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