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

Published Jan 4, 2023, 10:00 AM

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.

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Yeah. My name is Clay Nukeleman. 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 f HF Gear, American made purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. The 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. I like how you waited till she was done speak. You know, in your last episode you did talk about people who respect their wives, so it makes sense you brought that up so quickly, Misty. Would you like me to speak to that, to give a count of that. I'm just kidding. I like, 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 wood burning 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. And the girls are like, could you step away? Nor make's night, gown's night. I don't get that there's fireproof. No, there you go, No, Max, excuse my friend. He's from Raydale. Okay, here's here's what we're gonna do. I want you to introduce the person to your left. One of these people doesn't even know the person to their left, but you're gonna have to introduce them just with what you know about him. So um, we have a very very exciting group of people here today, everyone to follow up on our Duck Stories podcast. To my left is Brent Reeves, wearing a fine pair of round house overalls, looking good today, Brent. I was talking to a guy the other day, an old man from Clarendon, Arkansas. And when I got off the phone with him, he said, he said, oh, you sound great. I hope you have a great holiday. And it was like old school like I was. 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 immediate left is Austin Booth. I don't know what numbers. I don't know what number he is on your program, but he ought to be number one in your heart. You gotta give us a little more functional introduction than Austin happens to be the director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. He is a you don't say X, I know you say for farmer marine officer. He's running. He's paddling the boat over there at the Game of Fishes. Are distinguished guests, distinguished guests Director of the Game of Fish. He's got on a pair of Newish How about we describe what everyone's wearing, Newish danners. Some I got him a year ago, some khaki you were new. They were new on the first rinder that you come up here on. I remember I supposed to be your church boots looked at. Don't look like they've been beat around too much. I just take a really good camel marine care try you take care of your feet and will take care of you. A brown T shirt with Duck calls on it. It says call call a Pelooza, assuming at call plus m from the Call A plus event and wearing a vintage duckson limen camp. Great. Great, have you director Booth? Always good to be here? Yes, how about your introduced person to your left on my left is it guests far more distinguished than me, one of our commissioners on the Arkansas Game Fish Commission, and Marie de Ramos, lilng outdoorsman, avid water fowler, avid bass angler, gad wall killer wall Wall. Yea love it amateur duck hunter. She is wearing a really striking uh set of footwear. It's vintage Camo Christmas crocks currently in two wheel drive mode. Yes, yes, and uh. The vintage Camo pattern of the crocs are somewhat similar but not identical to the Vantage Camo flannel shirt she's wearing. Very It's great to have you here. Glad to be here, Clay and Misty, thanks for having us. 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 cad wall. 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. So we hunted with and Marie and her bunch for a week, five days, five days last year. It was it was my largest exposure to duck hunting like continued exposure and you've got to meet my friend named Possum. Yes, it's a big deal. Mistery, you missed out. I feel like I did. You were invited f y, I WHOA did I? What did I know? I was remember about wife appreciation, Clay, and great to have you. Thank you for being introduced us to another very distinguished guest to your left. Definitely, uh, in my opinion, the most distinguished guests. Because she is an Olympian and her name is Kayleie Browning went in 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 shot, she's an excellent all around duck hunter. I could say I've been out duck hunting with her, and well it was more of a goose hunt that ended up turning into duck hunt. Uh. The geese weren't really cooperating that morning. But yeah, we have Kayleie 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 that's a good intro. She's half in me up. I'm happy to be here. Thank you for having me. There's a thousand questions I want to ask you. We'll do that after you introduce Who's to your left? I get to scrap what she's wearing? Right? Yeah, yeah, don't interrupt them? Yeah what are you thinking? One? Jeez? All right? So old school Nike tennis shoes which I love, Camo vest with a green shirt, lick and fly. Yeah, I'm speaking of fly. She's also a pilot, really, yes, very true. So Shamy couldn't fly up here today the weather sicking kind of iffy. Yeah, it didn't work out, but we will next time. Yes, thank you, Amory. So to my left is Misty Um, which I think where's you know? Is the leader here? From what I'm gathering in my short amount of time that i've I've met her, probably twenty minutes now, I've gathered she is a chicken former, which we have in common. A she has a green thumb, has a pretty mean garden. I hear um and you can cook a mean biscuit, all right. Yeah. Um. She is wearing her chicken boots with a with a striped shirt and a cozy flannel for today. Excellent, very good intro. Do I introduce you there, you're you're an Olympian, tell us, give us a give us a there's 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. UM. 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. Um. When I was eight years old, I competed in my first competition in sporting clays, 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 fifteen years old, actually fourteen 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, UM, and he was like, all right, well let's let's give it a go. So maybe my first team UM at fifteen traveled to Munich, Germany. It was just a whole culture shock. I remember, you qualify. I mean, qualifying for the Olympics is a big deal though it is. Yeah, yeah, So in between the Olympics we have I don't know, yeah, it's it's it's yeah, small thing. UM. In between the Olympics we have World Cups. UM in the in the quad before. So that's the first team that I made was a World Cup team. So I went to Munich, Germany, and I remember going to this restaurant and I asked for sweet tea because that's what I grew up. I thought every to drink sweet tea. And the lady there's you know, the communication barrier there that wasn't translating well, and she she brought back some sugarcubes and hot black tea and she was like here you go. And I was like, well, I guess, and you can have a cup of eyes like yeah. So made that team when I was fifteen, UM, and since then I've set national records, world records. UM. I just became the most decorated woman for trap in u S history and then and then went to Tokyo competed at Olympics and won silver metal. So sweet, Wow, that's incredible. And so you're from. Tell us where you're from. I am from a small town UM called Wooster, Arkansas, which is like forty five minutes north of lit Rock. Do in Arkansas? Where to go? So? Now I heard an interesting story about how your dad got into well competive competitive shooting. Will you tell me that story? Do you know what story? I'm talking about? The very very first, 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 stories better. I'm sure it was. Yeah, this is um Wooster folklore, Okay. But the story that I was told was that Kaylee's dad was on a job out of state and uh, I think it was in Oklahoma and was just running down the highway somewhere and saw all these signs for the shooting event and I didn't know anything about it, had a shotgun in his truck. He dropped in said, hey, what's the shooting event that you all have? And they said, Oh, this is uh, um a trap competition we have this weekend. Uh it's a national qualifier, but it's also open to the public. So uh. The story that I was told was that he paid the fee to compete, just somebody off the street, and that he ended up coming in second place his first event ever. Yeah yeah, so he well yeah, so he actually a couple of years before that, got invited to go to a sporting clay shoot and was had no idea what it was, and he's, I don't know what that is. So he kind of like blew it off in and went to that shoot. Um. I think it was in Oklahoma. They weren't. He's he's a welder. He ends a fabrication shop. So they used to travel all the time and go to different job sites. And yeah, so he's he's the best shot. I think Amory can attest to this too, Tommy. So the story was is that he just had his like hunting shotgun and went and competed in all these like pro shooters pretty much yeah and all. And I think it was a trap shoot too. And you know, older trap guys tend to have a stereotype about him. They kind of like turned their nose up to you if you're not somebody in there, and he was probably in Camo cross sucks in shooting old eight seventy years something. The nicest man. You can shoot better than your dad. Though, since he's not here, I'm gonna say yes. Second, Okay, I figured he could. I figured you could. Now he I cannot shoot him in in my game just because I do it so much, But he can still humble me anytime he wants to. Okay, how does um, how does trap shooting or what you do translate in the field shooting ducks? So what I shoot comparatively? Um, it's called the International Trap And just the short explanation of what that is. It's an underground bunker that has fifteen trap machines in it, and they are coming. They can go anywhere from forty five degrees left to forty five degrees right and up to three meters high, so they're just a widespread of targets coming out. Um. The tricky part about him is you don't know the direction that's going, and it's going about seventy five. So if you've got a bird like let's say, quell hunting alone, no quell quiet going say about my is 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 Amory, how does she do in the Doug Blond pretty? Oh my gosh, speaking of I got my first double last yeah, last Friday. Yeah, I don't want to ruin it because I know we're going to get around telling stories, but just speaking at that, it was a perfect opportunity. But yeah, she knocks him down. And on that note about the bunker trap that you do. Uh. 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, to have come out. She said, Oh, is that the target is so fast? Yeah, they're they're super fast. Oh my goodness, it's insane. But yeah, she's she's a good shot. So I will attest to that the stuff still stand a chance. Are there any Is there any shooting competition that would simulate something coming towards you and down? Yeah, for sure. That's sporting plays coming towards you. Yeah. Yeah, sporting plays has 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, they can I mean, there's no limit at all. It's what they can do. Mm hmm. Austin, how many ducks have you missed this year? A lot? Have you? Really? Yeah? So I had some issues with my gun. Um bent barrel, not a bent barrel, but um I had I had some work done on the forcing cone, uh, on the really technical answer on the shotgun, and then put a third party choke tube in there. And I was chasing, and I suspect that 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. Uh. But I had not been hit anything. And then I was chasing a cripple down and it was it was that one of the it was three three degrees yeah. It was too way too cold to have a dog out there. So we were chasing down the cripple and I was about twenty five yards away from from the duck. Very carefully put my weapon up. Uh, sensitive to the fact that I've been missing a lot. I pulled the trigger and the gun patterned about halfway between me and the duck. Um. So call the folks that worked on it. They said, we'll send you a choke. SENDMI brand new choke, and I'm back on the board. Really, so it was the joke messed up from the factory. No, it just didn't interact well with aftermarket modifications to the forcing kind and it was a really tight choke. Be honest, is this the choke that I bought you when you were like, Hey, while you're at SO and so, you pick me up. You're smiling. It is the one. Yes, it is. Did you bend it? I don't know, don't ask me. Interesting So I wasn't trying to brib salt in the wound. I'm just going to leave right now. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Well it's just the weirdest thing because every gun is different, and you know, you can take a hundred guns with a hundred identical chokes and you may get fifty different results out of it. Wow. So for the ones that you're missing, you have to tell your daughter is picking them up. Yes, yeah, she went on her first stuckcutt killed her first stuck. 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 haven't hitting them. And they're close and they're tough. We were, we were knocking down some squirrels we were hunting in those arcs. And so there was one time when three of us were shooting at the same squirrel timbering out across a ravine and we'd we'd ridden up on the mules and the dogs were treated right across the ravine directly from us. I didn't I didn't have a range rider, but I really believe it was fifty yards. And when the dogs are treated, we ride up, we're on deep ravine. You couldn't just get over there real quick like. It would probably been three or four minutes before we could have got over there. When you 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 probably fifty yards. There's no way we would have hit it if it had been like closer spread out. So what I'm trying to say, awesome, is that if you'd sky bust these ducks or you probably had a better chance of killing something. Well you're using lead though, weren't you. Yeah, yeah, truth comes out. Yeah, yeah, Hey, I think you need to talk about your squirrel hunt. I will at sometimes I've got really interesting people. Okay, okay, squirrels. You and I went squirrel hunting last year after we went duck hunting. That was that was an experience. That was a lot of fun. It's squirrel hunting a thing that you had done before, you know, not, No, it isn't, especially with dogs. So I'm sitting here thinking I've ever been on a legitimate squirrel hunt. No, no, I haven't. So that was the first time. It's it's a lot of fun. It's good when it's when it's good hunting and it was the other day we had a we had a great hunt on public land in Arkansas, state owned public land. Um amazing, Austin, Look, we have a conflict. I want more people to get out twelve miles and I mean part of squirrel On success is just it's just, uh, if you if you stay out there all day long, you're just gonna kill stuff as opposed to on a small little hunt. Hey, I mentioned a state owned w A in this episode. Were you happy about that? I was very happy, Were you really? I was also nic surprised. Hey, I had another story you'll know that they cut out because it was too it told too many details where people get uh, people get upset with me about that kind of stuff. That's the reason I'll put that disclaimer in the podcast. All right, well you can bleep it out. And I saw a few on that what's that about? Where I was hunting that story that I told, I saw a few, Yeah, people got upset. He saw a few coming. Yeah, And I tried to discourage See, I was trying to keep Austin in mind by promoting the w A. But then I was like, don't come here. Do you want to explore go somewhere else. We confirmed we killed every squirrel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um. So do you have any questions for Kayleie ms Nucombe? Well, I'm just do you plan on competing again? So I yes, I do. I'm going to try for again. Okay. And is there a point in your sport where people age out of it? 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. Um. So as long as you can see the target, you're you're pretty competitive. I compete against girls who are in their fifties for sure, So it's the younger ones definitely have a little advantage there, but there's not really a cap out age like geno pastics or something like that. Okay, that's pretty cool. What about hearing? Shooting as much as you do, even with your protection, do you think you're hearing is compromised anyway? I'm sure over the years, because I've shot for twenty one 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 we there's technology is so awesome now I have digital ear plugs that like cancel out the shot and just I mean, 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 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 the first half of the day, I was wearing just standard a little squishy ear plugs, you know. And man, by the second half the day, I was wearing full ear muffs like you know, which is a handful to keep up with when you're shooting quick and not knowing where your shoot. But man, I came home that night and I was I couldn't hardly sleep. He's got I was gonna 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 gonna whisper, if we're going to a meeting and we know we're gonna whisper, Yeah, I do have a like a for real bad here. That's that's my dad, because I mean he grew up in the 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, a great, I can't hear a thing. Yeah, I got a question? What what? I got two questions? What's your favorite thing to hunt? My favorite thing to hunt is ducks? And I used to it used to be just purely on on killing the ducks, but now it's more of the environment and who I'm with and watching my dog's Wait. Sure, that's 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? That's hard they're bringing the today is the range at the Olympics? This in context? Is this like an important every day I think that I think the Olympics would probably trump everything. But just in a regular competition, I'm gonna go ducks. Yeah, I'm gonna go ducks. Yes, ducks good in Arkansas. In Arkansas for sure, that hunting in Arkansas. Hey. As So last year we did a big we did a I think a three part Burgary series on the g t R the Green Timber Reservoir situation. Can you give us an update on that, Austin and 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 um household names around the state like by me to Wildlife Management Area, Hurricane Lake Wildlife Managion Area, Dave Donaldson, Black River Wildlife Manasaion Area, by a to view um. And they're they're natural low points, they're they're all river bottoms. Um that there's naturally retain water, and we have put artificial infrastructure up since the nineteen fifties to hold that water there to not only provide um lots and lots of waterfowl habitat, but also public duck hunting opportunity. So you so you can go in some of these g trs. I might be going to one tomorrow, uh, and you can hunt public land in the timber well. UM. We did not know near as much as we know now about what red oak dormancy looks like. Uh, and as it turns out we were artificially flooding uh these red oak dominant uh G t rs for decades and we were doing it too early. UM. And so you take that combined with the fact that our infrastructure is all sixty to seventy years old, and the fact that we're just seeing larger and more frequent major rain events, and we ever have we have a a really really serious problem in those green Shoe reservoirs with the forest health. I mean 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 replay it next year, right, I mean these are these are eighty year old red oaks that will take eight eighty years to get back. So last year, UH, we took a big, a big first step forward UH 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, uh 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 Biodebut UM Hurricane Lake, we finished the first phase on budget and ahead of schedule last year. So in calendar year twenty two, we we were able to more We were able to pass more water out of Hurricane Lake Wildlife Management Area than we ever have and 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 rains hit, it often won't let up until Junior July. And now it's summertime. These trees have come out of dormancy and they got standing water on them. Uh. And that's what's the tree killer right there. So so our goal as we renovate these g trs is to drain water as quickly as possible. Uh. And we we we completed the first phase at Hurricane and saw a really good results from it this year. So you got some water off. Yeah, We're we're underway with the second phase. UM Earl bus By Deview Wildlife Engineer is going really well too. So Fingers Crossed by the end of of calendar year twenty three will have two completed green tree reservoirs and UH one more major one launched and so where And that might not seem like a problem for somebody she 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 gotta have flooded timber ducks. And so that's where the conflict people comes in, because all of a sudden, there's people that have hunted these places and had predictable water access on November fift every single year, unnaturally so induced by humans. And now we're saying, hey, we didn't realize that trees are what's what's the term you used when when something flew Well, you know what I was thinking was a like a like a long term response to something. Um, you use a great term last year. Um. Basically, you can start doing something to a tree today and you may not know it's effect until fifty years from Oh yeah. That essentially they're lagging consequences. Yeah right, I mean we're not going to see the consequence of what we did in two thousand until two. 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 and opening day and they get mad at you know, the powers. Yeah and so and that's but that's my education and us just saying, hey, this is what we gotta do to save this, even for future generation. He asked a question as someone like that would be in that boat. Does it do anything for the I mean, if I did last year I did? Um? Does it do anything for the Is it harmful for the ducks like to because they're predictably coming in? No. Well, I'm just wondering like if what we're doing now the management does do they just love? Do they just go somewhere else? Um? So there is a piece of that that that we know that just looking Arkansas wide, we are already at a shortage of winning waterfowl habitat um. So are we making it? You know? Are we compounding that um by artificially holding water later and later? I think we are to a degree today, yes, But you know, um, by me, there's just one wildlife managine area and it's thirty three thousand acres, So we have to take kind of the longer term approach of if we lose that thirty three 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 it's 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 BioMed is not good, it it affects us really. So in uh, you know, going back to this whole big picture thing, the state of Arkansas 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 October. You know, we're starting to see some die back 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. Uh, but these private lands as well. Yeah, And one of the things that you said last year Clay in that podcast series that 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 and because people, because people do something for it. And from that perspective, I think if you look at the progress that the agency has had the past year, the public meetings we had, I think our Kansas deserve a whole lot of credit because, uh, we ran four public meetings on it um and we really haven't stopped talking about at the past eighteen months or so, and the feedback from the public's been tremendous um and a lot of participations, a lot of participation, a lot of very interested people that don't like it, but they get it. And I think our Kansas deserve a whole uh a whole lot of credit for for understanding the short term sacrifice that we're gonna have to make to keep water foul. What it is as a body of commissioner is 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 as license sales right now we're trying to get more people into the sport of hunting, but we have this and you know, we we're not gonna have water at sometimes, but then we are. But we have to look at the big picture and down the road and know that our ang goal is to make these areas better for our future so that we can retain hunters, have quality waterfol hunts in the state of Arkansas. So it all goes to the future. I read 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 fifty years ahead at least. And that's the part that it gets really tough, because if you're doing if government is doing this job, it's it's thinking about not just the current and the things they're having right now, but thinking fifty years ahead, like how will will we have these animals for our grandkids and are 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 they'll never receive, And yeah, this is this is societal challenge. But 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 by me to was like? Or do we want to hear them tell us what it was like? Yeah, yeah, that's good. Could always listen to the Burgarase podcast here Brent Reeves tell what it used to be like. Ba uh no, that's good. That's a good up. That that was a that 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 two just communication stuff, like they all a lot of the problems that not just water, not just wildlife managers are facing, but very complex issues and we want something like easy and quick and yeah, I just doesn't work like that, Amory. Have you had a good waterfowl season so far? I have had a good waterfowl season. It's been good. Yeah. I killed killed a good deer too this year. Was really happy about that. Yeah, how big is a good deer? Uh? Well it was a nine point I didn't score because you weren't there. But scored pretty good. Amory's husband's here studio audience. That's a good deer, it is, I was. 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 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 that. Has the migration in Arkansas been normal or you know, I'm amazed at the duck counts stuff? I got email from It was on an email chain, I think from one of the biologist waterfowl biologists and you're a real duck hunter. Yeah, oh I'm big and uh it was it was talking about duck numbers in the state, like, is that has it been pretty normal this year? Good? Right now? It's been. It's really good. Yeah, we're still we're below the long term average, UM, but I think we're up like double digits from two thousand and eighteen 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 art though. I'm gonna go on Thursday, you're gonna fly with them. So they missy, they they fly. Let me tell you, I know he's change the email chain now. 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 you know, multiply it out and get an estimation for how many ducks are here. Is That's that's pretty good. I'll report back checking. That's yeah, and so so is it weekly? No, we do one in December, one in January, and then I think one after the season closes, isn't there right? That is right? Yeah, they do the postseason fallout, which post season having that habitat for the ducks too is incredibly important when they're coming back, well, when they're you know, maybe not coming back, but just they're about to go back exactly. It's like a buck right after the rut, Like they gotta rest up. They gotta put some pounds on because they were flying, you know, with the giest stream coming down and there they're flying into going back up. That's a long way. That's why they need those acorns, man. Man. I I hunted in the Delta a couple of weeks ago for a week, and uh, I was keyed in on the the big acorns. Yeah, there were a lot of them, and then there was quite a few of the smaller red oaks like those. Yeah. I was gathering them up and trying to hand feed him to all the mallards in the place that we could. I'm kidding. I wasn't the ones in your yard. Those are chickens, clay Man. I did see some ducks though, Oh man, did I see some ducks. 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 uh 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 but before duck hunting, though, before you became a duck hunter last year, last year, would you thought anything that, really, there's some ducks over there or whatever. I just wouldn't have now I would have been keating enough on 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 know the answers. No, I mean the ducks were uh yeah, making all kind of calls. I was thinking about calling. I was saying, 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 to mean they would but um 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. Um have you have you duck hunted a lot this year? Yeah? Yeah? And um Aiden, we took him, you know, he's from California, take him on his first duck hint. And we went down to um Bull Sprig, which is like a really nice hunting club down in Stuck Guard and it's flooded, timber, and just like the when you think of Arkansas duck hunting, it's like that's the hunt. 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 were starting off at the top, and then we're gonna go back home, and I'll humble, like, I'll humble you a little bit what real duck huntings like. But now we've been, we've been quite a few times. Am I really enjoy working my dogs. I've got a dog that's pretty much college education. I have a black Lab, have a yellow Lab, and I have a little English cocker that's pretty fun to duck huntly retriever. Yeah, he's he's between the black and the yellow lab. Is the black one better? So she has more drive, I will say, But she tore her a c l 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 and she's got climb. I don't know what the setting is for her. But the yellow lab, he's like said, he's got college education. He'll call the duck in go get it. He's a good dog. Yeah, the black one is really better. I don't think so. I don't know. That's like an old till really that from what I've heard, that's like what labs 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 chocolate is just good luck with him because they're still not good. Yeah, and then you've got silvers and they're just a whole another I don't consider that a real lab. Yeah, sorry, I just own't. It's pretty we're going that far pretty, but well, no, I mean black chocolate labs. That's that's the three. Hey, you gotta be passionate and have an opinion about stuff. I like this, like chocolate labs out. I would say chocolates have another fifty years before they and yellow you straight up fast? Favorite dog? Like, what what's your favorite dog? I want to hear about your favorite squirrel dog? Careful? Oh yeah, I think it's the other one into this. This is too treacherous a territory. I like a fight. There's lots of dogs a tree squirrel. There's there's a ton of different kind of dogs tree squirrel. Um. I like the little fist just because they're a little in fun and they're very smart, use their ears, eyes and nose. I think everyone needs a fist in their life. That's that's like my life philosophy. Now, Britt, would you said a black lab was the way to go? That's all? All of mine were always black? Yeah, I had one chocolate for a month. A month didn't work out? I did you? How old is it? Seven months? Seven months? When's he? Is? He at the trainer? Now? She she? Uh? So she This is a long story. She's a great dog. Uh. She might be at risk for an a C L tear yea, So how can you tell? Uh? I can't tell, but the vets cam uh. And so that's that's kind of what we're waiting to see. We might we might let her get a little bit older and before you invest a lot in Yeah really yeah, but she she's a great dog. Now y'all have a older dog, Baron? Yeah, black lab. I've always had black lass black ones. Uh. Baron is six about to be seven? Is Baron named after a Barren airplane? Yes, that's awesome. I got my pilot's license back in. I guess it's two thousand sixteen. So I was like, I'm going to I'm not current anymore, sitting here, Yeah, yeah, I'm sitting here Stable day Yeah. Yeah. A studio audience today too, do Yeah. Joe Dramas is here, Joe Hight and then Aiden with you hating what's your last name? Conn Aid Colin? Yeah, live studio audience pretty pretty special, which they would encourage us a little more because you'll give up plause. Yeah, we've not laughed at a couple of show. So if you could feel the I think I would help me out. Joke he's wearing all his bear grease skin. He's got an acorn shirt on. I like that he gets it. It's a vibe. Hey, is there a difference between boy and girl dogs? Because we got a lot difference in terms of quality of hunters. Because Clay's best, best dog, best sound. It has been a girl. You've got a girl. I've always had boy dogs. Okay, so there's no distinction in terms there is. 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 can 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 enough crazy, just not telling something i'd want to be my experience, every female dog got that's just been so sweet and that ain't broke picks it. Um, well let's talk. Let's talk some duck hunting, 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're well now transition into duck hunting stories, and then I want to hear you three your favorite your favorite story but from the podcast, like or did anything stand out to you? Did you hear something that was like yeah, identify with that or that was cool or yeah? I would say two of the stories were noteworthy. Um in my mind. The first was is it your 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. Always happened, and I've that that's kind of the season of duck hunting that I'm in right now, where I care less about going to shoot four mallards as I do getting out there with new people, uh, showing them what duck hunts 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 gonna go, and in the back of my mind, I knew we weren't gonna kill a thing, uh, and we did. And then the other story that I thought was just uh fantastic was Brent's uh talking about Buckingham Flats, um 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. The analogy that I used was it's like you're standing at the bottom of a staircase and someone rolls out of carpet and it just keeps coming and keeps coming and keeps coming and the duckster just right wave after a way of 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 absolutely it was a 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 was like seeing the least favorite it. So you've seen that a couple of times. Just had like like like you think five hundred ducks, thousand ducks, two hundred ducks, I'd probay say between three fifty. It's just um between the sheer volume of ducks around you that you feel like you can't even turn your head and uh, just the awe of it. You almost want to put your gun down. I've done it and just like take it all in because you know that it's fleeting and and and it'll end mm hmm. Put you cool. It makes you feel like the first time I saw and heard and looked at an elk buglin in a place where and we didn't even kill this. It was a huge elk, but he's like, man, should I don't know if I'm worthy of being Yeah, in the presence of watching this take place, it'll make you feel like like that. It did me. Yeah, Amory, which of those stories stood at 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 the first off, the story about Jimbo 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 what he's going to see. Um, I can't imagine being in that situation and knowing Jimbo when he said he just kept as cool. He said, Hey, we're gonna get in the boat head back to the truck, and you know, go um that. I couldn't believe that he held it together to do that, because I think I think I would have lost my mind. I think anyone I know would have lost their mind if some would have been shooting at them. So, uh, that really stood out to me, and oh, my gosh, the guy in the houseboat who fell fell off into Yes, yeah, I mean I've been you know, baptized in the in the duck water before like that, Oh my goodness, I know. And him talking about those two two boys that died, that was that was just nuts. Oh my goodness. So those those stood out to me because that was that was just insane. Yeah, Jim's story, I thought you did a good job of telling the story, like just saying, like I'm sitting there like looking at him, like did you get shot in the face? Yeah? And then he and then he said he put his hands down and and he wasn't shot. But man, you know, not being uh exposed a lot of duck hunting last year when I was hunting, man anything. 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, big deal. Yeah, you you got to and you gotta make sure everybody around he 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. 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 guy's throats about gun safety. And I have a little spill I do where I grab an empty shotgun and 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 in the in the hole, and and 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. Well, I think the one that creeps up on people is when a dog is out there working you put your gun on the tree because the ducks come in. Everybody shoots, and then there's a cripple or and and people start shooting at the cripple and the duck dog takes off and then get back quick. Yeah, we're all animal lovers here when it comes to our pups. That's probably some of my greatest memories on the duck story part, uh, hunting with my dogs over the years. I know, Kayleie, you mentioned that when that comes to mind, I had a dog, his name was Boomer, another black lap and uh, he had throat cancer, and you know, we knew we only had a little bit of time left with them. And Joe and I were dating at the time, and Joe was really touched this dog too. I mean we we loved him to death. And we said, okay, we can't take him out in the morning. He didn't have the energy, but we want to take him on one more hunt. And we go out there in the afternoon. It warmed up a little bit, nothing flying. Joe and 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 last time, last time, last retree. It was pretty cool, pretty special cool. Yeah, Um, I probably should have had you tell your favorite story while you were telling which story you liked. Usually, this is what we do, Kall. I asked 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 um Jimbo. And it relates back to anybody that comes to our shooting lodger my shooting lodge. Gun safety is the first thing that we teach. And I have a ton of people that come to get better at duck hunting and I always tell them before they leave, like gun say, gun knowledge is gun safety, right, So knowing where your gun is pointed at, knowing how that gun operates, knowing where your safety is at, knowing your environment that you're in. Who's got the dog? Is the dog working? You know? Um? 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 somebody who's never been before. They don't they don't know any better. They could just be sitting here talking to you thinking everything safe, but it's pointed ride at Misty or you know. It's just that really stood out to me, and it's it's one of the things that I stress every single shooting lesson that I do. Yeah, um, hey be or we leave, you'll help me. Remember, we need Kaylee to tell us about her her lodge and what she's doing. But tell me your we'll go back this direction. Tell me your well, Brent, what was your favorite hold on Kaylee? 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 Jim bow Yeah, yeah, that was Yeah. I just like the way he told it to I like, I just like hearing Jim ron Quest talk. Which one sit out to you? Brent? Oh, let's see. I like the p ro story because I have a p row and really about the only difference in a piro on the submarines the way you spell it, they're both gonna wind up on the bottom before it's over. Yeah, but they are handed when you can keep water out of Yeah, that was a good story. But the motor going around the circles, the direct draft thing. Yeah, and sharing a motor in a pin come home, that's a rookie mistake. You got to toe a pocket full of a little Jim since he was nineteen years old, I know, but you gotta, you gotta. I could talk Jim. 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, if I could add one other thing, it was the stuff about Mr Alvin. Yeah, yeah, I figured you're even get in that. Yeah. Mr Alvin Taylor and I were very close friends. And uh, 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 thirty four now, and I asked her, no, thirty one? And I asked her about Mr Alvin and she said, oh, Dad, I have such fine memories. She was probably six five or six of just sitting on a stool in there in his shot while me and Mr Mr Alvin worked on duck calls. And she says she could smell the wood when he was turning the wood, cocabola and stuff. But he was he was a he was a pretty cool cat. Pick up that duck call, Austin, would you have known the name Alvin Taylor? Yeah, so that's pretty so this one to talk to him about the what you told me about the shape of that, Oh the shape. He's got an acrylic duck call, which I would have. Yeah, it looks just like he was a plastic I remember going in there. This is the first call I ever got from him, and he was looking at he said, what is that call? Right there? He says, you do you know how to hold a blow a duck call? Like yesterday? I know how? 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, so it looks like a coke bottle track. He said, that's the way, so when you take a sip out of a coke bottle, that's the way you put air. But he it looks like he made that. I mean, not all duck calls look quite as much like a coke bottle as that, but that's correct. But 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 why you put the way you would sit out of a coke bottles the way you put air into it. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. So he's got three alban They even got his name on him. They say Alvin Taylor four. Yep. Mr Alvant signed up. 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. Let's it's a pretty good pile of money later right there. This calls are expensive. I've seen the money bay before. Yeah, six seven, eight hundred bucks. Yeah, pretty cool? Cool cool? Um, kay, favorite duck story just of your your stores. So I have a nickname when Ore in our little duck hunting community and it's called beaver run. So we um just like Amory here, imiliar with the Baptism duck hunting. 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 Cyprus, and it's behind our house and they're 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'd go, they said, Kaylee, they decided 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 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 gonna get a dog. So I got my first dog about four years ago, Max the Yell, a lab, and I thought, finally like I don't have to go out there and the beaver runs and in 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 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 ft radius that I fall four times because the dog and it just it just continues to happen. So it's an ongoing memory that still falling down. And yeah, so um and then I would say, my my best memory with duck hunting is my very first duck kind of 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 for years. He's finally like, all right, you're 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 how shoes. They had a little duck on them, and I was just obsessed with them, and I thought, that's what you should wear in the duck blind. It was it was freezing cold. It was probably twenty degrees outside, which is cold for a kid. And I have these Mallard house shoes on and I'm sitting in the duck bline 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 had my duck mallard shoes on, and just I don't think I should killed a duck that year, but it was just going with my dad and my grandpa and the duck blind he got in my mallard How shoes a good? All right? I know I jumped the gun on the dog earlier, but it seemed like the good segue. It was great, it was, it was good, it was. That was one of them. I came with multiple. 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 chapstick, hot chocolate and honey buns. I know that's a very combination, but that and you know, just getting zipped up in my cover rolls 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 It was a really big deal. So that's pretty special. Another really fun memory. Another one, there's some cool pictures of you when you were a little girl. Ye your camp. Yeah, I remember holding all the ducks. There's some get bulls in there. Colors are good, misty at taking pictures and documenting for real, Like any duck is going to have just a lot of real photographs on the wall. They really do. So that was pretty special. And then when Joe and I first started dating, uh back when we were in high school going out and uh we it was water sprows up that morning and we said, okay, we're going to go in 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 fifteen minutes, and we just started dating. We were high fiving. I mean, we're just did we just become best friends? So so that was that was that was really special. Mr Booth Duck story. Um, 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. Um. And I probably I kind of I don't know when I was six or so so thirty years ago, and um, you know, I remember the exact things we used to get it at the gas station. Twenty ounce bottles of Coca Cola peanuts, and we put down in the coke bottles Austin cheese and peanut butter crackers and some honey bums. Uh. And so that you know, that was just a ball for me to 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 and she had she had she had gone a shot with Kaylee the day before. Um and she she's nine. Um, and I tried to get her to use the eight seventy that I learned to shoot, and I think it's a little bit too heavy for downgraded, a little too started. She probab she had a bunch of claim nights. Yeah, and and and then we went up the next morning, uh in 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 watched him come in that way, and the second group comes in, you'll have a frame of reference for what your shot looks like. And um, you know, she's nine. She's sitting on a dog stand and she's doing so good. She's not winting, 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. They read the script textbook. And now was anybody else shooting? Or it was me and two other adults. Uh, we didn't let him land, but you know we we shot him when we were supposed to. And it was perfect. And as soon as the gun silence does us all or or the gun noise dies off, she just squeals. She got that was amazing. And then the next group that came in had a little bit more light now, so it's easier for her for her for her to shoot. She put up a twenty eight Gage semi automatic and uh, it was a green head that was the first one in the hole. And he's sitting there fluttering and uh she picked that gun up, pull the trigger and he dropped, and uh there were three adults in the hole and there was not a dry So, you know, being the thirty six years in advance of what I enjoyed so much now sharing it with her just meant the world name cool man. That's great, Misty. Duck hunters are sentimental too. I like the roles that I'm playing in today's podcast. I'm like the the uneducated person over here who needs Clay to kind of fill in. I appreciate that. That's what I am, uneducated when it comes to duck hunting. I've never been before. My favorite duck story is that Amy has invited me to go with her. I've never been. That's in here studio audience. No, she's and Rea's invited me to go with her, and so I'm I'm super excited about it. Mainly, I want to cook a duck like I used Clay's clay suggestion last time and it was no good. So I have done some research and I told Bear, I said, hey, if you are sun Bear, I mean kind of went out. He really he enjoyed duck coming with Clay last year and he and some someboddies decided that they thought they found a duck hole up here, which was a long shot and and anyway, but they went out and I told him, if you get a duck I'm gonna I've got recipes and we'll have a big party tonight. So if I if Yeah, And also the other thing, I would like for Kaylee to show me how to shoot. Do you think she can fix my right eye dominance problem? Yeah, yeah, you need to come see me. Yeah, I'll fix Yeah, I'd like that. We need to do that. Yeah, my daughter is right handed, but left eye dollar Okay. Oh that's tough. Yeah, it is tough. It is tough. And I didn't know I was until Brent Reach told me. This is this is your this is a problem. I think being left eye dominant being a right hand shooter is kind of like having like food allergies that aren't real. Stop this guy statement, Just this guy when he gets it. When when Clay doesn't have a lot of tolerance for weakness, I'll just tell you all that. Okay, he's a he's a fantastic he's a fantastic, fantastic husband, excellent father. But like people come in and say that they're they're gluten free or there, this or that, and Clay like, probably not, that's not true. And it's like he's got I 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 years I get a cold, I've got I've got stories, y'all, I've got stories about I was not allowed to even give an introduction today. Back to my original point that those are very sentimental 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 what Scott described to me, and he kind of said it on his on 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 there are a lot simpler things that you could do in in 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 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. There really is. It's a social endeavor, it really is. And uh 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, like you're really trying to kill. You're trying to kill a deer and 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 just solo. It's just it's pretty much a solo endeavor. And uh, but duck hunting, yeah, I think you can hear that in all their stories. Um. I always say, there's 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 can of sardine's, Like, you know, but then if he'll if he'll take one of our girls, are you saying because bears a passionate hunt, there's 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 stories are especially for someone who's who hasn't grown up in that world, in the duck hunting world. Your stories all of you had several honeybun mentioned, uh, 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 multigenerational experience. Yeah, it's it's you can hold duck camp. Like that's something that that I missed out on because Gary Nucom was such a die hard bow hunter, like he we didn't like, we didn't really want to have a big camp. I mean, just need to 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 uh, come along and those emails, man, boy, I get those duck emails from Luke Naylor. You know, duck season is only sixty days and deer season you've got this bigger span to do it. That's from Moore concentrated, Like you get sixty 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 you're like, wow, it goes by so quick. Yeah, and you can't miss the day of it. You gotta go coast the day maybe the day that's right, the day you can't kill him from the couch. I think duck hunting to that outweighs them. Any other hunt 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's it sets itself apart from dear Anger. Yeah yeah cool. Kennie. Tell me about your business And I asked her before the podcast. I said, is you're shooting? How you make it a living and what you do? So? Yeah, what what you do? So? Um my full time job is athlete on t mu s A. So with that, I opened up a shooting lodge called Cypers 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. Um I could. I could probably put on a clint Yeah you probably could, um yeah yeah, um so yeah. We 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 or whatever. Um, you can pick up a gun and I can probably get to you to be as good as you want to go with it. So UM have the shooting lodge there out in Greenbrier and we have every clay target discipline that that you could shoot. There's a bunch of different discipline sporting plays, Olympic trap, American trap, whatever. And so how would people would they how would they get your services so they can go look? Is it like a couple hour things? However, however long Amory has been out a couple of times, Austin has been out, his family, Um Joe has been out. But you can go to Cyperscreet Shooting dot com and there's a whole lot of information on that, or send us an email at booking at cyperscreet Shooting dot com. You know, 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 gaming fish facilities, and obviously Cypress Creek. That's where, that's where I I love it. Oh my gosh, Kayley straightened me out of ton. 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 has done this, You've seated 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. So I wish that I had done, you know, the proper outlets to do it. So it's incredibly important. It makes things more enjoyable. Yeah I know how to shoot. Yeah, man, I got So I've got a lot of questions about shooting. Um, I know, I'm super curious because a Marie you're I mean, you're a seasoned hunter and yeah, you're you're getting You're you're improving as a result of going to Kaylee, so she's able to help, like and then Austin's daughter is a brand new That's that's kind of fascinating to me. That so earlier we're talking about I dominance I shot, so I'm I'm left handed. I shot right handed for ed, did just get real? I shot right handed forever because that's what my dad 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 gotta work on it a little bit. And he goes, well, uh, you know, what eye dominance are you? I said, well, I don't really know. I think I think I'm right eye. Did the test left eye dominant? Started? She left handed made the biggest difference in the world. Interesting, I am, I'm left handed, but I do some things right handed. So this is back and I don't know two thousand fifteen. So I'd gone a majority of my life just shooting right hand 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. 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 so interesting, my shell bill has been has been cut in half. It's great. Really, Yeah, I never thought of it as a financial move. Shot gun shells are expecting at the highest levels of competitive shooting. How much of it is natural talent and how much of it is years and decades of that's a great question. 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 Olympics, I'd never been on that stage I was competing. It's a girl who is a three time Olympic medal assistance her fourth Olympics. She's seen that platform before. So she beat me. She she beat me by one time, she got gold by one. But at that level, one target doesn't define, you know, in my one target, Yeah, it doesn't define if she's a better shot or if I'm a better shot. It's it's the stage that you're on. So at that level, it's just who's going to outwork who. She's pretty mean, she wears a do rag and so, but she's the sweetest person. She speaks like seventeen languages. She's just she's very cool girl. Yeah, she's she's 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 your right eye dominant, left eye dominant right handed, left handed, that doesn't 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 saw thirty or forty 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 how to use what you have. Remember got one time on a some type of training instructional video saying that he was trying to count the wing flaps of crows and they're just like, 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 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 site is going to be a little bit different, her aim is going to be a little bit different. If she might be a little left, and because she's seeing the whole picture, she's gonna say, I feel like I was right on it. But if you hone in on the detail, now we can say, okay, so where you look at when 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 could pick out. 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're starting knocking him down 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 throwed 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 that parallels with your hand I coronation there, M you think I'm ready. 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 I have a feeling you're you're shooting learning that would Uh. There's a guy I don't I don't know him well, but there's a there's a guy that does some traditional archery bow hunting classes and most of his stuff is about mental understanding of shot sequence named Joel Turner. It 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 it would be with a gun, and uh, he talks a lot about sequence and knowing what you're gonna do before before you shoot, and it kind of makes you when you hear him talk, you go, yeah, I guess I'm just kind of guessing a lot. But I'll tell you what it works good for squirrels long ways away and you just keep shooting guessing. Okay, great, Well, um Man I've I've like throw up like multiple bad jokes that I was looking for a little studio audience. Today we're all the whole thing about let the squirrels get far away and this kind of you have a little bit more room for guessing where to aim. Yeah. No, I'm I'm impressed with the with the the knowledge that I have no doubt that you you have and could impart to people with just a little bit of training. My grandfather was a there's a picture of him, where's it at? Where's the picture of pet? He used to be right there, where's oh? Right there? Yeah. He. I grew up shooting ski with him, and he was he's a bird dog man, and we we shot skip for all the time with cotton in our ears, probably the reason I'm deaf. But he always talked about blacking him out and follow through, like those are the main things he talked about, was black him 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. But shoot where the corn goes in, where the corn goes out? M M. And as his attorney, I just like to clarify for the record that he is not as my attorney. He is not employing in anyway that he duck hunts over corn. Yeah, that's what I was thinking that. It was like that does that work? Uh? Well, hey, thank you Austin, director of the game, and finish in here. I really appreciate it. Anne, Marie, thank you for coming. Thanks, gonna take it up. I told Misty I wanted to take her back down there. Come on. It sounds like we're gonna make something work, like you're gonna come. Yes, I had a request. Uh. Since I've been listen to this podcast, I hear about this gentleman sitting next to me that used to god on by me too when you still could, I kind of want to hear them call he got still Today it's not there as much pressure. It's like, this is the Alvin Taylor is Alvin Taylor call? He made this from me in nineteen Let's let's hear let's hear your call. What kind of calls you running? So I've got two separate cons. I've got to cut down calls, and then I've got sorry, three cutdown calls. And then to j Frames, which I said, those are just different cons. What um what? Brent Blue was a j frame, So I'll try to blow on these cutdowns and y'all can hear. You'll can hear the difference. It will be louder. Keep your bike up like that if you can be louder and raspier. Okay, yeah, it's kind of it's it's got a little more meat to it, doesn't rasp volume excellent. Well, heck, we're blowing duck calls. Okay, this is I got this one from Jim Stinson the other day, and he ill tell you what he did with me is he uh, he was trying to teach me how to just make one quack and he 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 but you're closing your lips like going and that's and he so he said, and then he he had me do that like twenty times, and he would go, he would come every single time I did it, he'd go, nope, nope, yep, yep, yep, nope, yep, yep, nope. Ye. Yeah, yeah, it was it was like intense. And then he said Okay, do it twice you there you go, m he go, Nope, he misses it on the second one. But anyway, he just like marched me through it, which is pretty good. Yeah, just quiet. I saw it takes boys, words of words of wisdom. That's what was an email, right, Yeah, that's what the email jokes are getting a lot of less. I will I would like to bring up this gift that uh, that the Durramis has brought me from from a stop they made on the way to the the northwest Arkansas. This is a black rifle. Uh, just like a twelve ounce pack of coffee, and it has a full real black panther on the cover and it's a Lava Panther Black Rifle Coffee Company's hashtag. They are one of my sponsors. So actually, if anybody would like a black rifle savings, you can use my name, Kaylee. Picture you like shooting something. I cannot confirm a black panther man. This this is a big win for us, Lava Panther. I thought it was really special. You know, meat eaters big in with there's a meat eater blend of black rifle. Yeah. I've had it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's good. Yeah, they they are. 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 work there. So yeah, I think I've heard that too. Great, well, Emory, just see my black panther up there. Oh yeah, first thing I saw when I came in. I finally got a bottle resting place for him. He was kind of bouncing around the office, but I got him. I got him up there. I don't know why he's not above the mantel in the house, but that's just yeah. Oh man, yea, well, thank you guys so much. Yeah, yeah, great stuff. And the next series of Burgrease it's gonna be incredible. That's all I can say. It's kind I think I'll go home now. What he's quoting for stump. You have you ever seen the TV? Not very often. This man does not like what Hey, Happy new Year, everybody. Great

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Bear Grease

Home to the Bear Grease podcast and Bear Grease Render show with Clay Newcomb, and This Country Life 
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