EP 264. Why Las Flores Argentina Duck Hunting?

Red Stag + Duck Hunting = Perfect Combination Hunt

And I came down expecting to hunt red stag and to hunt a lot of ducks, I had no idea how many ducks I was going to get to shoot today. 

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to Duck Season Somewhere in Argentina, I’m at Las Flores and anybody that’s ever kept up with us and see me post pictures or talk about Argentina or call the office and ask about Argentina, you’ve heard about Las Flores, we’ve been down here. In fact, I was trying to figure out had I been down here since 2009 or 2010, been coming here for a long time, it’s actually our number one hunt in the world in terms of gross bookings. Today’s episode is going to be walking through the voices. Who are the people that come on this kind of duck hunt? Are they like you? Who are they like? I want you all to hear some of the guests, we’ve had a great week down here. But I’m going to start with a client that pulled me over to the dark side in big game hunting and I got to do something for the first time I’ve never done, I went red stag hunting in Argentina and it kicked ass, had a great time. Kurt, seem like we’ve been down here for a month and a half.

Kurt: It’s been great, it does. It seems like we’ve been here for a long time.

Ramsey Russell: We met in Dallas a couple of weeks ago this Sunday and the rest is just a blur, it’s just bam, bam. What were you expecting and what was it like? The whole 2 week experience?

Kurt: The whole 2 week experience has been amazing, I couldn’t have asked for anything more, I didn’t have really any expectations. I knew it would be great, I knew that if I called Ramsey and he said he’s got it, I got guys down there, I can put it together, it’s going to be good, no pressure. But there is no pressure. I’ve hunted with on your hunts before, they’re amazing and so I knew it would be good. And I came down expecting to hunt red stag and to hunt a lot of ducks, I had no idea how many ducks I was going to get to shoot today. I just came down knowing that I wanted to go to Argentina and I wanted to be able to combine a duck hunting trip with a stag trip and speak some Spanish and have fun down in South America and in the southern hemisphere for the first time.

Ramsey Russell: My first trip in Argentina was in 2001. And over the years coming down here for extended periods and hunting, I’ve shot capybara, I’ve shot nandu, the rea, I’ve shot buffalo and black buck and viscacha just all kinds of critters, foxes, long tail cats, all kinds of stuff along the way, I always want to shoot red stag, but it’s just one of those things, I don’t think I ever would have just gone out and done it, had you not called up 3 years ago, even if you had expectations that you probably would have forgotten, it’s been so long because of COVID. And man, I just said, yeah, I’ll go with you, yeah, I’ve always wanted to do that and we did it and it was kind of fluid on whether or not we were going to drive or fly from Buenos Aires to San Luis, but I think it worked out pretty good.

Kurt: I agree. I got to see a lot of Argentina that I don’t think we would have saw otherwise.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What did you think about the place we stayed? Describe the place we stayed for red stag.

Kurt: I loved it. So it’s my understanding that it’s 150 year old type place, they’ve turned it into a little bit of a hotel, I’m sure originally didn’t have those individual rooms, but the dining room seemed original and the kitchens, it was great. The bed I slept on was first class, the mattress was amazing, the sheet were perfect. Yeah, the food was amazing, they had their own chef, I like the place.

Ramsey Russell: The house itself was what they described as rustic, it’s that U shape kind of thing with a courtyard in the middle very similar to where we’re staying right now. It was 150 years old and the tin roof, the walkways, even when you open the windows, you get a good draft coming through there, you can tell that thing and my room never changed temperatures. It got colder, it got hotter outside, my temperature stayed the same talking about how well built it was. But we drove 8 hours, we decided we want to drive instead of fly because that late flight and the taxi cab driver looking, I know somehow dropped a pin and figured out kind of sort of where we’re going and we lose our telephone signal on the way. But I can see my pin on Google and I’m like, we’re getting close and he didn’t think we were, but they said we’ll meet us out on the road and from Google Earth, I could tell her the road going down here, I can see where the house was 10 miles off the pavement. But what I didn’t expect was when we met him on the side of the road, hey, how you doing? We jumped off in the back of the truck, load our stuff and off, we go down what I describe as two tire tracks in the dark, like a sendero forever. And as I understood it, it’s one of the largest private free range land holdings in the country of Argentina about 200,000 acres. Why did you choose Argentina and a free range hunt for red stag? Why not go to New Zealand? Why did I come to some of these places down here that got high fence and you shoot a super freak?

Kurt: So I’ve learned to speak Spanish and when I do international travel, I try to go to a country where Spanish is spoken so that I can keep up with that and learn more, learn the dialects of the different countries, learn the cultural differences of the different countries, the language is really cool. Just like in English, someone in England says something different than someone in Australia versus someone in the United States, even someone in Mississippi will say things different than someone in Washington. So, I wanted to hunt in a Spanish speaking country, I wanted to hunt Red Stag and Argentina fit that bill and I saw your website and you guys did ducks down here. So it’s like, let’s combine the two if you can do it.

Ramsey Russell: We did, didn’t we?

Kurt: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: That worked out great. The stag hunting itself, I’m a duck hunter and the first day we got there, it was warm and we were told it’s the end of the roar and I was told by some other folk down around and stuff that the roar was weak this year. And so I wasn’t expecting much, I really didn’t know what to expect. It’s not mountainous like Colorado, it’s more like North Dakota with grasslands. Remember that, I can’t remember how to pronounce that chorro grass about and man, the way that would look in the late afternoons and early mornings when the sun got behind, it was just surreal. It was unbelievable. And two types of trees, bushes, acacia looking things out there, but we did hear him roar and I’ll never forget, the first day close, no bananas, it was hot and then the cold front blew in, it cooled off and I never will forget that second day our guide, what was his name, Gerardo. He saw some stags and he cut the motor off and just rolled 100 yards to a stop. And we got out quiet and started walking down and it was a little bit of frost but as we were walking in some tire tracks, there’s no sounds and we stopped and look and we were just right there, all of a sudden there were red stags, bulls stags right there, I mean, just 70 yards away with rag horns, you hear one roaring, not be bugling, roaring. So we walked a little bit more and we started easing up through and we got up to that little rise, we could look down towards that thicket, there were cows, you could hear him roaring a little bit further and I look, there’s a stag behind us, we’re right in the middle of herd and they weren’t stampeding, that was unusual. And no matter what that will be one of the most memorable big game experiences of my life. And I kind of want to shoot one of them buck behind us, he was waving it off, you were waving it off.

Kurt: That big one was just right in front somewhere, making a bunch of noise horns rattling in the trees and it was the one that was bugling the deepest and the loudest.

Ramsey Russell: So we eased that way and I’m glassing and I see him and I mean, like for a day and a half, we’ve been there looking at management deer and stag and all of a sudden, wow. I’m like, at 100 yards or whatever it was too. I’m like, holy cow. And I could tell by Gerardo he got excited and he’s very chill, he got excited and you got the gun up and nothing happened. Because I put my glasses up, saw him, it’s like he walked behind one of the dead stag and I lowered him to tap you on the shoulder and point to him and when I raising back up, it’s like he walked behind that foot and a half wide tree and crawled into a hole and disappeared forever and we never saw him.

Kurt: Yeah, I think I saw his body but I never saw horns and I couldn’t tell if it was like two females or him or what and without seeing him, I couldn’t get a shot. And it was crazy because they would do that, it was like, they didn’t know we were there but they would sense something and they would walk away real slow and just get out of sight and then they were gone. You go look, they just kind of walk away a little bit and then bolt or what happened because they were gone.

Ramsey Russell: It was a beautiful property. The thickets, I describe it as like, those trees are kind of like muzzled wood, like a crate in the bark kind of peels and it’s just, they’re shallow but it’s just green stem, it was just beautiful walking through some of those thickets. Remember the first day, there was a management buck, beautiful white horn. I don’t know, 5 by 5 and right as I’m getting up on the stick, he walked into one of those thickets. So we’re sitting there and thank goodness I didn’t shoot although it didn’t matter because as we’re glassing, it’s like, I started looking into that thicket, I can all of a sudden see animals up in there and all of a sudden became visible that no cow different, a massive one and I could like see just what I needed to shoot if I was going to shoot him, but I couldn’t see nothing else about him except that he was massive. And when he walked out that far side, it looked like holding a horn or something, I don’t know that he was a long beam and everything else, but he had a lot of mask and real chocolate horns, it was exciting. I mean, it to me was, I really enjoyed just about every bit of that experience. Talk about your stag and I’ll talk about mine or vice versa. Talk about the hunt because we decided to split up.

The Thrill of the Hunt

Without that guide, I’d still be on that ranch in the middle somewhere, I’d be done.

Kurt: Right. I mean, they’re pretty spooky. And so we decided to split up and went with separate guides and you got yours, the day before I did. But on my hunt when I finally was successful Gerardo and I went out and we went on a stock early and it didn’t turn out to be productive, we didn’t find one that we wanted to. And so we drove around a long time and got into a big herd and he got excited. So we went out and crawled through those stupid sand spurs and everything else and I finally see the thing and there it is, okay. And I’m taking the sand spurs out of my glove so I can even grab the rifle with my mouth. And actually the sands spurs didn’t hurt if I used my tongue and my teeth to get them out of my glove, then I could grabbed the gun, got on the sticks and found the right stag, right there, the big one.

Ramsey Russell: Was her roaring?

Kurt: Not that day, unfortunately, but that second day, that one was amazing and the first day. The first day I was there, I get out in the dark, look up the Southern sky for the first time and Javier, he took me out and I just sat there and listened and heard the roars the first time and that was awesome. So yeah, when I got mine, we got in there and I got on the sticks and was watching and he’s just kind of walking back and forth, mingling with the does, there’s two other stacks that are pretty good but not nearly as good as him. And was on the sticks for a long time just waiting for a clear shot and he was in that thick stuff, like on that first day you were talking about. And I didn’t want to try and shoot and hit a branch or hit a tree or hit a doe that’s out there because there were a ton all over the place and it felt like forever. But finally, they start to move around a little bit and I have a really clear shot at one of the satellite Bulls and I thought about taking it because it was the last morning of the hunt, maybe we could hunt the next morning, but we really wanted to get done and didn’t and then they all kind of moved to the left, not much longer later, I’m like, oh, no, I wasted my chance. And he slows down for a second and there was my opportunity and took it and it was perfect, just what I wanted and got it done.

Ramsey Russell: My hunt was over before we started because – I mean, we got guides but it’s not a particularly difficult hunt if how to get the wind right, the sun right and if you know how to hunt at all, the problem is, it’s a 200,000 acre ranch with a lot of roads and trails everywhere and countless of the people, like those two boys knew where they were.

Kurt: Without that guide, I’d still be on that ranch in the middle somewhere, I’d be done.

Ramsey Russell: It was road run for 250 square miles with just trails which way going everywhere. But we took off down, I guess a road that we’ve been on before, seem familiar and right there was a bull standing on the ridge line with his does and have a glass and said that’s the one I go, really? Because I don’t know what I was expecting but I wasn’t expecting something like that. I was thinking like something beamed along with my arm or something, not. And he kind of went off with his cows off the ridge, we just going to pick up over it and see what’s what, as we got up there, we realized they kind of fall off in this little depression, a little bowl, you could hear him roaring, but he couldn’t see us, we couldn’t see him, we could see him roaring. And there were some subordinate stags and we could see just the top of their antlers, well, as we kind of surfing around to getting wide and getting the wind right, we walk into some cows and just like you and I bumped into a bunch of them that, spooked the whole freaking herd 300 stag go running off, red deer, I should say. And we just stood there and they kind of walked off, got some thickets, did their thing and as we were approaching the thing, I could hear him roaring and oh, there must have been a dozen, two dozen of them, but the first one I laid eyes on was him and Javier immediately throw the sticks up and the sun’s right at my back, I felt like Josey Wales, you know what I’m saying? I should have spit because the wind’s right, the sun’s at my back and he’s looking, but he can’t see me and I get up and I’m like, yeah. And he goes, yeah, I said no, si, yeah, I like shoot? Yeah. Javier, I need to hear you say yes, because I am not going to pay a trophy for you on this thing, I need to hear you say the word, yeah, he said, yeah, I’m like, wow, I mean, it was very exciting. I’m not going to lie to you and it was a textbook and I ain’t going to lie to you, Kurt, we got him, they break out those little steak looking knives for Kahn’s razor sharp, in 5, 10 minutes, it’s chopped up and it’s in the back of the truck at that moment, I’m ready to go duck hunting, but you had to get yours and that worked out pretty good. We drove over here to the Buenos Aires Province, we met Diego at this beautiful lodge, he got this year. Talk about the duck hunting because you’re a duck hunter first and foremost.

All About Duck Hunting in Washington

I hunt public land, the leases are very expensive, the duck clubs are very exclusive and out of my price range. 

Kurt: By far, it’s so much more fun for me. I’m all about the ducks. I like to be right by the water, I like ducks falling in the water, goose hunting is okay. But goose or bonuses on a duck day, I don’t like to be in a laid up blind in the field, I like duck hunting.

Ramsey Russell: You’re from Washington, where do you duck hunt there about, but don’t put me on a map but talk about hunting in Washington.

Kurt: I hunt public land, the leases are very expensive, the duck clubs are very exclusive and out of my price range. I could pay to come down here once a year, shoot more ducks and still save money on what the duck clubs cost back home.

Ramsey Russell: There’s a client here that actually did that. An older client been down here, I think, 24th year to Argentina and first time he went 24 years ago, he went home and sold everything and said, I’m hunting in Argentina the rest of my life. What was your favorite hunt?

Kurt: Down here duck hunting, my favorite hunt was I believe the third morning with Bubba. And it was just he and I, and the sun was right at our back really bright, the ducks didn’t see us, I’m not the tallest guy here and so I didn’t have to shoot over the blind, I could set to the right of it and half the ducks would come to the right and half would come to the left. And so I got shots, killed ducks, he got shots and killed ducks and we stacked them up, man.

Ramsey Russell: What were your favorite species?

Ramsey Russell: Oh, there’s so many good ones I really like that white cheek pintail. But I got to shoot that day with Bubba and got a picture of that.

Ramsey Russell: Any other favorites?

Kurt: I think I said all of them. I mean, they are amazing.

Ramsey Russell: A lot of people that have never been here, the white cheek pintail, the silver teal, the exotic, beautiful. Talk about Rosy, what do you think about Rosy bill? This morning, you and I had a okay corral shoot out of a Rosy Bill hunt.

Kurt: This morning was the best Rosy Bill hunt. Yesterday was really good, but I got in there, I was chest deep in the water. Today, we were standing in the corn and really got to watch them work and see them it wasn’t like, boom, there’s one in your face right now. We got to watch them work like the mallards work. And listen to you call with the Rosy Bill call and turn them around and watch them run at that mojo and Rosy Bills are the duck down here. I think they are to work.

Ramsey Russell: I like shooting them all. But I really like the Rosy Bills that I just like the way they work, I like the way they eat, I like the way they fly through. Speaking of eating what about the food?

Kurt: I like the way the Rosy Bill duck pate that you and Facu Pate put together came out, that was really good.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, that was Facu doing right there. He taught me how to make duck pate and I’ll never throw duck livers away again, it’s so easy.

Kurt: And then those duck milanesa or whatever, basically their version of a chicken fried duck, it was amazing and there’s no duck taste, it was good.

Ramsey Russell: You shot a trophy, I shot a Stag, you shot a caul, we brought all three Stags over here and he’s been doing them justice, I think. we had tonight, was a red tag, the ribs.

Kurt: Those ribs, they were lights out.

Ramsey Russell: It’s like down here they cook a short rib, it’s a little tough but flavorful and that’s what it reminded me of, it was a little tough, but it was very flavorful. Of course, it looked like a Fred Flintstone rib laying on my plate, it went way outside the boundaries of the plate, but it was delicious.

Kurt: Yeah, I tried to get Jamie to take a picture with holding one, yeah, I actually said Fred Flintstone. Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Any other food highlights down here?

Kurt: The other one are the empanadas that they made with the Stag in it and the duck in it and those have been popular, man. We eat so many of them that after lunch snack that it’s hard to eat dinner.

Ramsey Russell: Well, we eat 5 times down here. Three meals with two huge appetizer meals in between. It’s too much food, I feel like a goose.

Kurt: Diego asked how many months pregnant I was today.

Ramsey Russell: Well, your shirt does look tighter than when I met you in Dallas a couple of weeks ago.

Kurt: Sure. It is.

What is a Duck Hunting Trip in Argentina Like?

This trip has been perfect and the duck hunting has been far better than I could even imagine. I can’t imagine anywhere better in the world than here.

Ramsey Russell: How would you describe this hunt to the listener? How would you describe it to your friends and family back home? Two weeks you waited 3 years to get here, trip of a lifetime is what everybody says, but how would you describe it? Where did this fall? And what would you take away most and remember most about this hunt?

Kurt: So, part of the reason I wanted to do the stag other than, it was a bucket list animal, my grandparents passed away back in 2018 and so I called you and wanted to do it. They left me a darn to pick off, hopefully you can cut that.

Ramsey Russell: Getting all choked up thinking about that big red stag.

Kurt: Yeah. Anyway, they left me a little bit of money and I bought them a muzzle, so I could start hunting because they always did big game hunt, I never got to do it with them. And they like to travel and I wanted to kind of put a lot together and when I came down here stag hunting and got that stag, I really felt that they were with me and it was amazing, it was perfect. This trip has been perfect and the duck hunting has been far better than I could even imagine. I can’t imagine anywhere better in the world than here.

Ramsey Russell: I got to check off something I’ve always wanted to do because of you. But I’ve also developed a profound regret because of you and that is the fact that I don’t speak Spanish at all. Two decades, I’ve been coming down, I can speak, I need some ice, I need a beer and man, from the cab drivers, to the waitresses, to the staff, to the guide, you’ve really connected with them because you speak their language.

Kurt: I do. And I’ve learned the culture of all the different countries and I can joke and I know the double meetings in Spanish where this means this, but it could also mean this, which makes it really funny and they can do that with me and it’s amazing to them that I can do it looking like what I do and it’s great, that’s why I come is because my wife is like, why do we always go to Mexico on vacation? It’s like when I go to Mexico or when I go to Argentina, I’m that really cool short white bald guy that speaks Spanish. If I go to Hawaii, I’m just some boring, short white bald guy.

Ramsey Russell: If your real job don’t work out, I might need to hire you as an interpreter because you’re connecting me with some of the stuff going on. Thanks, Kurt took 3 years to get here, but I appreciate having met you and shared a couple of really cool weeks with you.

Kurt: Ramsey. Thank you for putting together my dream hunt that I asked you for, it’s been perfect.

Best Rosy-billed Pochard Hunts

And I’m like, well, this seems like my type of guy right here and then started following you on Instagram with all your hunts here and there and I mean, it’s been a pleasure, it really has been a pleasure.

Ramsey Russell: Mr. Jamie Boyd here at Las Flores. Jamie, we planned this trip how long ago, 2, 3 years?

Jamie Boyd: We originally planned this trip in 2020, we were going to go to the last week of the season.

Ramsey Russell: And here you are the first week of the season. First time it’s been open since COVID.

Jamie Boyd: Sure is. COVID got it canceled and then I talked to you and we were going to reschedule for the next year and I talked with you on the phone a couple of times and come to find out, we knew some people, mutual friends.

Ramsey Russell: We do got some good mutual friends, man. Some of my favorite people in the world.

Jamie Boyd: Yeah. Come to find out, you had already been all the way where I live at probably 15 miles from where I live at Turkey hunting down there with Mr. Booty Waters.

Ramsey Russell: We got talking before dinner last night and I didn’t finish the story, we got talking about the Wilsons, Big John Wilson taught me how to properly cook grits.

Jamie Boyd: I mean, that’s why he is famous for.

Ramsey Russell: I men, cook them right. I guess I was cooking them like Waffle House, just one worth a damn, he said, no, boy, you got to do it this way. He taught me how to cook grits and I’ve taken it to epic proportions. You all had been to Argentina before.

Jamie Boyd: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Different parts than down here.

Jamie Boyd: First time, we came was in 2016 we came with a pretty good sized group, went and shot in Cordoba and then flew back to Buenos Aires and really, to be honest with you, I’m not sure where we went on a two day duck hunt down there. And we had a couple of okay shoots and then the last day we had a really good shoot. And I had never been anywhere, I mean, I was raised on a little small farm, didn’t go anywhere, I didn’t have money to do anything. And a good friend of mine told me, he said, man, he says my brother bought these trips at auction, he said, the hunt’s free, he said, all you got to do is pay for the airfare, come go. So it was like 6 of us, we came down here had a real good time and I was ruined after that. I mean, just absolutely ruined. And then we came back in 2019 and we went up north up there and had a good time. I mean, had a really good time, but I mean, I love it down here. I mean, the food’s great, everybody’s nice, the hospitality is great, I mean, I look forward to it every year and then COVID came.

Ramsey Russell: But since we’ve been here, you all had some good shoots and you all had some great shoots and this morning sounded like World War III and the 3 of you all is you and Bubba and Tracy, you all do a lot together. You all like a 3 musketeers, man.

Jamie Boyd: We do. Bubba and I’ve known each other for a long time, hunted together and all, Tracy was younger than me and come to find out –

Ramsey Russell: Prettier too.

Jamie Boyd: Yeah. Oh, a lot prettier than me. We’ve had a lot of the same interests, we all like to go spear fishing and hunting and –

Ramsey Russell: Travelling and hanging out.

Jamie Boyd: And been a lot of places together. And I remember, the one thing that impressed me with you was, I was looking through, because I always wanted to try to go somewhere different and I looked it up and I looked best Rosy Bills Hunts in Argentina and your hunt came up. And I remember I emailed you one night I was on the road in Alabama somewhere and the next morning my phone rings and it was you on the phone. And you were like, oh, is this Jamie? I was like, oh, yeah, you said, this is Ramsey Russell, how you doing? I said, well, just good and I was not expecting a phone call, I expected an email, and I remember you told me you was like, out of hell, I’d rather talk to a man on the phone than an email.

Ramsey Russell: I can talk a lot quicker than I type.

Jamie Boyd: And I’m like, well, this seems like my type of guy right here and then started following you on Instagram with all your hunts here and there and I mean, it’s been a pleasure, it really has been a pleasure.

Ramsey Russell: What was your favorite part about Las Flores?

Jamie Boyd: Oh God, there’s so many of them.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, get the highlight, give me the highlight reel.

Jamie Boyd: The food was great, because I like to eat. The hunting was great, I mean, I know this is the first time since COVID, it’s been hunting, there’s a lot of water down here right now and to actually be able to shoot the amount of ducks that we shot with the amount of water that’s down here is absolutely amazing because I mean –

Ramsey Russell: Kind of like South Carolina?

Jamie Boyd: No, not at all. Bubba and Tracy and I, we were talking on the way and I’m like, if it was this wet in South Carolina, you might shoot one or two ducks because every hole you ride by, even on the roads down here, there’s ducks on every hole. So you would figure, okay, I’m going to shoot this many times and have this good of a hunt, back home, you shoot 3 or 4 times, they’re going to go find someplace else and they just continue to come in.

Ramsey Russell: This morning was a great way to end the hunt though, it was epic, you all shot 3 extremely generous limits. And we’re back here at the lodge at 09:30 in the morning and it’s about a 30-45 minute halt over there down at dirt road. You like to hunt, what was your favorite species, Rosy Bill?

Jamie Boyd: I thought the Rosy Bills would be my favorite, but I love those yellow billed pintails. I mean, they –

Ramsey Russell: They work and they act like pintail, there’s no doubt what it is, when they lock their wings and cock their neck back on and you see it a little sprig, yeah, I like the pintails too. You told me something the other day and I want to brag a little bit, I do get a bunch and I’m only half serious when I say, my wife’s the brains and I’m the good look. What was it like dealing with her?

Jamie Boyd: Absolutely wonderful, I’ll be honest with you. If it wasn’t for Miss Anita, I probably wouldn’t be here right now. I mean, I’m serious. With all the paperwork you got to fill out this day and time, I talked to Miss Anita several times on the phone, super nice lady, you’re a very lucky man.

Ramsey Russell: I am very lucky.

Jamie Boyd: And every time I talked to her, she was like Jamie, if you have any more problems with anything just call me any time and it never failed. If I ever called her, she either answered the phone or called me right back. And with the affidavit we had to fill out, we were sitting there and my wife was trying to help me fill it out because I’m computer illiterate, I mean, I can barely take my damn name. And she couldn’t figure it out because it was asking for, where you were from, couldn’t find a United States somewhere anywhere. And finally I said, well, I need to call Miss Anita and she walked us through every step the whole way and then turned right around and said, if you need anything else, call me right back. Well, Bubba was working a shutdown, didn’t have access to a printer, he was working to shutdown until the next morning when we left, so I called Miss Anita back and I said, can I do Bubba’s also? And she said, yeah, sure if you got the information, yeah. And she walked me through hers and then we did Tracy’s also at the same time, but she was an absolute, like I said, I probably wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for her. Because half of the question was in Spanish and half of them and she had went through it before with you obviously, but she was an absolute –

Ramsey Russell: Well, I needed some help, I guarantee you, I need. And we got a road around the house, I’m not allowed to do certain things like airfare, there’s been problems in the past, may not paying attention close enough. What was your favorite meal? You said several times you like the food down here and I think chef Facu is unbelievable. And I described I did a podcast with him, I describe it, Jamie as the Argentine version of Southern comfort food, that’s how I feel when I sit down at the table here, it’s kind of like what I eat at home, but it’s good.

Jamie Boyd: Yeah, I don’t eat quite as good at home because I think I gained 10lbs this week while I’m out here.

Ramsey Russell: We had meat loaf, we had dessert, we had ribs, the pork ribs, I’m going to say right now is my favorite.

Jamie Boyd: As a toss up between the pork ribs and one day for dinner, he cooked, I think it was pork also, it was like a big steak, but I think it was pork and had peppers and stuff on top of it. And I mean, that’s the day we had to squash, I think. And that was one of my favorites. But I mean, every meal was good, I’ll be honest with you, I could just eat the appetizers before the meals.

Ramsey Russell: Empanadas. Did you have a few empanadas while you were here?

Jamie Boyd: Actually, I just ate two of them out there myself just a minute ago.

Ramsey Russell: I’m really glad. We talked a lot over the years touch and go and I’m glad they’ve seen you down here, I’m really glad to have shared camp with you and Bubba and Tracy, you all were an absolute pleasure to be around. But I’ve noticed this too in camp, I’m going to say we got 12 or 13 people here right now. You three came, those two came, that guy came, those four came but it’s birds of a feather flock together. And you sitting at that dinner table, you make friends and you got stories, something common to share. So it’s not intimidated by just showing up by yourself or with a small group, is it?

Jamie Boyd: No. And every person that’s here is they’re down to earth. I have been on a couple of hunts where there were some – let me find a nicer way to put this –

Ramsey Russell: A little snooty.

Jamie Boyd: Very.

Ramsey Russell: That ain’t no fun.

Jamie Boyd: No, I mean, like the last time, we went to one, there was two gentlemen there, let me rephrase that, I won’t even call them gentlemen. They would get in the afternoon and they would take the boots off and they would just look at the people and they were like, take my boots inside and you must know where to be? I mean, I work the same way they do, I mean, I put my shoes on the same way they do, I mean, they’re making a living the same way I do when I’m out there working and I mean, they’re the same as me, you everybody else and I mean, that’s no way to be. And I’ve seen people be like that and it just –

Ramsey Russell: That’s an interesting observation because I’ve worked with some of those operators in the past and what I’m trying to – I know you’re talking about people but I think operators, some operators cultivate bringing those kind of snooty people in and the times I’ve been there, I’ve just been uncomfortable. Oh, we were too. I mean, it’s not my kind of people, it’s not my kind of vibe, I’m going to go to duck camp, have a good time, real duck hunt, real duck hunters kind of guide, that’s what this whole camp is about.

Jamie Boyd: I mean, everybody here, I mean, they’re down to earth. I’m watching Mr. Bill out there now, he’s what, 82-83 having him a cold beer and talking about good times out there. But yeah, I mean, it’s been a great experience, I mean, it really has.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you very much, Jamie. I hope we get to hunt together again one day.

Jamie Boyd: Yes, sir me too, I enjoyed it.

Ramsey Russell: Mr. Max for a second pass Flores and what are you halfway through your trip, not even yet?

Max: Not even yet. No, sir.

Ramsey Russell: How’s it going?

Max: Awesome. Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: As good as you remember?

Max: Better, I think than the first time.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Max: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Why?

Max: Well, we were at there first time, let’s say the marsh was vast and we weren’t shooting them like we are here on the smaller potholes and what have you. So it made it a little more difficult, I think to control the ducks. What he’s got going here now is that some of them smaller potholes they’re going to come in.

Ramsey Russell: What was so crazy this morning, Max, we stepped off into a pothole and all I can see in the black dark with the head beam is just tall material grass with Tule and when the water gets up by belly button deep we’re out across the open water and some more Tule and set up and what not. And in my imagination, I was sitting in the middle of a 40 or 100 acre impoundment, the daylight came, we limited out, we came back, I look across that pond and I wasn’t 10ft from the bank on the other side of it. I’m like, but it could have been an acre and we smoked them, son. It was unbelievable. How did you all do this morning?

Max: We killed a 100.

Ramsey Russell: Rosy Bill or a mixture?

Max: No, Rosy Bill, we only got one but we got bunches of pintail and teal.

Ramsey Russell: I love the yellow billed pintail.

Max: Me too. And my favorite is the ringed teal.

Ramsey Russell: We’ve been talking around the campfire and that’s one thing I like about this camp here is they’ve got that fire pit that they cook over and them ribs the other day was good by it. But it’s become the social point, it’s where we all gather out there by that fire, they started lighting it when we come in in the mornings and everybody’s out there right now eating empanadas and them little apple turnover pastries and everything is made from scratch, that’s what gets me. He ain’t going to Walmart and got nothing to turn out, this is all made from scratch right there in that kitchen.

Max: Professional chef. And the duck hunting and the accommodations go hand in hand because they’re both top notch. You will never go hungry here, you can ask for anything you want and they’ll try to accommodate you. You’ll get to shoot your ducks twice a day, I don’t know what more person could want.

A Thrilling Duck Adventure

I thought the Rosy Bills would be my favorite, but I love those yellow bill pintails.

Ramsey Russell: How does the – and I’m being partly facetious because we’re in Argentina, not Illinois, but how does the hunting compare to home? Talk about your origin briefly as in Illinois waterfowler and now later in life coming down here to Argentina.

Max: Okay, I of course, started waterfowling in 1980 when I moved to Illinois, I started training retrievers in 1984. The hunting at that time in Illinois and some of the places was pretty good, we had ducks then. And after 1993 when we experienced that big flood, it just decimated that whole valley and the ducks patterned themselves on the other side of the river and went down into Missouri, down into Arkansas and in the Gulf. So in 1994 I took a trailer full of dogs and I went to Stuttgart to guide, I had 10 dogs on the trailer, 3 or 4 was mine to hunt with and the other were clients and I guided there at Stuttgart and I would stay through the month up until about the end of March because I could get in the water and I could come back north and my dogs were ready to camp in. But the duck situation at home has been, I’ll be right honest, I’ve shot more ducks here than I’ve shot at home in 10 years, truth. And we go somewhere. I mean, it’s not like we just stay home and get discouraged, we go and we know we cook and we got to go. But it’s so disappointing when you got a trained dog or even not, you got a dog and you can’t put anything in front of it.

Ramsey Russell: How do you make a dog when you don’t have ducks to put in front of?

Max: It’s very difficult.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, you can go out there and play the game, but that ain’t my game.

Max: You can find a tower shoot sometimes that isn’t terrible because you can regulate the 2, 3, shoot them over decoy, they don’t know the difference, shoot them over the decoys, but without the main ingredient, there’s no a good way to make a good retriever.

Ramsey Russell: You know how it is when you only know somebody on the telephone and just your imagination kind of paint a picture of who they are and what they do and how they live and yada yada. And I think, I’ve learned it around the campfires because you’re a dog trainer for a career, professional trainer and every dog trainer I’ve ever met has got a loud and commanding voice and I just had in my mind you were a cop.

Max: No, sir.

Ramsey Russell: I said, yeah, he’s a cop and you’re not, you’re a dog trainer.

Max: Yes, sir. And prior to that, my family we trained racehorses.

Ramsey Russell: If you were still a dog trainer, would you be bringing dogs down here trying to bring dogs down here? What do you think about Char dog being down here?

Max: Oh, I think it’s absolutely phenomenal. Yeah, I don’t know, I just feel lucky to get me down here and back. I mean, absolutely, if you want to make a good dog, this would be the spot. But as we talked yesterday you can get into a situation here that you wouldn’t anywhere else.

Ramsey Russell: This morning was one of them.

Max: Too many ducks and cripples here –

Ramsey Russell: She’s sitting there and she made about 100 marks and she picked up 35 birds, it was no sense. When it’s crazy, I don’t want my dog out there when another wave of Rosy Bills comes in. Because when the dog got there on doing his job, it ought not be distracted by other marks and other shooting, I think it wigs them out and it makes them sloppy. So, when it’s quiet, when the coast is clear, I send her and then she comes back and she has to watch another 20 birds fall before she gets to make another retrieve. But I think that in and of itself makes her good, it makes her steady.

Max: And if she wasn’t a seasoned dog, which she is, I mean, not season level, but I mean, season, she would have a heck of a time because there’s so many targets. How you going to keep her getting this one or picking up two or this here would be a big challenge for a lot of dogs, I promise.

Ramsey Russell: Now, my dog trainer tells me, Max, he trains them, he does train her well and I ruin them, because I will let a dog go out there and pick up two birds and if it picks up the one on the right and then decides it wants the one on the left instead, because it flick his foot? I don’t get up out of shape, if he wants to hit dry ground, so he can run back to me, I don’t care.

Max: Yes, sir. We’re duck hunting with the quickest and most efficient, that’s fine. If you can get two on the way in, go ahead.

Ramsey Russell: That’s what I tell my trainer is, you teach her your game and then I’m going to teach her my game, it’s different.

Max: Well, you both need both. So you need him to set the foundation and make her to where she knows her role and then you need someone like yourself to show her that what I’ve learned here is going to be way the top notch, this is what I’m supposed to do and she’ll have some tools.

Ramsey Russell: So she’s working her tail off down here in, I think, 5 days already. She’s picked up more ducks than a month and a half in the US this year. But thank God you’re here because all of a sudden she didn’t like this food, I bought the best food I could buy in Argentina, all of a sudden she decided she didn’t like it and I’m like dog, you got to eat and you have me go put some hot water on it. I tried it because I was desperate, buddy, let me tell you what, when I put the hot water on that food this morning, I looked and she was already drooling drool coming out of her mouth, she’s ready for it.

Max: It makes it a different sense for some reason, that old dry food might not have and when you it up, it’s like almost putting gravy in there for them.

Ramsey Russell: You could have gone a lot of places on your first and second trip to Argentina, how did you find us and why? Why did you choose this hunt? What was it about this hunt?

Max: I’ve been following you guys online and what have you for quite some time and everybody said, if you’re going to travel, go with getducks.com.

Ramsey Russell: And this year you brought a sidekick, you brought Tyler and he’s a young man.

Max: Yes, sir. But I don’t want to ruin him. He’s ruined now. Now, that was my point, I wanted to ruin him and I’ve got him ruined.

Ramsey Russell: What has been your favorite meal so far?

Max: Man, I tell you what, it’s hard to put a finger on. I mean, yesterday for lunch it was steak, stag ribs –

Ramsey Russell: Stag ribs, looks like Fred Flintstone is traveling the place. The big bam bam ribs.

Max: Here your lunch is not going to be a sandwich and a little bowl of soup, it’s going to be ribs and sausage and sides and whatever. And in between all of that, you’ve got tapas by tens. I mean, everything from the empanadas to all kinds of cheeses and meats, sweets.

Ramsey Russell: The truth of matter is, I eat more food at appetizer time than I eat at home in a day.

Max: Oh, yes, you got to watch.

Ramsey Russell: And then I still got to eat three more meals.

Max: Look who made himself sick?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. You got a favorite species down here?

Max: I like the ring teal. Because of the beauty, they remind me so much of a wood duck at home and I like a wood duck, I like to eat a wood duck, but I love the beauty of a wood duck.

Ramsey Russell: The decoy nicely.

Max: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I like the way they go meow, like a little cat, when they come in.

Max: Yeah, I mean, my favorite duck is probably the next one I’m going to shoot, but I do like those ring teal.

Ramsey Russell: Well, Max, we got another afternoon, another morning and I am so glad you’re here and I’m glad to finally put a name with a face.

Max: Well, thank you, sir. And I was glad you invited me to come, be down at camp with you, it worked out great.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you, Mr. Lee Allen Turner here, at last here at last, but don’t look like you, your daddy and your brother had any fun, I couldn’t tell.

Lee Allen Turner: No, not at all.

Ramsey Russell: What’s been your favorite part?

Lee Allen Turner: Everything, the ducks, the food, everything.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about the duck hunt because now you all are from Tennessee, middle Tennessee, not West Tennessee. So West Tennessee, they got ducks, Middle Tennessee will see one here and one there. Sometimes West Tennessee ain’t got no ducks. So, I think here you’re going to kill ducks. We’ve had great mornings every morning, great afternoons every afternoon, you’re going to see stuff, you don’t see it in Tennessee or anywhere in America just nuts.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me about your favorite – Now, just wait a minute, this morning, you and your dad and your brother all hunted together?

Lee Allen Turner: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Okay. Tell me about this morning’s hunt.

Lee Allen Turner: This morning, they took us in a spot, they said they hadn’t hunted. We were in waste deep water, well, belly button deep water. Mostly was teal, teal this morning fast paced, shot some ducks real early, some whistlers, some white face whistlers, some fulvous and black belly and they were great. I mean, it was great, I did a few where you shine the light on them, that was awesome.

Ramsey Russell: I posted some videos like that up in the past and people like, man, yeah, I’m like, look, there ain’t no shooting time down here but I cannot see the birds. Now this morning because we were kind of looking a little to the east, so at 7:15, I was good to go. Normally, especially if they get low down in them Tules, I can’t see them till 7:30. So I normally just throttle back till about 7:30 break a light out. And the first time I was ever down here that they put a light on a duck, I missed him 4 times because I was laughing the damn hard. It was a yellow bill pintail and they put a big beam on him and he just stopped, I’m like, I started laughing so hard, I missed it.

Lee Allen Turner: Yeah, they was the whistlers that he put the light on this morning and really that was the best way to kill them. They were right in the decoys and we wouldn’t have seen them.

Ramsey Russell: They get tall, the whistling ducks get taller later and that’s when I like them. I like them up there about 40-50 yards, and I pick one and then I’ll call the shot, the third one from the left, last one on and I just focus on until he gets right in that zone and I try him, but I like that. What’s your favorite species down here?

Lee Allen Turner: Probably the Rosy Bill. Yesterday morning, me and my dad had a real good Rosy Bill hunt. We killed our 100, we were finished by, I’m going to say 08:45 and we got probably 80% was Rosy Bills and it was hard not to shoot the Mojo, that’s where they were.

Ramsey Russell: If you look at a lot of these Mojo Diego got, they all got bullet holes in them because of them Rosy Bills.

Lee Allen Turner: That one that we had out probably had a few shots in it, because they were right on it. My father’s real bad, he wants to pass shoot them, shoot them before they get right in. And after we killed 50 or 60 birds, I was like, just see if they’ll land on top of us.

Ramsey Russell: When people come down here for the first time, Lee Allen, they’re asking about the silver teal the chiloe wigeon or some of these exotic looking species and really and truly, at a glance, the Rosy Bill is just a jet black bird with a bright red beak and maybe not the sexiest creature down here, but the repeat clients, they all want them Rosy Bill. And it’s because of what that duck is and he’s like a canvasback because he’s a diver, they flock up, they fly strong, they’re fast, but they’re extremely agile, they can put on a break to come right over that mojo like a mallard. They work better than any duck down here and they’re just fun. I mean, it’s kind of -as a duck hunter, that’s it, is it the duck working and responding, getting into kill hole where you can kill them, that’s why they’re my favorite.

Lee Allen Turner: Yeah, you can pass shoot ducks and that’s fun or just his teal skirt across, shooting them that’s fun. But when those ducks, like I said, yesterday morning, when they were coming in and just right on the water 5, 10, we had one group 25 and it’s just, I don’t know which one to shoot, so you’re just trying to shoot the red bills. Now, this morning we had, I think we shot probably 15 chiloe wigeon and that was fun. And now they come in really good, that was one of the few birds this morning that did just suck right in that little hole and it was great.

Ramsey Russell: You call me, I think one of the last phone calls we had preceding you all coming down here, you call and said, hey, my brother, he likes to duck hunt but he likes it upland stuff too. Is there any opportunity? I said, yeah, there’s some doves and pigeons and parakeet and stuff around and you all went and did that one afternoon. Tell me, I want to hear the whole the details about it because you all came back walking on cloud 9 laughing, it must have been a fun afternoon.

Lee Allen Turner: This afternoon I think he is going to do the perdiz hunt. But two afternoons ago we did – I asked Diego for a pigeon dove hunt and he said, what about parakeets? I was like, whatever you’ve got, we’ll take and he said, I’ve got a lady that really wants the parakeets killed and we’ve shot one or two on the water when we was duck hunting and my dad’s like, let’s do that.

Ramsey Russell: Now, wait a minute before you get into your story. I know everybody is looking at each other in struck right now going, shooting parakeets, the lady wants her parakeets killed. What’s going on here? These are wild monk parakeets, they are agricultural plague, the government red light still poisoning them because they will depredate crops and out here because it’s like the Mississippi Delta, the only trees you see were planted around houses and these birds coming in here to roost and they defecate on everything, now continue.

Lee Allen Turner: Yeah, it was so funny. The lady met us when we pulled up into her yard and she was just clapping and thanking us and shaking our hands and we hadn’t even shot anything yet. And of course, I didn’t know how that would be and we shot pigeons to start with because they were – I guess we scared them out of the trees and then the parakeet started coming and that was just, it was hilarious. I mean, they’re just everywhere. It was like the best dove shoot except everything that fell was green. And the ladies stood there and she was talking to Diego and I shot and I killed a double and they landed almost by her feet and I was like, oh, I almost hit her. And she clapped and she laughed and she was just glad that we was getting rid of those things and there was so many, there was nest in every tree, like you said, it’s almost like a plague.

Ramsey Russell: They make a colony nest, it’s like a big old stick, just imagine the hornet’s nest that keeps getting bigger and bigger and it’s a bunch of sticks with a bunch of little holes because each little family makes his own little nest up in there and I’ve seen them around windmills that just quit running, because they’ll gum them up and then they’ll say they’ll get up around these power transformers because they can kind of hang them sticks on there to start and it’ll get so big it’ll blow power. And a lot of this place, you ain’t got Mississippi Power and light coming out to fix it an hour and a half, I mean, it could be weeks or days before your power gets going again and that ain’t no fun.

Lee Allen Turner: Yeah, we ended up, like I said, we shot probably, I want to say two hours and we killed probably 30 or 40 pigeons and probably close to 100 of those parakeets. And it was awesome, it was great and that lady just stood out there and watched us and clapped and shook our hands again as we left and so she was excited. So it’s not like, you said, it’s not like, we were shooting our pets, they were definitely a wild animal.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What has been your favorite meal? We eat five a day including appetizer.

Lee Allen Turner: Yeah, you leave, there’s food, you come back, there’s food and he’s like, oh, now lunch, I was like, well, I just ate enough for lunch. I would say yesterday we had that Red Stag rib, that was great, that was different, it was good. And the mashed potatoes and everything. I mean, it’s like a full course meal, chef with wine and everything like that and he does a great job.

Ramsey Russell: I describe it and I’ve said it a million times and I’ll keep saying it, it’s very good food, it’s more food and more diversity than what I eat at home. But I would describe it in a sentence as the Argentine version of Southern comfort food. It’s just good satisfying food. Now I’m going to tell you right now my favorite pork ribs. He put 4 or 5 barbecue rack ribs, Saint Louis cut on over that fire, those couls the other night, that was absolutely my favorite. I went back to look at the kitchen see if there was something left to get more and they were gone.

Lee Allen Turner: Every meals, dessert and it’s great.

Ramsey Russell: What’s been your favorite dessert, they really kick it out of the park here on dessert.

Lee Allen Turner: I guess not before last, he had that, no yesterday at lunch he had that like cake with the caramel on top and almost had like a flown with it, that was great, with the walnuts on it.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, I know what you are talking about, had them butter finger cookies in there and that something on top and then something else, heavy cream on top.

Lee Allen Turner: It was great, it was so good. Last night my brother had the dessert and he asked for the lunch’s dessert, so he had both. And everything’s just been absolutely amazing. The empanadas.

Ramsey Russell: Have you ever had as good empanadas?

Lee Allen Turner: No. And the duck, we’ve had duck and Red Stag and then he’s had some spinach and cheese, the food is amazing.

Birds of a Feather: Bonding Over Hunting

But what a treat for you and your brother and your dad and you all work together and you all are tight, you all are good buddies, but I mean, to get to share something, this epic together, that’s got to be something special.

Ramsey Russell: What’s your dad think about it? Because here’s what I’m trying to ask, I know your dad’s having a good time because I’ve been visiting with him. But what a treat for you and your brother and your dad and you all work together and you all are tight, you all are good buddies, but I mean, to get to share something, this epic together, that’s got to be something special.

Lee Allen Turner: Yeah, I’ve booked a lot of our hunting trips together and some have been absolutely amazing and I’ve had some that were, I guess you’d say turned out not the greatest. And so the last few I guess were on that category and he was like, well, this is your redemption, maybe we’ll see.

Ramsey Russell: Did it work out?

Lee Allen Turner: Oh, yeah. Well, like after the first afternoon, he’s like, I guess we’re going to figure out when we’re looking again. So, he’s pretty excited.

Ramsey Russell: Have you noticed that there’s 12 or 13 people in camp and we’re all kind of cut from the same fabric, different walk of life, different states, different in a lot of different ways, but we’re all kind of the same. It’s like birds of a feather flock together. Have you noticed that? And I talk about real hunters, real duck hunts, real duck hunters, your dad was telling a story the other day about you all went line hunting. How many days did your dad actually 4 hunts before he closed the deal on that big time.

Lee Allen Turner: Probably close to 30 days.

Ramsey Russell: 30 days in the snow, chasing that mountain lion, that’s a real hunter. So, of every proportion. And you all do a lot of big hunts, you all been stag hunting, I killed some dynamite stags. I mean, what else have you all done together?

Lee Allen Turner: We did the stag hunt together, he’s been to Africa, he did a 9 day hunt in Africa. We always do some duck hunts together, pheasant hunts together, been out west several times, mule deer, elk, antelope.

Ramsey Russell: Bird hunts are different.

Lee Allen Turner: Bird hunts are different. Yeah, because you can have camaraderie, you can talk, you can cut up. And I mean, guys that I met 3 days ago were sitting there just jabbing each other, about missing and it’s no big deal if you did that to somebody who missed a deer, they’d get their feelings hurt and they’d go pal.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, that’s the truth. Are you and your brothers like rivals in the duck blind, do you all try to outshoot each other poach each other?

Lee Allen Turner: Oh, yeah, this morning, we were shooting and he was like, I got that one in one shot and I was like, you realize I shot two.

Ramsey Russell: It’s so similar because we’re duck hunting with the decoys and the Mojo and the camaraderie and the camp and the food. But to me, the biggest distinction, it ain’t the volume, it’s the quality that the volume represents because you’re not out there – if you and I were duck hunting in Mississippi and average day we’re going to shoot 4 or 5 ducks, it’s a big difference if I shoot that duck in front of you just to mess with you. But down here there’s so many, it’s okay, we can laugh about it and have fun and that adds a whole other layer to it.

Lee Allen Turner: Oh yeah. And everybody gets so caught up in the numbers and there’s been some mornings where we didn’t quite get that 100-50 in between us, like one guy said he goes, it’s terrible when you’re disappointed when you killed 70 ducks between two people and it’s like, we’re not disappointed, but it’s like, because you think man, that would took me weeks, months in Arkansas or West Tennessee, it might took the whole season or two seasons for us, don’t get to go once or twice a year. We’re sitting here to kill 70 80 birds, but I mean, most mornings, most afternoons we’ve limited it out, no problem, I mean, in early.

Ramsey Russell: This was an important hunt because of the redemption quality maybe you all went on a bad hunt and boy, you gave me a shot to redeem you, how did you find us? And why did you choose us? Of all the offers down here, why us?

Lee Allen Turner: When I look for a hunt, I just go Google search Argentina duck hunt, you were the first thing to pull up. When I did the New Zealand Red Stag Hunt, first thing pulled up was the company we went with, it was great. The times that I’ve had to search down through and pick those people not saying there’s anything wrong with that sometimes, but they’re kind of been iffy hunts and just the research and looking and what you’ve done and what you’ve – I was like, I think I want to go hunting with who he represents, who Mr. Russell represents and being here when you were here was awesome.

Ramsey Russell: The pleasure was all mine, I’m going to tell you what you and your dad and your brother and these other folks in camp, it just makes my trip.

Lee Allen Turner: It’s been great.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you, Lee. And I’ve enjoyed hunting with you all and I hope we get to share camp again one day.

Lee Allen Turner: Yeah, for sure, thank you.

Ramsey Russell: Miss Tracy Haddock, what brings you to Argentina with these two guys?

Tracy Haddock: To have fun.

Ramsey Russell: I couldn’t tell you having fun, you just smiled the whole time.

Tracy Haddock: Right, yeah. It’s great down here, I love to shoot animals and well, to hunt, I guess it’s more professional way of putting it.

A Duck Hunting Lady

But yeah, I love duck hunting better than dove hunting.

Ramsey Russell: Somebody asked the other day and I thought it was a great story. We got 12 or 13 guys here in Argentina at Las Flores and it’s not often that ladies come, I love it because it keeps everybody polite, don’t look too far out of hand except for Diego, you can’t help yourself. But how did you get into hunting?

Tracy Haddock: My father took me hunting when I was small, I’m the third of 3 girls, we grew up on a farm, I was supposed to be a boy at around like 6, I was going around the yard with the BB gun shooting birds, it just comes naturally. He took me dove hunting when I was small and it’s just evolved into, I love traveling the world and hunting.

Ramsey Russell: You were supposed to be the boy, so he treated you like one anyway.

Tracy Haddock: Right. Which is good because you all have better hobbies than girls.

Ramsey Russell: Tracy, you said the other night at dinner, you said, your mama dress you like a girl and your daddy put you on a tractor, is that how you grew up?

Tracy Haddock: Right, that’s how I grew up.

Ramsey Russell: When did you get into duck hunting?

Tracy Haddock: Duck hunting was in high school, so I was mainly dove hunting.

Ramsey Russell: Did your dad take you?

Tracy Haddock: Actually friends of mine took me duck hunting. But yeah, I love duck hunting better than dove hunting.

Ramsey Russell: Do you still remember your first duck?

Tracy Haddock: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: What was it, tell me about it.

Tracy Haddock: It was a wood duck.

Ramsey Russell: South Carolina, state bird, practically.

Tracy Haddock: Yeah, pretty much.

Ramsey Russell: What did you enjoy most about Las Flores? How did the duck hunting here compare to some of your other duck hunting experiences?

Tracy Haddock: I guess, I don’t know. Well, Argentina in general, the people are just so friendly and nice and you’re in this country that’s so beautiful and out here you can see more of the landscape than other places that we’re in and I just love it out here.

Ramsey Russell: So, what about the number and diversity of birds coming in as compared to South Carolina?

Tracy Haddock: Huge. Yeah, you all ruined me down here by coming down here.

Ramsey Russell: And Bubba and Jamie said they shoot better when you all shoot at the same duck. Is there any truth to that?

Tracy Haddock: Yeah, there is. The duck doesn’t stand a chance if we’re all shooting. But then –

Ramsey Russell: I’ve kid you one time about shooting like a girl and somebody got on to me in social media and I’m like, wait a minute, now when I was a little boy hunting in the dove field, the best shot on the field was Miss Peggy. She put all the men including my granddaddy to shame, she was always had her limit first, she shot extremely well. And I’ve seen that a lot of ladies that hunt.

Tracy Haddock: Right. Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: What would you tell anybody listening about Las Flores, Argentina? Can I know you – You all been to Argentina before, you all have shot doves and duck, how did the hunting compare to those experiences?

Tracy Haddock: It was great. The hunt guides were wonderful as far as calling the birds and being there for anything you ever needed especially shells.

Ramsey Russell: Was the food good?

Tracy Haddock: Yeah, the food was absolutely delicious.

Ramsey Russell: Which of the five meals was your favorite?

Tracy Haddock: Probably the ribs, the pork ribs that we have.

Ramsey Russell: Mine too. Diego was like, oh, I think these are red stag, I said, trust me, I’m from Mississippi, these are definitely pork.

Tracy Haddock: Yeah, you can’t beat pork.

Ramsey Russell: Favorite species?

Tracy Haddock: Oh, I’m not sure about that one, I like all of them.

Ramsey Russell: Would you come back?

Tracy Haddock: Oh, I definitely come back. Yeah, I love to go on trips like this. This makes my bad work days good.

Ramsey Russell: But now you live an adventurous lifestyle, by my standards.

Tracy Haddock: By your standards, I think the same of you.

Ramsey Russell: Well, Jamie was telling me the other day the first time you all went spear fishing that I don’t say he said, you all were going back to the airport or something at noon and you had already gotten up skydived, flown to wherever you all were fishing and speared fished and was heading back home, that sounds like that’s more before lunch than most people do in a lifetime.

Tracy Haddock: Right. Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Was that just being raised on a farm by your dad?

Tracy Haddock: I guess so. I’ve got a little bit of everything.

Ramsey Russell: Are you a tomboy?

Tracy Haddock: Yes, I’m a tomboy. Yeah, I just love doing adventurous things, so people think I’m crazy, I’ve been called that several times before.

Ramsey Russell: What’s next on your list?

Tracy Haddock: Gosh, I don’t know. I have a bucket list, I’m going through my bucket list quickly though. Like it was skydiving, becoming a pilot, I’ve always wanted to shoot a beer in Alaska, so that was probably next. I shot a black buck in Alaska, so I love Alaska too.

Ramsey Russell: You are talking about a big grizzly bear?

Tracy Haddock: Yeah, I think it’s fun.

Ramsey Russell: Would you come back on this hunt again?

Tracy Haddock: Oh yeah, definitely, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: We’ve enjoyed having you, it was great to meet you and I have sure enjoyed visiting with you South Carolina folks, it was so much fun. One thing we were talking about with some of the other folks is how birds of a feather, flock together and you come down here, there was three of you all, there’s 13 people in camp, but everybody’s kind of the same we get along, don’t we?

Tracy Haddock: Yeah, we do.

Ramsey Russell: Nice and easy, no pretentious people, everybody’s just regular duck hunters. And the staff, they speak a foreign language but they’re just like us, that makes it nice, doesn’t it?

Tracy Haddock: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you very much, Tracy we enjoy it. And finally Mike Nolan, my shooting partner from this evening. Mike, welcome back to Las Flores.

Mike Nolan: Glad to be here.

A West Tennessee Duck Hunter

What do you think the difference in Argentina versus West Tennessee or the Mississippi Flyway is?

Ramsey Russell: What brings you back to this particular operation because you’ve been here before.

Mike Nolan: I’m a West Tennessee duck hunter who’s been in a West Tennessee duck depression for 4 years. I came 3 years ago because it was the second terrible season in a row and I wanted to actually have the opportunity to harvest a lot of ducks in a short amount of time.

Ramsey Russell: Kind of catch up and get over them West Tennessee. Do you think that hunting in the United States is just West Tennessee that’s a little slow at times.

Mike Nolan: I think that the majority of the Mississippi Flyway is hurting and I think everything Missouri South has had an off year for the last 4 years except for the places that self-refuge.

Ramsey Russell: But we were talking about it today this morning when you and I hunted together, it’s not just the volume, it’s the quality of having that much opportunity. Like today, we took turn shooting and I did some filming and you did some filming and I did some shooting, you did some shooting, we didn’t shoot when ducks were flying overhead and the Char dog out there retreating. We just enjoyed it that it’s kind of what it’s supposed to be about.

Mike Nolan: It’s what it was when I started duck hunting in 2009. And those few very good years shaped what I thought duck hunting was and I’ve been looking for it ever since and has been hard to find.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What do you think the difference in Argentina versus West Tennessee or the Mississippi Flyway is?

Mike Nolan: The Ducks here, they respond to a Mojo, they respond to a call.

Ramsey Russell: They like Mojo for sure.

Mike Nolan: They do. They decoy, we’re shooting him at 15, 20 yards instead of 40 yards, a long shot here is 45 yards, whereas at home, that’s pretty average in West Tennessee.

Ramsey Russell: It’s a lot of habitat at times.

Mike Nolan: This trip especially second time here, last time I came, I thought maybe I’ll just bring hip waiters next time and I’ve been in water up to my belly button the whole time, we’ve been here this time.

Ramsey Russell: Now, let’s talk about this morning. Speaking of that, because this morning, I would have said we’re fixing to walk across the Atlantic Ocean in the dark, all you can see it and as the water kept getting deeper and deeper and we get to that first set of Tules and they go like, no, come on, like, no, we stay here, no, come on and it got a little deep out there.

Mike Nolan: I’m not as tall as I wish I was. And I can tell you this entire trip, my dick’s been under the water.

Ramsey Russell: I tested the limits of the Mo-marsh final stand today, it was maxed out. But that we come into this belly button deep and duck weed six inches thick like icing on a cake surrounded by grass or Tules and that’s when you know, I’m fixing to shoot Rosy Bills, it was awesome. If I’m not shooting Rosy Bills here, it ain’t happening and it happened and shot some silver, shot some few pintails, but the Rosy Bill showed up today, shot some whistling ducks later, but the Rosie Bill showed out today.

Mike Nolan: They are the equivalent of when I hunt timber in Arkansas on a day when it’s right, how green heads do. It’s that flapping backpedaling over the row bow, oh my God, you don’t have to shoot them, you’ve already won.

Ramsey Russell: They’re fast like a diver, but when they fly over a lot of times you don’t have to shoot them at 40-50 yards because a lot of times you’ll call them and it takes them a while going that fast to come back around. But they did today, they came right back in the kill hole.

Mike Nolan: And the call is funny because if you’ve ever been with a West Tennessee guy who’s hunting a lot of ring necks, it’s a ring neck call, it’s a growl, that growl through a mallard call that is, if you do it at home and someone’s never heard it, they think you’re crazy.

Ramsey Russell: When you hear hen Rosy Bill, you think she’s mad. She think she’s a dog fixing to bite you or something like that. What was your favorite hunt this trip?

Mike Nolan: Honestly, this morning was my favorite, but I’ve had 3 mornings where we’ve shot the two man limit and it has been – I had one off morning. Today, I had one afternoon where we didn’t shoot our full limit, all the hunts are good. I had an afternoon hunt two nights ago where me and Lee Allen of another Tennessee boy shot our limit of teal in 25 minutes and they were all 15 yards and you’re trying not to shoot the robo because they’re so close.

Ramsey Russell: Have you noticed how many Mojo ducks he has all except for the full brand as I brought, all of them are just patterned with BBs.

Mike Nolan: Yeah, they absolutely are. Literally the Mojo is the thing, it’s it when the Mojo battery slows down, the ducks quit coming, I mean, it needs to be rolling at that normal high speed and they see it from way off and they come to it like what my friends who hunted long before me referred to as the good old days in the 90s when they – I think that’s when they came out was the 90s, I didn’t start duck hunting until 2009, so I don’t know. And fortunately we’ve had blue skies every day, there hasn’t been a cloudy day, there’s always been at least a little bit – and it’s almost too hot, there were a lot of mosquitoes today.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. The bag limits are generous, very generous because there’s so few hunters here and there’s a little hunting pressure and I can remember hunting over just battered, I mean, absolute growing up just piece of shit decoys, that’s been around since forever and it worked. But now, you feel like you’ve got to have the latest, greatest, most expensive $80 a piece fully fuzzed, man, look at these decoys we’re hunting over. I mean, it’s working.

Mike Nolan: The decoys here all are covered in silicon because they’ve been shot so many times. And I mean, they put, what, 12, 15 out of Mojo and –

Ramsey Russell: And the dead ducks kind of service.

Mike Nolan: They do.

Ramsey Russell: One Char didn’t pick up decoys that really is kind of a big deal. And the client would show up come this far, you want to see decoys, not pop bottles, but I can guarantee you black pop bottles out there floating would work just fine.

Mike Nolan: All the old school milk jugs that they use, the old real foot guys still talk about as the black milk jugs on a string. And the guys that hunt Hickman Harbor Kentucky, they run the big rigs of it in the deep water. I mean, I hunted a place a couple of years ago that was like that with Mr. Flood and it literally was just milk bottles, spray painted black on a big netting like something off a boat and they put 100 of them out and it’s like there is no way this is going to work, but it did.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about the food a little bit. What was your 3 meals and 2 meals in between called appetizers, but what are some of your favorite things? Because I’ve seen you eat at least 30 empanadas in the last few days. But I’m guessing that’s one of your favorite.

Mike Nolan: That’s a fact. Empanadas and then two days ago they had a homemade chorizo that they cooked over the open flame and the only reason I stopped eating them is because I counted, they had 20 there was 14 people in camp and I ate 3 and I would have eaten 5 more, but I wanted everybody to be able to have one.

Experience Guided Duck Hunts in Argentina

When you sit around his table, it’s like one big happy family hunting camp.

Ramsey Russell: It says a lot about it, doesn’t it? What about the level of organization? You’ve been on some guided hunt before you had around, you’re busy, you got a busy career and you take off and go to some different places to hunt around the US. But how does the level of organization compared to some of the places you see back home?

Mike Nolan: I can say that in the morning we all stand there and you wonder if it’s going to come together because they’re speaking a different kind of Spanish and I speak Spanish, but I don’t speak this Spanish. And you end up where you need to end up and you always end up set up, right. But sometimes you wonder. In that first day and I was here the first day they really hunted, well, I guess it was the second day, I was not convinced we were going to get where we needed to go and we did and had shot two limits very easily. And the quality of the guides in the lodge here is extremely high, but there is some faith that you have to have because there are times you think there is no way they’re going to get this right and they get it real close. The only thing they messed up is they brought the wrong gun for me one day, which they literally memorize the gun that every hunter has and then load it in a truck. And I mean, there’s 14 hunters today, how does he know which of his 50 guns –

Ramsey Russell: Me and you get in the blue truck and our stuff there, the dog’s stands there, everything’s there.

Mike Nolan: So, yeah, I mean, it’s great. But is it perfect? No, but I mean, I’ve been to a lot of big places in these States where you go and it is such a crap shoot in the morning, are you shooting at shooting time? Rarely.

Ramsey Russell: One morning, we were a little late, we were late by Las Flores standard. Las Flores standard is usually, if I could see with my naked eye at 7:30 I’m somewhere in a duck blind around 06:30 which is a little long, me standing in deep water. They break out a spotlight to entertain you a little bit because the ducks are working. But you remember that morning we were – I can’t remember, our truck broke or something.

Mike Nolan: Hit a post and went through the battery.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. But as we stood there, they were getting sorted in you all’s little hole, I was over here somewhere else and the marsh was just wall to wall duck. It’s like you felt late, but then you all came out with two limits, I mean, so what’s late?

Mike Nolan: Oh, yeah, that’s exactly right. And the other thing is you don’t want to be too early. I mean, you hunt all day and sleep is a premium here. And so we all complain, so the next day I was standing in the dick deep water at 06:15 and there wasn’t a duck to be seen till 7:15. So, be careful what you wish for, you might get it and so we got it the next day but it’s great, this is so fun.

Ramsey Russell: What about the people you meet here? Because like we did have 13, 14 people, you came alone, he came alone, they’re 2, 3 whatever. When you sit around his table, it’s like one big happy family hunting camp.

Mike Nolan: It’s just duck camp, it’s duck camp, it’s just in Argentina. Everybody is relaxed, several of the folks here are basically nondrinkers and there’s a lot of people who like to drink, I like to drink beer way more than I should. And we sit around the table and have community and talk about our lives –

Ramsey Russell: Sit around the fire pit, you brought a speaker listening to the country music, it was just like duck camp back home.

Mike Nolan: Absolutely. I mean, I met a family from Tennessee that’s a dad and two sons, I mean, we’ve already exchanged phone numbers, I bet I’ll hunt with them next year, they’re going to be my friends. It’s awesome and that’s people say you’re going by yourself, yeah, I’m a little adventurous doing that, but I’ve been before, so I’m not the – when I came the first time I was way more adventurous than the second time because the second time I knew what I was coming to and I knew I would make friends and I knew it would be. I haven’t hunted alone once and I’m a solo hunter and this place always hunts and parties of 2 or 3 and I have had a great experience and everybody’s been courteous and understands basic duck hunting safety and leave your safety on and don’t shoot over your head and bust your ears.

Ramsey Russell: It’s a real duck hunt and it attracts generally real duck hunters. I’ve told people before, I’ve had a lot of guys, you book solo, we may have had this conversation your first time years ago. But people said, I come by myself, is that all right? And after 20 years, nearly 20 years of doing this business, what I’ve seen is just what you describe. I could put 12 people at this table and now you got 11 other folks just like you contact and next time you come on a trip, you could probably call them boys. Hey, I’m thinking about going here, going there, you all want to go? It’s birds of a feather man, you make friends like that.

Mike Nolan: We talked about it today. When are you thinking about coming next year, it’s a little hot and we’re all talking about end of May.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Mike Nolan: Just end of May. And so the two boys are a little bit younger –

Ramsey Russell: And when did you come?

Mike Nolan: The first time I came in the 1st week of May in 2019. And I was the first one in camp at that over by the cattle farm and there was no TV, no internet, which turned out to be a blessing. But it’s one of those I needed a break and so my phone rings a lot and it didn’t ring any because I was in the middle of nowhere. I think it was day three before the internet worked where I could call home. But at that point in my life, I was very happy to have that, that was a positive, not a negative. But this lodge, I mean, there’s satellite TV, the internet is better than it is at my hunting camp at home, I’ve talked to my family every night, my cell phone works. I mean, hell, we’re trading pictures on Instagram. I mean, it’s like we’re sitting in the airport in Dallas Fort Worth.

Ramsey Russell: Something else, I was going to say, I forgot what it was, we’re talking about food, we’re talking about the internet, we’re talking about the services, it’s a wonderful hunt, it’s a good place to come, you meet a lot of people just like yourself. What else, Mike? We need plenty of cold beer, plenty of wine.

Mike Nolan: Plenty of cold beer, plenty of wine, I mean, it’s a full stock bar, Iberian ham, which is a delicacy if you don’t know what it is. I mean, there’s some of the food here has just been out of this world. The stag rib that you all brought from your stag, I mean, it was a special thing.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, we eat stag almost every day.

Mike Nolan: Yeah, it’s been great. The chef here Facu, he is like at home, he’d be like a hipster cool kid and around here he walks around a chef hat with pride. He’s so proud to be the chef of this lodge, taking care of everybody, it’s contagious and if you make something you don’t love and you tell him he’s hurt.

Ramsey Russell: He’s a hunter, he’s a chef, he’s a trained culinary arts guy and at age 30, he’s now 37, at age 30 his granddad who while dying told him I’m old, I’m successful and I’m boring, don’t live a boring life. So at age 30 he gets on a freaking skateboard and goes down the side of a mountain in Patagonia doing 85 miles an hour and I’m like, there’s a lot of stuff you could do besides that and not be a boring guy.

Mike Nolan: Yeah, I mean, he’s got that tattoo on his entire arms, his long board, he wears vans skate shoes everywhere he goes and he’s got that chef hat on and he will bend over backwards to make you happy. And this has been a great trip, I would say this one’s better than the first one. The first one, there was a lot of nerves because I didn’t know where I was going and I was totally alone and I think the first night in the lodge I was the only guest in because I came early before they had figured it out. This one, I rode in a cab which is a whole another story with 3 other Tennessee boys and by the time I got here I had three really good friends.

Ramsey Russell: You all were kind of close in that cab.

Ramsey Russell: Kind of close.

Ramsey Russell: I know what I was going to ask, what gets me about, we hunt twice a day, the mornings typically, especially if you’re in one of you be are fast and furious. This morning seemed paced because we were taking turns. But then we got back out, they started taking pictures on the dry bank real quick and it was what, 9 o’clock, so an hour and a half, we had 9 or 10 days worth of Mississippi limits best days, Mississippi limits a piece in an hour and a half. But then the afternoons it’s a big limits in the morning, little limits in the afternoon, but the afternoons to me, I really find myself enjoying those except when the mosquito are swarming because it’s very relaxed, it’s not as hectic as what I’m trying to say. Sometimes, we all love to gun them down but sometimes it gets a little too chaotic and we don’t have pace in the afternoon.

Mike Nolan: I don’t think we had 3 or 4 minutes of down time this morning, we didn’t kill more than 3 or 5 out of a group the whole morning.

Ramsey Russell: A lot of single and doubles.

Mike Nolan: A lot of single doubles and alternated, I’ve videoed you, you videoed me, we’d pick up and shoot the same duck and still –

Ramsey Russell: I notice you shoot better, we shoot the same birds, you hadn’t heard that before?

Mike Nolan: I was thinking the same thing. I notice you put a big video of me missing, I was like, I got one of you missing.

Ramsey Russell: I know you do, I messed up like you Mike, you learned that. But I can tell you this, I will miss and load up and try again, but that’s what it’s all about.

Mike Nolan: You just can’t finish on a miss and that’s one thing about here is you don’t have to, you’re at home, you have that one opportunity you miss and you go home mad, here you’ll get your chance to remedy your problem.

Ramsey Russell: Have you ever tried doing afternoon doves or parakeets or perdiz or anything else or you just kind of stuck on the duck?

Mike Nolan: When I came last time I did dove and he didn’t have a good place this time and honestly, I’m so duck deprived after another 3 hard West Tennessee seasons that all I want to kill, I have blood lust for ducks, I want to hunt ducks as much as I can as long as I can and I’m still there and I know that’s going to wane, but it’s not waned yet.

Ramsey Russell: We all work like Hebrew slaves back home, we’re busy, if you got kids, you got soccer, you got baseball, you got basketball, you might have Lions club, you’ve got a yard that needs taken care of, then you got job and work and work and we just work ourselves to death. And come hunting season back home, we go to camp whether we got duck or not, we go, it’s what we do. But I’ve now got clients, especially some of the older gentlemen here, there’s a gentleman here right now, he’s in his 80s and for 20 years, he came one time, went back home and sold his stuff and said, I’m going down there to hunt like the good old days. But I do have clients that have very limited amount of time, I got this one particular client I’m thinking of and he told me one time, he said, I go down there, I shoot a season’s worth of duck in a week and I come back home and I work and he said it’s not perfect, but for that same amount of money, I’m sitting out in a hole in a rice field shooting 13 ducks in a season.

Mike Nolan: Well, you just said, what I was going to say is you shoot a season’s worth of ducks and a good season’s worth of ducks, for a lot less than I was spending on a season’s worth of duck hunting. For me, I had my own lodge, I just sold it, it was a third of what I pay a year at a duck hunt for a week here. And I feel full, my duck hunting desire is now tempered in a good way, I feel complete.

Ramsey Russell: For a few weeks, it’ll come back.

Mike Nolan: About three weeks, I’ll be home and say, all right, what you got lined up for me in October.

Ramsey Russell: And well, we talked about that this morning too, we need to stay in touch. And I Galavan around the United States, I love to shoot, I love shooting Rosy Bills and speckle teal, this good stuff down here because it’s duck hunting. But I like my mallard, I like my pintail, I like my green wings, wood duck, I like old North American duck those familiar species. And I got a van around, you just need to jump in that white truck one day, let’s get you up and go.

Mike Nolan: I thought you wanted a black truck.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I do. Well, with prices like that, I’m going to let nobody hand me up on color.

Mike Nolan: Oh, we’ll do it. It’s funny today we posted a bunch of stuff on social media and I’ve had 20 of my friends ask me where when I said I’ll hook you up with Ramsey. And one of my friends has a very famous place in West Tennessee. He said, do you think he trade, like come hunt with me and talk to me about Argentina? I’m like, yeah, I can almost guarantee you.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I’d love to have him down and sure and enjoy spending a week with you. We’ve talked and communicated on social media a long time Mike, it’s like, I know you do too.

Mike Nolan: I do too. It’s funny how you can know someone from social media and them because you share enough that, you at least know what they show you and then you spend five minutes with them and realize what they show you is real as opposed to a Kardashian, it’s all fake. No, you’re not and I’m not either.

Ramsey Russell: I don’t tweak my eyebrows and lay out in the sun tan in bed, I just go duck hunt, that’s all I know to do. Folks, just so you know, Las Flores, it’s on our web page. Thank you all for listening to this episode, you can go to getducks.com. Argentina duck hunt, look at Las Flores. This is a real duck hunt for real duck hunters, epic proportion. You’ve heard what a lot of these guys have to say about it. Come get you some is all I can say. The season runs, we start May 1st and typically it’s real good and then we go all the way to August 15th and we don’t have a continental migration. These birds down here are nomadic, they find the resources and there’s resources down here and the birds just keep piling in it. That’s another thing, it’s really unbelievable Mike that,  we Americans have an opening day mentality and then a cold front mentality and it’s really not like that anywhere down here in Argentina.

Mike Nolan: I think that’s why, so many of us wanted to come this first week of May as we felt like it was opening day.

Ramsey Russell: It is. Well, it’s opening day after 2.5 years.  It’s like when COVID was crazy back home, we were sheltered in place, didn’t do nothing, all I could think was thank God it ain’t. Hunting season, hunting season came around and most of the US was open, we’d go out and do what we love to do down here, they were shut down. They couldn’t leave their house, they couldn’t leave their front yard to go do nothing, hunting season was closed, red stag, everything was closed. But anyway, folks thank you all for listening to this episode of Duck Season Somewhere from Las Flores Lodge in Argentina. See you next time.