[grunting]
- Man down, man down.
- I tripped.
- NOAH RUDINO: He was massive.
We weren't as fit as we thought we were.
[laughs]
[grunting]
Like, there were six of us dragging him through the
marsh and that was a whole other process,
he was heavy.
Four feet felt like a mile through all that brush.
It was incredible.
This whole hunt was just amazing.
I don't use those two words very often.
- One.
Two.
Three.
[grunts]
- NOAH: Eating it, I know where it came from.
It's healthy.
My family can enjoy it, so that's pretty cool.
- HUNTER: Man,
that was a lot.
[metal scraping]
- NOAH: My name is Noah Rudino.
I coach Cross Fit at Max 3.
Alright, once you guys finish that warm up,
go ahead and load up your weights
and we'll get started.
I make meal plans for the members that are
wanting to change their life style around
what they look at as dieting,
but I coach lifestyle changes.
[chatter]
I had not hunted.
Matt approached me at the gym, he's a member at the gym,
and he said yah, I thought I'd give it a shot.
- If some of you want to come out there early,
we'll show you how to setup the blinds.
My name is Matt Hughes,
I'm with Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.
And Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation raises private funds
to help support Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
[upbeat music]
The Stewards of the Wild get people involved in the outdoors
and conservation, 21 to 45 year olds,
people who have lost the opportunity to get outside.
[laughing]
[gunshot]
Something we wanted to explore more recently
is the idea of mentored hunting.
To learn about conservation and wildlife management
through conservation.
- He's right behind that bigger tree.
- MATTHEW: And the nutritional component of hunting.
[sizzling]
And all of those things put together,
but for some hunters, don't really have that opportunity.
[dramatic music]
[wind]
- Hi, I'm Noah. - Katelin.
- Katelin, it's nice to meet you.
- Good to meet you.
- Justin. - Katelin.
- MATTHEW: We're out here at Powderhorn Ranch bringing
seven hunters who have never hunted out here
to be part of that experience.
Welcome to Powderhorn everybody.
I'm Matt Hughes.
You guys all pretty much know me from Max 3 and mentors,
so I'm glad you're all out here.
To learn about conservation and wildlife management
through conservation
and the nutritional component of hunting.
They get to see those animals eating the grass.
They get to see what those animals eat and they get to
learn that this is all part of a bigger picture.
It's a really rewarding system.
[upbeat music]
- My name is Justin Gardiner.
I work at a chiropractic clinic
and I have a background in exercise science
and really wholistic health in general.
My 270 Browning, my dad gave this to me
for my 18th birthday.
- Oh, nice.
- Yeah.
- JUSTIN: One of the things that's really exciting for me
when Matt told me about being a mentor for Noah
was the fact that he's interested in the
nutritional part of hunting.
- NOAH: So today we're doing range time.
Yah, we've never hunted, any of us.
It's all new.
[gunshot]
[sharp exhale]
- JUSTIN: Feel good?
- NOAH: Yah.
- JUSTIN: For me what's exciting is to share some of
the knowledge that I've picked up and having wild food
being a part of something that he enjoys with his friends
and with his family around the dinner table.
[sizzling]
- MATT: The idea is that all of our meals are wild game.
You're clearly looking at your shot.
Make sure there is nothing behind you that can be mistaken.
We went through with our mentors as well as our mentees
what we expect from a safety perspective.
Hunting safety, gun safety,
what kind of shot placement they should be doing,
what they should be looking for in their animals.
We want to make sure everyone is safe
and following the rules.
This is basically like if you go out stalking,
don't shoot in that direction.
[dramatic music]
[crickets chirp]
[birds sing]
[dramatic music]
- JUSTIN: So, leading into the hunt...
- That's awesome.
- JUSTIN: ...you could feel a kind of tension
with a new hunter.
With Noah he was starting,
the nerves were starting to build up.
That's a good shooter bull.
We saw a beautiful Sambar bull.
There was really no way for us to get a shot at him,
so we decided that we were going to put a stalk on him.
- NOAH: We walked out to get a better shot at him
and that's when the excitement set in.
- JUSTIN: [whispering] Take your time.
Wait until you're comfortable.
[gunshot]
- MATT: This was a good shooter because he's a big animal.
- NOAH: Walking up on it, I got to see really how big it was,
and he was massive.
- One, two, three.
[grunts]
- JUSTIN: It took six guys to pull that Sambar
to a place to where we could load him in the truck.
The work started there and then it continued on
as we broke the animal down.
So the whole thing is that
we're going to open this up.
- NOAH: Tearing him down, gees, that was harder than
the whole thing, like from the hunt itself,
that was a lot of work.
I had no idea.
[paper rustling]
- JUSTIN: Being able to take that animal from the field
down to usable parts
and then to be able to cook that animal,
I think that's really important when comes to
introducing people to hunting.
[soft music]
- They look amazing.
- JUSTIN: We cooked them,
and cut them up together,
and took the first bites.
Here we go.
Let's do it.
- NOAH: Okay.
I want this piece right here.
- JUSTIN: That was a special moment for me.
[low dramatic music]
- NOAH: I ate the first piece and it was like everything,
the whole day just flashed as soon as I was
taking that first bite.
- JUSTIN: What do you think?
- NOAH: Awesome.
- Like it?
- God.
So good.
- JUSTIN: This is your guy.
- NOAH: What Stewards of the Wild and everybody here
has taught me, I have a whole new respect for
the entire process and the conservation aspect of it.
It was just amazing.
A great experience.
[wind]
- NARRATOR: Support for Stewards of the Wild
comes from the Texas Wildlife Association
and the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute.