3 Day Catch and Cook in Mountains with Homemade Bow

So I'm currently at the Clay Hayes Family Homestead here in central Idaho, and over the next couple days, we're gonna be turning this big old block of Osage into a traditional bow and arrow. Then, we're gonna be taking them out into the woods and hopefully getting ourselves some dinner. Been working on this thing for three days now, and it's so cool to see this thing come together. It was a big lump of wood when it started, and now it is a deadly weapon, or a awesome LARPing instrument. So we're a couple hours from Clay's house. We brought the new stick bow out. We're gonna hike a couple miles off into the woods, should take a few hours, and we brought very limited food, and we're gonna see if we can use the stick bow and a fishing rod, maybe forage for some food, and see if we can collect ourselves some dinner. Otherwise, we got hash browns on the menu. We've been hiking for about an hour. No sign of wildlife. Chances of starvation are getting increasing with every step. We did see some elk tracks, but there's no elk season right now. There's food out here, we just gotta find it. So if you look just to the right of this far tree, you can see two grouse down there, and so this is Xander's first stalk on a grouse. If you wanna take a shot, what I do is put myself over there. Yeah, so the tree's behind him. And the tree behind him, if you get back here, it's kind of a risky shot, but that's a blue grouse. That's a good-sized bird. That was so exciting. Oh my God. I would get that big tree between you and him, and you could probably walk right to him. We got him, right? We got him, though. Well, I hope we can find him, because... Is it? Yeah. So yeah, we'll take a good look, like a long time. I don't wanna go to waste, man. Do you think he ever bit him? I wish it would've turned out different, but that happens sometimes. It's not a good feeling. Blue grouse are tough, like they're incredibly tough birds. You think he's gonna die? Probably. But, I mean, I don't know. Nature is what nature is. There's nothing, there's no animal out here that dies a peaceful death. It just doesn't happen. I mean, they starve to death, they get drugged down by wolves, they get, I mean, who the hell knows, but the idea of a peaceful death is a human idea. Do I deserve a second shot? No, it's like, yeah, it sucks, but, I mean, ---- happens, and it doesn't do any good to dwell on it, and you might as well just move on. And it's like, you know, I've lost animals before, and it happens, if you're a hunter, like any hunter that says that they have never lost an animal either hasn't been hunting for very long, or they're just a flat-out liar. You know, you could do everything perfectly, and there's always factors that you just can't control. I mean, that's just part of hunting, is there's so many unknowns and so much variation. Like, you know, the animal could move. Maybe you get a deflection. An animal like that, you made a perfect shot. There was nothing wrong with that shot, but just that situation, that grouse set his wings, and in the country that we're in, he could have flown for a mile. There's no chance of finding that animal. That's the way she goes. It is that. All up, uphill from here. Yeah, it's headed by the, three quarters of a mile uphill and a quarter mile down. Well, great. 10 minutes down the trail. There's another one, so redemption time. What do you think? Let's go for it. And. Oh, sweet. So we can sit up at night and tell ghost stories. So this is where I'm sleeping. Where are you sleeping? I thought we could spoon. As long as I have a little spoon. Looks like potatoes are on the menu. I was wondering about that handle. Right off. Idaho spuds. Seven servings of 600 calories, which is 420 calories, which is like, oh no. There's tons of water in my thing, man. Definitely gonna come out of this one a little lighter. Especially after all that hiking. You need a big old ribeye to go with these. Or that bird. That'd be good. Fish. Let's see. On the fly rod. Nice, man. I think they're keying on this. They're over in the sunny spot. Oh, beautiful, man. The other one's just a little bigger. Cool. They're rainbows. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, right away. Oh, no, that was a stupid idea. Lesson learned. Damn. Yeah, I got mine in there, too. I think you got it out. Now, there's an opening down there. Pretty fish. So, we have three fish in the live well. We should have five, but one of Clay's escaped, one of mine escaped. So, there's three. We're gonna save them in there until dinner. We're gonna go explore. I just found a big old boletti, and we're gonna save it there for dinner with the fish. Take a shower right there. Oh, yeah. Well, we made it down. That's a rainbow trout right here. Like, right there. Clay caught a fish down here at this lower campsite. We're just gonna cook her up. Lunch. Fish eyes are good. Pretty cool animals, huh? Amazing. Dinner? We have five, or six fish. No. A little bit old, but. Ooh, I don't know. What do you think? Pretty moldy, eh? Nah. It's good stuff. So, we caught six fish and shot one bird, but we only have two fish and one boletti. Go figure. Whoa, this thing is massive. When in Idaho, do what the Idaho-dians do. Old, it just stains blue when you bruise them. Oh. It's one of the identifying factors. There's a few worms in it, but. I think we may be down to fish and spuds. These have a little bit of a off flavor to them. It's a really old one. Oh. Yeah, no thanks. Two fish, clean on the inside. There we go. Nice work, Clay. Best fish I've had in a while. Not just the way you're like, you're just like, holding it in your hand, eating the fish. That's good, these eyeballs. Oh. Yum. So good. It's my favorite. I ate the braid. How'd you get the braid? It's like. Like, rip it open? Oh yeah. Yum. Morning, Clay. Morning. You got coffee going? Coffee. Coffee? Stupid handle. All right. Well, let's go coffee first. When did I get more water? Oatmeal for the hike out. Your spoon is so much better than mine. Somebody left this stupid Coleman propane burner. It says free, but it's not gonna. It's free, so we're gonna take it. So my time here in Idaho is coming to a close. I had such an amazing experience getting to build this bow with the legend himself, Clay Hayes, and then taking it out to the woods on his home turf, Idaho, into the mountains to do a little bit of hunting and fishing in some pristine wilderness. My God, was it ever beautiful. This whole experience here in Idaho is absolutely phenomenal, and I'm so grateful for the experience. So I just want a huge shout out to the Hayes family, Finn, Koi, Liz, and Clay for having me here. It was a memory that I'm gonna hold onto for a long time. I know I won't forget my experience here, and I'm pumped to come back. And if you guys haven't checked out Clay's channel, you've gotta go check it out. I linked it down in the description. He does bushcraft videos. He does survival videos. He does bow building videos. He does hunting videos, camping videos. He's like my channel, but 10 times the skill level. Plus he was a season eight contestant on Alone. He lived in, this is a replica of the shack that he lived in for 70 something days. Pretty crazy stuff. The guy is the absolute real deal, so you've gotta go check out his channel. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed that one as much as I did. Thanks for watching. Have a great day. There you go. In person. Thank you, sir.