(country music) (country music continues) - [Bret] Look, I'm not a fan of the gym.

I was never the healthiest eater.

Despite some lifestyle choices growing up, I'm a relatively healthy adult and I attribute that to a lifestyle in the outdoors and meeting people who've been given a second chance in life.

♪ I'm headed out ♪ I aint never lookin' back ♪ I'm living life ♪ I'm never going back Seeing someone go through a serious medical condition, it gives you perspective on life and how easily it can all go away.

(country music continues) ♪ If I ever had to go through it ♪ ♪ Whoa, oh, oh ♪ I'm puttin' my heart into it My food options have become more selective.

No more seed oils, very little store bought meat.

Most prepared meals involve wild game, cooked in goose fat or beef tallow.

One of my favorite meals is a variation on honey chicken only with pheasant instead.

With locally sourced honey each time I eat it, it makes me wanna hunt for more birds the next day.

In fact, most of my hunting has food prep in mind.

I've grown to love walking the swaying prairie grasses, watching my dogs tirelessly weave back and forth in front of me.

- [Bret] Over.

Thought she seen a little birdie there right away.

- [Bret] Now while upland hunting offers exciting action, I've also started calling it my gym with step counts routinely in the 14 to 15,000 range.

Miles tick off easily as I explore new and familiar haunts.

As more birds have fallen, my fire to leave each field with a limit has cooled.

While I do still sniff out every nook and cranny looking for roosters.

If my day is full of heart thumping, hen flushes, or even just a good afternoon of exercise, I'm all right.

(country music continues) ♪ Whoa ♪ I'm putting my heart into - [Bret] Over the years I've heard other hunters who've reached that level of contentment describe the experience as less about birds in the bag and more about the adventure.

- Ole, you can go a little further.

So Ole drove to Two Harbors.

- [Bret] More and more they would describe the enjoyment of introducing someone new to the activity.

- Got the boys from down south, Jake and Joe with us.

Jake has shot a pheasant.

Joe has not.

- [Bret] Earlier this year, Joe Ellis came up from Texas with a goal of shooting his first rooster.

After a few misses, he finally connected.

- [Bret] Right behind you, rooster.

Nice.

- [Bret] Using instincts he learned in the air force with a physical quickness attained during his collegiate football career.

- Oh man.

- [Bret] Nice.

Good job, Tiny.

There we go.

Hiding out.

You can bring it to you.

- [Friend] Hold.

Okay, good girl.

Drop it.

Good job, heck yeah.

Nice shot you didn't miss.

- Took the whole day.

(group laughs) - Perfect.

- Cheers, all right.

- [Bret] Another Texan, Mark Lehman visited Minnesota looking for the chance to hunt pheasants once again.

Well, I've taken a lot of people out hunting.

This was the first time I was with someone who'd had a heart transplant.

- Maybe the best day of my life and probably the scariest day of my life.

But you know, a pastor at home, I'm real close to actually three of 'em, three Lutheran preachers and I talked to every one of 'em before I wasn't into surgery, so I, I had some good help on my side.

(laughs) - [Bret] I met Mark on a hog hunting trip with Cory Loeffler.

We traveled to the lone star state, stayed at Mark's and we were able to fill a few coolers with pork.

So when Mark talked about wanting to hunt pheasants, Cory brought 'em to me along with Mark's wife and son.

- We do a lot of wild hog hunting and they tear up my farm land at home so bad and pastures.

So I was out with a group from, had a guy from England and a couple of from Amarillo and we were pig hunting.

I bet we walked seven miles that night, seven, eight miles killed, dozen pigs.

Had a real good time and I was just doing fine.

And two days later, all of a sudden I couldn't even make it to the bathroom.

I was so fatigued just all of a sudden, basically what happened, we couldn't figure out for a while what it was.

But basically my, I had a mitral valve on my heart prolapsed.

And I ended up next to the last day of the year in 2019 I got a heart transplant.

So I feel real fortunate they only do about 2,500 a year in the United States.

And that was 10 months ago.

So sure, good to be out pheasant hunting again.

(laughs) (country music continues) ♪ I'm living life ♪ I aint never going back ♪ Whoa, oh, oh (country music continues) ♪ If I had to go through it ♪ Whoa, oh, oh ♪ I'm puttin' my heart into it (country music continues) They wanted to gimme a mechanical heart called a LVAD.

You can't get around water.

You wear 16 pounds of battery, you have an extension cord coming outta your stomach you have to plug into the wall every night.

And I just told the doctor, I said, you know, I've been real fortunate and had a good life.

I just don't wanna live like that and I'm willing to accept the consequences.

So they didn't try to push the LVAD on me anymore.

Then I got the call, they had a heart.

(country music continues) ♪ I'm headed out ♪ I ain't never lookin' back ♪ I'm living life ♪ I'm never going back Is that pretty wet in there?

Man, that's dirty.

♪ Whoa, oh, oh ♪ If I had to go through it ♪ Whoa, oh, oh ♪ I'm putting my heart into it Right now, my biggest concern is getting the first pheasant before my son does.

'cause whoever, whoever gets the first bird, the other one's gotta buy him a cheeseburger.

(laughs) You know, I've been doing that since they were little kids and it's a big deal.

You know, I used to shoot birds out from under 'em.

All I can tell you is payback is heck.

(laughs) (upbeat country music) ♪ Driving through the world ♪ My feet tell me where to go ♪ I'm not afraid to step out outside ♪ ♪ And see the world for what it is ♪ ♪ Spendin' all my time - [Bret] We have three dogs along my lab, Mika and Corey's, two labs, Bonnie and Roo, who bears an uncanny resemblance to my lab, Tiny.

- My wife and I, we, one of the first big dates we ever had, we went pheasant hunting up in Hoxie, Kansas 42 years ago.

(Mark laughs) ♪ Ain't no place I'd rather be instead ♪ (upbeat country music continues) (gunshot pops) Dad gummit.

- [Bret] One thing I struggle with when bringing someone new out is finding a place to hunt with easy walking.

- Yeah, it's wonderful.

Y'all have public hunting land like this.

We don't have a lot of that at home.

It's pretty much all private, so you gotta kind of know somebody you know.

- [Bret] Do you have much for pheasants in Texas?

- [Mark] It used to be terrific and there's still pockets of them, but we've had a lot of years of drought, especially 11, 12 and 13 was terribly droughty.

- [Bret] Late season public land hunting in Minnesota usually means going where most people don't want to.

There might be one buried in here.

Oh yeah, she just caught it.

She's got it whatever it is.

(wings flapping) Hen.

(laughs) Hen.

Thick cover, snow.

Cattail sloughs.

This hunt was before we got much of the white stuff and before we froze up, but we still had to hit the heavy cover.

Yeah, I think we can cut through right here.

Mark and his crew dove in headfirst.

- Had this old game warden at home and he was a well respected man.

His theory was, it's always better to be hunting with your kids than to be hunting for 'em.

You know, that's the wonderful thing about pheasant hunting.

I was telling you earlier, it's a family sport, there's something for everybody to do.

It's what my dad, mom and I had, there was four of us kids and that's what we did on holidays.

We went pheasant hunting.

(laughs) (upbeat music) - [Bret] Where's Roo?

(upbeat music continues) Couldn't tell.

(wings flapping) That looks like a, yeah, see that looks like a rooster.

- [Mark] I think it was.

- Good shot, dad.

Nice shooting.

Dead bird.

Dead bird.

Dead.

Back.

(country music) ♪ I've got a new lease on life ♪ God gave me a fresh new start ♪ ♪ Second chance in this world ♪ I've got a -Roos got it.

I think it went for a swim.

Both the rooster and Roo.

(grasses crunching) - [Bret] You got Roo?

- That's a wet one.

♪ Whoa, oh, oh - Good shooting, Dad.

I'll buy you, I guess I'm gonna have to buy him a cheeseburger.

- We also had an apple pie and a malt on this one.

- (laughs) I don't know about that.

- [Bret] How cool is that to be out here hunting with your dad right now?

- It is awesome.

It is awesome.

- We gotta give credit where it's due.

If Bret wouldn't have had us here.

We wouldn't have got him.

If Roo wouldnt have found him.

We still wouldn't have.

(laughs) - [Roy] And I motivated you with cheeseburger.

- [Mark] Really?

You know who really ought to get a cheeseburger is Roo.

(group laughs) That's right.

(country music) ♪ Whoa, oh, oh ♪ If I had to go through it - [Bret] Congratulations, Mark.

Now go enjoy that cheeseburger and apple pie.

♪ I'm puttin' my heart into it (country music continues)