Bear Grease - Ep. 87: Bear Grease [Render] - Olympic Shooter Kayle Browning and Other Big Wigs

Episode Date: January 4, 2023

On this episode of Bear Grease, Misty, Clay, and Brent are joined by some really special guests. Anne Marie Doramus is not only an AGFC Commissioner, but a life long duck hunter. Austin Booth, a former marine, is also an avid waterfowler and the director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. And Kayle Browning is an sport shooter who has competed at the Olympics and a professional shooting coach. This star studded render crew discusses their favorite duck stories, from the podcast and from their lives before Brent and Austin grace us with a few licks off their j-frame and cutdown duck calls. I really doubt you’re gonna wanna miss this one. Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights fieldware collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days and real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware Gear at firstlight.com. My name is Clay Newcomb, and this is a production of the Bear Grease podcast called The Bear Grease Render, where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes of the actual Bear Grease podcast. Presented by FHF Gear, American Made, Purpose Built, Hunting and Fishing Gear that's designed

to be as rugged as the places we explore. Only rules on this podcast or there are no rules? There's a few rules. You'll find them out as we go. Number one, do not interrupt Misty. Oh, yes. That's a good one. I like how you waited until she was done speaking to say that.

It was really nice, Austin. You know, in your last episode, you did talk about people who respect their wives. So, it makes sense. Oh, I'm glad you brought that up so quickly. Misty. Would you like me to speak to that? No. No, I'm not asking for you to give account of that.

I'm just kidding. Great. I feel misty of fire. I like headquarters. I've got my flannel. Do you get cold misty? Very. Yes, very much.

So that negative temperature last week was not good on your garden or you. It wasn't, but they built me a fire. This is not a joke. We have a woodburning stove, and I get so close to it that I have marks on my back. You're kidding. And I'm like, I'm good. I feel fine. The girls are like, could you step away?

This is a fire hazard. A Nomex nightgown. Mm-hmm. A Nomex nightgown. I don't get that joke. It's fireproof. No, there you go. No-mex.

Yeah. Excuse my friend. He's from Raydale. Yes. Yes. Okay. Here's what we're going to do. I want you to introduce the person to your left.

Right now? And Kaylee? I feel like I just got set up. One of these people doesn't even know the person to their left. but you're going to have to introduce them just with what you know about them. Okay. We have a very, very, very exciting group of people here today, everyone,

to follow up on our Duck Stories podcast. To my left is Brent Reeves. We're in a fine pair of roundhouse overalls. Look good today, Brent. Always. I was talking to a guy the other day, an old man from Clarendon, Arkansas. Yep.

And when I got off the phone, with him, he said, he said, Clay, you sound great. I hope you have a great holiday. And it was like old school, like, it made me feel so good. I was like, you sound, I sound great. He told me I sounded great. Brent, you sound great, buddy. Thank you, man. Who's, who's to your left? To my immediate left is Austin Booth. I don't know what number. What does he do? I don't know what number he is on your program, but he ought to be number one in your heart. Wow. Well, well, you. Well, you're, you think? Austin got to give us a little more functional introduction than that.

Austin happens to be the director of the Arkansas Game of Fish Commission. He is a, you don't say X, I know you say, former. Former Marine officer. That's right. He's running, he's paddling the boat over there at the Game of Fish. Yes, his are distinguished guest. Absolutely. Distinguished guests, the director of the Game of Fish.

He's got on a pair of newish daners. Yeah, how about we describe what everyone's wearing? A newish dinners, some. Danners. I got them a year ago. Some khaki. Wow, you keep them in good shape. You know what?

They were new on the first render that you came up here on. That's right. That's true. Those must be your church boots. I looked at my notes. They don't look like they've been beat around too much. Well, I just take really good care of them. Marine care.

That's right. You take care of your feet and they'll take care of you. There you go. A brown t-shirt with duck calls on it. It says call a paloza. I assume he got that. At Colpalooza. From the Collin Palooza event.

And wearing a vintage Ducks Unlimited cap. Great. Great to have you, Director Booth. Always good to be here, Clay. Yes. How about you introduce a person to your left? On my left is, I guess, far more distinguished than me. One of our commissioners on the Arkansas Game Fish Commission and Marie de Ramos, lifelong outdoorsman, avid waterfowler, avid bass angler.

Gadwall killer Gadwall killer Love the gadwall Yeah Love it Amateur Duck Hunter She is wearing A really striking

Set of footwear It's vintage camo Jelly Christmas crocs Currently in two-wheel drive mode Yes Yes And the vintage camo pattern

Of the crocs Are somewhat similar But not identical to The vintage camo flannel shirt She's wearing I like this. It's great to have you here.

Glad to be here, Clay and Misty. Thanks for having us. Yeah, we're so happy here. So you were on the render last year about this time. Yeah, about a year ago. I was after I introduced you to the great migratory bird that is a gadwall. That's right. That's right.

And I was greeted by your trusty squirrel dog, Tim the squirrel dog. He was down there with us last year. Yeah, who had a great time with. We hunted with Anne Marie and her bunch for a week, five days. Five days last year. It was my largest exposure to duck hunting, like continued exposure. And you got to meet my friend named Possum. Yes.

It's a big deal. Great guy. Misty, you missed out. I feel like I did. You were invited, FYI. Whoa. Did I know I was invited? Remember about wife appreciation, Clay?

Anne-Rie, we'll get back to that. Great to have you. Thank you for being here, Amory. You bet. Once you introduce this to another very distinguished guest to your left. Definitely, in my opinion, the most distinguished guest because she is an Olympian. And her name is Kaylee Browning. Went and competed on behalf of the United States of America in the Olympics and won a silver medal in trap shooting.

And besides being an excellent all-around duck hunter, I can say I've been out duck hunting with her. Well, it was more of a goose hunt that ended up turning into duck hunting. That's true. The geese weren't really cooperating that morning. But yeah, we have Kaylee here. And she is a shooting coach and my shooting coach. And she has helped me so, so much. Yes, I thought that I could handle a shotgun.

Then I went to see her and her dad. And I quickly realized, wow, I wish I had done this years ago. She helped me a ton. Man, that's a good intro. It's good. Thanks for me here, Kay. She's hopping me up. I'm happy to be here.

Thank you for having me. There's a thousand questions I want to ask you. but we'll do that after you introduce who's to your life. Wait, I get to describe what she's wearing, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Y'all, my bad. Clay, don't interrupt them.

Yeah. What are you thinking, man? That's real number one. Just sorry, guys. Jeez, all right. So old school Nike tennis shoes, which I love, camo vest with a green shirt.

Lick and fly. Yeah, I'm here for you. Speaking of fly, she's also a pilot. Really? Yes, very true. It's a shame you couldn't fly up here today. The weather's looking kind of iffy. Yeah, it didn't work.

out, but we will next time. Yes. Thank you, Amory. So to my left is Misty, which I think where's, you know, is the leader here from what I'm gathering.

Yes, that's right. That's right. In my short amount of time that I've met her probably 20 minutes now, I've gathered she is a chicken farmer, which we have in common. Way to go. She has a green thumb,

has a pretty mean garden, I hear, and can cook a mean Biscuit. All right. Yes. Yeah. Excellent. Homemade biscuits.

Great. She is wearing her chicken boots with a, with a striped shirt and a cozy flannel for today. Excellent. Very good intro. Great to have you here, Ms. Do I get to introduce you? No, I can't wait for that.

Oh, God. Nobody wants to hear. So, Kaylee, you're an Olympian. You're an Olympian. Tell us a, give us a, you could probably talk. for an hour. A quick version of like your career in shooting and just kind of, yeah, just tell us a little bit about your story. So I am daddy's little girl. He says that I'm the son he never had. So I grew up fishing and hunting with him and shooting shotguns. And he was a competitive shotgun shooter. So that's how I got

into it. When I was eight years old, I competed in my first competition in Sporting Claims, which is like a hunted simulated game and went to went to a shoot fell in love with it and from there when I was 15 years old actually 14 years old I found out that shooting was in the Olympics so I told my dad I was like oh my gosh shootings in Olympics like we have to try because I've just been obsessed with the Olympics since I was tiny and he was like all right well let's let's give it a go so made my first team at 15 traveled to Munich Germany it was just a whole culture shock I remember so you qualifying for the Olympics is a big deal, though. It is. Yeah. Yeah. So in between the Olympics, we have...

I mean, I hear, I don't know. Yeah, it's... Yeah, small thing. In between the Olympics, we have World Cups in the quad before. So that's the first team that I made was a World Cup team. So went to Munich, Germany, and I remember going to this restaurant, and I asked for sweet tea because that's what I grew up. It's a very unreasonable sweet to ask. I thought everybody drank sweet tea.

And the lady, there was, you know, the communication barrier there that wasn't translating well. And she brought back some sugar cubes and hot black tea. And she was like, here you go. And I was like, well, I guess can I have a cup of eyes? Like I can make this work? Yeah. So made that team when I was 15. And since then, I've set national records, world records.

I just became the most decorated woman for trap in U.S. history. Really? And then... Amazing. And then 2020 went to Tokyo, competed at the Olympics and won a silver medal. Sweet. Wow.

That's incredible. And so you're from... Tell us where you're from. I am from a small town called Worcester, Arkansas, which is like 45 minutes north of Litter Rock. Okay. Doing Arkansas proud. Yeah.

Way to go. That's incredible. Thanks. So now, I heard an interesting story about how your dad got into... well, competitive shooting. Will you tell me that story? Do you know what story I'm talking about? I'm not sure which one year.

The very first time he shot competitively. So I've heard a story of him, some guy invited him to go to a shoot and... Austin's story's better. Probably so. It's your Austin's version. I'm sure it was... Man.

Yeah, this is Wooster folklore. Okay. But the story that I was told was that Kaylee's dad was on a job out of state. And I think it was in Oklahoma, which was running down the highway somewhere and saw all these signs for the shooting event. And didn't know anything about it. Had a shotgun in his truck. He dropped in and said, hey, what's the shooting event did y'all have? And they said, oh, this is a trap competition we have this weekend.

It's a national qualifier. but it's also open to the public. So the story that I was told was that he paid the feed to compete just somebody off the street and that he ended up coming in second place, his first event ever. Yeah. Yeah. So he actually, a couple years before that, got invited to go to a sporting clay shoot and had no idea what it was.

And he said, I don't know what that is. So he kind of like blew it off and went to that shoot. I think it was in Oklahoma. He's a welder. He owns a fabrication shop, so they used to travel all the time and go to different job sites. Anyway, yeah.

So he's the best shot. I think Amory can attest to this too. Tommy B is pretty good. So the story was is that he just had his like hunting shotgun and went and competed and beat all these like pro shooters. Pretty much.

Yeah. And I think it was a trap shoot too. And, you know, older trap guys tend to have a stereotype about them. They kind of like turn their nose up to you if you're not somebody in there. And he was probably in camo crocs and like his shorts. Yeah, yeah.

Shooting an old 870 or something. The nicest man. You can shoot better than your dad, though. Since he's not here, I'm going to say yes. Second. Okay. I figured he could. I figured he could.

No, he, I cannot shoot him in my game just because I do it so much. But he can still humble me anytime he wants to. Okay. How does, how does trap shooting or what you do translate in the field shooting ducks? So what I shoot comparatively, it's called an international trap and just the short explanation of what that is.

It's an underground bunker that has 15 trap machines in it, and they can go anywhere from 45 degrees left to 45 degrees right and up to three meters high. So they're just a widespread of targets coming out. The tricky part about them is you don't know the direction it's going, and it's going about 75 miles an hour. So if you've got a bird, like let's say quell hunting, oh, no quill aren't quite going 75 miles an hour,

but you flush a covey of quell and they get up and they're going any directions. I mean, you've got to be on them pretty quick. So it translates really well into like pigeon shooting or upland hunting or anything like that. Yeah. So, Anne-Marie, how does she do in the duck blind? She's knocking them down.

Pretty dang good. Do you remember that double I hit? Oh, my gosh. Speaking of, I got my first double last, yeah, last Friday. Nice. Yeah, I don't want to ruin it because I know it going to get around telling stories. But just speaking of that, it was a perfect opportunity.

But yeah, she knocks them down. And on that note about the bunker trap that you do, I was out at her place and I said, hey, I want to see how this thing works. You know, maybe I'm feeling good enough. I've been hitting some clay targets. Maybe I'll get up there and shoot. She goes, all right, here we go. And I go, did you press the button?

She goes, yeah, two have come out. Yeah, she said, oh, is that the target? Like, yes, it is. So fast. Yeah, they're super fast. Oh, my goodness. It's insane. But yeah, she's a good shot.

So I will attest to that. Those ducks don't stand a chance. Are there any shooting competition that would simulate something coming towards you and down? Yeah, for sure. That's sporting clays. Coming toward you? Yeah. Sporting clays has no...

Like a duck is what I'm thinking. Yeah. It has no limitation of what the target can do and how it presents itself. So they can come at you, then go over your head. They can cross. They can roll on the ground. I mean, there's no limit at all to what they can do. Yeah.

Hmm. Austin, how many ducks have you missed this year? A lot. Have you really? Yeah. So I had some issues with my gun. Bint barrel? Not a bent barrel, but I had some work done on the forcing cone.

This is a really technical answer. On the shotgun and then put a third-party choke tube in there. And I was chasing. And I suspected there was something wrong with it, but was also being as self-critical. as one should and hesitant to instantly blame it on the weapon. But I had not been able to hit anything. And then I was chasing a cripple down, and it was that morning that it was three.

Three degrees. Yeah, it was way too cold to have a dog out there. So we were chasing down the cripple. And I was about 25 yards away from the duck very carefully put my weapon up. sensitive to the fact that I had been missing a lot, I pulled the trigger and the gun patterned about halfway between me and the duck. Oh, wow. So call the folks that worked on it.

They said, we'll send you a choke, send me brand new choke, and I'm back on the board. Really? So was the choke messed up from the factory? No, it just didn't interact well with aftermarket modifications to the force in tow. How does it? And it was a really tight choke. Be honest, is this a choke that I bought you when you were like,

hey, while you're at, you know, so-and-so, will you pick me up? You're smiling. It is the one. Yes, it is. Did you bend it? She did that all purpose. I don't know. I don't ask me.

Interesting. So, okay. I'm just quite a few. I wasn't trying to rub salt in the wound. I'm just going to leave. I'm just going to leave right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's just a weirdest thing because every gun's different.

And, you know, you can take 100 guns with 100 identical chokes, and you may get 50 different results out of it. Wow. So for the ones that you're missing, you have to tell your daughter is picking them up, Rayleigh. Yes. Yeah. She went on her first duck hunt this year? First duck, yeah. Killed her first duck.

Yeah, she did. Yeah. She did. Yeah. Hey, I learned something about squirrel hunting two days ago when we had a real good squirrel hunt is that the further they are away with a shotgun, the better chance you have hitting them. They're close. They're tough. We were knocking down some squirrels.

We were hunting in the Ozarks. And so there was one time when three of us were shooting at the same squirrel, timbering out across a ravine. And we'd ridden up on the mules and the dogs were treed right across the ravine directly from us. I didn't have a rangefinder, but I really believe it was 50 yards. And when the dogs are treed, we ride up, we're on a deep ravine. You couldn't just get over there real quick. Like it would probably be three or four minutes before we could have got over there. When we get there, the squirrel breaks.

And when they break and start timbering, they're heading for a hole. And so this is pretty much like the moment that we have. And there's three of us on mules. And we all three just like come off the saddle, boom, boom, boom. And we killed that squirrel at probably 50 yards. There's no way we would hit it if it had been like closer. Patterns spread out. So what I'm trying to say, Austin,

is that if you'd skybust these ducks and a little more, you'd probably have had a better chance of killing some. Well, you were using lead, though, weren't you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Truth comes out. Yeah. Hey, I think you need to talk about your squirrel hunt. I will at sometime. I've got really interesting people. Okay, okay. Squirrels.

Squirrels. You and I went squirrel hunting last year after we went duck hunting. That was an experience. That was a lot of fun. Yeah. Is squirrel hunting a thing that you had done before? You know, not, no, it isn't, especially with dogs.

Yeah. So I'm sitting here thinking, have I ever been on a legitimate squirrel hunt? No, no, I haven't. So that was the first time. It's a lot of fun, especially when it's good, when it's good hunting. And it was the other day. Yeah, we had a great hunt on public land in Arkansas, state-owned public land. Amazing.

Austin. Look, we have a conflict of interest here. I want more people to get out. on public planet Well, we did ride 12 miles. And I mean, part of squirrel hunt success is just

if you stay out there all day long, you're just going to kill stuff as opposed to going on a small little hunt. Hey, I mentioned a state-owned WMA in this episode. Were you happy about that? I was very happy.

Were you really? I was also not surprised. Hey, I had another story on there that they cut out because it was too, it told too many details. This is the render. So it's open. No, no, no.

Or where I was. People get upset with me about that kind of stuff. That's the reason I put that disclaimer in the podcast. All right. Well, you can bleep it out. And he got, uh, I saw a few on that. What's that? About where I was hunting, that story that I told.

I saw a few on that. Yeah. People got upset. You saw a few comments? Oh, wow. Yeah, and I tried to discourage. See, I was trying to keep Austin in mine by promoting the WMA,

but then I was like, don't come here. I was like, if you want to explore, go somewhere else. We confirmed we killed every squirrel. There are no more squirrels left. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So do you have any questions for Kaylee, Ms. Newcomb? Well, I'm just, do you plan on competing again? So I, yes, I do. I'm going to try for 2024 again. Okay. And is there a point in your sport where people age out of it? Good question.

That is a really good question. So shooting is as good as your eyes are. There's not really a, it's not a super athletic sport. So as long as you can see the target, you're pretty competitive. I compete against girls who are in their 50s for sure. So it's, the younger ones definitely. have a little advantage there, but there's not really a cap-out age, like gymnastics or something like that.

Okay. That's pretty cool. Yeah. What about hearing? Shooting as much as you do, even with ear protection, do you think your hearing is compromised anyway? I'm sure over the years, because I've shot for 21 years now, so just in almost every day. And if it's not competing, I'm hunting or whatever.

I'm sure it's taking a toll on that. But technology is so awesome now. digital earplugs that like cancel out the shod and just I mean so I wish I would have started on that because they'd probably be a lot better than what they are now but I it's it's as little as it can be yeah man hearing is a bummer for me I the other day we shot a lot squirrel hunting and I was wearing just like at first half of the day I was wearing just standard little squishy earplugs you know and man by the second half the day I was wearing full earmuff like, you know, which is a handful to keep up with when you're shooting quick and not knowing when you're shoot.

Yeah. But, man, I came home that night and I was, I couldn't really sleep. He's got, I was going to say when you asked her if her hearing was impacted, we should probably ask her spouse because I know for me, you have to, I have to sit at a certain spot in a room. So like if we're going to whisper, if we're going to a meeting and we know we're going to whisper. Yeah. Yeah, I have, I do have a, like, for real bad ear. Yeah. That's my dad, because, I mean, he grew up in the generation where you would just go out and hunt. There was no ear protection.

So I joke all the time, he'll say, what or hunt? And I'm like, get grief. I can't hear a thing. Yeah. I got a question. I got two questions. What's your favorite thing to hunt? My favorite thing to hunt is ducks.

All right. And I used to, it used to be just purely on killing the ducks. but now it's more of the environment and who I'm with and watching my dogs work. Oh, sure. That's the age that comes along with it. So let me ask you this. Would you rather shoot a perfect score on the trap range

or get a limited ducks, which would be your favorite? Man. That's a hard thing. That's a good question. Wow, they're bringing the heat today. Well, is the range at the Olympics? Yeah, put this in context. Is this like an important shift or is this just like every day?

I think the Olympics would probably trump everything. Yeah. But just in a regular competition. I'm going to go ducks. Yeah, I'm going to go ducks all day. I would have thought that. Yes. I'm going to go ducks.

Good. In Arkansas. In Arkansas. For sure. Right on. That hunting in Arkansas. Hey, so last year we did a big, we did I think a three-part bear-gree series on the GTR,

the green timber reservoir situation. Can you give us an update on that, Austin? Yeah. And fill in. people who wouldn't even know what that means or kind of just a short version of it. Yeah, so one of the many things that made Arkansas duck hunting what it is and nationally famous is our green tree reservoirs, which are household names around the state like Biomeda Wildlife Management Area, Hurricane Lake Wildlife Management Area.

We're beeping it out. Dave Donaldson, Black River Wildlife Engineering Area, Bayonneview. and they're natural low points. They're all rubber bottoms that just naturally retain water. And we have put artificial infrastructure up since the 1950s to hold that water there to not only provide lots and lots of waterfowl habitat, but also public duck hunting opportunity. So you can go in some of these GTRs.

I might be going to one tomorrow. and you can hunt public land in the timber. Well, we did not know near as much as we know now about what red oak dormancy looks like. And as it turns out, we were artificially flooding these red oak dominant GTRs for decades, and we were doing it too early. And so you take that,

combined with the fact that our infrastructure is all 60 to 70 years old, And the fact that we're just seeing larger and more frequent major rain events than we ever have, we have a really, really serious problem in those green shoe reservoirs with the forest health. So oaks are dying. Yes, oaks are falling over. And it's not something like a food plot where, all right, if we lose a food plot this year, we'll just replant it next year. Right.

I mean, these are 80-year-old red oaks that will take 80 years to get back. So last year, we took a big first step forward and being more proactive with how we manage water levels. I mean, we know exactly what to do on the natural resources side, but conservation always involves natural resources and people. And so we decided to be more proactive with how we're managing water levels on these green tree reservoirs. and we also kicked off some major renovations at Hurricane Lake Wildlife Management Area and BioDevue. Hurricane Lake, we finished the first phase on budget and ahead of schedule last year. So in calendar year 22, we were able to more, we were able to pass more water out of Hurricane Lake Wildlife Management area than we ever have. Drain and water.

Drain and water. So it's getting water off of the roots of these trees. Yeah, because what happens is we can get the water. off of them, but then once the spring rain hit, it often won't let up until June or July. And now it's summertime. These trees have come out of dormancy, and they got standing water on them. And that's what's the tree killer right there. So our goal, as we renovate these GTRs, is to drain water as quickly as possible.

And we completed the first phase at Hurricane and saw really good results from it this year. Really? So you got some water off. Yeah. We're underway with the second phase. Irubus by the view out-life engineer is going really well, too. So fingers crossed by the end of calendar year 23, we'll have two completed green tree reservoirs and one more major one launched.

And so where, and that might not seem like a problem for somebody who didn't understand the system of how this works. but people you might be like, well, sure, drain the water off the timber, no big deal. What that means is that it's taken away at times of the year duck hunting opportunity because you've got to have flooded timber to have ducks. And so that's where the conflict with people comes in because all of a sudden there's people that have hunted these places. And had predictable water access on November 15th every single year. Unnaturally so.

Induced by humans. and now we're saying, hey, we didn't realize that trees are... Yeah. What's the term you used when something... Sheet flow? Well, no. What I was thinking was like a long-term response to something. You used a great term last year.

Basically, you can start doing something to a tree today and you may not know its effect until 50 years from it. Oh, yeah. Essentially, they're lagging consequences. Yeah, yeah. Right. I mean, we're not going to see the consequence of what we did in 2022 until 2012. And that's why it makes it such a complicated and interesting human thing.

Because there's all these guys that hunted their whole life. They just thought this was normal. And then all of a sudden there's no water in their duck hole in opening day. And they get mad at, you know, the power to be. Yeah. Yeah. And so, and that's where education and us just saying, hey, this is what we've got to do to save this even for future generations. Let me ask a question as someone like that would be in that boat.

does it do anything for the I mean if the ducks Did you listen to the podcast? I did last year I did Does it do anything for the Is it harmful for the ducks Like to Because they're predictably coming in

No They just find another place They can drown in that timber I heard Well I'm just wondering like If what we're doing now The management does do they just Nobody left Do they just go somewhere else

So there is a piece of that That we know that just looking Arkansas wide We are already at a shortage of wintering waterfowl habitat. So are we making it, you know, are we compounding that by artificially holding water later and later? I think we are to a degree. Today.

Yes. But, you know, biometa is just one wildlife management area, and it's 33,000 acres. So we have to take kind of the longer term approach of if we lose that 33,000, acre resource. I mean, that's what we call anchor habitat that is going to have a dramatic effect on everybody else around it too. So it is very much not just from the perspective of the duck hunters or the red oaks or the ducks all the way around. It is a short-term sacrifice for a long-term reward. If biomeda's not good, it affects us. Yeah. Really. So in, you know, going back to this whole big picture thing, the state of Arkansas's 90% price.

privately owned. So I know in all this process, I've heard from a lot of private landowners saying, wow, we've been putting our boards in in October. You know, we're starting to see some dieback in our red oak trees too. So maybe this is something that we need to go back and reevaluate. And the message is starting to catch on and get a bigger picture. We can't just focus on just our wildlife management areas, but these other ones. But these private lands as well. Yeah. And one of the things that you said last year, Clay, in that podcast, series that I've talked a lot about since is if you go anywhere in the United States and you find a critter that is treasured, it will thrive. Because people do something for it. And from that perspective, I think if you look at the progress that the agencies had the past year, the public meetings we had, I think our Kansases deserve a whole lot of credit because we ran four public meetings on it. And we really haven't stopped talking about it the past 18 months or so. And the feedback from the public's been tremendous. Yeah.

And a lot of participation. A lot of participation. A lot of very interested people that don't like it, but they get it. Yeah. And I think Arkansasans deserve a whole lot of credit for understanding the short-term sacrifice that we're going to have to make to keep a waterfowl what it is. As a body of commissioners, too, I mean, hey, this is your first year as directors when we put this through. And then as a body of commissioners went, okay, one of our main revenue streams is license sales right now.

We're trying to get more people into the sport of hunting, but we have this. And, you know, we're not going to have water at sometimes, but then we are. But we have to look at the big picture and down the road. Yeah. And know that our end goal is to make these areas better for our future so that we can retain hunters, have quality waterfow hunts in the state of Arkansas. So it all goes to the future. Yeah. I read a, when I was in college, there was a, I remember in one of my classes, one of my government

classes, we talked about the role of government is really to think 50 years ahead, at least. And that's the part that it gets really tough because if you're doing, if government is doing its job, it's, it's thinking about not just the current and the things they're happening right now, but thinking 50 years ahead, like how will we have these animals for our grandkids and our great grandkids. but people have to sacrifice now for that to happen and they have to be willing to pay some costs right now for benefits that they'll never receive.

And yeah, this is societal challenge. It sounds like Arkansas. And that's the way that I ended all of our public meetings last year where do we want to tell our grandkids what Bi-Mita was like or do we want to hear them tell us what it was like? Yeah. Yeah, that's good. You could always listen to the Bearerese podcast

and hear Brent Reeves tell what it used to be like. Back in my day. No, that's good. That's a good update. That series for me educated me from like zero to, you know, understanding what was going on over there. Because it's, man, the problem with all this stuff is it's so, there's so many complexities from biological stuff to human stuff to social stuff to just communicate. stuff. A lot of the problems that

not just wildlife managers are facing, but very complex issues and we want something like easy and quick and yeah, it just doesn't work like that. True. On blood trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker.

I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag and there was a full of blood. Oh my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.

Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper, from cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest.

Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season two of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Amory, have you had a good waterfowl season so far? I have had a good waterfowl season. Yeah. It's been good.

Yeah. Killed a good deer too this year. Was really happy about that. Yeah. How big is a good deer? Well, it was a nine point. I didn't score it because you weren't there. Okay.

I think I scored pretty good. Joe, how big was it? Amory's husband's here. Yeah, studio audience. Oh, that's a good deer. Yeah, that's nice. It is. I was really pleased with it.

Now, I did attempt to do some bow hunting, have yet to harvest one with my bow, but working on that. But back to duck hunting, it's been great. Had some really great hunts where we, got our limits, had some really great hunts where we didn't get our limits, it's all about the fellowship. We talked about that last week, the people that you get to make these memories with.

Yeah. Has the migration in Arkansas been normal? I'm amazed at the duck count stuff. I got email from, or was on an email chained, I think, from one of the biologist, waterfail biologist. Man, you're a real duck hunter. Yeah. Oh, I'm big.

And it was, and it was, it was, talking about duck numbers in the state. Like is it been pretty normal this year? Good. Right now it's been, it's really good. Yeah. We're still below the cold. We're below the long-term average.

But I think we're up like double digits from 2018 levels. It amazes me that you can count ducks with any kind of any sense of like it being accurate. I still don't understand it. They got it down to an earth. Y'all should hire me and Brent to do that. I'm going to go on Thursday. You're going to fly with them? Yep.

So they, Misty, they fly. Let me tell you, I know. He's on the email chain. Yeah. That's right. I'm on the email chain. No, they basically fly grids over areas of like predictable duck habitat and they get an estimation of numbers, just like humans and airplanes, like guessing how many ducks there are.

And then they expound the area that they, flew and they go, okay, well, there's a hundred times more land than that with equivalent habitat in Arkansas. So they take what they actually saw and multiply it out and get an

estimation for how many ducks are here. That was pretty good. I'll report back. Austin's getting half. Is that kind of what they do? Yeah. Yeah. So is it weekly? No. We do one in December, one in January, and then I think one after the season.

in closes, isn't that right? That is right. Yeah, they do the postseason fallout, which postseason, having that habitat for the ducks, too, is incredibly important. When they're coming back. Well, when they're, you know, headed back. Maybe not coming back, but just they're about to go back. Yeah. So exactly. It's like a buck right after the rut.

Like, they got to rest up. They got to put some pounds on because they were flying, you know, with the jet stream coming down and they're flying into it going back up. Oh. That's a long way. That's why they need those icons, man. That's right. Man, I hunted in the Delta a couple of weeks ago for a week.

And I was keyed in on the big acorns. Yeah, the upper cups. Yeah, there were a lot of them. And then there was quite a few of the smaller red oaks. We like those. That's what we're like. I was gathering them up and trying to hand feed them to all the mallards in a place that we could. I'm kidding.

The ones in your yard? Those are chickens clay. Man, I did see some ducks, though. Oh, man, did I see some ducks. see some ducks. Good. I really did. It was pretty incredible.

Actually, I, two or three evenings of bow hunting, we were, we were real close to some water. And it was incredible, man. I mean, mallard ducks. We watched them all day. I mean, we saw, yeah, there were no deer down there, not a single deer. Before you went duck hunting, though, before you became a duck hunter last year? Last year.

Would you have thought on the email change? Yeah, before you got on the email change. Would you have thought anything of that? Really? Oh, yeah, there's some ducks over there, whatever. I just wouldn't have. Now, I would have been keyed in enough in the hunting space to value a duck. I mean, just been like, this is probably pretty cool.

But without a knowledge base, which I got last year, I really, no. The answer is no. I mean, the ducks were, yeah, making all kind of calls. I was thinking about calling. I was watching how they were, like, where they would be in the sky, and then where they would land and how they would land, and I was thinking about the wind. And basically, they didn't do anything.

Y'all told me they would. But, yeah, duck hunters. I'm not sure if they know much about ducks. But I'm just kidding. I was supposed to get a big laugh. No, we just shaking her head. I didn't execute the joke that well. I thought you were funny, Clay.

Have you duck hound a lot this year, Kaylee? Oh, yeah, yeah. And Aiden, we took him, you know, he's from California, took him on his first day. duck hunt and we went down to Bullsprig, which is like a really nice hunting club down in Stuttgart. And it's flooded timber and just like when you think of Arkansas duck hunting, it's like, that's the hunt. Okay.

And I was trying the whole time, I was like trying to explain or put into context to him what this hunt was like. Like you, you are starting off at the top. And then we're going to go back home and I'll humble you a little bit show you what real duck hunting's like. But no, we've been, we've been quite a few times. So I really enjoy working my dogs. I've got a dog that's pretty much got a college education. I have a black lab. I have a yellow lab.

And I have a little English cocker that's pretty fun to duck hunt. Really? A retriever. That's a cocker's manual. Yeah, he's all purpose. Now between the black and the yellow lab is the black one better? So she has more drive, I will say. But she tore her ACL two years ago.

So she's just, I am hesitant to take her on places I don't know just because she's got to jump off. guy climb. I don't know what the setting is for her, but the yellow lab, he's, like said, he's got a college education. He'll call the duck in, go get it, clean it, he's a good dog. He's a good dog. Are the black ones really better? I don't think so.

I don't know. That's like an old tail, really. From what I've heard, that's like what lab started as, and then, you know, the yellows came along and the yellows have been here for so long. Now they're equivalent to the blacks, and then the chocolates, just good luck with them because they're still So the chocolates are for real not good.

Yeah, and then you've got silvers, and they're just a whole other. I don't consider that a real lab. Sorry, I just don't. It's pretty. We're going that far, huh? Well, no, I mean, Black Lats is sipping his lips and acting like. Chocolate Labs. That's the three.

Hey, you got to be passionate and have an opinion about stuff. I like this. Like, chocolate labs out. I would say chocolates have another 50 years before they're considered on the black and yellow. I agree. You straight up as favorite dog. Like, what's your favorite dog? I want to hear about your favorite squirrel dog.

Oh, well. Careful. I think it's the other one. I like Tim. This is too treacherous of territory to be on. We won't go there then. Fice. No, I like a fice.

There's lots of dogs of tree of squirrel. There's a ton of different kind of dogs that are a tree of squirrel. I like the little fice just because they're little and fun. And they're very smart. Use their ears, eyes, and nose. I think everyone needs a fice in their life. That is like my life philosophy now. Britt, would you say if you said a black lab was the way to go?

I saw all of mine were always black labs. Yeah. I had one chocolate for a month. Month. Didn't work out? You got a new black lab. I did. How old is it?

Coupe is seven months. Seven months. When's he? Is he at the trainer now? She. She? So she, this is a long story. She's a great talk.

she might be at risk for an ACL tear. How can you tell? I can't tell, but the vets can. And so that's kind of what we're waiting to see. We might let her get a little bit older. Before you invest a lot in her? Yeah. Really?

Yeah, but she's a great dog. Now, y'all have an older dog. Barron. Barron. Yeah, Black Lab. I've always had black labs. Black ones. Yep.

You like the black ones. I do. How old is Bear? Baron? Barron is six, about to be seven. Okay. Is Barron named after a Barron airplane? Yes.

That's awesome. I got my pilot's license back in, I guess it was 2016, so I was like, I'm going to name a baron. Yeah. I've got three current anymore. Four pilots sitting here. Yeah, no kidding, man. I'm sitting here.

Are you a pilot? No. You say, well, dang. Yeah. We have a live studio audience today, too. We do. Yeah, Joe Dramis is here. Joe.

Hi. And then. And then Aiden with you. Yep. Aiden, what's your last name? Connor? Conley. Conley.

Aiden Conley? Yeah. Live studio audience. Pretty cool. Pretty special. I wish they would encourage us a little more. Could y'all give applause here and there? Exaggerated laughs.

Yeah, we should have a lot. We've not laughed at a couple of plays jokes. So if y'all could fill the gaps, I think that would help. Help me out, Joe. He's wearing all his bear grease gear. Yeah, he's got an acren shirt on. I like that. He gets it.

It's a vibe. Hey, is there a difference between boy and girl dogs? Because you guys. Boy, we got a long talk. Yeah, there's a lot of difference. We'll talk later. In terms of quality of hunters. Because Clay's best dog, best dog has been a girl.

You've got a girl. I've always had boy dogs. Okay. So there's no distinction in terms of... I think there is. A lot of guys like females better than males. Okay. Every big game hunter or squirrel dog man that I've ever met

didn't want a male dog. I mean, you know, in general. Females are females Because your squirrel dog The girl, in your opinion, would be better We could call it There's lots of different names We could call them other than girl dogs

I prefer female or Jip I'll just be honest Jip does not sound like an half-creation It does not sound like something I'd want to be caught It's just normal My experience, every male dog I've had It's just been so sweet And if it ain't broke, why fix it?

Okay So Yep Yep let's talk, let's talk some duck hunting, duck hunting stories. What was your, what was your, Austin, what was your favorite story that you heard on the podcast? So we'll now transition into duck hunting stories,

and then I want to hear you three, your favorite, your favorite duck story. But from the podcast, like, or did anything stand out to you? Did you hear something that was like, yeah, identified with that, or that was cool? Yeah, I would say two of the stories were done. noteworthy in my mind. The first was, is it your friend Scott from Jacksonville? Yeah, Scott Harness.

Yeah. So he mentioned having that super interested friend that wanted to try to duck hunt, and he was very pessimistic about their likelihood for a successful hunt. It always happened. And that's kind of the season of duck hunting that I'm in right now, where I care less about going to shoot four mouths. as I do getting out there with new people showing them what duck hunting's all about and one of the best hunts memory wise that I ever had was one of those where I had somebody that said they really wanted to go and they had been asking me for months about it and I said yes we're going to go and in the back of my mind I knew we weren't going to kill a thing and we did and the other story that I thought was just fantastic was Brent's talking about Buckingham Flats.

And, right. And I was talking to somebody the other day that had never duck hunted what it's like when a big group of Mallards comes in. And this is before the podcast came out. And you said it was like rolling out of carpet, Brent. Yeah. The analogy that I used was it's like you're standing at the bottom of a staircase and someone rolls out of carpet. Yeah. And it just keeps coming.

Yeah. And keeps coming. and keeps coming. And the ducks are just like wave after wave getting down. Yeah. Chill bumps on my arm right now just thinking about it. And I never think about that story that it doesn't happen. It's so weird.

It was. That's how you know you truly love it. Absolutely. It was not a life-changing event. I mean, it wasn't like seeing my children born or anything, but it was like the least favorite kid. It was like seeing the least favorite kid born. It was right up there.

So you've seen that a couple times. just had like 500 ducks 1,000 ducks 200 ducks I'd probably say between 315 and 500 it's just between

the sheer volume of ducks around you that you feel like you can't even turn your head and just the awe of it you almost want to put your gun down oh I've done it

and just like take it all in because you know that it's fleeting. Yeah. And it'll end. Mm-hmm. But you.

Cool. It makes you feel like the first time I saw and heard and looked at an elk bugling in a place where, and we didn't even kill us, it was a huge elk. But it's like, man, should I, I don't know if I'm worthy of being in the presence of watching this take place. It'll make you feel like that. Mm-hmm. It did me. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Amory, which. of those stories stood out to you. Do you like any of them? Well, ditto what Austin just said on both of those stories. But I'm going to tell you the one that I was just flabbergasted by. And really, I'm just sitting there counting my blessings thinking, wow, I've never had something that scary happened to me, knock on wood. But first off, the story about Jimbo. Yeah. For real. Out there. I mean, in him talking about covering up his face and he's afraid to take his hands down because he's afraid about what he's going to see.

I can't imagine being in that situation. And knowing Jimbo, when he said he just kept his cool, he said, hey, we're going to get in the boat, head back to the truck and, you know, go. I couldn't believe that he held it together to do that because I think I would have lost my mind. I think anyone I know would have lost their mind if so would have been shooting at them.

So that really stood out to me. And oh my gosh, the guy in the houseboat who fell off into. 20 foot of water. Jim Stinson. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I've been, you know, baptized in the duck water before.

Not like that. Oh, my goodness. I know him talking about those two boys that died. Right, right. That was just nuts. Oh, my goodness. So those stood out to me because that was just insane. Yeah, Jim's story, I thought he did a good job of telling the story.

Like just saying, like, just saying, like, I, I'm sitting there looking at him like, did you get shot in the face? Yeah, and I never do it. Yeah, and then he said he put his hands down and he wasn't shot. But, man, you know, not being exposed to a lot of duck hunting last year when I was hunting. Man, any, and it's the same way with squirrel hunting with four or five people. Man, when you got that many people with guns with moving targets, like gun safety is a big deal.

Really big deal. Big deal. Yeah. I take it seriously. Oh, you got to. And you got to make sure everybody around you does too. You know, like, so Bear and his buddies are starting to do some squirrel hunting and stuff on their own. And they even went duck hunting on their own the other day.

Good. And they, I told Bear and one of the other leaders of the crew, I said, hey, you guys have got to absolutely, like, cram it down these other guys' throats about gun safety. And I have a little spiel I do where I grab an empty shotgun. and give them every possible way that you could point that gun at your buddy and not realize you did. You know, like when you pull your gun down and drop it to your waist and then turn around and point at everyone in the hole, and then, you know, talking about shooting up, how when you're shooting up at a squirrel or something, you often come down with a gun off safety and loaded and then, you know, where's everybody else at? But anyway, yeah, I think about that all the time.

I think the one that creeps up on people is when a dog is out there working, you put your gun on the tree. You got to watch that. The ducks come in, everybody shoots, and then there's a cripple. And people start shooting at the cripple, and the duck dog takes off. It can get bad quick. Yeah. Yeah. We're all animal lovers here.

That's right. Come to our pups. That's probably some of my greatest memories on the duck story part. hunting with my dogs over the years. I know, Kaylee, you mentioned that. One that comes to mind, I had a dog. His name was Boomer, another black lab, and he had throat cancer.

And, you know, we knew we only had a little bit of time left with him. And Joe and I were dating at the time, and Joe was really attached to this dog too. I mean, we loved him to death. And we said, okay, we can't take him out in the morning. He doesn't have the energy, but we want to take him on one more hunt. And we go out there in the afternoon,

and warmed up a little bit. Nothing flying. Joe and I are just sitting there. I have a picture of Joe with his arm around him in the duck blind, and they're just sitting there looking at the sky, just having a good time. I'm sitting there thinking,

this is a memory, you know. He's not going to get his last duck, probably, but at least we got to go out here with him, but Joe ended up killing one mallard. And Boomer went out and got it and brought it back. And then he died. His last hunt. Last retreat.

It was pretty cool. Pretty special. Cool. Yeah. I probably should have had you tell your favorite story while you were telling which story you liked. Usually this is what we do, Kelly. I ask people what part of the podcast they like.

Did one of those stories stand out to you? I would say all of them that they mentioned, but the one that stood out to me most was Jimbo. And it relates back to anybody that comes to our shooting lodge or my shooting lodge. Gun safety is the first thing that we teach, I have a ton of people that come to get better at duck hunting. And I always tell them before they leave.

Gun knowledge is gun safety, right? So knowing where your gun is pointed at, knowing how that gun operates, knowing where your safety's at, knowing your environment that you're in, who's got the dog, is the dog working, you know. And it just brought back those, I've never been in that situation, but it brought back those teaching moments that I've had for people because you can never be too safe when you're hunting, especially with a bunch of people or especially with some,

somebody who's never been before. They don't know any better. They could just be sent here talking to you thinking everything's safe, but it's pointed right at Misty. Or, you know, it's just that really stood out to me. And it's one of the things that I stress every single shooting lesson that I do. Yeah. Yeah.

Hey, before we leave, y'all help me remember to, we need Kaylee to tell us about her lodge and what she's doing. But tell me your, we'll go back this direction. tell me your uh well Brent what was your favorite hold on kail Brent which one of those was your favorite one let me tell mine okay great thanks Brent my favorite one was I like the duck retrieve story that Jimbo told yeah yeah that was pretty cool yeah I just thought the way he told it too I like I just like here at Jim Ron Quest

talk which one said out to you Brent oh let's see I like the the P-Row story yeah because I have a P-Roe and really about the only difference in a piero and a submarine's the way you spell it. They're both going to wind up on the bottom before it's over with it. But they are handy when you can keep water out of them. Yeah, that was a good story. Troll the motor going around in circles. That's a gateer.

The direct drive thing. Yeah. And she're in a motor and a pin. Come on. That's a rookie mistake. You got to tote a pocket full of a little. Jim Cincinnati was 19 years old. I know, but you got to tote the pocketful of an age.

I bet he does now. No. I would. Yeah. Oh, I could talk. Jim was such a neat guy. Like, he didn't know. I don't think he's ever listened to a podcast before.

He wouldn't have known anything about this podcast. And we just showed up at his office and I just said, tell me your favorite duck story. And he just started talking. And he told me like three all in a row and I trimmed him up. But he was a neat. Well, if I could add one other thing, it was the stuff about Mr. Alvin. Yeah, yeah. I figured you're going to get into that.

Yeah, Mr. Alvin, Taylor. and I were very close friends. And I was talking to Amy on the way up here today, and I said, I'm coming, what I told her what we were doing. And I asked her, Amy's my oldest daughter. She's 34 now. And I ask her, no, 31. And I asked her about Mr. Alvin.

And she said, oh, I have such fond memories. She was probably six, five or six, of just sitting on a stool in there in his shop while me and Mr. Mr. Alvin worked on duck calls and she said she could smell the wood when he was turning the wood, the coca bowler and stuff. But he was a pretty cool cat. Yeah. A lot of funny stories.

Hey, pick up that duck call. Austin, would you have known the name Alvin Taylor? Yes. Yeah, so that's pretty. So talk to him about the, what you told me about the shape of that. Oh, the shape of. He's got an acrylic duck call, which I would have, yeah, it looks just like, He was plastic.

I remember going in there. This is the first call I ever got from him. And he was looking at it. He said, what is that call right there? He says, do you know how to hold a and blow a duck call? Like, yes, sir, I know how. And he said, well, if you were going to show somebody, what's the best way you could tell him how to hold this duck call,

wait, the way you put it up to your mouth and blow on it? And I said, I don't know. He said, well, look at it now. I said, oh, it looks like a Coke bottle. That's right. He said, that's the way. So when you take a sip out of a Coke bottle, that's the way you put air into the duct bowl. It looks like he made that. I mean, not all duck calls look quite as much like a Coke bottle as that.

No, but that's correct. That's where, that's what he was after when he made this design right here. Looks like a Coke bottle. It looks like the top of a Coke bottle. And that's the way you put, the way you would sip out of a Coke bottle is the way you put air into it. Yeah. That's cool. That's it. Yeah, so he's got three Alvin. They even got his name on him. They say Alvin Taylor, four. Yep. Mr. Alvin's sign. I've got, that's just a few that I brought up here, but I've got several of them. They're all really special. It's a pretty good pile of money laying right there. His calls are expensive.

I've seen them on eBay before. Yeah, six, seven, eight hundred bucks. Wow. Yeah. Pretty cool. Cool. Cool. Kaylee, favorite duck story, just of your stories?

So I have a nickname in our little duck hunting community. It's called Beaver. run. So we, just like Amory here, I'm familiar with the baptism of the end. There it is. And duck honey. So every year, I kind of have to, but this is just like an ongoing memory because it happens every year at least four or five times. So where we hunt is flooded cypress and it's behind our house and there are just beaver runs everywhere. And for the longest time, I was the duck dog. So my dad and all his buddies would kill them and they go and they say,

Kaylee, they'd decide to go out there and I'd go get the duck and bring it back. And every time I would find a beaver run and just there I went and it would just be up to my chest and I'd be soaking wet and freezing and it was just miserable. It went on for years. So I was like, I'm tired of this. I'm going to get a dog. So I got my first dog about four years ago, Max the Yellow Lab, and I thought finally, like I don't have to go out there in the beaver runs and fall under. So I get this dog, send him to college. He gets all educated.

He's supposed to be great, you know, this new best thing. Bring him on his first duck hunt, and I'm trying to set up his stand in the tree. And I swear if it's not a two-foot radius that I fall four times because I'm messing with the dog. And it just continues to happen. So it's an ongoing memory that is added to. So you got the dog, but you still fall in and be your runs. Yeah. So, and then I would say my best memory.

with duck hunting is my very first duck hunt I went on with my dad. My grandpa and him built this duck blind out behind our house, and I just begged and begged and begged to go with him for years. He's finally like, all right, you can hold a gun, you're old enough, let's go. And he had bought me for Christmas duck house shoes. They had a little, they were mallard house shoes. They had a little duck on them, and I was just obsessed with them. And I thought that's what I should wear in the duck blind.

Of course. It was freezing cold. It was probably 20 degrees outside, which is cold for a kid. And I have these mallard house shoes on, and I'm sitting in the duck blind. And it's just, I mean, ducks are everywhere, which is, it's hit or miss at home. And I just remember sitting with my dad. We had a heater. He had made coffee and homemade biscuits.

And I have my duck mallard shoes on. And just, I don't think I should kill the duck that year. But it was just going with my dad and my grandpa and the duck blind he got. and my mallard house, she is. Nice. Amazing. Nice, nice. Good.

Hey, Marie. Can I go again? All right. I know I jumped the gun on the dog earlier, but it seemed like the good segue. Oh, it was great. It was good. It was. Oh, so that was your story?

No, that was one of them. Okay, one of them. I came with multiple. I thought he was great. Yeah. So, similar to Kaylee, grew up going duck hunting with my dad and my brothers. And getting all dressed up, I can distinctively remember the smell of, of chapstick, hot chocolate, and honey buns.

I know that's a weird combination, but that and, you know, just getting zipped up in my coveralls, and I would sit on a dog stand and just watch and watch. And I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was like sitting back to watch, I don't know, the Razorbacks play in my mind as a little girl, was watching all these ducks come in and everyone get their limit and then going back to school on Monday,

saying, we got our limit this weekend. Like, it was a really big deal. So that's pretty special. another really fun memory There's some cool pictures of you when you were a little girl At your duck camp Yeah I remember the

Yeah yeah yeah Holding all the ducks There's some gadwoles in there It's real special Duck colors are good Misty at taking pictures And documenting For real

Like any duck can you go to It's gonna have Just a lot of real photographs On the wall They really do So that was pretty special Then when Joe and I first started Dating

back when we were in high school going out and we it was water sprows up that morning and we said okay we're going to go on an afternoon hunt so we go out and we don't think we're going to kill anything we end up with our limited ducks in like 15 minutes and we just started dating we were high-fiving i mean we're just did we just become best friends like hey hey this might work you don't do karate this girl this girl goes out of duck hunt so so that that was that was really special last spring clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls and building

each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that

gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts.

Check out Prime Cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did, and you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. Mr. Booth, duck story. so like a lot of duck hunters I started duck hunting for one reason

and it had nothing to do with ducks it was because my dad and I went not just so I could see ducks but so I could see my dad in his element and I probably duck hunted I don't know when I was six or so 30 years ago and you know I remember

the exact things we used to get at the gas station 20 ounce bottles of Coca-Cola, peanuts that we put down in the Coke bottles, Austin cheese and peanut butter crackers, and some honey buns. And so that, you know, that was just a ball for me to get to hang out with my dad that much

and be in pursuit of something together. Well, the week before last, my nine-year-old killed her first step. And she had, she had gone, a shot with Kaylee. She did. The day before. And she's nine.

And I tried to get her to use the 870 that I learned to shoot. And I think it's a little bit too heavy for her. We downgraded a little to the 410 I started shooting. We put her to 410 and she hit a bunch of clay targets. Yeah. And then we went out the next morning and flooded green timber. and I told her, I said, now, you've never seen Ducks work like this before.

I said, when the first group comes in, I don't want you to shoot. I just want you to drink it up. And you just watch them come in. That way, then the second group comes in, you'll have a frame of reference for what your shot looks like. And, you know, she's nine.

She's sitting on a dog stand, and she's doing so good. She's not whining. She's not cold. She's not fidgeting. She's quiet. She's just drinking it up. and that first group comes in.

And it's just, it's textbook. They read the script textbook. Now, was anybody else shooting? Or did you let them light? It was me and two other adults. We didn't let them land. But, you know, we shot them when we were supposed to. And it was perfect.

And as soon as the gun silence dies off or the gun noise dies off, she just squeals. That was amazing. And then the next group that came in had a little bit more light now, so it's easier for her to shoot. She put up a 28-gauge semi-automatic, and it was a green head that was the first one in the hole, and he's sitting there fluttering.

And she picked that gun up, pull the trigger, and he dropped. Oh, man. And there were three adults in the hole, and there was not a dry eye. Oh. Oh, I can get me now. So, you know, being 36 years in advance of what I enjoyed so much,

now sharing it with her just meant the world to me. Yeah. Cool, man. That's great. Misty duck hunters are sentimental, too. I like the role that I'm playing in today's podcast. I'm like the uneducated person over here who needs Clay to kind of fill in. I appreciate that.

But I am uneducated when it comes to duck hunting. I've never been before. My favorite duck story is that Amory has invited me to go with her. It's happening. I've never been before. We get this whole crew that's in here, studio audience and all. No, she's, Anne-Rie's invited me to go with her. Yes, I know.

And so I'm super excited about it. Mainly, I want to cook a duck. Like, I used Clay's suggestion last time, and it was no good. So I have done some research. And I told Bear, I said, hey, if you, our son Bear, I mean, kind of went out. He really, he enjoyed duck coming with Clay last year, and he and some buddies decided that they,

they thought they found a duck hole up here, which was a long shot. And anyway, but they went out, and I told them if you get a duck, I'm going to, I've got recipes and we'll have a big party tonight. So if I, if, yeah. And I also, the other thing I would like for Kaylee to show me how to shoot, do you think she can fix my, Oh, that would be correct.

Right eye dominance problem. Yes. You're going to shoot with both eyes open. Yeah. Yeah. You need to come see me. Yeah, I'll fix you up before you go on your deck hunt. Yeah, I'd like to.

Yeah, we need to do that. So, Missy, my daughter is right-handed but left-eye dominant. Is she? Okay. Oh, that's tough. Yeah, it is tough. It is tough. And I didn't know I was until Brent Reese told me this is your, this is a problem.

Clay told me to shoot. I think being left-eye dominant and being a right-hand shooter is kind of like having like, food allergies that aren't real. Oh, stop. Listen, this guy... That's an outrageous statement. I don't know how to do. This guy, when he gets a...

Clay doesn't have a lot of tolerance for weakness. I'll just tell you all that, okay? He's a fantastic... He's a fantastic, fantastic husband, excellent father. But, like, people come in and say that they're gluten-free or this or that. And Clay's like, probably not. That's not true. And it's like, well, he's got...

I know you're not. I did that to do. I'm going to rub some dirt on it. But I should see him when he gets a cold. I mean, it's like, it doesn't happen very often, but when it happens, he's out. I mean, completely five days and he's going. Yeah, once every 25 years I get a cold. I've got stories, y'all.

I've got stories about Clay. Okay, okay. I want to share. I was not allowed to even give an introduction today. Back to my original point, that cars are very sensitive. the mental people. And that comes back to, I thought Scott Harness,

he did a good job of describing something that from the outside when you become a duck hunter like I have become, it is an incredible amount of work very early in the morning, very cold, very wet,

very, like, for real, sometimes it's like, wow, this is a lot of work. And a lot of emails. A lot of emails. A lot of email change. You are invited back. And what Scott described to me, and he kind of said it on his story,

was that there's so much surface area for human interaction, but also interaction with boats, trucks, dogs, shotguns, ducks, and waterfowl. Like there's a lot simpler things that you could do in an outdoor space that would just be like, hey, let's, like, grab a shotgun and, like, walk through the woods and still hunt squirrels. I mean, just as an example, like, that's pretty simple. Duck hunting is not simple. But it's very, it's also rarely does someone go duck hunt by themselves.

Like, you definitely can and people do, but generally, I mean, I would say the vast majority of duck hunting is totally about the people that you're with. It really is. It's a social endeavor. It really is. And so it really is a unique culture, but it has a lot of surface area for stuff to go wrong. That's kind of what Scott was saying, was that there's a lot of surface area for stuff to go wrong,

for wild stuff to happen, and he was saying that duck hunters are story collectors. They're not really after ducks. Like if you're a deer hunter, you're really trying to kill a deer. And a lot of times the success really might be, whether you killed one or not. And you're alone most of the time too.

So it's a solo, it's pretty much a solo endeavor. But duck hunting. Yeah, I think you can hear that in all their stories. I always say there's like an inverse relationship between the amount of snacks that our kids get and their passion for hunting. And so Bear and Clay will go hunting, and it's like, you're going fast for three days.

And here's a can of sardines, like, you know, Clay, but then if he'll take one, of our girls. Are you saying because bears a passionate hunter? Yeah. There's an inverse yeah no snacks no quality snacks. There's another one that gets like you know it's like going to a candy shop every time they go hunting but I appreciate these stories I think it's like these are y'all's stories are especially for someone who hasn't grown up in that world in the duck hunting world your stories all of you had several honey bun mentions some biscuits homemade biscuits you know I think that there is something about the food and the the socialization aspect of it and

bringing your kids and having that multi-generational experience. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, you can hear it. And the whole duck camp, like that's something that, that I missed out on because Gary Newcomb was such a diehard bow hunter. Like he, we didn't, like, we didn't really want to have a big camp. I mean, just, he'd say it today. And that's what's cool about duck hunting. And it's also what's cool about me not really knowing much about duck hunting until I was

an adult that I think makes me value it. And the emails that come along with them. And those emails, man. Boy, I get those duck emails from Luke Nailer. You know, duck season is only 60 days. And deer season, you've got this bigger span to do it. That's true. From September.

It's more concentrated. Yeah. You get 60 days and guys hit it hard. And they do. It's amazing how people are so obsessed with it in the idea of duck camp. And you think about it, you're like, wow, it goes by so quick. Yeah. And you can't miss it.

day of it. You got to go because the day may be the day. That's right. It might be the day. You can't kill them from the couch. I think duck hunting too that outweighs them any other hunting is, or any other hunting is it kind of after season still carries on through the rest of the year because you have dogs that you're training and working and preparing for the next season. And it's just, I think it sets itself apart from deer hunting or. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So Kaylee, tell me about your business. And I asked her before the podcast, I said, is you're shooting how you make a living and what you do? So yeah, tell me what you do.

So my full-time job is athlete on Team USA. So with that, I opened up a shooting lodge called Cypress Creek Shooting Lodge. It's out in Greenbrier. And it's basically a place where it's a training facility. It's a place where you can come and learn how to. kill ducks. You can learn how to clay target shoot. You can try some squirrels, whatever. We don't discriminate.

I could probably put it on a clinic. Yeah, you probably could. Way on to do. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I have a training facility there that coach, I love to coach the younger generation and just get them involved. Because shooting is

one of those things that if you're not the best athlete, if you're not a football star, basketball star, whatever. you can pick up a gun and I can probably get you to be as good as you want to go with it. So have the shooting lodge there out in Greenbrier and we have every clay target discipline that you could shoot. There's a bunch of different disciplines. Sporting clay is Olympic trap, American trap, whatever. And so how would people, how would they get your services?

So they can go. Is it like a couple hour thing? Yeah, however long, Amory's been out a couple of times. Austin's been out, his family, Joe's been out, but you can go to cypresscrucruccheting.com, and there's a whole lot of information on that, or send us an email at booking at cypresscrucch shooting.com. Nice. I want to do a plug for people who may want to get into duck hunting, and that is go visit someone like Kaylee or a game and fish shooting range and shoot a gun first before you go out. And we have instructors at all of our game and fish facilities and obviously Cypress Creek. That's where

That's where I go. I love it. Oh, my gosh. Kaley, straightened me out of time. But go and learn the proper way to do it, just like Austin did with his daughter. And you enjoy the experience so much more because I remember the first time I ever shot a shotgun.

It was like, oh, here, you know, your brother's done this. You've seen it enough. Shoot it. And I shot it. And, you know, it just about knocked me down. And it kind of scared me. And I was afraid to shoot a shotgun for a while. Yeah.

So I wish that I'd done, you know, the proper outlets to do it. So it's incredibly important. It makes things more enjoyable. Yeah. know how to shoot. Yeah, man, I got, so I've got a lot of questions about shooting. I know, I'm super curious because, Anne-Marie, you're, I mean, you're a seasoned hunter. And, yeah, you're getting, you're improving as a result of going to Kaylee.

Yes. So she's able to help, like, and then Austin's daughter is a brand new. That's kind of fascinating to me that. So earlier, we were talking about eye dominance? Uh-huh. I shot. It's not real. I shot right-handed for, it did just get real.

I shot right-handed forever because that's what my dad and my brothers did. I thought, okay, they shoot right-handed. That's what I'm going to shoot. I was out at the range one day, shooting trap with somebody, and they go, I go, yeah, you know, kind of got to work on it a little bit. And he goes, well, you know, what eye dominance are you? I said, well, I don't really know. I think I'm right. I did the test left-eye dominant.

She started she being left-handed, made the biggest difference in the world. It's not interesting. It is. You're right? I am. I'm left-handed. Okay. But I do some things right-handed.

So this is back in, I don't know, 2015, so I'd gone a majority of my life just shooting right-handed and just kind of figuring it out adjusting to it and, you know, get some decent shots. And then in the past few years, I'm like, I feel like I could do some brushing up and improve even more. Yeah. I was a fine shot.

I could go out and have a good duck hunt, but I want to be better. So I went and... That's so interesting. My shell bill has been cut in half. It's great. Really? Yeah. Never thought of it as a financial.

move. It's an investment. It is. Shotgun shells are expensive. At the highest levels of competitive shooting, how much of it is natural talent and how much of it is years and decades of training? So at my level, it becomes how much work you're going to put into it. After you learn the fundamentals of the game, it all becomes mental. And it's who, for example, at the Olympics, I'd know.

never been on that stage. I was competing against a girl who is a three-time Olympic medalist. This is her fourth Olympics. She's seen that platform before. So she beat me. She beat me by one target. She got gold by one. But at that level, one target doesn't define, you know, in my book.

Well, she beats about one target. One target. Yeah, it doesn't define if she's a better shot or if I'm a better shot. It's the stage that you're on. So at that level, it's just who's going to outwork who on that. I bet you're going to beat her up. she's pretty mean she wears a do-rag and she's like where was she from she's she's from slow-hawk yes

oh okay so but she's the sweetest person she speaks like 17 languages she's just she's very cool girl yeah she's wow she's really cool so the much of the shooting is is but you've got to be naturally really talented though the biggest part in shooting is learning how to use your eyes And anybody can learn that. Whether you're right eye dominant, left eye dominant, right-handed, left-handed, that doesn't matter when it comes down to it. It's how you learn to use your eyes.

So if I were to take you out and a big flock of ducks come in and I say, hey, Clay, what did you see on those ducks? You'd be like, I don't know, I saw 30 or 40 ducks. I can see the green around its neck. I can pick out a detail on that duck. And that's what separates what I'm going to shoot versus what you're going to shoot. So it's just really learning how to use what. I remember a guy one time on some type of training instructional video saying that he was trying to count the wing flaps of crows.

Yeah. And I think about that a lot. I don't do it very often. But yeah, that's interesting. So it's all about. It's about detail. Like when Amory comes down, I make her pick out a detail on the clay target that we're shooting, whether that be the center dome or the ridges that's on the clay target or the black rim. Because if she's looking at a hole, she's looking at a whole picture, her side. is going to be a little bit different. Her aim's going to be a little bit different. If she might be a little left, and because she's seeing the whole picture, she's going to say, I feel like I was right on it.

But if you hone it on the detail, now we can say, okay. So what do you look at when you shoot a clay pigeon? I'm trying to see a detail where that's a light spot on it from the sun, where that's a shadow, just any kind of detail that I can pick out on it. Amos small, Miss small. Yeah. It's like a therapy lesson when you go out there talking with her and her dad and figuring it all out.

And once we did that and I realized, okay, I've been using my eyes wrong for this long, you start knocking them down. Yeah. And it's so much more fun. Yeah. So if I was going to toss my phone to you and say, hey, catch this. I throw it up. The first thing that you're going to look for is your eyes are going to look for it and your hands are going to know where to go. Shooting is the same, same concept.

It parallels with your hand-eye coordination there. Hmm. Interesting. You're ready, Misty. You think I'm ready? You're ready, girl. I don't want him around because he doesn't believe that I have a condition. We've been over this.

He doesn't believe in conditions. But when he gets a cold, it's on. I have a feeling you're shooting, learning that would, there's a guy, I don't know him well, but there's a guy that does some traditional archery bow hunting classes, and most of his stuff is about mental understanding of shot sequence. It's named Joel Turner. He seems like a good guy.

I don't know him. but he talks about like you're either he's talking about traditional archery where you don't have sights like would be with a gun yeah and he talks a lot about sequence and knowing what you're going to do before before you shoot yep and it kind of makes you when you hear him talk you go yeah I guess I'm just kind of guessing a lot yeah but I'll tell you what it works good for squirrels long ways away and you just keep shooting guessing guessing Okay. Great. Well, I've like throw up like multiple bad jokes that I was just, I was looking for a little more. Maybe it's the studio audience today. We're all a little more critical.

Yeah, they've been kind of quiet. I mean, I was, my whole thing about let the squirrels get far away and just kind of you have a little more room for guessing where to aim. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm, I'm impressed with the, with the. the knowledge that I have no doubt that you have and could impart to people with just a little

bit of training. Thank you. My grandfather was a, there's a picture of him. Where is it at? Where's the picture of Pat? It used to be right there. Where is that? Oh, right there.

Yeah, I grew up shooting Skeet with him, and he was, he's a bird dog man, and we shot ski for all the time with cotton in our ears. It's probably the reason I'm deaf. But he always talked about blacking them out and follow through. Like those are the main things he talked about was blacking them out and then follow through. Like if you're moving through a bird, just keep moving. But that's about as technical as we got. Yeah.

On Doug's, shoot where the corn goes in, not where the corn goes out. And as his attorney, I'd just like to clarify up with the record that he is not. As my attorney. He is not implying in any way that he duck hunts over corn. Correct. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. It was like, does that work? I saw it.

It's like I think that's illegal. I saw it on TV. Well, hey, thank you, Austin, director of the Game and Fish. Absolutely. For being here, really appreciate it. Absolutely. Anne Marie, thank you for coming.

You bet. Thanks for having me. I told Misty I wanted to take her back down there. Come on. It sounds like we're going to make something work like in the next week or so. You're going to come, Austin? Yes. I had a request.

Oh, okay. Since I've been listening to this podcast, I hear about this gentleman sitting next to me that used to guide on Biomito when you still could. I kind of want to hear the man do call. He guides still today. There's not there as much pressure. It's like hunting for season. I got it. I got it.

I see what you're doing there. Okay. This is Alvin Taylor. This is Alvin Taylor call. He made this for me in 1996. Well done. Well done. Let's hear your call, Austin.

Let's hear your call. What kind of calls you running? So I've got two separate kinds. I've got two cutdown calls. And then I've got, sorry, three cutdown calls and then two J frames. Okay. Those are just different kinds. What Brent blew was a J-frame.

So I'll try to blow one of these cut downs. And y'all can hear the difference. No, it will be. It will be louder. Yes. It'll be louder. Keep your bike up like that. It'll be louder and rasperier.

Okay. Yes. It's got a little more meat to it, doesn't it? Rasp volume. Excellent. Good job. Well, heck, if we're blowing duck calls. Yeah, Clay, where's your duck call?

Okay, I got this one from Jim Stinson the other day. Good, good. And he, I tell you what he did with me is he, he was trying to teach me how to just make one quack. And he wouldn't let me blow up more than once. And he said, he said, pretend like you're blowing out a candle. He said, pretend like you're blowing out a candle, but you're closing your lips, like going.

And that's, and he, so he said, and then he had me do that like 20 times. And he would go, he would, every single time I did it, he'd go, nope, nope, yep, yep, yep, nope. Yep. Yep. Nope. Man, pressure. Yeah, yeah. It was like intense. And then he said, okay, do it twice.

And I go, and he goes, nope, you miss it on the second one. But anyway, he just like marched me through it. That's cool. Which is pretty good. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah. I left my duck calls at home. Just quack.

That's all it takes, boys. Quack. Words of wisdom. That's what was in the email, right? Yeah, that's what they told me. Just takes one blow. Ruclato. Yep.

The email jokes are getting a lot of laughs. I am on there. I think I didn't expect to talk about today. I would like to bring up this gift that the Duranes has brought me from a stop they made on the way to Northwest Arkansas. This is a black rifle, just like a 12-ounce pack of coffee. And it has a full real black panther on the cover. And it's a lava panther black rifle coffee. coffee company.

It's a good blend. Hashtag believer. Do you know this blend? They are one of my sponsors. So actually, if anybody would like, Black Raffle Savings, you can use my name, Kaylee 15, for 15% off.

Oh, nice. Did they have a picture of you, like shooting something on one of them? I cannot confirm we're denied. Like a Black Panther? No, they don't. They don't. Oh, man.

They don't. That would be very cool. This is a big win for us. Lava Panther. I thought it was really special. Kaylee 15. You know, meat eaters big in with that. There's a meat eater blend of black rifle coffee.

Yeah, I've had it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's good. Yeah. They're such a good sponsor. They ship stuff to the lodge all the time. So all we drink is black rifle. That's all I carry in the lodge as well.

And they support veterans. They do. They do. I think it's, don't quote me on this, but I want to say over half their company is veterans that work there. Yeah. I think I've heard that too.

Great. Well, Amory, did you see my Black Panther up there? Oh, yeah. First thing I saw when I came in. Mm-hmm. Finally got a final. resting place for him. He was kind of bouncing around the office

but I got him up there. I don't know why he's not above the mantel in the house, but that's just me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Yep. Well, thank you guys so much. Thank you for evidence. Yeah. Yeah. Great stuff. And the next

series of Bear Grease is going to be incredible. That's all I can say. Some good stuff coming up. I think I'll go home now. What? He's quoting for us. Have you ever seen the TV? Not very often. This man does not like watching. Hey, happy New Year, everybody.

Happy New Year. Happy New Year. All right, great. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called Prime Cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen.

But when I run this call, I get the sounds. that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut.

I also hunt with Phelps' cut and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out prime cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did and you'll find out that the Steve Rinella cut is an easy-to-use

cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.