A quick reminder: it’s not April 1st.

Louisiana – -(Ammoland.com)- For centuries, cultures have told stories about giant, wild, hairy men in the woods. They have been called many names in many different languages. Most Americans, however, know this creature as Bigfoot. Now, a team of experts are setting out to finally do what nobody else before them has managed: They’re on the hunt to kill a Bigfoot.

Jim Lansdale, a Vietnam veteran, Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization (GCBRO) member and part of the ‘Killing Bigfoot’ team, sat down with Ammoland for an interview about himself, his experience with Bigfoot hunting and the upcoming show ‘Killing Bigfoot’, which premieres Saturday, Feb. 4 at 10 p.m./9 p.m. C on Destination America. Here’s our Q and A with Jim.

Q: Tell me a bit about your military experience

Jim: I was drafted in the summer of 1969 and spent both Basic and AIT training, Infantry 11 Bravo, at Fort Polk Louisiana, which feels like hell on earth especially during the summer months. After finishing my training, I was sent by plane to Vietnam and was assigned to the 1st Cav Air Mobile. I traveled all over the country, depending on what was going on at the time. I was last stationed at LZ Audrey where I was medivacked for an injury received after slipping and falling down a mountain side, thus finishing my 21 months, 3 months early, to then go back to college, at Ft. Monroe in Virginia as a Military Policeman.

Q: Do you have experience hunting other cryptozoological creatures other than Bigfoot?

Jim: I personally don’t have any other experience hunting any other cryptid.

Q: Have you ever seen a Bigfoot yourself? If so, describe the experience.

Jim: Yes, I have seen quite a few Bigfoot, all different sizes, which includes the large male, adult females and juveniles.

The first one I saw was approximately eight feet tall, dark in color with shining green eyes when flashed by light, this sighting was right at nightfall. I’ve seen many males that have a body builder’s V shape, dark in color, short hair a couple of inches long, and a beard – pie shaped around the face. The females typically have hanging breasts with a pie-shaped face covered by hair. I’ve seen juveniles of different shapes and sizes, some shaggy-haired while others have much shorter hair.

I once saw four in one area on the Sabine river that were about the same size but different colors and length of hair, sitting right off the water – taking small trees and whipping them back and forth for an unknown reason. That same afternoon, Bobby, fellow GCBRO founder, with his two sons, witnessed an approximately seven-foot dark-colored Bigfoot walk out of the trees, and survey the area for over ten minutes. Meanwhile, Bobby stood on the other side of the river under a bridge about 175 yards away, so he was out of sight.

I’ve seen Bigfoot in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. One of my closest sightings was during deer season, sitting in my tri-pod using a fawn bleat. After an hour, I felt my butt falling asleep so I pivoted the chair to my left, and noticed something dark, approximately 6 feet tall with a slender figure, staring at me with large eyes, hair neatly creased, cheeks drooped, then immediately wheeled to its left running off, making less noise than a deer makes. The key to having a sighting is to be in areas of recently reported activity and also possess some knowledge about what you are doing.

Q: How did you get involved in “Killing Bigfoot?”

Jim: I got involved with Bigfoot research after seeing something in my headlights, less than thirty yards ahead squatting beside my then young sons perforated feeder shaking it.

Lights shined on it for probably fifteen to twenty seconds before it turned and looked at us. It appeared to be dark in color, large through the buttocks but the calves looked small compared to the thigh area. It looked at us with eyes reflecting a bright red about the size of a coke can. It bolted towards the Hawthorne thicket about fifteen feet away on all fours. My son nor I had any idea what we had just witnessed, writing it off as a fluke incident, until the next year when we found both a 19-inch and 9-inch track crossing one of the lanes we were clearing off before deer hunting.

Q: What sort of preparation goes into hunting a Bigfoot? What types of lures, calls or bait do you use for a creature like that?

Jim: Preparation for a hunt consists of a lot of ground work searching the area for trails possibly used by Bigfoot. Bigfoot does leave identifiable signs that all our team is skilled in recognizing.

We are able to distinguish which paths were used for recent travel and some which lead us to their homes, pens and barns. Going into an area we plan to hunt, we send in a few men ahead of the hunter, making any Bigfoot in that area move so that we can conceal our hunter for a night hunt. We know that these animals are curious and will eventually come back to the area they first saw us in to see what we are doing. However, they can’t count thus have no idea we have a hunter in the thicket, disguised, waiting to hunt for the Bigfoot and said aggressor.

Q: What sort of weaponry will you be using on the show? Why those particular weapons? What about them makes them right for hunting/killing a Bigfoot?

Jim: The weapons used depend on where and what terrain and thickets we are hunting in.

Long range we use high powered rifles, however it is seldom that we hunt in any area where we would have to shoot over fifty yards, so we have hunters using 12 gauge shotguns and some who hunt with a .45-70. Hunters use slugs in their shotguns with 0 buckshot. The hunters with rifles use different loads from 180 for a 30:06 to over 600 grain hand loads for the .45-70. All men who plan to extract the corpse when it happens use shotguns. Personally, I use buckshot.
Long range we use high powered rifles, however it is seldom that we hunt in any area where we would have to shoot over fifty yards, so we have hunters using 12 gauge shotguns and some who hunt with a .45-70.

Q: Why kill the Bigfoot, as oppose to capturing it alive?

Joe: Kill vs. No Kill has been debated for as long as I’ve been on the case of Bigfoot.

There has not been a trap designed that would or could catch a Bigfoot. To tranquilize one, you would need a perfect, clear up and close shot as well as the right dosage to make sure it goes down quick (without killing it). Here’s the problem, no matter the dosage or how the clear shot, this animal has an opposable thumb so he could easily remove any dart, even with the proper dosage, it would take time for the drug to go into effect. The animal could be a mile or two away in dense brush at night, so the possibility of finding would be difficult at best plus it taking approximately 15 minutes to put an animal of that size down.

Q: What sort of locations will be featured on the show?

Joe: Areas featured are east Texas, Mississippi and Northwest Louisiana. All hunt locations are set in heavy thickets, and on private property of landowners who have been tormented by an aggressive type of Bigfoot.

Q: What makes “Killing Bigfoot” unique from other shows with similar subject matter?

Jim: Killing Bigfoot is unique for many reasons.

First, the way we conduct our hunts in areas of aggressive Bigfoot activity, homeowners are sick of living in fear for the safety of their children, grandchildren, pets and livestock. We as hunters take these reports seriously, and practice safe yet strategic hunts, knowing our mission is to give these people some peace of mind. Other groups simply document possible tracks and impressions, listen for vocals, take some photos and leave feeling satisfied.

The GCBRO stays on a case for as long as needed. We also put certain tricks to use to help deter Bigfoot activity after we are gone. The GCBRO stays on a case for as long as needed. We also put certain tricks to use to help deter Bigfoot activity after we are gone.

Q: For you, what was the stand out experience/your biggest takeaway from your time on the show?

Jim: Most exciting was seeing the red eye shine up close while filming in Northwest Louisiana filming.

We were at a location where a couple’s dogs were being attacked. According to hunters there were at least three Bigfoot on top of us within a matter of fifty feet or less, the same area where Don got a video of a Bigfoot on his GoPro. Though not definitive proof to a skeptic, as seasoned Bigfoot hunters along with witness account of a sighting earlier in the day, further confirms that what Don caught on video was in fact a Bigfoot.

Q: Finally, the most important question of all, do you guys manage to kill the elusive Bigfoot? And if you do, Ammoland.com gets the exclusive first interview, right?

Jim: Of course, I just added your name to the list of people to call when we do harvest a Bigfoot.

However, there is something I’d like to mention before I finish – as a team we could have already harvested a female and/or a juvenile – but that’s not what we want for discovery and research – we are exclusively looking for an aggressive male Bigfoot.

Bigfoot hunting can be dangerous. Not only are we dealing with an aggressive and powerful animal, we are dealing with an animal that if injured or cornered can harm or kill in an attempt to escape. Our team of men are all seasoned hunters and woodsmen, so I advise no one to try this at home. It could cost you your life. This is not a warm, docile animal. Indian tribes feared the Sasquatch/Bigfoot for kidnapping, killing and cannibal tendencies

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78 COMMENTS

    • Copy that.

      Hunting just took another shot in rump. Keep it up and all of America will think hunters are wing nuts, loonies, and psycho fans of death.

      Guess zombies aren’t real so bigfoot is the next rational thing to kill.

      • “All hunt locations are set in heavy thickets, and on private property of landowners who have been tormented by an aggressive type of Bigfoot.”

        In a world of cell phones, drones, security cameras and spy satellites, you would think that at least one of those tormented landowners would have even the most minuscule shred of evidence including scat, hair, DNA, hell even a toenail. Of course a picture would be nice too.

        I assume that these hunters will be added to the “Do Not Fly” list so we can take their guns.

        • Yeah… I was with you Mr. Johnson, until you said use the no fly list to take thier guns. Your Watts is showing… As they say.

        • Oh Bill,
          I could not have stuck my tongue any farther into my cheek.

          God that sounded awful. Sorry about that.

        • Here goes 🙂 For all the Bigfoot scoffers here, you about as uninformed/misinformed as the antis are about firearm ownership. There is a lot of evidence and solid arguments for the continued existence of a Bigfoot type creature. I write “continued” as a Bigfoot type creature did exist: gigantopithecus. It is not that far fetched to believe that some still exist.

          Many reputable people have seen them them, smelled them, and heard them. There is more evidence for the existence of Bigfoot then any other cryptid. Everything (or almost) everything is there except an intact specimen. If the world had one then this debate would not be going on . . . or maybe it would as some people still deny the moon landing.

          It is beyond the scope of this thread and TTAG to debate the evidence for Bigfoot. All I am asking for is an the same open mind that you/we wish the anti-gun, anti-weapon statists would have. Not afraid of debate – just not here. Find me at my handle + that mail system that google has.

        • Nobody is debating the existence of Bigfoot. They, we, are debating the facts that such a creature exists. It just stands to reason that the complete absence of physical evidence for Bigfoot (and I mean scientfic evidence) makes it very hard to continue thinking that a Bigfoot is roaming around anywhere.

          And I take offense at the attempt to convolute the Bigfoot debate with the gun debate. We have plenty of facts and loads of data about guns and crime, and happiness and market forces and why Leupold is the best, but we have absolutely nothing, zero, nada, zip on Bigfoot except a monstrous absence of facts.

          Look, I want Bigfoot to exist as well as ESP and aliens from space. I want instainous teleportation and wormholes and reincarnation, but none of those topics seem to jive with the physics of the universe I live in. Bigfoot is a unicorn until proven otherwise. And no amount of Bigfoot hunters can change that.

      • Samuraichatter,

        In the case of bigfoot the lack of an intact specimen is the problem. In this case absence of evidence IS evidence of absence.

        1) Without an apex predator, wild populations explode. There would be a metric shitload of them waking around, somewhere.

        2) As Americans pushed west in the 19th century they had a tendency to shoot anything that moved. With the sheer frequency of the hunting and the skill of those old hunters there should be a bigfoot mounted in some rich gentleman’s man cave.

  2. I’d want to know how they would know they weren’t shooting at some weirdo living in the woods.

  5. They should put the whole group in front of mirrors and ask them how they will tell bigfoot from uncle grampy!

  6. Well, I’m sure this TV show will do wonders for the 2A community. Ya know, making us all look like we’re not completely batshit crazy.

    “There has not been a trap designed that would or could catch a Bigfoot.”

    So much fail. So, so much fail. Wow. Just fucking wow. I’d add sarcasm about capturing the imagination but instead I think I’ll go have a drink and try to forget that I live on a planet inhabited by people engaged in this level of retardation/tomfuckery.

    Serious, TTAG, find out if this is some sort of elaborate anti-gun stunt meant to make the rest of us look bad. Did The Trace have anything to do with this?

    I hope none of these wastes of air has managed to reproduce and I hope they never do. They all need cancer of the AIDS of the herpes of the eyes.

  7. So, when these guys end up shooting someone’s big dog, or some wild animal out of season, or some hobo in the woods, they’ll end up in prison.

  8. The major problem I have with the idea of flesh-and-blood bigfoots: no one has ever produced any bones of bigfoots that died of natural causes.

    Sure, I heard the explanation that bigfoots are ultra-secretive and ultra-smart and always bury their own dead to ensure that no one ever knows where they live. First of all, how do they dig a grave without tools in rocky terrain? Second of all, how can they never die alone?

    And why is it that no one has any decent video with all the trail cameras, personal video recorders, and cell phones?

    Finally, why do people never search for bigfoots in daylight when the searchers would actually be able to see them?

    I think the whole bigfoot idea is whoey.

    • Exactly. There has never been a decent recorded image of a Bigfoot, and never will be, for one simple reason: the imagination requires room to roam.

      If you could see it clearly, it wouldn’t be a Bigfoot.

    • These kinds of people can’t be reasoned with or see any other explanation other than what they already believe. It’s a bit like extremist liberals, radical Muslims, alien abuctees, Alex jones fans, and Alec Baldwin. They just cannot even fathom that something could be outside of their purposed belief. I don’t even discount that strange and unusual things happen. They sure as hell do sometimes. But groups like this, their level of belief exceeds all reason, and they start thinking Bigfoot/aliens/the illuminati are responsible for literally everything that goes wrong.

    • Professor Farnsworth: “Show me a bag of Big Foot’s droppings, or shut the hell up!”
      Forest Ranger: “I have a bag of the droppings of someone who *saw* Bigfoot”
      Professor Farnsworth: “Shut the hell up!”

  11. Heres all i want to know. Did you find bigfoot? Live specimen or an ACTUAL VIDEO? sweet. stop wasting my time.

    • That would actually be a pretty cool thing to do. As standing in the woods with camo and guns is cool too. What isn’t cool is opening up on imaginary critters. ‘Bout as dumb as every person from Chicago looks.

    • Mmmmmmm. I bet it would taste good. I always wanted to know what those Russian fisherman thought that alien they caught tasted like. Supposedly, they caught an alien in a net while fishing. Then decided the logical course of action would be to eat it. I’m inclined to agree.

  18. Big rear end with skinny calves eh? Are you sure it wasn’t Nicki Minaj beating the hell out of your deer feeder? Just saying….

  20. What a bunch of morons. No beast that large is that elusive. Even jaguars are occasionally seen in the southern border and they are notoriously shy of man. They aren’t doing us any favors.

  21. IF I thought that Bigfoot was a flesh and blood critter and IF I decided to go hunting one I’d agree that a police model 870 with ghost ring sights and a good light and loaded with slugs might be the best choice. These fools won’t be successful because everybody knows that the Bigfoot is an interdimensional creature that appears and disappears at will as it moves through the space time continuum between parallel universes. It’s also surrounded by an energy field that disables all forms of photography at close ranges and blurs all photos at longer ranges. That energy field also removes at least 30 or 40 IQ points from a human each time they come within range and you can see that our guys have had several “close encounters”.

  22. The entire thing is likely a put-on created to make money. I’ll wager most if not all of the ‘bigfoot hunters’ on the show are not actually believers, and laugh about people who are. They are posing as such to make a few bucks off merchandizing and bad TV acting. As with most ‘reality shows’, it will be largely fiction, with scenes and character dialog created by writers. They know there is a paycheck to be made by riding this thing for a while and getting gullible audiences to watch, until people get bored and move on.

  24. I have a cryptologist friend who claims that dinosaurs, big ones, still exist, and the “government” has the pictures.
    The “government” refuses to admit that these dinosaurs exist, though, because it would send the general population into a panic.
    I have to wonder why these people don’t think there’s a similar conspiracy about the bigfoot (Bigfeet? Bigfoots?). If there are actually people with livestock being harmed by these creatures, why are there no reports to the authorities that can be mined for info on locations?
    I watch, for amusement, similar shows about “ghosts,” with the same results these guys will have on the show: Lots of “evidence,” but no actual proof. (If they’d actually killed one, we’d know about it, believe me.)
    Gigantopithecus did exist, three species of them have been documented. They lived until about 100,000 years ago, but the only evidence we have is teeth, and jaw fragments. They were vegetarians, according to teeth and debris found on the teeth. They lived in India, China, and Indonesia, from the fossil evidence. No evidence of them being in America has been found.
    I don’t think this show will put gun owners in a bad light. I am confident they won’t manage to shoot themselves or anyone else without a thorough explanation of hos it was all their fault (if it occurs, which I seriously doubt).
    But the show could be fun to watch.

  25. Well, I’m going to of course fan the fire…Science is discovering new species every day…And there have been documented narratives and newspaper stories going back as far as old Colonial New England…I remember a newspaper story of such…Where a group of early settlers went out looking for these so called stealthy, territorial swampmen…And these colonial villagers tried to kill one with the 50. Blackpowder muskets, and shotguns id the times…Of those that survived the encounter reported the list of 12 men…Who were “ripped limb from limb…And their head torn from their bodies !!!” Mythical, or real…I wouldn’t want to tangle with something like that….And some environmental scientists do believe it is possible that an off shoot of “Gigantopithecus” from prehistoric times may still exist in hiding in some of our national forests…Just as the “Giant Squid, and the large Oar fish” have been elusive throughout the 20th century…Until recently…Lastly, a moral issue…As with Guerillas, if these things exist…They’d be pretty humanoid….Maybe intelligent….To remain hidden until threatened…I’d have a problem killing an intelligent ape…This is not a game animal….

    • Yes, scientists are discovering new species all the time. But, three things.
      1) These guys aren’t scientists.
      2) New discoveries of species tend to be tiny animals because they are easy to miss, not 10ft tall hairy beasts that people have been trying to find for decades
      3) Seriously, these guy’s really aren’t scientists. They aren’t doing anything close to science. They’re on a snipe hunt. Scientists laugh at ‘cryptozoologists.’

  26. Wait, didn’t Steve Austin (not the wrestler) have some run-ins with bigfoot? I seem to remember a red jumpsuit fighting a hairy dude in the woods back in the ’70s.

  27. Yeah sure, make all the fun you want. But that doesn’t help the people that keep disappearing in the National Forest, most of which you can’t carry in. That’s not to mention the really ridiculously high missing persons rates in a lot of national parks like that.

    • National Forest and National Park carry laws are determined by the law of the State in which they are located. Thus, in CO as in many states, I can carry open or concealed. I tend to carry open in the Forests, concealed in the Parks because I don’t want to freak out the international tourists at Mt Rushmore.

    • Noishkel,

      Assuming that people are disappearing in National Forests and Parks and your comment is authentic, I will respond with a simple explanation:

      Explanation A:
      There are plenty of dumb people who go out into wild areas. Such dumb people do not have the proper skills, mindset, nor equipment for such a trek. They could easily be lost and die within two or three days in extremely remote locations. Further complicating matters, if they had any sense whatsoever, they would have probably found or created a rudimentary shelter of some sort — which is probably where they died while waiting for someone to find them. Of course finding a body obscured in a cleft in a rocky hillside or under a pile of leaves/branches — when searchers have no idea where to look — is never going to happen.

      Explanation B:
      Even people with excellent skills for the woods go out unarmed and some of them become food for bears, mountain lions, wild boar, and who knows what else. If wild boar find them, they will eat EVERYTHING and there will be no trace of the victim. If a mountain lion kills the hiker, the lion will drag the dead body to a secret, discrete location to eat and no one will find the victim. If a bear kills a hiker, they will drag the body away and cover any remains with dirt and leaves for “safekeeping” and no one will find the body. If the person dies of natural causes, scavengers will promptly eat the dead body and live little behind for searchers.

      Explanation C:
      Human attackers are among us. Some could be serial killers who apply their “skills” in the wilds because there will be no witnesses, no body, and no evidence. Other attackers could be defending their hidden marijuana grow fields in the wilds. A marijuana grower who is shrewd enough to grow on public land (because it is untraceable) is certainly shrewd enough to ensure that no one will ever find the dead bodies of any witnesses who stumbled upon the grow field.

      All three of these explanations are exceedingly simple and common experience supports them. I find these explanations to be much easier to believe than an explanation that involves a giant ape roaming the wilds that has managed to avoid leaving any concrete evidence of their existence.

    • It might be that the Loch Ness Monster is getting them.

      Makes about as much sense.

      (I mean, if you throw out the dozens of other explanations that make perfect sense and are often proven by finding the remains of wayward hikers)

    • I look at some of the paranormal websites for entertainment. That’s where I got the interdimensional Bigfoot theory from – which is quite a stretch of the imagination by the way. Anyway I’m familiar with the “national park disappearances” thread that runs through the paranormal web. The theory seems to be put out by one guy who claims that he’s done a bunch of research on the subject. He gets on the radio and promotes his theory and his books -which are available for around $100 a copy. In this world of electronic self publishing no book in existence is worth $100. If you’re trying to warn people of a danger or promote some kind of an investigation you don’t charge $100 to join the club, unless your goal is simply to make money off people who buy any weird idea that comes along.

      Do people disappear? All the time. I’ve been involved in searches for people who get lost, some within less than a mile of a heavily traveled road. We’ve seen kids fall into lakes and rivers – those are never fun to deal with. We’ve had hikers and hunters fall and get injured or killed, die of strokes or heart attacks, or stumble across things that they shouldn’t see like meth labs. You have people who disappear and don’t want to be found because bill collectors, the tax man, or wives or husbands are looking for them. Then you have the genuine bad guys who are hiding from the law because they’ve done some serious crime. When the people described above disappear, is it because they’ve been kidnapped by a flying saucer or eaten by Bigfoot, or is it just because stuff happens and many times the results aren’t good.

      In my 64 years I’ve seen a few things that I really couldn’t explain and more than a few that I had to stop and think about. Do I see everything that’s a little out of the ordinary as an episode of the X-Files? No -and if somebody brings a genuine Bigfoot into the county lockup in the back of a patrol unit we’ll check him or her for warrants and if they’re not wanted for anything we’ll turn them loose because its not illegal to be a large hairy creature in my county.

  28. “For centuries, cultures have told stories about giant, wild, hairy men in the woods. They have been called many names in many different languages.”

    While growing up, we used to call one of these hairy men in the woods Uncle Frank. He always chopped wood without a shirt. Scary as hell.

    Really! Bigfoot? I like having an open mind, but my BS meter is going off…unless, of course, they spotted Uncle Frank.

  30. I thought the 6 Million Dollar Man had already provided the proof, by kicking ass and not shooting one.

  31. So “Destination America Channel” is basically the History and Discovery Channel without the pretense

  32. I have been a resident of Southwest AR/Northwest LA for 55 years, and have led an active outdoor life hunting and fishing the lands and lakes in that area, _*INCLUDING*_ the area of Fouke, AR (home of the so-called “Boggy Creek Monster”). In all of those years the sole mention of a Bigfoot was during the filming of “The Legend of Boggy Creek”. Despite claims that the creature was fired upon several times no blood was collected from the scenes, much less submitted for DNA analysis.

    The absence of evidence does not prove that a thing does not exist, but it is wildly improbable that such creatures could remain unseen for the several centuries that this area has been inhabited. It disturbs me that this group of people propose to kill a humanoid without positive identification of what it might be, and the whole circus seems designed to ridicule gun owners and hunters, and cast southerners as dumb hicks.

    Charlie

  33. I remember my first Bigfoot kill. I was in Iraq earning my 2nd Medal of Honor. I was dragging the former president Clinton out of a building filled with ten thousand taliban when a Bigfoot (I’m assuming he was a contract killer for Al Queda) peeked around the corner and leveled a .50 cal machine gun at me. Well, I put 4 shots between his eyes without breaking my stride. Shame about the circumstances too, because as soon as I was clear, our Close Air Support levelled the building with a half ton nuclear warhead.

  34. Hunting Bigfoot?
    Just another attempt to make Dupes of the viewers.

    If they really existed, a body somewhere, somehow would have been produced
    in all the history of supposed sightings.

    Surely some Bubba would have shot one by now
    if not for the notoriety but a cash reward.

    This is just another attempt to create ratings on TV.
    Boycott the Commercials.

  36. 7th from the left, you got your Bubba Ann. capable of shooting a hemorrhoid off a gnat at 100 yards while hipping a baby and cooking up a mess of grits.

  39. I always enjoy when topics like this come up.

    Mainly because the vast majority of people find the mere concept of a Sasquatch as absurd, but statistically speaking, a majority of those people do believe in a magic man who lives in the sky.

    For the record, I believe in neither… but if given the knowledge that one of them was, in fact, real… my money would be on the Sasquatch.

  40. Well, these comments manage to make the bigfoot hunters look like geniuses by comparison. Great job.

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