Smell us Now, lady, Welcome to Meet Eater Trivia mea podcast.
Welcome to Meet Eater Radio Live. It's eleven am Mountain Time on Thursday, January sixteenth, and we're live for met Eater HQ and Bozeman, Montana. I'm your host, Spencer new Arth, joined today by Seth Morrison Corey Halkins. On today's show, we'll interview Joel Collander from Rock Island Auction about some super rare guns that are for sale. Then we'll get a migration report from Matt McCormick, followed by one minute fishing with Chester in Wisconsin. After that, we're rank the
three coolest places we've ever camped. And finally we'll talk to Phil Muskett about one of the most coveted public lands jobs in America. But before we do anything, Corey, I need to issue an apology to you. Do you know why? No, there's not a chance you know why.
Corey and I were el Conning in October and it was a big full moon that night, and I was talking about how I am very entertained by doctors and school teachers and nurses who say that like the hospital is the worse place to work on a full moon. Kids are to deal with on a full moon. And I said, all these studies have shown that that's not true, but I'm glad that they think that that's true. But there's multiple studies they are like, that is not the case.
Which Corey said that he sleeps worse on a full moon, and I said, Corey, you fool, there is no chance that's the case. Earlier this week, I was having a tough time falling asleep, looked out the window, full moon, and so I'm like, it was Corey, right, So I googled it. There were like six to ten studies saying that that is the case. People a harder time falling asleep on a full moon and they wake up sooner
on a full moon. They conducted these studies in South America, in the United States, in rural areas, in urban areas, in laboratories where you didn't even know like what the moon was doing that night, and it's like pretty consistently agreed upon by science that you sleep worse on a full moon. So Cory, I'm.
Sorry, that's all right.
I hate to say I told you so, but I mean that was just my own life, you know, things I noticed in my life. I mean, there's like, what three nights in a row where it's.
Almost full happened this week? Did you notice that you sleeped? Slept any worse?
You know, my house has been in shambles. We had a little water leak, so we got fans and dehumidifiers going nuts. So actually I slept great. But yeah, typically full moon, like my kid doesn't sleep well. My dog's up roaming around, needs to go outside and howl at the moon or something. So yeah, it's typically a rough night to sleep, especially out camping. You know, it's a little bright.
See if you ever noticed that full moons they messed with you.
Then, just the fact that it's light out, especially like right now when there's snow cover, I just like so, I like, yeah, I like darkness when I sleep. So but I can't say that I've noticed a difference because of the full moon failure.
Are your boys rowdier on a full moon? You think?
I don't know, I've never noticed any sort of pattern like that.
I know a lot of a few days astology people would would beg to differ a few days ago.
Were they a real pain in your butt?
You know, actually, for the first time, they they they weren't a pain in my butt for a while. So maybe it's like my kids are just the opposite, which you know, Yeah, I don't know.
So Corey, going back to our Elk Camp conversation in October, I'm sorry, that's all right, thank you for the apology.
I yes, I wonder why that's the case. Must be gravity.
One of the studies I saw said it's actually more rare in children than it affects their sleep, and so it's something that's been baked into us by the time we're adults. That just messes with you.
Wild Wild world.
All right, we're gonna go to our first interview. Joining us on the line now is Joel Callander from Rock Island Auction and he's here to show us some legendary guns that are coming up for sale. Joel, Welcome to the show.
Yeah, pleasure to be here. Thanks for having us on.
First thing, Joel tell us about what Rock Island Auction is.
The short way to put it is Rock Island Auction House is the number one auction house in the world for final historic firearms. A lot of people associate us with six and seven figure firearms. Those are what we're most known for. But I love con on shows like this and saying but there's guns for everybody. I mean, you just want to something to go out to the field, you need a pre sixty four Winchester Model seventy.
You know we're gonna have that.
We're really catering to collectors at all levels, not just collectors, but people use these things too.
You mentioned six, six and seven figure guns. What's the most expensive firearm you've ever sold?
That would be a pair of firearms that was in May twenty two, a pair of Remington New Models Russian Revolvers, mint condition and graved by one of the finest engravers of the century, L. D. Nimshki, and they were presented to Ulysses S. Grant Uh That pre sold for five point one eight dollars.
Oh my god. Five Is that what you expected those guns to yield?
No, we had a I believe a pre auction estimate between between one and three, so we had a seven figure estimate on it.
We knew those were special and above and beyond.
Once you start adding those historic figures, a lot of times there's you know, there's no precedent for that.
There's no precedent on you.
Know what what should are ulysses as grant revolver self for So when it comes to auction time, it's sometimes you get some fireworks.
Yeah, it's it's worth what somebody will pay for it. How many guns a year do you guys move.
Anymore?
So we're changing a lot of auction formats, trying to do a lot of new things on with online platforms. UH currently just about just about underd fifty thousand guns annually.
Okay, fifty thousand guns moving through Rock Island auction. Now I see that you're wearing some gloves today. I assume that that's so you can delicately handle some of the firearms that you're about to show us. And you've got some guns that are coming up for auction in February, what do you have to share with us?
Sure?
Well, these are in our February twenty first through twenty third Sporting Collector Firearms Auction of the full catalogs on our website, so people can do that. You don't need to be present, although we certainly encourage people to come. If you're in that Dallas Fort Worth area, come see the new facility that's in Bedford.
We can talk about that later.
But one of the ones, when you ask about the most expensive guns, one that was on our list for a long time was a Cult Walker. You know, it's the very very first revolver with the Cult name actually on it. And we have one of those coming up in February. So it's a model eighteen forty seven. That's when Colt would have started using the Walkers absolute just as you maybe you can tell just a unit, just a unit of a revolver. I mean, the cylinder is
multiple inches in diameter. They saw hard use. To see them in any condition is absolutely phenomenal. They're only one thousand made for a military contract, one hundred made for the commercial, for the commercial market, and they really, you know, our President Kevin Hogan likes to say, you know, they really gave Samuel Colt the keys to the men.
They opened up doors for him.
It was just the start of military contracts as well as getting, you know, introducing people on a more powerful scale to the to the repeater or to a repeating pistol.
For our audience members who are listening to this show, i'd suggest you go over to YouTube and watch this one because Joel is handling these guns on the camera here, we're going to get to see all these expensive guns. What was the original price of that gun when it sold?
Well, the thousand that were sold to the US government, they sold for twenty five dollars a piece and an extra three dollars per revolver for accessories in acouterments.
Wow, okay, And what do you guys expect it to sell for next month?
The Colt Walkers do set the top of the market. We've sold examples commercially and otherwise we're right around one point eight million. Those are fine condition, all original, but there's still examples out there, and like I mentioned, a range of conditions. I believe we have the estimate of
this one twenty five to fifty thousand. It's a really good way for someone who, you know, if you don't want to spend the moon on a Colt Walker, things like this provide a really easy way to do it, to get an original, authentic you know, Texas Ranger History cult walker and their collection.
That is a beast of a gun. I see somebody in the comments of the live chat saying that they would be the unlucky person who would put a dent in one of these things. Out of the fifty thousand guns that you guys sell a year, I imagine some accident has happened along the way right where somebody has fumbled a gun, and uh, you guys had a little accident there.
Have it happened here too much? But again, a lot of the guns that come to us, you know, we have our premiere auctions, which are kind of the world class. Just the best guns in the world are gonna be at our premiere auctions. Those you don't see too many on with the Sporting collector auctions or some of our other arms and accessories auctions. You know, there's a lot of really good history in those that aren't in pristine condition.
You know, they've been used, they've been there, they've done that, they've seen combat or they've seen the firing.
Range, so you know, some of them have some marks on it already.
And some people prefer that they'd like a gun that's been there and done that instead of a safe queen or one that missed all the battles. You know, they want they want something that a Texas Ranger might have had in their holsters.
So it's like I said, we we cater at all.
Levels, all right, Joel what else do you have to show us today?
Well, this next one's gonna be two hands. One of our most popular videos of all time is me and another gentleman here firing some rifles by J. D.
Jones. JD.
Jones invented like the Whisper line of cartridges, which of course gave rise to three hundred blackout, Famous handgun Hunter, Famous Wildcatter also did some rifle cartridges and rifle rounds, and this is one of them.
This guy's chambered in seven hundred JD.
Jesus wall Oh, doesn't break like that's ambitious.
Giant fluted cylinder makes these things out of phoenix and just no ATF or it's ATF exempt, so you don't need.
An ATF letter on a gun like this.
The host cartridges actually made from a fifty b mg brass that's been necked out to accept that seven hundred caliber cartridge.
How much is that thing weighed, Joel?
Too much? Now, I mean this has got to be like thirty five pounds.
Joel can hold that for the whole interview, because that that is quite the workout, and he can't even fit the whole thing in the frame of his screen. This is another beast of a firearm.
Yeah, you're gonna want to wait, frankly with a with a round like that. I did some napkin math and it's about twenty eight thousand foot pounds of force. Wow, like a thirty got six is generating twenty nine hundred foot pounds of force.
And what what was this gun used for back in the day when when people are tilting these things around?
Nobody nobody was that's the good use, like it has sling swivels on it, But I don't know for what nobody's going to want to carry this. You can see it is in this heavy bench ress stock. So it's really just testing the boundaries of cartridge, which is what Jad Jones is doing with the wildcatting and the and the handgun hunting. He's testing the boundaries for things like that. So target shooting, it's also made for watching your friends.
Shoot it, not you a whole bunch of times. That's probably more entertaining as well.
Uh huh. The kind of guy who would haul that around in their back, I think that's exclusive to someone like Dug Duran. What what was the original price on that gun?
That?
I don't know the original price, but it's pretty modern. So these the seven hundred JDJ that's just developed as recently as nineteen ninety five. So I don't have the original price on Our estimate for that weekend for the February auction will.
Be fourteen thousand to twenty two five.
These big bords are becoming more desirable all the time, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it float a little higher than that.
Okay, and that thing you could shoot it if you bought that, right that that's one that you take out to the range.
Absolutely, it comes with a bunch of solids, so it comes with copper solids and soft points as well as the dies. And you you would laugh if you saw the reloading dies for this. They're just they're just comically large.
Yeah, all right, and what's what's the last gun you have to show us today?
Last gun? Kind of a classic got ourselves as sharpsck. I'll flip it around. You can see the good side. Oh that's beautiful Sharpeen seventy four. And if you love you know nineteenth century a mare hunting or even Civil war history, boy of Sharps is the way to go, I mean, pre Civil War history, Civil War, and in the eighteen seventies like this one.
You know, you're come into those American bison hunts and all the hunting that was going on there. The sharps were extremely popular for that.
They come in a variety of calibers and sizes and lengths, and they were going to configure them just about any way you wanted it. So they're popular for that reason, and you can great for collectors. So if you want to collect a variety of them, you can sure find them.
And so when that gun was on the market in the eighteen seventies, do you know what the selling price was.
A base model gun?
So again, short barrel, short octagon barrel and no kind of extra features, right around thirty five bucks.
And what do you think it's going to sell for next month?
Let me check, yesterdait on that guy. We had at seventy five to ninety.
Five hundred, okay, thirty five dollars.
In the future.
Not fancy stock, but we do have a half octagon half round barrel, not as many of those produced that the full round barrels or the rarest the least produced out of the model eighteen seventy four, But like I said, great model. It's you know, kind of got its fame with the Quickly Down Under movies. So that was in eighteen seventy four. And in this same chambering as well. When the forty five to one to.
Ten thirty five dollars gives me a little sticker shock for eighteen seventy four, I'd assume that thing would be half of that price. Yeah, Joel, if some listener is interested in one of these guns, how do they make a bid?
Rock Island auction dot Com best way to do it.
You can set it up where you just sat in a sealed bit, you tell us what your max is. You can also request just right on the website to get a phone call. You can bid live via phone in the auctions. Just click a button and one of our folks will call you, maybe five lots before the auction or before that lot comes up, and says, hey, you know, this is Joel with Rock Island Auction Company.
What the let's talk about this gun a little bit and what your plans are for it? So any number of ways a bit. I like to joke it just about We'll take bit anyway except for smoke signal.
Okay, it's it is pretty painless. Rock Island Auction is actually where we bought our punt gun, and I've heard rumors in the office that it may get fired next month. Oh so if you're in the Gallatin Valley and you hear a big old boom, someday you'll know what was going on. Joel. I. I had saw on an email recently that there was a gun you were supposed to tell Phil about. That was once upon a time in your auction house.
Phill we uh we set a Guinness Book World record for the most expensive movie prop firearm ever sold, and that was for a for the Han Solo DL forty four blaster.
Oh nice. Over a couple of years, you beat me to the d L forty four.
I was gonna come in with that with that that that name. But no, yeah, that sounds that sounds great. Where where was I for this? How could I have gotten a notification?
Question?
We told a few people about it, but it went for just over a million dollars.
And you know what, I take it back, I take it all back. You could have had that easy.
A million dollars.
Wow, biddings free. It's just the winning gets a little.
That's a great point.
Yeah, all right, Joel. Uh, well, we're definitely gonna check if you check in with you later this year to see what other cool guns you guys have at the auction house. Already looking forward to that next interview. Thanks for joining us.
Hey, pleasure be here. Thanks very much, Thanks Joel.
All right, our next segment is the Migration Report.
When you can sun food and the tam sasso, then you suffer, alright, Chrishan is the West.
The Migration Report is where Matt McCormick gives it a waterfowl hunting forecast for each flyway. Take it away, Matt.
Hey guys, I'm Matt McCormick was flying V and welcome to the meat Eater Migration Report for January sixteenth, twenty twenty five. It's been a little while since we've done one of these, and for good reason. We've been hunting hard. And as you can see here in the Pacific Flyway of Montana, which is where I am right now, we are all the way snowed in, iced up, and the birds are pushing. We ended our season on January tenth, and let me tell you it was a banger of
an ending. And those birds on the front ende of this storm pushed all the way down into Utah down to the Sack Valley. Everybody in the Pacific Flyway had a hell of a season this year, So kudos to everybody that was able to get out and do some hunting in the Pacific Flyway. In the Central Flyway, some
seasons are starting to close, same with Mississippi. But as we're pushing south, and if you've been paying attention, there are birds pouring out to the north down to the south on the front and back end of this recent storm. I see you guys got some snow down there. Talk to some guys. You guys are getting massive pushes of birds as we dive into these last few weeks of the season. So if you're looking to get out and do some hunting, find a state that's open. Hit the
road with your buddies. If you're in one of those states that's still open, good luck, have fun with these last few weeks, because in about a month or so, all of you, including myself, are gonna be wishing that season was still open. We're gonna hit the road tomorrow, go find some birds somewhere else because we just can't handle it.
And hey, it's hunting season.
Boys, it's still here, So get in the truck, go find birds and keep hunting.
Good luck and be safe. Now.
I believe that is the last migration report we'll have for the year. But for more waterfalling content from Matt and Flying v be sure to go watch the show on the Media YouTube channel. A new episode just dropped today, Corey Seth. You boys take advantage of the final stretch of the Montana season here.
No, I did actually got out like for the first time this year in the last week or so.
How'd that go?
It was good, got a couple birds, not many. Weren't taking it too serious, uh huh, but just something to do on the weekend.
What was the hunt like? You were just like waiting down some stream.
Just local public stuff around here.
Yeah, fancy, he's saving those ducks in for a special occasion. What are you going to do with them?
We ate some of them already, Oh yeah, okay, yeah, we usually don't let them things sit around too long. My wife loves them. So if we have ducks, were eating.
Them pretty fatty too, I'm sure.
Yeah, yeah, they're delicious.
All right, let's take a break for some listener feedback, Phil, what's the chat?
I have to say, Yeah, well, I see that doctor Randall and Steve and Ronella are both in the chat currently. Hey, gentlemen, if you have a question for the crew, feel free to drop it in right now. Mitchell has a question for Spencer. I mean, you can be as specific or non specific as you like. But he says, this is his first year hunting in South Dakota as a resident. What West River zone do you think I should try putting in.
For Well, if this is your first year, then I assume that means you have zero points and you are going to be quite limited, Mitchell, to draw like a pretty quality unit in western South Dakota as a resident, you probably need three or four points. What I would say is probably just avoid Gregory County. If this is your first time going West River, you're probably going to
be drawn to that zone. When you look at a public landmap and see your draw odds that unit has an incredibly low retention rate because people get fooled by the reasons I just said, and then they go there and they're super disappointed and they never go back again. And you may think at that point, oh, that it's
what it's like to hunt western South Dakota. It's it's I would say, just plan on drawing some preference points, make a quality trip in like twenty twenty seven, and for this first year in twenty twenty five, just don't do Gregory County.
Sounds good.
I'm actually curious about this because I don't know how. I don't think any of you guys are much of waterfowl people as far as I know. But Eric's asking, with duck season coming to a close and after that migration report, does any of the gang have a good waterfowl story from this season.
I hunted zero waterfowl.
That's what I saw. Corey.
I'm too big of a skier to waterfowl hunt. When I get old al waterfowl hunt, that's all I always say.
I the best. Well. I photographed a waterfowl hunt this year with Max Barta, and it was phenomenal. That dude is just a ducky dude, uh huh. And yeah, he did a bunch of scouting and found this spot the spring pond. The ducks were flying flying two between there and like a grain elevator that had some spilt grain laying around. And yeah, Max knocked on some doors and it was just a phenomenal, Like, you know, a thousand ducks over your head in the morning.
Wow.
And you didn't have a gun in your hand.
You had a Candra, I had a camera. Yeah.
But they're amazing shots though.
Oh they're great as always.
Yeah, let's see Jova and figure Roa.
I don't know.
Thoughts about passing off venison as something else when cooking people like the joke that you can't tell the difference between beef and venison. He says he's against it, but his wife is not. Have you ever done this before?
I wouldn't like openly misdirect someone and say it's beef, But if I feel like someone would be hesitant to eat it, I maybe wouldn't volunteer. Yeah, it's venison. I don't know. There's plenty of good ways to make venison where it doesn't matter what kind of red meat it is, specifically with like a ground meat recipe, you can get away with damn near or anything, and it doesn't matter that it came off of a white tail rather than a cow.
Yeah. I love having people over for dinner that like are wishy washy about eating wild game and then just like not telling them what it is, yeah, and then then like them eating it and being like, oh, this is delicious, and then I tell them yeah. Yeah.
It blows my mind how folks would rather eat a Walmart cow steak versus a wild deer.
Yeah, and there's a lot of them there are.
I feel like the people who are against it, or more so, they had a bad experience when they were a kid and like their dad cooked their venison steaks to a well done of course, no one's gonna like that. If that's all the exposure you had for a while, just show them how dang good venison could be without lying to them.
I'm not sure why this is directed at you, Seth, but I'm curious, Seth. Can you eat the velvet from deer antlers? Have you guys ever done that before?
I don't know why that stretched towards me either, never even thought about.
Deer eat it. I feel like there's some photos like when they're shedding their velvet, Dey'll eat it. There was also famously Ray Lewis, the linebacker Hall of Fame or from the Baltimore Ravens. He got busted with I think it was a banned substance at the time. If it wasn't a bad banned substance, they were going to make it band. But it was a deer antler spray, which I don't know how that was applied if it's oral or if you'd like you have an inflame knee, so
you spray it there. But interesting deer eat their own velvet. Yeah, so I think I think you could do it too.
Didn't your wife kill a cactus buck covered in velvet?
Yeah? She did.
I wonder if that's what they're referring to.
But you did, Maybe, No, we didn't. It's it's still on the antlers.
They always say you can't eat the antlers, but maybe.
Did you When you got that mounted? Did they strip it off and reapply it or did they freeze drive? I think they not freeze drive, but like flash freeze.
Yeah. I I think they stripped it and reapplied it, huh, which I don't know how that works.
But I also killed a velvet book. That one they just like did a flash freeze on it, and it's held real good. It doesn't smell at all. There was one there was a couple of spots where it was starting to peel a little bit, and I noticed that will peel like an extra eighth of an inch every two years. Oh really without it ever being handled. So I imagine, you know, when I'm old and gray, that thing is going to be peeling a little more. But right now it's it's holding real well.
I one time in Pennsylvania was shed hunting and found shed antler that was still in full velvet. It was peeling off in places and it was cold outside. So I just like picked up was like, oh, this is cool, and then I brought it in the house. Yeah, not think like because I couldn't smell it. It was just like frozen live flesh. Yeah, And it brought it in the house and once it fell it out, it was just the most miserable smelling thing.
Yeah.
Yeah, I imagine you handled the same way when Kelsey killed her cactus buck. But when I killed my cactus buck, through the whole head in the freezer until I could get it to the taxi permis.
Yeah, we took it like right away.
Yeah.
So Steve says that question was directed at you, Seth, because it looks like he needs some help. I don't know what that means.
Uh, thanks is in the.
Chat today as well as Randall Williams. And I know Randall was saying something before our show today that the Sharp's rifle plays a heavy role in their upcoming UH mountain Man history project. Maybe Randall can tell you more in the chat about that.
Oh sure, yeah, I'll do one more here, Doctor Randall Williams is asking about the stream athon. Great question, Randal. For those of you who didn't hear Phil Trivia, I proposed a twenty four hour stream of red Dead Redemption too to raise money for the Meat Eater Land Access
an initiative. Unfortunately, the person in charge of content is on paternity leave right now, and I'm very disappointed he didn't drop everything he was doing, including his baby, to come tell me what the best idea that that was. But I'm still fighting for it. I'm gonna I'm gonna pitch it officially at the next round of pitches that come through.
So I've got faith. I have faith. Thank you for that question, Randall.
All right.
Our next segment is one Minute Fishing. Do I feel lucky?
We'll do you bunk, go ahead.
Make my cast.
One minute Fishing is where we go live to someone who's fishing and they have one minute to catch a fish, and if they're successful, we'll make a five hundred dollars donation to a conservation group. This week, our angler is Chester Floyd, who's on a frozen lake in Wisconsin and he's fishing for a donation to Muskie's Ink. Chester, Welcome to the show.
Hello, it's windy as all heck out here.
It looks cold too, and I'm cold. Chester is the first person in the history of one Minute Fishing to join us on the hard wall. Tell us about what you're after today, Chester.
Well, we're really after some bluegill, but they're not biting, so we switched to baby little perch.
Okay, that's what I got here.
And how long have you been on the ice today?
About an hour?
And how many fish have you caught? Uh?
Thirty?
Oh okay, so there's a chance. I thought the answer was going to be three.
How many beers have you drank?
Chest, none? It's a workday.
Oh, you're in Wisconsin and you're fishing.
And Chester is a stake.
Ike famous from the eighteen inch wheel song Chester Stole Your Bike and the Sturgeon Spearing episode with Giannis's right.
Yeah, he's a cookie guy.
Yeah, and uh, Chester has the camera very tight on his face. You almost can't even see both of his ears. I think he's trying to hide his location. So nobody goes out there and catches his baby little perch that he's at.
When do you guys want to do this?
Chester's getting real cold. I imagine his fingers are getting frostben. First thing, Chester, tell us about what you're doing to try to catch one of these perch. What tactics we use in looks.
Like it involves a live scope. Oh no, that's a camera.
Yeah, that's just down it two D sonar. Uh, we don't really need it. Literally, we're just in weeds. And uh, there's a little perch everywhere, so I hope they're there right now.
And what were you dropping down there? A little waxy worm or what waxworm?
And a little tongusten jig yep.
Okay, Chester, hand that phone over to Ike and your one minute of fishing starts as soon as that waxy wor hits the water. Okay, okay, he's he's picking up his rod. Oh, he's showing the camera that that is bait for a little itty bitty fish. And uh, we're ready We're ready, go for it, all right, the worm is in the water. Your sixty seconds starts. Now.
I'm on the edge of my seat already.
We've only had a few successful anglers in the history of one minute fishing. Pat Durkin, Oh seconds, and he pulled off a perch that I would say if I described it as four inches long, that would be generous. Show us that fish. Chester, Yes, wow, that was thirteen seconds. My gosh, thirteen seconds. Chester caught a little perch to make a donation to muskies Ink. Well done, Chester, Thank you, guys.
I appreciate it.
Are you gonna eat that thing?
He's allergic?
Oh it's back back. That works kind of catching.
Okay.
Oh he's running. Oh he's running another what are you running to? Chester?
Where bluegill?
Sorry on the Okay, he's gonna show us the hot bluegill bite the whole show.
Like, apologies to whatever I'm coming up.
Oh yeah, this is like the size you know.
Uh huh perfect, you're keeping those I'm cold. Okay, all right, we will see you later.
Chester.
Thank you for joining us congrants on getting that five hundred dollars donation for Muski's inch.
Nice job, good work.
See you guys.
Man, it looked like it could have been twenty or dirty below zero with the wind chill.
Uh yeah, Chester makes it look colder, and I trust that it was very cold out there.
Sound cold.
Incredible stuff. Wow, there you go.
I think our third successful angler for one minute fishing. We had Pat Dirkin, we had Yannie in Louisiana, and now Chester Floyd joins the hall of fame.
All right.
Our next segment is Top threes three.
I'm sorry this one is so.
Long's the other way, Phil, you should apologize for the ones that are short.
Okay, Yeah, it's a real treat.
That's not the right thing. All right.
This week we are ranking the three coolest places we've ever camped. Corey, you go first, what's the third coolest place you've ever camped?
The third coolest place I've ever camped would have to be in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. I used to guide back in the Bob. We'd run fishing pack trips. There were six day pack trips. We joked that we were professional campers back there because we were helping other folks get back there obviously and get out successfully without getting hurt.
That was our biggest goal in and out. I did the math over eight years of running those trips, I did three hundred and forty to three hundred and sixty days back in the wilderness, camping and sleeping on the ground under a tart if it was threatening rain. But yeah, that's a picture of me when I was a cook back there, an old chef. I would have been twenty years old probably in that photo years.
It looked to be about thirteen in that photo.
Couldn't even enjoy a beer yet.
In that photo there's a pile of baby back ribs and some looks like baked beans, beans bushes, baked beans of course.
Nice.
Yeah, there's a photo of me with the river in the background. I'm probably shmegan dishes in the river, Megan.
Have never heard that TERMO, Yeah, just giving it a quick shmeg, okay.
Want just to get the food off?
Do you do you shmeg your dishes at home? That exclusively when you're outside?
No, I shmeg before they go on the dishwasher. Helps your dishwasher outgs.
I mean I think I do, but I don't say it that I.
Don't have a dishwasher.
So Seth is a washer.
Yeah, you got a shmeg. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, by far top three.
Third coolest place was right here in Montana then, yep. Yeah. And if seeing those cool guns that Joel was showing us earlier wasn't enough to get you to come over to YouTube and watch, we're going to be showing you pictures of the coolest places that we've ever camped as well and maybe in some cases video. All right, seth, what's the third coolest place that you've ever camped?
So my third coolest place is along the Missouri River, also in Montana. This was the view basically right outside my tent, but there's you can kind of see there in the background there's an old homestead. I don't know the history of it, but would love to know, but it this was like one of the most peaceful. It was like in the spring, everything's green. It was like one of the most peaceful camp spots I've ever slept. That yeah, looks like it. And it wasn't like a
designated camp spots, just like off a two track. Turkeys were gobbling, coyotes are running around just outside of camp there. It was just a cool spot to be in after like a long hard winter in Montana and It's cool to just lay there at night just thinking about like Lewis and Clark came, like saw that country, the exact country that I was sleeping in.
And so much of the Missouri River today looks very different how it looked one hundred years ago or two hundred years ago. But that part of the river that looks like it did when Lewis and Clark came floating.
Yeah, so how are the skiers at night? They were not great?
Yeah, really Yeah, pretty green in that photo.
Yeah, lots of stage all right.
The third coolest place I've ever camped is Death Valley in California. It was March of twenty twenty three. That's the hottest place in North America. It's the biggest national park in the lower forty eight. Went there on a weekday, so it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves, Me and my wife. That picture you're seeing there, that's the sailing stones, and that's at the racetrack. Ply those are rocks that move on their own. No human is
helping them create that giant skid mark behind it. It's all about ice and water and wind that pushes these things around. This dried lake bed and you can see I'm in shorts and a T shirt there. It was blazing hot at that time, but you got like the full effect of being in the desert because by that night it was freezing cold and there were no moon. There's no moon that night. The stars were super bright.
And a good barometer when you're camping and when you're stargazing is if you can see the Seven Sisters, if it's a good stargazing that night, if it's a good stargazing night, And the Seven Sisters that night were so vivid. I'd never seen anything like it. It felt like every other time I'd seen the Seven Sisters in my life that was wrong. And in Death Valley that night that that was the correct way to view the Seven Sisters. And there was no moon out, which which makes for
better stargazing. So Phil's got some more photos there. Yeah, that was that was you know, only a few hours after, I was in the shorts and a T shirt at the racetrack plaia On. We were camping in the national park, which you can't do a lot of in places in
national parks where you're dispersed camping. Dispersed camping would be what we were just talking about where you're not in a designated camping spot Death Valley, because it's so big and remote, they allow you to do some some disperse camping. And that's what we did do. Younique thing about that trip to we were on a road trip. We were on a seven day road trip, me and my wife, and the next day we were going to Phoenix.
From there.
We were camping in Death Valley. The night before the clocks changed for daylight Savings, but we didn't have cell signal for like twenty four hours, so the clocks changed that night. We come out of the park. We're heading to Arizona. We're going to Phoenix, who does not recognize daylight savings. Oh yeah. They're also crossing a time zone going into Arizona. So my brain was totally in a pretzel trying to figure out what time I was going
to get to Phoenix. I didn't know if it was going to be five PM or ten pm, just because again daylight savings happened, didn't have cell service, crossing a time zone, going into a state that doesn't even do daylight savings. It felt like a mess. Yeah, but we get.
There for sure, all right.
The second coolest place you've ever camped, Corey.
Second coolest place I've ever camped would have to be on Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia. In twenty thirteen, my wife and I booked a reservation. Cumberland Island is part of the National Seashore National Park System, so only three hundred people are allowed on the island a day and x amount of people I forget how many are to camp.
Is that a gator or a croc in your photo?
I think it's a gator and a wild horse wild horse in the background, but as a kid from Montana used to seeing the horses obviously, but seeing the gaters and the teeny tiny little ticks on there. The Spanish moss covering all.
The trees was really cool.
There's a lot of amazing American history on that island. I don't need to bore everybody with that.
How'd you get to the island?
You have to take a ferry yep from Saint Mary's, Georgia.
And hauling your own camping gear there yep.
So we just had everything in our backpacks. Water, like drinking water is tricky, so you want to carry around some water. There's a couple spicots of fresh water. But obviously you're along the ocean, so you gotta be careful what you drink. So yeah, I highly recommend it.
I'm gonna steal Seth's question. How are the mosquitoes.
Mosquitos non existent? Yeah, we were there in April, late April, I think. But the ticks, I mean, I'm used to the bigger ticks we have here in Montana. Teeny tiny little ticks like if you left your zipper rope and on your tent long enough, they just crawl right in there. And otherwise it was amazing, Seth.
Second, coolest place you've ever camped my.
Number two, also in Montana. It's wasn't so much the place, it was just kind of what we saw that night. One of the nights while we were out there, came this is a deer camp in November. Wow in Montana. But actually Chester and his brother Ike were here at
this the moment this photo was shot. But we were kind of just sitting around the campfire at night and someone like, I don't know, he got up to take a leak or something, and because you can't really see the sky too well, like around the campfire, you know, with Someone got up and was like, hey, I think I can see the Northern lights, and we all like jumped up and went away from the fire and you could just it was just like a beautiful northern lights show.
That night out on the plains in eastern Montana is just like one of my favorite places.
And it looks like you were successful. I see some see some Ana.
Yeah, yeah, we we. I think almost everyone filled their tag on that trip.
Yeah, beautiful photo Seth is showing us you can see the northern lights and every star in the sky.
Is that the Seven Sisters I can see above to the right of the.
Oh, you know what I think it is. If you don't know what the Seven Sisters is, go take a look online about the Seven Sisters. And one you've you've certainly seen it before, but maybe you didn't know what you were looking at. But but again, that's a good way to judge just how good the stargazing is. Is how good you can see the Seven Sisters? And I think Seth was just showing it off in his photo there.
Wow, all right.
The second coolest place I've ever camped was the Valley of the Gods in Utah, And this was just this last September. That day, I visited Monument Valley in Arizona. And where I'm sitting there on this highway is where Forrest Gump famously stopped running. That was where he had He had his whole posse behind him, and he stood right where I'm sitting and he said, I'm I'm pretty tired now, And so that's where he delivered that line. And that is the Monument Valley behind me, which is
in Arizona. But the place that I had camped was in the value of the Gods, and that's part of the Bears Eers National Monument that you hear a lot of talk about when it goes from one presidency did the next based on what they do to that bit of public lands where we camped. You need four wheel drive to get there and a high clearance vehicle and that keeps out, you know, a whole lot of folks. And value of the Gods was so cool. I would rank it over the Grand Canyon as far as just
like pretty places that I've seen. So getting to camp there and be among all that was real special. And again that is that's more dispersed camping. You don't need a reservation somewhere you just pull off on a road. And opposite of when I camped in Death Valley. It was a full moon that night and it just really lit up the value of the gods, and so you could see every butte in every mesa long after the sun went down. I took that photo and it'll probably
around midnight. Wow. Yeah, you can see everything that's happening miles off in the distance. Cool, all right, Corey. The coolest place you've ever camped, The.
Coolest place I've ever camped. It had to have been in Iceland underneath the auf fet Ya Yokiyo volcano.
Oh wow, it was erupting. Sounded like you said that correctly.
I hope I didn't, butcher do do it again? A fet yeah Yokio.
Wow wow.
But I mean when you camp under it, you better better know the damn name of it.
Is it erupting all the time.
I don't believe it's always erupting. In twenty ten, if anybody remembers it, it erupted from March to June, I believe, off and on, and it disrupted the entire globe, like flights from Europe through Asia and I think almost all the way into the US were disrupted from the ash cloud that came from it.
Wow.
But I circumnavigated the island it's called the Ring Road Highway one for four weeks spent on the road, hitchhiking my way around Iceland. It was an amazing time. Highly recommend just visiting if you can just get there for a long weekend. But I spent a month there and I hitchhiked for half the way and then the second half hitchhiked.
Yeah, tell me about that.
Well.
I had heard that it was one of the friendliest places in the world, so hitchhiking is a very easy way to get around. I mean, there's the locals are amazing, lots of farmers just moving from town to town. So it was actually very easy to get on highway one, stick out your thumb and make it to the next town. And then there's hostels everywhere, so it was really easy. There's a photo of me with most people know Dorito's or most Americans with no Dorito's as cool Ranch in
the blue bag. But in Europe, or at least in Iceland, I'm assuming Europe, they're called cool American.
Cool American, just like Cory yeahs holding the bag of cool American doritos.
And then this is this is me in front of the Folological Museum. To the Laymans. That's the Penis Museum in Iceland. I highly recommend if you make it to the island.
Did you wind up in any sketchy situations hitchhiking around for a month?
No, not at all.
No, it was so easy. Huh, I would do it again.
Did it make you think about picking people up on the side of the road back here in the States?
Oh?
Not in the States. No, But I rented a car on the second half and then was able to camp in that scene right underneath the volcano. I woke up to it erupting. There was lightning, and it sounded like cannons going off underneath.
Wha.
It was wild.
I didn't pick up any hitchhikers because I never saw any, but I you were willing totally all.
Right, seth see if you can top that. The coolest place you've ever camped.
My number one is in Alaska on a doll sheep hunt with Steve and his brother Danny. We camped up on this like finger ridge coming down from the main Ridge the one night and below us that's just a huge That whole valley is just a huge glacier. And the the cool thing about camping by that glacier, and there was there was a couple of nights where we camp closer to it than this.
But so is that water behind you or that's the glacier, that's.
Just ice damn. Yeah, that glacier made the craziest noises all night long. Oh really, just like big pieces sloughing off, smacking the valley floor and just hit like popping and just making crazy like moaning noises. Is wild.
Anyone who's ice fish knows what Seth is talking about, or you know those sorts of noises that might wig you out if you're new to ice fishing. I can't imagine what a glacier sounds like.
Yeah, that it was cool. And then this photo Phil, if you zoom in, there's two white dots right behind Steve. There. We woke up the one morning there's some doll sheep below us. Not legal, but it was cool to wake up to that. And then the next photo there, Phil, is just the valley. This is from from where we camped, looking up valley.
Amazing. All right, I don't think I can beat either one of those. But the coolest place I've ever camped was off Cape Flattery in Washington, and Cape Flattery is the northwesternmost part of the Lower forty eight. If you look at a map and you see that little point that's way on the edge of Washington's that's Cap Flattery. And from there you're standing on a cliff that's like, you know, a two hundred and seventy degree view around you. You were just on the edge of the United States.
So we visited that, and then we couldn't camp there because that's a reservation. But we did camp down the road, and on our way out of the reservation, stopped in some small town and bought some smoked salmon from someone's smoke shed. And then this is where I pulled my truck right onto the beach and camped there nice and just listened to the waves all night. And I wish I could like bring that home with me. I've since then like tried to listen to waves crashing on spot
or something just not the same yea. So that that was probably the coolest spot I've ever cammed. And then you could sit there and watch the ships come in at night and try to figure out, Like, what does that thing caring? Oh, that's a cruise ship, or like that one you know is three times as long as any boat I've ever seen in my life. That that was fun to watch. All Right, That is the end of the top threes and we have one interview left for today. Joining us on the line next is Phil Musket,
the president of the Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides. Phil is here to talk about being a guide at Gettysburg, which is one of the most competitive public lands jobs in America. Phil, welcome to the show.
Hey, how you doing.
We're doing.
First thing, Phil, explain to us why being a guide at Gettysburg is such a coveted job.
Well, this is the mecca of the American Civil War. So we get thousands of visits. We get about nine hundred thousand visitors a year, which is down from the two million we used to get. But people come here to learn, and people come here and they hear the stories of the men who fought here, and it's works of fire in them. And these people continue to come back and they find out about guiding and they hey,
I can do that. So they want to aspire to be a licensed battlefield guide and spend the rest of their lives on the battlefield telling the stories of those men who fought here.
And to be a guide there, you have to pass a very thorough test. I read a quote recently in a Wall Street Journal article from a lawyer saying that the Gettysburg Guide test was harder than the Bar exam. Will you walk us through what the testing process is?
Yeah, sure, will so. I've also heard it as hard as the Harvard entrance exam. But it's a four tier process, four step process. The first step is a written exam, which is fill in the blanks, recognizing pictures and describe, you know, writing out what that is. That's the first part of the test. That's three hours. In part two is essays, and you've got five essay choices and you've got to write three. You've got three hours to get
that done too. You're taking this exam this past when we just did, we had one hundred and fifty three fifty two people taking the test. As of today, which is after the exam we have, we only advanced twenty out of those one hundred and fifty yes.
And how many of those twenty sorry, Phil, how many of those twenty one? Maybe five five of them.
Because the second step is a panel interview, because yeah, it's great, you know all that knowledge, but you got to get it from here to here to where people can understand it, so that weeds out a lot of people as well. To Step three is what they call the field practicum. They you spend three days working with a mentor who is a guide, and you will write up your two hour tet or your two hour tour that you're going to give to people when they visit.
You give that to the mentor and practice that. They also drop you on a place in the battlefield, i e. Little roundtop and tell us what happened here. You got five minutes and see how well you do. And if you pass that, then you get into the oral examination, which is you could go around with your mentor all right until they fail you you're ready, and then you schedule with the National Park Service superintendent and you get
two shots to go around the battlefield. It's twenty five square miles and you got two hours and fifteen minutes to tell the story. So all of that minutia you learned past tier one is out the window because you can't fit all that in. So you've got to tailor it down to where it's still a story where you're telling the basics. You get two shots at that. If you pass that, you become a guide, and if you fail that, you start all over again.
And another important detail from that Wall Street Journal article was it said that the test hadn't been offered in seven years. So it's not like five people per year past this thing. It's five people almost once a decade past this like the test to be a guy to Gettysburg.
Now, back when I passed the exam back in twenty ten, they were doing it every two years, and they were on that schedule until twenty seventeen, and then for whatever reason, the Park Service did not do the exam until we got down. We're down to one hundred and thirty guides. When I started out, we had one hundred and fifty six, so we're losing numbers and we need new blood. So we finally got this new exam, and we're hoping we
get more than five. And we're hoping the Association of Bottleful Guys, we're hoping that this will start on another regular two to three year cycle like it used to be to replace the average dage of the guide force right now is seventy two. WHOA, I'm keeping it down. I'm fifty seven.
I'm keeping it that.
I'm doing my part with. Soh yeah, it's go ahead with the stakes being so high. Have you ever heard of somebody cheating?
I have not heard of anybody physically cheating and being escorted out. I'm I'm sure it's happened, but I'm not familiar with it. What I have witnessed is, you know, sitting at the people sitting at the table and they're looking over now if they're writing the same thing down the person you know, I don't know, but that's the limit of what I've seen as cheating. Because not only are you you're trying to become a guide, but you on this exam.
So what are what are some examples feel of people uprooting their lives for a chance to take this test.
Well, we've got people from all over the country that are currently guides, and uh one of our guides sees a lawyer out the same Forrancisco, and when he was studying to be a guide, he would fly in, he'd do his reading out there and his walking the battlefield. When he'd come here here and hanging out with friends and spending the days on the battlefield. And once he
passed the test and became a guide. He now he still works in San Francisco and he'll fly out here and spend a month or two out here doing tours, then go back to San frian and work. We've got other guides. We had an Ohio state trooper for a while. Basically he'd drive in on the weekends, do some tours, go back do his job. So I you know, another example I thought of yesterday was we used to have a nurse who worked down in Tampa, Florida, and he
would come up here for a month straight. And at that time, we had quotas, so we had to do so many tours a year, and he would do his ninety tours in thirty days. So he was doing cukoo tours all at once. And then he goes back to Florida and we're he used all of his vacation to come here and give a tour.
Give those it must yeah, it must be a pretty rewarding gig for how bad these people want to do. But what what's your favorite part of the job.
Well, my favorite part of the job is sharing the stories. Uh, you know, taking people out on the field, spending two hours with them, that's the bare minimum tour so uh. And putting people in places where important events happened. Yeah. I enjoy that. People with ancestors coming here and being able to take those ancestry, those descendants to where their ancestor was fought, where he might have been killed, where he might have been capt sure, things like that, that
is what you know, I enjoy doing. And even with our school groups, we have school groups come in. We jokingly sometimes called March California Month because we get a whole bunch of California kids coming in. We get to tell these kids the stories and maybe that'll spark some interest in their lives and that'll bring the next generation into guiding and the Civil War and history of America.
Yeah.
And Gettysburg is like six thousand acres, all of which is managed by the Park Service. What can you tell us about the wildlife and conservation work that takes place there?
Well, what we got here, We've got a big deer population, which they do every year. They'll have a big deer hunt here. Now, what they do is only federal employees are authorized to participate so they come out here and they then out the herd because it damages the vegetation around here and the local farmers' crops. But then they take all of the meat that they get and they donate it to the shelters here in the south central Pennsylvania area, so it goes to a good cause. Our
current controversy on the battlefield deals with beavers. We've got some beaver dams in front of Little Round Top, which was a marshy area during the battle on July first,
second third, eighteen sixty three. But now we got these little ice skating ranks now this time of year, so we're dealing with that and the park Service they can't do anything to remove the beavers until they start to damage the asset, and they've done some mitigations which have worked, so the beavers are staying, much to the chagrin of many historians. We've got a bald eagle that's seen around here periodically. We got a whole bunch of hawks, which
they're fun to watch too. Watch them dive bomb onto a field mouse or something that's really amazing. Occasionally we get a black bear in here coming down off South Mountain, which y'all would call a hill, but that type of thing. The park maintains the tree lines as best they can to what it was at the time of the battle, so they're constantly working on keeping that and then the landscape correct, even down to the fence rails and fence
lines that were here during the battle. So all of that stuff they do.
Yeah, that's great. Last question, Phil, is your last name really Musket?
It really is. That's what my daddy gave me all those years ago. And I have actually had a guy on a bus argue with me and I had to pull out military IV and show him. I mean, he was just adamant. I had people that have made bets and at the end of the tour they've settled their bet by asking that question. Oh yeah, I get it all the time. I get it all the time. We got a Chris Army here. We got a Steve Slaughter as well too.
Whoa Okay, you used to have an Andy Custer, but she got.
Married, Oh Andy donaheo, okay, but we had a Custer for a while as well too.
There's some there's some desty involved, and maybe that helps you pass the test at the end when your last name is Musket or Custer or oh.
Yeah, yeah, you know, at least you got to get one question, right. Yeah.
Well, Phil, thank you for guiding us through what it takes to be a guide, in joining us on media radio.
Okay, and in anytime you're out, check out Gettysburg tours Guide Gettysburg Tour Guides dot org.
All right, well we're gonna do that.
We'll get your tour guide and get you out on the battlefields.
Phil Seth, you grew up I don't know how far from Gettysburg, but in the same state you ever been.
Yeah, so I uh went when I started college. I started. I got my forestery degree from penn State mont Alto, which is a branch campus to Penn State, which that's it used to be the Pennsvan Pennsylvania Forest Academy, which was started by Gifford Pinchot. But anyway, that college is not far from Gettysburg. And like he mentioned South Mountain, the mayor coming off coming down from South Mountain. We used to do all sorts of like forestry classes and
stuff on South Mountain. So I know the area well. And I've only actually been to Gettysburg, like a handful of times, like I think three, three or four times something like that. But when I was younger in elementary school, my grandparents took me down there and we did like a like a motor tour like we bought uh it was at the time. It was a cassette TAPA and we put that in the in the cassette player in the car and drive around the park and it kind of like told you, like all the history.
So yeah, I assumed you were there every weekend. You took a field trip there every year.
No, no, no, did not, but it's I recommend it. It's like it's a really cool place. You can still see like bullet holes and walls and cannon ball holes in buildings and stuff. It's really cool.
Yeah, you know what, I grew up in South Dakota. I've only been in Mount Rushmore once, so same thing.
Yeah, yeah, same thing.
All right.
That brings us to the end of this week's show, Phil, let's get some final feedback from the chat.
Yeah.
I think people were just asking Steven Randall questions live in the chat, so we don't have a lot, but we've got a few. Jude says that he shot his first deer while listening to Media Radio Live. Hell yeah, thanks, we learned a lot. I don't think it was today, but I would guess recently.
Okay, So congrats Jude, Jude.
Let's see wapity Woods, says Spencer. Is it?
Is it specifically Hams Special Light that you love so much? I had a six pack of original Hams up in Rogers, Minnesota. Curious your thoughts of Ham's Original Ham's Heavy.
My origin story with Ham Special Light. It was the cheapest beer that you could buy at High V. It was eleven ninety nine for a thirty pack. So when I'm, you know, an underage high schooler and I got to send, like, you know, one of the college kids I know there to buy me. I got a Summon twelve dollars bill and that'll get me a whole thirty pack of Ham Special Light. The other thing is Hams has a reputation
of just not tasting good. Ham Special Light was like a classic American light log or like a like a Bush light or a Coors Light's tasting thing. But because it said Ham's on the can, nobody would touch it. When you go to a party, like I didn't have to worry about my thirty rack of Ham Special Light walking Away Nice. So it was it was the cheapest beer. It was the beer that was least likely to be stolen. So that that was my origin story of Ham Special Light.
It's not really about the taste. It's just like the nostalgia of it that it's it's just what I've always tried.
And the light is discontinued now right, discontinued.
Okay, yeah, and I'm hoarding my I'm into my third to last case.
Colin asked what you're switching to when your Special Light is all gone?
I don't. I'm not loyal to anybody. So I might be sitting at the bar one time and attentions light. Uh huh.
Hit him up on a slide into his DM Miller. Light does not matter.
A question for Seth from Eric, what is your favorite kind of hunt to film photograph?
Well, a lot of my favorite photographs come from Southeast Alaska, which oh we got when it comes out. You can go sit next to Seth and you want to.
Uh.
Seth was just talking about his favorite hunts to capture through a camera.
Yeah, and I was saying some of my favorite one of my favorite places photographs Southeast Alaska because everything about it's cool and pretty, but the big Alaska hunts like that dull sheep hunt. The photos I showed earlier and then the move stuff is always cool to photograph.
Steve, you have any live feedback from today's show.
It seems like it's going great.
Okay, boys are running over time? Yeah, yeah, Phil. Phil had mentioned that Steve and Randall were in the chat. If you go back and watch this when it's not live, you'll get to see the whole chat replay. So if you're curious what Randal and Steve were talking about for the last hour, you'll just get to read their comments there on YouTube.
Cool. Well, just we are over time.
So last question, because now that Steve walked into the room as well, Henry's asking, how's that beaver season coming along?
Seth and Steve, you can I haven't said a beaver trap yet, all right, I've got.
A couple, but I haven't gotten it really. I haven't gotten real hardcore into it yet.
And I mean I got a few.
I got a few.
I like trapping beaver in the spring when they're realactive. Yeah, that's a lot of fun. I'll get out there in the spring.
Yeah, last thing, before we get out of here. The Me Theater Movie Club returns next week. Randall and Crewe will be reviewing the nineteen eighty eight movie The Bear, which you can stream on Amazon to be oor Pluto. Make sure you watch it before the next episode if you want to join in on the discussion. All right, thanks for listen, Thanks for watching. We'll see you guys back here next week.
By Suckers