting as well. It had a strong musky odor and made a deep.
Corinne
They were close enough to smell it.
Randall
Don't they think that it's a person with stilts? What does a stilt like gate mean?
Spencer
That's just. That's just how.
Randall
Have you ever like the tall man? It's like the tall man at a circus.
Spencer
They don't bend their knees.
Corinne
So this one was 8 to 10ft. This one must be an adult not a sub.
Spencer
This is a full blown.
Mark Kenyon
Yeah, we're talking about a family.
Spencer
Big Sasquatch. Now the encounter lasted about 15 seconds before the Bigfoot retreated into the brush. Here's my favorite detail of all these Ohio sightings. They said the ground literally shook when Sasquatch ran away. Oh my God size footsteps. That damn thing like a T. Rex. All right. The next day March 10, 4am at a home on the edge of Newton Falls, Ohio. This is about.
Randall
I've been getting the amazing photos like what are you talking about?
Spencer
Typing in Google street view.
Randall
Yeah but you, what are you. You're using. Are you using lat lawn or just Pulling up addresses.
Spencer
Well, so the. The bigfoot society, they drop a pin for where these sightings happen. And then I go to google street view and I found the closest street I could get.
Randall
But you're pulling addresses up?
Spencer
Yes.
Randall
Okay, this.
Spencer
This is, you know, within like, a few hundred yards.
Randall
I thought it got more sophisticated. Were you able to pull up lat lawns and not the address?
Corinne
That looks like a good turkey hunting spot there. Also.
Spencer
Also quite.
Randall
You just sat there this spring with a shotgun. You get the bird. Or a big 100% Bigfoot.
Spencer
Now, a homeowner lets out their german shepherd to go to the bathroom. The K9 gets to the edge of the property and turns extremely aggressive and starts lunging and barking. That's when our witness spots it. An 8 to 10 foot tall figure that has significant mass. That was their quote. The dog then runs back into the house and begins uncontrollably shaking. The bigfoot runs away and is heard crashing through the brush. Our anonymous witness says the sasquatch was, quote, non stealthy. Non stealthy for that one. Now, here's. Here's the least stealthy thing about these bigfoot sightings. In northeast ohio, Four of the seven sightings were in broad daylight. A fifth sighting was right after sunset. So it got me wondering, as you suggested, Steve, Is this the result of the bigfoot rut? Could it be?
Randall
You know what it might be? You remember a dude in. In montana, Got himself a bigfoot suit and jumped out in front of a car to scare the people in the car, but they hit him and killed them. There's like, a certain hazard to doing these shenanigans at night.
Spencer
Sure.
Randall
Like, it's just. You're more likely to draw gunfire and stuff, like, at night instead of broad daylight. Yeah. It's like you're just, like, less likely to get shot.
Spencer
Yeah. No, I think it could be the bigfoot. Ruth. Maybe there was a she squatch Coming into estrus that week. Or Was it the March 3rd full moon that got these bigfoots on their feet in daylight? As we talked about with deer biologists in the past, you know, there's. There's a lot of lore.
Phil Taylor
What were the dates?
Spencer
It was, like, March 5th to the 10th.
Phil Taylor
Oh, so Mercury was in retrograde.
Randall
Oh, yeah, right.
Spencer
Yeah, I forgot. I didn't consider that. Now, I used to do a series on our website called ask a squatcher, Where I interviewed bigfoot experts and ask them some really basic questions, like, is bigfoot dangerous? What's the best evidence that bigfoot exists? What does Bigfoot eat? One of the questions I asked was, why have Bigfoot sightings decreased? And in that article, I pointed out that Bigfoot encounters surged in the early 2000s, but they've gone way down since 2009, and I wanted to get their take on this. I interviewed folks like Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, Ronnie LeBlanc, Matt Moneymaker. You probably don't know those names, but that'd be like If I said LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and you probably don't know. It's just like that. Yeah. My favorite response, though, was from Jeremiah Byron, the founder of the Bigfoot Society. Here's his quote. The Bigfoot population is not dying out, so don't. If, in case you thought that was it, it's not. But there are less sightings because we as a culture are not going out in the woods anymore. It's as simple as that. Bigfoot is not going to show up in your Instagram DMs. You'll only see him while out exploring statewide forests or national parks. When's the last time we took time to do that? It's probably been a while since Bigfoot has seen a human either.
Randall
Oh, my God.
Phil Taylor
I like that, though.
Randall
Remember I said there's never anything other
Spencer
to say than I've added a lot to this story. Yeah.
Randall
Well, no, no, you didn't know. You did a great job. His point, though, because. Because the Bigfoot people are going to need to have a reckoning with trail cams.
Spencer
Sure.
Randall
But it was suggested to me that they're on. The Bigfoots are on a dimension that isn't cap. That isn't. Trail cams aren't able to capture the them.
Spencer
Yeah, well, Jeremiah says the drop in Bigfoot sightings, it's a negative. You know, it's actually a reflection of how Americans have a weaker relationship with the outdoors. And he's not totally wrong. Here's a graph showing the Bigfoot sightings by year. As you can see, it was pretty consistent trend. But then there was that spike in 2020, which, of course was when Covid hit. We all know how that impacted fishing license sales and campground reservations. So in 2020, Bigfoot had a. Had a little renaissance.
Phil Taylor
I like that he's using his esoteric interest to encourage people to spend time outside.
Randall
Yeah, Bigfoot.
Spencer
Now. I reached out to my cast.
Randall
Esoteric. You think it's esoteric?
Phil Taylor
I don't know. Esoteric.
Corinne
I always said esoteric.
Randall
Esoteric.
Phil Taylor
Oh, God, I don't know. The corrections are going to get me.
Spencer
I Reached out to my cast of Bigfoot experts to get their take on the Ohio sightings. Haven't heard back from them yet, but I'm hoping we learned that it was the rudder, the full moon or Mercury in retrograde. I'll give you guys an update in a future episode when we find out if it's now Bigfoot post rut in Northeast Ohio.
Randall
All right, ladies and gentlemen. No, it was great. I thought it was good. Listen, we. We had a. I'm not goofing on it because remember, we had a Bigfoot person on yes, dude again. But she wasn't, though. She was a reporter on Bigfoot, so it's not like I'm above it. I like the story.
Spencer
I was bringing some candy to the episode. You guys provided a lot of vegetables, and then here I come, you know, with a bucket full of dessert.
Randall
I liked it. I'm interested. A la mode. Oh, did you bring your foot?
Spencer
No, I haven't brought my foot.
Randall
Spencer has a Bigfoot's foot.
Spencer
Steve wants it in the new studio. Yeah, it's in my office.
Phil Taylor
You paid good money.
Randall
You could have just brought it downstairs for this.
Spencer
Well, it's just too close.
Corinne
It only cost him 40 bucks. You could get your own.
Steve
What do you mean, like a. I've
Spencer
got a cast of the most famous Bigfoot in the world.
Steve
Oh. Oh.
Spencer
Of the imprint Patterson Gimlin.
Randall
Were you telling me that you regretted buying it?
Spencer
No. Zero regret. I thought I would regret it and I never did. Hasn't hit me yet.
Phil Taylor
That's always a good feeling when you're conducting a transaction. I'm probably gonna regret this. It never hits you?
Spencer
No. It's been one of my best purchases I've never made. Yeah.
Randall
Do you think it was a cast off a cast, or do you think it actually touched the cast?
Spencer
There's a number of folks who own a cast, and so I don't think I got my cast off of the cast.
Randall
Yeah, yeah.
Spencer
It was like a, you know, third hand cast.
Randall
Yeah, it's like a. It's like quite removed. Like you're not going to find like a hair in your cast or something.
Corinne
Have you ever tried to, like, join a Bigfoot hunting party?
Spencer
No, no, No, I haven't.
Randall
You should.
Spencer
I'm into it all. I love it. But again, I've said this a thousand times. I don't believe in Bigfoot.
Randall
Oh. You know what? I found out recently that it startled me. This is the end of the show, ladies and gentlemen. But I found out recently that the writer, Peter Matheson. Okay. So was a Bigfoot enthusiast. So when he was working on the snow leopard in the Himalaya, he's working on the snow leopard he got interested in. Some of the people he was with were hip to yeti. The yeti. Yetis. And that sent him down like, a path. And he became something of a Bigfoot enthusiast and even toyed with the idea about doing a book.
Phil Taylor
Oh.
Randall
So here's this, like, highly esteemed member of, like, the American Literati prize winning author. Was sucked in.
Phil Taylor
We were robbed of that book.
Randall
Was sucked in.
Spencer
Yep. I'm with him. I, you know, a few of my favorite things. Mushrooms and rocks like that community. Rockhounds, mushroom hunters. They love Bigfoot. Like, that Venn diagram is just one circle of, you know, people who like Bigfoot rocks and mushrooms. So I just get a lot of exposure from that.
Randall
You're like in the crossfire.
Spencer
Can't avoid it.
Randall
Oh, quick last note before we're done. So we got. We were doing our Meat Eater Time Machine. Every month we're dropping teas and hoodies with historic themes right now. Coming up here, we got the Pittman Robertson act hoodie so you can show off your conservation history knowledge when you're running around in your genuine Pittman Robertson Act. Funding conservation since what year was that? 1937, says Pittman Robertson. Funding conservation since 1937. Part of the Meat Eater Time Machine series. We also got Custer's Last Stand coming up. Battle of the Greasy Grass. We did Clovis Buffalo Jumps, Custer's Last Stand, Fred Bear's Rules of Bow Hunting. All kinds of stops on American history, including this one. Am I supposed to say something more about this? No, no.
Phil Taylor
Head to the meteor store.
Randall
And. And while you're at your computer here, follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe please on the Meat Eater podcast YouTube channel. Thanks for joining.
Steve
This is an I heart podcast.
Randall
Guaranteed human.
The MeatEater Podcast – Ep. 862: Moose Hunting in North Dakota, Catfish Regs, and A Bigfoot Family
Date: April 14, 2026
Host: Steve Rinella & MeatEater Crew
In this episode, the MeatEater team delivers their signature blend of outdoor news, lively banter, and quirky stories, centered on hunting, fishing, conservation, and the unexpected—like Bigfoot! Main topics include a deep-dive into the Big Buck Hunter national championship, updates on conservation initiatives, regulatory changes for catfish in Pennsylvania, surprising moose numbers in North Dakota, and a string of fresh Bigfoot sightings in Ohio. The team’s humor and irreverence mix with genuine information, making for an engaging, educational listen.
[01:14–08:40]
[09:51–13:39]
[13:39–15:24]
[16:17–32:50]
[33:01–36:19]
[36:19–39:28]
[39:28–41:38]
[41:38–46:11]
[47:38–51:02]
[51:18–55:01]
[55:03–70:38]
[70:38–71:35]
On Big Buck Hunter:
On Conservation Efforts:
On Moose in North Dakota:
On Pennsylvania Catfish:
On Bigfoot:
This episode delivers humor, insight, and surprise—from competitive arcade hunting to Real-World moose stats, conservation wins, a Bigfoot “family” rampage, and the never-ending debate over wildlife policies. The cast’s chemistry and expertise shine throughout, offering something for both diehards and the newly curious listener.