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This week, Cal talks secretarial order 3442, bear butchery, cats on broadway, and so much more.

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Like most whitetail hunters, I learned to hunt with company. For me, it was my dad, his brothers, and a few of their buddies. Swapping stories around a campfire, ribbing each other about misses, backslapping over notched tags, and arguing about where the deer are moving have always been part of deer-hunting culture, but if you always have someone in the next stand over, you’re missing out on a different side of the game.

Hunting alone changes the way you move and make decisions. There’s no one to bounce ideas off. You have to look harder for sign. And when you finally get a deer on the ground, the long haul back to the truck is all up to you. But the flip side is, you don’t have to compromise on where to sit or when to move. You can slip through the woods quietly, leave less scent, and stay more flexible.

One of my favorite bucks came from a solo hunt. I slipped into the woods alone when it was still dark, made the shot just as the world was turning gray, and reached for my phone only to realize I didn’t have a single bar of service. There were no bragging texts, no calls for help, just me, that buck, and a golden sunrise weaving its way through the trees. I sat there in the quiet for a few minutes before pulling out my knife and getting to work. I’ll never forget how good that felt. Deeply satisfying, and all mine.

That push toward self-reliance sharpens everything. Hunting solo forces you to read the woods, and those lessons carry over into every season, whether you’re hunting with a few buddies or on your own.

Planning matters more than ever when you head into the woods alone. There’s no buddy to help if you get turned around, twist an ankle, or tag a deer. While I like to keep my honey holes private, I always tell a family member where I plan to hunt, how I’m going to get in, and when I expect to be back at the truck. If something goes wrong and I don’t check in, at least they’ll know where to start looking.

Good planning also means thinking through access. When you’re by yourself, you need routes that get you in clean and give you a realistic way to get a deer out. Sometimes that means hunting closer to the road than you’d prefer. Sometimes it means knowing where the ridge is less steep so you can drag a buck out without wrecking yourself in the process.

Digital tools make this easier. Mapping apps, like onX, let you mark stand locations, track entry routes, and drop pins. You can even share them with someone you trust to keep your spots quiet but accessible if you don’t check in.

While technology is awesome, it isn’t an excuse to totally ditch the old-school stuff. I still keep a paper map and a compass in my pack, because batteries die, screens freeze, and cell service can be spotty where I hunt. Toting all of that may seem redundant, but I like to think of it as insurance.

When you’re hunting with a buddy, there’s always some back-and-forth in both the planning and execution process. Hunting alone takes all of that chatter out of the equation. Every single call is yours alone, for better or worse.

That can feel like some serious pressure, but it’s also pretty liberating. It allows you the space to trust your gut and move (or not move) without debate. If the wind shifts or you come across some fresh tracks, you can simply pick and reset. Deer hunting is full of opportunities for quick choices, and going it alone speeds up the decision-making process.

It’s also easy to sink into analysis paralysis. It’s easy to start second-guessing yourself when you don’t have a buddy to confirm or debate your plan. Deer hunters make mistakes all the time, and it can sting to screw up a good hunt, especially when there’s no one to blame but yourself. However, if you lean into the basics, like wind direction and prime deer movement times, you are less likely to make big blunders.

If you never make mistakes, you’re far less likely to learn. And at the end of the day, the woods are a better teacher than any hunting buddy. Every decision you make solo, good or bad, sticks with you. And those lessons pile up faster when you’re the only one calling the shots.

Hunting by yourself means you don’t have the safety net of your partner’s gear. If you forget a knife or (heaven forbid) toilet paper, you can’t just borrow some from your buddy’s backpack. That makes it worth checking and rechecking your kit before you hit the woods.

At the top of the list is communication. You’ll need a way to call for help if something goes south. A cell phone is easy, but only if you have service, and there is plenty of prime deer-hunting real estate in dead zones. A satellite messenger like a Garmin inReach, SpotX, or Zoleo is worth the investment if you hunt remote spots. Even if you never hit the SOS button, being able to send a check-in text keeps people from worrying. Plus, knowing you can call for help at any time provides some serious peace of mind.

A well-stocked first aid kit is also a smart move. It should have at least enough to treat basic cuts, blisters, and sprains—enough to keep you moving long enough to get back to the truck. Toss in a tourniquet if you know how to use it. One bad slip with a broadhead or knife can turn serious fast. That’s when a tourniquet could save your life.

Add a headlamp (and a backup), fire starter, space blanket, snacks, and water, and you’re prepared for almost anything the woods could throw your way. You don’t need to pack like a TV survivalist, but one bad fall can turn a routine sit into a long, cold night.

When it comes to deer recovery, solo hunters have to think ahead. A drag rope, sled, or deer cart can save your back and shave hours off a pack-out. If you’ve ever hauled a buck out by hand for a mile, you know it’s no joke. I once dragged a buck half a mile uphill before I finally bought a sled, and I’ve never gone back.

Big-bodied bucks may be too much to move whole, especially if you’re hunting deep. In that case, quartering is the smart play. Clean game bags will keep your meat safe on multiple trips.

Navigation is another must. Apps like onX are great, but you should always have a backup compass and paper map. Phones die. Electronics fail. You don’t want to realize that when it’s already dark and you’re three ridges from the truck.

None of this is flashy. But it can be the difference between a solo hunt that’s tough in a good way and one that goes sideways fast. Pack smart, double up on the essentials, and you’ll stack the odds in your favor.

Hunting alone isn’t about trying to prove you’re some sort of backwoods badass. Instead, it gives you the chance to slow down, pay attention, and take full responsibility for your hunt. With some practice, you’ll learn to notice more sign, catch more shifts in the wind, and trust your gut without the input of a buddy.

Dragging a buck out all by yourself can flat-out suck, and you’ll probably cuss your way through more than a few mistakes. But you’ll come out on the other side a better deer hunter. And the next time you and your buddies are swapping stories around a tailgate, you’ll know you’ve got the skills to get it done, whether anyone’s around or not.

Late last month, I pulled up to a field site at first light to start a long day of turkey habitat surveys. My work as a wildlife research technician takes me to both public and private land, but this site happened to be on one of my favorite wildlife areas: a lakeside section with forested draws and fields of native tallgrass.

I slowed my truck to a crawl so I could scan the fields for a reddish-brown back or a tail flicking. I usually spot a doe or two out feeding when I get there early–but that time, I saw tines. Enormous tines. He raised his head, and I locked eyes with the biggest mainframe eight I had ever seen on huntable public ground.

The dog days of summer bring unique resource requirements for a whitetail buck, and a brief window to dial in on them for early-season success. No doubt there were a few unknowable reasons why the buck I saw was standing exactly where he stood that morning. But, the basic advantages of the location he chose were obvious, and a perfect example of what to look for while preparing for opening day.

The first thing to consider relates to exactly what that buck was doing when I spotted him: feeding.

A huge part of the whitetail industry revolves around nutrition. It’s nearly impossible to get through preseason preparations without hearing something about food plots, feeders, and minerals. However, supplemental feeding is intended to be just that–supplemental to a whitetail's natural diet.

When searching for a hotspot of daytime buck activity, natural food sources are a great place to begin. Late-summer bucks are entering the final stages of antler development and will soon transition to packing on pounds by late September in preparation for the rut. All of that growth makes protein a key nutrient in the early season, so protein-rich forage is a magnet for whitetail activity.

This includes widespread forbs such as tick-trefoils, ragweeds, and goldenrods, which thrive along hard transitions and within healthy grasslands–like the one that big eight was grazing in. These native food sources are extra valuable where high-protein crops, such as soybeans and alfalfa, are scarce. Even in a row-crop heavy area, a secluded patch of forbs is still favorable for all-day use by a wary whitetail.

Soft masts are also a high-value food source for deer in the heat of summer, offering a refreshing punch of sugars and vitamins. Pokeweed, persimmon, and wild grapes are a few common soft mast producers that are highly attractive to whitetails. Their fruits ripen between late summer and early fall, making them ideal to locate for both preseason scouting and early-season hunting. Shrublands, soft transitions, and open-canopy forests are all good places to find pockets of primetime berries that are likely to draw predictable deer movement.

Succulent forbs and soft masts are also a significant source of hydration in a whitetail’s summer diet, but not enough to survive on. To make it through the hottest days of the year, even trophy bucks need some plain old water.

Remember where that big eight was standing? In a field full of goldenrod goodness, sure. But also within spitting distance of a quiet lakeshore. Preseason into early season is often the hottest and driest time of year, and the metabolic demands within a buck’s body only increase as the rut draws closer. During this time of intense need and scarcity, a savvy whitetail will not stray far from a reliable source of life’s most essential nutrient.

E-scouting with an app such as onX Hunt is the best place to start pinpointing possible ambush locations over water. Isolated ponds, secluded coves on lakes and reservoirs, and low-water crossings on large creeks and rivers are prime spots to investigate. But not all of these water sources are created equal in the eyes of a whitetail.

Location and context within the broader landscape are key to determining whether a water hole is worth the investment of a trail camera or tree stand. A stock pond on a walk-in property might hold the most dependable water for miles around, but if it sits within a thousand acres of overgrazed cattle pasture, it’s unlikely to offer workable deer activity.

Like any other resource, a water hole has to offer the right cover for a buck to feel comfortable slipping in for a few sips during shooting light.

There are a lot of variables when it comes to whitetail bedding behavior, but one of the biggest is temperature. Heat stress not only pressures deer to bed closer to water, but also influences the type of cover they prefer to bed in. The late-season strategy of targeting south-facing slopes for deer looking to curl up in the morning sun is not a winner for early September, when the sun is still an oppressive force in whitetail country.

The objective for an early-season buck is to stay cool and concealed, which means the right balance of visual cover, shade, and good ventilation. Dense forest understories can look like the perfect place for a deer to hide from the outside. But step into the jungle, and you’ll find an unpleasant combination of high humidity and stagnant air. Bucks looking for summer thermal cover typically gravitate to grass-dominant swales, creek bottoms, and shrublands instead, where they can hunker down in the shade and still catch a cool breeze.

Find some cozy summer bedding close to good food and water, and you might be in for a spicy September opener.

Hosts Brody Henderson, Ryan Callaghan, and Randall Williams talk with Brian DeBolt from the Wyoming Game & Fish Department about a series of cascading roadkill incidents in the state, get a wide ranging Rut Report from the elk woods, chat with Conservation Land Foundation CEO Chris Hill about the consequences of a Roadless Rule rescission, stew in some harsh truths about hunting, and get a sneak peek at the brand new MeatEater Store opening in Milwaukee.

Watch the live stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel.

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Sometimes there's a delicate balance between being responsible and adhering to rules. Brent's waxing poetic about gravel roads and what he refers to as treasure from a time in his youth. He brings up a situation that forces him to weigh the difference between being on time, versus doing what's right. Conflicting rules, one imposed by his mother, and the other imposed by his own conscience. It's "This Country Life" time right here on the Bear Grease channel.

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For such a relatively simple device, gun suppressors generate a tremendous amount of confusion. What does it mean for a suppressor to be “full-auto rated”? Do suppressors slow down a bullet or reduce accuracy? Why do some suppressors have barrel length restrictions? What metals are used to build them? Which are the most effective?

To help answer these questions and more, I reached out to Lukas VanLaecken, the director of engineering and manufacturing for Silencer Central. Silencer Central sells suppressors from many manufacturers, but they also make their own, and Lukas oversees the engineering and R&D work for their new and existing products. I can’t think of a better person to answer some of the most frequently asked suppressor questions, and I was excited to sit down with him for a wide-ranging interview.

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Before we get to some FAQs, what are some terms we should know when we’re talking about suppressors?

The side that attaches to the firearm is called the breach end, so you might hear the term breach cap or breach mount. That's the part that installs onto the firearm. The part at the end of the suppressor where the projectile exits is called the muzzle end, just like the muzzle of the gun. Those can get confusing because people think the muzzle end of the suppressor should attach to the muzzle of the gun, when it’s actually the opposite.

Other than that, you've got a main tube on most suppressors. That’s just the outer tube portion. And then the baffle system within the suppressor. There are different designs and types of baffles, but they're all doing the same thing: suppressing sound.

What does it mean for a suppressor to be “user-serviceable”?

Anything you can take apart, we call user-serviceable–if you can remove the baffles, remove the end cap, muzzle cap, things like that. The ones that are not user-serviceable are called just that, though you might also hear terms like fully welded or 3D-printed.

Why are some serviceable and others aren’t?

When you're looking at .22 Long Rifle suppressors and any pistol caliber, the preference across the board would be to be serviceable because of how dirty those rounds are, how much buildup you get. You want to make sure you can clean out all that carbon and maintain the correct weight of the suppressor.

But as soon as you get outside of .22 LR and pistols, really any high-powered rifle suppressors, you'll see both user serviceable and non-user serviceable. I'd say the industry is trending more towards non-serviceable because most of the carbon is going to get blown out as you're shooting over time. You’ll still get carbon buildup if you're shooting thousands of rounds, but as long as you clean it in regular intervals, you shouldn’t build up too much weight.

The other advantage of serviceable suppressors is if you do have a baffle strike or endcap strike, it's a lot easier and cost effective to replace those damaged parts rather than replacing a whole section of the suppressor that's welded together. You can just replace one baffle or one end cap that's damaged.

What causes a baffle strike?

The main cause is from suppressors shooting loose. With the majority of direct-thread and even some quick-detach mounts, the different metals in the suppressor and the barrel expand at different rates as they get hot. The suppressor starts to loosen up and not be aligned properly, and then you'll get grazing or strikes throughout the suppressor, which is usually more common with longer suppressors than shorter ones.

Other specialty cases might be if you're running certain ammo. On some subsonics, you get tumbling that can potentially cause a baffle strike, but that’s not as common.

How does a suppressor impact the velocity of the bullet?

It actually speeds it up a little bit. It's 10 or 15 feet per second, which isn't drastic, but it’s almost acting like an extension of the barrel.

What about point-of-impact shift?

Since you’re adding weight to the barrel, you're going to usually see a point of impact shift from suppressed to unsuppressed. Just make sure you sight it in with the suppressor on because there could be a few inches of movement one way or the other. But once it's sighted in, you're good to go.

Do suppressors reduce recoil?

Yes. It adds weight on the end of the gun, and it also acts as a brake. It's pulling that gun forward as that air is hitting those baffles. So, it's reducing the recoil. Some suppressors, like the MeatEater Banish, also can mount an anchor brake to the end of the suppressor to further reduce recoil.

Do suppressors impact accuracy?

Not usually. Once you've got the scope dialed in to account for the point of impact shift, your accuracy should be just as good as it is unsuppressed. Depending on the gun build, some users can see barrel harmonic issues, which can impact the accuracy. It's pretty uncommon, but we come across it every once in a while, especially with bigger, heavier suppressors.

What is “first round pop” and why is it louder in some suppressors?

Before the baffles, you've got the blast chamber. This is the section of the suppressor before the bullet gets to the first baffle. The size of that blast chamber plays a big role in “first round pop.” On the first shot, the suppressor is full of cool oxygen, and the unburnt powder is coming out and exploding in that blast chamber. That's why the first round will be a little bit louder. But a larger blast chamber is going to help with sound suppression just because you have more volume there.

Why are some suppressors quieter than others?

Length and diameter are big factors. The more volume you have, the quieter it's going to be, generally speaking. So, if you took the same baffle system from a smaller suppressor versus a bigger suppressor, you're going to get better suppression from the bigger one.

It also depends on how the baffles are designed to cause cross-jetting. As the bullets pass through the bore of the suppressor, you want to get as much cross-jetting or turbulent flow going sideways. The more turbulence that you can induce into that air, the longer it will stay in the suppressor. So, if you can get that air or that pressure wave to dwell in the suppressor longer, then it's going to be quieter by the time it exits because it's just taking that much more energy out of it.

What are some suppressors designed for pistols and others for rifles?

If you look at a pistol suppressor versus a high-power rifle suppressor, you'll see different styles of baffle design. That's mainly due to the velocity of the round that's going through it and how the geometry of the baffle allows the pressure wave to flow through the suppressor. If we compare a pistol suppressor to a rifle suppressor, a lot of common baffle designs on a rifle suppressor are going to be a tall, steep cone shape. On the other hand, pistol suppressors will have shorter and flatter cone-shaped baffles. And that's just due to how they’re handling the pressure of the rounds.

What are “flow-through” suppressors?

A lot of the newer suppressors designed for semi-automatic guns use different flow paths or bypassing paths that allow some of that pressure to bypass some of the baffles, which doesn’t create as much back pressure into the gun.

Are those going to be louder?

Typically, they are just because you're not suppressing the full blast. You're allowing, say, 10 or 20 percent to bypass and flow through. So, generally, they're a little bit louder. But on gas guns, it makes it a lot more enjoyable to shoot because you don't have all that blowback coming back through the action.

What about caliber-specific suppressors? If you shoot a 5.56 NATO in a .30-caliber suppressor, is it as quiet as using a suppressor designed for 5.56?

Typically, no. A suppressor with a 5.56mm bore is going to be a little bit quieter on that 5.56 NATO compared to a .30-caliber suppressor because the opening on the bore is a lot closer to the bullet size. So, the larger the bore on the suppressor is allowing more air to flow straight through without being stopped by the baffles.

What makes a suppressor “full-auto rated”?

It's based on durability testing. If you’re shooting full-auto, your suppressor is going to get over a thousand degrees. So, that dictates what materials it can be made out of. Most full-auto suppressors are either stainless steel or Inconel due to the temperatures they have to withstand.

But it really depends on what the manufacturer considers “full auto.” You can run five rounds full auto, or you can run 300 rounds full auto. The question is whether the suppressor can hold up to full-auto firing, whatever that schedule is, and not sustain any damage, no baffle erosion, things like that.

For example, the SOCOM firing schedule is a full-auto firing schedule that's posted by US SOCOM. It’s basically eight 30-round magazines in succession for a total of 240 rounds. The suppressor is then allowed to cool, and then that cycle is repeated another eight times. A lot of companies say their suppressor is SOCOM rated. But others will have a more limited full-auto rating, like 90 rounds before you have to allow the suppressor to cool.

What kinds of materials are used to build suppressors?

Aircraft-grade aluminum is typically used on .22-caliber cans and some pistol cans. It's not as strong a material, but it's very light, so as long as you're shooting low-pressure loads through it, it'll hold up just fine.

Then you've got titanium, which is very light and can be used with high-pressure cartridges, but doesn't work as well in the full-auto space because it can't handle those very high temperatures above about 800 degrees.

Past that, you've got 174 stainless steel, which is about twice as heavy or twice as dense as titanium but a lot more durable at high temperatures. It’s lower-cost, too. Stainless steel is very common in a lot of your full-auto stuff, but the trade-off is obviously weight.

One of the newest materials being used is Inconel, which is a nickel alloy similar to stainless steel. It’s about the same weight, but it sustains its properties at very high temperatures. Stainless steel will sustain itself to a high temperature but then it drops off quickly whereas Inconel sustains its properties at that high temperature for a longer period.

Should hunters worry about running a titanium suppressor too hot on a bolt-action rifle?

Typically, on a bolt action, you wouldn't be able to heat it up too much. We've run 40 to 50 rounds as fast as you can load a bolt-action, and the suppressor didn’t hit damaging temperatures. It's hot, you can't touch it, but it hasn't reached a temperature that’s going to start degrading the metal. So, that’s not really a concern if you're just running bolt action. It's really just when you get over to ARs.

Why are some suppressors rated for barrels of a certain length?

It depends on the pressure of the loads that you're shooting and the pressure that's being exerted on the suppressor. If you're shooting a 300 Win. Mag. on a 24-inch barrel, it's going to have a lot less pressure on the suppressor than if you're shooting it on an 18-inch barrel. It really just depends on the construction of the suppressor, the durability of it, if it can handle those higher pressures on the short barrels.

But SAMMI [the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute] actually just published their recommendations, which follow what we’ve done internally. They say that whatever barrel length you recommend, the suppressor should be able to withstand pressure from a barrel 40% shorter. If there’s no damage on the suppressor, it can be rated for that barrel length.

Do suppressors make rifles hearing safe?

The industry standard says 140 decibels is considered hearing safe, but that's really one round over an eight- or twelve-hour period, which isn’t realistic when you’re shooting at the range. The goal in the suppressor industry is to have them be hearing safe, which means under 140 decibels, but every two decibels is twice the sound difference. So, even going from 140 down to 138, you're cutting that sound in half. The further you can get below 140, the longer you can shoot without any damage. I don't know the exact number, but anything that's in the low 130s or below is likely fairly safe to sustain for a longer period.

To see how different suppressors perform with various cartridges and barrel lengths, VanLaecken recommends checking out the data published by ThunderBeast Arms, here.

Where do you see the industry going in the next 10 to 15 years?

Right now, there's a lot of push on the gas gun side of suppressors to try to reduce blowback and make shooting a lot more enjoyable. There’s also a move towards additive manufacturing, 3D printing. I could see that continuing to grow over the next five years and taking over some of the traditional manufacturing. You can do so much more with 3D printing within the baffle systems. You don't have to have just a simple, cone baffle. You can do a lot of intricate channels and things like that that change how it suppresses.

What’s your advice to a hunter looking to purchase their first suppressor?

Thirty caliber is the way to go. That way, you can run it on anything from your 6.5mm all the way up to your 300 Win. Mag., 300 RUM, whatever. It’s a good one-size-fits-all.

If you're a guy who’s deer hunting out of a blind and you only walk in a quarter-mile, maybe weight isn't a big thing, but length is, because you want to be able to move around in your blind. If you're more of a backcountry style hunter and you're hiking in a few miles, then length and weight might be the biggest thing you’re concerned with.

In terms of sound suppression, a bigger cartridge is obviously going to be louder than a smaller one. If you’re shooting a .300 Win. Mag., you might need to go with something a bit bigger and heavier to get the suppression you want. But if you're shooting a 6.5mm or a .243, it's already going to be quite a bit quieter, and the suppressor can be smaller and lighter.

Last Shot

Much more could be said on each of the topics above, but I hope the info was helpful whether you’re looking to purchase your first can or can suppress every rifle in your arsenal. I know I learned a lot, and big thanks to Lukas for taking the time to talk to us.

A Florida bowfishing guide has developed an unusual partnership with the aquatic life of the Gulf of Mexico. For more than a decade, Crystal Bay charter captain Justin Dymond has been attracting pods of dolphins with the underwater flood lights he uses to locate fish for his bowfishing clients. As soon as the fish are visible and stunned by the lights, the dolphins start snatching them.

Lots of anglers know this dynamic all too well, especially in Florida, where one recent study showed that 43% of anglers had experienced depredation of their catch by sharks.

But Dymond says that losing those few fish is completely worth it: in exchange, the dolphins drive fish into shallower water, where bowfishers can more easily see and kill them. Speaking to the Tampa Bay Times about the dolphins, Dymond said, “Every year they get better at hunting. It’s a unique situation where everybody wins.”

Just like feists driving squirrels up trees, Dymond calls the dolphins his quote-unquote “aqua dogs.” He’s even named the individuals who turn up night after night: Crystal, Echo, Bunny, Knuckles, and my favorite, Tetris.

All this might sound like a devoted fan of dolphins assigning intention to a standard behavior like swimming toward schools of fish. But in the videos Dymond posts, you can clearly see a distinct behavior from the dolphins: they form a perimeter around the smaller fish and flap their tails to flush them toward the anglers.

Dymond told MeatEater that although he’s been guiding for almost fifteen years, he only started to see the flushing behavior about seven years ago. At first, it was hard to tell what was happening, but night after night of seven or eight hours on the water, the behavior got stronger and stronger. He said, “Even now, all these years later, I see it and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.”

This is a perfect case of mutualism, where two species adapt to help the other access resources they couldn’t get on their own. Another great example is the African Honeyguide, birds that depend on eating the eggs and larvae of bees to survive but don’t have the tools to break into nests themselves.

But Honeyguides are experts at locating hidden bees nests, and once they find one, they persistently call to humans like a feathered dinner bell. People come break open the nests to get the honey, and the birds stick around to get the grubs. Studies have shown that the Hazda people of Tanzania get as many as 10% of their total calories with the help of Greater Honeyguides.

Researchers had never seen this kind of mutualism with dolphins until they started joining Dymond on his bowfishing trips, but now they are taking advantage of this symbiosis.

Scientists from the University of Florida and the Cedar Key Dolphin Project have been building a photographic database of this population of dolphins as they come in for dinner. They’ve also been able to collect valuable DNA samples by holding petri dishes over the dolphins’ blowholes to catch the spray kicked up as they exhale.

They’ve even observed mature dolphins bringing young calves along for the hunts, as though to train them for future trips. Who knows, maybe generations from now we’ll be calling them Gulf Setters or Floridian Smooth-Skinned Pointers.

Images via Justin Dymond.

This week on the show I'm joined by Derrick Dixon, of Whitetail Research, to discuss how his year-long thermal drone research project has upended his understanding of conventional whitetail wisdom and deer behavior.

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In this Spike Camp episode, the team reflects on their conversation with Zach Sieler and dives deep in how his NFL style training translates to the the backcountry.

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On September 10, the Trump administration announced a proposal to reverse the Public Lands Rule, a Biden administration fingerprint on the Bureau of Land Management that affirmed conservation’s equal-footing status with other uses of BLM lands and established conservation and restoration leasing programs, incentivizing market-based solutions to issues plaguing landscape health and wildlife habitat.

But the proposal revealed more than just how Trump’s DOI has misinterpreted the Public Land Rule’s basic functions — which, despite the agency’s claims otherwise, acknowledged preexisting grazing and mineral leases on BLM lands, left room for compatible extractive uses on lands entered into conservation leases, and stopped short of elevating conservation above other uses of BLM lands. It also revealed how the Trump administration seems to equate conserving public lands with not using them for any “legitimate” purpose at all, a massive departure from what has long been considered a bipartisan consensus on both the intrinsic and economic value of habitat conservation in a fast-developing America.

“The 2024 Public Lands Rule, formally known as the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, made conservation (i.e., no use) an official use of public lands, putting it on the same level as BLM’s other uses of public lands,” a DOI press release announcing the proposal reads. “The previous administration had treated conservation as ‘no use,’ meaning the land was to be left idle rather than authorizing legitimate uses of the land like grazing, energy development or recreation.”

In an environmental context, the widely held definition of “conservation” — including the one the DOI cites in some of its own resources — is the protection of a natural resource through responsible, research-informed, and well-managed use of that resource. Federal law outlines many such uses, but the Trump administration’s list seems to stop after grazing, resource extraction, and recreation. (The DOI did not immediately reply to a request for comment clarifying their definition of “conservation.”)

The best place to find the list of lawful uses of federal public lands is in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), which outlines the multiple-use and sustained yield framework that informs public land management in the United States. In addition to “recreation, range, timber, and minerals,” other lawful uses of public lands include “watershed, wildlife and fish, and natural scenic, scientific, and historical values.”

This section of FLPMA also calls for the “harmonious and coordinated management of the various resources without permanent impairment of the productivity of the land and the quality of the environment” and demands that the federal government consider “the relative values of the resources and not necessarily … the greatest economic return or the greatest unit output.”

And yet, economic return and unit output have been at the forefront of how the Trump administration views the role of public lands in the United States. When the Public Lands Rule passed in May 2024, it was quickly met with extreme distaste in some conservative circles that saw it as an attempt to take BLM lands out of production and, accordingly, put rural Western economies at risk. Perhaps the greatest proof of this dollar-driven dissent was a reactionary piece of legislation titled the Western Economic Security Today Act, which would have required the BLM to overturn the rule change. (It passed the House but got no further.)

Meanwhile, the language about the Public Lands Rule entered in the Federal Register on May 9 highlighted how the rule would avoid such issues in the first place.

“The rule does not prioritize conservation above other multiple uses,” reads the Federal Register entry. “It also does not preclude other uses where conservation use is occurring. Many uses are compatible with different types of conservation use, such as sustainable recreation, grazing, and habitat management. The rule also does not enable conservation use to occur in places where an existing, authorized, and incompatible use is occurring.”

In other words, not a single acre of land already supporting some sort of natural resource extraction lease would be lost to a habitat restoration lease purchased by, say, a conservation non-profit or philanthropist if such a lease were to mess with the preauthorized extractive practice. Additionally, acres entered into conservation leases would be fair game for other compatible uses at the same time.

Critics of the Public Lands Rule were ultimately drowned out by an overwhelming outpouring of approval. Some 92% of the 150,000 comments on the proposal supported it, according to an analysis conducted by the Center for Western Priorities.

​​“Americans know that public lands are central to the Western way of life, and that they will play a pivotal role in the nation’s response to the climate crisis,” CWP executive director Jennifer Rokala said at the time. “The support expressed during the comment period shows that the BLM is on the right track to restoring balance across the West.”

At the time the rule passed, policy experts pointed out that formally elevating conservation to equal footing with other uses was simply reiterating something that had been codified in FLPMA since it passed in 1976. This was also reflected in the Federal Register.

“FLPMA has always encompassed conservation as a land use,” the entry reads. “FLPMA authorizes and obligates the BLM to, within the multiple use framework, protect natural resources, preserve public lands, and provide habitat for fish and wildlife, among other conservation measures.”

But fast forward to Wednesday’s announcement, which insisted that the Public Lands Rule “exceeded the BLM’s statutory authority by placing an outsized priority on conservation or no-use at the expense of multiple-use access, threatening to curtail grazing, energy development, recreation and other traditional land uses.”

“The previous administration’s Public Lands Rule had the potential to block access to hundreds of thousands of acres of multiple-use land – preventing energy and mineral production, timber management, grazing and recreation across the West,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in the press release. “The most effective caretakers of our federal lands are those whose livelihoods rely on its well-being.”

If supporters of the Public Lands Rule saw its emergence as an example of the BLM “restoring balance across the West,” opponents now see its reversal in the exact same light. This further proves that opposing sides of the fracture over the role of federal public lands use the exact same language to express different versions of parallel realities: mismanaged resources, rural economic drivers at risk, and priorities knocked off-kilter by the whims of greedy politicians. Whether the discussion is about one side decimating wildlife habitat and public access at risk to the recreation and tourism industries or the other side locking up timber, minerals, and grass at the risk of the extraction and ag industries, the blueprint is much the same.

The only difference might be that one version of reality is much more popular than the other. So far, it seems to be the one that respects conservation’s role as a lawful use of public lands, whether the Public Lands Rule exists or not.

“At a time when our lands and waters are facing immense and interconnected challenges, such as drought, invasive species, and unprecedented use, undercutting conservation goes against public opinion and common sense,” says David Willms, the National Wildlife Federation’s associate vice president for public lands.

The public comment period will remain open until November 10. Commenters can submit their materials through a portal on the Federal Register.