The MeatEater

On a snowy November morning in 1975, 25-year-old hunter Ludger Belanger stepped into the woods with his .30-30 and the hope of backstraps for dinner. But what started as a simple deer hunt quickly became one of Maine’s oldest—and most haunting—unsolved cases. At first, game wardens thought Ludger had lost his way. But the tracks in the snow told another story: a shot deer, a missing rifle, tire marks on a back road, and two strangers in a green Buick. Join host Jordan Sillars as this episode of Blood Trails follows a path that twists into drunken parties, threats, explosions, and suspects who always seemed one step ahead. Nearly fifty years later, Ludger’s wife, children, and grandchildren are still searching for the truth—and for the body of the man stolen from them.

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This week on the show I’m conducting a comprehensive review of the many different approaches to killing mature bucks in the late season that expert hunters have shared with me over the course of Wired to Hunt’s seventeen year history.

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This week on Rut Fresh, Jake is joined by KC Smith of The Element with fresh updates out of Kansas and Iowa, Clint Campbell from Truth From The Stand reporting from Pennsylvania, and Christopher Leppert of the Mobile Hunting Expo in Ohio. Tune in to hear what’s top of mind for deer hunters across the Midwest and beyond.

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In this episode of the Bear Grease Render, host Clay Newcomb is joined by Bear Newcomb and Josh “Landbridge” Spielmaker along with special guests, Backwoods University’s Lake Pickle, wife Lacy Pickle, and US Navy pilot Forrest Teeter. The room is filled with antlers as trophy bucks are compared. Clay reveals the furs from his Alaskan wolf trapping expedition. Lake and Lacy talk about wrapping up their pheasant hunt and the drama that ensued leading to This Country Life’s Brent Reaves coming to the rescue.

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Randall Williams guest hosts MeatEater Trivia with Spencer Neuharth, Ryan Callaghan, Nate Mason, Logan Dove, Hilary Byrne, and Roman Schnobrich.

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Matt Jefko of Wisconsin says he can’t sacrifice the time and money to hunt Western states, so he turns his stay-at-home hunts into hard-earned adventures whenever possible.

But after this public-schools teacher arrowed a buck in southwestern Wisconsin’s Yellowstone Lake State Park in early November, he triggered more adventure than most hunters ever find on the Great Plains or in the Rocky Mountains.

Jefko, 41, wouldn’t wish similar misadventures on anyone. He’s just grateful he’s still enjoying his family and teaching his social studies classes one block from home at Middleton High School.

And he refuses to say he was simply unlucky.

“It could have gone much worse,” Jefko said. “It’s like that Cormac McCarthy quote from “No Country for Old Men”: ‘You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.’”

Jefko’s adventure began early and lasted over 24 hours. He awoke at 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4, and drove 50 miles to the 5,000-acre park and wildlife area in Lafayette County. He likes hunting the property’s edges and far interiors, so he arrived ready for a 2-mile hike and all-day sit. Besides food, arrows, compound bow, bow quiver, and extra clothes, Jefko packed in 40 pounds of gear, including a treestand, climbing sticks, and safety harness.

He then hiked into the darkness, set up his treestand by 5:45 a.m., and waited a half-hour for shooting light. He was hunting an oak flat between a farmer’s field and several wooded drainages. He felt confident because he saw nearly 20 deer while hunting there the previous weekend, including a giant buck that stood up behind him.

Sure enough, a deer walked by in dawn’s gray light. Later, he spotted a distant doe and a small buck at midday. The woods then stayed quiet until 20 minutes before sunset, when a young buck walked within 10 yards. The shooting angle was steep, but Jefko’s arrow buckled the buck.

He climbed down, finished the buck, removed his stand and ladder from the tree, and strapped everything to his backpack for the return hike. Then he field-dressed the buck and planned how to haul everything to his car in two trips. He decided to first pack out the buck’s head and neck with his treestand and climbing sticks, and then return for the carcass.

After severing the buck’s spine just above its chest, he dropped the head and neck beside his pack. Then he grabbed a strap and knelt beside the pack to secure the load.

As his right knee pressed into the ground, a sharp pain jolted him.

“I thought I kneeled onto a sharp stick, but when I jerked back, I saw my knife sticking into the outside of my knee,” Jefko said. “When I read the hospital paperwork later, they said it went in 7 centimeters, or not quite 3 inches. It’s a very sharp carbon-steel blade, but also super rusty. When I reached down, blood was pouring out of my knee.”

Jefko has killed over 30 deer and knows to not lay his knife on the ground between cuts. He thinks he slid the knife and its sheath into the same jacket pocket he always uses, but it likely fell out as he twisted the buck’s neck free of the carcass. The grass was tall and thick enough to hold the knife on its spine, blade up.

With blood flowing down his calf, Jefko grabbed a ratchet strap from his pack. He wrapped it several times around his leg above the knee and pulled it tight. He also balled up his pants leg and pressed it into the wound.

He thought: “I have to get out of here. Now.”

He called his friend, Matt Geiger in Mount Horeb, explained the situation, and strapped on his fully loaded pack. Then he started hobbling toward his car. “I admire people who remain stoic and don’t feel sorry for themselves,” he said. “My leg was hurting and dragging, but the bleeding had slowed. I kept putting one foot in front of the other. I started thinking I could make it.”

When Jefko reached his car 1.8 miles away, he plugged in his cell phone to recharge its battery, which was down to 12%. He drank water, ate some apples, and decided he had the strength to go back for his buck. Even so, he was in pain, and muscle spasms tormented his leg. Before returning with his hard-plastic ice fishing sled to get his buck, he sent a text message to his wife, Dani: “Hey, I shot a deer. It’s going to take me a little while to get home.”

When halfway back to the buck, Jefko stopped to update Geiger and send another text to his wife. “I was legitimately struggling, feeling intense pain and dragging my leg, but I told myself I had a task to finish,” Jefko said.

Once he reached the buck, he loaded it into the sled and started his final hike. “I didn’t want to leave the deer where coyotes and other animals could get it,” he said. “I had killed a deer. It was my responsibility to get it home.”

Still, the drag was excruciating. Jefko weighs 156 pounds; probably not much more than the buck’s carcass. “I’d lean forward, push with my good leg, drag my right one, and move about 12 inches at a time,” he said. “I kept checking my leg. I felt this jelly-like ball of coagulated blood in my pant leg, so I knew I wasn’t bleeding anymore.”

After two hours, Jefko reached the car. He struggled to load the buck into his car, and then sat in the front seat and cranked up the heat. He started shaking and whimpering involuntarily, but soon relaxed for the first time since kneeling on his knife.

Jefko drove to Geiger’s home in Mount Horeb and dropped off his buck. He didn’t call home because he assumed his wife was asleep. Instead, he drove to the hospital, arriving shortly before midnight. A doctor closed the cut with five stitches, immobilized the knee, and sent him home around 6 a.m. on Nov. 5 with instructions to get checked in two days.

“It’s almost a miracle I didn’t cut any tendons,” Jefko said. “All I cut was muscle. The doctor said I should be back to normal in nine weeks.”

Featured images via Matt Jefko.

Hunters can be picky when it comes to gear. Luckily, you don’t need to buy them a new hunting rifle, bow, or even the best binoculars. Some of the best hunting gifts I’ve received over the years were unexpected pieces of gear that I probably wouldn’t have bought for myself. I still have a pair of heavy-duty hunting gloves I got in middle school. I’m sure my aunt didn’t envision me wearing them almost twenty years later, but I break them out when it gets super cold. Sure, they fit tighter than they did when I was sixteen, but they’re still just as warm.

Whether you’re looking for a stocking stuffer, a last-minute gift, or, like Cousin Eddie, something real nice, here are some of the best gifts for hunters you can find.

Some of the best memories are made at deer camp. If you’re looking for something to add to the fun, the MeatEater Trivia Collector’s Edition offers 1,300 trivia questions on hunting, fishing, conservation, woodsmanship, and more for you and your hunting buddies. Best of all, a portion of the proceeds directly fund conservation. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Whether you’re firing up the old Bunn or boiling water over an open fire, coffee is a mainstay at deer camp. I’ve been using Yeti’s Rambler French Press for the past year, and it’s been as critical to my hunting as any other piece of gear. I even use it at home, and it’s become one of the main ways I brew coffee. It’s tough, easy to clean, and best of all, it makes a good cup.

This Steven Rinella inspired recipe for buffalo jerky makes a perfect snack for backcountry hunts, all-day rut sits, or games around the camp table.

The MeatEater Cookbook Box Set contains The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook and MeatEater Outdoor Cookbook. Inside, you’ll find a definitive guide for cooking wild game, recipes for a variety of outdoor cooking techniques, and stunning photography. If you’re shopping for a hunter who appreciates wild game recipes, consider the MeatEater Cookbook Box Set.

Contact Archery's VBS and MD3 fixed blade broadheads offer devastating wound channels for both deer and elk alike. They’re not cheap, but they’re tough, easy to maintain, and reasonably priced. We're also big fans of Iron Will's fixed blade broadheads, a bit more expensive, but certainly worth it.

Most hunters need a good bino harness, and the FOB offers silent, easy access to your binoculars, thanks to the front opening design. If you’re shopping for a hunter in your life, you can buy them the pouch and let them customize their straps and other pouches, or throw some add-ons in that you know they’ll use. You don’t need high-powered binos to see that the FOB makes a stellar gift.

If you’re buying for a backcountry hunter, they need a Garmin inReach Mini. With location sharing, satellite messaging, and interactive SOS alerts, users and loved ones can have peace of mind during those off-grid excursions. It’s a premium gift worth every penny.

These reusable ties allow you to tether gear to your pack, hold climbing sticks together, or even hold branches back in places where you’re not allowed to cut them. They’re one of the best gifts for saddle hunters, and you can purchase them in a variety of colors and sizes.

This might not fit in a stocking, but it’s a gift to make anyone grin. If you’re going to use a calendar, make it entertaining. No puppies or firefighters here, just a ton of F*cked Up Old Trucks.

Bow hangers are easy to lose, and it never hurts to have an extra one in your pack when one decides to break. I’ve been running this bow hanger all season. It’s quiet, sturdy, and packs small—a discreet gift for the stocking.

Deer hunters need a solid headlamp for those long treks in the dark. Black Diamond’s Storm 500-R is a bright, rugged, and rechargeable headlamp that will give hunters years of hard use. Can’t decide on a headlamp? Check out our review of the best headlamps for hunters.

We’ve all had to buy for an extremely picky person. Take the guesswork out of it and give them a First Lite gift card so they can get exactly what they want. Shop Now

Pocket knives make classic Christmas gifts, and the Case Trapper has probably been the most gifted one of all time. Whether you’re buying for a small game hunter or an outdoor generalist, the dual blades make it ideal for carving, whittling, and squirrel skinning. If you’re looking for more knife options, check out our reviews of the best hunting knives and best EDC knives.

Becoming a successful hunter requires stealth, among other things. While you can’t buy woodsmanship, you can buy Stealth Strip to silence your hunting gear. A roll of this stuff can help you silence your climbing sticks, tree stands, bow shelf, you name it. If you’re shopping for a hunter and not sure what they need, they’ll find multiple ways to use this handy material.

A hunter can never have enough hats. Maybe you’re looking for something functional in the field, like the Rugged Wool Beanie or the Trace Boonie Hat. Or perhaps you’re after something that’s a little more multipurpose, like the Wired to Hunt Vintage Hat. Like your grandpa’s old .30-30, this hat includes a heavy dose of nostalgia. It’s stylish, utilitarian, and only gets better with use.

If you have to wear orange during gun season, you might as well do it in style.

A hoodie is great in the field and for everyday wear. The Kiln Hoody is one of my favorite pieces of clothing. I wear it as a standalone piece, base layer, or even casually. I’ve been running the same one for five years with no signs of slowing down.

Whitetail hunters tend to get obsessive when it comes to deer. Help the deer hunter in your life keep tabs on those shooter bucks. If you think they have enough trail cameras, there’s always room for one more. You can even save a few bucks by buying one of the double packs.

Get the deer hunter in your life a grunt call they won’t lose. Unlike the rows of plastic calls in your local sporting goods store, the Wired to Hunt Buck Grunt features a Teak barrel and a one-piece tone board that sounds as good as it looks. It produces realistic buck grunts with a wide range of volume, so you can call even on high wind days. Phelps is also donating $5 from every purchase to the National Deer Association.

Sometimes you can’t put on enough clothes to keep warm. If you’re buying for a hunter who likes to hunker down in a hunting blind or shooting house during the late season, consider giving them the gift of warmth with one of these portable heaters.

Ironically, mobile hunters seem to carry the most gear. Help them stash all that gear in one convenient place with First Lite’s Transfer Lite Pack. It’s modular design allows hunters to separate the waist pack from the backpack for quick setups or all day sits.

As a hunter in the deep South, I wouldn’t make it through those first few weeks of deer season without a Thermacell. This budget-friendly mosquito repellent is perfect for warm-weather hunts.

There are lots of muzzle brakes out there, but few combine weight-saving and performance like the MDT Hunt Brake. Weighing in at just 1.7 ounces (thanks to its all-titanium construction), the Hunt Brake won’t weigh down your rig. But it will help control recoil and muzzle rise, which lets you see your shots–whether you’re trying to hit an elk or a steel plate.

This might not be the most exciting gift, but it’s one of the most practical. If you’ve ever dropped your gun muzzle-down in the mud or snow, you know how much of a pain it is to get your shooting iron back in the game. And even if you clear the obstruction, there still might be grit and grim in the lands and grooves. The Rapid-Rod folds down into a handy, six-ounce package you can throw in your pack and be ready to maintain your rifle no matter what Mother Nature throws at you. (Plus, it’s only $20.)

It won’t take long after you buy your first suppressor to realize you need a suppressor cover. A cover allows you to remove the can from your rifle even when it’s hot and helps control heat mirage. One of the best is the TAC MTN Suppressor Cover from FHF gear. It pairs an internal fire sleeve with a removable outer compression sleeve, and also includes a muzzle cover to help keep rain and debris from getting into the bore of the rifle.

All KILO Series rangefinders from Sig Sauer are compatible with the onX app, which allows you to drop a pin on a remote location just by ranging to that spot. This lets you mark a promising glassing spot, the location of an animal, or anything else you want to integrate into your onX map. Plus, like any other waypoint, you can share those pins with your hunting partners to let them know exactly where they should look or walk.

I just kept trying to breathe. The big bull elk was trotting forward with his head down as he chased another bull down the side of the mountain. “He’ll stop,” I said to myself as I did my best to hold down the rising panic I felt fluttering in my chest. He was 350 yards away, and I tried not to look at his antlers as I followed him in the rifle scope. I just took a deep breath and tried to stay steady…I could get excited later.

Finally, almost miraculously, the bull came to a stop on the edge of a sharp downslope. I half expected him to bugle as he stared down at the other bull, despite it being well past the peak of the rut. I centered the crosshairs in the crease behind his shoulder, concentrating everything on just holding fixed on that point as I clicked off the safety. Then just as I started to squeeze the trigger, I had a brief thought — “I’m so glad I went elk hunting today.”

I’ve wanted a big bull elk for almost my entire life. Ever since I saw my first elk mount hanging in a local restaurant when I was a little kid, the idea of getting one of my own had bordered on obsession. When I moved to Montana in my late 20s, I saw the possibility of that dream becoming a reality and set my sights on getting a big bull, which immediately proved to be much harder than I thought.

Elk were a lot tougher to hunt than the whitetails I was used to. The animals have different habits and live at higher elevations and in more rugged terrain, and it took me some time to adjust and to learn how to find them. In addition, while Montana’s public lands are wild and beautiful, they’re also popular. The first year I went elk hunting, I found six or eight trucks parked at every trailhead I’d scouted during the preseason, and most of the elk herds I’d seen in the area had quickly been driven to parts unknown by other hunters.

Still, I stayed determined and kept working at it, going further and higher and doing my best to find those out-of-the-way areas where the animals were less pressured. Soon enough, I started getting into elk.

Over the years, I managed to get a few raghorn bulls and a couple cows in my sights, but still never managed to bring home the big bull I’d been dreaming about. Though I admittedly had gotten a couple of opportunities at a big one, as soon as I saw the animal's antlers, my almost paralyzing bull fever would make my bullets go low or my arrows fly high.

It just seemed like I was just destined to go the rest of my elk hunting career filling my tag with something less than I wanted or even not filling it at all.

Through it all, I never lost hope. Despite my frustrations, I kept on hunting with big bull ambitions. I practiced shooting at longer distances, scouted more and walked further, and even started letting opportunities on smaller bulls and cows go by so I could hang onto my tag until the twilight of the season. I just knew that if I kept going up into the mountains and putting the miles on, one of these days it was bound to work out.

At the start of the 2025 season, I planned to go after a big bull elk harder than I ever had before. I made sure I was ahead at work and didn’t take any new guide trips so I could completely clear the first week of rifle season for elk hunting. I sighted in my rifle at long range, hit the gym to make sure I was in elk shape, and felt completely prepared and ready to take on opening day.

During the first three days of the season, I hunted my ass off. I woke up well before daylight and climbed into terrain where it seemed like a mountain goat might have trouble. I stayed up there, glassing from ridgetops and hiking and hunting my way through timberlines and canyons until the last few seconds of shooting light had faded to black. Then I’d come home and scrape together some semblance of a meal before crawling into bed so I could wake up early to do it again.

By the fourth day of the season, I was already exhausted and had seen very few elk. Still, I was determined and managed to climb my way into another mountain range. That evening, I spotted a herd of elk across the drainage that had a couple of good bulls in it. Throwing on my pack, I ran down the side of the mountain and across the brush-choked basin below and then scrambled up the next ridge. I got to the top and quickly found the herd feeding along the edge of the timber, but by the time I got within shooting range of the bulls, I had run out of light.

Disheartened and frustrated, I worked my way back down to the truck in the dark and drove home. As I pulled my boots off my blistered feet, I pulled out my phone and glanced at the next morning’s weather and saw that the wind was going to be outlandish. By daylight, the forecast called for steady 35 to 45 mph winds blowing down from the north, with gusts of up to 65 mph. “No elk is going to be out in that,” I thought.

So, feeling the ache in my muscles and with every part of my body and brain exhausted, I decided to take the day off. Resigned and comforted by the fact that I would still have three days to hunt if I didn’t go tomorrow, I lay down in bed and closed my eyes, happy with the thought of sleeping in.

My eyes opened at 4:15 am the next morning. Now, I’m not entirely sure if this was because my body was just used to waking up early at that point, or if my black lab puppy, Sackett, had too much water before bed and had whined just a little louder from his crate. Whatever the reason was, I was awake, and after letting the dog out, I decided that perhaps I wasn’t all that sore and maybe the wind didn’t seem all that bad.

“You can’t get a bull from the couch,” I told myself. So I grabbed my gear and threw it in the truck. Still determined, I went out to face the elk woods once again.

The wind was as bad as predicted, and after going a few miles down a logging road in 4WD, I decided to hunt a spot I hadn’t been to in a couple of years. It meant a short but nearly vertical walk up a steep avalanche chute in the dark to get to a flat bowl of trees, grass, and rimrock below the ridgeline, which was both sheltered from the wind and only a short distance from where I’d seen elk the previous night. I figured that it was the closest sanctuary the herd would have from the gale and that if I got up there early enough, I just might get lucky.

A few minutes before shooting light, I knew I had made the right decision as I watched a group of cows squirt over the top of the ridge and drop down into the bowl. I was sitting on a point of rocks that overlooked the entire area and was just getting my breath back from the hard climb, when I spotted a bull. It was a big, tall 6-point that was following the path of the cows, and I immediately started crawling across the rocks towards it in hopes that my moment had come.

The bull stopped on a small knoll at 350 yards, and I slid my rifle forward, feeling the familiar shakes of excitement and trepidation that came whenever I had a big bull elk in my sights. I got lined up on him and was getting ready for the shot when the bull suddenly glanced behind him and then took off down the hill at a sprint.

I cursed, and for a moment, it felt like my bad luck was never going to end, until I saw an absolute dinosaur of a bull come tearing out of the trees as it chased the other elk. Quickly, I switched targets, and as the crosshairs settled on the bigger bull's chest and I started to squeeze the trigger, I just remembered to breathe.

It just didn’t seem real when I walked up to the big old 7x8 bull and saw the three drop tines jutting down from his antlers. I had never even seen a bull elk like this, let alone had the opportunity to take a shot at one. The non-typical rack on the bull was so much more than I had ever dreamed of, and the only thing I could think of was just how damned beautiful he was. Then, as I held his antlers in my hands, I went back over everything.

I thought of how all those long days and hard climbs, the late nights, missed shots, and close calls had led me here to this moment. I thought of the exhaustion and the aching legs, the twisted ankles, the shooting pains in my back, and how all of it had been worth it.

As I started to quarter out the bull and thought about how the hell I was going to get such a rich bounty down to my truck, I looked at the mountains rising all around me and was struck by one final thought. Though it may be in another spot, in another mountain range, and maybe even in another state, whenever elk season comes back around—I’ll be right back here again.

This week Reid and Dan host a BROPOD in God's Country. They cover their most recent hunt out west chasing Elk, recap where they are in the 2025 deer season, and answer some listener questions that were submitted. They chat through what they feel the right age is to purchase a fire arm for kids, along with addressing some of the nuances around songwriting in Nashville. Happy Thanksgiving from the GCP fam to yours!

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