The MeatEater

Bear Newcomb and Josh “Landbridge” Spielmaker stage a Bear Grease hostile takeover and head to the river to do some fly fishing without Clay Newcomb. The two talk fly fishing, Bear’s river rafting abandonment, building Bear Grease YouTube Channel content, mule training, and the value of getting outside and simply “moseying” around.

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Rich, Scott, and Jeff break down their approach to backcountry nutrition, hydration, caffeine, and camp meals. They share lessons learned from DIY hunts and guided trips, the mistakes they've made, and the simple systems that keep them going when the days get long.

From peanut butter sandwiches to freeze-dried meals and everything in between, this episode is packed with practical advice for your next hunt.

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In deer camp last year, gunwriter Richard Mann and I were talking about rifle cartridges, and he made a great point about the guns people suggest youth and women shooters use for big game. Richard is one of the most knowledgeable shooters out there. He’s tested countless cartridges and shot game all over the world for more than 25 years. So the points he makes are worth listening to.

His big question was, why do we suggest women and kids hunt with cartridges like the .243, 6.5 Creedmoor, or .257 Roberts, then turn around and bring a .300 Win. Mag into the woods? We don’t expect those cartridges to kill animals any less dead than a magnum. So why don’t full-grown men take them instead, saving them loads of recoil? At that same camp, he shot a whitetail with a Nosler Partition from a .223 Remington, and it dropped in its tracks. Shooting big game is more about hitting where you’re supposed to, not bringing the biggest gun into the woods.

The big powder charge of a big rifle cartridge can give you a flatter shot in terms of trajectory. Couple that with long, high B.C. bullets, and you have something that can really punch through the wind and get out there. But the virtues of a flat shooting cartridge are almost moot when you consider how far we’ve come with optics and ballistic calculators. With the right setup and a good spotter calling shots, it’s almost just as easy for someone to make hits out to 1,000 yards with a 6.5 Creedmoor as it is with a 7mm PRC. The only differences are a few less clicks on the dials and a bit of a tighter wind call.

The reason flat-shooting cartridges became popular was because of the practice of shooting either a 200-yard or Maximum Point Blank Zero—both of which are less and less common in the woods today. The flatter the trajectory, the more distance a hunter could hold dead-on an animal and still get a killing shot. Shooters today are zeroing at 100 and dialing for everything, which makes flat shooting almost irrelevant within reason. If you can plot the trajectory of your bullet down to the inch, who cares how flat it shoots?

There was also a rise in bigger cartridges during the mid-20th century, partly because bullet design was still in its adolescence. In other words, many bullets on the market didn’t perform well or expand reliably. Today is the polar opposite. Bullets are incredibly efficient, and it’s hard to find one that won’t work as advertised. Further, bullets today are capable of amazing things like, reliably expanding at far lower velocities and turning lower-recoiling rounds into long-distance killers. Today, the focus on bigger powder charges and bigger cartridges has more to do with long-range shooting and the power a bullet will have out at distance. But let’s be realistic about this.

A big cartridge like a 7mm PRC will give you more velocity at a farther distance than, say, a 308 Win. Velocity is important—some say more important than foot-pounds of energy—because that’s what causes a bullet to upset, mushroom out, or deform in an animal. It depends on your bullet’s design, but you can expect reliable expansion between 1,800 and 2,000 feet per second (fps).

Let’s take those two cartridges again as an example. At 500 yards, the 7mm PRC will be cruising at around 2,100 fps. This is well within that band of velocity for expansion. The .308 Win. at the same distance should fly at just over 1,800 fps, also well within the pocket for producing a dead critter. Beyond that, the .308 starts to fall off, but if you’re using a cutting-edge bullet like Federal’s Terminal Ascent or a Hornady ELD-X, you can expect expansion down to 1,500 fps. The cutoff for 1,500 fps is around 800 yards for a .308 Win. loaded with a 178-grain ELD-X. That’s a pretty long shot.

We can talk about how far a bullet should kill on paper all day, but the question we really need to ask ourselves is how far we actually shoot game. For myself, it’s around 400 yards and in. Beyond that, I don’t feel like I’m hunting. I like to stalk, and I’m fine with blowing a stalk while trying to get as close as possible. I have absolutely no judgment toward anyone who wants to shoot game at farther distances. For some, the challenge of making long shots is why they like to hunt, and I’ve shot with plenty of hunters who can reliably kill animals out well past 500, 600, or 700 yards. For them, they might want to get every bit of performance out of a big, fast cartridge like a magnum or PRC (certainly when it comes to wind calls and trajectory), and they’re right—especially if they’re trying to kill stuff beyond 800 yards.

Let’s say that you’re like me, though, and you’re looking at shots at around 400 or even 500 yards and in. In that case, you don’t need a big honkin’ cartridge to cause reliable bullet upset as long as you’re shooting a good bullet—which is hard not to do these days. You also don’t need to deal with all of the recoil, which will make you a worse shooter. There’s just a point of diminishing returns when you start going bigger, even on bigger animals.

There are some exceptions, though. For dangerous game, you need an absolute steamroller of a cartridge with a monolithic bullet to achieve penetration on a frontal charging shot. Those frontal shots are usually executed by experienced guides or PHs when all hell breaks loose and you’re doing all you can to run or get out of the way. Typically, even the smaller-sized dangerous game cartridges are all big, give plenty of recoil, and have their own set of rules and expectations to warrant another story.

You also might want a hotter cartridge if you use a Maximum Point Blank Zero, meaning you’ll zero your rifle so you don’t have to dial for trajectory. In that case, you want a flat shooting cartridge to allow you to hold without adjustment out as far as possible. That usually tops out at around 300 to 350 yards for magnums.

Lastly, a magnum cartridge gives you more room for error if the wind is really swirling. Calling wind in the field can be difficult without sufficient practice. If you find yourself in these conditions, a bigger cartridge will let you take a shot from farther away without getting the wind call exactly right.

For most hunters who keep shots around 500 yards and under, you’d be fine with a .30/06, .270 Win., .308 Win., 6.5 Creedmoor, or 7mm-08 Rem. In the eastern hardwoods, where shots rarely exceed 75 yards, a .30-30 Win, .350 Legend, .243 Win., or even a .223 Rem. would work for whitetails as long as you shoot them where it counts.

A great place to experience the versatility of "smaller" cartridges in action is Africa. You can witness one gun take shots on numerous big game species from different hunters in camp and in varying scenarios. On a recent trip, we took several Mossberg Patriots with 16-inch barrels chambered in 308 Win. Just about all of my shots were within 200 yards, but several hunters took game far beyond that. The animals shot ranged in size from that of an American bull elk down to a Florida Key deer. When hit where it counts, they went down or ran about 50 yards before piling up. Our bullets did what they were designed to do, despite being fired from a puny .308. Better yet, we could save ice for drinks at the end of the night, rather than wasting it on our shoulders.

In this week's episode of Future Wild I'm joined by Scott Heidebrink, Director of Landscape Stewardship at American Prairie, to discuss his on-the-ground work to restore bison and other wildlife to the great plains, and broader efforts to bring this spectacular landscape back to its former glory.

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Host Clay Newcomb along with Render crew members Dr. Misty Newcomb, Bear Newcomb and Josh "Landbridge" Spielmaker unpack Part 3 of the Civil War series with special guest Dr. Brooks Blevins. The conversation explores why people fought in the Civil War, how different generations have remembered the conflict, and what it means to discover your own family's connection to history.

Along the way, the crew discusses Native American involvement in the war, the evolution of Civil War memory, family legacy, and the challenge of understanding the past without oversimplifying it.

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Spencer Neuharth hosts MeatEater Trivia with Randall Williams, Seth Morris, Max Barta, Cory Calkins, Maggie Smith, and Logan Dove.

Enjoy Mountain Dew, an American Original.

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Steven Rinella and the MeatEater crew discuss: The punt gun video is imminent; hipster Brody; the lack of chill from a lakeside tiki hut owner; the killing of a "protected" wolf in CO; how AI misinformation has infiltrated wildlife news; a life changing marlin out of the Big Rock tourney; elk tag tax fraud; and more.

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In the eyes of the world, the West’s several deserts have become defining landscapes for the modern region. But one of them, the Chihuahuan Desert, has produced the only large public lands found anywhere in Texas. Therein lies a story that shapes a state.

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Fishing a nymph beneath an indicator or stripping a streamer can be an effective way to catch trout, but fishing dry flies during a hatch presents a whole other challenge. For many new fly anglers, trying to “match the hatch” might just make you want to throw your fly rod away and take up golf, but take heart. If you’re a new fly angler with topwater ambitions, these five hatches can help make your dry fly fishing dreams come true.

Whether it’s salmonfly, golden stone, or skwala, the arrival of Westcoast stoneflies are more than just insect hatches—they’re epic events. Ranging from one to three inches long, these massive bugs crawl out of the water to grow and dry their wings before taking flight. Stoneflies buzz around the river like mutant hummingbirds, pulling trout to the surface with all their ruckus.

Fishing a stonefly hatch can be as simple as tying on a large foam fly pattern and smacking it down on the water. This is especially true if you’re targeting trout in fast flowing streams or along the riffled shallows of a larger river. When stoneflies are in the air, trout get aggressive and will often hit flies as soon as they hit the water. This means you don’t have to be too picky about what your fly pattern so long as it has the basic shape and size of a stonefly.

Some of my favorite patterns for the stonefly hatch are the Chubby Chernobyl and Paulson’s Flutter Bug. Both flies are incredibly buoyant and are the perfect stonefly shape, making them ideal for mimicking a stonefly trying to get back in the air.

Hex hatches usually occur between late May and early July with the two-inch long mayflies appearing in almost any slow flow river or lake with a muddy bottom. Just like other mayfly species, they emerge on the surface of the water and then fly to bushes and trees along the bank where they shuck their skins and dry their wings before taking to the air in the late evening to breed. Hex hatches can be so large they’ll show up on doppler radar. Once the hex’s begin to breed they’ll fall onto the water to lay eggs and then die, where trout will rise up to gulp them down like pigs in an acorn patch.

For anglers on the East Coast, the Hexagenia is an entertaining and easy to fish hatch. Like stoneflies, these monstrous mayflies are the biggest bugs on the water and trout will rise to hit them. This hatch generally occurs in the late evening where the lack of light can cover rookie mistakes and fish are more than willing to bite. This makes the hex hatch a perfect storm for new fly anglers.

During the evening hex hatch, I prefer to use large, brightly colored fly patterns that ride high in the water so they’re easy to see in low light. Patterns like the Paradrake and the Ausable Parachute are ideal for this, but the fish aren’t too picky, and you can get away with just using attractor patterns like the White Wulff and PMX.

With over 1500 species spread across North America, caddis hatches are fantastic for new fly anglers because the bugs live almost everywhere trout live. Hatching at almost any and every time of day during the fishing season these tiny, moth-like insects are dependable because they draw trout to the surface no matter how or where you fish them.

Generally, caddis hatches begin with the insects swimming from the bottom of the river where they break the surface film and then immediately try to take flight. Depending on the species, adult caddis will either bounce along or skitter across the top of the water as they try to get some air beneath them, attracting the attention of hungry trout. This is good news for new anglers. You don’t have to worry about making perfect drifts or lining up on your target to get the trout to eat your fly.

There are as many caddis fly patterns as there are species of the insect itself, so I generally try to keep my fly selection simple. Larger, more buoyant patterns like the Elk Hair Caddis and Stimulator are very effective when fishing in faster water, while smaller more life-like patterns such as the Headlight Caddis and X Caddis work better in slower flows.

Part of what makes dry fly fishing so much fun is that it can give you a ton of memorable experiences. You see a trout rise, make a perfect cast in front of it, and then watch as it resurfaces to gulp down your fly. If that’s the type of classic action you’re looking for as a new fly angler, try fishing a drake hatch.

Whether they’re green, brown, yellow, or gray, drake hatches are one of the most iconic and easiest fishing hatches. For the most part, these medium sized mayflies emerge in medium to fast flowing rivers in the same areas every year, and trout know this.

At the first indication of the hatch, trout will move to the tail outs of long, slow flowing pools, staging in the shallows near the surface as they wait for the drakes to drift over them. Once the fish are in position, feeding becomes almost automatic and trout rise on que. As long as you drift your flies slowly through the same spot, you should fool a few.

When it comes to drake flies, it’s hard to beat the classic Parachute Adams. Just make sure you match the size and, in some cases, the color of your fly to whatever species of drake is hatching at the time. Generally, I’ll carry a menagerie of parachute patterns in different sizes and colors to make sure I’m covered.

While it’s not technically a hatch, grasshopper are nearly fool proof to fish. The T-bone steaks of the fly fishing world, grasshoppers can pull every trout from brookies to browns up and down both the East and West coast.

From midsummer to early fall, grasshoppers give new anglers plenty of opportunity to perfect their hopper fishing technique while catching plenty of fish.

For the most part, grasshoppers can be found along any river, lake, or pond where large amounts of grass and other green vegetation grows along the bank. The insects will climb out onto the ends of stems and sticks as they feed and then will either be blown or accidentally jump into the water. Once a grasshopper hits the water, their days are numbered as their splashing and twitching ring the dinner bell for every hungry trout in the area.

Fish hoppers by splashing them down close to the bank and then letting them float for a few seconds. Usually, this is all it takes to get a trout to respond, but you can also add small twitches to your fly by wiggling your rod to get a trout’s attention. I prefer to fish realistic grasshopper patterns made of foam such as the Hopper Grande and the Moorish Hopper, which float like a cork and look just like the real thing.

When you first start fly fishing, there’s a heck of a lot to figure out. From finding the right rod to choosing the right line, every step of the fly fishing learning curve can feel like you’re taking a series of hairpin turns on a gravel road at midnight. This is especially true when it comes to hatches. Start with these five and you can add to your book as you gain experience.