Joe Rogan Experience #1674 — Clay Newcomb Transcript

Transcript

0:00 the joe rogan experience train by day joe rogan podcast by night all day bears. And he said, it is the most delicious meat you'll ever eat. Tell me what you got there. This is for you. You would fry with it. before refrigeration because bear fat stayed, didn't go rancid as quickly as pork lard was super valuable on the frontier before refrigeration because bear fat stayed, didn't go

3:33 some stuff that you can do with bear grease this is uh this is some bear fat lye soap if you've They used to use ash. Yeah. So the real primitive method for making soap from animal tallow. Just give it away. So just lye and- It smells like one of them stores. hands and uh oh that smells good yeah it's interesting and then the last one here and then

7:06 grease i mean like what percentage of people would even know what it was probably like one percent of Spell it like eel? Do you see what I'm saying? And then as hunters, we're very interested in using as much as we can from these animals that we're taking. We have incredible meat. Yeah. But they don't kill bear themselves. So if you're on public land or what do they call it,

11:06 But there's a lot of them. Yeah, I wonder why. All like very... Have you ever seen it online where someone's animated this piece about. That's what happened. And that's the one that you've decided that you won't kill back. kind of meat. Especially in New Jersey. on this continent than we've ever had obviously we've got more overlap of bear country and humans.

15:45 Well, if you have two bears per square mile, that might not seem much to you or me, I want to say within 12 years, Yeah, yeah. this blows people's mind and it blew mine when i first learned it years ago but and and we could Mountain lions went from, I mean, when people got off the, I mean, when they, in the Eastern United States, full of bear. Absolutely.

19:35 degrees. Okay. Which is like medium. Yeah. It's not even well done. You know, the USDA is telling If it's at 142 degrees for a minute. Have you ever done that? And then you come back and everything is just sort of all the tendons and all the rough stuff is dissolved. Yeah. You make that with bear. It's really probably not very good for you. called uh make prayers to ravens that's the name of the book. When was this book written? In the 1970s

22:46 when i got to the section on black bear they had a full chapter on black bear and they started came back to my house that night They have like this hierarchy of animal powers. You know what I'm saying? Because he was trying to, like, say, you know, trying to find the functional value. So you, like, sweet talk the bear. for people who don't know what we're talking about, the bear, the wind came from behind you

27:02 right to that bear, where if it had been open country, I feel like by the time our scent right to that bear where if it had been open country i feel like by Someone explained to me, now imagine that times 100, and that's how a bear can smell things. Oh, yeah. paste. I smell a pastry or I smell, you know, the, the, the noodles. I smell sausage. I smell

29:28 To try to comprehend how a bear could smell you that far it's hard yeah our senses suck in comparison right yeah it's a wonder we And your question would be answered if you read the rest of the book that they think and if that would you your question would hmm so the bear hide is not used as which you'd think in the Arctic that Wow. Only second to a human funeral would be the death of a bear.

32:37 And I don't, I'm not pointing any fingers. Yeah. just want to to make something special you know yeah i mean just like i have chosen in my life that the newcomb family when we kill a bear it's a big deal for no no good reason why you do that So it's a significant thing to kill a bear. Yes, and a good part But I mean, this came from the biologists in Alaska. They killed those seven bears,

37:10 and this they caught this bear in the act of killing an elk calf and feeding great indicator species, right? Yeah. Yeah. And if a bear needs- Incredible beast, man. defense of whether you should use a pistol or bear spray. Yeah. oh it's on Meat Eater YouTube. is going to attack you as a brown or grizzly bear, which in the United States, brown grizzly bears

40:27 So the wild part, so you need to be responsible. And to be responsible means you need to have options you need to be trained in those options bear spray is highly effective but there are times And within five, six seconds, I mean, for sure, a bigger caliber is going to be more effective at stopping a bear. that thing. Right, the kick. with that accurately

43:13 If it hit him in the right place, I would say yes. and there's so many variables with ballistics and different things, but he said a 9mm actually penetrates better in some situations than a.40 caliber. Yeah, so there are some loopholes there because you think a bigger caliber is always going to be better. And I'm not a caliber expert. No, nor am I. But

44:38 What is this, Jamie? I don't know. Yeah, it charges him. Oh, you hear the little kid crying? That's a big bear too. Yeah, that's got to be a big male seems yeah that's a big bear yeah he's got a hurt front foot so yeah well You would think for sure that's Bigfoot. his back feet. when I first watched it. is that there's so many videos now. I mean, if you were walking around

47:59 oh dude you got a better bear wolf than me. Want to hear my roar? Here we go. so that the spirit of the bear doesn't catch him sleeping. you see that they do this kind of stuff with a lot of animals. But it is a fascinating book, for sure. takes you to a different place with the music and the way everything is the sound is edited into it it's episode four. And we learned a lot on that episode. A lot of this has just kind of been an

51:20 that I'm pronouncing it wrong. Like I do basically, you know, 99% of the content editing, Because I remember where I was standing when I read that story in about 2008. but because i'm because the center of my world is Arkansas, I don't think it was a Black Panther. I would tell them that story. so many dots connected. Like, first of all, there's a life or death struggle in that one man is seriously injured,

55:43 and gets mauled and killed. And his friend jumps in and stab on the bear and tries to stab it to death and gets mauled and killed and his friend jumps in and shots off into the sky and Erskine's corpse is, you know, 10 feet from him. And him who was knocked unconscious, shoulder knocked out of place, and he stayed the whole night there, the night in the tomb.

57:27 They didn't have repeating rifles. Because they have a harder time climbing trees, too. so what you do you pull your bowie knife which is standard issue for a bear hunter during that time period. Jesus. Could you look that up for us? That is – that one. Go left this this image right here that actual image really but So, you know, that's Erskine. one of his sons on the

1:02:46 that the bear just ran up a tree and we killed the bear or or we just saw a bear feeding we're because they don't see how difficult it is to get to that position, And there's so much going on in the mind, so much anxiety that you have to battle. But when I see a grip and grin photo, I see a lifestyle. and I interview this old guy that really is a legendary hunter.

1:05:59 was dedicated i mean these guys made a decision this is going to be a big part of our life, boys. We're going to be hunters. And it affected their careers. It affected their families. It affected it's just a big story, man. It's a big story. And a grip and grin doesn't tell that story, And that it's not just food it's actually a is some cruel sociopath who's just trying to check off boxes.

1:08:50 they're talking about how much money they're paying i want to pay this much to get a hippo All the stuff of the long, deep history of this and the traditions. grip and grin yeah you know like that is if there's if a grip europeans arrived here they arrived into a wildlife bonanza like the earth has not seen since And so market hunting was a career.

1:12:18 So if you did shoot an animal, it was really only good for a certain amount of time. But it was common. because it was going to be gone. So Americans would know what a mule deer looked like. And so Measuring the antlers of a bear. They picked us up from a market like when you say trophy hunting i'm like no i mean i'm against i mean what you're you are

1:16:05 but they live in these high-fence hunting ranches. shot by me and my family because of the influence of us wanting to take a bigger male and there's we will celebrate the heck out of those horns. Like when you go elk hunting, you want to kill a big one. with market hunting having animals in the verge of extinction and then it takes a lot of money to protect these animals as well.

1:19:27 I mean, really, what you should see through that lens is see protected habitat. I mean, to other people other than hunters, but hunters are the ones that are primarily funding most of the public land. and people have to act and it gets it gets heated yes it's really crazy because yes it's a slippery a friend that, I tell the story sometimes, I've got a friend that lives in Wales and she watches

1:22:44 everybody would And it used to be owned by the royals, was about hollywood stole another bow hunting story from us. Well, it's like what they've done with hunting is really kind of crazy. yeah it's but it's that thing where the bear hunters, know or has any context into the rural world yes that these hillbillies killing stuff are bad right I really do.

1:26:33 and through the protection of ag-gag law. So people have been locked up and gone to jail for taking video of things that most Like we don't have – what we do as hunters is done in private, It has a bankroll. and you don't want anything to be harmed. So you do no harm and There's no question whatsoever. I heard him say a statistic one time, and I don't have the actual numbers, but essentially,

1:30:50 Are you going to give them birth control? situation yeah have you ever read um dan flores's uh book bison diplomacy bison ecology bison Bison Ecology, Bison Diplomacy. American Serengeti. Yeah. Didn't he write that? didn't happen until the European settlers... It's a crazy sort of convoluted thing because horses originated in North America, but then

1:32:26 Native Americans start... crazy. When we think about genocide It's bizarre. Yeah. 400 guys. Maybe it's four. and you have a similar way of talking about it in that bear hunting episode, That's so, if you go back three people, And then there's just this new group of humans from another continent that overwhelm the place. like james that would have been primitive humans and we feel like that was so long ago but you know

1:37:01 couple months and get across the country or get across the ocean i mean It's incredible how far we've come in terms of air quotes progress because it is progress, would have known each other because you would have lived in austin i would have lived in northwest and the disconnection of humans from natural places and just a general understanding of the

1:40:13 clearly there's a lot of very negative things genocide conquest of the west like we're looking And anyway, we're in a weird place. and takes time with the preparation and really values each piece of that meat. Asshole hunter and you insert him into your story it's a tired trope right yeah yeah but And oftentimes, and there's some of them, we don't have to name names,

1:43:28 With shows like meat-eater. I think things are changing in a lot of people's perceptions the part of the weird feeling of loss. Like you shoot an animal. There's a, there's a feeling, Like, look what I got. You can buy, particularly, there's a lot of good places in Texas, But if you're a You know, Steve Rinella, man, he, you know, I've just got to know Steve like the last year, really.

1:46:33 Yeah. mean i still i watched one of those episodes. How did you know Rinella to begin with? he told me they were trying to do shit like they were explanation of what these people back then like he had made a raft out of hide and used it to a vegetarian or I'm going to become a hunter because I don't want to participate in this I shot a mule deer. animal I had ever shot ever and then you know we ate the liver um that night over fire you know we

1:50:48 but i mean i've hunted a lot with him now and i mean he the guy just loves he loves to hunt he's Yeah. community shares this ethic and shares this deep understanding they're all very intelligent people He said, you don't have to move. I mean, I'm not going to talk bad about Bill Clinton. Yeah. Oh, it's happening everywhere. 5,000 people very happy. Wow. By saying that name.

1:54:39 Yeah. And then, you know stabbed and then you know and then yeah so so just over the years of people that worked at the airport, Activities at airport in MENA detailed. They smuggled narcotics into MENA, Arkansas. I was thinking it was the late. It's a wild movie. Who knows? So Arkansas, if Arkansas were, let's just say it was this square right here,

1:58:59 the tv show ozark yeah which is a wild fucking tv never never watched it never no it's good is it trying to run this... I don't want to give away too much of it, but it's a brilliant show. I know that have no pleasant answers. And see, I don't know where they filmed that, but I think it was in Missouri, in the Missouri Ozarks. i mean it's special because i i i've added value to it by being there you know and i've heard it

2:02:01 that you could walk to the top of it You know, but all of it's fucking amazing. outside of Austin apparently is another million plus a third yeah which is nuts yeah and see i don't really have a context for that joe like i name right i understand uh so northwest arkansas is kind of the the the hub the population hub of like from Fayetteville, you could pretty quickly be in National Forest. I mean, like within 30 minutes drive being National Forest.

2:05:25 We do, but that is not the primary reason that we harvest them. And it's, man, I... most of that pillar is fulfilled Absolutely. For the hides and because, yeah, population control. Holy shit. By the way, those motherfuckers might be in my backyard. They in Texas? Wow. By the way, So let me tell you maybe slightly below knee high. if uh my security guys are listening i hope they've uh someone must have recorded it but

2:09:33 ish thing yeah that ran and i didn't realize it looked like a coyote almost yeah and i realized This was here in Austin, and it had a long tail, They said, we've got this large predator on video. It's a fucking real thing. Okay, I just saw his tail. What are you doing there, buddy? That's a cat. Right in front where it's more illuminated. and the last time they photographed one here was the 1980s but you know know how dense Texas is. You go outside, fucking woods everywhere.

2:12:53 whatever that is that's not a house cat yeah that's a big fucking cat i'd like to i'd like I am by nature a skeptic, okay, of anything that's abnormal. It's, I haven't seen it since then. It could still be here. I mean, it is amazing how many stories there are of black panthers. Jaguars are coming up from Mexico. There are some jaguars that their home ranges span into,

2:16:27 him say it before but he was like yeah i believe in black panthers and i caught this on audio kind Because it looks like that. And, you know, those things still exist. legitimately be a black jaguar down here but how could the myth of a black panther exist in but it's also what propagates a bunch of good stuff. But I do know that there's a lot of exotic animals that people keep here as pets.

2:19:20 It's all over, man. when i went oh huh that's a big fucking cat and they're like yeah this is not a small animal this Oh, that's smart. If I put that rectangle there, or maybe this is too big or this one's too small. My youngest daughter's very artistic. And we have one fat fucking coyote But that thing was weird. Well, one thing I do have that's a good scale is I have one of those foam pigs, those wild boar targets, a 3D target.

2:22:15 Yeah. What do you think it might be? That's kind of... that's kind of bouncy that's kind of Yeah. It does. Driving, no. Oh, no. four to eight you know whatever and this guy man this this guy had zebras and i used to rant every Yeah. Texas is a different planet when it comes to a different country. Wow. So it's like a mule? Look at that. A zonkey. a mule is a hybrid cross between a female horse

2:27:06 But essentially, hybrid vigor means that the offspring of these animals trainers, a lot of mule work. And it came from many, many things, but mules handled the heat better than a horse. But in general, if a horse is not shooed, it will go lame and not be able to work much. They're not working. Some people do, but typically you don't have to shoe a mule. Some people do, but typically you don't

2:30:04 be very strict. Very careful. What food you leave around. Yes. A mule won't founder. So with a horse, you have to be very strict. you're on that animal you're in charge of it and you could give it the cues to make it do something go up the side of this bluffy mountain, get a mule don't understand how to how a mule works because he thinks way different than a horse

2:33:08 And so people know, like, stubborn as a mule, man, you don't, They're safe in the mountains. And the reason I want to ride mules is to get deeper into wild places and stay longer. He's pretty good. Okay. Mules of the feet. This will close my spiel. Okay. That's the reason. Is that a big business, the commercial mule business? Oh. Interesting. in on you could go you come to arkansas and buy a mule for a thousand dollars that you'd pay

2:36:28 It's sort of a part of the beard You got a perfect mustache and I'm enjoying your podcast all that