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In this episode of the Bear Grease podcast, Clay Newcomb interviews California native, Ed Vance. Ed shares his incredible story of determination and perseverance from growing up as a suburban kid just dreaming of hunting to moving to the Sierra Nevada’s in rural California, finding and training dogs, building relationships with hunting mentors, and developing a guide service as a successful dry ground mountain lion and bear hunting guide.

Check out Ed's book at www.trainedbyahounddog.com

A version of this interview played on Bear Hunting Magazine Podcast in 2019.

If you have comments on the show, send us a note to [email protected]

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Do great hunters really shoot a buck every year, or have we just convinced ourselves that’s the standard? In this episode, Jake Hofer sits down with whitetail heavyweights Don Higgins, Bill Winke, Steve Hanson, Thomas Mlsna, Mark Kenyon, Skip Sligh, Bobby Kendall, and Jeff Sturgis to tackle a question that every serious deer hunter has wondered at some point, but rarely hears answered honestly. They dive into what it really takes to find consistent success: the habits, the land, the hours, and the mindset behind year-after-year results. But they also explore the flip side, why even the best hunters eat tag soup some seasons, and why that might not be a bad thing.

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A few weeks ago, I drove out to a local reservoir for an afternoon of fossil hunting. My route took me across the reservoir’s outlet, where a few fishermen were posted up with catfish rigs. For curiosity’s sake, I parked and walked up to the railing to take a look at the water.

Pinned between the rocky banks of the narrow channel were hundreds of common carp and smallmouth buffalo feeding in the current, with the occasional longnose gar surfacing for air. In an instant, my plans for the day were rewritten.

Thirty minutes later, I was back at the outlet with my bowfishing rig and a chest cooler full of ice. I’ve spent too many hours since then prowling along the rocks like a heron, stacking up several species of rough fish, and having the time of my life.

Discovering this roadside hotspot was a much-needed reminder that bowfishing doesn’t need to be a big production. It can be simple and surprisingly accessible for anyone willing to do a little homework.

Modern bowfishing is akin to modern whitetail hunting in that the media’s portrayal of it rarely mirrors most users’ reality. Most bowfishermen don’t have a dedicated 20-foot skiff, complete with an industrial spotlight system and barrels for the night’s catch. But that’s ok, because there are plenty of publicly accessible locations for bowfishing on foot if you know where to look.

Shoreline bowfishing is also akin to modern whitetail hunting in the importance of e-scouting. Apps like onX Fish allow you to filter through satellite imagery to find public access points for everything from tiny streams to huge lakes and reservoirs, and identify rough fish hotspots such as outflows and weedy banks.

Finding spots can also be as easy as looking up your state’s water access regulations and stopping at a few bridges or other public locations to take a look around. Concentrations of rough fish are often right under your nose, just like I found with the outlet near my house. However, a hot bowfishing location is like finding a staging area covered in bucks rubs in October. Knowing it’s there is a great first step, but then you have to hunt it right.

When most people think about ideal daytime bowfishing conditions, they picture bluebird skies with high sun and little to no wind. But Mother Nature doesn’t always deliver perfect conditions, and the weather is only one factor.

Naturally, you want to be able to wear polarized sunglasses and see fish as if they’re encased in resin. But the best conditions for you to spot a feeding carp might be the worst conditions to get close enough for a shot. They might also not be the best scenario for the fish to be active.

A dead-calm summer day might bring a bunch of gar to the surface to gulp air, but keep the buffalo deep and out of range. A little extra current in a small river might make the visibility tough, but send filter feeders into a frenzy.

You’ll rarely encounter an ideal scenario, so it’s important to be willing to adapt to the conditions you have. I like to keep my options open and stay on the lookout for backup spots. If I want to take my bow out for a few hours after work, but the conditions aren’t great for the species in one spot, they might be better for another.

Of course, if you do solve the puzzle and skewer a cooler full of carp, you still have to do something with them. This is a problem that often requires creative solutions.

One of bowfishing’s biggest turn-offs is the reality that rough fish are, well, rough. They’re bony and not known for being the most sought-after table fare. But, bowfishing isn’t exactly a catch-and-release activity–which leaves many anglers with the question: if I shoot a pile of carp, what will I do with them?

In my early years as a trapper, I faced a similar dilemma with beaver carcasses. I didn’t want to be wasteful or foul up public areas, but I was bringing in way more than I could eat or store. It occurred to me in my second season that I had a big cat rescue within easy driving distance. In one phone call, I was set up to drop off whole carcasses at any time.

I had that strategy in mind when I started bowfishing at the outlet, and called up a local nature center that houses rehabilitated eagles. The staff were overjoyed at the offer, and in one quick trip, I freed myself of a weekend’s worth of assorted roughs while supporting a great cause. The ultimate win-win.

If you're not going to eat them, there are other good uses for rough fish. In sufficiently cool conditions, they can be used for trapping bait–especially when targeting crustaceans or semi-aquatic mammals such as mink and raccoons. They can also be composted into an amazing fertilizer for gardens and fruit trees.

The main thing is not to leave the banks of a public fishing hole littered with rotting carp and gar, or dump a pile of them in a ditch off a gravel road somewhere. That’s a great way to ruin public opinion of bowfishing, and it’s totally avoidable with a little bit of planning.

If you’re like most Americans, you live in a populated area; you have neighbors on either side of you; and, if you’re lucky, you have a not-too-big backyard. While I couldn’t find any statistical information regarding the number of hunters that live in urban areas, the fact is that over 80% of Americans live within city limits, so I think it’s safe to assume that the majority of hunters also live within the confines of a town or city.

If you’re a hunter who owns a bird dog and lives in an urban area, that can present some training challenges. Packing up your gear and dog and driving to a location is inconvenient and difficult to do on a consistent basis. Many of the older how-to training books come from a time when dog owners had easy access to wide-open spaces, and even contemporary training experts often seem to assume that all dog owners have ample access to birds, training ponds, and big fields. Unfortunately, this just isn’t the case for most dog owners today, and I think it’s important that our training practices adapt to the reality of an urbanized population.

Years ago, I found myself living in town, in a small house with a medium-sized backyard. My time was limited due to a demanding job and young children, and since my career was just getting started, my budget was limited (i.e., almost non-existent). I had ambitions of training accomplished hunting and field trial dogs, but as I looked around at the “dog pros” around the country, they all seemed to have ample and easy access to training birds and land—two things that I did not have.

As the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. Since I didn’t have the means to change my location, I had to make the most of my circumstances. Through trial and error, I learned a lot during my time in that house. Eventually, I discovered that although it may not be ideal, with a little creativity, there is an awful lot of productive training that can be done in an urban setting. If you’re in a similar situation, this article is for you. Living in town doesn’t have to be an excuse for a poorly trained bird-dog!

There are a handful of skills that a well-trained bird dog should understand and reliably demonstrate. Your list of requirements might be different from mine, but I think there are a few non-negotiables that most of us would likely agree on: a reliable recall, a prompt “sit” (at any distance), steady until sent for a retrieve, delivery of retrieves to hand, and the ability to take a cast (either while quartering in front me, or while on a retrieve).

If your dog can dependably perform all of these learned skills, I’d argue that you have what most would describe as a finished hunting dog: one that your buddies would love to hunt behind, and that brings you immense enjoyment while you follow it around in the field or sit with it in a blind.

While it’s tempting to go to a wide-open space and teach all of these skills simultaneously and at a distance, the reality is that almost all of these skills could (and should) be taught individually and in a much smaller space. A backyard is actually perfect for this! Your job as an urban gundog owner is to consider all of the “big picture” skills you want your dog to eventually have, and then break them down into individual components that can be taught at home in the space you have available. You don’t need to be in a field to teach “Sit” or “Here,” or to work on a nice delivery while retrieving.

When I go into a field to hunt and give my dog their initial “Get out” command to start hunting, I’d like them to hunt out to the sides rather than punching down the field. So, here’s an example of how I would condition this behavior while training in my normal-sized backyard (or park or empty lot).

I start by setting the dog up in front of me and casting a dummy off to the side. I then send the dog to the dummy with a “Get out” command. The next step in the training progression is to throw a dummy to each side and send the dog to them in succession. Eventually, without first tossing a dummy, I’ll send the dog out to the side with a “Get out” command.

Because of the behavior I’ve conditioned with the drill I just described, they eagerly run out looking for the non-existent dummy. While they’re running away from me, I’ll toss a dummy to the other side; then, with a couple toots on the whistle, I’ll turn them and send them in the direction of the dummy that I sneaked in on the other side.

Ultimately, I can have a dog that quarters back and forth in front of me, in the backyard, looking for a dummy that I eventually toss in for them to find. It’s a drill that transitions well to the real thing in the field, and it can be accomplished in a medium-sized yard. There are countless other drills that you can do in your yard—use some creativity and come up with some of your own!

It’s not hard to make excuses for our dogs. “I just didn’t have enough time,” or “I didn’t have the resources I needed,” are two common ones that I hear for a dog that didn’t reach its full potential. But there’s no reason to be that owner.

Decide that you’re going to make the most of what you do have available to you, and then carve out a few minutes each day to work on a specific skill. When you get past the idea of thinking that a bird dog needs to have constant access to birds and fields, your dog is going to have a much more fulfilling life interacting and learning with you. And when you do get the opportunity to encounter birds in the field, your pup will be much more prepared and successful because it learned all the basics in the confines of your backyard.

Bringing a new puppy home, regardless of your living situation, should be a commitment to give that puppy every opportunity to reach its full potential. With that in mind, resolve yourself to be creative, break down big concepts into backyard-sized drills, make the most of what’s at your disposal, and refuse to make excuses. I promise your pup will be better off for it, and you will have years of enjoyment training and hunting with your pup. Good luck and enjoy the process!

This week Reid and Dan host Mr. Texas Forever, Hudson Westbrook, out in God's Country. They dive in on his rapid rise to stardom and what it has looked like for him. 12 months ago, Hudson was studying for college exams, and now he is headlining shows across the US and shattering records along the way. The three of them discuss his rural upbringing in Texas and what the outdoors looked like for him. Hudson disects winning a high school state championship in football, which somehow was only three years ago. Episode ends with a shoutout to Texas forever and Hudson's gravorite of all time.

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This week, Tony explains why learning to read trees and keeping an open mind on how to set up in them, is often the key to killing more big bucks by not just defaulting to our go-to stands.

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Despite Lewis and Clark’s singular fame, Thomas Jefferson never intended their expedition to be the sole U.S. scientific exploration into the country’s new Louisiana Purchase. Just as compelling to him was a second major expedition into the southern reaches of Louisiana, for which he chose two leaders – Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis – who had a similar opportunity to become famous early American explorers into the West. Dispatched up the Red River of the South in 1806 with a bigger party and twice the congressional appropriation of Lewis and Clark, Freeman and Custis suffered a very different fate, one that assigned them to the dustbin of American history and made Jefferson’s “Grand Expedition” a forgotten western story.

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A well-known hunting show host is receiving his just desserts after poaching several deer, and including them in episodes of “The Game.” According to a recent press release from the United States Attorney’s Office District of Kansas, 35-year-old Matt Jennings of Bowdon, Georgia, was sentenced for two illegal deer hunting incidents in 2022.

On November 11, 2022, Jennings shot a buck near Florence, Kansas. However, Jennings did not have a deer tag for that unit. “The next day, the defendant drove to Oklahoma, where he fraudulently registered the kill in Oklahoma using an Oklahoma electronic tag,” explained a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson.

Jennings’s illegal behavior didn’t end there, however. Eight days later, he killed a buck near Wakeeney, Kansas. Jennings did have a valid tag for that unit. However, it is illegal for nonresidents to kill two bucks within the same year in Kansas, and so, he “illegally exceeded the bag limit of one antlered deer per season.”

To make matters worse, Jennings featured both hunts in “The Game,” which was available on both YouTube and CarbonTV. However, following his convictions, CarbonTV has removed Jennings’ content from their channel. “We hold all of our content creators to high moral and ethical standards,” CEO at CarbonTV Julie McQueen said in an Instagram post. “We do not and will not intentionally air content that features or is associated with illegal or unethical behavior in the outdoors. It’s important that we set the tone for what responsible hunting and conservation look like, and this action reflects our values.”

The investigation against Jennings was led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, with support from other state agencies and even the U.S. Secret Service.

Jennings eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of the illegal taking of a whitetail deer in interstate commerce. The charges derived from The Lacey Act, which “prohibits the importation, exportation, transportation, sale, receipt, acquisition, or purchase of any fish or wildlife or plant taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any law, treaty, or regulation of the United States.”

Jennings was sentenced to five years of probation, which includes a nationwide hunting and fishing ban for that duration. He also received a lifetime hunting ban in the state of Kansas. Jennings must pay $15,000 in restitution to the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, an additional $10,000 fine, and forfeit the antlers of the bucks he illegally killed. Jennings did not respond immediately to a request for comment from MeatEater for this article.

Feature image via “Deer Of A Lifetime, 197-inch Oklahoma Monster” from The Game with Matthew Jennings YouTube.

Sweat is gushing down our faces, pooling on our chins, and dripping onto our handlebars. My hunting buddy and I are pedaling up an old Forest Service logging road, loaded down with rifles and three days of camping gear. It’s unusually hot for a spring day—especially in Montana—but with only a week left of bear season, there’s no time to waste. We’re in a good spot, but better yet, it appears to be virgin country. Not a single tire track or boot print marred the path in. Who else would go through this much effort to get back here? Or so we thought, anyway.

That’s when we heard the unmistakable whirrrrr sound coming up the trail behind us. “How’s it going, guys?” the rider chirped gleefully. My buddy and I both acknowledged his greeting with a grunt, but not much else. “Good luck up there!” he exclaimed, as his pedal-assist motor kicked in and rocketed past us—rifle and day-pack bristling off the back of his e-bike.

Once the hunter was out of sight, my partner and I threw our bikes down and collapsed on the side of the trail in defeat. To have made it this far, the guy must’ve skirted the Forest Service gate with the huge sign reading: “Electric bikes prohibited,” and another warning sign a few hundred yards further up the road.

Our encounter was just one of many in the growing conflict between e-bikers and other recreators on public lands. On forests across the country—and especially in the West—tensions are coming to a head as National Forests and regional BLM offices establish official e-bike protocols and seek to open more trails.

In some ways, the debate over e-bike use is similar to that of an argument presented by Edward Abbey in his classic book, Desert Solitaire. Living at an off-grid ranger station in Arches National Park in the 1950s (which, at the time, was a rag-tag system of dirt roads that were impassable for days at a time following rainstorms), Abbey argued that vehicles shouldn’t be allowed in National Parks. In his eyes, they spoiled the pristine nature of the very areas and features that National Parks were designated to protect. Instead, he proposed, people should be allowed to hike, bike, or ride mules into the parks from designated staging areas. Children who were too young to do so would just have to wait until they were older, and elderly people, well, too bad.

Now, nearly 70 years later, the arguments over e-bikes boil down to a similar question: how much access is enough? The motorized machines undoubtedly expand accessibility for those who otherwise might be unable to enjoy the outdoors, which in turn, produces more people who care about the resource and are willing to fight for it (when, for example, Utah senator Mike Lee proposes selling off public lands and all the associated trails.) It’s a win-win, right?

Maybe, but maybe not. We should be advocating for the young and infirm, says MeatEater’s Director of Conservation, Ryan Callaghan, but let’s not forget about the average or athletes of the group who can use e-bikes to push the limits of where they can go and what they can do—all of which have impacts on wildlife. E-bikes zipping further into elk winter range to shed hunt or increasing visitation to remote, alpine basins can intensify pressure on animals. This is especially problematic in states like Colorado, which has a high urban density in the mountains.

Another issue that Cal pointed out is that e-bikers really aren’t benefiting the trail systems in any way.

“E-bikes don’t pay into the system,” he said. “You cannot put taxed OHV fuel into them, and they do not require an OHV sticker, which funds trails and campgrounds. E-bikers and manufacturers should be advocating for the OHV sticker requirement for their motorized machines, instead of trying to convince everyone that they are the same as mountain bikes, just better for the feeble, young, and infirm.”

The cost of an OHV sticker varies by state, but on average is around $10 to $35 annually per vehicle. This year, Colorado allocated $6.7 million to trail-improvement projects funded by OHV stickers and gas taxes. In Oregon, there are about 129,000 registered ATVs. At $10 for a two-year permit, that’s roughly $645,000 in revenue generated annually. Additionally, Oregon also allocates $100 in fuel tax for every permit sold to trail maintenance. According to the most recent data from Nevada in 2022, there are about 50,000 OHVs registered in the sagebrush state. At $20 a vehicle, that’s $1 million annually to improvement projects—all of which e-bikers are benefiting from.

In essence, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. E-bikers already have free access to over 400,000 miles of roads in the Forest Service and BLM systems, and 47,000 miles of motorized trails in the Forest Service system alone. Not to mention all the non-motorized trails that they’re already poaching. And yet, they’re still chomping at the bit for more, no doubt driven in part by e-bike manufacturers.

In central Oregon, for example, the Deschutes National Forest has a proposal open to allow Class 1 e-bikes (pedal assist up to 20 mph) on 67 non-motorized trails near the towns of Bend and Sisters. Further south in Moab, Utah, the BLM is currently seeking public input on a motion to open 200 miles of mountain-bike-only trails to e-bike use. On the southern end of the Teton Mountains in Wyoming, forest managers are tossing around the idea of a trail “swap,” in which new e-bike trails are built in exchange for closing or reclassifying other sections of trail.

For the average hunter, there’s likely little gain from expanded e-bike access. For one, the machines are cost-prohibitive to most hunters, with starting price tags of around $2,500 for electric mountain bikes up to $8,000 for higher-end models.

Then, there’s the issue of increased access to tough-to-reach hunting spots, which in part remain special because of their remoteness. While “access” is a hot topic in public-land discussions right now, is there a flip side of the coin?

Can we improve access so much that anyone can get anywhere, regardless of age or ability level? Should there be a greater reward, like untouched hunting grounds, for those willing to work harder? And how can we protect those areas from people who happily ignore regulations, like the Class 1 asshat on that Montana logging road. E-bikes might be the case study to look at these exact questions—and everyone has an opinion on it.

“I don’t know why we are going through the mental—and legislative—gymnastics to find a way to categorize a bike with a motor as something other than a motorbike, a.k.a., motorcycle. Especially when this class of ‘motorcycles’ circumvents the funding mechanisms that all other motorcycles chip into for trails,” Cal said. “Why are we in years-long discussions to add or subtract recreational opportunities for a certain class of technology in 2025 that first hit the scene in the 1890s? Grow up and get a gas bike. Keep the e-bikes where they safely belong: paved pedestrian pathways full of, oddly enough, the old and infirm. Or at minimum, put a damn OHV sticker on your e-bike.”

In what may be the most badass thing any Canadian has done in recent memory, a British Columbia man fought off a cougar on Saturday by punching it in the face.

The B.C. Conservation Officer Service (COS) said in a Facebook post that the man was working in the Lake Kathlyn area in the central portion of the province when he was approached by a mountain lion. According to the man’s account, the cat “swiped his upper body,” at which point he “punched the cougar in the face and it disengaged.”

The COS has not released the man’s identity, but the agency did say his injuries were so minor that they did not require treatment in a hospital.

The agency’s efforts to locate the offending (and no doubt ashamed) feline have so far proved unsuccessful. A live trap was deployed in the area, and hounds were dispatched the next day, but the cougar didn’t show its face.

“The COS is continuing to monitor cougar activity in the area and will respond as necessary to ensure public safety,” the agency wrote.

Believe it or not, this isn’t the first account of a person defending themselves from an animal attack by socking it in the kisser.

In 2017, a 17-year-old girl survived a shark attack by punching it in the snout until it released her leg. Authorities said the teen suffered six puncture wounds that required eighty stitches, but she made a full recovery.

In 2018, a 78-year-old North Carolina man claimed to have survived a black bear attack by punching it in the nose.

“I was standing in the middle of my driveway and all of a sudden I turned around the [sic] were three bears right beside me,” Sonny Pumphrey recounted in a Facebook post. “Two bears went up the hill and the mama bear for some reason charged me. Only thing I could do was to punch her right in the nose.”

Pumphrey survived the ordeal with only minor injuries.

A Maine woman followed the Pumphrey model in 2023 when she punched a black bear on the nose after it tried to attack her dog. Not appreciating the gesture, the bear briefly latched onto her wrist before high-tailing it back into the woods. The woman received some stitches on her wrist but was otherwise unscathed.

And who can forget perhaps the most famous nose-punching incident? In 2016, an Australian hunter came upon a kangaroo who had one of his dogs in a headlock. The now-infamous video shows the hunter–a zookeeper named Greig Tonkins–square up to the kangaroo and punch it in the jaw. The animal stumbles back a pace but appears to be more-or-less unhurt. The kangaroo had already dropped the dog, so Tonkins runs back to the vehicle rather than push his luck.

It’s always best to avoid a fight with a wild animal rather than rely on your Rocky impression to get out of a jam. But if you find yourself snout-to-snout with something that may or may not put you on the menu for dinner, there’s no harm in going for the knockout punch–it may even work.