MeatEater

Some of the nation’s best public lands hunting and angling are being jeopardized by irresponsible energy development. Steven Rinella talks about what’s at risk in southwestern Montana’s Powder River Basin.

Steven Rinella discusses the importance of the Blue Range Primitive Area to hunters and anglers while hunting mountain lions.

Waterfowl are so universally revered that the North American Wetlands Conservation Act was passed to fund wetlands and waterfowl conservation efforts in Canada, the United States and Mexico. However, the NAWCA program is subject to constant need for approval and funding in the congressional cycles. In 2012, the programs budget was down 26% from just 2 years ago. It’s important for sportsmen to speak up for this essential program.

Steve wants to hunt where few have hunted before. To gain access to pristine ground, he charters a float plane to drop him high in the Alpine zone of Alaska’s Coastal Rainforest at a little used landing spot. He plans to spend three days alone in the wild hunting for black tail deer. The primary challenges are steep and technically challenging terrain, drifting fog banks, and nearly incessant rain and snow. If he lands a black tail, Steve plans to cook up Rock-Pounded tenderloin to feast on before the float plane returns to bring him back to civilization.

To find the best-tasting game meat, you have to earn it. As the cold Alaskan winter approaches, bears flock to the high country of Alaska's Chugach Range while feasting on cranberry and blueberry. As summer turns to fall, the bears have exhausted low-elevation fruit and their quest to fatten up pushes them into higher and less accesible terrain. The hard work and long hike pays off, as berry-fed black bears provide some of the finest tasting meat available to the American hunter. The meat is so good, that Steven Rinella plans to fry it in it’s own fat as a celebratory meal if he is lucky enough to land a bear on this trip.

For a waterfowler's dream hunt, Steven Rinella joins his friend, the wildlife biologist Brandt Meixell, on a river boat journey to some untouched Alaska wetlands in search ducks and geese. Using tactics ranging from decoy hunting to jump shooting, they try to fill their boat and their bellies with a constant supply of duck meat. Featured meal is willow-spit roasted whole duck.

Steven and his brother Matt load up the llamas for a backcountry spring Turkey hunt in Montana’s Powder River Breaks. This rugged terrain is the brothers’ long time stomping ground and they will pack deep into the badlands to get away from people and close to some Toms. Featured meal will be camp-fried turkey schnitzel.

America’s desert Southwest is a sharp, hard country of cactus, deep canyons, and big cats. Steven arrives to learn the truth about one of the hunting world’s most controversial acts—tracking a Lion with dogs until it is bayed on a cliff or in a tree. Learning from two expert lion hunters, he immerses himself in a style of hunt that is utterly new to him. He is humbled by the challenge it presents, this hunt is physically brutal and emotionally taxing. Sometimes the reward of the hunt is the thrill of success and a delicious meal, and other times it’s a more personal, and possibly more important lesson of knowledge and humility.

Hunting a powerful living relic from a bygone era, Steven Rinella heads into the mountains of the Sonora Desert on a true, wild, free-ranging buffalo hunt. Steve knows Buffalo, but seeing and stalking these beasts in this dry, stark habitat is a wild experience, very different from anything he’s every done. After a careful long-distance stalk Steve takes a young bull and winds up with yards of incredible bison meat to share with his family, friends, and locals. With a little help, Steve prepares a true multicultural feast for a table of hungry cowboys.

Steve and special guest, the author Tim Ferriss, travel to the remotest corner of Alaska to catch the annual migration of the famed Western Arctic caribou herd. On the open tundra they are met with challenges, wild adventures, and grizzlies. After two intense hunts for bull caribou, they feast on a stew of caribou sirloin and root vegetables thickened with bone marrow.

After drawing one of the most coveted big game permits in North America – a Tok Management Area Dall sheep tag – Steven Rinella heads out for a truly rare and epic Alaskan experience. Along with two buddies, Steve is dropped deep into the Tok backcountry. After a rugged hike through nasty weather, Steve’s skills and fortitude are tested against his elusive, high-climbing quarry.

The culmination of Steven Rinella’s Tok Sheep hunt should not be missed, and just in case the Dall Sheep hunt isn’t enough, Steve and his hunting partners head upriver to chase bears. An exciting stalk ensues, and plenty of meat eating is enjoyed. Featured meals are Dall sheep steak with wild blueberry pancakes, Dall ribs cooked over a rock oven, and willow-roasted black bear loin.

Steven Rinella ventures out to his hunting and fishing shack on a remote coastline of southeast Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island. While hunting bears from a skiff and a canoe, Steve gathers a variety of prime seafood and makes a discovery about his own motivations as a bear hunter.

On a spring hunt in Florida Steven Rinella got his hands on a wild barred hog. In the field Steve demonstrates the best way to break a hog down and bring him home. Later, Steve and his good friend, chef Matt Weingarten, cook four preparations from the hog’s head, skin, trotters, muscle, and guts.

Steven Rinella and his buddy Ryan Callaghan float a remote river on a moose hunt that results in some of the most dangerous moments in Steve’s life as a hunter. The two hunters travel far from civilization in a raft to search for the massive moose that call the area home.

Alone for 10 days in Alaska's Brooks Range, Steve and wildlife biologist Brandt Maxwell hunt their primary target, the big-antlered Yukon moose.

After ten days, Steve and Brandt have taken just one missed shot, but fortune smiles on them during their last day in the Alaskan wilderness.

Comedians Joe Rogan and Bryan Callen keep the mood light as they join Steve for some Sitka blacktail deer hunting in the mountains of Alaska.

After a day practicing on clays with shotguns before hunting for game in Virginia, Steve demonstrates easy grilling techniques for dove and pigeon.

Steve joins a grizzly bear hunt in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia and prepares a delicious feast, despite inclement weather.

While hunting in Wyoming, Steve disproves common myths about antelope and shares information about proper hunting and meat preservation techniques.

Actor and comedian Joe Rogan joins Steve on a bowhunting expedition to the Great Basin of Nevada for skittish quarry: the high desert mule deer.

Steve's friends Janis and Papa Janis join Steve on a moose and caribou hunt in east-central Alaska that's the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

After early success on their moose and caribou hunt in Alaska, wild game has eluded Steve's party, so he and Janis decide it's time to take action.

Steve joins wildlife biologist Parker Hall as they set lines for flathead catfish on the Missouri River and hunt gray squirrels for a unique recipe.

Steve and Janis hunt the forests of Washington for bull elk, but a bad arrow shot results in a slightly spoiled harvest and Steve feeling remorseful.

Steve and some local experts visit the marshlands of the Chesapeake Bay to hunt non-native sika deer and set a chicken-neck trotline for blue crabs.

Steve and chef Jesse Griffiths target redfish and sea trout with guide JT Van Zandt and flounder with Captain David Dupnik and end up with a feast.

Now on dry land, Steve and Jesse hunt nilgai, a large Indian antelope. The successful duo butcher a beast and dig into unique nose-to-tail dishes.

On horseback, Steve heads into the Wyoming backcountry to stalk mule deer with Janis Putelis and Adam Weatherby. Snowfall complicates the hunt.

Accompanied by country music star Luke Combs, Steven stalks pronghorn on the plains of Wyoming but encounters an unusual obstacle: a flock of sheep.

On an alpine mountain goat hunt in the Rockies, Steven and guest Kurt Racicot discover that whiteout conditions make their elusive prey tough to spot.

At a South Texas ranch, Steven and Clay Newcomb host wild-game chef Jesse Griffiths, who turns their white-tailed venison into five flavorful dishes.

Steve and Evan Hafer struggle to find blacktail deer on Alaska's Prince of Wales Island.

Steve and Clay Newcomb visit Jordan Budd for a guided Nebraska whitetail trip.

Steve and Jean-Paul Bourgeois visit Ronnie Collins in Louisiana for some backwater duck hunting.

Steve takes Randall Williams and Clay Newcomb to his fish shack to hunt for black bears.

Steve hunts for elk in Montana with Garrett Long and Cory Calkins.

Steve hunts for squirrels and rabbits with Guy Zuck and Kevin Murphy.

Steven Rinella returns to the coast of Louisiana to spearfish and bowfish with Ronnie Collins and Greg Fonts. With ideal conditions, Steve receives a last minute invitation from Ronnie to spearfish during the reintroduced spring Amberjack season. Afterwards, the crew stays up for a late evening of bowfishing for red drum. Presented by Ram and Can-Am

Steven Rinella takes on Montana’s week-long big game heritage season with a traditional muzzleloader. With flintlock in hand, Steve’s after mule deer in a desolate and broken sage brush landscape. After a long few months of evading hunters, these deer have perfected how to stay alive. But stalking a deer into range isn’t the only hurdle to navigate.

Steven Rinella returns to the Yturria Ranch in south Texas, this time, to hunt turkeys and pigs with country musician Luke Combs. Their plans to chase the spring thunder shifts as the weather has a different idea.