Oklahoma Slam with Brandon Adams

of the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also be your host into the world of hunting the icon of North American wilderness to batter we'll talk about tactics, gear conservation. Will also bring you into some of the wildest country on the planet. Chasing the Battery. It's a beautiful spring day here in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, and we just got done recording this podcast that you're about to listen to with our friend brand Ending Atoms from Major

League bow Hunter. Brandon killed a bear over in Oklahoma this last year and first bear that he ever took. We spend about an hour talking with him about a special project that he's working on that you'll be able to watch and learn more about later this fall. But we're talking about this unique Oklahoma based hunting project. I'm not gonna give it away. But on this podcast, Brandon's a neat guy. He's been working full time in the outdoor industry for the last ten or twelve years, and

we had a fun conversation with Brandon Adams. You're gonna enjoy this podcast. I want to introduce something today that is gonna be new to everybody that's listening to our podcast. We have become Patreon members. We now have a Bear

Hunting Magazine Patreon account. For those of you who are not familiar with Patreon, Patreon is a way for people, if they so choose, out of the volition of their own heart, out of the out of the uh, the gratitude in their own heart for quality outdoor related content, you could become a Patreon and give money monthly to the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast and our YouTube channel. This is so basically the way this works, guys, is people produce this content and this is a way for people

to support them. Now, you can support Bear Hunting Magazine by by by becoming a subscriber to Bear Hunting Magazine to our print magazine. So that helps us, that helps you. You get something in return for that. But if that just isn't what you're interested in doing, then you could

become a Patreon of Bear Hunting Magazine. And the way that you would do that is you would go to our podcast page on the bear dash Hunting dot com website, and when you go to our podcast page, you'll see a link to Patreon, and on that link you'll see we have like three different tiers, and these different tiers get different things. So when you become Patreon, we're gonna be creating uh some exclusive content, not much. All our content is always going to be free from a digital platform.

We're not saying you have to be a Patreon member to listen to this podcast or watch our videos or anything, but we are gonna do some kind of like uh impromptu updates that we're gonna give to people that are that are supporting us on Patreon. There's also some packages of Patreon, so like you give a certain amount per month and you get our DVDs, you get access to uh to early viewings of a couple of videos that

we're gonna post on YouTube at different times. Um So, anyway, check it out and if you know, if you don't want to, don't check it out, but check it out and uh that's just the way that you can help us create more content because we we work hard at the magazine and that's that's primary the core of our business. But we're also producing this other content and uh, and we're just trying to continue to do it better. So hey, thanks for checking out the Bear Hunting Magazine Podcast. You're

gonna enjoy this episode with Brandon Adams. Welcome to the Bear Hunting Magazine Podcast. I believe the date is April third, third three, I like living in the future. April. We're at the Bear Hunting Magazine Global headquarters and we have a awesome guest in the office today, Mr Brandon Adams from Oklahoma. I also have uh, also have Colby moorehead of Bear Hunting Magazine here and so bear Tech Bear Huney Magazine, bear Tech is here. And I'll tell you

why Brandon is here. For Brandon, I'm gonna give a little introduction of you, of what I know of you, and then but I want you to I mean, this podcast is gonna be about talking about some stuff that Brandon is doing, some projects. Brandon's the new bear hunter, uh and broader than that. But so Brandon Adams, he is a he's been with Major League bow Hunter, which is a show on the Outdoor Channel channel Dang Sportsman's Channel, Sportsman's Channel for many years. So Brandon has been on

the show, a hunter, on the show, a videographer. He's also the he's the producer of the show. So that's that's kind of what you do. So and I met Brandon a couple of years ago through a friend of ours that introduced us because Brandon, he's from Oklahoma, but you're really not from the part of Oklahoma where the bears are, and so you we we got connected about Oklahoma black bear hunting and you were gonna be doing some hunting and uh so that's how we met, right, Yeah,

probably three years ago or something. Uh no, it was the beginning of it's been a little over a year, is that all we ended up? Like I've known you for three that's right. As much as also April that's really ap is not a hopefully because a is my wedding anniversary and this year is my tenth. Thank you. Yeah, you would know if it was. I would definitely on My wife would definitely let me know about it. Uh But yeah, we we met last year, Tim, so little over a year. But I text you so much and

ask you so many questions that it's felt like three years. Yes, yes, well that's that's what it is. Man. You've texted me three years worth of friendship. Now you know what. It's awesome. But anybody that's wanting to I mean you you asked good questions, so that's good. But okay, tell us Brandon give me. I think a lot of people I was interested when I met you a year ago, uh to learn how you got involved with Major League bow Hunter

and kind of how just kind of your story. So why why don't you tell us your story of how? Because you you make live in full time of the outdoor industry. That's just what you do. And uh so give us, give us the story of how you got hooked up with these guys. Oh boy, where do we want to start this story? Uh? Okay, I'll start the abbreviated version of my history. Um. I started filming Hunts whenever I was a kid. Wait, wait, this story is supposed to start. I was born in the small Show.

I was born in central Local. I was born in late eighties in California. Oh no, no, no, I I wanted it to be I was born in the small tar paper Shock and the foothills of Oklahoma. Nope, Nope, I was I was born on We'll we'll edit this and uh we'll have a cooler story later. No, but I was born in California, actually on a military base. Bounce around in the military, my army bratt, bounce around for a little bit, and ended up back in central Oklahoma,

which is where my family is from. But I've been infatuated. I was fortunately very fortunate to grow up on a farm and ranch. So, uh, that's fortunately a couple of ways. One, Uh, it is stealed upon me a work ethic because I've been working since I was nine years old, you know, talking about eighteen hour days as a you know, eleven twelve year old hall and hey, you know, doing hey

and doing the ranch stuff. And um, luckily to have that you know in my blood, and yeah, exactly, because it's super easy to stand out, uh in a world of office people that aren't used to working hard. You know, office work is super easy to me because I grew up doing you know, working on my back. Uh. Super lucky there, and also super fortunate to have all that land to go stomping around just some animals, hunting, fishing. If it was in season. In Oklahoma, I was hunting.

And it was lucky to have a a family that not only supported me, but encouraged me um to get out there as much as possible. And I grew up playing sports. So I was a super busy kid. I don't know how my parents did it, honestly, but I was always infatuated. I mean literally from a ten eleven year old kid, and I was in I took a VHS camera, you know, one of the big shoulder cameras that my mom and dad had up in the closet, and I would take it out and I would film

hunting stuff. I'll go outside and filming birds. I go outside trying to film deer out in the backyard. And uh, I remember hooking up VCRs in a line with you know, like the r C A Jackson. You used them in a line to take raw footage into and create you know, quote unquote edited VHS. Yeah, which I mean this was in the nineties, so there was definitely higher technology around, but that's what I used. But I actually, I'll tell you this. Uh not a lot of people know this,

but whenever I was ten years old. This is true. I had Yeah. Well people don't believe this, but I had a buddy who was also my age, who knew HTML code as a ten year old, and he taught me how to write HTML code. And as ten year olds we created websites, you know in the nineties. Uh Mine was called Okay White Tales for Oklahoma White Tales. He was a big turkey hunter and so his was called Turkey Hunting HQ. Well it was, it was not. We didn't own the domain. It was dot zero catch.

It may still be online, Honestly, I haven't logged on. I don't even know. So if you go to Okay White Tales dot zero, like the number zero catch dot com, see some of your old work. But here's the thing. I went under a pseudo name. So I went under Brandon Jones. Yep, that's that's a true story as a ten eleven year old, a ten year old. You we want to know. I know you own a magazine, but you want to know something funny about what I think

about outdoor writers. And this proves my story. Um, I'm not gonna say too much, but I read everything I could. I get a fatuate of things and and I was reading everything I could, you know, magazines, books, which at the time there was hardly any you know, hunting books. Uh, but I was everyone I could, and I was just regurgitating that. So I was able to put down on you know, pen and pad articles that I was just

regurgitating things that I had read previously. So they would be putting these on your website, They're on They're on my website. Yes, I'm sure I don't know what I truly don't know what's on there, but there is definitely tips on there from a ten or eleven year old Brandon Adams. Uh, now, how old are you that, Brandon, I'm trying I turned thirty Saturday. Actually, yeah, so I'm I'm on the right side of it. Would have been the late nineties. Yes, ninety I was trying to quit

in the internet. I mean, that's really about when the Internet really started coming to people. It was a little more mainstream, but totally not mainstream. That's why we went inner a pseudent name, because it was like, I mean, I was ten for one, and it was you know, everyone was afraid of losing their identity, and you know, it was just new. No one knew what it was uh, so, like I said, one in Brandon Jones and he went under his names. I don't know, I don't want to

say his name, but he went under his suder name too. Uh. But anyway, there there's regurgitated articles on that website if you can find it. But anyway, from there, it led to getting my hands on a newer you know, a newer camera as a high eight camera and um my button different. Buddy and I we started shoot competitive archeries, traveling the country doing that, and then that led to

us to filming each other's hunt in the fall. Uh. That led to Uh, there was a local TV show and out of Olcahoma City that was taking applications for a pro staff and this was in the early two thousand, mid two thousands, and Uh, I applied us without asking him. Actually it was a two. And this is really I did live by my age. I was. I've always been. This is true. I don't know. I'm not gonna lie lie about this, but I've always lied about my age.

I always feel uh discriminated against because of your because I've always been young. You know, even one day that'll change, I know, And I am really I mean I'm really looking forward to my thirties because you just turned thirty. I turned I haven't turned thirty. I turned thirty Saturday. Really, yeah, I've got a good I've got a good quote about Daniel Boone's life, about a man's thirties. I have to share with you, like I don't want to miste. The

thirties are like, thirties are a good decade. I'm coming out of my thirties. Well, I'll be forty in September. Well you did it. Yeah, yeah, I made it out my twenties. So well I haven't I've made a Saturday yet. Uh. Well, this is the this is the good version. I wasn't sure what version we're gonna get. Yeah, we got the HTML code, we got the website ahead. I always so. Yeah. So I was sixteen whenever I applied for for this pro staff. But I so, I told him I was seventeen.

Why I did that? I have no idea. Also, fun fact, when I met my wife, I was seventeen going into my senior year, which would have been the next year. Uh, I told her I was eight team because she's older than me. You know, I was going into my scene. What did you know how she found out. I was on the phone with her and then on my cell phone, and then the house phone rang and it was a I think it was a college recruiter, like for a sports or something. It could have been, I don't as

a recruiter some kind. And he was asking me a bunch of questions, and I put my wife or my girlfriend, you know, down like this, and I was talking to this recruiter. I was on the phone for them like ten minutes, and that's all kinds of questions about myself, including my birthday, and mind you, that was like one of the first questions. And then we talked for like five minutes, ten minutes, and then I hang up with him, and then I picked the phone. She said, when did

you say your birthday was? What year did you say you were born? And I was like, oh, and she yeah, So she's three years older. She's three years and two weeks older than me, which means for two weeks out of the year, including right now, she's four years older than me. So kind of just gave away my wife's age. But sorry, babe, I love you. Uh But anyway, the point was is I did lie about my age. There

we got accepted on the pro staff. Was again I've I've been very blessed and very fortunate throughout my life to have opportunities, but also been very fortunate to take advantage of opportunities. And our first year on uh pro staff for this local TV show, which at the time was just now getting into remember the Men's channel m O R. It turned into uh I believe it turned

into Sportsmans Channel. Yeah. Um, anyway, we were, we were that show was just going on the Men's channel, and my partner and I, my hunting partner and I we had a really good first year and that set up set us up really good for uh, you know, the upcoming season, and uh that next year we had another I had a really good year and we we split up, and then the owner of the show that was on asked me if I wanted to film him, you know, as a full time field producer, and I was like, oh, yep,

And so that next fall I I filmed him, which was so my first year actually getting a paycheck in the outdoor industry was two thousand and eight. So this is uh, what does that even eleventh season? Yeah, well, twelve season, Uh yeah, going into my twelve season nine, um or eleventh, No. Seven was the first year I filmed him. Anyway, the point is I've been filming professionally, quote unquote professionally since he was seven. I've been in the outdoor industry since oh five. So how how did

you get in with the major league? So the owner of that company, we were in cahoots with this other company called Buck Commander with Matt Duff and Chipper and you know, a bunch of rochy and lanky and Tombo Robertson.

Uh Willie we Uh was in goods with them. And the show that we were on and the show that they were on, they wanted to focus they are you know, there was a group of them that was, you know, die hard bow hunters, and they wanted to make a show that was just about bow hunting and was educational. And that was where Majorie bow Hunter was born. Uh. And so at the time I was producing the other show, and uh, they asked me if I could produce this

show too, Major Lee bow Hunter. And mind you, I only had a year or two of experience, but I was like, sure, why not? Who needs to sleep? You know? We could do that when I'm dead, when I'm forty. Uh. Yeah, that's what you've been researching. Yeah, but anyway, that was that was I've been around Majorie bow Hunter since the beginning, literally the very first they start, uh we started filming in we're back. We're actually filming for season ten right now. Yeah,

so I'm putting together the episodes for season nine. We filmed last you know fall, and then you're about to start filming season so we'll be filming uh not next week, with the week after that or some in the field stuff for some you know, putting together some properties and stuff that will be four season ten, which is really cool to be producing the show that long and be

a part of the show that long. And uh, since I started as a producer as a film producer and then a producer, and then that led to I kind of stepped down as film producing. I just did the producing part and I kind of i'd say over Sue, you know, I make sure that the film producers got what we what I needed to make a show. And then since then, I've taken over a lot of day

to day operations at Major Lee bow Hunter. You know, we're fortunate to have a good mark, you know, I Major Lee bow Hunter is real strong logo, and so I I had a lot of business stuff. I had a lot of you know, behind the scenes, not just on the TV's TV show side. So yeah, it's uh, I've been like I said, I've been very fortunate to have the opportunities. I've been very fortunate to take advantage of the ones I've got. Well, it's evidence extremely hard

worker even that you're here. Drove three hours today to to compare and meet with us, but also to work on this project that we're gonna talk about here in just a minute. And and that's really what it takes. You know, when I when I meet people that are professional videographers and you we when we talk about like

working in the outdoor industry to create content. I think sometimes people the general feeling sometimes of people that are professionals from people who are not professionals can sometimes be sort of negative, maybe not negative, but just like like, uh, just thinking that maybe people not understanding people's motivations and what I what I like to see and somebody like you is I mean, you're a passionate hunter. I mean that's that is your motivation for all the work that

you've done. And now granted the work side of it. I mean, like you're technically skilled and you learned a lot of these skills, but really the fuel for all that was the desire to work inside of an industry that you loved. And I mean just that that just being a being a hunter. I think sometimes people see people that are professionals, especially television and television guys have the have the bad rap, and I think it's because some people maybe are jealous. I don't know, but but

like I mean, I don't know. I just want to say that because sometimes I hear guys people talking about producing television shows and sometimes like the hunting side of it gets lost. But I don't see that getting lost inside of you. I mean, like you're you're, you're, you're, you love it, You're passionate about it. When I set out to I mean I truly did set out to be in this industry. I set out to make a living in the outdoor world. I don't know how I

was gonna do it. I'm gonna be a guide. I didn't know if I was gonna you know, I don't know what I was gonna do. I stood up at my senior year in high school. I stood up in like this leadership, uh you know, counts are meeting or whatever, in front of all the leaders of my hometown and told them that I wanted to be a professional hunter and they all laughed. Now I'm kind of a cut up and you know, make people laugh, you know. Anyway,

so they laughed, and I wasn't joking. And to say that that didn't have a little put a little grit in my belly, you know, to to make it, make me work. You can go harder? Uh would it? Would it be a lie? But like I said earlier, you know, not that long ago. I was fortunate to grow up on a farm to learn a good work ethic and that has led well into the century. And the negative uh connotation uh people have for celebrities, and that's a that's a terrible world. But for the it's actually probably

getting worse because of the world of social media. You know, people put influencer, public figure, whatever, I think they're more than they're not. Some people are in it for different motives than others. But I truly love, I truly love making a living and uh providing for my family. Yeah, not only you know, by the animals I bring in, but yeah, from the financial. But the other thing that I think people don't understand is that it took a

tremendous amount of sacrifice. Like they might see you now saying, oh, man, you're producing major league bo Hunter and get the hunt and do all this all the time, Like, man, there's no safeguard, Like I'm constantly kind of just watching people that I know. I mean, just my friends that have like normal jobs and have like consistent pay and have benefits and get paid time off, and when they leave work at five o'clock, they don't have to think about

it again until eight o'clock the next morning. Like there's a massive amount of sacrifice that goes into stuff, and it's not for everybody, nor could everybody do it. And I don't say that from a position of everybody. I mean it's just like I don't know, there's only so many spots carved out where somebody could make a living in an outdoor industry. Like I I've had people ask me, Clay, what would you suggest for someone that wants to make

a living in the outdoor industry? And I'm like, man, I don't have a ton of suggestions, kind of like drowning their dreams. I mean, like, I feel like what what I've done was almost scripted out for me. I mean, there was a lot of stuff that happened that I couldn't have controlled, if I could say, just like my buddy that is highly successful in the Walmart corporation, like a whole lot of stuff and happened for him that

that he couldn't have scripted, you know. And I'm not discounting hard work or intent because but honestly, I never had an intent to work in outdoor industry. And maybe that's why my perspective is a little bit different. But I never really like I always thought it was kind of a pipe dream, and maybe this is remnants of that. I was, like, man, I just gotta but but I found myself making decisions over time that constantly favored me

being in the woods, you know. Like I I've started my own business, and that not this business, but another one that allowed me to to hunt a lot that gave me a lot of freedom, that allowed me to not have a boss that could tell me when and when not to work, you know. So I kind of geared my life towards this, and for other reasons too, for my family, I wanted to raise my family and

be able to do what I wanted to do. But anyway, because a lot of people, I feel like that's a question a lot of people have, is like how do you get into that door industry? And I actually hate to even bring that question up on this podcast. Well you know I get that all the time as well. And the number one thing I tell people, if they truly want to do it, they gotta try. A lot of people don't try. I know, that's a that's a silly way. A lot of people will give up. A

lot of people don't try. A lot of people give up quickly. You know, I wanted this. I wanted to make a living in the outdoor industry. However I could. I mean, that's fortunate, It's not not the right word. Um. I was able to push through not making money for many years. I mean it's a lot of sacrifice and a lot of quarrels with you know, my beautiful wife. But you know, there was there was several years where

we weren't making nothing. I mean I'm talking, you know, making I don't want to get into specifics, but you know, making ten twelve thousand dollars a year because I was trying to make it. I was trying to do it. I did that for two or three years where we were and and she was a full time student, she had we had a young daughter, and I mean there was a price, there was a there was a but I worked my butt off and it's it's paid off.

I found a career. You know. Now, I've been told by numerous people, I'm on the wrong side of my career in this industry. But what do you mean, like that television is television it's getting too says very saturated. Television is specifically is well not even television, but just content, the content and everyone can create content, everyone can create. And there's a lot of people like great, great content that you can get for free online which we offer.

I know, I know it's horrendous, uh but you know, like the Bear Honey magazine YouTube channel to subscribe. But uh but the I guess sponsorship dollars. Like when I was first coming in the industry was the heyday. You know, there there was there was a small crop of really outlets that these companies could go to. Now now they can they can distribute that money little bits here and there and to get get a bigger and they have every right to. I mean, that's they're trying to reach

with me and people as possible. So you just gotta be you gotta be creative. And just like whenever you know, I was making you know, less than a thousand dollars a month, you gotta work your butt off, work through it, and figure figure out to make work. And like I said, we're very fortunate. I mean, uh at Major Bower to have a to have a good logo. Basically, you don't have a good mark. You don't have to know what really good people recognize for sure, Well you don't even

have to know what the show is about. If you walk into a story you're online, you see and you're a bow hunter, you see Major Lee bow Hunter, you identify with that mark. And and we we're lucky to have that because a lot of a lot of TV shows are trying to sell you know, their show as a brand, where really, our brand has a TV show. Yeah you know, so yeah, I'll see what you're saying. Well, that's a good introduction to kind of get you to

where where you're at right now. And so what we really want to talk about is we want to talk well we want to talk about the broader project, which I think I'll let you introduce, but we also want to talk about Oklahoma Black Bear because the project entails that. So why don't you give a give like a one minute version of the of the project and kind of the intent of it, and then we can dive in and and I would like to nerd out a little

bit on Oklahoma black Bear. I would love to hear it. Uh. So basically what we're doing here is this last fall, I was very fortunate too, uh attempt something that I've been me into attempt for a long time, and it's called the Oklahoma Grand Slam. In Oklahoma, we're very lucky to have five honorable population of five big game animals. Yeah. And and all over the counter tags and regulated seasons for nonresidents residents life uh, which is black bear, elk antelope,

white tail, and mule deer uh. And and honestly, most people, a lot of people don't even know about a lot of bet if you were to pull the listeners right now and you would have said, how many of those animals would you have known were in Oklahoma? I bet money most of them would have said one of those animals,

probably one. You're right, I mean really and low mule, deer, elk, black bear, and not just in the state honnible populations, because in Oklahoma too we have I mean, we have a honible population of odd Dad, which I didn't know until I started this adventure. We have big horn sheep up in the black up in the black Nasa, up

in the very tip of the deal. I had no idea we have big horn sheep that even we're the big horn sheep native to Oklahoma or did they think, I know, the odd Dad obviously would not be a north Yeah, that's definitely. Uh. I have no idea if the big horn sheep migrated naturally or they're in the very I'm sure they were introduced at some point like in like these animals were actually reintroduced there. I know that for sure. But my question, and you know, would

be would they be native to Oklahoma? No idea, I really don't. And we have, you know, obviously, mountain lion, especially up in the Panhandle, there's a pretty pretty healthy population amount. No season on mountain there is no season amount. It's it's kind of a weird deal in the regulations if you ever read it, because it's you have to have a hunting license to kill one, but there's no season on it, and you're not allowed to kill one that's it's threatening you. But if it's threatening you, why

do you have the hunting licenses to kill it? You see what I'm saying. That's kind of weird, right, got it. But there's definitely a pretty good population in the Panhandle, and of course you know there's sightings everywhere as Yeah, yeah, that's just the way it is. But anyway, Uh, that's that's what it's called. Then the project it called is called Slammed. It's gonna be a basically a ninety ninety minute film, So it's a full length feature film, be

a feature basically a feature film. Yeah, it's gonna air on the Sportsman's Channel. We haven't nailed down the exact air time, but it'll air sometime this year. Uh. And then once it airs there go online to digital platform and probably uh. And so it's a it's a ninety minute film about you last year harvesting all of those big game animals no Colomba. Wow, And I didn't know that. So you gonna get into the story of how it

came about. Okay, So I the this has only been possible for the last ten years because the bear season came. The first Oaklahoma bear season that I'm aware of regular hold season was in two thousand nine, and um, my first bear hunt ever was in two thousand fourteen and when and two thousand four and that was kind of when I really realized what we had in our state. We had five big em animals all over counter tags. Uh. So I wanted to attempt it then, but I didn't

have the resources, you know, to really do it. And what happened was I wasn't one of my really good friends weddings, our wedding, um this last or to that the fall to seventeen, and his father and I was now father in law, came up to me and asked me if I ever want to hunt elk in Oklahoma, that I have told me that I have a place

to hunt elk, and I'm like, let's go. And once I realized I had an elk property, I already had obviously white tail uh and very fortunate that make Bowler has a lease in the Panhandle that has muled deer. So now I only needed to I needed black bear, I need antelope. So I hit up Instagram because why wouldn't you hit up Instagram as a late twenties, uh young man millennial? I am, yeah, I think I'm squarely in the millennial millennial range there. Uh. But I end

up Instagram and very very very fortunate. Within within an hour, I had an antelope property. Yeah with what I had dozens of leads too, but I hadn't had the guy that I ended up hunting with Mr Zach Alvin. And then I end up hitting the lead on bear in southeastern Oklahoma. Had Jason Curtis here. He runs an operation down They're called off grad white tails, and he was super super grageous uh that he allowed me to come down. Um are super thankful that he allowed me to come down.

Uh and black bear on his property and wit tail to um. But after getting all five of those, my elk property actually fell through. And so now I've already told everyone I'm doing and I'm missing an elk and I have to, you know, obviously have an elk property because in Oklahoma it's over the counter tag for help.

But the only catch is you for over counter tag, you have to hunt on private ground, right, so you gotta have landowner permission, correct, So to have that you have to have you have to have a landowner give you permission. And so what I did is I called every person I knew down there, and that didn't work.

So then I opened up, uh, you know that the apps on my phone, which I used an app called hunt Stand, and was looking at, you know, uh the different landowners and you know, gives their phone number on there, and was dialing I mean dozens of phone numbers, and uh, none of the everyone said no, everyone's brother and everyone's cousin. Everyone hunted these out because you know, it's a very finite amount of land that has that resource seems could be a very coveted, very coveted tag it is. What's

a coveted Yeah, yeah it is. It's coveted to have a property that has them on it, the huntible population. Anyway, I can end up contacting Buddy Brett Cardon, who runs an outfit in southwestern Oklahoma, and I was kind of curious if he had elk himself because he's in that kind of the area, and he said he didn't, but

he knew of someone that might. And within an hour I end up having the property that I end up hunting on, which I say that the guy that gave me permission, he had a three He had three acres, and he said, more than welcome, come out. His name is Trevor Johnson. He's become a great friend by the way. He uh said, you're more than welcome hunt here. But only three and twenty acres legitimately thirty of it was even hauntable. The rest of it was as flat as

this floor. Uh. And then the other thirty went up the side of this mountain. And when I talking about a mountain, this is a Dagon mountain very north in the witch Tall Mountains. Well, what he did is he used me as an as a reason to contact his neighbor who doesn't allow hunting, and he used me, told him, told him what I was doing, and got me permission to hunt on his neighbor's day, which has almost two thousand acres of some of the prettiest and prime elk

cap that you've seen. Right. Let me, I don't I don't know that part of Oklahoma at all. I mean I've I don't even really think I've driven through there. But from the pictures that I've seen, the video you showed me some video this morning, it's like it's it's like, yeah, like super flat. I mean, it looks like the prairie. But then there's these pretty big mountains. I don't know, it looks like they're two thousand foot fot like in over thousand foot peaks where we were at Rocky Shrubby.

It almost looks like New Mexico or something. It's about how you describe it. Actually, I would describe it unlike anywhere I've ever been, just because because of the actual rock, not just composition, but the way the rocks are. It's the mountains, which not to be confused with the Washita Mountains, that's right, Yeah, it's the w U Yeah. And so like you said, it's it's super flat in the bottoms with mesquite trees and it just looks like you know,

sound looks like Texas. It's super flat. And then it just runs boom right into the witch Tall Mountains, which is just you got gravel, you know, rocks the size of gravel, all wet sides of houses and and and rocky super rocky, and so whenever you're walking across this if you're jumped from rock to rock. And while we were there, it was raining the entire time, so it was really dangerous. There's a lot of rattlesnakes. I mean,

it was. It was the roughest country ever been. If it was at altitude like some of the places that we hunt in Colorado and New Mexico places I've been in Montana, it would be it would be the worst. It would be the worst conditions I've ever been in. But it's luckily, you know, you're talking about you know, two thousand feet above sea level or whatever. You know, it's super low. There's there's no breathing issues. Right, So how far is that from where you live? So I'm

I'm lucky because I live in central Coloma. Yeah, about two and a half three hours from just about everywhere? Is that right? From the bear and from the elk, Yes, the get to the Panham the table of the Panhaus a long way, so that's about five little over five hours five uh. And then the place that we hunt we have another the least that we for the mule deer and the where I end up killing my white tail. Uh. It's also in the Panhandle, on the east end of

the Panhandle, and it's about four and a half hours away. Yeah, so uh, but yeah, luckily I'm in the central part of the state. So I'm only about two and a half from my bear, it's two and a half from the alp and you know, not too pretty incredible. Well, let me just take a minute to just say what a I think it's pretty incredible. I would not have even known and and been a neighbor to Oklahoma here

in Arkansas. I mean, we're we're twenty miles from the Oklahoma border right here where we're sitting, and I would not have known that Oklahoma had all those big games, just wouldn't have even known it. So because of and it's partially because of the Panhandle, if you think about it, So the east west, the length of Oklahoma is really wide. It'd be interesting to see. I bet it's one of the widest. This would be interesting. I bet it's one of the widest states when you count the Panhandle. I mean,

like obviously Texas would be wider. Yeah, you know, some someone would be. But but when you think about that, because the topography of North America changes from east to west, you go from the eastern deciduous forest into the Grand Prairie into the Rockies, you know, and so it's like the very eastern edge of Oklahoma is in the eastern deciduous forest. I mean that like, which is a massive

topographic vegetative feature of North America. And then you know, you get two hours from here and you're you're pretty much in the prairie, I mean, the bread basket of the planet. And then you keep going and you almost get into the desert like high Yeah, so it goes from high desert prairie to eastern deciduous forests. And there's I don't know of any other states that encompass all those things. One of the most diverse states Texas Texas, Texas,

Texas does, and I believe California. I think it's number three for the most diverse state. For that's a good statement ecosystems, like you're talking about what types of animals

that it could hold just just a terrain. So like the you're talking about the eastern half of the state is uh, you know, large pine, large oaks, this big woods, giant and it transitions from there to the cross timbers, which is where I grew up, where the where the big pines meets the plains, and then it meets the plains and then you know, it has all these sub ecosystems within the state that we're very fortunate to hold,

you know, large populations of different animals. Frankly, it's right on. Okay, So we've established this project and so people will be able to watch this this fall at some at at either on television or on YouTube at some point YouTube channel. Yeah, okay,

So let's talk about your bear hunting. So this bear that you took inen was your first bear that you've killed, and so what what we're I wanted to ask you, ask you some specific questions because you already said that We've talked quite a bit and we were talking about baiting bears and whatnot, Like, what were the what was the biggest challenge inside of being successful baiting bears in Oklahoma?

The biggest challenge was getting to the bait uh, running the base stations, I know, just the actual work of the actual work, the actual work of making sure that there was always food, you know, where I was wanting to be hunting. That was by far the because I you know, I'm fortunate to travel and to hunt across the country. In September is a busy month for me,

and you know, our season opens up October one. But my hunting season opens up the end of October or end of August, right, and so in between trips, I was scheduling, you know, you know, driving down to to run bait in southeast Oklahoma. And I was having my my dad um hunted bear with me, and I was having him run my bay station while I was going on trips. I was going on an elk hunt for twelve days in the middle of the middle of September.

And I mean our bait station was you know, running out in four or five days, so we had to make sure there's always bait there, you know what I mean. I didn't know this until uh, you know, it was fortunate to have you to text and to ask all

these questions too. But you know, you don't want to bait to run out, you want them to I mean I learned about oil from you, like I would have never thought, yeah, grease and you know, knol and because you said that the oil gets all over their pads and the spreads across the woods, and that brings in more bears. And uh, my bait station where I actually killed, we were very lucky to have I mean a lot of bears. I mean, I hate to say the exact number.

Some people that we hunt with say the exact number, you know, they give a number, but it was it was way more than one way. We had a really we had one really big four had a huge blaze on his uh, big chevron, you know, big black chevron on his chest. And then we had a big south that they were equal size, but she also had a huge chevron, and we thought, I thought it was saying bear for a long time until I got this. I

got them together and they were fighting each other. Uh. But then we had we had those two We had the two boards like that with the size that I killed, and we had a couple of boars that were actually really that size. Are a few boars, and then a bunch of like random you know, salsand cubs. I mean, we had a very active bait station. And he said one place that you were baiting over there. We had one place that we ended up keeping baiting. You tried

some other places that didn't work. Yeah, they didn't. They didn't they didn't like Yeah, they didn't take as well as that place. What do you think what was the problem with those bears? Weren't there wasn't secluded. Was there any factors in the successful bait that you could say these were the factors that made this one successful. Like in terms of location, Yeah, so where I killed. So

where we're hunting. I don't want to give away the name of the mountain, but we're hunting on a pretty tall mountain on our property, and uh we're on the north face of it. And I think being on the north face in October helped. I don't know if this has anything at all, but I think that that's definitely the cooler side of the ountain. I think that that helped. And we were right next to a spring fed creek. I mean literally, the back of my blind was up

against a creek that always had water in it. And uh so around that creek it's a big draine that goes up and down the mountains. So if animal wants to go up the mountain, which I when I say a mountain, it's you know, fet from the bottom of the top and there's a huge, you know, a gully that goes up so that if you're going to go up it, that's the easiest place to go up it. And uh so it's a natural corridor because of that, there's water there on the north side of the mountain.

I think it was cool. I think then bears want to stay cool that time of year, So I think that had a lot to do with it. One of the other stations that we had, I mean it kind of got bad luck. It was more in the open. I put it kind of in the open for the video aspect of it, but like just a curse of bad luck. Um. Two days before uh the first open the opener. Uh, we were were hundred yards off of a big oil or well site. You know, they moved

in an oil rig to clear out the whole. Okay, you know, so there's forty people on trucks and and so that that kind of killed that spot because there we did have a good bear coming in there. Uh So maybe that spot would be good in the future, yes, but yes, and there the chance of them coming in now. They were literally just going in there to clean it up for some reason. So they're gonna coming there for

years now. Uh So, yeah, that would be a good spot and that but that spot is also right next to the creek, so I think the water has lots of water had a lot to do with you. Also, on the north side of a mountain, the most of the time that that time of year there would be a southerly or southwesterly prevailing wind, So that wind would have been blowing from the south, blowing your scent up onto that mountain. Correct. No, we were on the north face, so it had been coming over the mountain. Let me

think about what you're saying. Okay, okay, you're right, I'm back I'm backwards. And I was concerned because it is a it's a pretty steep mountain. I was concerned that the prevailing wind is out of the south. Like you said that we don't get last squirrels. And with all that, I know how greatly the vegetation will affect, you know, wind currents. I was really afraid that our wind current would be swirling a lot in there, and I honestly believe it was swirling a lot, but we got really

lucky on the opener. It didn't affect us. So, but that could be why I like to be on the north because the wind is swirling, they can smell everything. Yeah, I don't know. Well, it seems to me that in those mountains the wind swirls no matter where you're at. That that well, that's what the vegetation. Yeah, it really does. Those little kind of smaller mountains like that with a lot of drainages and different things just swirls like crazy everywhere.

So you killed, so you you started baiting these bears. You were running running the baits, which is a ton of work, and people that haven't hunted over bait, you know, sometimes don't understand the amount of work gathering bait and all these different things. You know. But one thing that we said earlier is that there's there's no other big game hunt that you interact with and animal as closely as a baited black bear hunt. Because it's like a

white tail deer. If you're hunting a white tail deer a target buck that you see and kill, you're probably gonna see him for like thirty seconds before you kill him, and it's probably the first time you've seen him. Uh, you may have had this experience. But like over the years of baiting bears, I mean, you'll you'll see bears often, Like when you're baiting, you'll learn there like actually see them.

When you go into bait. There'll be a bear up in the woods or he'll try to come in on your You'll and so you see this animal, but you know you can't hunt him because it's not season. You're watching trail cameras and you realize that that animal is patterning you, you know, I mean, like you see that he was there two minutes before you got there, and then he was there thirty minutes after you left, and it's like you kind of start playing this like cat

and mouse game with this animal. Nothing else is like that, and so it it it forms kind of a unique hunt in my mind because you're you're just I mean, you're you're you're feeding this animal and um. And it's it's the way that I the reason I like hunting

over bait in this part of the world. You know, every every hunt that I do, I try to find a kind of what I want to be the limiting factor, like where I want the challenge to be and to me hunting in this part of the world, I like, I like targeting really big, old mature males, um um. And so by baiting you can do that. But it's also extremely difficult to kill a big giant bear over bait. A lot of people don't understand that. I mean, they just think, well, there's just a big dumb bear that

just walks in. But like the bear I killed an Okloma this year, We've been hunting for five years and I've never laid eyes on him on property that we have hunted extensively. Super I mean, it's bear. He knew us better than we knew him. Very difficult to hunting him for five years. Yeah, getting pictures of him trying to take him and I've never seen him, you know, And so anyway, I guess I'm trying to paint the picture that it's a challenge. It's uh. It's also a

great conservation method for managing bears. In Oklahoma. The bear population is uh upwards of two to three thousand bears and there and their harvest in every year between forty and eighty bears per year. And the only way that they can do that is through bait. Because a lot you get a lot of guys that don't understand bait hunting. They're like, well, why do you have to hunt over bait? Why can't you hunt them like real men. Well, come to Oklahoma and try to kill a bear just spotting stock,

and let's see how that goes. I mean, you can do it, but it's tough, and so bye bye hunting him over bait. It's really a conservation tool to manage black bears, but it's also a lot of fun. It's a ton of fun to get to see that many bears to to create a honey hoole, you know what I mean. You you have all these bears coming in and it's just fun to It's fun to be in a situation like that because it's you don't you don't see that too often you get to see bears interacting

different stuff. But tell me about killing your bear, Like, what was it? Like? Was it? I know it happened quick. You killed him on the first morning. Well, one of the cool things we talked about, you know, having the work. I mean I've actually made it, you know, running the bait station. But one of the cool things about this hunt is I planned on there being a bear on the station when I was getting into blind because actually you told me, specifically told me not to go in

there open the morning. You told me not to. Yeah, I disobeyed you. So you made it work though, Yeah, but you you you amended for the thing that I was telling you not to do, which is going in spookle bear right, Yeah, and one of you so you amended for that what I did, what I am doing. So I put up a mere step like a pop up blind originally, and they kept, you know, breaking that. They broke it, and they kept dragging off. Every time I put it up, they dragged it and they were

just they played with it. So what I end up doing is I built a wooden blind and I put it where my mayor step blind was where they I mean, they could tear it up. I guess they wanted to, but I would blind. So what I did was is I situated a trail and something really thick cover and cleared out the ground where it was on dirt and rocks, all the leaves and country stuff right for about a hundred and fifty yards, so you could just slip right

into the backside of this blind. Yes, and so in the dark, in the in the pitch black with no light. I don't know if bear are affected by a flashlights or not, but we didn't use one whenever we when when it came down to crunch time, we didn't use one. Um so we actually slipped the blind. It was wet, opened the open the back of the blind, which I made to be quiet, slipped in. We put carpet on the floor to be quiet, and uh shut the door quietly, looked out the window. There was a you know, a

black bear at twenty yards. It was pitch black. Now, don't get me wrong, it was it was pitch black. We can make out a blob moving in the in the darkness, and then I got my glasses on him, and you know, could tell that it was black bear. Yeah, and it was one of So, like I told you, we had different animals coming into the station, and I knew that it was one of the not the two

big ones, but it was one of the other. To me, it was a big bear, right, and so what I it was one of It was an adult, right, it was an adult. And this one will happened to be a color phase one that was there. And it laid there, and it lay there for over an hour in front of We were waiting for the obviously to get legal light and for the camera to get light. So once the legal light came, we wanted to get a little more light for for the camera and to shoot because frankly,

it's dark in that blind Uh. And he for whatever reason, actually not whatever reason I know it was. Now he looked up and just scdaddled and you know, they just disappeared like that, and as quietly as He's hard to explain how quiet these big animals moved through, you know, to the timber he disappeared. I was kicking myself for not because I mean, he was in front of me for obviously hours, but he was it was legal for fifteen or twenty minutes. I could have shot him. Uh,

I was like, Dad, gun I should. I was trying to milk it basically, which I'd never do. And he walked off with feeling walking off and less than two or three minutes later, from the opposite direction, the same size bear slipped in and that was the bear that end up shooting. And uh, he messed around there at the at the at the station for a little bit

and I drew back him and I shot him. Unfortunately, he went down thirty yards and you know, right in front of the right in front of the blind so uh, it was it was pretty surreal, I mean really, and then my dad came in. Yeah, we happened real quick, and he died basically at the bait station. Uh. And so we we drove the quad up there somehow, loading him up onto the quad and got out there quickly. And my dad actually came in there that night. He actually that morning and sat there all night and kill

one or all day and kill one that evening. You know what, what did you estimate your bear away? You think I think he was. They did not weigh him. I think that he was probably in the high two hundreds, mid two hundreds, Frank, I mean that's what I think. People that was with they said, and actually the biology said he was over three hundred. But I thought he was in the high two And I'm only guessing off of like picking him up and handling a boar. It

was a boar. Yes, he had a little bit blaze on his on his little white patches chess, which thought was cool. I mean, the the one that out the target bear he had a you know, from shoulder to shoulder and real thick and it was just beautiful. Uh. But yep, the one I got was super proud of. Um. I haven't ate it yet. I have to text you for some uh, for some recipes. Well, you can pretty much use it for anything. Anything you're using beef. It's good. Yeah,

you need to you need to eat it. It's good stuff. I'm definitely gonna eat. It's in my freezer. I just haven't pull it out yet and cooked it. Yeah yeah, yeah, well you have to try it. That could be something I do on my third birthday. That's a good idea. Barbecue bear smoked bear smoke it. Yeah, what kind of smoke, Uh, hickory smoke. Thick hickory smoke. That's I really like smoking bear,

like brisket, like barbecue, barbecue, sauce all over it. Smoked the roast, yeah, like smoke a ham like uh, and just make smoke bear good. I seasoned it and do everything just like I was smoking a brisket or yeah, just treated treated just like beef for pork. I mean, just kind of like a fatty portion of b for pork. And uh, you know, trim off most of the fat. You're some people say you gotta trim my fall the fat. I'm not necessarily had too much problem with with fat.

But you'll be surprised how good it will taste. Is it important to cook it slowly because I know that, Well, you need to cook it thoroughly for sure. I mean you because of what's the what's the chicken ella is what that's what they can have. But what's uh I was I was gonna say, cooking slowly to render, you know, like that, because they're very there's a lot of I don't know if it's called tendons or whatever, there's live

send you in there. Yeah, it can be tough if you don't if you don't if you don't get it tender just by cooking it for a long time for sure. Yeah. Well, um, I like what you did and that you cleared out a path and got in there before daylight. And I just want to say that that's a good strategy if your goal is just to kill a bear. But let me paint a different picture for you. Let's say you had a five pound bear that was the only bear that you were interested in taking, you know, on a bait.

That's when I wouldn't do that because it was a little bit risky. Right. Well, because you know how risky it was. Is the my number one bear, which he wasn't a five pound bear, but he was probably mid three hundreds or high three hundreds, really good bears. He was on there in about twenty minutes before I got there, Okay, you know what I mean. So I was that close to spooking him well, And and you think about when you watch a lot of these bears and how they

interact with bait. They're just when they leave and art in front of your camera. It doesn't mean that they just disappear from the planet. They might be out in the woods fifty yards bedded down, and so you like walking in and you know you could have you could have bumped him or something. But again, good job you made it work. But that's the reason I always tell people, especially if you're targeting like a ultra, I mean, just an animal that you really want to kill and don't

want to mess up. I like just hunting afternoons, because I promise you if you spooked a bear, a big bear like that off of bait, most of the time he's not gonna come back. I mean for a long time, or at least during the daylight. Let me let me say that. In Oklahoma and Arkansas, I can't speak for that, and in Canada you can do whatever you want. In some other places bears are just not as a tune to being bumped. But these big bears are. They just

know how to do. So that's why I'm like ultra careful because I'd rather come in there in the early the late afternoon, gets set up and then kill him right it dark when he's coming back in from being bedded. So do you run in so you whenever you run stations, do you run in there with the quiet or some type of trucker. Yeah, I don't have any problem just with with driving actually to the bait site and making

a little bit of noise and leaving. Said, I mean, I don't try try to make noise, but um, what I say is just whatever pattern that you established for baiting bears, don't break it. So like if you like, there's a lot of guys that are challenged by the time frames that they have to work inside of baiting bears, and so they might come in after work one day, it might come in before work the next day to bait bear. So you know, they might be there at

seven o'clock in the morning. There might be there at dark. And I think that's the worst thing that you can do, because you're trying to create this safe space for this big old bear that's ultra smart to decide that it's okay to be here during daylight. And so if he if you're extremely predictable, he will be more predictable because because after you leave it, you know, I pretty much have a window from like ten thirty to two that

I will bait my best places. I might have some fringe places that I'm testing out that I might roll in there at six o'clock and throw it. But I mean, it's like I'm just not that concerned about it. You know, there's a two and pound bear on the bay. But like when I was trying to kill Batman last year, and it's like, you gotta do a ton of stuff right to make it work. And so I would I would rather let the bait go dry than go in there at six o'clock in the afternoon a week before

season and put out bait. That's my philosophy. And so anyway, just the more predictable that you can be, the more predictable they'll be because they feel safe. That's basically the essence of it. But well, that's I will definitely take that to heart. I will follow that more. Next year, I will be after a little I mean, next year, I'm gona hunt again, and I'm gonna be after a little,

bigger bear. And so maybe it'll be like I said, it depends on what you're trying to do, right, I was trying to kill a bear with black for you know, that was what I was good. You got it done well. The main thing that I I take from a conservation perspective of of kind of what we're talking about. We talked about your slam with killing these five big game animals and in Oklahoma, is that I was thinking about

this from a macro perspective. Man, those animals are there, and the habitat for those animals is there because of hunters for real, like hunters of the ones that are hundreds of the ones that reintroduced bear essentially back into Oklahoma hunters. I know elk. I'm pretty sure the elk were reintroduced their native over there, but they were reintroduced at some point because they were extra payd out of Oklahoma. It you know, it wasn't the anti hunting organizations that

put those elk there. It was guys that had ultimately the first love that they have was for wildlife. But the second thing is is they wanted to hunt elk. I mean, so Brandon always, you know, everything that we're doing is especially being bear hunters. You know, bear hunters are the low hanging fruit for the anti hunting community, and we see it firsthand here at Bear Hunting Magazine. A lot of people, even hunters, don't understand why we

hunt bear. They're like, you know, they ask us if we eat it, They ask us why we want to hunt a bear? And uh So I always always bring it back to these kind of conservation principles, of of of why we well of of why we even have bear. And in in Oklahoma we have bear because of hunters. That's essentially what I'm saying. We have elk in Oklahoma because of hunters, I mean, and we're the ones that are historically I've been protecting habitat and putting money into

habitat and wildlife conservation. And so really it's a testament to the North American mile of wild wildlife conservation that Oklahoma has five big game species like it does, which is incredible. And so really what I see when I see you doing what you're doing, it's really a celebration of of a celebration of a celebration of conservation working, you know. And and at the same time, it's just really cool to be able to do that, to do with the bust. So there's all these like hunting feats

that is really cool about it. But also there's a bigger picture to me that's really cool that a lot of people wouldn't have known about. And um so yeah, well Colby, you hadn't said a word. I know. I'm like, haven't you haven't. We haven't given you a place to step in. You know. I really like podcasting. The live version is just as good as when I listened to my truck. Yeah yeah, except every now and then you hear your voice like popping in on the when you're

in the truck. Yeah, I'm saying stuff like yeah, yeah, well any uh any closing, let me go to Kobe and then we'll end with you closing thoughts called it what observations comments thoughts? Man? I think uh, I think the quote that keeps coming in my mind is the dream is free and the hustle is sold separately. Yeah that's right. Yeah, No, the the whole thing is really cool. I mean, especially to do it with the bow, you know,

I have to get that close. And uh yeah, I'm always surprised that guys can get an antelope with the bow, Like it always just blows my mind because they have such a good sight, and they're so fast, and I don't know, I was surprised too. Yeah, i'd assume them any five yards. You said that was the hardest hunt out of the Out of the five in Oklahoma, the antelope was the hardest one to get on the ground. Yeah, because for a couple of reasons. One, like you said,

the eyesight. But in Oklahoma, there's a bunch of control hunts starting in the beginning of September. They go they're all rifle hunts. There's a limited amount of area that you can't even hunt antelope in Oklahoma. You know, there's a county and a half and uh so they've been hunted for a month. I showed up at the end of the archery season. The archer seasons from October the one fourteenth. I showed up. My first day was the

tenth day. I had five days the tenth to four and uh and and so so I had at the very tail end of over a month of hunting. So these animals are spooky. They've been hunted. They've been spooked from here to there across the county. And plus there's I was numbers. I think I was number sixty two or sixty something that was checked into that check station, which that means there was more because there's another check section down the road. So let's just say there was eighty.

There was eighty less antelope to kill. Um presumably the dumb ones exactly, it's the smart ones, right, and to boot when I get there. The day I'm pulling in, uh uh, it's three degrees and the snowing and so. And it had been raining the entire because traditionally when people think of a bow hunt for antelope, they think of sitting over water because that is by far the most productive. Yeah and so, and it's post rut too,

So I had a decoy, but they weren't responsive. You know, it's middle October now, and it's everything's wet, so there's nowhere to go. So it's just it's it's a crap shoot. And I got fortunate. I've used that word a lot, but you know, I was fortunate. I was very lucky to to have a buck that was bettered in a certain spot. Recordst You were just lucky, Brandon, Yeah, that's all. It was just purey brother, I'll take it. I had

a very lucky season. I did. No, I don't. I don't like it when people use that word because you know, inside of a hunt, like Hoby said, the dream, it's the quote that I used. All the dream is free, the hustle is sold separately. So I mean you did a ton of work on this. You know. I think inside of an individual hunt, like a guy could be fortunate, could be lucky, like favorable circumstances. But you gotta hustle

to find a favorable circumstance. And that's what successful hunters do as they hustle and work and work and work and work until they get lucky. Yeah, that's very true. It's the truth. You mean, you're just you're searching for that moment of a good fortune when the winds in your favor, the animal stalkrble, you make a good shot, and everything comes together. So you know, and you know that and most people that are hunters that are listening

to this podcast would know that too. There. Luck is probably not the best way to describe it, but it does play a part in it. Well, if you if you don't think that you're lucky, then you're a liar. Uh, every every opportunity, no matter if you have a deer and animal bear anything, if you have a pattered down to a t like, you know, it's gonna walk by this tree at three forty five every single day, and

it's done it for ten days in a row. Guess why if you're gonna sitt there the leventh thing, it has to do it the eleven times in a row. You have to get lucky for that anim want to do it, you know, no matter no matter how smart and how good you think you are, you have to be lucky. And every one of the kills that I had this year, Yeah, I put a lot of work and there was a lot of mental preparation that went

into this whole endeavor um. But to have the animals in front of me and for me to capitalize on them, that's luck. And yes, there was a lot of a lot of work, you know, but you gotta to get there. There's a lot of luck to Yeah, well that's awesome. Well, you know, we really didn't get into the nitty gritty of like every animal. We'll leave that for the show. We'll leave that for people later this fall to be able to see the details of every of every hunt

and uh. Closing thoughts, you're at the man, You're at the global headquarters, this is like the This is like the bear hunting mecca of the world. I believe it. Looking around the room, I can tell that that's exactly what it is. There is dead bear and bear paraphernalia and white tell paraphernalia all around me. I love it. I I greatly appreciate you helping me out on this, On this project, You're gonna provide a tremendous amount of insight. When we did a couple of interviews, right, Yeah, we

didn't really explain that. Yeah, So what you did is you did some interviews to provide some insight for the history of the black bear and you know, just overall information on on black bear and black bear in Oklahoma. Uh something that I can't provide because I don't know any of it. Uh. So I come to people like you, experts like you, and um lucky to have you know, like bar Running mag and you know, a bunch of

other organizations helped me out. For the other end. We're gonna do a podcast sometime really soon with a bear biologist in Oklahoma and a lady that's done more bear research in Oklahoma than anybody else. So that's coming. That would be a total total nerd outilogical session. Yeah, I'll be listening. That would be it'll be really good. Yeah. So anyway, I greatly appreciate your help and uh, you you definitely knocked out of the park with your interview.

So uh, I'm just grateful to have the opportunities I had, and um, we did. We haven't mentioned this, but you know, I was fortunate to be the first one to ever We didn't even say that. Yeah, I'm the only one, not only so I didn't know this going into it. We'll close with this. I didn't know that going into I didn't know that I was going to be the first one to ever tag all five of those animals in Oklahoma. And yes, there may have been someone that's done it before, probably not in the same not in

the same season with the bow though. Well no, well I can't imagine. I thought if I thought, if I could pull that off, I might be the first one to ever do that. But it turns out I'm the only one to ever tag all five and then period. Yeah, no one's ever done with any weapon. Uh. And then to to get it all in one year with the bow, Um, it's gonna be hard to top that season. Yeah, well until the sequel. Ain't gonna be a sequel for that, not in Oklahoma. So trad yeah, the game trad bow

next time, Oh my gosh struggles. Well, hey, so you can. You can check out Brandon Adams on Instagram be Underscore, Underscore b A Underscore atoms, or check us out on Major League Owner at Major League Bow, go follow us on YouTube, you know, all the whole one yours watching someone sports to channel Starry get Q three, which is in July. Yeah, and then check out Sland it'll be this fall, probably in August sometime. Uh, we don't have

that boy, good time. Check that out. Definitely it'll be online, you know probably yeah, right out, Thanks Brandon, Well keep the wilds Wild Bears.