Full Transcript for Seth Roussel

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WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:05.599 Flyway Connections is brought to you by our partners who keep us chasing birds all season long. 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:12.080 We're talking about DOW Outfitters in Arkansas, delivering unforgettable guided hunts in the heart of the flyway. 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:16.480 RMC calls from the duck line to any world championship stage. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:20.719 They just work, designed to allow you to grow to your full capacity. 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:25.280 No fancy marketing, no gimmick, just quality sound and craftsmanship. 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:27.760 And they say you can't polish a turd. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:29.679 Small shop, big sound. 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:39.520 And also, Hunt Repellant is a DEET free, scent-free, insect repellent made for hunters, fishermen, or anybody who wants to enjoy the outdoors. 00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:41.759 Remember, DEET is dead. 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:03.840 We're without Chris today. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:08.560 He's out there uh coaching some football, football to start for the high school he's coaching. 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:13.200 But we have no stranger to the podcast and good buddy of ours, Seth Russell. 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:14.400 Hey, Seth, how are you doing today? 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:15.200 I'm good, man. 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:15.920 How are you doing? 00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:17.200 Not too bad, brother. 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:19.200 Just ready for the season to start. 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:20.560 Me too, man. 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:24.239 It's uh it's three three-quarters of the way through August. 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:26.719 I've already started making a list of everything I got to get done. 00:01:26.799 --> 00:01:30.159 Unfortunately, you know, you always got to pay a bunch of money before the season even starts. 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:38.079 So making that list, racking up the the the uh the bill of what I've got to pay before season starts, but man, it sits right around the corner. 00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:39.439 I'm I'm looking forward to it. 00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:41.840 Yeah, and are you guiding this year? 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:43.040 I am gonna guide. 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:44.879 I'm not gonna do as much as I did last year. 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:47.920 Last year I went full time and I've always wanted to do it. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.159 And I finally got to go do it and see what it was like. 00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:52.959 And happy to say I did it, got to see it all. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:54.959 And uh this year I'm going back to part-time. 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:55.519 Part-time. 00:01:56.239 --> 00:02:03.680 Well, um, people don't realize, even like for the part-time guides, how much you spend up front before you start making money. 00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:04.640 Exactly. 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:10.400 Yeah, like when it comes, I mean, you got you got gas bill, all this, all the, like I said, all the gear you got to get. 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:14.000 Shoot, I've got to get a new set of tires for all the driving I do during hunting season. 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:17.520 So you rack up a pretty good bill before the season even starts. 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:18.159 Oh, yeah. 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:18.960 What was it? 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:25.599 Well, we joke I'm uh where I work at now is I used to have 37s on my truck. 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:29.680 And then I can't actually tell one pen 35s back on that. 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:32.080 Oh pen 35s back on it. 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:33.759 I was I was talking to my guy today. 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:35.039 He said, What kind of tires you want? 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:41.039 I said, I need some ATs, but I need the best ATs that are good for driving four hours one way to uh to a hunting camp. 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:43.120 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:49.680 I tell everyone usually teal season, like guy teal season down here, that just that gets me into the out of the negatives. 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:50.240 Yeah. 00:02:50.639 --> 00:02:50.800 Yeah. 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:59.759 If we didn't say when they went from the um the 16-day teal season now, we dropped to an eight day, I'm like, oh bro, I'm not even it's like guiding now. 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:01.599 I'm still in the negatives. 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:04.719 See, I'm not even I'm not even guiding for blue wings, man. 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:07.599 So if I go blue wing hunting, I I'm all out of pocket on that. 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:09.199 That's just bloody hunting still. 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:10.479 Oh man, yeah. 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:11.439 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:15.360 It is and then you know, you get your guiding in Arkansas as well. 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:18.800 Arkansas, you know, they get us out of staters. 00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:19.840 Oh yeah. 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:23.360 I go that's$700 thinking. 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:26.719 I'm just thinking off, like, oh that's$700. 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:27.599 You're already swiping. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.159 Y'all think very highly of yourselves. 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:32.879 Uh-huh. 00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:33.680 That's right. 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:39.840 Uh, but you know, for this uh you know, for this series that we're doing, this is gonna be episode two of our military series. 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:46.080 Man, kind of give us a background about how'd you got into hunting and you know, you're you know, you're you're a navy guy. 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:47.439 How'd you get in the Navy? 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:49.199 What made you want to serve in the Navy? 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:53.039 And how did waterfowl even, or did you even waterfowl hunt while you're in? 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:57.680 Yeah, so I grew up born and raised here in Shreveport, Louisiana, man. 00:03:57.759 --> 00:04:01.199 As far as I know, I'm at least a fourth generation duck hunter. 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:10.639 I don't know how

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much further it goes back than that, but I know my my great-grandpa uh early in the early 1900s was duck hunting, and he showed my grandpa and so on and so forth. 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:19.120 But I want to say my dad, I grew up with two older brothers and all of us, my dad started taking us when we were roughly four to five years old. 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:26.079 So I grew up as early as I can remember going duck hunting with my brothers and my dad, and we go to the same spot. 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:27.199 We had the same blind. 00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:41.680 It was a little bit different back then, man, because I remember back then you could, and this was just early 2000s and not even that long ago, but back then on just hunting on a local public lake, you could meet up at the boat launch and you had all your regular guys that had all their blinds out there. 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:46.399 It was no, it wasn't a draw system, it wasn't a permit to have a blind, you just built a blind out there. 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:51.040 But everybody met at the boat ramp, we had a bonfire, sat there and talked for a little bit. 00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:54.800 And uh, you know, when that time hit, it was like, all right, it's time to go out to the blind. 00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:56.160 We go out to the blind man. 00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:00.399 And uh the funny thing with all of us is everybody knew each other on the lake. 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:06.399 Everybody had their blind all spaced out accordingly, and we all carried two-way radios. 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:14.399 And it was a fairly big lake, but also still small enough that we would talk to each other uh and say, hey, there's some ducks over here. 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:20.959 Hey, you know, Mike, they're flying towards you, or hey, so-and-so, there's I see some ducks flying your way, be on the lookout. 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:24.639 And so everybody would talk to each other and help each other on the lake that way. 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:27.920 And um grew up hunting on that same lake. 00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:33.439 And uh when I was about 12 years old, my dad got in an accident, paralyzed from the neck down. 00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:37.360 So shortly after that, hunting with my brothers, and then I turned 16. 00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:41.279 And once I turned 16, man, and I got a truck, it didn't stop. 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:52.879 I had I had a little John boat that I had plugged probably about 30 holes in with some JB welds, and I found myself a battery and a trolling motor, and I thought I was king of the lake, man. 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:54.959 And I was I was going. 00:05:55.519 --> 00:06:03.279 Me and my uh me and my buddy, we would, we would go all over the lake and hardly not kill anything because I didn't really know what I was doing yet. 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:07.199 I was 16, didn't didn't have any know-how in the game yet. 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:20.160 And but man, I was full of fire, and I would watch,

I grew up watching Duck Commander videos with my brothers and my dad, and I would watch those videos the night before and just think every morning we're about to smack them just like that. 00:06:21.279 --> 00:06:27.600 Sure enough, we'd go zero, and I'd go back to watching a video and think, hey, tomorrow's the day. 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:28.959 All right, tomorrow's the day. 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:33.519 I think there was one year when I was 16 or 17, we had 10 days in a row. 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:34.720 It was Thanksgiving break. 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:40.879 I want to say 100 like nine or 10 days in a row, and killed maybe two ducks out of all those days I hunted, and it didn't matter. 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:46.639 I was the very next day, hey, we're gonna go back, we're gonna smack them just like I'm watching on these videos. 00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:48.800 So when you got the bug, you get the bug. 00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:51.040 Oh man, I was ate up with it. 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:54.480 Uh so yeah, grew up doing that, hunting locally. 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:59.120 Uh, never really went out of town much, other than my brother hunted at a camp in South Arkansas. 00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:05.680 I'd go to every now and then and actually get to see some real good hunting, killing mallards and teal and all that kind of stuff. 00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:17.439 And then, man, so I was 17, uh, and my sister was teaching at the high school that I was still attending because she's 10 years older than me. 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:18.720 So she was a teacher. 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:26.959 And I remember being halfway through my senior year, and she asked me, Who, what colleges have you sent your transcripts into? 00:07:27.439 --> 00:07:29.120 I said, I haven't sent them into anywhere. 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:31.439 And she said, Well, you were supposed to start doing that last year. 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:35.519 And I remember my response being, Well, there's this Navy recruiter here. 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:36.319 I just saw him earlier. 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:37.839 I think I'm gonna go talk to him. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:45.759 Because if I'm already late on that, I don't even want to go to college anyway. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:47.600 Let's go see what he has to say. 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:49.360 And my dad was a Marine. 00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:51.360 I had two grandpaws that were both in the Army. 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:55.040 One was in World War II, one was in uh Vietnam. 00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:58.959 Uh, so it came already from a line of of men being in the military. 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:02.399 And originally I wanted to be in the Marines because my dad was in the Marines. 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:03.040 That's how I grew up. 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:04.560 I grew up with a Marine. 00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:09.199 So uh my mom wouldn't sign on the Dodge line for me at 17. 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:12.480 She told me she wasn't gonna do that, and I had to wait till I

was 18. 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:15.920 So the day after I turned 18, I went and signed. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:26.160 And I came home and I told my dad, Dad, I joined the Navy today, and he was looking at the TV, never looked over at me or anything, and just went, You should have joined the Marines. 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:30.079 And that was the answer I got from dad that I joined the Navy. 00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:32.320 What did you do in the Navy? 00:08:32.559 --> 00:08:36.320 So originally I wanted to go in and be a corpsman and be stationed with Marines. 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:41.519 And of course, recruiter gets the best of you sometimes, and plans don't go accordingly. 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:48.720 And uh if if anyone that served asked me what I did, I usually lie and say I was a gunner's mate. 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:50.080 I was not a gunner's mate. 00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:54.080 I was I was uh military police, I was security. 00:08:54.559 --> 00:08:55.039 Oh nice. 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:56.960 Let me tell you, man, I hate it. 00:08:57.200 --> 00:08:58.320 I hated it. 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:02.799 I wish I wish I would have done just about anything else other than that. 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:05.279 Um, I'm not gonna talk badly on it. 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:07.120 I I I enjoyed my time in the Navy. 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:11.360 I was I was uh but yeah, I was security. 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:17.200 The funny, funny story is so my mom was very against me joining the military. 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:29.120 And the whole time my job in security in the Navy, you a lot of times your first duty station is gonna be Bahrain, and you're gonna get over go over to the Middle East, which Bahrain is definitely not a war zone whatsoever. 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:33.919 It's very westernized, very you live out in town when you first get there, all that kind of stuff. 00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:36.080 But she was very adamant about it. 00:09:36.159 --> 00:09:40.559 She did not want me to join because she she kept telling me, you're gonna go to the Middle East, you're gonna go to the Middle East. 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:42.320 I go, No, I'm not going to the Middle East. 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:44.879 I'm joining the Navy, I'll be on a ship somewhere. 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:55.519 So in A school, as you're, you know, learn your MOS and all that kind of stuff, you you go through the OC spray course because you carry OC spray, at least stateside. 00:09:55.600 --> 00:09:55.759 Yeah. 00:09:57.519 --> 00:09:59.440 But you got to go through the OC course. 00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:05.600 So you get sprayed and then you go, you know, tackle somebody and put somebody in cuffs and all that while you've been sprayed. 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:13.600 And let me tell you, man, when I got sprayed, they tell you in class there's a 1% chance that it doesn't affect you. 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:16.639 And when you get sprayed, they spray you on the forehead. 00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:21.600 And

for a split second, you think, hey, I'm one of the lucky one percenters that this isn't gonna help. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:26.879 So I took a few steps and I was like, all right, it's not hitting me, man. 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:27.679 I think I'm okay. 00:10:27.840 --> 00:10:32.320 And all of a sudden, it felt like my eye blew out of my socket. 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:33.519 It hurt so bad. 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:35.840 I'm not even gonna downplay it, man. 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:36.879 It was painful. 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:41.519 And uh went through the whole course at the very end, you face you face what they call the red man. 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:43.440 It's a guy in a big red padded suit. 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:43.919 Yeah. 00:10:44.159 --> 00:10:47.759 And he can put his hands on you, punch you, whatever he, whatever he wants to do. 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:49.279 And you have a baton. 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:50.720 And uh, I made the mistake. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:54.000 They said, uh, when you get to the red man, we want you to get fired up. 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:55.919 And I got a little too fired up. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:58.960 I got to that red man, and he was about 10, 15 feet away from me. 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:01.840 And I said, I want you, MFer. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:11.600 And I yelled it, and I closed my eyes, kind of rubbed my forehead, and by the time I opened my eyes back up, the best I could, he was on me and he was piecing my face up, man. 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:14.080 One, two punches on my ass. 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:18.960 And the instructor finally had to say, Hey, all right, all right, all right, back off. 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:23.440 And I had to take him down and uh wrestle on the ground, put him in cuffs, all that kind of stuff. 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:27.200 And anyway, you go get your face washed off, everybody goes to the course. 00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:33.200 Well, that same day, right after those C course, they take you into a classroom and they tell you where your first duty station is going to be. 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:36.720 And all the high achievers get, you know, top pick. 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:38.240 I was definitely not a high achiever. 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:43.679 I was I was a C average student through high school and I carried that right into the military, baby. 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:48.080 I came in with my professional pair of skates and I wore them proudly. 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:48.639 Yeah. 00:11:51.919 --> 00:12:01.759 So, of course, if you don't get first picked, those guys go to like Sigonella, Italy, and Rota Spain or whatever, Sudobay, Greece, and then all the leftovers, man. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:06.720 They've got plenty of ballots to send your ass over to Bahrain, and sure enough, they hit you. 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:09.279 And I was one of the ones that said, You're going to Bahrain. 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:11.360 And man, I wasn't worried for myself. 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:12.879

I was kind of excited to go over there. 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:15.200 And uh, because you're 18, you want to be a war fighter. 00:12:15.279 --> 00:12:18.720 I joined the Ron Branch for that, but uh, as I found out. 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:23.039 But, you know, I wanted I wanted to go be in the action, and so I was kind of excited about it. 00:12:23.120 --> 00:12:28.720 But then I remember, crap, I've got to tell my mom that I'm going over to the Middle East now. 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:29.679 Yeah. 00:12:30.799 --> 00:12:33.200 And so uh ended up going to Bahrain. 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:34.399 I was there for two years. 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:35.360 It was a good time. 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:36.960 It was hot as hell, man. 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:40.480 127 degrees, I think, was the hottest I ever saw. 00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:42.639 And it was not dry heat, it's humidity. 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:48.879 Because if you don't know Bahrain, Bahrain is a man-made island right off the right off uh Saudi Arabia. 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:51.759 So extreme humidity, extreme heat. 00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:54.559 But um, man, that was that was where I went first. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:59.919 Did two years over there, then uh went over to Suda Bay, Greece. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:03.440 And Suda Bay Greece was just, man, it's beautiful over there. 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:04.720 It is absolutely unbelievable. 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:10.320 The most blue, clear water I've ever seen with mountains in the background, good food. 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:16.399 I made, you know, of course, any anywhere in the military, you know, you make such good friends, they become your brothers, man. 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:19.120 And yeah, and I I really enjoyed my time in. 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:28.559 But while I was in Pseuda Bay, Greece, I actually hit up, um, I kind of kept up just a little bit with contest calling. 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:30.480 I didn't know all the ins and outs of it. 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:33.200 I didn't really know all the different divisions within it. 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:37.600 Uh, but I knew that I I liked meat calling from what I had seen on YouTube. 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:42.080 So I hit up Rick Dunn with Echo Calls, just because that's what I happened to have. 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:43.600 I had an Echo Calls. 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:45.120 That's what I was using at the time. 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:46.960 I said, hey, this is who I am. 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:50.159 I'm in the military right now, but I'm getting out in 2019. 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:52.720 And when I get out, I want to get into competitions. 00:13:52.879 --> 00:13:53.679 Can you help me? 00:13:53.840 --> 00:13:58.720 And I remember he emailed me back, and I thought that was just like my big break. 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:09.039 I it was like a I so uh a superstar might as well email me back, and he Rick Dunn emailed me back and just said, Hey, when you get out, you hit me up, you come to the

shop, and we can get you figured out. 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:12.000 And so I had that email on hand. 00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:18.559 I did my year at Sudobay Grease, ended up blowing my knee out, and I had six months left. 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:24.159 So I basically the my last six months, I was just rehabbing, had surgery and rehabbing my knee. 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:26.639 And uh got out of the military. 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:35.440 And I want to say about a year after I got out, or shortly thereafter, um, I remembered that I had hit Rick Dunnup and I said, you know what? 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:37.840 I I think I want to try this contest thing out. 00:14:37.919 --> 00:14:43.840 And there was a local contest coming up about an hour and a half away from me in East Texas, at back down south. 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:45.440 So I hit Rick Rick uh. 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:47.039 Was that in the mini at the time? 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:48.080 Yeah, yeah. 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:49.519 Yeah, you know what? 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:54.000 Um that was it was it right before COVID, 2020? 00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:55.600 Yeah, it was during COVID. 00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:59.360 Yeah, so that I was at that contest. 00:14:59.759 --> 00:15:01.679 That I didn't no, I did compete. 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:05.440 Joey and Landon, that's the first contest Joey's won. 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:07.360 Was he one of juniors that year? 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:08.080 Really? 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:08.559 Yep. 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:09.600 Oh yeah. 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:14.159 In Winnie, Texas with um it's when um Shureshaw put it on. 00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:15.440 Yeah, yeah. 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:18.000 Yeah, so that was that was my first contest. 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:24.480 So I went up, I drove up there uh to Echo Calls, sat down with Rick Dunn and Jonathan Morton, and they just sat there. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:27.919 Man, I didn't, I knew I'm not even gonna say that. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:29.200 I didn't know how to blow a duck call. 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:32.480 You know, I blew a duck call, but I didn't know how to blow a duck call correctly. 00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:37.440 And I had called a few ducks, but nothing to write home at write home about at all. 00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:42.720 So sat down with them and all we did was we did the basic quack. 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:43.919 And he sat me down. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:52.879 I sat there for probably a good three hours just talking to those guys, going over how to put correct air presentation into a call over a basic quack. 00:15:53.039 --> 00:15:57.039 And uh eventually they sent me on my way and Rick told me exactly what to work on. 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:03.279 He said, Hey, work on the quack, draw it out, do this and that, and just work on air presentation into the call. 00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:10.320 And that's what I worked on and eventually went to that first contest, and I got third in the novice. 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:13.360 And from there on, I was hooked, man. 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:17.840 After that, it was it was it was like a head high that I had never never gotten before. 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:25.039 It was it was so much fun, and uh the feeling that I had just being up there on a stage, it was I was hooked from the get-go on that. 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:26.399 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:16:26.559 --> 00:16:27.919 I I remember that contest. 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:30.799 Um uh Seth Fields was there. 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:31.840 Yeah. 00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:33.679 Yeah, small world. 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:34.879 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:37.519 So that was that was my very first contest, man. 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:38.399 Yeah. 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:40.399 Man, so you yeah. 00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:47.519 So with you, how was it being you know, because I was stationed stateside the whole time, you know, all over. 00:16:47.679 --> 00:17:00.399 Yeah, I I spent a couple years in the Middle East, uh closest to bar I did do two weeks in Qatar, which Qatar was pretty nice, but most of it was um Iraq and then Afghanistan. 00:17:01.200 --> 00:17:03.919 But when I was over there, I gotta come back and go duck hunting. 00:17:04.079 --> 00:17:08.400 How did it feel like being stationed overseas and not being able to duck hunt for so long? 00:17:08.640 --> 00:17:10.000 It was pretty rough, man. 00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:24.079 I I watched, so I got the nickname, of course, mm of duck man or duck, whatever the hell they called me back then, because I carried, you know, we had our Kevlar vests, I carried a duck call in my Kevlar vest. 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:30.079 And then anybody that ever came into my barracks room or whatever, most of the time I had duck hunting on YouTube playing. 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:30.480 Yeah. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:33.759 So I was because I I I couldn't go do it. 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:39.519 So the the only other thing I could do was watch it and dream about when I get to do it again. 00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:42.000 So it was it was pretty rough. 00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:52.960 Um, I wish I could say that I went to a lot of cool places while I was over there and used my leave to do it, but what I actually did was I used my leave to come back home during duck season and go duck hunting. 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:53.440 Yeah. 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:59.039 Every chance that I got, I don't think I ever missed an entire duck season while I was actually in the military. 00:18:00.079 --> 00:18:08.720 So I can't, I tried to come back at least, you know, for a few weeks during duck season just to come and duck hunt with my brothers and my buddies. 00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:12.160 Um, so I never I never had to miss a full season. 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:15.519 But until until I joined the military, I never missed an opening day. 00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:20.240 So missing my first opening day, that was a little bit of a a gut shot in itself.

00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:20.799 Yeah. 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:24.079 Well, it's funny is one time we were on the when I was in Iraq. 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:27.759 This had to be 2015. 00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:28.720 Yeah. 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:33.440 2015 when everyone went back to Iraq when the whole uh ISIS thing kicked off. 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:43.519 And we were walking and we were walking along along the uh the Tigris, and I heard, you know, and I was like, shit, and they're like, what are you hearing? 00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:44.559 I'm like, shut up. 00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:46.880 And I'm like, two ducks are about to pop up. 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:52.160 And they're like no, yeah, right of the range, and they're like, oh, this was serious, what's about to happen? 00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:54.319 I'm like, I just heard yeah. 00:18:56.480 --> 00:18:58.160 No, man, I just heard something. 00:18:58.559 --> 00:18:59.759 They're like, God dang it. 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:03.359 They all went on high alert, you're gonna listen to Doug. 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:03.680 Yeah. 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:06.000 And it was weird, I was thinking about it. 00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:07.759 And at the time my P. 00:19:07.839 --> 00:19:10.720 L, I mean, we had it all a lot. 00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:13.279 We were at Bragg and we had North Carolina a lot. 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:18.720 Um, that me and him, the only time I ever got busted by the the game ones was with my PL. 00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:23.839 Yeah, the only ticket I have was with me and my PL. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:28.160 And I remember he was like, Hey, um he was like, dude, do we call the company commander? 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:29.599 And I was uh I was a staff start at the time. 00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:37.759 Like, no, we know what we're not doing, we're not gonna call the company commander and let them know we just got I'm like, we're not gonna go to court, we're just gonna pay this off, and we're gonna shut up. 00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:38.640 And I'm like, yeah. 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:42.240 You didn't see anything is what you saw. 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:44.240 Oh man, yeah. 00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:52.960 That's the one thing I noticed like you know, growing up so I grew up in California and I hunted a lot of duck clubs, you know, kind of the same story. 00:19:53.599 --> 00:20:01.599 Great great grandfather hunted, and we just kind of um you know, great grandfather hunted, grandfather hunted, dad hunted, I hunted. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:03.839 And we all hunted the same areas. 00:20:03.920 --> 00:20:05.519 I mean, almost to the same belong. 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:18.079 Just because we're we hunted the clubs and um almost like the same, you know, kind of the same story you guys have, but in in California, the club the hunting club scene is so it's so prevalent. 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:21.119 Like I thought in my mind, I thought I'd tell everyone across America hunted. 00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:32.319 Like you hunted with your clubs, you you know, there is some you know um public land you can go hunt, but no, it's you know I it was not like that anywhere else. 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:44.880 So, you know, going from state to state, the like I didn't even in my mid-20s realized like, oh man, these these rules in every state change super drastically. 00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:46.079 Like on state land. 00:20:46.160 --> 00:20:52.000 I'm like, oh and like the day we got we got ticketed, I thought I was doing everything correct. 00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:56.160 I thought, you know, I wasn't even trying when the game one came up. 00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:57.599 I was like, like, whatever. 00:20:57.680 --> 00:20:58.720 Like I don't I don't care. 00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:01.200 I and you know, I was like not hiding that thing. 00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:03.119 I was like, and he knew it. 00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:05.680 And like, you know, he was like, man, you know what? 00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:09.039 He was like, you're not I was like, yeah, we're he's like, everyone makes this mistake. 00:21:09.359 --> 00:21:11.440 I mean, I was like, Oh, he might let us go. 00:21:11.680 --> 00:21:18.640 He was like, nope, like, yeah, I remember I was you know, I was turning in my like I was like, here's here's our ducks, man. 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:20.559 He's like, oh no, this is the worst part. 00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:24.960 He was like, no, bud, think of this as the most expensive duck thing you ever had. 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:27.440 You asshole. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:31.680 I was like, oh man, I don't like to think about it that way. 00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:35.039 I'm like, I'm gonna have to call my wise dude. 00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:37.359 It was almost a$450 ticket. 00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:39.519 Yeah, I was like, oh my God. 00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:45.039 Man, so when I when I had that John boat, and I'm kidding you not, man, this this boat was all beat up. 00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:47.359 It looked like somebody grabbed it out of a of a garbage. 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:53.599 It was my buddy's dad, he didn't use it, and I I truly had plugged, I don't even know how many holes on it. 00:21:53.839 --> 00:22:00.960 So one day, me and my buddy went out and we were gonna go scout this spot in the evening, and uh We weren't gonna hunt at all. 00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:09.039 I brought my gun and I had some decoys still in the boat because we had hunted that morning, but I didn't have my bag, which had my license in it. 00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:20.240 And then, mind you, I had a troll motor on this boat, so they treat it just like a regular gas motor where you have to have running lights and rear lights and all, and you have to have registration. 00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:21.440 I didn't have any of that. 00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:21.839 Yeah. 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:26.160 So we went out, scouted the spot, and sure enough, found a ton of ducks in it. 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:32.640 And we were all, you know, giggling

like little schoolgirls because we had found this great spot that we were going to go hunt the next morning. 00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:40.079 Well, we get back to the launch right as it's getting dark out, and here I am in a boat that's not registered, has no lights. 00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:45.039 I've got my gun and decoy, so it looks like we've been duck hunting, but I don't have my license. 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:48.720 And man, I didn't have any life jackets with me, I don't think. 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:51.519 And so Game Warren was there at the boat launch. 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:52.000 Yeah. 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:58.240 And he got me for all of the above: no registration, no running lights, no life jacket, hunt without a license. 00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:00.960 I think it was like seven total charges. 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:08.960 And uh he was an older guy, and something just told me I was like, man, just mention your dad, because I was on the exact same lake that I grew up on. 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:13.920 So I mentioned who I was and who my dad was, and sure enough, he knew who my dad was. 00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:18.000 And uh he's finally he he wrote it all up as a warning. 00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:25.920 He said, Look, I'm gonna give you a warning because if I get hit you with all this, it's gonna ruin your license for quite a while. 00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:26.720 Yeah. 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:30.960 And uh man, I he cut me a huge break. 00:23:31.039 --> 00:23:37.680 And uh, I'd like to say that I learned my lesson and I never did it again, but listen, we found a really good spot with a lot of ducks in it. 00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:44.240 So I sure as hell was out there the next morning in that exact same boat. 00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:47.599 Yeah, so what's funny was my PL. 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:52.079 So when I went to move, I lived in Georgia for a while. 00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:54.160 I was a drill sergeant. 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:57.519 Uh my drill sergeant tour got done. 00:23:57.599 --> 00:23:59.200 I hated that time in the army. 00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:03.519 Like I, you know, everyone took, oh, you're a drill, like it was like the worst. 00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:05.440 I didn't think nothing was cool about it. 00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:06.880 It was like drowned hunting. 00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:14.079 That was like those were the two years I didn't I hunted and fished more the years I deployed than I did was when I was a drill sergeant. 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:15.039 Oh yeah. 00:24:15.279 --> 00:24:15.599 Yeah. 00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:18.880 So we go ahead. 00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:27.680 Oh, so we are I I get to North Carolina, walking into the new platoon office, I'm sitting down in my PL, I see a a well a wildfowl magazine. 00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:30.559 And I opened it up and started reading in the PL came in. 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:32.319 He was like, yo, do you duck hunt? 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:33.200 I was like, Yeah. 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:38.160 And he was like, sweet, because he uh I thought he duck hunted the whole time. 00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:41.119 But he just he just got into duck hunting. 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:45.599 Now actually never even, you know, he never hunted. 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:49.039 Like didn't grow up hunting, didn't grow up in a hunting family, grew up in Oregon. 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:55.440 But he um got into um retrieving dogs and then just went he went full sed. 00:24:55.839 --> 00:25:00.480 Like he bought yeah, I mean he bought a five thousand dollar dog, an SB2. 00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:08.240 Yeah, at the time, like the um heck, at the time La Crosse, you know, the uh lacrosse waiters were like like like the best of the best. 00:25:08.480 --> 00:25:10.079 I mean he went just full sed. 00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:15.359 So that hunt we got busted on, that was his first hunt ever. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:20.559 So welcome to Waterfowl, baby. 00:25:20.880 --> 00:25:24.400 So we get that, and he's like, hey, I have this place to hunt opening day. 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:25.279 And I'm like, all right. 00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:28.720 He's like, I've been scouting it, and he showed him up, oh, it's a it's a wild manager. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:39.039 So the way North Carolina works is you know, you have like your your little booklet that has all the everything on it. 00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:42.160 I was like, all right, it's opened up from this day to this day. 00:25:42.319 --> 00:25:42.880 Sweet. 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:53.599 Well, I didn't check the actual Sug, it was Sug Mills Game Land um website because they had a di they had a different calendar. 00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:58.960 And on that calendar, they had random days throughout the season that were no hunt days. 00:25:59.920 --> 00:26:03.839 So duck season opened on a Sun oh Saturday. 00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:09.200 In North Carolina, you cannot have a waterfowl or any type of migratory bird on a Sunday. 00:26:09.680 --> 00:26:17.680 Monday, I thought regular season, um what do you call it, resumed, and it was Veterans Day weekend. 00:26:18.240 --> 00:26:22.000 So I was like, oh man, you know, we had Monday off, we're gonna go. 00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:27.920 We went, and you you drive by the game board shack to get to the little parking area. 00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:29.599 So I was like, oh, that's pretty cool. 00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:32.160 The game boards are here, and it's real nice game land. 00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:38.880 And we get in, and my first thing is to know that something was wrong was there was nobody in the parking lot. 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:41.839 And they had a real nice gravel parking area. 00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:44.880 So we get in there and we start walking. 00:26:45.039 --> 00:26:49.920 You know, it's about knee-deep water, and we're walking in, and you could hear the ducks in the woods. 00:26:50.319 --> 00:26:53.759 I'm like, oh my god, this is it was the pr everything was perfect.

00:26:53.920 --> 00:26:56.880 So we get there, we set up too perfect, yeah. 00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:05.759 I mean, just right off the bat, like we see, we shot, you know, we shot our wood ducks, shot a few ring necks, and I was like, this is it. 00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:06.880 I'm like, oh my god. 00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:08.640 I'm like, this is awesome. 00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:12.000 But I was like, I can't believe there's no one out here. 00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:13.680 It's just it's just us two. 00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:19.200 And I started hearing, you know, someone walking through the water, and I was like, oh man, these guys are late to the party. 00:27:19.839 --> 00:27:23.359 And then I I I realized it's it's um the game board. 00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:26.000 I was like, oh, he must he must have just been bored. 00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:31.920 Well, I was shooting I had at the time uh I was using a browning over and under that I have. 00:27:32.559 --> 00:27:36.000 And remember, so this is my my buddy's first cunt ever. 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:38.960 So he comes in, the game boards are super smooth, man. 00:27:39.119 --> 00:27:40.880 He's like, hey, can I let me check your stuff? 00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:43.200 Oh, you guys looks like you guys have been doing pretty well. 00:27:43.440 --> 00:27:49.200 He checked your licenses, he looks at my gun, he made a joke, like, hey, uh, did that gun have a plug in it? 00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:51.279 And I was like, Oh no, I took it out. 00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:54.319 He looked at my buddy, like, hey, does your gonna have a plug in it? 00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:55.440 He's like, uh no. 00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:56.319 And I was like, no, no. 00:27:58.400 --> 00:28:00.319 I was like, no, no, no, his does. 00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:01.680 No, no, no, no, no, no, no. 00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:03.920 He doesn't know what he's saying. 00:28:04.640 --> 00:28:09.359 So he checks in, he's like, all right, he's like, hey, boys, everything pans out except one thing. 00:28:09.440 --> 00:28:11.200 I was like, hey, what's that, officer? 00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:13.519 He was like, You can't hunt today. 00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:15.920 And I was like, I was like, yeah, I'm right here. 00:28:16.079 --> 00:28:20.240 And then the pamphlet says subnails is open from this day to this, they just can on Sundays. 00:28:20.400 --> 00:28:24.720 He's like, but if you go on the website, there's a counter that shows our no hunt days. 00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:28.960 That's not in like the little thing today, but we had in Louisiana, little like Louisiana. 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:30.720 Yeah, the pamphlet, yeah. 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:31.359 Yeah, little pamphlet. 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:33.200 And he's like, Yeah, man, you have to go to the website. 00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:34.400 And I was like, oh. 00:28:34.799 --> 00:28:37.440 So he's like, No big deal, this happens all the time. 00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:39.200 You know, just you guys have to believe. 00:28:39.440 -->

00:28:41.119 So we pack our stuff up getting to the truck. 00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:44.240 I'm like, yo, dude, listen, you're gonna hop in my truck, and we are gonna get out of here. 00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:48.079 As we get there, I started seeing other game boards at the parking. 00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:49.119 I was like, oh, this is stuff. 00:28:49.279 --> 00:28:53.119 Like, oh, one of these is gonna be an asshole. 00:28:53.279 --> 00:28:53.920 Yeah. 00:28:54.799 --> 00:28:57.359 So I'm like, throw the ducks in the truck and let's get out. 00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:00.400 And like, you know, they're like, hey, hey, uh, can you guys come over here real quick? 00:29:00.480 --> 00:29:01.039 The vehicles? 00:29:01.119 --> 00:29:02.079 I'm like, well, yeah. 00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:10.240 So they have like these little computers in their on their truck, they're already printing printers in there, and then they're already printing the tickets out. 00:29:10.319 --> 00:29:11.599 I'm like, oh god. 00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:15.279 I was more worried about their they were gonna confiscate our shotguns. 00:29:15.359 --> 00:29:17.359 Like, I did not want to lose around over and under. 00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:21.759 They were cool about that, but he was like, hey man, just don't even worry about it. 00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:24.319 So they're the most expensive duck dinner you've ever had. 00:29:24.400 --> 00:29:27.359 And I was like, that's like rubbing salt in the wound. 00:29:28.319 --> 00:29:29.519 Uh yeah. 00:29:29.839 --> 00:29:31.440 Did they at least let you keep the ducks? 00:29:31.519 --> 00:29:32.000 Yeah, they did. 00:29:32.079 --> 00:29:32.640 That's what he told me. 00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:34.960 Oh, that's the most expensive duck dinner you've ever had. 00:29:35.039 --> 00:29:35.119 Yeah. 00:29:35.599 --> 00:29:38.160 I was like, yeah, yeah, you're yeah, you're damn right. 00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:38.720 Yeah. 00:29:39.680 --> 00:29:41.599 I can't wait to go clean this ringneck. 00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:42.480 Yeah. 00:29:45.279 --> 00:29:45.680 Yeah. 00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:52.880 I can't wait to tell my wife to like, hey Ben, this ringneck and these three wood ducks cost me$450. 00:29:56.240 --> 00:30:02.400 Oh, yeah, it was you know, in my butt, you know, and you know what, but that that hunt hooked him. 00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:12.640 He's actually like for someone who's got hunting so late in his life, like he he's actually trained dog, he's actually, yeah, but he went full send and still hunts to this day. 00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:16.000 He moved back to Oregon, great, um, real good waterfowler. 00:30:16.240 --> 00:30:22.240 And um yeah, I always give him shot, like, dude, you go in re you know, there's some guys that just it they just get it. 00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:23.519 He was one of them. 00:30:23.839 --> 00:30:26.480 He hooked on hunting just clicked for him. 00:30:26.559 --> 00:30:29.200 Yeah, yeah, but that day I was like, oh, we screwed up. 00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:33.039 I'm like, yo, but we're not telling the boss. 00:30:33.920 --> 00:30:36.240 But we're just gonna pray this doesn't hit the bladder. 00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:43.680 I didn't want to explain to the battalion commander and the sergeant major, uh, we got tickets hunting. 00:30:43.839 --> 00:30:46.319 That's what that's it for. 00:30:46.880 --> 00:30:49.920 Yeah, not even like a cool DUI story. 00:30:50.079 --> 00:30:50.400 Yeah, yeah. 00:30:51.920 --> 00:30:53.680 We were just misinformed, yeah. 00:30:54.319 --> 00:31:00.480 So military being an MP, I always ask guys that are MPs, what's the wildest like MP story? 00:31:00.559 --> 00:31:02.559 Because MPs have wild stories. 00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:10.160 Because you guys have the police up the service members, and yeah, you know, um America's greatest. 00:31:10.240 --> 00:31:13.440 This is so America's greatest advertising. 00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:18.559 So I was asked, you know, what's the wildest NP story you have? 00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:19.839 Oh man. 00:31:20.079 --> 00:31:22.000 Um shoot. 00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:36.000 The first one that kind of pops in my head is when I was in Bahrain, and mind you, I was just a little E3 man, didn't know anything, but somehow I had found my way into a position of a supervisor role. 00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:41.200 So I was I was the supervisor of one of the ECPs, an entry control point into the base. 00:31:41.759 --> 00:31:49.039 And uh I want to say it was either my first night as uh as the supervisor or pretty dang close. 00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:50.720 I was pretty new to it. 00:31:50.960 --> 00:32:03.279 And um, I can't remember all the exact details, but uh essentially over the radio it it came out that there was a possible suspicious package uh on the bridge that connected the two bases. 00:32:03.920 --> 00:32:07.599 You had NSA one and NSA two, and then you had the bridge that connected the two. 00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:15.200 And uh they found a suspicious package sitting on the bridge, and you had to shut down the entire base. 00:32:15.359 --> 00:32:20.000 Every ECP had to shut down, and you had all these protocols that you had to follow. 00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:30.960 And here I was just a little E3, uh, not knowing all the details of what was going on, other than we knew that there was something going on on the bridge, and we knew that they had EOD uh en route to it. 00:32:31.200 --> 00:32:43.039 And so I had my ECP shut down, but I also had all these EOD guys that were on call that were coming in at the same time that I had to vet and make sure they are who they say they are and then let them through. 00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:53.119 And at the same time, I had E7s and E8s and E9s trying to get out of the base that is now shut down that I, as an E3, could not let out of the base. 00:32:53.680 --> 00:32:55.279 And so you got all this going on. 00:32:55.440 --> 00:32:56.960 Yeah, you were the hero of the day on that one. 00:32:57.119 -->

00:33:00.480 Oh man, they I was not a they were not a fan of me at the time. 00:33:02.319 --> 00:33:05.920 I was I was a motivator and they were gonna let me hear it. 00:33:06.079 --> 00:33:06.640 Yeah. 00:33:06.880 --> 00:33:12.160 Um, and so yeah, so all this is popping off, and we're all shut down. 00:33:12.240 --> 00:33:22.720 I've got, and this is we're on night shift, so I've got all these all these drunk sailors that are trying to come in that I'm not letting in, and they're cussing me out and letting me know exactly what they think of me. 00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:31.359 And of course they see, they see in in our NWs, I think they called it, uh, as a as an E3 and below, you just don't have insignia. 00:33:31.519 --> 00:33:32.079 You have nothing. 00:33:32.240 --> 00:33:33.039 It's just blank. 00:33:33.200 --> 00:33:37.920 And so they see I have no rank, and then they just they really set it off on me. 00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:43.680 And so I'm sitting here telling them to back up and shut up and all this, and and all this is popping off. 00:33:43.839 --> 00:33:49.440 Well, eventually my patrol supervisor rolls up and he is uh a hard charger. 00:33:49.519 --> 00:33:50.480 Let's just keep it at that. 00:33:50.559 --> 00:33:50.960 Yeah. 00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:56.000 And very um, he's always worried, he's always thinking of the worst case scenario. 00:33:56.160 --> 00:33:59.920 So he comes up to this ECP and it's almost like out of a movie, man. 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:07.200 He comes up and he just looks off in the distance, doesn't even acknowledge me, and he just goes, Something's not right about this, just something's not adding up. 00:34:07.359 --> 00:34:15.440 And then I'm kind of like, I was keeping pretty good calm, but then all of a sudden I'm thinking, because in my ECP, it's just a big open city. 00:34:15.519 --> 00:34:23.119 So if somebody wanted to get up in a big building and snipe me, just like as if I was guarding a gate in a 007 movie, I'm as good as dead. 00:34:23.440 --> 00:34:27.840 So I they've got a clear shot on me and about five others. 00:34:28.559 --> 00:34:32.639 Or if they want to bum rush the the base, I'm kind of screwed there too. 00:34:32.800 --> 00:34:33.440 Yeah. 00:34:33.679 --> 00:34:36.079 And so kind of gets me on edge. 00:34:36.159 --> 00:34:49.840 And anyways, we we go through the whole deal, and it ends up just being somebody had left a bag, and you had a GNC on base that sold energy pills, and in that container was a grenade container. 00:34:50.079 --> 00:34:57.440 And so that was sitting in the bag, and it had headphones that were wired, and some of the wires were hanging out of the bag with that in it. 00:34:57.679 --> 00:34:58.079 Yeah. 00:34:58.320 --> 00:35:02.320 And so, yeah, it pretty looks pretty damn suspicious when you first look at it. 00:35:02.480 --> 00:35:04.400 And uh, that's what it ended up being. 00:35:04.559 --> 00:35:12.320 And uh that was my, like I said, I want to say that was my first night as a supervisor, and uh it was a warm welcoming. 00:35:13.280 --> 00:35:24.079 And uh later on, of course, my my chief at the time, my E7, called me on my cell phone and was like, Hey, do you have a bunch of chiefs and senior chiefs and master chiefs sitting at the gate? 00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:25.360 And I was like, Yeah, they're all sitting here. 00:35:25.440 --> 00:35:27.679 He's like, Yeah, just go ahead and let them out. 00:35:29.199 --> 00:35:42.079 And uh sure enough, like the next day or whatever, next time we were on on patrol, they they came out and they were like, uh, by the way, the CO wants to give uh Seaman Roussel a uh a Bravo Zulu. 00:35:42.320 --> 00:35:46.639 Good job on handling the situation the other night. 00:35:50.559 --> 00:35:55.840 Yeah, that was that that was uh that was definitely a story that has always stuck out to me. 00:35:56.079 --> 00:35:57.039 Yeah, yeah, dude. 00:35:57.199 --> 00:36:03.920 I'll tell you, I've known some MPs and MPs in the army, we kind of give them like being an infantry dude, we you know, we give them shit. 00:36:04.159 --> 00:36:04.639 Oh yeah. 00:36:04.880 --> 00:36:06.559 Nine out of ten is our fault. 00:36:07.519 --> 00:36:10.559 When I lived in the barracks, I was like, we were just savages. 00:36:10.719 --> 00:36:17.760 Like I never I never had many issues with other Navy guys, like at least American Navy guys, other than just drunk guys coming in. 00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:24.320 If it was a little bit past curfew, I was one of those that was like, hey, hurry up and get your ass in, and I'm just not gonna say anything. 00:36:24.480 --> 00:36:27.920 But I'll tell you who I did have issues with was the British Navy. 00:36:28.079 --> 00:36:28.400 Really? 00:36:28.639 --> 00:36:40.880 Those guys were the most fun people to drink with, but if I was working, they were the most just pain in the ass guys to deal with because they they did not have a limit, they just drank until it was it was time to stop drinking. 00:36:41.039 --> 00:36:42.880 And most of the time that never actually hit it. 00:36:43.039 --> 00:36:43.679 It happens, yeah. 00:36:44.320 --> 00:36:45.360 Weird words. 00:36:45.599 --> 00:37:00.960 So we had we didn't we did some, but A Sega do a lot of training with the with the Brits and the Canadians, but the Brits, you know, usually after we do a training event here with our brad, we'd have like a night where we'd go hang out with them, they'd barbecue and we'd go get some you know some beers. 00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:11.360 But they would say like their like wording is so wild, like one day one dude he was drunk and he kept saying he was pissed. 00:37:11.599 --> 00:37:13.360 I was like, Well, who are you pissed off at, brother? 00:37:13.519 --> 00:37:14.480 Like, why are you so pissed? 00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:16.880 He's no, I'm just I'm just really pissed right now. 00:37:17.039 --> 00:37:24.639 Like, dude, that was his I guess when they get drugged to call it either

getting pissed or being ming monged. 00:37:24.719 --> 00:37:26.559 Yeah, like brother, I don't know what you're doing. 00:37:26.639 --> 00:37:33.519 Yeah, no, half the time I didn't know exactly what they were talking about, but sometimes they'd buy me shots like I was a woman, and I was okay with that. 00:37:33.599 --> 00:37:36.079 So I'll take the free drinks all day long, baby. 00:37:36.320 --> 00:37:37.119 Bring them on. 00:37:37.360 --> 00:37:40.800 Yeah, yeah, we worked with them quite a bit. 00:37:40.960 --> 00:37:49.599 The Canadians, uh the Colombians I've worked with, um the Latvians. 00:37:49.760 --> 00:37:52.239 I don't even know what that country was at, but they were here. 00:37:52.480 --> 00:37:52.639 Yeah. 00:37:53.039 --> 00:37:54.079 Don't drink it in mind. 00:37:54.559 --> 00:37:55.199 Yeah. 00:37:55.519 --> 00:37:59.920 Uh the Germans, the Germans, the Brits like to drink, and the yeah. 00:38:00.079 --> 00:38:00.480 Oh yeah. 00:38:00.639 --> 00:38:01.599 Yeah, they get rowdy. 00:38:01.840 --> 00:38:10.719 Yeah, so we would meet up at a at a bar called Dublin's, and you could bet that all the Brits are always gonna be there, and they would be absolutely hammered. 00:38:10.880 --> 00:38:18.320 Yeah, and they were they were fun to party with, but yeah, dealing with them when I had to work, I'd have I had flip-flops thrown at me. 00:38:18.480 --> 00:38:22.000 I had cuss words that I ain't even ever heard before said at me. 00:38:22.800 --> 00:38:24.159 Are you insulting me right now? 00:38:24.239 --> 00:38:25.920 Or I don't know what you're saying. 00:38:26.239 --> 00:38:27.599 Oh, that's funny. 00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:29.679 Yeah, yeah. 00:38:30.320 --> 00:38:45.039 Being with military and then being with like the other countries is is what they're oh yeah, yeah, and their cultures, their drinking cultures are just like it seems like that part of Europe, like the like the Germans and like the um Brits. 00:38:46.320 --> 00:38:48.079 We had some Irish guys. 00:38:48.320 --> 00:38:55.760 You know, those dudes could uh it's like when they come out of the womb, just yeah, they're built differently, that's for sure on that side. 00:38:56.239 --> 00:39:04.880 I'll tell you another funny, funny thing is when I was in Bahrain, so we had the Bahraini police that were on guard at all the ECPs with us. 00:39:05.280 --> 00:39:07.920 And I remember they carried like these Uzi guns. 00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:12.960 I don't, I don't remember exactly what kind of weapon it was, but it was it was like a compact SMG. 00:39:13.440 --> 00:39:18.960 And um one day I went up to him and I was like, hey, is is that thing actually even loaded? 00:39:19.199 --> 00:39:20.880 And he laughed and said no. 00:39:20.960 --> 00:39:31.199 And he pulled out this Ziploc bag with all his rounds in it, and they kept an empty gun with a Ziploc bag full of rounds, just no accountability whatsoever. 00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:39.360 I was like, Well, I'm just not gonna count on

you if shit's ever shit ever hits the fan then, because you'll be dead before you get that thing loaded. 00:39:39.599 --> 00:39:42.000 It's like it's like the week on the other guys. 00:39:42.159 --> 00:39:43.280 Here's a whistle. 00:39:43.599 --> 00:39:43.920 Yeah. 00:39:46.719 --> 00:39:49.280 Blow the whistle, someone in the gut will come and help you. 00:39:49.519 --> 00:39:52.719 If you get shot, then I know I'm next, so I better duck and cover. 00:39:52.800 --> 00:39:54.800 That's what you're yeah, that's what you're useful for. 00:39:55.199 --> 00:39:56.559 Yeah, you some of them, yeah. 00:39:56.639 --> 00:40:02.639 The Middle Eastern countries are that was yeah, that they're interesting. 00:40:02.800 --> 00:40:07.280 Um watching, you know, we've seen videos of them doing jumping jacks. 00:40:07.440 --> 00:40:07.920 Oh yeah. 00:40:08.079 --> 00:40:09.599 Yeah, monkey bars, the monkey. 00:40:09.760 --> 00:40:11.840 The boys on the monkey bars, they tear them up. 00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:13.760 Oh my god, this is yeah. 00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:17.599 Uh we used to do that's 2015. 00:40:17.679 --> 00:40:22.800 We were doing um we're training them to go up and do the good fighting Mosul. 00:40:23.199 --> 00:40:25.199 And so we're trying, you know, we're training. 00:40:25.440 --> 00:40:30.239 We had this dude, this fat Iraqi uh army guy. 00:40:30.800 --> 00:40:32.800 And um he drank whiskey. 00:40:33.280 --> 00:40:35.199 So Iraq's a really weird country. 00:40:35.679 --> 00:40:38.000 It's like it's like Muslim. 00:40:38.639 --> 00:40:41.679 Like they're real, they all drink, they all kind of do that. 00:40:41.760 --> 00:40:47.199 It's not like you know how it is a Saudi Rabbi or Qatar guy, because Qatar is pretty strict and all the saying. 00:40:47.440 --> 00:40:50.000 We this dude looked like Wario off of Mario Brothers. 00:40:50.079 --> 00:40:57.280 He had the big mustache, curly mustache, and dude, you would be you would look over, and this dude would be drunk, like in formation tram. 00:40:57.519 --> 00:40:58.719 Like you just give me your gun. 00:41:00.239 --> 00:41:01.599 Not today, brother. 00:41:01.840 --> 00:41:04.639 Like, we are not doing this. 00:41:05.039 --> 00:41:08.079 Yeah, he'd have said he had that big, huge long mustache. 00:41:08.159 --> 00:41:10.159 I'm like, dude, this is oh wild. 00:41:10.800 --> 00:41:11.360 Yeah. 00:41:12.480 --> 00:41:13.840 You dude, are you okay? 00:41:13.920 --> 00:41:16.000 He'd be he'd make spinning, he's like, like he's dizzy. 00:41:16.079 --> 00:41:22.159 He's like, yeah, hey, somebody get this guy a chair and some water, take his weapons from him. 00:41:22.559 --> 00:41:24.159 Yeah, that's because you're drunk, brother. 00:41:24.320 --> 00:41:24.719 Like, yeah, yeah. 00:41:25.760 --> 00:41:27.760 You keep trying to have fire water, yeah. 00:41:28.239 --> 00:41:30.159 No, give me, yeah, give me your gun. 00:41:30.719 --> 00:41:31.280 Oh, dude. 00:41:31.760 --> 00:41:38.400 We had one dude saying we because we would do accountability of all their weapons, and I'm like, dude, where's your gun at? 00:41:38.480 --> 00:41:39.519 He had a 249. 00:41:39.920 --> 00:41:41.440 He's like, Oh, I sold it. 00:41:43.039 --> 00:41:45.599 Oh bro, me sold it. 00:41:45.760 --> 00:41:47.440 He's like, Yeah, I sold that thing. 00:41:47.599 --> 00:41:51.599 I was like, oh I would be under Levin Worth at that point. 00:41:52.159 --> 00:41:59.599 I was like, with you, and then it was all the American issue stuff because we did it, we they called the NATO package, so they were giving them all of our handy down. 00:41:59.840 --> 00:42:05.920 So yeah, I was like, Oh man, our taxpayer dollars pay for that. 00:42:06.320 --> 00:42:11.199 You know, we were selling them some bizarre in freaking Baghdad, like, yeah. 00:42:13.519 --> 00:42:15.360 Yo, and he was straight smooth about it. 00:42:15.440 --> 00:42:22.000 Like, he looked at it, he said whatever he said in Jipper Daver, and the freaking interpreter was like, Oh, oh, he sold that. 00:42:22.159 --> 00:42:29.760 And I was like, Oh now, you gotta go down back to your like my botanic commander, like, oh yeah, so I guess uh they're missing one. 00:42:30.079 --> 00:42:31.360 Hey, you got another one of those? 00:42:31.599 --> 00:42:32.480 I I need a new one. 00:42:33.039 --> 00:42:34.159 Yeah, because he sold it. 00:42:34.239 --> 00:42:35.360 Like, geez. 00:42:35.679 --> 00:42:43.119 Yeah, you you might want to see that that's gonna be on the on the back pages, but if you want to get one back, find that thing on Craig's Craigslist. 00:42:43.920 --> 00:42:49.039 Um, when you got back, did you move straight back to um Shreeport when you got out? 00:42:49.280 --> 00:42:50.400 Yeah, unfortunately. 00:42:50.480 --> 00:42:54.400 Uh it's no secret. 00:42:54.480 --> 00:42:56.559 I don't want to be here, but here I am. 00:42:56.800 --> 00:43:01.360 Uh yeah, man, I I I missed my family, um, missed my missed my friends. 00:43:01.440 --> 00:43:02.880 So, yeah, as soon as I got out. 00:43:03.039 --> 00:43:07.119 So, what happened was actually while I was stationed in Greece, I came home on leave. 00:43:07.199 --> 00:43:09.760 And while I was home on leave, that's when I blew my knee out. 00:43:09.920 --> 00:43:14.559 I tore my ACL, my MCL, and uh had a stress fracture down my tibia. 00:43:15.119 --> 00:43:18.159 And so they kept me home, didn't send me back over. 00:43:18.320 --> 00:43:23.519 And originally they wanted to bring me back to Greece, and then from Greece sent me to Germany to have my surgery and all that. 00:43:23.679 --> 00:43:27.920 And knowing what I know now, I wish I'd have done that, but unfortunately I stayed in Shreeport. 00:43:28.079 --> 00:43:36.880 Yeah and uh they they stationed me at the the active reserve station here in uh Bozier City, which is right next to Shreeport. 00:43:37.199 --> 00:43:42.400 And so I finished my time out there, and then from there, just I've been here since I got out.

00:43:42.639 --> 00:43:49.519 Now, so when you got out, Aussie then you I mean, how'd you get into guiding? 00:43:50.320 --> 00:43:56.800 So my brother was at that camp in South Arkansas, and he wasn't a guide for an outfitter. 00:43:56.960 --> 00:44:07.519 It's a it's a hunting club, and he Got hooked up with this guy that had a membership out there that didn't really know, you know, how to call or set decoys and didn't really care to do it himself. 00:44:07.599 --> 00:44:11.039 He just wanted to go out there and shoot and and hang out with his buddies. 00:44:11.119 --> 00:44:13.920 So my brother was a guide for him. 00:44:14.079 --> 00:44:14.320 Yeah. 00:44:14.480 --> 00:44:15.920 And they they hunted every day. 00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:17.280 So he did all the legwork. 00:44:17.360 --> 00:44:26.159 He set the decoys, did the call and did the, you know, clean the ducks the whole, the whole nine yards, and and just stayed with this guy, and he would take him and his buddies. 00:44:26.400 --> 00:44:31.440 And so I grew up around that, going get going and getting a hunt there every now and then. 00:44:31.599 --> 00:44:36.079 And uh eventually had a new member that came on, and my brother mentioned my name to him. 00:44:36.239 --> 00:44:40.079 And this was in 2021 or 2022, I want to say. 00:44:40.400 --> 00:44:49.760 Um, and so that's how I originally got into it is I started taking this doctor and some of his buddies, and we we would go hunting at this hunting club. 00:44:49.920 --> 00:44:53.440 And at that same time, that's when I started getting into contests. 00:44:53.679 --> 00:45:01.039 And so while I was doing that, um I also met Ken Eason, who has just opened up so many doors. 00:45:01.119 --> 00:45:02.400 I'm so thankful for him, man. 00:45:02.480 --> 00:45:04.239 He has absolutely been a blessing to me. 00:45:04.320 --> 00:45:04.639 Yeah. 00:45:04.960 --> 00:45:10.880 And so I started blowing Ken Eason's calls, the Lanyap, and started having a lot of success with it. 00:45:11.199 --> 00:45:14.719 And it's a funny story how I got hooked up at Straight Lake. 00:45:15.199 --> 00:45:19.039 So it was at uh Delta Waterfowl in Baton Rouge in 2024. 00:45:19.599 --> 00:45:27.519 And I told Kent he knew who Max Sharp was, who was the founder of Straight Lake up in northeast Arkansas, about an hour outside of Stuttgart. 00:45:28.079 --> 00:45:31.760 And uh I told him, hey, I want you to introduce me to Max Sharp. 00:45:31.840 --> 00:45:32.639 I just want to talk to him. 00:45:32.719 --> 00:45:39.920 I would, it was that was the top place on no matter what, I will drop anything that I have to to get to go be a guide at this place. 00:45:40.480 --> 00:45:42.159 And so he introduced me to Max Sharp. 00:45:42.239 --> 00:45:44.719 Me and him hit it off really well, super great guy. 00:45:44.880 --> 00:45:52.559 And um of course, later that next day or either that day, I went and I won that double read contest at DJ. 00:45:52.719 --> 00:45:53.280 Yeah, I remember that. 00:45:53.599 --> 00:45:54.719 Yeah, I remember that. 00:45:55.039 --> 00:46:06.239 So I won that contest, and shortly after Max found me and you know, dabbed me up, was super excited for me, and gave me an invite to come up to Straight Lake and just check it out. 00:46:06.480 --> 00:46:09.199 And uh a month later I came and checked it out. 00:46:09.360 --> 00:46:16.880 He introduced me as the new guy that was going to be up there, and uh man, I started I started hunting there, and that place is just absolutely magical. 00:46:17.039 --> 00:46:21.920 It's you got pretty much everything that you could see in Arkansas duck hunt up there. 00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:31.599 You got rice, you got corn, you got pits, you've got skid blinds, you of course you got plenty of flooded timber out there, and it's it's an absolute magical place. 00:46:31.760 --> 00:46:36.480 It's it's uh duck hunting like you would only ever imagine in your dreams. 00:46:36.559 --> 00:46:37.840 That's the best way I can put it. 00:46:37.920 --> 00:46:39.760 It's it's absolutely insane up there. 00:46:39.840 --> 00:46:46.000 And of course, it still gets slow just like anywhere else, but man, when it's good up there, it's it's about as good as it gets. 00:46:46.559 --> 00:46:51.360 Yeah, I remember that I was standing next to Kent when uh you did first when you blew in the first round. 00:46:51.840 --> 00:46:54.639 Um Joey was there, he actually blew in that one as well. 00:46:54.880 --> 00:46:55.840 Yeah, yeah. 00:46:56.000 --> 00:47:02.559 And I when I heard your first your your first routine, I after the first time I looked over at Kent and I shook his hands like y'all just won. 00:47:05.599 --> 00:47:07.039 You guys just won this one. 00:47:09.119 --> 00:47:09.519 Yeah. 00:47:09.760 --> 00:47:10.239 Yeah, man. 00:47:10.320 --> 00:47:11.760 That was that was a crazy contest. 00:47:11.840 --> 00:47:18.960 Because I'll tell you, even now, even with some of the success I've had, man, there's never been a contest that I won that I think that I'm winning. 00:47:19.039 --> 00:47:19.360 Yeah. 00:47:19.599 --> 00:47:26.880 It's always, hey, I'm doing, I've blown my routine well, but I I mean, I'll some I'll be somewhere in the top five, but I probably won't win. 00:47:27.119 --> 00:47:34.719 And uh like I've told other guys, man, I've come to I've come to learn that you're gonna win some that you should have lost and you're gonna lose some that you should have won. 00:47:34.960 --> 00:47:43.360 And so there it there's in contest calling, there's you should not get bent out of shape, you know, if you lose, because it's gonna happen. 00:47:43.440 --> 00:47:44.639 It's it's so subjective. 00:47:44.719 --> 00:47:53.039 It's gonna happen where you there's gonna be contests that you thought you sounded better than everybody, and you take, you know, fifth place, or sometimes you might not even make third round. 00:47:53.199 --> 00:47:53.440 Yeah. 00:47:53.599 --> 00:47:55.360 It's

just gonna be one of those things that happens. 00:47:55.440 --> 00:48:11.920 So sometimes you just gotta take the good with the bad and and chalk it up as just go have a good time, cut up with the guys in the bullpen, you know, make friends, make, you know, make good connections in in in the industry and who eventually become good friends and and you know, just go have fun with it. 00:48:12.239 --> 00:48:13.199 As corny as that sounds. 00:48:13.360 --> 00:48:13.679 No, yeah. 00:48:13.760 --> 00:48:14.719 Oh, you won't be right. 00:48:14.960 --> 00:48:20.639 I, you know, I've been blown Nicotas in about two years, but I tell everyone, I'm deserted donating money to y'all. 00:48:20.800 --> 00:48:23.039 Yeah, I'm deserted donating money. 00:48:25.280 --> 00:48:26.800 It might as well go to you guys. 00:48:30.400 --> 00:48:31.280 But yeah, it is. 00:48:31.360 --> 00:48:32.320 It's it's nice. 00:48:32.480 --> 00:48:36.400 One, it keeps even if you're not winning, it keeps you sharp on your duck call. 00:48:36.719 --> 00:48:37.119 Absolutely. 00:48:37.280 --> 00:48:41.360 Again, it keeps you um and it keeps you in tune with duck hunting. 00:48:41.440 --> 00:48:47.199 It's yeah, I can still talk duck hunting, see the guys, you know, everyone in July. 00:48:47.519 --> 00:48:50.480 Yeah, we you know, July, June, you know, super missing it. 00:48:50.719 --> 00:48:57.599 Um you know, this past weekend was gay on and um we actually went bull, we fished reds that day. 00:48:57.760 --> 00:49:00.639 Joey woke up and uh he was like, I want to go blowing it. 00:49:00.960 --> 00:49:03.599 Because he's actually getting ready to leave for basic as well. 00:49:04.239 --> 00:49:09.199 And uh he was like, Man, but I'd rather just go fishing one more time a few more times before I ship out. 00:49:09.360 --> 00:49:10.159 I was like, all right, let's go. 00:49:10.239 --> 00:49:12.320 And we went and we caught a bunch of bull reds. 00:49:13.280 --> 00:49:19.519 Um but yeah, it it is it's a good time to to keep up with everybody. 00:49:19.679 --> 00:49:22.719 And you do, you make a lot of a lot of connections. 00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:24.639 It it is it is truly opened. 00:49:24.880 --> 00:49:32.960 I mean, shoot, it it got me into uh uh one of the you know top hunting clubs in what I would say probably in North America. 00:49:33.199 --> 00:49:33.280 Yeah. 00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:37.519 I mean, it it's an amazing place, and that's all because of contest. 00:49:37.599 --> 00:49:42.400 And the whole reason I wanted to get into contest is because I wanted to get into guiding. 00:49:42.480 --> 00:49:42.719 Yeah. 00:49:42.880 --> 00:49:45.760 And I saw that as the gateway to get into guiding. 00:49:45.840 --> 00:50:04.239 And of course, now I've I've gotten to where I want to be on the guiding side, and I'm kind of getting to where I'm gonna start slowing down and eventually get out of it just because I I've got kids that are gonna be, you know, getting to the age that I want to start taking them and be more worried about getting them into it than I am caring about seeing, you know, yeah, what I want to see. 00:50:04.320 --> 00:50:06.159 I've I've seen what I've wanted to see at this point. 00:50:06.559 --> 00:50:13.840 I'd say everyone, having having kids changed my perspective of what a good duck hunt is. 00:50:14.159 --> 00:50:14.639 100%. 00:50:15.199 --> 00:50:21.039 Being 41 years old, my duck hunting success is different from 25-year-old me. 00:50:21.199 --> 00:50:21.360 Yep. 00:50:21.920 --> 00:50:22.159 Yeah. 00:50:22.480 --> 00:50:23.679 Not having, yeah. 00:50:24.239 --> 00:50:38.000 Even 2020, 2021, I was still hunting some public land and and going up there to South Arkansas at that hunting club, but I was I was very headstrong on killing and and you know, shooting as many as I can. 00:50:38.079 --> 00:50:47.119 And now I am very on the very on the page of saying, you know, I want to go and I want to see ducks do it right. 00:50:47.199 --> 00:50:52.800 And sometimes I might shoot, and a lot of times I might not shoot, because that's that is not what's important to me anymore. 00:50:52.880 --> 00:50:56.239 It's just a good, successful hunt going out there with with good people. 00:50:56.639 --> 00:51:06.880 And man, seeing some ducks do it right, it's almost some people are gonna make fun of me, but I'd much rather see them do it right and just not even shoot into them, just watch them sit on the water sometimes. 00:51:07.119 --> 00:51:07.920 Yeah, yeah. 00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:12.400 And then you have some clients in town, you know, they want to shoot sometime, and I get it. 00:51:12.480 --> 00:51:13.280 They want it. 00:51:13.360 --> 00:51:16.880 They they wanna they got three shells in that gun and they don't want to unload it. 00:51:16.960 --> 00:51:20.639 So they unload it and nothing falls. 00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:25.679 Sometimes uh I'd say maybe a little bit more than sometimes. 00:51:27.199 --> 00:51:28.559 Nothing fell, buddy. 00:51:28.800 --> 00:51:29.760 They say, Do you shoot? 00:51:29.840 --> 00:51:30.639 No, I didn't shoot. 00:51:32.000 --> 00:51:33.599 Good, good shot, man. 00:51:33.679 --> 00:51:35.280 You hit that one right there. 00:51:36.400 --> 00:51:40.320 I saw you hit that one sitting right in front of me. 00:51:42.639 --> 00:51:44.239 You know, I have a shotgun. 00:51:44.320 --> 00:51:50.079 I'm I sometimes I'll guide it with um a browning uh BSP because it's a bottom eject. 00:51:50.239 --> 00:51:53.440 And if I know I did I guide some guys before, I'm like, oh bud. 00:51:54.800 --> 00:51:58.880 Because yeah, it doesn't kick out like, oh brother, you you nailed that. 00:51:59.119 --> 00:52:05.920 I gotta, I gotta, I'm mostly on with a 20 gauge now, but every now and then I gotta I gotta bring that 12 gauge out when I know I'm gonna need it. 00:52:06.719 --> 00:52:21.920 Yeah, I use I um nine times out of ten, I'm I'm either using the um I have an older beretta that I'll use or a um

SX4, but when I when you I'm trying to be sneaky, then when when the when the BSP comes out, you know that he's trying to be sneaky. 00:52:22.159 --> 00:52:23.920 A boy doing a hip shot. 00:52:24.719 --> 00:52:28.239 Yeah, because it bottom checks, you know, you didn't gonna kick out or nothing. 00:52:28.480 --> 00:52:29.840 No, I never even picked my gun up. 00:52:29.920 --> 00:52:30.800 What are you talking about? 00:52:31.760 --> 00:52:34.000 Oh yeah, it was it was a good time. 00:52:34.960 --> 00:52:38.639 I enjoyed my time hunting in um guiden, Louisiana. 00:52:38.719 --> 00:52:43.440 I'm not Louisiana and then Guyden in um uh Arkansas. 00:52:44.800 --> 00:52:48.320 I was young me and Force we both got over there at DLW's, yeah. 00:52:48.559 --> 00:52:59.280 And yeah, I tell I tell everyone Arkansas hunting in Arkansas is such a the duck hunting culture there is just it's it's there. 00:52:59.599 --> 00:53:08.800 It's you know, from you know, going to Max's, going to uh uh DW's, but it's even like some of the little mama pop's places up there. 00:53:09.199 --> 00:53:18.320 Um yeah, Arkansas lives, breeze, and it just has that duck waterfowl is part of that culture, and yeah. 00:53:18.639 --> 00:53:19.119 Exactly. 00:53:19.360 --> 00:53:20.639 Man, I I say it like this. 00:53:20.719 --> 00:53:25.599 Here in here in Shreeport, everybody either becomes a crackhead or they go work at the paper mill. 00:53:27.039 --> 00:53:33.519 Up there in Arkansas, it seems like just about everybody goes and becomes a wildlife biologist. 00:53:33.760 --> 00:53:37.599 It is it's crazy how much, like you said, in the culture they really are. 00:53:37.760 --> 00:53:48.800 It's yeah, especially in that Stuttgart area, the Northeast Arkansas area, those guys, it's it's crazy because growing up here in Shreveport when I was a kid, it was hard to find other guys that duck hunted. 00:53:48.960 --> 00:53:52.000 Uh, but up there, it's like it's just second nature to them. 00:53:52.079 --> 00:53:52.960 It's part of their culture. 00:53:53.039 --> 00:53:55.280 It's it's what they do, is they they all hunt. 00:53:55.519 --> 00:53:57.360 Or they will become a crackhead in a snow goose. 00:53:59.440 --> 00:54:01.760 They're all those guys are crackheads. 00:54:01.840 --> 00:54:03.679 So I think those go hand in hand. 00:54:03.760 --> 00:54:06.400 If you're a snow goose guy, you're definitely a crackhead. 00:54:08.559 --> 00:54:16.000 Oh man, this last year uh we had a buddy uh Levi, he's been on the show, he guided with horse and all of them. 00:54:16.239 --> 00:54:24.559 And we would go on TikTok and just look at all like the random guys that you're you know, you see when they get on the arguments about snow goose hunting and all. 00:54:24.639 --> 00:54:28.239 Oh this year was like the best of just like social media. 00:54:28.480 --> 00:54:35.519 I'm like, one, you guys are really like getting oh, like you guys are really getting incriminated on social media. 00:54:35.599 --> 00:54:37.199 I don't know if you know how meta works, right? 00:54:37.440 --> 00:54:38.880 Yeah, this is all a database. 00:54:39.360 --> 00:54:51.679 Yeah, yeah, you gotta I I've learned uh yeah, I've I've learned I'm not I'm not an outlaw at all, but I've learned there's some things that I just not gonna post anyway because sometimes perception can be reality. 00:54:51.920 --> 00:54:55.280 I don't need I don't need the law seeing what I'm doing sometimes. 00:54:55.599 --> 00:55:00.480 But I see, I mean I was watching guys argue about like you know, if I see you in my area, those are my white geese. 00:55:00.559 --> 00:55:08.400 I don't know, it's like threatening somebody for some cell or snow geese, like bud, that's not not a good look, buddy. 00:55:08.480 --> 00:55:13.840 Yeah, that is I'm not hey, February hits, and uh I'm very over it by that point. 00:55:13.920 --> 00:55:17.920 I'm not even tuned into what's going on in the waterfowl industry anymore after it's over. 00:55:18.079 --> 00:55:19.840 Uh dude, this is my first year. 00:55:19.920 --> 00:55:29.760 I actually um did some I mean I did pretty decent snow goose hunting down here in Louisiana, and um, we shot a call we shot a collar. 00:55:30.719 --> 00:55:31.119 Really? 00:55:32.320 --> 00:55:36.800 I was I was hunting with Nate um from that falling tide uh TV. 00:55:37.199 --> 00:55:38.079 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:55:38.239 --> 00:55:41.440 Yeah, and uh his brother shot a um a what do you call it? 00:55:41.599 --> 00:55:45.199 A uh a collared um a snow goose. 00:55:45.519 --> 00:55:46.239 Oh man. 00:55:46.400 --> 00:55:48.159 Yeah, and yeah, so it was pretty neat. 00:55:48.480 --> 00:55:57.920 And it it was you know for Louisiana's uh snow goose only killed 15, and I was like, Bernangona I was like, all right. 00:55:58.559 --> 00:56:06.320 And uh it's funny that tell guys, you know, um some of the guys at DLW, they'll they'll stay around they'll snow goose hunt. 00:56:06.559 --> 00:56:12.960 I'm like, listen, when you see those snow goose hunt on uh TV, that's like five days worth of hunting, right? 00:56:13.119 --> 00:56:17.039 Yeah, did they only show you the other four days where they shot one snow goose? 00:56:17.280 --> 00:56:18.800 I've been five hours. 00:56:19.039 --> 00:56:26.800 I've been invited on a couple of snow geese goose hunts the uh last couple years, and those guys are like, Yeah, I've got two cases of shells, we're gonna go wear them out. 00:56:27.039 --> 00:56:31.119 I'm like, man, something tells me I don't want to take part of that. 00:56:31.199 --> 00:56:33.679 And sure enough, they're like, Oh, it was BS, man. 00:56:33.760 --> 00:56:34.800 Nothing ever really flew. 00:56:34.880 --> 00:56:35.760 We killed one goose. 00:56:35.840 --> 00:56:38.239 I'm like, I'm sure glad I didn't go take part in that. 00:56:39.119 --> 00:56:40.000 Yeah, yeah. 00:56:40.800 --> 00:56:46.320 And that's that's really been my uh, you know, in time about snow goose on it.

00:56:46.480 --> 00:56:52.079 It's like, you know, you you watched the whole like oh, triple digits and all that, and it's like, oh, we killed four geese. 00:56:52.159 --> 00:56:58.400 All right, like this was definitely like, you know, I'm shut through mud for no damn thing. 00:56:58.800 --> 00:56:59.519 Y'all can have that. 00:57:01.280 --> 00:57:01.840 Yeah. 00:57:02.079 --> 00:57:04.880 Um, so yeah, this year we put out a permanent spread. 00:57:04.960 --> 00:57:12.960 We didn't do two, I think a snow goose on three days during the conservation season, and the best day was we killed every day, but the best day was 15. 00:57:13.199 --> 00:57:13.519 Yeah. 00:57:13.599 --> 00:57:16.400 Um, it was I would say I would call that a good day. 00:57:16.639 --> 00:57:17.280 Yeah. 00:57:17.920 --> 00:57:21.199 But those guys that go around there, we're gonna chase them, like oh bruh. 00:57:21.360 --> 00:57:27.280 Like, yeah, you yeah, you were all when they're like, we put 50 dozen full bodies. 00:57:27.519 --> 00:57:29.519 I'm like, yeah, you're yeah, you're a crackhead, bud. 00:57:29.760 --> 00:57:36.800 Man, I got I got called weird this past season uh where I was hunting at uh in central Louisiana, north central Louisiana. 00:57:36.960 --> 00:57:43.840 They uh when the freeze came, there was, I don't even know how many ducks just sitting on dry land because everything was so froze up. 00:57:43.920 --> 00:57:44.239 Yeah. 00:57:44.480 --> 00:57:50.079 It was about nine or ten o'clock at night, and these they were gonna do a guide hunt on this dry field the next morning. 00:57:50.400 --> 00:57:53.760 And they were like, man, we're gonna go brush all these panel blinds. 00:57:53.920 --> 00:57:56.400 It was nine o'clock, nine, ten o'clock at night. 00:57:56.719 --> 00:57:58.719 So, no, y'all have that, man. 00:57:58.800 --> 00:58:00.800 I think I'm gonna sleep in tomorrow. 00:58:03.039 --> 00:58:09.840 Um and they went out there and the the they jumped up a bunch of mallards, they never came back and they killed a bunch of teal. 00:58:09.920 --> 00:58:16.960 And I tell you, I like killing teal, but I didn't mind sleeping in that morning missing out on a teal shoot over dryfield. 00:58:17.840 --> 00:58:20.400 Oh, so this year, did you get to hunt with Roland any? 00:58:20.719 --> 00:58:20.960 I did. 00:58:21.039 --> 00:58:22.800 I got to hunt with Roland one time, man. 00:58:22.880 --> 00:58:23.199 Yeah. 00:58:23.440 --> 00:58:25.599 We had it was during it was during the freeze. 00:58:25.679 --> 00:58:26.960 It was uh it was a good hunt. 00:58:27.199 --> 00:58:30.559 Yeah, Roland's always a good time. 00:58:30.800 --> 00:58:31.920 He he's out there, man. 00:58:32.000 --> 00:58:32.800 I love Roland. 00:58:32.960 --> 00:58:36.880 He's got it's never a dull moment, no, dull moment with him. 00:58:37.039 --> 00:58:38.559 Yeah, he is a good dude. 00:58:39.440 --> 00:58:40.719 He keeps you laughing. 00:58:40.880 --> 00:58:42.159 Oh, yeah, 100%. 00:58:42.559 --> 00:58:44.159 He he will keep you entertained. 00:58:44.239 --> 00:58:50.239 If you're if you're gonna, if you're not gonna kill anything, he is the best one to be with because he will keep everybody entertained. 00:58:50.400 --> 00:58:54.559 Well, yeah, that's why I tell everyone when they're like, oh, but really guys, like it's more than this hunting. 00:58:54.719 --> 00:58:56.960 You one, you have to be almost like a stand-up comedian. 00:58:57.119 --> 00:58:57.440 You do. 00:58:57.679 --> 00:59:06.320 You have to be a good storyteller, you have to be able to read your clients because some jokes and some stories are definitely not every blind, it's not the same, brother. 00:59:06.480 --> 00:59:10.079 You gotta you gotta fill it out because I'll I'll go as far as y'all do. 00:59:10.159 --> 00:59:12.000 So you I gotta know where the limits at. 00:59:12.079 --> 00:59:14.239 What are y'all gonna say first and what can I say? 00:59:14.880 --> 00:59:15.199 Yeah. 00:59:15.440 --> 00:59:17.679 Before I ever start giving me that the weird side of it. 00:59:18.320 --> 00:59:20.079 Because I'll get a whole blind rolling. 00:59:20.159 --> 00:59:22.159 I just gotta know how far I can take it. 00:59:22.559 --> 00:59:24.079 Especially you know, it comes from the military. 00:59:24.159 --> 00:59:25.440 We have dark humor sometimes. 00:59:25.679 --> 00:59:26.000 Yep. 00:59:27.280 --> 00:59:29.840 I have dark humor, it's little all right. 00:59:34.800 --> 00:59:45.440 I had a uh I had a buddy that I was that so up over there in Louisiana, you hunt with two guides to a group, and one of the guys, every time they'd ask him what he did for work, he'd give him something different. 00:59:45.599 --> 00:59:46.000 Yeah. 00:59:46.239 --> 00:59:52.480 One time he told this crew that he was a fluffer for the professional adult entertainment industry. 00:59:55.599 --> 00:59:59.760 And the funniest part of that story is they believed it, and he never told them any different. 00:59:59.840 --> 01:00:04.000 They went home believing that just awful. 01:00:04.239 --> 01:00:07.920 And they they had a kick and they had a field day with that. 01:00:09.440 --> 01:00:11.280 Hey, you want you want to try my duck call? 01:00:11.599 --> 01:00:12.079 Yeah. 01:00:13.039 --> 01:00:15.199 Anyways, hey, you want to blow this duck call? 01:00:18.880 --> 01:00:21.280 Nope, no, no, not at all. 01:00:21.440 --> 01:00:28.800 Uh so yeah, man, you definitely, when you're guiding, you will have those slow days, and you gotta figure out how to uh keep those guys entertained. 01:00:28.960 --> 01:00:35.519 And sometimes you're just gonna have those guys that are only worried about killing, and there's really nothing that you can do. 01:00:35.760 --> 01:00:41.840 But sometimes you'll you'll have some good guys that understand how it is, and it's not always gonna be just absolute jam-up days. 01:00:41.920 --> 01:00:54.800 And if you can, if you can make good friends with those guys and and you know,

like like we said, entertain them and and make good relationship with them, then it it they chalk it up because it is what it is, and it's gonna be a good time no matter what. 01:00:54.960 --> 01:01:00.079 Yeah, I and I tell some people that when in the arc, oh you know, we want to go up at an arc on my guilds. 01:01:00.239 --> 01:01:05.679 We're gonna go buy a hunt somewhere out there or you're gonna come, you know, come with book a hunt while I'm guiding. 01:01:06.159 --> 01:01:08.159 If you're coming out, say at least you three days. 01:01:08.320 --> 01:01:08.719 Yeah. 01:01:08.960 --> 01:01:13.280 Because you know, I'm gonna tell you, the first two days may not be jammed up. 01:01:13.519 --> 01:01:16.400 You might get one one good day out of those three days. 01:01:16.639 --> 01:01:16.800 Yeah. 01:01:17.119 --> 01:01:18.239 Oh uh book three days. 01:01:18.320 --> 01:01:20.320 If you're gonna come all that way, just book three days. 01:01:20.480 --> 01:01:21.360 Yep, 100%. 01:01:21.679 --> 01:01:21.920 Yeah. 01:01:22.000 --> 01:01:34.559 And it it it's we I will say I got the guy for a really good place down here in Louisiana, uh Spoonbill Avengers, probably around here for ducks is uh man. 01:01:34.719 --> 01:01:37.440 Um I'm using Garden on the Facebook I think. 01:01:37.599 --> 01:01:39.280 Yeah, he runs a really good shit. 01:01:39.599 --> 01:01:49.119 Like he has a he runs a really good guy, so it's real organized, real um real so that dude is superbly organized over there. 01:01:49.440 --> 01:01:54.559 Yeah, but even then, yeah, even then, you know, the duck hunting, you need to be slow sometimes. 01:01:55.119 --> 01:02:06.960 And um you have guys that come, you know, they'll come from like East Louisiana, northeast Louisiana, and like, oh but like the rice fields aren't as jammed up as you think they are by mid-December. 01:02:07.519 --> 01:02:12.000 Like, you know, everything again they get shot up pretty dang fast. 01:02:12.239 --> 01:02:12.639 Oh yeah. 01:02:13.119 --> 01:02:23.920 Especially down here when you have we have three um three refugees all within like an hour of each other that you that are um no shoot, you can't hunt at all. 01:02:24.320 --> 01:02:24.880 Oh shoot. 01:02:25.039 --> 01:02:25.280 Yeah. 01:02:25.679 --> 01:02:28.079 Yeah, Carrie Can and Perry, you can't shoot at all. 01:02:28.639 --> 01:02:30.880 Laugh ising you only shoot like 10% of it. 01:02:31.280 --> 01:02:32.960 Only 10% of it's not audible. 01:02:33.519 --> 01:02:39.039 The rest of it's just you know it's funny because every year you see guys get busted and they're like hunting in the pools. 01:02:39.199 --> 01:02:40.239 It's like, oh yeah. 01:02:41.920 --> 01:02:46.320 I tell them like you're the first dude that the warrants already know you're going out there. 01:02:46.559 --> 01:02:50.079 You think you're the first dude to sneak up there and try, you know, yeah. 01:02:50.719 --> 01:02:53.920 They're just they're waiting for somebody like you to come on out. 01:02:54.800 --> 01:02:55.360 Yeah, yeah. 01:02:55.519 --> 01:02:57.199 I don't care how sneaky you are. 01:02:57.360 --> 01:02:59.440 Yeah, you know, they're flying drones nowadays. 01:02:59.519 --> 01:03:02.239 Like it's 2026, you're getting oh yeah, yeah. 01:03:02.480 --> 01:03:04.159 Yeah, you are getting caught. 01:03:05.920 --> 01:03:06.559 Yeah. 01:03:06.800 --> 01:03:11.519 So before we get off, um, you know, and it was great having you on. 01:03:12.320 --> 01:03:18.800 We want to ask, you know, here uh we call it our the duck hunting EDC, like every day. 01:03:19.119 --> 01:03:25.119 And every day, all duck hunters, you're gonna you're gonna carry a shotgun, you're gonna have your your chokes, and then you're gonna have your lanyard. 01:03:25.360 --> 01:03:31.119 So what you know, I know you're talking about your 20 gauge, what's your go-to shotgun and uh choke combo? 01:03:31.360 --> 01:03:36.159 So I've got a uh 20 gauge uh Explore X400 Beretta. 01:03:36.559 --> 01:03:38.480 Uh just got it last year, actually. 01:03:38.639 --> 01:03:41.280 So last season was my first year hunting with it. 01:03:41.519 --> 01:03:48.079 Um I'm just running just a standard manufacturer choke out of it right now, but I do want to get uh an extended choke. 01:03:48.159 --> 01:03:50.719 I just probably gonna get that before this season. 01:03:50.880 --> 01:03:53.519 But right now, that's what I've been hunting with. 01:03:53.679 --> 01:03:56.400 So that's usually my everyday gun. 01:03:56.559 --> 01:04:05.039 Um, but uh at Straight Lake, there's a rule in the timber that you can only use a 28 gauge or smaller. 01:04:05.119 --> 01:04:08.159 So most guys are either using a 28 or a 410 in the timber. 01:04:08.239 --> 01:04:10.159 You can't use a 20 or bigger. 01:04:10.400 --> 01:04:19.599 Um, so usually if I'm not using that 20 gauge, then they've got club guns there, and I'm grabbing a uh X400 28 gauge beretta there. 01:04:19.920 --> 01:04:22.159 So most of the time I'm always shooting a beretta. 01:04:22.719 --> 01:04:23.039 Nice. 01:04:23.280 --> 01:04:24.480 And that's that's the same thing. 01:04:24.639 --> 01:04:26.159 Manufacture choke out of those. 01:04:26.239 --> 01:04:29.360 I I do beretta is probably my favorite gun. 01:04:29.519 --> 01:04:34.880 I used to uh use a Remington V3, and I love that gun forever. 01:04:35.039 --> 01:04:40.559 Um, but I don't really care for like a slim, uh, skinny shotgun. 01:04:40.639 --> 01:04:43.760 I kind of like something that that is a little bit bulkier. 01:04:43.840 --> 01:04:45.840 So Beretta has that feel. 01:04:45.920 --> 01:04:47.599 I just like the way that it should. 01:04:48.079 --> 01:04:50.639 Yeah, I like everything about a Beretta shotgun. 01:04:50.880 --> 01:04:51.119 Yeah. 01:04:51.199 --> 01:04:53.039 How is it hunting with a 28 gauge? 01:04:53.119 --> 01:04:55.280 I've hunted once with a 28 gauge. 01:04:55.760 --> 01:05:03.519 Um uh a buddy of my had it for um TLC's in the SB328-28.

01:05:03.840 --> 01:05:14.559 It's shooting with a a real small, you know, shotgun like that, it's a little bit harder, but also, I mean, when you're in the timber like that, they're finishing pretty dang close. 01:05:15.519 --> 01:05:16.960 So it it's fun, man. 01:05:17.199 --> 01:05:18.400 It's it's hard to explain. 01:05:18.480 --> 01:05:23.199 It makes it harder, but also having a little bit more of a challenge is what makes it a little bit more fun. 01:05:23.440 --> 01:05:31.840 Because shoot, when they're landing that close to you and you got a 12 gauge or even a 20 gauge, you you're possibly blowing those ducks apart. 01:05:32.239 --> 01:05:35.920 So yeah, when you're using that 20 gauge, it it makes it a lot more fun. 01:05:36.000 --> 01:05:39.599 It's it's you don't even you hardly have a kick at that point. 01:05:39.760 --> 01:05:39.920 Yeah. 01:05:40.159 --> 01:05:49.119 Uh but I mean, if you if you square up a duck with a twenty eight gauge at at a you know close enough distance, it's still gonna kill him just as good as any other shotgun is. 01:05:49.280 --> 01:05:49.760 Yeah. 01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:54.000 That's what I noticed when you said you know the the recoil, it was almost early. 01:05:54.079 --> 01:05:56.960 I'm like, oh, this is oh, you know, it's almost like a squid load. 01:05:57.440 --> 01:05:57.920 Yeah, yeah. 01:05:58.079 --> 01:05:59.440 It's like you're shooting a cap gun. 01:05:59.599 --> 01:05:59.760 Yeah. 01:06:00.880 --> 01:06:01.599 That's what I noticed. 01:06:01.679 --> 01:06:10.320 And even though y'all, especially for you know, usually those SV3s that usually have a little thumb toolbells inertia, and it was I was like, oh, it's nice. 01:06:10.480 --> 01:06:10.639 Yeah. 01:06:10.960 --> 01:06:21.039 So I'm still gonna shoot a 12 gauge, but then you're loading those little 28 gauge or 410 shells, and I don't know what it is, but I just feel like a badass every time I'm carrying those little shells with me. 01:06:21.840 --> 01:06:25.199 I'm about to shoot him in the face and five yards away. 01:06:27.440 --> 01:06:34.880 Now being a competitive caller and a guide, and then what's on your lanyard? 01:06:34.960 --> 01:06:40.000 I you know, do you switch do you have your go-to calls or is there a certain setup? 01:06:40.320 --> 01:06:49.679 I know you're guiding different different areas, so like do you have is your timber setup way different than your when you're hunting the rice? 01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:56.480 So I I keep the same the same calls on my lanyard for the most part, no matter where I'm at. 01:06:56.559 --> 01:07:04.960 So I'll either I'll have a on my lanyard, I'll have my dog whistle, of course, and then I'll have a seven-in-one whistle for pentail till and whatnot, widging. 01:07:05.599 --> 01:07:11.519 And then I carry a J-frame, which is usually going to be an Easton Lanyap, uh, on one side. 01:07:11.599 --> 01:07:14.400 And on my other side, I'll carry some kind of cut down. 01:07:14.719 --> 01:07:15.599 That usually changes. 01:07:15.679 --> 01:07:21.920 Sometimes it's been a Rolling Thunder, sometimes it's been a Seth Fields cut, but it'll be some kind of cutdown. 01:07:22.079 --> 01:07:31.679 Uh, and most of the time, 90% of the time, I'm just using that J-frame call, just because it sounds like a duck and I can hit some good licks on it, and it works just as well. 01:07:31.920 --> 01:07:42.719 Um, but every now and then I will keep that cut down just to hit like a real hard feed or just really, you know, holler at them if they're real far off, just to just to grab a little bit of attention. 01:07:42.880 --> 01:07:47.440 So that 10%, I'm I'm using that cut down just to get attention. 01:07:47.519 --> 01:07:53.519 And once I've got them, I'm most of the time going right back to the J-frame and and using that all the way to finish. 01:07:54.159 --> 01:07:54.480 Yeah. 01:07:54.639 --> 01:07:58.079 You you getting any speckle baits a lot there in uh Arkansas? 01:07:58.320 --> 01:08:03.599 So this past year was the first time that I've actually ever called in and shot specs. 01:08:03.840 --> 01:08:06.320 And man, it's pretty dang fun. 01:08:06.400 --> 01:08:08.559 Yeah, I got I got hooked pretty fast. 01:08:08.639 --> 01:08:16.159 We were I found a field up there in northeast Arkansas that had a bunch of ducks and a bunch of specs that were all sitting in the rice. 01:08:16.399 --> 01:08:23.520 And um, so we've only got probably two dozen spec decoys total, and only a dozen of those are floaters. 01:08:23.600 --> 01:08:28.000 So I only came out there with my duck decoys and about a dozen floaters. 01:08:28.239 --> 01:08:32.560 And I found out real quick that ducks are specific. 01:08:33.039 --> 01:08:41.840 You know, how they're gonna work and finish is specific to the decoys, but not as specific as specs seem to be. 01:08:42.640 --> 01:08:49.119 So I told the guys when we were setting up that morning, hey, you know, throw the specs directly behind the blind. 01:08:49.199 --> 01:08:54.319 I think I told them just behind the blind, but where I'd seen the specs all sitting at was in rice stubble right behind the blind. 01:08:54.399 --> 01:08:56.800 So that's where I wanted my spec decoys at. 01:08:57.039 --> 01:09:00.880 Well, they threw the specs probably a good 40 yards behind the blind. 01:09:01.039 --> 01:09:01.600 Oh, dang. 01:09:01.760 --> 01:09:13.039 And so when all these specs started coming over the tree line, they were coming perfectly to us, but then they would skirt off to the edge like they were going to go to the spec decoys back behind us. 01:09:13.199 --> 01:09:19.920 And after a few groups, I started noticing, okay, they're sliding just out of range and kind of going towards these decoys behind us. 01:09:20.079 --> 01:09:26.720 And sure enough, man, I picked those decoys up, I moved them directly to the front of the blind, and they came directly over the blind just like I needed. 01:09:26.880 --> 01:09:33.199 And we

ended up shooting our limit of mallard, uh, all Drake's and our limit of specs that day. 01:09:33.359 --> 01:09:33.920 Oh, nice. 01:09:34.159 --> 01:09:37.920 And it was just, it was, it was some of the best hunting I've ever seen that day, man. 01:09:38.000 --> 01:09:39.840 It was it was absolutely phenomenal. 01:09:40.079 --> 01:09:43.680 Yeah, you it's something about speculable nut in it. 01:09:43.760 --> 01:09:49.119 One and it's a day, they were the way they work is just so so awesome. 01:09:49.279 --> 01:09:52.960 And you know, when they start come, you know, they it looks like they're they're they're toading melons. 01:09:53.119 --> 01:09:53.279 Yeah. 01:09:53.520 --> 01:09:55.359 They're just all bold and bowed up. 01:09:55.680 --> 01:09:57.279 It's the, I'll tell you what it is. 01:09:57.439 --> 01:10:02.319 It's the, it's it's the drama of you're having a conversation with them. 01:10:02.399 --> 01:10:03.359 At least this is how it is for me. 01:10:03.439 --> 01:10:05.840 It's a drama of you're having a conversation with them. 01:10:06.079 --> 01:10:14.239 And so I'm making sure that I'm saying exactly what he wants to hear because if I start saying something he doesn't, I'm probably gonna lose him. 01:10:14.399 --> 01:10:16.239 He ain't coming, he ain't coming back. 01:10:16.399 --> 01:10:21.279 And so it's just having that little bit of drama of like, I better say exactly what he wants to hear. 01:10:21.520 --> 01:10:26.399 I'm just gonna talk to him all the way until he gets in here so I can shoot him in the face. 01:10:26.640 --> 01:10:31.920 Yeah, it's almost like turd cutting with you know with the vocalization conversation you guys have, you know, you have back and forth of the goose. 01:10:32.239 --> 01:10:32.479 Yeah. 01:10:32.640 --> 01:10:33.039 Yeah. 01:10:33.279 --> 01:10:39.439 And it's a little bit, because I mean, with duck hunting, yeah, you can hit them on the corners, you hit them here and there, and you know, if they're coming, then they'll come. 01:10:39.520 --> 01:10:43.359 But with specs, it's like you've got to have you've got to know what you're doing. 01:10:43.439 --> 01:10:45.920 You've got to hit them exactly when they want to be called at. 01:10:46.000 --> 01:10:46.960 And uh, I don't know. 01:10:47.039 --> 01:10:49.279 It it there's something about calling it specs. 01:10:49.439 --> 01:10:55.840 Like I said, I just got to do it for the first time this past year a few times, and it it's it's different and it's a lot of fun. 01:10:56.000 --> 01:10:56.640 Yeah. 01:10:57.199 --> 01:10:58.079 Yeah, brother. 01:10:58.319 --> 01:11:00.560 But man, I it's been awesome having you on. 01:11:00.720 --> 01:11:02.239 I really appreciate it. 01:11:02.479 --> 01:11:05.760 Um, for everyone, hey man, thank you for your service. 01:11:05.840 --> 01:11:08.880 This you know, definitely, you know, thank you for the time you did in the Navy. 01:11:08.960 --> 01:11:11.039 Um thank you for yours, man. 01:11:11.119 --> 01:11:12.720 This is yeah, I pre I appreciate it. 01:11:13.520 --> 01:11:16.960 But man, hopefully this year we can leak up and do a hunt. 01:11:17.359 --> 01:11:18.000 Absolutely. 01:11:18.239 --> 01:11:19.359 I'm buddy hunting. 01:11:19.439 --> 01:11:23.680 Uh after guiding all last year like that, I'm gonna get back to buddy hunting. 01:11:23.760 --> 01:11:25.279 So let's make that happen. 01:11:27.520 --> 01:11:29.199 I said, I have my lease down here. 01:11:29.279 --> 01:11:32.640 You're you're just your three hours and just head three hours south. 01:11:32.800 --> 01:11:33.520 Absolutely. 01:11:34.079 --> 01:11:35.279 You know where to find me. 01:11:35.520 --> 01:11:38.000 But for the viewers, hey, thank you for tuning in. 01:11:38.079 --> 01:11:54.880 Uh, like our buddy Chris always says, let the honor off failure.

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