SPEAKER_07 0:00

My name's Nancy. She said, I've had two husbands, but I killed both of them. She has 10,000 Santa Clauses in her house. She's nuts. We go to the basement. She's like, What is this Santa Claus made of? That's a bowling pen and camera and all these objects. And then it was teeth. I'm like, oh, that's that's dental Santa. Like, what? She's making Santa Clauses out of random objects. Then she hands Mary a ring box with a little brown Santa on top of it. And she said, So, what is this made of? I have no idea. She said, Well, what does a dog give you as a gift? Is that dog shit Santa?

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Well, welcome back.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I know I did. Um, my next guest, he's a big old stud. He really is. He unfortunately was stuck with me on my very first hunt. I don't even know if you call it a hunt because we were out in the middle of a field and these pheasants were what were they, Sean? I don't know. There were birds that came out of this tower and it was just basically a massacre. But I have a terrible shot show. The birds probably talk to each other and were like, hey, go that way. Um, because I only learned how to shoot on a TV show. And it wasn't for Zach when I sat down with Zach, and he's like, no, you got to put the bead through it, then pull the trigger because I was shooting behind him. Um, God bless him, and he had a lot of patience. But since then, I've been on many hunts with them. I got he got me my first bow. I flew down to Mississippi, went to Masioka, got a bow, and uh he he taught me how to how to shoot my bow. And I did hit the target at 100 yards dead center, and there's video proof of that. So uh he was as as amazed as I was when I did it, and I can't see that far. And when I hit that target, he said, holy shit, you hit that, and I did. So it's in me, my Irish blood, my roots. And uh my brother from another mother, Zach, is here on the show today. Please welcome Zach Phillips from the country outdoors.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Welcome to the no.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

I like I like you did wear that that uh what what camo pattern is that there?

SPEAKER_07 2:20

This is bottom land, but this is like their their fishing version, so it's pretty faded out.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

You wore that to church today. Yeah, this is my church outfit. It was it I'm but did you not blend in? Did you see some other guys wearing church?

SPEAKER_07 2:30

I was waiting on someone to do the whole, like, oh, I didn't see you there. They didn't I was glad because it was gonna be I don't like feeling that way at church of like I hate you.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

I feel like God would wear would wear camo, you know, but because in you know maybe the parts that he he would be he would have the desert camo look, you know. He could probably go invisible too, though.

SPEAKER_07 2:53

Probably, which I would, you know, that'd be kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

He would have been on to the early camo, how to blend in.

SPEAKER_07 2:58

Yeah. I figured so when we left, we didn't uh I'm bad about packing. I pack like 10 minutes before I leave every trip. And Mary's like, you didn't pack a church shirt, and I'm like, No, but I have this. That works. And if it's a church where I can't wear camouflage, I don't probably need to be there anyway. Exactly. Exactly. Whatever.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

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SPEAKER_06 4:11

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Um, a lot of people don't know that we met on we've done two bird hunts together.

SPEAKER_07 4:19

Yeah, we met at the pheasant hunt, which wasn't really a hunt.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

That wasn't a hunt, but that was my first time shooting a bird, and I didn't know what I was getting into. Actually, I bored uh my the shotgun, my Mr. Jimmy across the way, he had a shotgun, so he uh he let me use his and um I came in, we were partnered up.

SPEAKER_07 4:37

Well, I remember coming in that day, and I had we met through Shep Rose, he brought us out there, and uh I had no idea what to expect. I've never been to a tower shoot before, yeah. Which is like there's a lot of tradition around it and whatever. But when I pulled up, there was people putting brand new guns together, yeah, which is not a good sign. Yeah, and then there was also some brown bags around. I'm like, this is this is not good. But then I remember you pulled out a Browning A5, yeah, Belgium, the humpback. It's like my favorite shotgun ever. Yeah. And uh I've pretty much just been friends with you ever since then, hoping that you leave me in your will at that A5. Dude, those guns are awesome.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

That's a great gun.

SPEAKER_07 5:13

Um, it didn't help with me shooting though, so no. Did you know the A5 was the first ever semi-automatic shotgun that was successfully produced? So I didn't know that. Yeah. Joseph's John Browning. Yeah. Really? Yeah. You went full rain man there. Yeah, no, I have random facts, but no, that that day was uh it went about how I expected. I got peppered a lot.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

I did too.

SPEAKER_07 5:33

I got shot.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

I remember so they're in the rules, and again, we were partnered up with Caleb, who's you know I met Caleb on that hunt, met you guys on that hunt, and uh I become good friends with um all you guys. It was a very successful sort of bringing the people together. But they're like AJ's a Hollywood guy, and I was like, that makes sense. Yeah. No, I I uh I definitely um I was nervous, but then I did start to feel a little bad because it was just target practice in a sense of the birds coming out of the 100%. Yeah, it is the tower.

SPEAKER_07 6:09

Yeah, and I think it it was noticeable on that day. I remember your training for shooting for the show, I'm guessing. Is that where you learned how to shoot for the show?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah, so they were definitely teaching rifles, which is like point shoot, yeah, yeah, which with birds doesn't no because you you were teaching me how to like put the bead on, go through it, and then pull the trip. The proper lead on the bird. So I was I felt like I was always behind the bird.

SPEAKER_07 6:30

Quick learner, though. Yeah, learner. Yeah. Then we graduated to an actual hunt with quail. That was awesome. That was at Almost Heaven, yeah, in the Almost Heaven plantation, which was kind of a random one. Like I was in a uh gas station pumping gas, and I saw this lady coming up behind me, and I was like, Oh, she's gonna ask me for money. And it was Morgan Hilton. Oh, wow. And she had a pamphlet and was like, Hey, I've seen your guys' show, like, would love to have you out. And that's where that relationship started, and we wound up there. Beautiful plantation. The quail are a little different. It's like cool, you get to watch the dogs work, so it's a real hunt.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

So, what were the birds that we shot in the tower?

SPEAKER_07 7:03

Pheasants.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Oh, those are pheasants, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 7:05

Which are awesome to hunt in the wild, yeah, up north.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

But the quail hunt we went on was I mean, I did not the first day I didn't hit anything. It was just so because it you you literally, I mean, people that you know have done this before under understand the people that haven't, like you're just first of all, the dogs are my favorite part of the hunt. You know, because you have the one dog that goes out there and he's sort of points where he finds where the dogs are, and the guy the or the gentleman that's with there that is the dog wrangler. So what do we call the dog wrangler? Sounds cool. Okay, so the dog was the dog wrangler. So he would go out there, he would communicate with the dog, the dog would basically stop and point and be like, they're right here, and then we'd have very detailed instructions of who's got and what side, where we're going, and not where to pull your rifle. And on the first one, the first day I could not because they just pop up, you'd have like six or seven in front of you, and I'm like, Yeah, when a covey gets up like that, it's uh a tendency to flock shoot, so you just shoot, right? Yeah, uh, and like the ability to just pick one out and like focus on the one was yeah, yeah. It took me the second day getting up and and getting after it the second day where it's like, okay, cool. And I then I got my first one dropped and it felt really good. And then then I got to where I actually hit two, which was very exciting. And you got to meet Jason Hart on that trip, too. I was just about to say that, man. You had to put him on the podcast one day. Oh, he's he's uh let me tell you, let me tell you a story right now.

SPEAKER_07 8:36

He's uh I feel like old guys are have a different way of telling stories. Yeah, they just got lost in time, and he has it still.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yeah, he has it. I mean, the the duck blind, uh, I was we we're supposed to be quiet in the duck blind because this as was uh this hunt is we went duck hunting as well the next morning, and um it was pretty phenomenal because Jason Hart was in our blind and he was just telling stories the whole time. I was laughing my ass off. Like we were we did not we we kind of got skunked that morning.

SPEAKER_07 9:06

Well, the hunting was slow, so it was good that we had someone like there to entertain him.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

He was he was that dude that he needs to be on The Bachelor, he needs to be America's next bachelor.

SPEAKER_07 9:16

I'd like to see it. I'd watch that. I'd never watched The Bachelor before, but I'd probably watch that.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

I would just like to see what he would say in the confessional booth, like when they're interviewing him in between that he's got to talk to all these ladies. We'd have to find a new network.

SPEAKER_07 9:29

But no, it's like it's been fun seeing that was kind of your intro to hunting and then like progressing a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Then you brought me out to uh Mississippi to go get my first bow. Yep, got you set up on the bow. So now we're kind of you've been like my hunting dad.

unknown 9:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 9:43

Like come on, starting you like a child and we're baby stepping it away. Um and then like ultimately it's a skill that you learn and you can get your boys doing.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Yeah, which I'm excited to go do. They they because you guys are we stayed at my house right now, and you'd said today was the last day of of turkey season. Um Ranger in the car was so sad. He's like, We're never gonna get to go do it. And I'm like, no, it's just the last day, right now. Like, we'll be able to go do it, but just he thought it was like it's forever over. No, I had to explain it to him, no, there's there's gonna be other days and stuff. So speaking of turkey hunts, I say I've yet to be do a turkey hunt. I've been to the NWTF, which is the Turkey Mecca of America. I've been there twice. The first time I couldn't remember how to say NWTF, but I'm very proud of myself that I could get through that. But it is the capital of it's the most condensed uh camo wearing that there's more people in one spot in the world wearing camo crocs that's and and mossy oak shirts than I've ever seen in my life.

SPEAKER_07 10:50

Yeah, that's definitely true. Um, it is it is an interesting event for sure. They've been doing that for man, I I think like started in the 80s doing that convention, and it just continually grows.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

I love it. The second it was it was a lot more fun the second time around because I felt like I had my bearings a little bit and knew what I was I was into, and uh it was just good to sort of see it's like it feels like those things are like a big family, it's everybody runs into each other.

SPEAKER_07 11:13

Well, and the popularity of hunting is is starting to grow. I think 2020 had a part of that, but specifically, turkey hunting's getting a lot more popular right now, for better or worse. It's definitely getting popular.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

So, what is it about a turkey hunt? Because from what I've seen, right, there's a real strategy with outsmarting a turkey. And I've I've learned how to do the turkey calling on the on the little rock thing. What is that? The clay slate call, yeah. Slate call, which got pretty good. Yesterday you were down here and we were playing with uh trumpet call. The trumpet call. And that got by but that tickled my lips a little too much.

SPEAKER_07 11:46

It's uh turkey and is entry, man. Like hunting, just say in America, it's like you have so many different regions and things that they're chasing. And in the southeast, in particular, it's more of a I'd say like a family-friendly, like the camaraderie and all, because we have deer primarily and then turkeys, and then like stuff like quail hunting, duck hunting. It's a lower barrier to entry, it's more group friendly. Whereas out west, you wind up with a lot more like elk hunting big game, which tends to be more of a solo pursuit. Um and turkey hunting to me, like in the southeast, that was just attainable. That's what we had, that's what we do. And I fell in love with it at a pretty early age, and it's really hard to explain what exactly it is about it that grabs hold of you until you do it. It's just um, especially if you grow up in that region, like I don't know, man. It's just they'll get in your blood, and it's just this frustrating thing that you never can master it. You always feel like you're learning and you're continually getting beat by a bird that has a brain the size of like a peanut. And they're that smart. I don't know that they're necessarily that smart, they're just very good at staying alive because they're scared of their own shadow. So, what's the strategy then? Well, so when you're calling in a turkey and in the wild, the male turkey gobbles and the hens come to him.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

He's like, hey girl.

SPEAKER_07 13:01

Yeah, and the hens come to him. But when we're doing it, we're calling to him and trying to get him to come to us. So it's kind of Oh, you're pretending you're the lady. Yeah, I'm the lady. And it's it's a little bit backwards because that's against his instinct. So when he comes, it's almost like he knows he's doing something wrong. Is there like a turkey call that's like, hey, big daddy?

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Yeah, every time I do it. That's what you're saying, that's what I'm trying to say. That's what I'm trying. Yeah, where'd you get that beard from? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trying to build up their confidence. Once you come over that peck, that little pecker on your face can do some work right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 13:29

And the hens will be yelping back at you, and it's like, I gotta be hotter than her. Oh, so they'll compete? Yeah, like you'll be yelping to a turkey and another one will come in because like he's calling to get them to come to him. So you'll have another hen come in and cut you off and take him away.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

No, he didn't. They get man, they're jealous. So do they is there a real so you have to then outsmart it so it's you're it's more or less you're outsmarting the female turkey.

SPEAKER_07 13:52

Yeah, because sometimes like the the male turkey will just be following the hen wherever she goes, he's just gonna follow her. That makes sense, right? So you're trying to figure out how to get her in the gun, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Isn't it crazy how across every platform of life on planet Earth, it's always a dude just following a girl, going like, all right, all right, all right, I'm going to your death. Okay, that one herky, like he's like, he's like, This I'm hearing the voice right now. I'm gonna get me something. He's he's saying, she's saying she lost my beard and come over here with that little pecker of yours.

SPEAKER_07 14:22

And he shows up and it's yeah, and like the two-year-old turkey is the one that like comes run into the call and gets shot. Yeah, for a lot of years, we would have been the two-year-old turkey in real life.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Yeah, but that's how in metaphorically speaking, I don't I don't know how many times that I've I've just it's like uh what's that uh the Greek mythology, Odysseus, where he's tied to the masses and the sirens. It's like that's what it is. It's like I wouldn't have survived long.

SPEAKER_07 14:45

No, no. It's the same deer hunting, like uh they're chasing does when the rut hits. So what's your favorite animal to that you've hunted? I think like consistently, turkey hunting's my number one, uh, but then I have my bucket list things and elk hunting is I've always since I was a little kid, I put elk kind of on a pedestal, and I've still yet to successfully get one. You've never got an elk, I've never got an elk. And um why is that? Oh man, it's um yeah. So I used to film for a living, and I probably filmed I would say like 30 plus successful elk hunts. So I in a cool way, I got to see like the best of the best. And then I started going on my own. Well, I went where I could afford, right? So I'm hunting public land and and whatever, and I just no luck, never had luck. I would always get so close, and then it just wouldn't go my way. Um, always bow hunting, which is just such a game of inches. And then in Colorado, the last one I hunted, Mary also she had a rifle tag. She went out first afternoon and shot a giant bull elk, the one in our in our house. Yeah, yeah. So, like, first afternoon ever, she gets a giant elk.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

First time ever she's ever ever.

SPEAKER_07 15:51

Yeah. And me, poor little me, since I was a little kid. And I think what I've arrived at is I put it on such a pedestal at a young age, like that was the pinnacle. That's the coolest thing. Jeremiah Johnson, like, I'm I'm awesome if I kill an elk. Yeah, and uh, it was on such a pedestal that I almost feel like maybe God used the elk as like uh a way to humble me.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 16:13

You know what I mean? Like check my ego a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

What is with with when you're elk hunting, what's like what's the strategy with with that?

SPEAKER_07 16:20

It's very similar to turkeys, except for they can they can smell and they're big, right? So they can cover ground super fast. And uh it depends on the terrain you're hunting them in. If it's so are you glassing them for a while? If it's open country, you'll glass them and then go in after them.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Um last time I hunted them was in more pinion trees and and you have to then are you always staying downwind of them or or no opposite, right?

SPEAKER_07 16:43

You want to be downwind of them, yes. Yeah, yeah. Um, so you're you're using the wind to your advantage, the thermals in the mountains change which carrier sent to them. And then, same deal, you're trying to get ultimately you're either trying to stalk in on them within range or you're trying to call them to you by doing cow calls.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Um, you grew up on a farm with your grandparents a little bit, right? A lot spent a lot of time with them.

SPEAKER_07 17:04

Yeah, so I mean, we traveled a lot when I was a kid, but the one constant place in life was my grandparents' farm. Uh, my grandpa was a farmer in Missouri, and uh my other set of grandparents lived about an hour away in town. So we were always as kids looking forward to going visiting them and running around on the farm. And that's probably some of my earliest, earliest hunting memories, too, is there's I would follow my cousins and uncles and dad around quail hunting.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Was quail the first animal you hunted?

SPEAKER_07 17:29

Yeah, I mean, I would follow them and just be footstep behind them in their footsteps, following them. How old were you? Oh gosh, like seven. Did was your shot at seven better than mine when I was 48? No, no. I actually didn't shoot back then. I just they let me follow it, but I didn't get to shoot. The first time I went out and actually hunted was rabbits there on the farm. I still, yeah, it was snowing, and I went out by myself and I got a rabbit, and that might as well have been an elk back then. I was like so proud of myself and cleaned it, cooked it for people, yeah, and was like, I'm the man.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Does the rabbit taste like chicken? Uh yeah, it's like the other other everybody says everything tastes like chicken. Like there's other other chicken. Yeah, it's like because we were talking about frog in the other night. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 18:15

Yeah. Like a little bit. Frog and do you shoot a frog or what do you do? I guess you could. I mean you can shoot anything, I guess. But when we did it here, you just grab them off the front of the boat, snatch them with your hands. Some people gig them. And then you throw them in the fire, or what do you do with them? Uh you cut the legs off and skin the legs and cook them.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Oh, so just like little You fry them. Really? Is there any meat on a frog leg?

SPEAKER_07 18:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

A lot? You've never had frog legs? No, man. I know. Sheltered life. I'm down to try it. We should probably do that. But the boys with the But they'd have to be a big fro, it has to be a decent size. Because the frogs we got here are just little ones. No, you have both big bull frogs here. Oh, really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 18:53

Same we're not looking for.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

No. No. My dog, we have a problem with him, and I'm sure I'm sure it's not gonna like he sees lizards and frogs at night, and he's like, thinks there's a toy, but he'll like go, he's like looking at a T-Rex. He goes out there and he just sees one. He's like, Some of them he'll like eat, and I remember seeing one, it went in his mouth. He's like, Oh, and it was like a scene out of the movie that the the lizard literally like pulled out of the mouth like this and like looked at me, and he was like, No, and then Oak was like ha. And I was like, Oh god.

SPEAKER_07 19:22

So we'll take him with us. Yeah, no, that's cool though. Like with you getting into hunting, it's almost like taking a little kid, like because you're experiencing everything, especially and you have the excitement of a kid too. Yes. Um, but it's also it'll be cool to have that skill to show your kids because like I think hunting's pretty misunderstood in a lot of ways in a lot of circles, and it's like um there's so many great life lessons in it, yeah, that would be great for them to learn.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Well, I can't, yeah. Now that they've they've seen videos and stuff of me doing the little hunting that I've done, but also like videos that I've showed them of you guys or then on YouTube and some of the stuff that they they uh watch, like the outdoor boys. Yeah, yeah, it's a great, great show.

SPEAKER_07 20:02

Yeah, and I just we're so disconnected from where our food comes from. And like I don't it would be wrong to say I only hunt for the food, right? Because we live in a world where I can go buy a steak, but having that skill and that appreciation for where it comes from, and like I have to work for this, yeah, and I can't just go to the store and throw it on the grill. Um, but even like for them, just the responsibility. Like, you're teaching the boys safety, same thing. Like, once you pull that trigger, you can't get it back. There's consequences to everything you do.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 20:30

When you uh how old were you when you got your first gun? The first one that was mine, I was probably 13. What was it? Winchester 1300 speed pump, 12 gauge, terrible gun to buy a kid for his first gun. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

What was the first what was the first thing that you killed with it?

SPEAKER_07 20:47

Probably well, hard to say. It might not have even been, I probably can't even say it. But um, I definitely got my first turkey with that gun at about 13 years old.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

So growing up in the hunting, sort of, you know, that that was that's basically been in your blood your entire life. And then, you know, feel the streams, right? The magazine feel the streams. How old are you when you started reading that?

SPEAKER_07 21:10

Every year as a kid, I don't know how old, but when I was a little kid, uh for Christmas every year, I'd get a subscription to Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, and then when we lived in Georgia, it would be G-O-N as well. Um, so back then it was like I had those magazines and then VHSs from like Mossy Oak, yeah, Primos, all those shows.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

I miss having VHSs. Yeah. There's something about it. Who do you remember what was on the cover for your first uh uh Field Streams magazine? Or what was your favorite cover of all time? As we get older, it is so important to stay on top of our blood work. That's why I'm incredibly proud to have Pure RX, one of our sponsors of the show. Go to AJ.purerx.co, type in time to shine in the notes. And you'll get 50% off your blood work. It's summertime. You want to go camping, you want to go off-road, get your truck, a lift kit. Go to total off-road. TJ and Dan are my guides here in Charleston. They're the best. Huge thank you to them for being sponsors of the show. You got a Pavin Princess. Head to Total Off-Road. Get your truck lifted like a real man.

SPEAKER_07 22:23

Man, I can't remember. I can't remember. But probably like there's the one they have now with the deer, and there's a guy shooting at the deer, and he misses and he hits the antler, the antler's falling off. Yeah. I always thought it was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Now, being with your grandparents uh during all that time, is there because every grandparent, like besides your parents, you have an experience with them and they give you like some word of advice or some is there a pearl that your grandfather uh ever gave you with to do with hunting or just life in general?

SPEAKER_07 22:53

So my one grandpa was a physics professor, my other one was a farmer, and he only only hunted quail. That's the only thing he ever cared about. And uh to my knowledge, he only ever owned one gun and it was a Browning A5.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

Oh nice.

SPEAKER_07 23:06

And that gun doesn't exist anymore, which makes me sad. But um, the one I guess the one thing that I remember him saying that kind of stuck was he would say, uh, if a barn needs painting, paint it.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

If a what?

SPEAKER_07 23:18

If a barn needs to be painted, paint it. Like if you instead of saying all these things need to be done, do it, just go do it. Quit talking about it and go do it. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

You know, simple, but which is great advice for you know what we've been going through the over the last little bit, which has been a journey. Yeah. God, we've been we we've been through it. No, no, it's so crazy. It's I mean that the the simplest pieces of advice of like, yeah, like it we were just talking about this before the podcast. It's like there's so especially in the podcast space, there's so many people you come along that you you cross paths with along the way when you don't know anything about it. And I'm not claiming that I know anything uh about podcasting, I'm still learning, but I know a hell of a lot more than I did a year and a half ago. And uh what I've learned the big lesson, and we could probably uh share in this lesson is no one's gonna do it as good as you're gonna do it. Um, so many people will prey upon the fact that you don't know what the market is, you don't understand the lingo, they'll just want an exorbitant amount of money up front, or they think, oh, you're on a TV show, you got you got just money to throw around, which is a bunch of bullshit. And they completely take advantage of your sort of goodwill and and and honesty of like, I don't understand how this works. So we're like, well, let me take your money and I will totally bug you over.

SPEAKER_07 24:42

Yeah, when people are giving you solutions to problems you didn't even know you had, yeah, that's probably a problem. And I've learned that.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Yeah, it's it's it's it's and it was a pretty continuous sort of happening of events. I would go from one person to the next. And then I remember chatting with you, and you're like, dude, you just kind of like kind of do it on your own, like you got a step away. Because after the debacle with, you know, two fake seals and Tyler and all that bullshit, and then sort of going out on my own. I remember having many conversations with you, and I'm like, I don't know if I want to go do it. And you're one of the one of the friends is like, dude, you you need to go do this on your own. Don't worry about anybody else. Stop waiting for other people.

SPEAKER_07 25:20

Well, you don't need to rely on anybody else's personality because like you just can't afford to wait. Yeah. And you're you you can't expect someone to care as much about something as much as you do. But even down to like the the how things work, it's like you have to understand how it works, or else you're just gonna get taken advantage of it every turn. Yeah. And we've learned a lot of lessons too.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Yeah, and I I think it's you that's only by experience, you know. But again, I don't have it in my character or uh my DNA to wrongly sort of put myself in a position with someone and and sell them wolf tickets to where they're like, you're those people that took advantage of us 100% knew that they were bending us over and being like, don't worry, we got this. Like a hundred percent all the time. And it and and in hindsight, I think, I said, I'm like, as a human being, how can you just like that's that's that's what you look for? You look for these so-called suckers that are just like, oh yeah, I'll give you my money. Is this gonna help? Like, yeah, of course it's gonna help. It's like the thing in you know Pinocchio, where they're like, come over here and go into the take the ride, it's gonna be fun. Give me your money, and they come out like donkeys. You and I were donkeys for a little bit.

SPEAKER_07 26:30

Definitely. I've been the donkey a couple times. I've learned a lot of like what not to do over this whole journey for sure. Uh luckily coming into it, I had a background in production at like kind of basic level to where I could kind of know that end. But then there's so much stuff that like you just can't know everything. So when someone comes along with a magic bullet that's like, this will fix all the problems you have. Oh man, I've been praying for this. Yeah, and it's never and then two months later, you're like, oh no. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Yeah. And it and it's true, it's it's the it's the little things that you know, the things that you care about, and the the voice and your tone and how you want to be portrayed is never going to be done in the way with people that are there just for a paycheck. You know, it's aligning yourself with the right group of people and and and really the people see a longer play on this because the podcast world, as we both know, this is a this is this is one of the toughest uh things I've ever had to go into. I mean, we were just talking about about you as well. I mean, it's what has been your guys' journey because you know from hunting to then segueing into having it be broadcast you know on YouTube, what was your decision to like, okay, prior to the podcast, prior to this, like I'm gonna go and you know make a show out of this? How did that happen?

SPEAKER_07 27:48

Yeah, I mean, when I was was young, I started filming hunting shows, like TV shows in high school. And uh at some point I was like, I can't make money at this. And I went to school for business, and then I got in at long story there, but I wound up back in production filming for a production house in Georgia that didn't primarily hunting shows, right? Um, so by the end of that run, I was working for the owners of Bass Pro doing all their personal video stuff, like really good home videos, basically. And Mary actually started the brand Country Outdoors as a podcast with the Outdoor Channel, and it was audio only. Um, their vision for it was that it was going to be a Sirius XM radio show. So like they weren't even filming it. And she was the co-host of it, and we were already married at that point, and um, some conversation happened where it was like I was kind of trying to get out of my situation, and there was an opportunity to go do a at the time it was a turkey tour to go film a turkey hunt for a season, and we put that together, and I quit my real job. I got a loan to get camera gear, and we went and we did that, and it was uh February of 2020.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

Oh, what?

SPEAKER_07 28:52

So COVID.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 28:54

So my dad called me, he's like, hey, there's this thing they're talking about called COVID. Like I you probably shouldn't quit your job. I was like, Yeah, that'll last a couple weeks, it'll be fine. Yeah, and uh we wound up, we found opportunity in it. We wound up with a camper and we took that thing out west and lived out of it and filmed episodes, and we were turning them around like, you know, same week type episodes.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

And that's that's at a time, probably too, when no one was putting out any content.

SPEAKER_07 29:16

Yeah, we mean Sean were actually talking about earlier. It's like so many people stayed home. Um we just got out in the middle of nowhere and did what we were doing. And that was more than anything. Like, I think there was a couple brands that we had just had relationships with us that were like, we'll we'll take a gamble on this. I think more than anything, it was proving like we'll do what we say we're gonna do. Yeah. Uh I think that was probably the biggest thing was just showing up and doing the work and like not just fluffing people doing what we said we would do. And uh from then on out, it's like just setting a course of where we want to go and just stay in like this, because I feel like sometimes there's shortcuts you can take to do more of this line. Yeah. And uh we've just kind of tried to stay on that that steady. But uh, like you, there's certainly been quite a few hurdles that come up.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Yeah, and it's uh you know, if anything though, I I as much of the hurdles I've had and and I'm sure you you feel the same way, it's uh it's really zeroed me in on like how one how much I want uh this to succeed. And it's tested me, I think, for my own reasons to you know you know, people are like, I'm gonna start a podcast, and I'm like, go ahead, awesome, you know, and I encourage it, but no one has any clue how much work goes into the day-to-day and to put it out there just on any any sort of level. It's a lot. But what I love about it more than anything, just it's I can this is my show. You know, just like it's your show. You can kind of uh you know, write your story and interview interesting people, except for you. Yeah, you know, I wouldn't put you up there as the most interesting person, you know. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Thank God I have Mary. Thank God you have Mary. Speaking of speaking of Mary, this is my 80 segue. How did y'all meet? How did you guys meet? We were an Aussie girl that is strong-willed, Irish, Aussie Irish, and then you got little old me, little quiet Zach.

SPEAKER_07 31:20

I was in Nashville hanging out with a buddy being a degenerate, and uh, I just remember the next one. Was that Jason Hart you were with? No, no, probably worse, honestly. But I was driving home the next morning going back to Georgia and Instagram. I just I had followed her on Instagram somehow, and there was a picture of her holding a bow and me being so smooth. I just sent her a message. I said, Hey, is there good hunting in Australia? Turns out she was at Dick Sporting Goods and she was holding a bow, and it was more from a place of like, they sell this shit at the stores here. This is crazy. Yeah. Um, so no, she'd never hunted before, but I slid in there and slid into her DMs, yeah. Stayed in touch for a while, worked my magic, said, Can I take you on a date? Would you would you send her like an emoji and like a joke? Uh she's she my version of the story would be different than hers, but like she says that I sent her a picture of like some dead hogs and stuff and was like, Look at what I did this week. Yeah, me, me, big hunter, you know. And uh she can say what she wants, but here we are. Whatever. Obviously, it worked. I was pretty smooth. Yeah. So what was the first hunt y'all went on? I took her turkey hunting. I uh she'd never hunted before, she had some interest in it in Australia. And so you were the very first person to take her hunting. Yeah, she she'll tell you, but she said she had uh a boyfriend at one point that hunted a little bit and she wanted to go, and he said it was no, it was not a place for women. Um, whereas me, I'm like, I'm gonna do this whether you like it or not, so you might as well come with me, kind of attitude. So I wanted her to be a part of it. And I flew her to Nebraska, picked her up in the truck and took her hunting right away. And uh that was your first date? No, no, but that was within like I don't know, three months of knowing each other, probably. Yeah, and she just she fell in love with it. So that was the test. Yeah, I guess so. She um, yeah, I called in two turkeys, and I'd never it I was a really bad teacher back then. I just assumed that everybody knew how to do this, and I didn't even give her like a proper lesson on shooting. Turkeys came in, she couldn't get comfortable, and I wound up taking it from her and getting one of the turkeys myself. Shot it out from under, which is not a good thing to do, not nice. And uh yeah, she she was not happy with me in that moment. I got cussed a little bit, so then I had to go back and do a full lesson. Like, was do a full lesson? What did she what did she say to you? Oh my gosh. Oh, Zach, come on, mate. I can't use Australian language, you know the words they use over there. Gonna mate. It was pretty harsh, if I recall. Um, yeah, it was pretty harsh. So I did a full lesson, but later that day she she wound up getting one. And ever since then, she just like loved it. Well, she's got an elk now. Yeah. Every day I walk in the kitchen to get coffee, and I'm like, oh, I hate you.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

So the the greatest sunt you've ever been on, what was that? Like, were you it was Australia?

SPEAKER_07 34:02

Um yeah, man. Like that's been the cool part when the show started. Like, because I was in production, and look, that's not a normal job to get into because I was in kind of a niche in that space anyway. So it was a little for a kid from South Georgia to be doing that was already a little out there. But Mary kind of saved me in a way of like I think you in that in where I come from, and even in that space, you let people paint you into a box of like you stay here. So I would have never imagined that one day I would be married to an Australian in Australia hunting and then have the show, right? It was like you're a producer, you stay over here and do what you do. Um, but the coolest one ever to me was Australia because it was just this surreal thing. Like I'd gotten to film some cool stuff, but I was finally there doing something cool, and it was um Arnhem Land with our buddy Carl Goodhand. Is that the big Australian guy?

SPEAKER_01 34:51

Yes, the funny guy?

SPEAKER_07 34:52

He's funny and scary.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

Well, tell me, paint the picture for the audience.

SPEAKER_07 34:56

Man, he's uh the Northern Territory is just this rough place, it's the Wild West. And Carl very much embodies that. He's just rough. He has a mullet too, right? No, he didn't even have hair. He's bald, he's ugly. Why did I think he had a mullet? It'd be cooler if he did. He did. He just seems like maybe he used to. He used to fight. They called him Mr. Knockout. Maybe that's right. Maybe I think he showed me old pictures or something. I bet he did. Yeah. So he used to fight um in like Taiwan and stuff. He went all over the place and was doing, I don't know what kind of fighting that is that they would do. But anyway, they called him Mr. Knockout. Uh, he's just rough, man, but he's uh extremely good at what he does. He has clients from all over the world come to Australia to hunt with him, and it's a very good experience.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

But we went, me and Mary did Mary know him prior to?

SPEAKER_07 35:40

I think I met him through uh actually, I met him, I hung out with a Colt one time. Okay, so I was in Australia and this guy invited me to come to the Northern Territory to hunt buffalo and go fishing and things. Turns out we weren't doing any of that, but it was like a photo shoot for their brand. Carl was the guide. So that's where I met Carl. But turns out we had mutual friends, um, several mutual friends actually, and we kind of hit it off on that trip. But then when I got home, I saw this article pop up and I was like, oh wait, I was with a cult the whole time, and I didn't know they were a cult, but it kind of made sense on the back end. I read it and I'm like, they were studying me. There, it was a full-on cult? It was yeah, legit cult. And um, do tell me more. Yeah, so they're still in business, so I won't I won't slander their business name, but like it came out that their leader was uh, yeah, it was a full-blown cult that I was like, like, like take me to your leader like that. Yeah, it was like uh they were trying to build like an ideal human environment. It was like a utopia type, yeah. Anyway, they were questioning me a lot, they were asking a lot of questions. And I remember that first morning they came out.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

Were they like, Do you bleach your butthole?

SPEAKER_07 36:48

They didn't ask me that. Um, but maybe they didn't. I don't remember it.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Because if somebody randomly you're hunting with them, they say, Do you bleach your butthole? That usually is a sign of a cult. I just want to let you know.

SPEAKER_07 37:00

Now I know, yeah, and it it might have been a question, but what happened was they brought me right away there at the first like nine in the morning, they're like, Hey, do you want a beer? And I'm like, I'm on vacation, I'll take two. So I was like pounding these beers all day, and then I'm like, they're not drinking. Oh no. And they're Australian. Australians are supposed to drink beers, and uh they just asked me a ton of questions about everything. So they got you liquored up and then they started Yeah, and it turned in the article I read, it said something about like basically they'd hang out with people from the outside and study them. But I'm to this day, I'm kind of mad they didn't ask me to join.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

They were like Jane Goodall and you were the monkey. Maybe.

SPEAKER_07 37:36

But I I don't I think I failed the test somehow because they didn't ask me to join, which is kind of hurtful.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

You're like, they're like abort, do not send this guy home. He keeps scratching a great time, he keeps scratching his nuts.

SPEAKER_07 37:49

But anyway, that's where I met Carl, which is whatever. And me and Mary went back and we went to Arnhem Land, which is the Aboriginal area. Sounds like an exciting place. It's absolute middle of nowhere. Um, so normally you're helicoptering in and whatnot. And we had um an aboriginal guy with his name Captain. His ID said Captain. Are you serious? That's his name, Captain. Captain. I am the captain now. He's an older Aboriginal guy and um incredible eyesight. He would see every animal. And long story, me and Mary, those water buffalo we have in our house. Yeah, we got those buffalo. And uh Mary got hers with her bow. And then me and Carl, we came up on two together. And you don't normally see two mature buffalo together ever. That's abnormal. And I remember Carl, he never pulls triggers ever. That's that's his business. But he did that day. He's like, Me and you are both. So after the fact, when we're at the Buffalo, he was pretty emotional about it, and I didn't quite understand it at the time. And uh later that night, he and Captain were telling me, Captain was saying, basically, he said, We don't believe in coincidences. When we left the house, nothing bad happened, no blown tires happened, everything was smooth. He said he talked to the old people, which would be like God, and uh he asked for a successful hunt. And to them, if something is out of the ordinary, if animals act in a weird way, that's a sign. So two big buffalo being together, that was a sign. And he said, Because of all this, I know you're welcome here. We're brothers, and you're always welcome here. And uh, it was just kind of a cool like deal to see all that play out, and then I'll never forget that night he said something to Mary about uh, he said, and and I'll go, I'll talk to the old people about maybe you'll get pregnant. And he just kind of dropped that. And Mary was like, Well, you can go ahead and talk to him because I'd like I'd like to get pregnant. Yeah, and turns out I still we were next to Yuck Yuck Dreaming, which was like a ceremonial, but we were close to it, but it's like where the women go and they get in the water, and I guess they're they become fertile. What? Whatever, it's their cultural thing. So he wounds up, he's like, I'll talk to the old people, whatever. A couple months later, we find out Mary's pregnant. No way, so yeah. So we got some water buffalo and we got Molly out of that trip.

SPEAKER_01 40:00

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_07 40:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

So with the water buffalo, why why is it though, what is it about them hunting them that makes it different than anything else?

SPEAKER_07 40:08

They're dangerous. And they're big, yeah. So in that part of the world, uh, the water buffalo are invasive species, they weren't always there, they weren't on that landscape forever. Um, but there's a lot of them, and it's very vast country, and if there's no natural animal that's preying on them, so if you don't control those numbers, they get way out of balance. Yeah. Um, but they're just really big and kind of scary animals.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

And it's a lot of people don't understand that too, with you know, conservation and controlling the amount of animals, because we as a human species, we build these cities where you've got your your Whole Foods and your it's all in one place and your condo that's attached to this, and it's the you know, the car dealerships and all these. So it's the convenient for us. But what we've done though is sort of push these animals out and out and out and out.

SPEAKER_07 40:57

Now, within that, correct me if I'm wrong, when you pull tags and and you send money in that helps control the population of so the big difference there, we're talking about Australia water buffalo, the the big difference between international, like Australia and America. We have the North American model of conservation, right? So, like elk, deer, turkeys, all these animals are native species. We've always, for the most part, always had them, with exception of like pigs and a few others. Um, there, their game animals are non-native. So technically, conservation on a non-native species is eradication. Whereas here in America, we want to have a healthy population of elk. We want to have turkeys, we want to have deer. Um, so it's very different. Like the Robert Pittman Act, which I'm there's better people to speak to this than me, but when I go buy a hunting license or I go buy sporting goods equipment, a chunk of that money goes back to conservation efforts. So the reason we have wild turkeys in South Carolina isn't because of PETA, it's because of turkey hunters that want their grandkids to also enjoy turkeys. So it's very, it's different than Australia for sure. Um, you know, it's animals that we value that we want to have and keep. Yeah. And we learned America learned from their failures. Back in the day, there was market hunting. A lot of animals went almost extinct. Some did. Yeah. And I think now, like the Teddy Roosevelts and people saw like that's a problem. Yeah. And we need to change it. Like market hunting doesn't exist anymore for that reason.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

Now, I feel like when you're in Australia, because I've been in Australia a bunch of times and I absolutely love it. Um I feel like when you're out hunting in Australia, you may be hunting a water buffalo, but there's so many other things in Australia that can kill you as well. Like that place is full of like alone, there was this, I forget the type of spider it was, but it was in my room and it was on the wall, and I went to go and like kill it, and the thing jumped, like uh it was still to this day, it's it's it's like something a nightmare. So it was like out of alien. The thing was like I was trying to sneak up and it like saw me with its eight million eyes and like jumped. And I was dating a girl out there at the time, and I was trying to be all man. I'm like, don't worry, I got this. And I like walk through the door. I'm like, God, right. I think it's a huntsman spider, I think it's oh, yeah. Like a big, oh yeah, like I could see its testicles. Okay, right. Yeah, I don't know what those were, but yeah, hairy balls on a spider is not a good sign, and it's got a deep voice.

SPEAKER_02 43:20

So I'm the huntsman.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

That's what he's what you said. Yeah, they always talk about the dangerous stuff in Australia, but they never include the women. It's true, but learn pretty much. Oh, yeah, yeah. I I actually saw a couple bar fights out uh in uh in uh Cornella with some tough Irish women or tough Australian women. Yeah, and which are a lot of Irish women because the criminals all went to Australia. Yeah. Um the rough ones. But uh, but yeah, no, it the um the the spiders there, and then I saw uh a a shit ton of snakes when we were out in the in Willamung or Willamonga or whatever it is, Willow Willow Dong. Wamunge, whatever they say, weird names for real. Yeah, they got great names of cities. I just could not ever spell it out. They're like 16 letters.

SPEAKER_07 44:01

My biggest problem there with the snakes in particular is like I don't like snakes, but I'm okay with them as long as I know where they're at and I know what they are. There, I have no idea what any of them are. So if I see any kind of snake, to me, it's the most deadly in the world. And I got chased. There was some snake. We were acting, we were tracking a um a bantang, and the snake popped up. What's a bang tang? It's like a I think they come from Asia, but it's like a big wild cow. They're also pretty dangerous and scary. Bang tang. Bang. Bang tang. It's also beer in Indonesia. So there's that. But yeah. But no, a snake popped up and it was like coming at me. I'm gone. I ran. That was shoot it. And then there, no. And they were like laughing. They're like, oh, that's just a whatever. And I'm like, I don't care. I don't care. Dude, snakes and spiders for me, I'm I'm out. And then in the water, it's sharks. But here I I know the snake, so I'm like, all right, that's rattlesnake. You stay over there. But there, I'm like, no. It was chasing me too, like a yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:55

Yeah, there's there's there's some snake there when I got here, first went to South Carolina. We when we were clearing out the back, this giant snake fell out of the tree. I found it after it wasn't deadly. It was like the king rat snake, but it's like at a green belly, it was just black. It's it was so terrifying. I killed it with a shovel. But uh I was uh and now I'm I try to like look to see because I guess the those are good for rodents. That's why it's called a rat snake. But it uh it's a snake snake, and they're big, they're like eight feet long.

SPEAKER_07 45:23

Was that everything we have that they have, theirs is just more deadly. Like we have alligators, they have crocodiles. Yeah, there's for everything, it seems like it's like yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:31

Crocodiles, I mean, we the alligators here. I I went on my first alligator hunt um like two years ago, and still to this day, like I don't even know if I'd ever want to go do another alligator hunt because it was so terrifying. Like you're in this little John boat, okay? And I've seen the videos that alligators can they can come up into like they they can pounce out of water, they're very agile. And we're at nighttime, and uh I'm there with one of my neighbors as well, who's sitting in the back and he's giggling. I'm like, what's wrong with you? He's like, I ate too many edibles, and I'm just gonna sit right here. I'm like, You eat edibles on a gator hunt? What a terrible what is wrong with you? So he was just sitting there, he's like, That's a terrible idea. Pull yourself together. So um, but I will say, like, when we were out and we turn off all the lights and we play like the sound of the um like the baby alligators to pull them in, and then we turn on the light, and there's nothing but floating eyes all around us. I'm like, this is terrifying.

SPEAKER_06 46:30

Turn it off.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

I was like, oh, and then we had to get hit them with the bow first, and then there was a sort of procedure that we hit went to. But we were probably out there for five or six hours, and uh for the entire six hours call it, there wasn't one moment where I was like, this is awesome. I was like, I'm like constantly looking behind me. You're on like you just realize how much you're in their world. And if you fall in, it's over. Like you're you know, you might have a couple seconds that, but like I think you'd be all right. Uh no, no, I'd I'd either, yeah, no, because that water's so dark, and no, it's just everything about it.

SPEAKER_07 47:06

I remember being a kid, and we I grew up in South Georgia, and uh we were we were swimming in a like a pond, and by the pond dam, you know, kids, it's like, but you can't touch the bottom, it's probably a hundred foot deep here. Yeah, but I can. So I swam to the bottom and it was not that deep. Grabbed a handful of mud, and I remember I opened my eyes and a gator swam in front of my face, and I came to the top, and I'm like walking on water, getting out of there. I imagine I was pale, if I remember right. I was I was scared. It happened. Yeah, and no one believed that it happened, but I wouldn't get back in the water. And I to this day I remember that, and I like I don't like going in water where I can't see my feet.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

Yeah, I'm it's murky, I'm like, no, no, I'm good. No, that happened. Yeah, and we have we have I'm right on the water here, and it it it because of the intercoastal, it's very murky and muddy and stuff like that. I even when we've taken the kids out and they want to go tubing and stuff like that, like that. I'm like, I'll go just to go, but I as soon as I wipe out, I'm like, just get get the boat over. There's too much in that water. Yeah, there is, and then I just instantly think there's a shark out there that thinks about me. He's got my head shot pinned up in its little shark cave. And as soon as I hit the water, he's like, there he is. There he is. Yeah. Did you swim when you were in Brazil? Yeah, and I almost drowned.

SPEAKER_07 48:16

They got that little thing that'll go up your wiener. I heard about that, yeah. Yeah, I was scared of that. I swam and then I learned about that after, and I'm like, But that's what that's not in the ocean, though.

SPEAKER_01 48:24

It's in the rivers. In the rivers. I didn't swim. I didn't swim in any any river. I did that. I did like Brazil though. Brazil's probably in one of the top five countries I've ever been to. I was a it was a it was a like I went, I went at I was there for work, so it was a lot more um, there's just a lot of amazing things going on. I did something for this company over there called Mr. Cat. It was like they did like a shoe campaign. Yeah, it was really cool. So it was a lot of I was single, so it was just me running around being a complete man hore.

SPEAKER_07 48:52

I was also single when I was there and uh it was for work. I was there filming a fishing trip, but we had one full day when we were there.

SPEAKER_05 48:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 48:59

And I we had security everywhere we went during the day, but at night, me and this other guy snuck out and we went out to a club by ourselves. Made a lot of friends, but terrible idea. Looking back, uh yeah, I learned some lessons. I didn't know there was a big difference in hotels and motels until I got kicked out of my hotel. Oh, really? What's the difference? You can't bring friends back to a hotel in Brazil. Oh, you can't?

unknown 49:20

No.

SPEAKER_07 49:20

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, they'll kick you out. Two big dudes in a in suits with earpieces. Oh, really? Yeah. And then what happened? Um, so I had a flight later that night, so it was fine, but I was like, I can bring back whoever I want to my room. It's my room, I paid for it. And they're like, no, you can't. That's where motels. So, like culturally, I didn't know that. Like they hotels.

SPEAKER_01 49:39

And you look like a drug dealer, so that makes sense. I know.

SPEAKER_07 49:42

Were you wearing a massiog shirt? No, no, I was trying to look like I led the cartel.

SPEAKER_01 49:47

Oh, trying to be that guy. That makes sense. Yeah. Speaking of uh um cartel, um, what is a hunt that you've been on that what was a close call? Like you almost didn't make it out.

SPEAKER_07 50:02

Ooh, probably uh I was telling Sean earlier I fell out of a tree stand when I was like 24 years old or something like that. How many beers did you have? None. I was I was hunting a really big deer, and I I went in in the dark, climbed up in the tree, and next thing I knew, I was on the ground. I fell 25 feet, 20 to 25 feet, and uh landed on my feet, knocked me out. I woke up, and it was like I think the like adrenaline or stupidity was still running in me, and I I went to another stand, I hunted, and then the pain hit me, and I was like, oh god, I got down, went to the house, and I called my boss, and I said, I was supposed to leave the next day to go film a hunt in Montana. I was like, hey dude, I fell out of a tree, like I gotta go to the doctor tomorrow. I can't go on that trip. And uh he said, basically, you're going, like no one else can replace you. And I was definitely the kid you would have wanted on your football team because I was like, I'll run through that wall. Like, yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, I'll go. So I went and it was a guy named Remy Warren, who's a pretty successful TV show guy, um, bit of an athlete. He does a lot of backcountry stuff, and nothing with that guy is easy. And I flew to Montana, went on the hunt in the Bitterroot, and uh the Bitterroots pretty pretty rugged place. Yeah, so like two days after falling out of a tree, I was in the mountains in the snow filming an elk hunt and with that guy. And to this day, like I told you my back hurts earlier. It's from that. Oh, it's from that, yeah. So like hiking however many miles in the snow, elk hunting, and then packing an elk out in the snow, like after falling two days prior. I didn't think I was gonna get out of there. That was that was probably the worst.

SPEAKER_01 51:38

What was the story you're saying? Uh where you where you're when you're out there bow hunting, you have to have somebody with a gun to if you're like say if it's oh if you're in bear country?

SPEAKER_07 51:50

Yeah, bear country because you're yeah, I was we were talking about like dinner bell bears. Um yeah, out in that part of the world. Like I was I filmed a moose hunt one time, and I'd like to go do that hunt myself. Just hadn't got there yet because I have a two-year-old. But um, in that part of the world where you have grizzly bears, if you were to shoot an elk or deer, whatever it is, um, the bears will hear that gunshot and they associate it with food. So if you're skinning that animal, so it's like ringing a bell being like dinner time. Yeah, they know they associate that.

SPEAKER_01 52:16

Isn't it crazy how over time they've been like, oh, someone did the work for me.

SPEAKER_02 52:22

We have here my modules. I'm gonna take a most, yes. Yeah, but if they try and stop me, I'm gonna rip the dick off.

SPEAKER_01 52:28

Well, there's a guy, it was in bear bears too, not to cut you off, bears eat your butt first, right? That's what I heard. I bet they I don't know. I heard, I heard they get they they pin you down, flip you over, and they go after your rumpus. That's where the most meat is. That's you know, especially on meat. You know, I was gonna say, man, you know, you got that old football butt, you know. Back in the day, I was an athlete. Did a lot of squats one time. Yeah. Open the yearbook. No, that so bears really eat you ass first while you're alive, they just fucking snack on you. And I'm not into that. I'd rather not find out. Um that's uh I went and filmed. Good to hear you're not into that.

SPEAKER_07 53:02

Yeah, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not into that. Um I went on a it was a moose hunt in Alaska, and I was I was filming, and the guy told me to bring bear spray. Yeah, and I showed up, and there was one other guy from Georgia that was also filming, and then the rest of them were from out west, and they all had bear pepper spray on their side, and me and the dude from Georgia both had pistols because I was like, I don't trust this bear spray. No, we'd never try this bear. Bears might want pepper on their spray. Especially if it's the wind is blowing at you. Done. Yeah. Yeah. So I just didn't trust that. I brought a 500. I like that more than bear spray. So has there been instances we're close call with bears or uh I've the the only one that kind of scared me and maybe sound like a sissy was uh a black bear. Not typically too worried about black bears, but one time I walked into deer hunt and I didn't know we had bears and they had destroyed my ground blind. So the smart thing to do would have been maybe leave or climb a tree and hunt. But instead I was like, I'll just sit right here where they've already been destroying things. So I sat by the tree and at some point I heard like behind me and I looked back, and there were little baby bears. Oh no. And they ran up the tree I was sitting on. Oh no. Which is not at first, you're like, oh, cute little baby bear.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 54:11

And then you look four feet behind mama. So yeah, I stood up and like me and Mama Bear were having a stare down and she started did she notice you? Oh yeah. She started doing the the snarling thing they do, like popping her jaws just to let you know, like fuck off. Yeah, and I had a pistol, so I was like, I was just backing away from her, like would the pistol do anything or no? I think it would have done something for sure. But I was like, I I didn't want to find out because like A, you know, if I didn't win. But B, like, you just don't want to shoot her. You don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_01 54:41

There is a horrible video that I watched. Well, part of it where and I think the guy was on the news after was how it was it was on the news, and that's why I said, but then you can watch the video, and the guy it's I must have been a brown bear, um, is running at it, and all he has is his his arrow, and he's trying to load it while it's running at him, and he's like, oh, and it like he lets go, and it literally goes ping, like he literally could not have taken the worst shot of his life. You know, you you you you run you run these uh thoughts through your mind, like how would I react in that situation?

SPEAKER_07 55:17

Would I be able to load an arrow and no, no, that's like a Kodiak brown bear is my number one on my bucket list. I'd love to do that one day. Yeah, it's so cool. Yeah, but typically if if you're on a hunt like that, you're gonna have somebody with you that has backup that would be able to, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:35

Someone you trust, I hope. And does a shot like a big bear like that? Does one shot put them down or no?

SPEAKER_07 55:40

You need a couple. Can, but most of the time, like even with the water buffalo, the shot either it's gonna put them down or it's gonna turn them. So, like when you got charged by a water buffalo and Carl was with me and he had a double 500, he shot and it turned him to where it didn't like drop him. He was just like, I don't want any part of that. And turned away from you. It's kind of the same with a bear, I think. But I've never done it. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 56:01

Yeah, now that the the thing that I would say you really realize your place, I think, when you're out there. You know, how insignificant, you know. Like the just the rules of the jungle, the rules of you know, like the there is a playbook that you have to sort of stay by when you're when you're out there, the times that I've been out there that have been limited. But I feel the times that you stray from that or don't sort of play by the rules of the jungle is where shit goes wrong. Have you ever let your foot off the gas a little bit and put yourself in a situation? Like where where your grandfather would have been like, Really, buddy? Really? Hmm.

SPEAKER_07 56:51

Where you just get complacent and lazy and then something bad happens? Yeah. I mean, honestly, probably that uh yeah, when I fell out of the tree, that was probably it. Like that could have killed me pretty easily. And for hunting in trees, you have lifelines, so a line that goes from the ground to the top, and you wear a harness, and you should anyway. I had one on and I had unclipped from it that morning. It was just like I had it, the strap was through my backpack. So I unclipped. And back then I was filming deer hunts every week. So I was in and out of trees all the time. I was like a monkey. So when I unclipped, no big deal, and then a strap broke and I hit the ground. So I hadn't checked my equipment and I didn't keep my harness on the whole time. Thought I was invincible.

SPEAKER_01 57:32

So you and a theory could have gotten knocked out and woken up to a bear eating your butt.

SPEAKER_07 57:38

Could have theoretically, more likely that I would have been paralyzed. It was kind of like Well, that's even worse. You couldn't even run. There's been a lot of yeah, there's been a lot of people killed from that exact same thing or paralyzed, and it was like a Ricky Bobby moment, Tao Dega Nights. I was on the ground, I remember being like, oh, like move my arm.

unknown 57:54

Like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_07 57:56

My leg works, all right.

SPEAKER_01 57:57

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 57:58

That was not good.

SPEAKER_01 57:59

Yeah, no, I I I uh I was in one tree, uh tree blind, right? Is that what you call them? Tree stand, tree stand, tree stand. Um, and I thought it was pretty cool when I was up there, and then it was right around April Fool's Day. So uh obviously my algorithm had picked up that was talking about tree blinds, and I watched this video of this guy get into like a seat and goes like up the tree. I'm like, man, that is so cool. I want to get one of those. I was like, we filmed that video where you in a tree stand, and yeah, I purposely hung it this high off the ground because I'm scared of heights now. Yeah, but but but then I realized that it was that was not a uh there's no elevator to the tree thing. I was no, you know. I mean, it's it is all the little things that you can get now as a hunter, you know. Even when I went and visited you and you took me on the tour of the Mossy Oak, and was the guy Mr. Fox, the guy that uh Toxie Hayes started Mossy Oak, and then his father was Fox Hayes. The guys that just passed away? Fox, Mr. Fox, Mr. Fox, yeah. So I watched that documentary, but being even at Mossy Oak and seeing like how that they came up with all the camo patterns and how they took like actual, you know, vegetation in it's a pretty remarkable.

SPEAKER_07 59:10

It's come a long way since not that long ago. How long ago? 70s, 80s. I mean, they were started in 86. Um, and back then there was only one other company that was making camouflage specifically for hunting. Um, so yeah, back then it was much more like mom and pop type shops and people making products and innovating, and and it's changed quite a bit. Now there's stuff for everything.

SPEAKER_01 59:31

And to what they stand for, just what they've done in so many from the from like replanting the trees and all the good stuff that they that Mossy Oak.

SPEAKER_07 59:38

Yeah, man, it's like it's like anything you probably saw in your career too. It's like they say don't meet your role models, don't meet your heroes. Um, I got to, when I was filming for a living, I filmed Toxie Hayes for an episode, and he I see him at church a lot now, and I doubt he remembers this, but I was filming him and he treated me just like I was a friend of his, and I got to see him working on his land. And sometimes people will do things for pictures or for content to have the appearance. That guy loves it. He's out there covered in dirt, covered in smoke, working the land, and just loves everything that he stands for and the brand stands for. Um, so I got to 100% see the very legitimate, very legitimate people, and uh definitely like a case of you on that one, it was okay to meet my heroes because they lived up to it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:23

Yeah, I I really enjoyed going over to see the Mossy Oaks up and then getting the would just get the the sort of the backroom tour of just all the different pieces over the years and how it started and to sort of think because their camera, I mean it really is. It's it's like there's really there's uh there's other people that do it, obviously, but there's there's something about theirs that just is I went on when I went on my hike. I tell me I gone out to the woods, I love my kids are all on now. You saw them.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:47

That's from when I went to the master next now. When I went over to the Masio, they I left with like five bags of of colors. Even Sean got some, did you? Yeah, Sean got some stuff. I came back, I was like, hey man.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:58

Well, it's cool too, because like they started with it was this bottom land, obviously different colors. This is faded out, but it's kind of a nostalgic thing now where it's like it works great, but it's also like cool, it's a cool throwback. Well, where would you hunt it with that cut camo on? I'd hunt anywhere in the world with this.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:14

I literally almost wore that exact same shirt today. I was looking through my claws, I was like, what's something that'll fit with uh Zach and Mary? And that was like super cool with that. And I was I think that's one of the shirts I ended up getting too.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:25

Yep, I wish you would have worn it. That would have been cool. Unbelievable. You should have done it, you should have listened to your instinct. That was God saying, show up and fanboy Zach. I would have loved it. Yeah, yeah, they might as well be.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:41

No, they're cool, man. They do a lot for the sport too.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:44

It's um it was cool at the NWTF. Um, I hadn't got there yet, but it would with uh at the party, and uh um there was a musical guest that made a big surprise. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:54

Luke, oh, and Luke Combs showed up at the party. Yeah, that was pretty neat. They had um they have a good relationship with Luke Combs and they had their party, which is to raise money for their, I believe it's for their stamp that they do. So they have a stamp that all the money that is made from it goes back to conservation efforts. Um they had a party at NWTF and uh they had hired Luke's band to come play. It was at his bar, but Luke had said he was out of town or or whatever. And um, at some point during the show, he walked out on stage and played four or five songs, and it was it was kind of a nod to to the family after after Mr. Fox passed away. So that was a pretty neat thing that he did. Um but they just you see a lot of comp or brands that pop up that are just trying to pull money out of something. Um, and they I mean it's you just don't see a lot of privately owned companies like that that still have a heartbeat and a soul and give back to the community that they're a part of. Because like if we don't have wild turkeys to hunt, you don't really need camouflage, do you? Didn't he bring the turkeys to Mississippi? Mr. Fox was a big part of that. That's what the film you're talking about, the Colonel and the Fox. Um, him in that film, it's about him and a guy named Tom Kelly, who's uh an author. But yeah, and uh I would say it was I'm not a historian, but 50s or 60s, there was not very many turkeys at all in that part of the world, and they were a big part of bringing them back and repopulating them to where now we have a huntable population in 49 states.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:14

Do you when you dream, do you dream about turkeys?

SPEAKER_07 1:03:17

Um, yeah, like nightmares where they're like really big and they're trying to kill me. Really? Yeah, because like it's it's a pretty unfair game that we play with them because like I can mess up infinite infinite amount of times. If they mess up once, the game's over for them. Yeah. So if they had guns, be a problem. How many what what would be the score be?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:37

Really bad. I'd be I'd be losing real bad. Yeah, I I feel like there's there's some type of comic strip there that that uh it but I feel but I feel like the person that's gonna narrate the turkey voice would be Jason Hart.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:51

But like of all the animals like in the world, turkeys wouldn't be the ones winning. It'd be like mountain lions and then Bigfoot. Yes. Think about how many mountain lions have you ever seen in the wild? Uh never. I've only ever seen one, and I imagine a lot more than one have seen me. Was was it did it was it close to you? Was it gonna like I glass? No, the one I saw was pretty far away. We were glassing it and it we were glassing a big mule deer, and it actually stalked in and scared the mule deer away. It was a young cat and was hunting it. Um, but that's the only one I remember seeing in the wild. And I always think I've spent a lot of time in that country where they live. I'm like, yeah, you know they've seen me, but I just haven't seen them in Bigfoot, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:30

You'll see them like too. You watch the videos of them approaching something, and it's crazy. Like they will be looking at the predator and they'll step over like little twigs, they'll know that there's a twig there to make it like they're just so precise, or they'll stop in like a position for and hold it forever, forever and just wait. I mean, that's why I don't want house cats. Yeah, if they were bigger, they'd kill you. See, I I I I personally with cats, I've never been a cat person. I just I my dad hated cats because his he had a bunny rabbit when he was a kid, and his next door neighbor had a cat and it killed his bunny rabbit. And for never forget, then he kind of put it in my mind like cats. Like, I'm not opposed to cats, but I just I don't opposed to them because they're ungrateful, yeah, and they're they're hateful. Uh what Sean, what are the name of the really big ones? They're called the Pumbas or like a panther? No, they they're home, they're they're home cats. My neighbor has one.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:24

Oh, oh, uh Mancoon.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:26

Mancoon, okay. True story. My neighbor has a mancoon. Caleb has one of those big like leopard cats. Okay, yeah. So this is twice the size. This is like a little horse, it's as big as oaks. This cat, they call him Jeffrey, okay. And no joke, he he will smoke a cigarette and have a martini guy like, hello. Oh, it's funny you're here, just so you know, I like him. I'll end you. But he can go to the bathroom, can't make it up. He goes to the downstairs bathroom, climbs up on the toilet, and flushes it.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:53

I don't trust him.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:54

I was like, What? Excuse me, what's happening here? And like you and he territorial over his bathroom. He will be like, and He is it is it's it's it's unnerving. I'm like, that thing is planning to kill you from the moment it hits you. There's nothing they just prance around, cough up a hairball, you know, and then they lay on the ground all day. I I'm not sure. I mean, I'm sure people out there love their cats, but you're playing with fire. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:20

It's like people that have giant snakes, uh, Tiger King.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:24

And then the dude, the bear guy, the guy that tried to live with bears, and the bears ate him.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:28

They say people who have uh like cats 100% get m crazy parasites from them. Yeah, that may be what you have. You've been hanging out with Jeffrey too much. No, no, no, no, no. I had a case just for the people there. I uh uh I had a little bit of the squirts the last couple days. My time they came into town and my tummy uh kept running to the bathroom. It's how it's how actors get really lean. We we pick up uh a bacteria, and uh I ate I ate some uh I don't know what I ate, but the last two days I was shitting my pants. That's why I'm not trying to be healthy anymore.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:02

Why? Because like you're eating healthy stuff and you're pooping your pants. I'm over here eating donuts and I'm cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:07

Yep, that's true. I say if you want to get backed up and not shit for a couple days, just be fat. Just you're not miserable. Not at all. Um I want to ask you just that there was one story that um you guys talked about uh and it was a sort of a turning point for you guys, I think with your you were on uh on a road trip, you were had your R V and and and what happened there?

SPEAKER_07 1:07:33

That's the weirdest 24 hours of my life. Uh you want the full version? Yeah. Okay, there I was. Oh no, we were in we were in Nebraska in a tiny, tiny little town, and we were at a pub, and this old lady came up, and her name was Nancy. And she said, I'm the town crazy lady. My name's Nancy. She said, I've had two husbands, but I killed both of them. She just keeps going. And she says, Uh, I have a pretty impressive Santa Claus collection. I was like, How many Santa's do you have? 10,000. She said, You need to come see them. And I said, Yes, I do. So she gave me a business card and it had Santa on one side, and on the other side, it had a picture of her on a horse waving, and it said, Come see me, I'm always home, which I always thought was funny. I'm always home.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:16

And uh so then that night, we were younger, we didn't have a kid, we were hanging out in their bar in the small town Nebraska, which was a great vibe. And uh, we probably had a few too many drinks, and it was just a crazy, it was just a weird night. And then the next morning we wake up, everybody's moving a little bit slow. We go to Nancy's house. Well, Nancy, she has 10,000 Santa Clauses in her house. She's nuts. We go to the basement. She wants to show you every single one. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. And it's so like upstairs, there was themed rooms like Cardinal Santa room, uh Christmas Santa room, outdoor Santa room. Does it does it smell like mothballs? It was really hot, and yes, it smelled bad. But upstairs, it was like not over the top. There was a lot of Santa, but it wasn't like over the top. Yeah, and she's like, Come see the basement. Oh God. Yes. So we go down, it's just it's bad. And shag carpet from the 70s, and there's 10,000 Santa's in a basement of all sizes, like your size down to the miniatures. And it kept going down the line, and we're like, this is weird. And it kept getting weirder. And as we get to the back, she's like, What is this Santa Claus made of? That's a bowling pen and camera and all these objects. And then it was teeth. And I'm like, Oh, that's that's dental Santa. Like, what? She's making Santa Claus out of random objects. Then she hands Mary a ring box with a little brown Santa on top of it, and she said, What is this made of? I have no idea. She said, Well, what does a dog give you as a gift? Is that dog shit Santa? She had taken a dog turd and put it on a ring box and painted Santa Claus on it, and that was it. And I'm like, We're about to see dead husband Santa in a minute. This is getting weird. Check, please. It was getting weird. So anyway, we left. And uh nice lady, whatever. So that was just a weird morning, and we're driving from there to Wyoming to a charity hunt, and we hit South Dakota, everything's fine, everybody's sleepy, so they're asleep, and it's right on sunset. Leonard Skinner, Tuesday's Gone was on the radio. And I remember I had uh an eye patch hanging on my mirror that was one of my old friends that had passed away, and he used to travel with Leonard Skinner. So when I heard Tuesday is gone, come on, I just kind of leaned up and flicked it. And when I flicked it, I looked over and I saw flames in my rearview mirror. The RV had caught fire. So I yelled fire, pulled over on the side of the road as quick as I could. And we had uh truck cars are flying by? Yeah, this was on the interstate outside of Wall, South Dakota. So just and um looking back, terrible idea at the time. We didn't think anything of it. It was a 42-foot fifth wheel with a like a toy hauler. So we our camera guy brought his dog on the trip, and um, he kept his dog in a kennel in the back in the toy hauler, which seems fine. Like I wouldn't question it, right? Well, that's where the fire was. So he bails out and he runs to the back. And um I ran around the side and he was yelling the dog's name. And he opened that back door and just black smoke rolled out, and uh he just froze, he froze. He's yelling the dog's name, but he froze. But the dog's in a crate, the dog's not coming out. So I went in and crawled on the floor to where the crate was, and it was one of those plastic cheap crates, and I just kind of smashed it and broke it, got the dog out, and I threw the dog out. And um, hindsight, not probably the smartest move because on those, that's where the fuel tanks sit under the floor. So there's 40 gallons of gasoline under your where I was crawling. Threw the dog out, and um he wound up passing away a smoke inhalation, so like just bad deal. And Mary um Forrest is running crazy. She let him out. There's cactuses. Mary's freaking out, trying to call 911. The 911 calls kind of hard to listen to. I had gone around the back side of the camper and was trying to unhook my truck from it. And I was able to. Hindsight, I should have let the truck burn, but I unhooked the truck and she didn't know where I was, and she thought I was inside the RV. Oh wow. So she's panicked thinking that I'm trapped inside, dying. And um all of a sudden I drove out from under the RV, smashed my bed, and got her hindsight. Keeping the truck was a good idea because I was able to put her and I I got Cody was on the ground next to the dog, giving the dog CPR. And I'm like, man, this thing's gonna blow up. And I I got him away, drove up, and we got up on a hill, talked to 911, and watched it burn to the ground. And at the time it was like, you know, I took out a loan to buy all this camera gear. My cameras are in there, my hard drives are in there, all of my equipment, guns, ammo, call all the sentimental stuff, the dog being obviously the worst, and um just sitting there watching it burn, like, well, we're done. Wow, like what we tried.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:04

What what year is this?

SPEAKER_07 1:13:06

I think it was 22. So you're yeah, 22.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:09

So you guys were in a full rhythm of making content.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:11

We had just kind of started hitting our stride a little bit, and then and that happened, and um yeah, it was just I thought we were we're done. Like we'll we'll never come back from this. Is kind of how it felt in the moment. And obviously, the dog is the worst of it, and it's like then we have a dog, and we go to a hotel, and I had a I only had one set of clothes, what was on my back, all of us did, yeah, because everything burned. And I had a mossy oak bottom land hoodie, and it had holes on it because when I went in, fire was falling on me, and I have a tramp stamp on my back scar. It's a good one. It's a good looking tramp stamp.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:50

It's a good looking scar. I seen that the other morning. I said, Well, well, Zach. That's a nice scar.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:56

Uh but not just I remember just being kind of wide-eyed walking into that hotel, like, I need a room, you know. Yeah, yeah. And then I'm getting a sheet to wrap this dog in to put the dog in the bedroom next to us, yeah, so the next morning when we can figure out what to do. And so the dog did the dog die outside? Yeah, he wasn't able to be right back then. No. And then um, so that's super sad. And um, you know, shout out Mitch Petrie. He was coming to the event. He started the podcast with Mary originally. I called, he was one of the first people I called, and uh he got in his truck and drove straight there and was there for us. And so we had the next day had to go shopping and just buy the the basic necessities, right? Um, so yeah, it was like one of those moments where I thought everything was over, and then the next day I go, Mary's like, please just go look through what's left and see if there's anything left. And I walked up there, it's a burnout frame, there's nothing left. And uh she's like, just look. So I went in there and the bedroom was still intact, but it was just burnt. And uh there was my hard drive. I put all our footage on a hard drive and it was burnt, and I'm like, I didn't have a backup of that, so everything we just worked for is gone.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:08

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:09

And then I look over on the nightstand, and her Bible's sitting on the nightstand, and it's not burned. And I was like, all right. So I got it, I gave it to her, and so nothing, not a burn on it. I mean, you can tell it's it's actually sitting right over here. Um she still uses it every day. Yeah, and that kind of made the hair stand up on my arms a little bit. And then in the front of the RV, there I put every single turkey vest in the back. They all burned. There was one, Mary's. I put it at the front and it burned. But before we had left the prior trip, Mo Pitney was with us, and he Mary asked to borrow his box call and he said, Give it back to me, it's important to me. She forgot. She had his box call. And um, I I can't remember the name of the verse off the top of my head, but it says, Those who call in the name of the Lord will be saved. That was stuck in her vest, and the handle of it was kind of burnt, like charred looking, and it stopped when you pulled it out of the vest, and that's where the Bible verse stopped. Oh wow. And I was like, Okay, all right, I hear you. Yeah, yeah. Um, so that was I think a pretty big moment in I guess the brand in our lives too of like what are we doing? Like, why are we doing what we're doing? Should there be a bigger purpose to what we're doing, other than patting our own egos or whatever it is?

SPEAKER_04 1:16:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:27

Um, so that moment, which at the time seemed terrible, in the long run wound up being, you know, anything you can, obstacle you get over winds up making you stronger in the long run anyway. But I think it changed our focus quite a bit. And in the long run, I'd say we're in a better place because of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:44

Now, speaking of, so the walk me through so the viewers at home can find you guys and watch you guys. Where where can we catch the two of you doing your stuff?

SPEAKER_07 1:16:56

Well, she started country outdoors, so anything country outdoors on any platform, you should be able to find us. And then uh we started another YouTube channel, Zach and Mary, very original. Type in Zach and Mary, and you'll either see Zach and Mary made a porno or you'll see Zach and Mary hunting.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:10

Which one's you?

SPEAKER_07 1:17:11

Hunting. Uh hunting, yeah. I tried that one, didn't I tried that in the city?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:18

It's crazy that there's something Zach and Mary made a porno.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:20

No, I used to be an actor. But no, that movie does, yeah, that might pop up when you search our names, but that's okay. That's not us.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:27

So if there, if there's a kid watching right now or somebody that a dad that wants to take their their son or their daughter, and they never held a rod or never shot a gun, or you know, what what what do you want to tell them? Like where do they start?

SPEAKER_07 1:17:40

Man, there's so many resources out there to learn nowadays. Uh, between YouTube and internet, every state agency has hunter safety courses that you have to take to get a license anyway. I would say start there. Take your kid to a hunter safety class because it's things that they should learn and know anyway. Yeah. Gun safety, all these things. Um, but aside from that, it's like I definitely encourage people to do it and learn it. Start with something attainable and do it. There's so many important life lessons there from patience, perseverance, safety, and just like consequences and things like that too.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:10

I think you should bring bring they should start coming to the NWTF because that's a great, like you get to meet like the community of hunters is an awesome community. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:19

If I break down on the side of the road and someone pulls over to help me, I hope they're wearing a Mossio cat.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:23

Yeah. Yeah. It's just it's good people. It's really good people. And and that's the one thing that I've I've been blown away by. And too, even with like you guys, just the like for me, you know, finding my faith again. You've been very instrumental with that, with sending me things and and and with the last year and a half or whatever, just with ups and downs, and and just telling me to lean in. And so I really I do I do really appreciate well. I'm on that same journey of like trying. Yeah, trying. I mean, we're you gotta put one foot in front of the other one step at a time. But I I I I I I I really love and adore you and your wife, man. You guys have been very instrumental on my own journey, going out on my own. You've given me a lot of confidence, and um have always sort of had my back with me relaunching this channel um and with finding my faith again. So I appreciate you, brother.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:12

Well, I really do. Same for same goes for you. I mean, like, I look up to you in a lot of ways, and not to it's like stroke your ego by complimenting your humility. I that's a weird one. I have a huge ego, stroke your ego by complimenting your humility. But like, you know, that day I met you, it's like, oh, that's a he's a Hollywood guy. And I'm like, not that I thought of a negative, right? But I had a picture in my head of what this was going to be like and completely opposite.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:35

Well, did I I still had a spray tan though from the. Yeah. Pew pew pew pew pew. This town ain't big enough for the two of us. And I probably did have the spray tan because I was filming at the time. So I was very, I was a golden god at the time. When you came to NWTF, I found an empty can of spray tan in the room and oh yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, dude. You got you gotta spray, you gotta get get ready for NWTF. You spray your face down.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:58

I think it looked great.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:59

Oh, yeah, golden god, man. Mossy Oak needs to come out with a spray tan called the Mossy Oak. Well, it's easier to hide.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:10

Well, you've okay, so also NWTF two years ago, um, I had one friend tell me straight to my face, he's like, You're looking pretty fat. And you didn't call me fat, but you were just like, Hey, here's a roadmap to be not fat. And that was that was you didn't call me fat, but he my friend did. Uh, but that wound up being super helpful. So you're like my doctor now, yeah, my health guide. But I don't know if I want to listen as much now that you're shitting your pants every day.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:34

Well, that was because I think it was whatever we ate during the day. I don't know. I don't know. It was I don't know, but that was bad. But I it could have been a virus. My son's had something. You guys had something a while ago, too. Now that you're better, I want to learn about biohacking because I don't know if we're gonna, we're gonna um you're gonna do the cold punch of the sauna and the the uh the um hydrogen machine and then the ewap machine and the hyperbaric machine. We're gonna put you through it, man. So I'm gonna learn about the hacking and then we'll keep on the hunting thing this fall. Yeah, we're gonna do this fall. I'm knowing how to shoot a bow now. We need to do it. I do. I'm very excited about it. Well, Zach, I appreciate you coming on the show. Thanks so much. Anyone that wants to go check out Mary and Zach, go look at anything country outdoors, and these two beautiful people will show up. Thank you so much for watching another episode of the AJ Buffalo Show. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share. Tell your mama, tell a friend, AJ Buffy Show. Thanks so much.