By Chris Avena
I first met Gus four or five years ago when I had interviewed him for my social network for hunters, SeeMeHunt.com. He had invited me to his home in upstate New York. Once I arrived, we walked into his trophy room where we were going to conduct the interview and I could not believe my eyes. This was not just any trophy room. Taxidermy filled the room. One full wall was dedicated just for Whitetail. The rest of the room was filled with Bison, Cape Buffalo, Alligator Black Bear and of course, his record ten foot tall Brown Bear and so many more beautiful species. This trophy room was a masterpiece by anyone's standards. You walk in to see a beautiful oak bar that can seat five or six people. Across the room was the pool table and fireplace. I set up my camera by the bar and my intent was just to have an informal dialog about his TV show and his hunting career while the camera was running. Gus offered me a drink before we started and we sat down and started the interview. After a while I noticed that my glass, no matter how many sips I took, was never empty. Needless to say, there was not one bit of footage that will ever see the light of day. I will say this as politically correct as I can. The New Yorker came out in both of us. The language was colorful, the topics were outrageous and the laughs just kept on coming. I might have left there without any usable footage that day but I did leave with a new friendship. These days I do speak to Gus often and I always seem to hang up the phone laughing. As you read our most recent interview below, you will see that nothing has changed.
Chris: I am here with the host of live the wildlife TV Gus Congemi. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us today.
Gus: It is cool to see in these times with this virus. It's kind of cool to see your face. Actually, wait a minute, I take that back. It's not cool to see your face. You think this is a totally serious interview? You're out of your mind, because you and I cannot get together without laughing.
Chris: I could have stayed home for this abuse. I didn't have to get on a Zoom call for this.
Gus: You know I am just breaking it balls.
Chris: You have a big year coming up. You just got inducted into the Outdoorsman Hall of Fame in Tennessee. That should be coming up in a couple of months, right?
Gus: Yeah, it's a pretty cool deal. I'm not really sure of the criteria, but somebody has to nominate you obviously, and then the board of directors vote on the nominees. I think I came up last year, but I didn't get in last year. I got it in this year. It is an honor for me. Look, you can relate to what I'm saying. We are from New York. Most of the country does not consider New Yorkers to be good hunters. I'll keep it really politically correct.
Chris: How the hell did you get into the hall of fame? You're in New York, there is no hunting here in New York.
Gus: You know the deal Chris. I can't tell you how many hunts that I have been on where outfitters or guides hear that you are from New York and then they hear that you are a New York TV guy. So forget it. Now they are even more skeptical. They are definitely afraid.
Chris: Do they expect you to show up in a black suit with your white on white tie?
Gus: They think that we are incompetent. Don't take this the wrong way, but if you like our president and you'll understand where we come from. That is our humor. We are from New York. So for me getting in the hall of fame. that is kind of a cool thing.
Chris: That is a big thing for anybody.
Chris: You started hunting late in life, didn't you?
Gus: Yes. My whole deal when I was growing up was I played ball. I played football, and ran track. I played ball my whole life, organized teams, college teams etc. I never thought about hunting, it just never interested me. We did not grow up with it. My family didn't hunt. I tasted venison for the first time and that was it. I kind of clicked. I don't know how else to explain it. I could actually go out and harvest my own food, which meant a lot to me. I'm not much of a gardener or like (Italian) guys who have their vegetable gardens and they're really proud of their tomato plants or whatever else they're growing. That never really appealed to me, but this did. So learn to survive in the outdoors to be able to harvest your own food, it is a liberating thought to me. I started at 31 years old and I fell in love with the bow. I am not much of a firearms guy. I don't shoot them very often. I got some great friends like Bobby Hart, guys who have made me custom rifles and I could shoot them. It's just not my preferred method of hunting. It's all archery. So I started late, 31 years old.
Chris: Who took you on your first hunt?
Gus: I started hunting with this old German guy up where I used to have my log home in Downsville, New York. His name is Carl "Handwalker. He's since passed away. He was a tough, tough man. He didn't take any nonsense. He's one of those guys that if you are overweight he would let you know about it. He didn't hold back. I tasted Venison at his house. He would basically live off of the land. He has been to Alaska six or seven times. He was a real outdoorsman. He had his vegetable gardens, his hunting and he really had an appreciation for the outdoors and the animals. He came over from Germany and European hunters really have a different respect for the game. It was important to him to honor the animal. It was never the you know, just a grip and grin type thing. There was always an honor involved in it and it appealed to me. So he's the guy who I started hunting with on a local level. Like you started hunting in upstate New York, local level. And I'd listen to his stories about Alaska and all these cool places that he's been, and that's where it started for me.
Chris: Most people that start hunting at an early age. They are in camo in their early teens and you were in your white suit with a black shirt, going to 2001 Odyssey, Zio's and other night clubs like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.
Gus: In high school we had a pretty diverse group, white guys, black guys, were all friends. We played ball together and it was cool. We would go to dance clubs at that point. I was in high school. We didn't think about jocks or any of that stuff. It wasn't really disco disco. It was dance music. But you know me, I'm a Dead Head. So I would go to see the Grateful Dead. In fact, I was just there with my good buddy David Block from Outdoor Edge. We go all the time from Mexico to see him on the beach. They play the Cancun and Riviera Maya. They were playing in the Riviera Maya and then they moved the concert to Cancun, which is a huge resort. When I went away to college, that was my thing. I kind of, all of a sudden I fell into that kind of music. So the school scene. Chris, you look like you should be at a dead show.
Chris: I was never a Dead head. I'm a metal head. I liked my Rock n' Roll.
Gus: That never really appealed to me.
Chris: So you've traveled all over the world for both pleasure and hunting. What is your most memorable hunt?
Gus: I've been on a few hunts with my son who doesn't hunt. He works for A&E and the History Channel. He run's the camera for me and he has been with me on a few hunts. Like I said, that was a pretty cool bond between us. My son is caught, some legendary type shots of me hunting such as the picture of the Brown Bear standing up, that has all come off of video and he's videoing it. But it's amazing because he doesn't really have that fear of those animals because he knows dad's there. It's going to be cool. Dad's going to take care of it. He was young. New Zealand was off the charts amazing trip for us. We had this, huge stag come up out of the mist standing in front of us. This was all captured on video. So there's a lot of moments but I would say the Brown bear probably is the most memorable trip for me just because I shared it with my son. Plus the fact that for a while it was the SCI number one archery Brown bear taken with a bow for a while. Currently it is the number three Brown Bear.
Chris: Is the Brown Bear hunt is what got you into the Fred bear society?
Gus: No, that's just a whole different thing for Pope young. I've have over seventy animals registered. I support the organization, I support them because they look out for our rights. These are the people that are out there who are protecting our rights. They are the people who are lobbying for our rights. They are always working on things that we won't even know happened. And before you know it, you have lost your right to hunt.
Chris: Absolutely.
Gus: When I was traveling to hunt turkey, but when I'm traveling for turkey hunt, the first thing I did was reach out to SCI. They kind of from the gave me people to call from those states and SCI chapters who could tell me what was going on with the regulations during this coronavirus outbreak. So it's great to have them in your corner and the Pope and young is another organization like that. It is also something where you donate to the future of bow hunting and it's a great organization. There's some cool people involved in it. I
Chris: It seems like most of your hunts are so physically demanding. How do you stay in such good shape to go on these hunts?
Gus: The truth, Chris, I'm not anymore. I'll be 62, a couple of weeks, Physically strength wise, I'm good. The mountain hunts have taken its toll on me now. It just wears you out over the years. Between playing ball all those years and climbing mountains, I am really starting to feel it. I can't do it the way I want to with a bow anymore. It is very difficult to stalk and get within bow range of a mountain goat. I could do it with the rifle on a mountain hunt, but the bow? It is a young man's game. That's all I'm going to tell you. I will say that you will be up there and all of a sudden the animal moves. my last mountain goat hunt, we were on this goat and I had a smaller goat that I could have shot out with a bow. But then we see this giant that we want to go after. But it was the third day of climbing up the mountain. Now you are physically exhausted. Now we've got to take off around this mountain. So another half day we got weather coming in. It was one of those things when you have to realize that it's almost like a ballplayer who realizes he's past his prime, but this is time to retire. I felt like the bow is going to be a tough one on that. Now I'm not saying that there's mountain goat hunting you can't do because there are easier hunts than I was on. But the one I was on in Kodiak was a tough hunt. And I try to keep myself in the best shape possible just so I can keep doing what I love.
Chris: I have never been on a goat hunt, but from what I have read and what people have told, if you think you're in shape going into it, you are really not in shape and prepared for it. How do you know you are really prepared for a hunt like that?
Gus: No. You're not. Do whatever you think you're doing and still you are not going to be, but it's also the desire of being there and that is what you train for. Where I screwed up on a few of these hunts is I have always gone to Kodiak in November. The outfitter that I hunted with, Big Wild Outfitters, Clay Roberts, great, great guy. I love him. I have known Clay for years. He worked for the guide that I did my Brown bear hunt with. So I've known Clay for years. He didn't guide me there, but I knew him. And then when he purchased and took over the concession on Kodiak, He wanted me to go in November because the hair is great on the goats. The problem is, I have Turkey on right now. I will hunt in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and so it's getting up early, like our whitetail seasons are and I do the same thing, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York for whitetail. So by the time November comes around, I've gotta be straight with you, I'm pretty burnt out physically. If I was going to suggest, if somebody's going on a hunt like that, I would think your best bet is to go early fall. You can train all summer, getting in near the end of August. The weather is good.The hair on the goats is not as good, but you're fresh. You haven't been burnt out from a long whitetail season. Because between black bear, whitetail and turkey, I'm just running on fumes half the time and now I have to go to Kodiak on a physical hunt. So that's one thing I would probably do differently if I was going to do that hunt again.
Chris: How did this evolve into your TV show? What made you want to start a TV show?
Gus: I didn't. I met a guy in Canada, Mike Avery and it was Mike Avery's outdoor magazine and Mike did about 25 years of television. He's still syndicated on the radio out of Michigan. I know Mike was a cool guy. He's just kind of a big dude, 6'6''. He is just a great guy, real knowledgeable. I was going on with my first Brown bear hunt. He asked me if I would you mind filming it? He sent me a bow and some other gear. I wound up shooting a Turkey and I said, Hey man, thanks for the bow. I just shot a turkey. He said that he was doing a Turkey show. Did I want to send him the footage? So I sent them the footage and I was on the show and then we did the Brown bear. It just took off from there. I really had no intention of doing a show. I own a construction company and I've got a lot of guys working for me. We are busy so I didn't really get into it. But now as time has progressed, I don't have to do as much as I used to with the construction company. So I had more time. But all of a sudden Mike said he wasn't going to do TV anymore. I think I had like 18 hunts for that year to give him. I had gone to Africa and did a few different things and I thought, well, alright, the sponsors really like me, so maybe I'll just go to them and you realize really quickly that there's a business to this and they do like you. But you know what I'm trying to say? They loaded me up with gear, but getting paid was a tough one. So I was in for a rude awakening there. You start realizing you really appreciate what the other guys did, but at that point the hunting, the outdoor television world was really starting to peak and so I stayed with it. It's my 10th season this year. This is my 10th season.
Chris: That's a nice run.
Gus: Yeah, it's been great. So that's how it started.
Chris: So what was your most dangerous situation you've been in?
Guss: Oh, by far was the mountain lion. The mountain, I crawled into a cave with a mountain lion. It was a weird deal. The whole thing was a weird deal. It was in Wyoming. I was winter time. So, getting through the snow, climbing these Hills. As long as I don't have a heart attack, I should be okay. I was practicing that shot up at a tree and it really wasn't going to be a big deal. It's got a nice bow shot. The dogs will tree the cat and I'll shoot the mountain lion. It didn't work out that way. The dogs got on this cat. We actually saw the cat. This was all on video. But it was so weird because I glanced across this Canyon and saw the cat. Nobody ever sees the cat before they get to them. The dogs get there and all of a sudden we see that one dog and the cat disappear. By the time we get there, there's a cave and the dog is in the cave with the cat. The dog won't leave. So they said that you're not going to go into the cave with the bow. We have a pistol that you can use. So they tell me that you are the guy with the tag. We have to go in there and get him. You know the scene, that peer pressure. I figured that this guy knows what he's doing. Alright, I go in with him, I figured that I have the right guy with me. It's like walking into a bar with the bouncer. He wants to win a fight. I'm like, well, I've got the biggest guy in the bar with me. So the next thing I know, we get in there and we start crawling into the cave. We hear the dog and now we are belly crawling shoulder to shoulder going through a tunnel. It went from a cave to a tunnel. All of a sudden we hear the cat. Dog silent. So we figured he killed the dog and we figured that we got to get to the dog. So we kept crawling and crawling, all next thing we know, we just caught a glimpse. You hear the cat, this guy opens up with his pistol, just shoots at anything. His clip is spent. So I don't know what the hell just happened. All of a sudden I look up and we have a little light. I see the cat's eyes at maybe 15 feet away. I shoot and the cat, the blood squirted hit me in the hat. That's how close the cat was. I came out of there, this is all on video, but I came out and the reaction was Rambo. Rambo goes into the village, shoots up all the villages, everybody's shooting at him, but I didn't have a scratch on me. I said at best, at best I'm going to walk out of there cut up pretty bad. At worst they could kill me because you got to go over the top of us to get out. I'm telling you, we got this tunnel blocks and when I look at it now, it's like one of those deals where you like, that was a pretty dumb thing to do.
I asked the guy, dude, I was counting on you. You emptied your pistol. And next thing I see these yellow eyes coming at me. I'm pretty confident with my bow. All that stuff. Maybe look, it's like something that I'm not, I shouldn't be doing. I'm pretty confident on that shot. Look, I'm not saying I couldn't die, but I'm confident. I'm not confident with a pistol. And I thought I had. So when you're relying on somebody else, that's when it could get ugly. So that was probably the stupidest thing. Look at this face, Chris. You think this is lucky? If you looked like this, would you take out your luck? Come on man. Huh?
Chris: Unbelievable. So what's next for this year?
Gus: Oh, we'll do the Turkey thing. Like I said, the Canadian Hunts canceled. We ended up picking up a third tent for the Adirondacks. So we're going to do some of our Northeast adventures this year.
Chris: A lot of people don't know what it's like hunting in the Adirondack. They just think New York is a cakewalk. I've hunted the Adirondack and it's tough man. It's tough.
Gus: It definitely is. Yeah, it's one of those deals where I got two pro staff guys that live up there and they've hunted for generations up in the Adirondacks. And they kind of took me under their wing and showed me a lot. I haven't seen a deer. I take that back. I saw a doe 500 yards away. But it's really tough hunting. We've killed one deer while we were all up there together with the cameras. They hunt the season. So the one guy, Pat Salerno and his brother Tony, they've killed deer over the years. But it's a long season. You're going to spend the season up there, maybe get a shot at a good buck, but they're mountain bucks and most of them have never seen people. So it's a firearms hunt. It's rough, I'm going to try bowing this year because I'm going to go up earlier. I tried it once before it was too late in the season. I mean there's great food sources. We got cameras set up everywhere. We're going to do three different camp sites. I'm going to dedicate some more time only because everything that's going on with the travel, it's a nightmare. I have my tags in for Wyoming for antelope and mule deer. Hopefully I will draw there. We'll do our North Carolina bear hunt, which is again off the hook. I. It's a cool hunt. And I'll do my whitetail thing. You know what, whitetail season starts, you know the deal. I will be off to probably four or five different States
Some of the Alaska hunts and Canadian hunts got canceled this year, because of the travel and COVID-19. The Outfitters are hurting right now. All of their spring hunts got canceled. The people are just canceling these haunts and it's tuff because they have already paid the government for these concessions. So they have the right to hunt here so they pay their insurances. It's going to be a very difficult year for these outfitters. A lot of people out there right now are hurting.
Chris: Yeah, we're living through a very trepidus time. We've never seen this in our history and a lot of people are in a tough spot, especially the outfitters.
Gus: They will adjust. It's like anything else. Everybody will adjust. What got me with this is how many people are ill prepared to live their lifestyle. Now, I don't want to say the wrong thing here, but when I started eating venison and hunting, it's because I want to be liberated. I'm not a slave to the supermarket. Which I think, reinforces our lifestyle. What we do, the hunting world, the outdoormen and women who are fishing and hunting. We can survive. I've learned to live. I get it, if people don't want to kill an animal, I totally get it. But if it means your survival, shouldnt you know how to do it? It's almost strange to me that this society has been working with your hands and the knowledge that was passed on from generation to generation. All those traditions are being bred out, Chris. There are literally people who can't do anything with their hands. If we have some kind of a power blackout, where we lose the grid, they're basically useless. When they have so much technology, but to work with their hands. I just think it's sad. It's sad, maybe people will wake up from this and realize that you should at least have the knowledge of how to take care of yourself or how to provide for yourself.
Chris: Yeah. Well, I'm looking at your you know, I got you on camera. You have a beautiful cabin that you're in. Did you build that cabin?
Gus: This is my house. Yeah. So we built this. But this is about the 10th year we've been in here. Yeah. It's a cool place.
Chris: It goes right back to work and working with your hands and stuff.
Gus: Well, that's the thing. I've been in construction my whole life and I'm not saying that it's just we have to, you know, obviously with the TV show, the cameras and the technology and all the social media stuff that we have to do. I get all that. It's really cool. But there's still something to be said for being on the side of a mountain in the morning.
Chris: Great. Great. Well, I appreciate your time. Thanks for speaking this today. Good luck this season.
For more about Gus, go to:
livethewildlifetv.com
Or his Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChSLuWnChFUo5ScalC6mlzQ