EP 498. Like a Great Big Ol’ Camp Reunion at Delta Waterfowl Expo

 

A Reunion of the Shooting Sports

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to Mojo’s duck season somewhere from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Tiger Town. No offense to nobody like myself in Mississippi State that don’t like them, but what a great town and a great event. We’re here at Delta Waterfowl Expo, and it has exploded in the last three years. I’m going to take you all on a tour of exhibitors, buddies of mine, and people coming through the door to let you all know what a great event this is. Kicking it off with my friend Lucas Mashter from Tetra here. And Lucas, how the heck are you?

Lucas: I’m doing good, Ramsay. Thanks for having me on, buddy.

Ramsey Russell: You all have been at this event since day one?

Lucas: Yes, sir. They were at Little Rock the last two years, I believe.

Ramsey Russell: Two years?

Lucas: And kicked this one off this year in Baton Rouge, and it’s turned out to be a good event. People are rolling through the door, and it’s going to be kind of fun.

Ramsey Russell: Somebody asked me, “Well, what do you think Baton Rouge is going to be like for Delta?” I said, “Are you kidding? Have you ever been to Louisiana?” Man, this truly is the sportsman’s paradise. And I’ve hardly been anywhere outside Louisiana that has the passion and the cultural identity for waterfowl, hunting, fishing, and hunting in general. The shooting sports are right here.

Lucas: Oh, yeah. It’s definitely community-oriented. And, I mean, it’s a family dynamic. It’s how they grow up around here. So they’re going to be coming to this show for sure.

Ramsey Russell: You all have been here since day one? How has it changed and evolved? To me, just since last year, it’s exploded.

Lucas: Yeah. I’d say Delta has gotten really, I guess, aggressive is a good way to put it, with celebrating the community, celebrating what they’re doing for ducks as a whole and what they stand for. So I think that’s really united the community, brought more families and involvement in events like this.

Ramsey Russell: At a time we really need it. We really, truly need this kind of stuff going on, don’t we?

Lucas: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: What do you think about them moving around like this?

Lucas: I like it because, from a regional approach, it allows everybody to get involved because, I mean, some people can’t pick up their family and go on a five, six-hour car ride just to go to a show. So I think this, moving around, allows it to be flexible and really go where the duck hunters are.

Hearing: A Relatable Topic

So you can still call your calls, you can still have a conversation, share the laughs, and the conversation in the blind, all while protecting your ears in the process.

Ramsey Russell: And they’re moving, I mean, they’re going to make a circuit. Brad said, two years in Little Rock, a year here in Baton Rouge. I think, I know next year’s in Oklahoma City, and it could be the following year it going to be Wisconsin or Minnesota or somewhere else, I want somewhere in the heartland. Golly, man that excites me because, like yourself, I’m in contact with a lot of duck hunters nationwide. And I come to this show not to sell hunts. I come to the show for this right here, just to see people. I know it’s hot outside in the Deep South. It’s not hot right here in the convention hall. And I get to talk to duck hunters all day, every day. Tetra hearing, this has got to be a good show for you because I deal with a lot of duck hunters closer to my age than your own, and we’re all lip readers, professional lip readers. Talk about, surely, this has got to be an incredible show.

Lucas: Yeah. We’ve had people actually calling the office before and even hitting us up on social media even before we got down here asking if we’re going to be at the show again. They put it on their calendar. And honestly, it’s just a great experience to allow them to obviously learn more about the hearing technology and what we can do to never take away from the experience that you, as a duck hunter, like to do, right? So you can still call your calls, you can still have a conversation, share the laughs, and the conversation in the blind, all while protecting your ears in the process.

Ramsey Russell: But see, you’ve been with Tetra hearing since day one. I mean, you’re right at the beginning, you came on.

Lucas: I’m at three years right now, yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: When you come to a show like this, have you seen a change? Is there any change, I should ask, between, let’s just say 100 people come through your booth, how many of them are wanting to utilize Tetra to protect their hearing from the get-go versus old geezers like me that are just trying to hang on to what I got?

Lucas: So honestly, hearing is just such a relatable topic, Ramsay, that once someone sees their grandfather, their father, their mother, whoever might suffer from hearing loss, once they see how impactful it is, and everybody relates to hearing loss in their own way, shape, or form, so being able to truly dive into that and say, Hey, I don’t want that to be me. I don’t want to forget those memories or the time in the duck blind spent. I don’t want to risk that because of later onset stages of dementia and Alzheimer’s, things of that nature, go right along with hearing. So when people are educated on that stuff, that’s when they’re starting to make a consideration of, “Hey, I got to start looking into this.”

Ramsey Russell: Great to see you. I know you all are busy because we’re getting busy. People piling in, folks. Come see us.

Lucas: Thank you, Ramsey.

Longest Distance Traveled to the Delta Waterfowl Expo

So, you know, Joel Bryce had visited us last year, when we were neck-deep in, you know, trying to save duck season.

Ramsey Russell: And the award for the longest distance traveled to Delta Waterfowl Expo, Baton Rouge, goes to my buddy Trent Lean. Trent, all the way from Australia, really? For this?

Trent Lean: Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else mate.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me, last time I saw you in America, it’s been a spell, but it was duck season. What compels a Field and Game Australia board member, duck hunter extraordinaire from Australia, to come all the way across, that’s halfway across the world, to come to this event and our named duck season? What brings you here, seriously?

Trent Lean: Yeah, so, I mean, we’re over here as guests of Delta Waterfowl. So, you know, Joel Bryce had visited us last year, when we were neck-deep in, you know, trying to save duck season.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Trent Lean: And yeah, we’ve come over this weekend as their guests and, yeah, just being able to sit down with their board and have a chat with their board about what we faced and some of the similarities that are over here and the constant pressure of the antis that, you’re starting to see it over here. They’re creeping in.

Ramsey Russell: You know, Natalie Krebb and I met this morning, had a conversation. Joel Bryce and I have had this conversation. Several other Americans that have been over there and hunted with you all. It’s halfway across the world. It doesn’t seem like a problem until you go over there and see what you all are dealing with, come back, look around, and go, “Holy shit, it’s happening right here.”

Lucas: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: How does it feel after all these years of kind of Australia fighting the fight with anti-hunting in Australia? How does it feel now that a lot of these NGOs here in America are realizing that there’s a lot of parallel between you all problem and here and are kind of joining forces? I mean, how does it feel to have just a little bit of halfway across the world support?

Trent Lean: It’s huge. You know, all the major orgs have been really good through the process, and it’s a collective effort by everybody. And it’s interesting now that, we’re at the forefront of it and copping it really hard, but you can see things progressing over here. That was us 15, 20 years ago.

Ramsey Russell: But now let me tell you what you’re not going to see in the next three days here in Baton Rouge, in this convention center. You ain’t going to see no anti-hunters. You ain’t going to see nobody. I would almost triple dog dare an anti-hunter from Australia to come stand in anybody’s decoy that’s on this floor today. Here’s a question I got for you, though. Do you all have anything like this? Do you all have an expo or a collection of, Do you all have this going on at all in your country?

Trent Lean: No, not at all. They do a, like, a shot show, but nothing specific. Nothing specifically for waterfowlers. We do run our duck nights.

Ramsey Russell: But are there hunting shows like this? No, no, you’re shaking your head, No.

Trent Lean: Obviously, we’re taking a lot of ideas away from this weekend, and there are a few things that we might trial. Obviously, on a much smaller scale, I mean, this is epic. But yeah, we’ll have a lot of takeaways from this.

Ramsey Russell: I would invite my buddy Dango to come over here and sell some of his stuff. You know, to this day, I have got a half dozen of them in keeps. I’ve gifted them. I’ve given them away. Well, those Dingo shell belts he makes are the world’s best ammo cartridge belts.

Trent Lean: Yeah, they are.

Ramsey Russell: I bet they would fly off the shelf right here.

Trent Lean: Yeah. Yeah, they would do very well, I would imagine.

Ramsey Russell: So here’s how today started. I get to my booth, I flip on the lights, I’m doing this. They kick off the duck dog parade, and it’s like a Mardi Gra band making the rounds. And I’m not paying attention, but here they come. So I turn on my phone, and leading the charge in grand, high-stepping, baton-swinging style is my buddy, Trent Lane. How did that come about?

Trent Lean: Well, we went to a rum distillery for dinner last night.

Ramsey Russell: I know your weak spot for –

Trent Lean: Yeah, and I think I might have got the best of it. So they thought it might be perfect for me to lead the front of that.

Ramsey Russell: Is that when you got voluntold to do it, after about two or three rums?

Trent Lean: Well, they did suggest it then. I didn’t really know what I was in for.

Ramsey Russell: Good to see you here. I’m glad to see you here. And I tell you what, Trent, I hope to see you again. You and my buddy Glenn bring old Paul along. Let’s go get in the duck blind somewhere here in America.

Trent Lean: For sure, mate, for sure.

Judging Duck Calls

And he invited me down to judge that, to blow all these calls and judge them.

Ramsey Russell: Bryce Decker from somewhere up in Arkansas. What the heck brings you to Delta Waterfowl, Bryce? You ain’t an exhibitor. You just here making the rounds, baby.

Bryce Decker: I rode down here with my buddy Jeremy Brown. He does leather work, custom leather work. He goes by Wing Shooter on Instagram.

Ramsey Russell: Wing Shooter.

Bryce Decker: And had several invites to kind of tag along with several vendors here. So I didn’t end up buying a booth or nothing. I just brought a couple of boxes of stuff and tagged along with him. And I’m just kind of down here winging it.

Ramsey Russell: Were you a VIP guest. You got a tag. It says VIP guest. What kind of dog, boy?

Bryce Decker: Mr. Jamie Miller and another fella, they’re putting on the call makers contest, and they had a cut-down division, a call maker’s choice division, wood. Several, I think, five or six different divisions. And he invited me down to judge that, to blow all these calls and judge them.

Ramsey Russell: Did you judge all the contests or did you stick with the cut-downs?

Bryce Decker: I did the cut-downs, and I did the call maker’s choice.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Bryce Decker: Most of those calls seemed to be like, not even hybrid calls, but more aggressive, regular J-frame style calls. So I did the cut-downs and those are kind of the two calls that I mess with, is the cut-downs and the aggressive J-frames. So it was right up my alley. It was noisy.

Ramsey Russell: It is Black River Duck Calls. That’s your company?

Bryce Decker: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: How long have you been doing that?

Bryce Decker: I’ve been tinkering with duck calls since I was a kid, and I started selling them in 2011.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Bryce Decker: So a while.

Ramsey Russell: Did you start off as a child with cut-downs?

Bryce Decker: I started off with a very lightly modified round-hole Olt that one of my grandpa’s buddies had tinkered with.

Ramsey Russell: That’s just a northeast Arkansas thing, isn’t it?

Bryce Decker: Not necessarily the round holes, but that’s all they had at the time, I’m not that old, so they weren’t selling keyholes in the stores at that time. I kind of missed the boat on that. But they tinkered on any kind of, you know, the round holes or the keyholes. They didn’t care. And I blew one of them for a while, and then I kind of broke out and went over to Echo for a little bit.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Bryce Decker: And I ended up staffing with them for a few years, and then I met Kirk McCullough and got familiar with him and just fell right back into the cut-down gig. And that’s where my heart is and where my roots are. So I’m right at home in a cut-down world.

Ramsey Russell: Is this your first time to visit the Delta Waterfowl Expo?

Bryce Decker: This is my first time.

Ramsey Russell: What do you think about it so far?

Bryce Decker: It’s great.

Ramsey Russell: It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?

Bryce Decker: It is. All these people that you see.

Ramsey Russell: It’s big, but it ain’t too big.

Bryce Decker: I like how they have it sectioned off. You got a section here, you got a section over there, you got a couple places upstairs. It’s not all just, we’re all piled.

Ramsey Russell: I was glad you all were upstairs. I mean, that blind alley with the duck call, I walked up there and had to put my fingers in my ears. I’m like, good lord.

Bryce Decker: By the time that call makers contest was over, I was ready to go take about a four-hour nap. That sound will just, It’ll wear you down. That amount of sound coming at you all at once will just absolutely wear you down. But it was fun, It was fun.

Ramsey Russell: It’s your first time here. You’re making the rounds. You see them, what the show has to offer. What do you hope to see or who are you going to connect with here or whatever like here? I’m talking to people that ain’t here and don’t realize what an amazing event this is.

Bryce Decker: For me, it’s really cool to put a face in person to these names, that I’ve gotten to know online.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. To the point where I met you at dinner last night. I’ve been following you online, and I’m like, God dawg.

Bryce Decker: Yeah. And you’re a prime example of it. But I seen you, man, and I shook your hand, ate dinner with you. You know, I’ve seen you online for three or four years now. And, of course, the Rixie guys, the dog stand guys, it’s the first time meeting them, and I couldn’t even tell you how many people already. It’s the first day that I’ve met that have approached me, and said, “Man, I’ve known you online, and it’s good to see you. Good to shake your hand. Good to meet you in person.” And everybody’s a lot more cordial in person and a lot more personable, and it’s a whole other world. It’s a lot better. Everything’s better in person than it is behind the facade of a telephone.

Ramsey Russell: I describe this show in particular, Delta Waterfowl Expo. It’s all duck hunters. Its people I know in social media, it’s people I know in business, it’s people I know in life. I just feel like it’s a three-day spell among my people.

Bryce Decker: It is. It is.

Ramsey Russell: Do you feel that?

Bryce Decker: It is. And there’s a lot of opinions online and back and forth and a couple, you know, there’s some arguments here and there and stuff. There ain’t none of that when you’re in person. We’re all in the same boat. All the same duck hunters. We all love the same stuff. And it’s good to show up to places like this and squash some old beef and put faces to names.

Ramsey Russell: Well Duck hunting is all about fellowship.

Bryce Decker: It is. It is.

Ramsey Russell: It really is. We’re all in the same boat. You said it before, I’ll say it again. We’re all in the same boat.

Bryce Decker: Yes, sir. Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you, Bryce.

Bryce Decker: Yes, sir.

Pattern Pros

Basically, what we wanted to do that for was to get your shotgun shooting right for you.

Ramsey Russell: Brody Handsley, where the heck are you from, man?

Brody Handsley: Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Ramsey Russell: What brings you down here to Delta Waterfowl?

Brody Handsley: Oh, we got a booth over at 388. It’s Pattern Pros. So, what we do little bit, we make a pattern pack for shotgun patterning. What that does, it’s eight different brands, three shells each. So, you got your big names, Boss Migra, and some other ones like Satis Waterfowl, the new Epic. Basically, what we wanted to do that for was to get your shotgun shooting right for you.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. Dial it in, get that trigger pulled, best you can.

Brody Handsley: But save you money in the process. Because in order to do this, you would have to spend probably $300 to $400.

Ramsey Russell: Right. And it may not be the ammo you want.

Brody Handsley: No.

Ramsey Russell: So I can come to you and get a selection.

Brody Handsley: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: And compare this one to this one, to this one, or what my gun, my choke, my setup likes on paper.

Brody Handsley: Exactly. So, its eight brands, three shells each, and you know, you can shoot that either at 20, 30, or 40 yards. Or, if you want to take that pack and try three different choke tubes or whatnot, see what that ammo likes. And then once you find that ammo, now you know what to go with.
Now you know what to order. Because a lot of guys, they’ll just order a case, they’ve never shot it before, and they expect phenomenal results. But this is the best thing that we can do for conservation.

Ramsey Russell: In past decades, my hunting career, let’s say, I have had buyer’s regret with shotgun shells.

Brody Handsley: All the time. I’ve done that.

Ramsey Russell: I got to shoot the rest of this stuff, and I can’t hit shit with it.

Brody Handsley: Yeah. I mean, you spend $300, and then you shoot it, and then you’re pillowcasing birds, and they’re not dropping. And that’s my big thing with this company, is I wanted it for the future generations of the water fowling world. So, you go to a lot of hunters’ education and whatnot, but they don’t really touch on patterning and just wing shooting in general. It’s just typical, “Hey, this is how, Don’t point your gun at your buddy. Know what’s behind your target.” Well, let’s just use an example, Arkansas.
The main sport of Arkansas is duck hunting.

Ramsey Russell: Oh boy, yeah. Part of the cultural fabric.

Reducing the Crippling Effect in Waterfowl Hunting

Just putting more birds back into the population just by doing your part on shooting better.

Brody Handsley: Exactly. If they’re not teaching proper wing shooting and just proper shot gunning in the hunter safety courses, how can we make that better, Right. So, I wanted it to reduce crippling. Reducing crippling is huge because I think there was a study done, I don’t remember who did it. I believe Delta Waterfowl a few years back, but dude, it was estimated 1.2 million birds were crippled.

Ramsey Russell: I’ve heard those kinds of numbers. At least, I’d say at least.

Brody Handsley: I mean, it’s big numbers, and how can we reduce that as a fraction? Just putting more birds back into the population just by doing your part on shooting better. Everybody can always get better at the craft. I mean, as duck hunters, we like to tinker with gear. What can make us more deadly in the field? Well, shot gunning, it seems like it’s not, Oh, just buy some shotgun shells. But when you buy a bow or a rifle, Ramsey.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. You going to shoot right and go sight it in. It’s coming though, man. I mean, guys like yourself, I think that the savvy duck hunters, the serious duck hunters are beginning to evolve and understand this. How did it fly up on your radar? I mean, you’re retired military.

Experimenting in the Duck Blind: Finding the Right Gear

During that process, I started buying a lot of shotguns, don’t tell the wife. And then with buying those shotguns, I was just trying to find, “What am I going to shoot the best? What can make me just more potent in the duck blind.

Brody Handsley: No, I just did four years. So, I joined the Marine Corps in 2016 as a small arms technician. So, I got to get my gun background through the Marine Corps, that side. So, 6 months or 9 months before I got out of the Marine Corps, I went to gunsmithing school. And then once I got done with that, I was out and back in Oklahoma from California, and I worked for a company building rifles for them for a few years as well. During that process, I started buying a lot of shotguns, don’t tell the wife. And then with buying those shotguns, I was just trying to find, “What am I going to shoot the best? What can make me just more potent in the duck blind. Well, buying the shells to pattern with got expensive. I’d buy three boxes, $75 or whatever, on the cheap end. And I would shoot some, and they’d be crap, and it’d sit on my shelf, and I’m like, “I wish, I only needed three or five shells. I didn’t need 25. So, that’s what got us kick started on this box.

Ramsey Russell: Why Delta Waterfowl? What is it about this event? This is not your first time, your first time exhibiting, but I’ve met you here before.

Brody Handsley: So, Delta Waterfowl, I feel like, is just definitely one of the main leaders for a very conservation-centric organization, I mean, the conservation side of Delta Waterfowl, I remember going to their banquets as a kid when I was six, seven, eight years old. And it’s between them and Ducks Unlimited, I’ve always seen. But I was like, “This is cool. I think our boxes can really help because we can continue to give money to Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl. That’s great, we still need to do that. But on the individual level, how can we self-regulate ourselves?

Ramsey Russell: Cultivate an ethos.

Brody Handsley: To cultivate better shooting, more conservation-minded duck hunting. Like, hey I know I’m shooting crapshot and I’ve crippled four birds, but hey, I got my limit. It’s always about my limit. Well, man, what’s cool about crippling all these birds if you ain’t going to have them for tomorrow?

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. So I think for Delta Waterfowl, they just, they put on some phenomenal events. They’re down to the duck hunter. They’re into the science. They’re out there in the field. They’re doing it. And you really can’t ask much more than that from a conservation organization. Not saying others aren’t doing it, but Delta is really good about doing it. Thank you, Brody. Mister Joe Busby, all the way from Rankin County, Mississippi, where I lived myself for a long time chasing migration trailers now, I’m going to tell you something, coming out of nowhere, coming way out of left field, I mean, a duck and goose trailer, come on, everybody got one. If you got one, you got one. If you need one, you need one. I stepped into yours yesterday, Garrett, your son Garrett brought about a house one day to show me, and I was impressed. But when I stepped into the one you all got on the floor here yesterday, Joe, I stepped out and said, there’s nowhere and no place and nothing in my life that is as neatly organized as this trailer you all. How’s it been received here on the market?

An Enclosed Trailer on Steroids

Our specs are way above industry standard.

Joe Busby: I think everybody has received it very well. You know, as far as we tell people, this is not your typical enclosed trailer. This is an enclosed trailer on steroids.

Ramsey Russell: It really is.

Joe Busby: We’ve taken the time to build the frames and things there that really matter, that increase the longevity of those trailers to keep them together. The things that you can’t actually see when you walk up to the trailers. But the framework is exceptional. You know, we pay attention to every minute detail because we want to produce a premium product that people are going to be very proud of for years to come.

Ramsey Russell: So, do you all build the trailer itself?

Joe Busby: Initially, yes we do, initially we were building.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Joe Busby: We’ve gotten so busy that I do utilize one company outside of us.

Ramsey Russell: They build it to your specs?

Joe Busby: Absolutely. Our specs are way above industry standard.

Ramsey Russell: Wow. Well, let’s talk about, that’s the start, but let’s talk about the, Pull your mic just a little bit closer.

Joe Busby: Okay.

Ramsey Russell: There you go. Give me, like, a virtual tour of, like, your wader hangers, for example. Those old-timey wader hangers where you put the boot kind of in between and hang them upside down will damage your waders, especially if you try to do it overseas. I like the way you all got like a coat hanger. You hang them by the straps, the boots are down. They’re very neatly organized. I saw a gun rack that goes inside, where I’m driving down the trailer, bumping down the road, everything’s intact. I saw a box for turtle box or ice chest. Everything has got its place, so when the door is open, it’s time to go put out my decoy. I can put my hands on everything, like a perfectly little like a tackle box.

Joe Busby: You know, that’s the thing. At 4:00 in the morning, you want to be able to get to your equipment quickly, get that stuff out, and get to the field. You know, as far as the wader hangers, we manufacture two versions. We do a boot-style wader hanger. We utilize that in the enclosed trailers, and we manufacture our strap wader hanger, which for me, the difference is short-term and long-term storage.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Joe Busby: You know, short-term, the boots hanging are fine. That gives you the opportunity to use your wader dryers and things of that nature. Long-term storage with a strap hanger is going to reduce all the stress on your seams. So your boots are on the floor.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What are some of the other accessories that people request, and that you all make, that you put into these trailers?

Joe Busby: There’s a variety of things. We build an overhead storage system, which is extremely unique. One man can take it down and put it up, but the most wasted space inside an enclosed trailer, in my opinion, is if you’re hauling a UTV or side by side, that area above those is dead space. So we’ve built a system to where you can store a lot of equipment above those.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. It’s like you’ve got a trailer, but then you’ve got 20 foot of retail shelf with all kinds of accessories. What else do you have over there?

Joe Busby: We got an assortment of things. You know, not only we developed 95% of all the things that we sell ourselves over the last couple of years and then refined that, but along with that, we sell everything, every component that you could possibly need inside an enclosed trailer. Now, all of our main pieces are made in America, by American material, using US labor.

Ramsey Russell: That’s important to you.

Joe Busby: Absolutely. We want to support our own country first.

Ramsey Russell: Yep. You all are a new startup company. Is this you all’s first hunting show?

Joe Busby: No, it’s actually our 4th. But by far the biggest?

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Joe Busby: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: What was yesterday like, yesterday was a Friday, most people, of course, still at work, but what was yesterday like here at Delta Waterfowl Expo for you?

Joe Busby: It was really cool because I got to meet a lot of vendors. And customers stopped by, you know, and the way we build products is just not thoughts coming from us or our own ideas, but it’s sitting down talking to you, somebody that lives the life every day, and understanding what are the thorns in their side, and how we can build something to make that particular area better.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What do you say to somebody that says, “Ah, I don’t need to be organized, man. I just throw my stuff in it, throw my stuff out”?

Joe Busby: I would tell them, look at one of our trailers. It is absolutely, you know, I’m probably considered a little OCD, so that’s where a lot of that comes from. I want everything in a place. You know, if we’re leaving here, Mississippi, and say we’re going to pull off to North Dakota and hunt all the way back down, you never know what environment you’re going to have to adjust to. So being organized allows you to carry a ton of different setups, and it allows you to adjust. You know, if you need some equipment and you’re in North Dakota and you left it at home, you know, you’re out of luck. So we try to carry everything possible with us in those trailers so we can change rapidly, and a lot of times, that’s the difference in having a good hunt and a bad one.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. You know, I’m not OCD at all, but at the same time, I get up in the morning and I get my blind bag, and everything’s in its place. Open this pocket, there’s my headlamp. Open this pocket, there’s my calls. Open this pocket, there’s my gloves. Open this pocket, there’s the charred-all. I mean, I’ve got to know where everything is. I don’t have time to start looking willy-nilly for everything because the clock is ticking. It’s time to go hunting, you know what I’m saying?

Joe Busby: Yes sir.

Ramsey Russell: And I’ve learned that if everything has a place and everything goes in its place, everything will last longer.

Joe Busby: Absolutely. You know, those trailers are basically, if I can use your bag, example, it’s just a bigger bag.

Ramsey Russell: It’s a great big bag.

Joe Busby: Yeah, and it has every tool that you could possibly need. You can put it away where you know exactly where it’s at and you can retrieve it. You know, we’ve been in the field hunting in a pit, you know, and birds start splitting on us 150 yards out. You know, most people will not have the equipment to make that adjustment. It takes us about ten minutes to run back to the trailer, get a completely different setup, and move to get on those birds.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, that’s great. And it’s not one-size-fits-all. I mean, Garrett brought you all prototype by the house. I walked through it, and I was like, “Whoa.” I was impressed, and I don’t impress easy. He said, “Well, this is just how we hunt. This is just the stuff we carry. This is our trailer.” But you all can customize it.

Joe Busby: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: It can be personally customized to suit this person’s needs. Maybe he’s putting an ATV in there, maybe he’s not. Maybe he’s using big ol’ seed bags with decoys. It can be fully customized for what the guy needs, and it’s going to last forever.

Joe Busby: Sizes and colors, you know, we build about seven different size trailers. Seven-wide is about the lowest. You know, I’m really not a big fan of building a six-wide. 7 to 8.5 wide. We can go up to eight tall. We can run out to 32 feet. I mean, we can build a big trailer. We can put you A/C, heat in it. We can put you a bathroom in it. It’s just basically whatever you want. We’re going to build that trailer to the customer’s wants and needs.

Ramsey Russell: Does it have charging ports?

Joe Busby: It does. We can drop an electrical package in it. All our trailers come with a marine-grade battery system that we mount on the tongue. And along with that, we drop in a 1200-watt inverter, which has a couple of 110 outlets as well as USB ports. We’ve custom-built some charging racks for that particular piece that allow you to charge camera equipment, video equipment, 18-volt batteries. Because everywhere we go, we’re going to try to collect brush and we’re going to brush in on the native grasses there.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Joe Busby: Just so we blend in well, we can also charge 6-volt batteries as well as cell phones in that rack.

Ramsey Russell: That’s great. Chasin Migration Trailers. Joe Busby, I appreciate you stopping by. I hope you have a great show, I think you are. I walked by your booth. I wasn’t looking for you, but I walked by yesterday and there was a crowd gathering. There was an ant trail going in and out of that trailer, taking a look, eyes this big when they stepped out. So I applaud you, and I wish you all the best of luck.

Joe Busby: Thank you. Thanks for having us.

Ramsey Russell: Salt ball shot shells copper-plated bismuth-ten alloy is the good old days again. Say goodbye to gimmicky high-recoil compensation science and hello to superior performance for all waterfowl worldwide. My personal go-to favorites are either the 12 gauge, two and three-quarter inch ounce and a quarter fours, or the 28 gauge, three-inch ounce and six. And hell yeah, I’m all in on the War Chief buffer payloads. Know your patterns, take ethical shots, make clean kills. That is the Boss way. The good old days are now.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

You all are bona fide Arkansas public land duck hunters.

Ramsey Russell: Mister Todd Ezze from Arkansas, somewhere. Where is the little Rock?

Todd Ezze: North Little Rock.

Ramsey Russell: North Little Rock, Arkansas. You know, Todd, you’re among the several friendships, I’ve made in the last couple of years, coming to this particular event here with the Delta Waterfowl Expo. And I’m glad to have met you, man. I just, last night at dinner, I just felt like I’d known you and the other boys forever.

Todd Ezze: Yeah, that was a good time. It’s one of those, a lot of like-minded people here. I think-

Ramsey Russell: Birds of a feather flock together.

Todd Ezze: Yeah, everybody you see here has the same thing in mind and shares a lot of the same interests. So it’s a great time.

Ramsey Russell: I want to get you sooner or later. I’m going to make a loop up there to you all’s neck of the woods, and we’re all going to hunt together because I really want to interview all you all. You all got such a great story. You all are bona fide Arkansas public land duck hunters.

Todd Ezze: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Without naming old names, talk briefly about how you kind of got introduced into the sport and all.

Todd Ezze: Yeah. So my dad never hunted. My mom didn’t do any hunting, and I was just one of those kids, I think I mentioned this to you, that just had a BB gun and ran through any patch of woods I had near my house. I just loved it more than the normal kid. Fishing, hunting, whatever I could do. And then, I was lucky enough that my dad kind of took an interest in hunting when I was 12 or 13 years.

Ramsey Russell: He probably did it for you.

Todd Ezze: He did, he did. And he doesn’t hunt or fish anymore, which makes me really appreciate that much more, that he took me and did that. I was lucky enough to have a couple of family friends that also took us out and shared the outdoors. I think I went on my first duck hunt probably in 1993 or 1994 and just got to see how special it was and fell in love.

Ramsey Russell: So was that first duck hunt Arkansas public?

Todd Ezze: I think that one was actually on some land we had permission on, so private, but not really a lease. That was back in the days when you could ask somebody if you could hunt on their land.

Ramsey Russell: That’s the good old days.

Todd Ezze: Oh, I’m telling you.

Ramsey Russell: The last of the good old days.

Todd Ezze: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Okay, so, but you are a public land duck hunter. Tell me about it. Because I think you’ve got a really wicked good product. I laid hands on one or two years ago, saw it, and I’m like, wow. As somebody that does hunt public at times, that has in the past carried antique, heavy, modular steel deer stands into a blind from a dog stand, back in the day, I lifted yours up. It’s something else, man. Talk about how you came up with the idea, why you came up with the idea, and what that product is. I think it’s a cool product, and my son far loved it last year. I’d have bought one from you on the spot, but he’d have known about it. I bought one, took it home for Christmas. Of course, he had a broken foot, couldn’t use it last year, but it’s going to get used this year because he’s a Mississippi public land hunter. And your product really hits, I think, as one of the products that demands a little attention. But just real quickly, talk about your product, how you came up with it, how you came up with the design, and what it’s used for.

Todd Ezze: Yeah. So I was actually in a walk-in area in Biomeda, which is, you know, obviously one of the famed Arkansas public lands. And I was about a mile and a half into Biomeda, had my Boykin with me, and I had a traditional dog stand. And just carrying that thing all that way, I thought, man, there’s got to be a better way to do this. So, I was sitting there by myself, hanging out with my dog, trying to work a few ducks, and thinking, like every duck hunter does, you know, what can I do to improve this? And came up with the idea, went home, went to the end of my garage, and started welding. I came up with a prototype. And then, after the prototype, I was lucky enough to have a couple of engineer friends help me out with the actual design. And everybody I showed it to said, man, you got something special. We took it to market right around COVID in 2020. Went to my first show in Texas, and everybody was like, man, it’s a great idea, but there’s no trees around here for us to use this. So, it took a little while on social media and everything to get the word out. And still, at this show today, I’ve had several people come up and look at it, just amazed, saying, man, I’ve never seen this thing.

Ramsey Russell: It looks light. It looks like the way you hang it up, but then when you pick it up, you realize, it’s eight pounds or less. I mean, it’s nothing. You even got a D clip you put on your vest or pack when you walk in, it’s not even there.

Todd Ezze: Yeah, it’s super light and easy.

Ramsey Russell: It’s for the mobile hunter.

Todd Ezze: It is and even for guys that hunt out of the boat, you can fit it in your boat box and do a lot of things. It saves a lot of space. So, it’s been cool. And, you know, to make something like that and see people’s eyes light up still when they see it, people say, gosh, I wish I had thought of that.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah you walk around the floor here at Delta Waterfowl Expo, and there are a lot of stories like yours on the floor. You walk by a booth, and every time I walk down, I turn my head and go, why didn’t I think of that?

Todd Ezze: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, duck hunters, any other hunting sports where hunters think as much, are as inventive, and come up with these solutions to very unique, subjective issues we each have and struggle with in duck hunting?

Todd Ezze: I don’t think I’ve ever met a duck hunter that didn’t have some good ideas about how we can improve stuff. And yeah, I know you’re probably the same way. You probably talked with your buddies about, man, if we could make this, we’d make a million dollars.

Ramsey Russell: I’m telling you. Have you made a million dollars?

Todd Ezze: Not even close. I’m working on it.

Ramsey Russell: You’re a basketball coach in real life?

Todd Ezze: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: High school?

Todd Ezze: High school basketball coach. I’ve been a head coach for ten years and got to coach with my dad for the ten years before that.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Todd Ezze: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: He was a coach, too?

Todd Ezze: He was a coach. He coached for about 25 years, and he’s actually the AD at the school I’m at now. So, it’s been a fun journey getting to do that. And unfortunately, the two things I love most in life, which are probably basketball and duck hunting, happen at the same time. So, I’ve got a balancing act between that and the outdoors.

Ramsey Russell: Your right. Why Delta Waterfowl or why Delta Waterfowl Expo?

Todd Ezze: Oh, man. You know, I talked to Brad. Brad Heidel was actually at the Ducks Unlimited banquet or expo that I was at. He showed me this stuff and said, come to this. I said, where’s it going to be? And he said, Little Rock. I said, I’m in because I’m from North Little Rock. The first year went really well, the second year was crazy, and I’m hoping this year three, is going to be just as exciting as something else so far.

Ramsey Russell: It’s explosive. It’s unbelievable. I walked in year one, just walking in to go meet a few people, and couldn’t get out of there. I said, I got nothing better to do. Come talk around a bunch of duck hunters, meet some new people, boom, now I’m here. And I just, I love it. It’s grown every year, and next year, Ducks Unlimited is going to have a show in Memphis the following weekend. So, it’s a doubleheader, dude. I can tell you, I’m going to put a mark on my calendar already, and that’s where I’m going to be here and there.

Todd Ezze: Yeah, I’ve got about a week and a half marked off already for both of those.

Ramsey Russell: Thanks a lot, Todd. Great to meet you.

Todd Ezze: Yeah, thank you. Ramsey.

Winning the Wood Duck Calling Division

Ramsey Russell: Mister Brad Samples. What brings you to Delta Waterfowl Expo?

Brad: Well, a few days before it started, I decided to call Joey D’Amico and say, “Hey, you got a riding buddy?” He says, “Nope.” I said, “You got one now. We’ll split gas. We’ll split a room.” So, he said, “Hop in.” So here I am.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, so here you are. But now Joey, my buddy Joey, he judged the call maker contest. And you, I heard, won it?

Brad: I won the wood division.

Ramsey Russell: The wood division. What all does that involve? What all Delta Waterfowl Expo call-making contest consist of, and what did you win?

Brad: Well, they do a tribute contest that some buddies started, what, maybe four years ago or three or four years ago. They started with an older, passed-away call maker. So we do a tribute call. This year was Sonny Kirkpatrick.

Ramsey Russell: Now, did you know Sonny Kirkpatrick before this?

Brad: I did. I knew the calls, but I didn’t know him.

Ramsey Russell: So he was kind of a big deal from Louisiana?

Brad: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Was it like a typical J-frame call?

Brad: It is a friction-fit J-frame.

Ramsey Russell: Wow. What do they judge you on? For anybody listening that might want to participate in something like that, what specifically were you judged on? Did it sound like a Sonny Kirkpatrick or look like a Sonny Kirkpatrick?

Brad: It’s more of a tribute, more influenced by his style and look. But basically, you’re going to use your tone board. You’re not trying to copy his sound. You’re just using your tone board, but basing it on a tribute to his shape, but it’s still your call. So really, somebody that knows modern calls can’t just go up and say, “That’s a so-and-so.”

Ramsey Russell: I got you. So somebody might say, “Oh, that’s Brad Samples,” but it looks like it’s been influenced by this famous call maker.

Brad: But the way it’s turned, they won’t even know it’s mine. It’s kind of blind judging. We’re doing a tribute where people are just building a call.

Ramsey Russell: I think that’s a great way to do it. I think it is a great tribute to some of these old traditional call makers. I think that’s awesome.

Brad: Last year was Alvin Taylor, so.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, and that call I knew, yeah, I went and walked down, took a look at that. I was a huge Alvin Taylor fan.

18 Years as a Duck Call Maker

If you chase waterfowl, if you build decoys, if you do anything waterfowl-related, I feel like this is the show to be at.

Brad: So you got three divisions. You got a wood, an acrylic, and an open, which can be any materials. But then there’s another division for call makers’ choices. It could be your shape, whoever the call maker is, recognizable by shape. Then you’ve got a cutdown.

Ramsey Russell: Are you a call maker by living?

Brad: 18 years.

Ramsey Russell: Is this the first time you’ve ever been here to this event? Delta Waterfowl Expo.

Brad: I didn’t make it to the first Delta one.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Brad: Didn’t make it last time.

Ramsey Russell: Well, you’ve been to other hunting shows like this?

Brad: NWTF for years.

Ramsey Russell: How does this particular show compare to others? How would you describe this to anybody listening who’s wondering whether they should drive 12 hours, like you did, to get here and come to a show like this.

Brad: I mean, it’s a great show. I feel like it’s the who’s who of waterfowl. You know, you’re getting to see more waterfowl than, like, NWTF. You got a lot of turkey waterfowl, and other little, you know, clothing or whatever. So I feel like this is really concentrated. If you chase waterfowl, if you build decoys, if you do anything waterfowl-related, I feel like this is the show to be at.

Ramsey Russell: I think it is too. You know, it’s a big show. I think there are, I don’t know, 200, 300 vendors. But at the same time, it’s small enough. Whether I’m an exhibitor or just coming in to look at things, I can make the rounds. I don’t have to get in a hurry. I can really dig deep. And, you know, this is what I love about it. We’re sitting across from Excel Boats, some of these big-name brands. But at the same time, I love in the same vein that you’re a call maker, I love meeting people who just had a great idea that they’re bringing to market. And you walk by and go, “Golly, why didn’t I think of that?”

Brad: Or, I didn’t know I needed that. Now I do. That’s what you do, that’s the problem, it’s like, you know, I think of so many ideas, whether it’s call-making or whatever, and it’s like, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Or I run into a problem now that I thought of that, but I was too slow to put it out.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Brad: If it’s already out, I’m not chasing that thing. I’m like, he beat me, I’m done, I’m good.

Ramsey Russell: So what inspired you to get into call-making all those years ago?

Brad: Years ago, a buddy gave me a dog, a black lab. I started training it and learned that the dog listened better than my kids. It was like, pays attention, wants to be with me, wants to just work for me, retrieve. And I was just amazed by the dog.

Ramsey Russell: My dog behaved better than my kids and my wife.

Brad: right.

The First Duck Call Barrel: A Moment of Achievement

So I went over to the drill press, made a makeshift, probably like all-thread rod, put two nuts on it, I think, and sharpened the screwdriver and turned it, was leaning sideways, and I was cutting my first duck call barrel on a drill press at work.

Ramsey Russell: So I started going duck hunting. I liked the duck hunting part, and it was at that point, it’s like, I want to see that dog go out and retrieve a bird. That was my whole thing, just watch her do the work because I’d spent the time, and it was just amazing, you know, the first bird. Then I started buying a few calls, learning how to blow calls. That’s probably back then, maybe like Primo’s, Primos, Winch, maybe some Buck Gardners. I don’t really remember, but I was buying that. And growing up, watching my grandpa build stuff out of necessity, whatever he needed, he always built it. I’m like, “You could build that and sell it.” He said, “I don’t want to sell it. I just need it.” And that influenced me, I think, being hands-on, like, just making stuff. I was like, I want to make a duck call. I didn’t know there was a custom call market out there. I just knew the Echoes, RNT’s, the big brands. I was like, but I took it apart. I’m like, man, it’s got a little cork notch tone board. I didn’t know all the terms, and I felt like Echo was up-slope. So I tried to build, you know, file one to an up-slope. So I ordered a big old box of maple, and I was working at Michelin Tire at the time, and they had a drill press and saw, you know, a little bit of small hand tools. So I went over to the drill press, made a makeshift, probably like all-thread rod, put two nuts on it, I think, and sharpened the screwdriver and turned it, was leaning sideways, and I was cutting my first duck call barrel on a drill press at work. When I got it done, I was like, I mean, it was just like, wow, I just turned half a duck call. I said, but it’s got to have sound.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, that was the real art and time it took. And here you are, almost 20 years later.

Brad: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: Making tribute calls. You know, I’m going to end our little segment by saying this, besides the product, besides what you get to see, I get to meet new people. I see a lot of people that I don’t see unless I’m here. And of course, I get to meet new people like yourself, and I’m glad to have made your point is.

Brad: I tell people, you know, it was fun making my first duck call, which was a piece of maple and a broom handle I broke off later that night. And I still got it. Still got it signed. Been offered money for it. I’m like, no. I said, that shows me where I’ve come from. But to me, the whole duck call thing, it’s like people get tied up in looking at my call because some of them get a little decorative, you know, I’ve done some real heavy carving for NWTF. But I always look back at where that first initial call came from and that drive to build more, and I started loving the craft. Now, I run into things now, I’m sitting here, Baton Rouge, Delta, which I never would have been if it wasn’t for a simple duck call I just started doing.

Ramsey Russell: You talk about broom handles. One time, I had a cup of coffee with Mister Alvin Taylor in Clarendon, Arkansas. And boy, I’d love to have had that call, even just laid hands on it. His first-ever duck call when he was sweeping floors at a shop. He’s first ever duck call was a PVC barrel and a broom handle stopper.

Brad: And that’s what I like. I like the people have nothing but they have a desire a dream to build something, or a want to build something they just came up with. And that’s what I did. Later, I got lathe-turned. My first call in the kitchen made a total mess, and I ended up on a patio. Then I was on a porch. Then I was on the edge of a shed. Then I got that shed. Then I dug out under the house, built me a shop. Now I’m in my big shop.

Ramsey Russell: Well, you mess up a kitchen with a lathe, you know your wife mad. Your dog was probably just sitting there wagging his tail. He didn’t care.

Brad: But she came home, she’s like, “Why is it so dusty?” I said, “I don’t know. I noticed that too.” I just play it off, you know, you don’t tell them nothing. But, hey, to me, it’s the whole journey. It’s about people. It’s connected. You know? It is pretty cool.

Ramsey Russell: It is a journey. Brad, it was great to meet you. Thank you so much.

Flashback Decoys

They see that movement, and I put that decoy exactly where I want those birds to present themselves. 

Tyler Basfield: It’s a pleasure seeing you again, by the way.

Ramsey Russell: It is. I’m glad to see you, too Tyler Basfield with Flashback Decoys. I haven’t seen you since I was at your camp in Colorado. We’ve talked a few times, but life is busy. You know, I told somebody the other day, I get to see people at this Delta Waterfowl Expo that I only talk to or text a little bit. But here, I’m shaking hands, eating dinner, having fun, catching up. I rounded a corner yesterday, not planning to come by your booth at that very moment, but I walked by, and the first thing I laid eyes on was that brand-new ginormous bobbing pintail you had in the tub right there.

Tyler Basfield: Yeah, we’re excited about that one.

Ramsey Russell: You started with a greenhead, then you had a mounted hen, then you had a black duck, you may be surprised to learn, is being used all the way halfway across the world, down in Australia. I took one down there, and them boys fell in love with it. Now you’ve got a pintail.

Tyler Basfield: Yeah. I talked to those two Australian gentlemen yesterday, as much as we could communicate between the Australian accent and the Minnesota accent. But, yeah, they love them. They’re using them down there. But I can’t thank you enough for what you do for me, Ramsey.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, shoot, man. I’m proud to use it, man. But, you know, you said it best. I mean, it’s an arms race. Duck hunting is an arms race. So many people I talk to here in the United States that duck hunt, especially in Arkansas public land, say, “Boy, that’s a tough one.” You know, these birds are pressured. I had a buddy here yesterday talking about how, one or two days after the Arkansas season opened in Northeast Arkansas, the birds went freaking nocturnal. It was a real tough season. They had to adapt their strategies, adapt the timing of when they were hunting, how they were hunting, everything else. And the same can be said, I hate to say it worldwide. Even when you’re hunting naive birds, birds that really haven’t been, you know, having that bag of tricks makes a difference. How many times, I mean, if somebody that duck hunts a lot over the course of the year, I would say flip a coin heads, there’s any breeze whatsoever, and tails, there ain’t. And that’s when I really like you all product. There ain’t no wind. Now it’s got that bobbing motion, like a moving live duck, that is good in any wind condition. But when I love you all’s decoy, it’s when there ain’t no wind. The sun comes up, and those birds are, they can’t see me hiding in the shadow because the sun ain’t up, but I can kind of skylight them. They see that movement, and I put that decoy exactly where I want those birds to present themselves. When I pull the trigger, and it’s just itchy, I kill them right over that decoy.

Tyler Basfield: Yeah. Ramsey, we’ve got the most realistic motion in the business. It looks like a duck, it acts like a duck, and it sucks in ducks. So, you know, we’re excited about it. And we’ve been in business now for about five years. I’ve always been concentrating on building a great decoy, a spectacular decoy. This decoy lasts. It’s not junk. You’re not going to throw it in the dumpster at the end of the year. We’ve got replaceable parts, and I kind of want to lean on that tradition of an old-school decoy. That is a quality product, and you feel good hunting. That’s our place in the marketplace. We’re proud of them. We ask a little bit more than some of the other motion stuff that’s out there, but we aren’t going to let you down either.

Ramsey Russell: Made in America, all that good stuff. You know, we talked about Australia. There’s also two of the hen Mallard Flashbacks being used in South Africa by a partner of mine. We hunt in the afternoons on tanks and marshes and ponds when we duck hunt. The first few times I hunted with them, there was zero motion, no mojos, no water machines like Flashbacks, nothing. So, over the couple of seasons, I started bringing decoys. And honestly, when I broke your decoy out, he understand traditionally, they pass you, okay, and if a duck’s getting close, you shoot it, and everything’s fine, and break, break. The first time we used that duck decoy, the way they put the blinds out, the birds were coming right into the kill zone. They’d never seen anything like it. But the funny thing was, one afternoon, Mike and I were, I don’t know, 100 yards away. The trucks pulled up. We were fixing to walk to the blinds. He had already been there, put out the decoy, put out the motion, got everything in place. So we walked to the blinds, started waiting on ducks. And he and I were over here, I was pulling on my boots, and a farmer, one of the South African farmers came by. There were already people down in the blind. They’d gotten ahead of me, you know, and we’re sitting there talking about what we’re going to do, how we’re going to do it. And the farmer pointed down to the decoy and said, “Well, how come the boys aren’t shooting that one?”  He pointed at your decoy and said, “Well, how come they’re not shooting that one?” And Mike said, “Well, it’s a decoy.” The guy couldn’t believe it. He drove down and wanted to get a closer look at your decoy. There’s no way, no how ducks are ever going to figure that product out. How long a drive is it? How long would it take for you to come from Denver, Colorado, to here?

Tyler Basfield: You know, I took a plane. Yeah, it’s just a brutal drive. I got kids that play hockey, and I got to make the trip as short as possible. But I’ll tell you, what’s spectacular about this event is the people here in Baton Rouge. I’ve got a lot of long-time customers, like Mr. Max Sharp, who’s helped me out. We sent a bunch of product down to Mr. Sharp before the show here.

Ramsey Russell: Straight Lake. Everybody knows Mac. You told me he was one of your first big customers.

Tyler Basfield: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s been hunting over ten of our decoys for seven years now. The same ten he’s still hunting over. So that’s really flattering to me. But he’s been great to me. The people in Baton Rouge have been great to me. I’m just really excited about this event.

Ramsey Russell: What do you think about the Delta Waterfowl Expo? I mean, just give me a snapshot of what you’d tell somebody back home or somebody listening about the exhibitors and the people coming through the doors.

Tyler Basfield: You know, it’s about the fellowship, Ramsey. These Louisiana people down here are some of the kindest people. And keep in mind, I’m from Minnesota. We got Minnesota nice people up there, but these people down here really look out for each other. And that’s why we’re in this business is because people here are decent people. And the people in this industry are decent people. It’s just fun to work a booth, talk to people, hear some stories, and learn more about how people hunt in different parts of the country.

Ramsey Russell: You were pretty busy all day yesterday. There are a lot of duck hunters in Deck of Wood. What got me is not just people from Louisiana here. My gosh, I have talked people from both coasts, north and south, who have driven or flown to be here.

Tyler Basfield: Yeah, including your Australian buddies. No, it’s a spectacular event. I’m really thrilled that I came down here. You know, it’s tough for me. I got two little ones at home, and it’s tough to get out of your comfort zone back there. But the most flattering thing has not been how many decoys we’ve sold, but just the people who’ve talked about how much success they’ve had over the Flashback. To me, as a decoy inventor, and I picture myself as kind of a mad scientist, I’m not a great salesman, Ramsey, you know that about me, in fact, that’s why I rely on you, but just to hear people and their success stories and how much they love the decoy. A gentleman here, who’s hunted over our decoys for a long time, I met him for the first time face to face yesterday. But we’ve been talking over social media, and his name’s Hunter. He came up, and he’s a local guy down here, and he just raved about them. He essentially sold three decoys out of my booth while we were sitting there talking. So it’s just a great community. I’m blessed and proud to be a part of it.

Ramsey Russell: Tyler, it was great to see you again. And I hear them ramping up; it’s time to go. Get in the booth and have a good show.

Tyler Basfield: Yeah. Let’s go do it. Ramsey, I can’t thank you enough for what you do for us at Duck Creek and Flashback Decoys. Thank you, sir.

A Great Duck Camp Drink

I mean, what a great duck camp idea, these Bloody Mary shooters using Ira’s Salsa. That’s amazing. It goes down too good, too easy.

Ramsey Russell: Mr. Sean Robinson, Ira’s Salsa. Best salsa on earth. First question I got, did you bring the vodka, or didn’t you?

Sean Robinson: There’s some vodka at hand.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about this crazy idea. Because I like Bloody Marys, I like Ira’s Salsa, and I like vodka. I mean, you don’t come up with this, I mean, what a great duck camp idea, these Bloody Mary shooters using Ira’s Salsa. That’s amazing. It goes down too good, too easy.

Sean Robinson: Well, that’s the problem as you can drink way too many of them before you realize what’s going on. But we’ve talked about a Bloody Mary mix, and we had something in the works for a while. We were working through it, and it was like, you know what I wonder what it would taste like to take some salsa and throw it on top of some five-pepper vodka and see what happens. We call it a Spicy Ira. It’ll warm you up real quick on a cold night, I promise.

Ramsey Russell: I guarantee it. What a novel idea. And of course, the salsa is just flying off the shelves. You all make really and truly a wonderful salsa.

Sean Robinson: Well, thank you. Yeah, we do pretty well for a little mom-and-pop operation that’s part-time for us. Ira and I both have full-time jobs, so for us to do something like this and to be involved in something like Delta and having the opportunity to come back year after year is pretty awesome.

Ramsey Russell: There are a lot of major corporations here. I’m going to guess there are 300 vendors on the floor. There’s a lot of major corporation-type outdoor companies, boats, ammo, guns, and stuff, but really and truly, I would say 70% of most people in this industry are mom-and-pop. I mean, I’m mom-and-pop. I find no shame in that.

Sean Robinson: Yeah, for sure.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I think there’s a lot of quality control and a lot of interpersonal skills with that mom-and-pop type stuff. I think it’s awesome. How long has Ira’s Salsa been in business?

Sean Robinson: We did this on the podcast before but it’s started as a fundraiser back in 2019 for Emma, which you’ve probably seen on Instagram and stuff biggie with a softball tournament fundraiser. We ended up selling like 1,600 jars in a month. It was insane. People just kept coming back. We would go to the farmers’ markets and sell out every Saturday. The next thing you know, we’re at a co-packer partner, making legitimate, grocery-store-ready jars and just getting after it. COVID was a COVID was, but it started with 1 store, then 5, then 25, and now, one of our grocery retailers runs all 122 of their locations across Texas and Louisiana. Hey, you never know if you don’t ask and see what happens and go from there worst they can say is no. Right?

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. But you all are in stores, and you still come to the Delta Waterfowl Expo. In fact, you’ve been here since day one. This is the third season you’ve been here.

Sean Robinson: We didn’t come the first season, we were kind of hesitant about it. But we did come last year.

Ramsey Russell: You all did come last year. We had a great time, we were right next to you all. And then this year, Brad was kind enough to give us a booth. You guys do what you do. So we’re over there, on the other side with Boss of Shin and all those guys. But yeah, as our reputation has grown and our following has grown, more and more people are coming back, saying, “Hey, man, I got you guys at Delta last year. I got you at NWTF.” And we’re getting more and more repeat customers, which is great.

Ramsey Russell: You walk by any grocery store in America, and it’s like a whole grocery aisle of salsa. You all stand out. The first time I ever had your salsa was at a camp. You came by one of our teal hunt potlucks, which is in its 21st or 22nd year now, held on the Tuesday night Mississippi and people come from five states, and here comes Sean with a case of salsa. My wife is a salsa freak now.

Sean Robinson: Well, I try to make sure Anita’s taken care of. She’s the backbone of the operation.

Ramsey Russell: You better believe that. I’m sure Ira’s the backbone of your operation.

Sean Robinson: Ira’s the silent partner. She’s, you know, she came up with this recipe, I don’t know, 15 years ago or something. And I’m just her hype guy. She likes to tell everybody, oh, 20 years ago, sorry, he’s corrected me here, it’s 20 years ago, but I’m just a hype guy. She’s not an extroverted person like I am.

Ramsey Russell: What is it about Delta Waterfowl or Delta Waterfowl Expo that you all like so much about it, is compared to maybe even other shows?

Something Special About Delta Waterfowl 

When you come to the Delta Waterfowl Expo, you know the volunteers, the people that are in charge, they are ready to do what they can to make sure you have a successful show. But not only that, the work that the organization does as a whole. So if there’s any way that we can help give back, we want to.

Sean Robinson: You know, Turkey was the very first big show that we ever did. But there’s something special about Delta. When you come to the Delta Waterfowl Expo, you know the volunteers, the people that are in charge, they are ready to do what they can to make sure you have a successful show. But not only that, the work that the organization does as a whole. So if there’s any way that we can help give back, we want to. We’ve tried to do stuff with similar organization, it just hasn’t worked out. The stars haven’t aligned. I think what Delta does from a conservation standpoint is a big piece of my heart as Emma gets older, you know, she’s wanting to go into wildlife biology. She wants to learn more about this. So it’s good exposure for her. It’s good life lessons for her. We kind of laugh every time we go to a show. We do something educational, like at Turkey Federation, we went and did Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home. We do something arts and crafts-wise. In Nashville, we did the Opry. Here we did live music and stuff. And then, you know, she gets a good crash course in economics by running a booth and taking change and filling orders and all that other kind of stuff. So it’s not only, “Hey, we’re out here to make money,” but it’s life lessons for my daughter. We’re helping put more money into conservation for the thing that we love to do the most. And that’s kind of why we’re here. And, I mean, Bradley, Delta has been amazing to us, as well as most of the people. You know, some of the other vendors that we have, some of the other vendor friends that we have, have all been awesome to us and helped us get established. And I think every year, everybody knows us a little bit more. They know Emma a little bit more.

Ramsey Russell: I described it yesterday as a big family reunion. You know, I come here, it’s late July, early August, and I get to catch up with people like yourself and many others that I really just don’t get to see and spend time with throughout the course of the year. And I love it. It really, truly is my people here. You all are sold online.

Sean Robinson: Yeah. So I actually have. If you go to our website, there’s a link tree in our bio, on our Instagram, our TikTok, and our Facebook, and all that stuff. But we’re on all of those social media platforms. We’re on Amazon, so you can order directly from Amazon. However, I would say order directly from us, because the shipping is a little bit cheaper. And usually, you know, it’s more communicative. Amazon’s very difficult to deal with. It’s more of a stigma thing, I guess. You know I’m on Amazon, right? But our number, we don’t push our numbers, like to 800 numbers or anything like that. If you call the numbers on a jar, shoot an email, or send a message, you’re getting myself or Ira, most of the time, it’s me.

Ramsey Russell: That’s what’s so great about a mom-and-pop business.

Sean Robinson: Yeah. You know, we have people reach out to us, “Hey man, I’m in Canada. Can you ship it to Canada?” We shipped some to Australia a couple of weeks ago. All over the place. It’s just reach out. You never know, if you don’t ask. We’ll figure out how to make it work.

Ramsey Russell: Our salt worldwide. Thank you, Sean.

Sean Robinson: Hey, thanks, Ramsey. I appreciate it, buddy.

All About Michigan Goose Hunting

Ramsey Russell: My buddy Connor Goff, all the way from Michigan. Connor, how the heck are you, buddy?

Connor Goff: Man, I’m glad. Glad to be here. It’s awesome to see you again. Ramsey and I seem to catch up at most of these shows. We’ve hunted together a few times in the past, and even some of Ramsey’s family has been up to our camp to enjoy what we had to offer in Michigan. But it’s a cool thing to be able to come to a new part of the country and network with some people that you might not cross paths with in your backyard.

Ramsey Russell: That’s the important part. I describe it like a big family reunion. Connor, you know, we talk all the time. I talk to you two or three times a year. We text back and forth, see each other’s social media, stay on top of things. I still want to come back through and hunt more Canada geese because you all have got the Canada geese hemmed up there in the mitten state. And Forrest came up and hunted with you for turkeys. I bumped into Rod Haydale the other day, and we got to chat, and he said, “Man, I’ve been on five hunts trying to get my wife on a turkey.” I said, “I guarantee you’ll kill a turkey with Connor.” No pressure, nothing, Connor. But I guarantee his wife’s going to kill a turkey.

Connor Goff: That’s exactly right. Hey, as long as she can shoot halfway straight, we’ll try and stick one in front of her.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Don’t miss. Don’t miss. What is it? How long a drive is it? From where you live in Michigan to down here to Baton Rouge. I kind of took a roundabout trip. I went from Michigan to Ohio, hung out with the Zink crew up near Port Clinton, then went to Florida. And then after Florida, I stopped in Alabama, caught up with some people, and then got to the trade show. So if I were to drive it straight through, it was probably more like 16 hours, 18 hours maybe, I bet. But like I said, it was couple of different legs of my journey got me here.

Ramsey Russell: Is it worth it?

Connor Goff: Oh, I would say it’s worth it 100%, hands down. So, just like you already mentioned, it being a large family reunion or networking opportunity, you end up crossing paths with so many new people that you wouldn’t typically meet.

Ramsey Russell: I walked by your booth yesterday, you were covered up. Was most of it local commuting traffic, like here in Louisiana, which is, by God, the sportsman’s paradise for a reason or like myself. Are you meeting people from all over the country?

Connor Goff: It’s a pretty good mix. I mean, a majority of the show, I would imagine most people are within an hour to 3 hours, I would say, of the Baton Rouge area. But at the same time, I do have other people that I’ve either hunted with me or that I’ve worked with in the past from, like, Texas and Idaho and Washington. I mean, multiple states away. That came a long, long way. But an event like this brings people together, and it’s an environment that’s very welcoming to talk. So when you say we were covered up with people, that’s ultimately the goal, to always be talking to somebody all day long, because that’s what you’re here for.

Ramsey Russell: It is. How would you describe Delta Waterfowl Expo as compared to other similar events?

Connor Goff: This is my first year at Delta. Obviously, I’m not as familiar with this event as others, and that’s just fine. You got to start somewhere. But overall, my first impressions, everything’s very well organized. It’s clean, it’s tidy, everything’s laid out, well-labeled. There’s no issue navigating in, out, around. If there’s ever any question about anything, it’s a very easy place to find the answer. So I really enjoyed being able to spend some time here. And obviously, the food down here, as you know it too, I don’t ever complain when I get down to the coast area and get some of this southern food.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. When did you all goose season kick off in Michigan?

Connor Goff: September 1 is our opening day. And if I remember, I think you came and hunted within the first week of the season or so, like September.

Ramsey Russell: I remember that. Yeah, it was early. It was your early resident bird season. So it was epic. Good gosh, it was epic.

Connor Goff: So we start September 1, run through the end of the month. It’s five birds a person per day, that is the limit from September all the way through the end of the season.

Ramsey Russell: When does the season end?

Connor Goff: Well, the south zone actually closes in February, mid-February. So we do have a long stretch of season. There’s a few gaps or pauses in the season there. Our duck season kicks off early October and then ends in the first part of December. But as things have changed with climate, agricultural practices, and other things that humans have changed too, you know, paired with what the weather does in the wintertime, a Canada geese that used to leave the state going to Tennessee, Kentucky, southern Illinois, you talk to the good old boys of goose hunting, I mean, southern Illinois and those states, Tennessee, they used to be a mecca for goose hunting and anymore, I mean, you might as well save your time and just come up and see us because the geese are going to stay there as long as they physically can, whether it be on, you know, warm water discharges where there’s no snow covering the fields around those areas. So they’re going to stay on the open water at the discharge and have feed. If they don’t have to leave, they won’t leave. So, I mean, they’ll just stock up and stay there all the way through the winter.

An Abundance of Turkeys to Hunt

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. When did your turkey season start?

Connor Goff: Typically sometime between, like, April 17th and 22nd, in that range, like third week of April. And then we run till June 7. So we are, if not the latest, one of the latest states that has a turkey season running.

Ramsey Russell: You all have got a tremendous abundance of turkeys. Now, personally, I wouldn’t walk from here to across the aisle right there to kill a turkey, but there are some people passionate about it. As I recall, you all got a one-gobbler limit, is that right?

Connor Goff: Yes, sir. And honestly, surrounding states that border us are also going that direction.

Ramsey Russell: I think it’s great, man.

Connor Goff: Indiana and Ohio. I agree. You talk to the people that have turkey hunting in those areas a long time, or biologists that study the numbers, and they say we should have dropped to one birdhouse a long time ago, you know, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, whatever. Because once the damage is done, it’s done. You know, it could take decades to fix, or it may never be the same. And so being able to be a one-bird state and us, you know, you kind of have to manage the population as much as you can as a human, too. A lot of places just over-harvest, and as soon as you over-harvest, it’s too late, so being able to shoot one bird a person has been phenomenal for the management side of things because turkeys are already working an uphill battle against predation and other habitat issues that are out of our control. I mean, you can try and manage predators as best you can, and it all helps. You never do it all.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Connor, it’s great to see you. It’s great to catch up with you. Great Lakes Guided Outdoors here at Delta Waterfowl Expo. Thank you.

Connor Goff: Awesome. Thanks for having me on, Ramsey.

The Perfect Black Duck Decoy

Ramsey Russell: Ian McNair, all the way from Virginia, down here to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Delta Waterfowl Expo with team high and dry. Tell me, tell me what’s going on.  I know you as a wader guy. I know you as a decoy carver. You come into my booth presenting me with a beautiful, hollow black duck. The most gorgeous decoy I’ve ever laid eyes on. I’m surprised how light it is because it’s hollowed out. This is going to be this year’s travel decoy, and you’re going to get to sign it again when I come through Virginia. But then you got this blank right here. What’s going on with this, this decoy you laid right here?

Ian McNair: Yeah. So you kind of gave me the idea, Ramsey, as I was going to bring you this decoy, it was like, well, maybe I should do a little carving demo and kind of show people what I do and how I do it.

Ramsey Russell: You definitely should.

Ian McNair: So I brought a workbench and I brought all my hand tools, a hatchet, drawknife, spokeshave, chisels, and a couple of blanks here made from Atlantic white cedar. And so I’ve got this one here that I kind of roughed out the other day. You can open it.

Ramsey Russell: I think they ought to make a perfume.

Ian McNair: It’s amazing.

Ramsey Russell: I used to carve a little bit with a power tool. Its sexy.

Ian McNair: Nothing like the smell to bring back some good memories, right?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, that’s nice. So, are you going to take it all off and finish production here on your demo? How many hours do you have into this right here, this blank right here?

Ian McNair: I probably spent, I don’t know, half a day getting it to this point right here.

Speaker_A: Okay, wow.

Ian McNair: It’s mostly roughed out, but things kind of slowdown from here. I can take off 90% of the wood in probably half an hour, but that last 5% of wood might take several hours, just working out all the fine details and trying to make it the best decoy I can. I don’t really look at the clock when I’m doing it because if you’re looking at the clock while making something like this, you’re kind of in the wrong line of work.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right, that’s right. And you got into this decoy carving via your daddy.

Ian McNair: Correct

Ramsey Russell: Wow. You know, I’m going to see you in Virginia this year, and I’m going to sit down with you and your dad in you all shop, and we’re going to do a full-on decoy carving episode with you all, father and son. Let me change gears just real quickly. Here we are at Delta Waterfowl Expo. There ain’t no hunting seasons open, but we’re in a crowd full of our people, wall-to-wall duck hunters. Man, I met a guy today from Australia just walking the floors here. I’ve seen people that flew in from way out. They didn’t just drive 5 or 6 hours, they flew or drove overnight to get here. What is it about Delta Waterfowl Expo for you? What is it? What brings you to this event? How would you describe it to anybody listening, unlike any other local hunting show that might be in their backyard?

Ian McNair: No, I think this is definitely the biggest show that we do, and without a doubt, the biggest waterfowling show out there. I mean, we do some great shows at the Easton Waterfowl Festival, which is right in our backyard, and we love to go to Sea view. But this event is huge. If you’re in the water fowling industry, pretty much all your brands and companies are here. You can see everything, and it’s a bunch of good, like-minded folks.

Ramsey Russell: Yep. I know you all because you all are in the wader business. I mean, it’s one thing to see something online or on social media, but it’s something entirely different to come up, shake a hand, meet the guys behind the product, and step into a pair of waders.

Ian McNair: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: See how they fit, see how everything goes, and hear about the product specs. It makes all the difference in the world.

Ian McNair: And that’s why we come to these shows. We’re strictly an online business. You’ve got a great website, and you can get on the phone, talk to us, and we’ll help you pick out a pair of waders. But we come to these shows because people want to touch them, feel them, step in them. That’s why we’re here. We brought one of every single size of waders we make, so you can try them on here. We’ve got a new waist wader coming out next month, and we’ve got some prototypes here as well.

Ramsey Russell: Is Brian here, the oyster fisherman, is he here.

Ian McNair: Oh yeah.

Meeting the Famous Oyster Fisherman

Ramsey Russell: Alright. Brian, last question of the day. We did a little podcast, and we’re just wondering, is he wearing shoes because last year, he wasn’t wearing shoes outside.

Brian: Well, it was 100 degrees last year, and we were outside.

Ramsey Russell: Regular folks walking on hot concrete 100 degrees, they have have something on their feet. Brian did not.

Brian: He’s got some tough feet. He’s pour me outdoor, he’s a tough individual.

Ramsey Russell: But is he wearing shoes or not today? Did you guys place a bet?

Ramsey Russell: No, we didn’t.

Brian: Okay, well, he’s got shoes on, for the moment.

Ramsey Russell: Okay, probably just some Crocs or something.

Brian: He actually has some nice shoes on today. You mentioned it earlier, and I was like, wow, he’s got shoes on.

Ramsey Russell: So, you all came down to Baton Rouge. I called you the other day to see how you all were making it. I figured you might still be driving from Virginia. That’s a haul. How far is that?

Brian: I think it’s a solid 17-hour drive.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, worth it coming here?

Brian: Oh, absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: I called you up, and you all were making the drive. I said, what are you doing? You said, going fishing tomorrow. Where’d you all go fishing? What was that about?

Brian: Yeah, well, Brad helped us get the trailer dropped off on Wednesday, so we had a free day Thursday. We said, let’s go out in the Gulf. We looked up an outfit, got a recommendation from a friend, and we went 80 miles out in the Gulf from Port Fourchon with Down the Bayou Charters. It was an epic, once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Ramsey Russell:  Really? What’d you catch?

Brian: A massive red snapper.

Brian: Are you serious? I should have gone.

Ramsey Russell: You should have gone! We invited you. Giant mutton snapper, two monster cobia, 40 or 50 pounds apiece, a bunch of grouper, oddball grouper that I’ve never caught before, mangrove snapper. It was epic.

Ramsey Russell: I haven’t been to shows with you all before. Here’s the million-dollar question. Is he going to cook them tonight? There ain’t no kind of oyster boil or fish fry somewhere I don’t know about, is there?

Brian: No, I don’t think so. We’ve got them all vacuum sealed and in coolers, but we don’t have cooking facilities. We have to wait till eastern.

Ramsey Russell: Are you telling me he drove 17 hours and did not bring a cooker?

Brian: Didn’t bring a cooker.

Ramsey Russell: Oh boy, we’re going to have to go talk to him about that. Thank you, Ian. I appreciate it.

Brian: Enjoyed it, Ramsey. Thank you.

Easy Decoys

In reality, a Texas rig isn’t really a Texas rig when you think of a Texas rig for fishing. It’s just a great name. The gentleman who put this together and got the wheel rolling was smart with it.

Ramsey Russell: My buddy, Ryan Proust, from Easy Decoys, all the way from Long Island, New York, down here in Tiger Town. How the heck are you, Ryan?

Ryan Proust: I’m pretty good.

Ramsey Russell: You make a great product. I asked you yesterday about your decoy anchors, what I call a Texas rig. I said something like, “I thought this was a Texas thing, but you’re using these things in New York like you own them.” This Texas rigs are not just a Texas thing, are they?

Ryan Proust: In reality, a Texas rig isn’t really a Texas rig when you think of a Texas rig for fishing. It’s just a great name. The gentleman who put this together and got the wheel rolling was smart with it. But it’s just an easy way to present your decoys, carry them, and put out a spread. It’s a lot faster. Yesterday you did asked me about Long Island. A lot of guys are using keel wrap weights because we’re hunting tidal areas with eight-foot tide swings, so they want that extra line. But for me, I don’t enjoy wearing gloves when I hunt. I want to use my fingers, and when you’re keel wrapping, your fingers freeze. The line’s ice-cold. Right off the bat, I thought, this is not how I want to do this. I don’t want to my hand freezing all time.

Ramsey Russell: What are some of the unique features of Easy Decoy lines?

Ryan Proust: The biggest thing is we try to use American components. Our snap swivels are all American-made. Our PVC-coated cables are actually stainless steel made in the United States. And our lead is poured by a good friend of ours here in the United States as well. We’re not sourcing that product from China. So, we’re trying to produce a higher-grade product using American-made materials.

Ramsey Russell: What are some of the different anchor designs you all have available for different hunting conditions?

Ryan Proust: So, I push two different styles. I use a mushroom weight for more of your heavy current, open water, wind, sand, and silty bottoms where it’s going to bite in and give you the ability to anchor it, like you would in a boat with that hard edge. Then, I use a flat bank sinker for when you’re in vegetation, rice fields, or backwater, where you don’t want that mushroom weight pulling up all the vegetation every time you pull up a decoy.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Ryan Proust: So, it’s twofold. You’ve got two different styles. They’re definitely both Texas rigs, but I call one a timber rig and one a Texas rig. I don’t use egg sinkers, and I won’t use a normal teardrop bank sinker because they have the tendency to roll. Those are designed from a fishing perspective to hold your bait along the bottom without getting snagged.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Ryan Proust: In my opinion, that makes no sense for what we do. When we set a decoy spread, I want to set it and forget it, unless I have to move decoys around because I have to change something, the birds aren’t working the way I want. But the rest of the day, I don’t want to worry about them. I mean, let’s be honest, we’re throwing out hundreds of dollars’ worth of our time and money out in the water in the middle of the dark. Then the lights come on, and you look out and start counting decoys, and you’re missing some. To me, that ruins a day instantly.

Ramsey Russell: Right.

Ryan Proust: I was talking to an older gentleman recently, and we were talking about just time out in the field. I don’t want to spend time out in the field chasing decoys or dealing with gear failures. So, I started designing rigs that will last. That’s probably my biggest problem as a business, once you buy it, you’re not going to replace it. It’s not going to break on you.

Ramsey Russell: Wow. So, how long of a drive is it from where you live in New York to the Delta Waterfowl Expo? The last couple of years, it’s been in Little Rock. This year, it’s in Baton Rouge. How long of a drive is that?

Ryan Proust: Well, we’re about 2 hours outside of the city on the north shore of Long Island, so it’s about 24 hours.

Ramsey Russell: 24 hours. Did you all drive straight through?

Ryan Proust: No, my wife wouldn’t put up with that. She wouldn’t put up with that.

Ramsey Russell: Mine won’t either. Is it worth it?

Ryan Proust: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Why delta Waterfowl Expo?

Ryan Proust: Delta Waterfowl is a huge, awesome organization that has supported us since the beginning has had us here. This is our third year at the show.

Ramsey Russell: And it’s grown since then, have you seen it grow?

Ryan Proust: Oh, yes sir. Their team has done an incredible job marketing this, pushing it. This is turning into a huge event, so we want to be here. We want be able to interact with our customer base from all around the country. We’re a Northeast company, and in the first year at the show, people were looking at us and saying, Long Island, you guys have ducks? You guys duck hunt up there because everybody thinks of New York and Long Island as Manhattan.

Ramsey Russell: Well, Long Island and around Manhattan were built on a massive marsh, and Long Island is one of the original market hunting places in the United States. It’s got a longstanding tradition of ducks. How would you describe this event to someone listening, considering making the drive, maybe 24 hours to come to the event next year?

Ryan Proust: If you want to see all the big brands and great products in one place, this is the event to come to. And it’s not just about walking around and consuming, you get to interact with the owners and the teams. You get to see products, touch them, feel them, and talk to them about stuff. Why they’re made the way they are, and what they’re doing. Even better, all the new stuff coming out for the upcoming season is here. If you want a first glance at it, it’s here.

Ramsey Russell: It really, truly is, like I’ve said a million times, a big family reunion. It’s duck hunters from all over. Every time I’ve been here, I’ve met people, I needed to meet, people I just needed to know because they’re great people and great duck hunters. I’m sure, working a booth like yourself, you get to meet them all.

Ryan Proust: Oh yeah, for sure. And that’s the best part. Even late Sunday, when most of the time these shows start to slow down, you wind up interacting with other vendors and guys from all over the country. For us, it’s amazing. We’re a small family business. We’re not some big, ginormous company. It’s my wife and me putting this on. It started as just a hobby because I couldn’t find anything. We’re hunting over salt, and I couldn’t find anything that could handle the beating. Every season, I was replacing gear, so I just took the stuff that I had in my house from offshore fishing and made my rigs. It’s just slowly snowballed and grown and grown. This is the perfect event to find a company like mine that you wouldn’t see if you weren’t on social media or weren’t looking for us. Hopefully, we pick off a few new customers, meet a few good people, and keep pushing forward.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you, Joe.

Ryan Proust: I appreciate you having me.

All About the Hunt Proof App

Hunt Proof has changed my life because it’s changed my life. I’m excited about it.

Ramsey Russell: Nathan March Hunt Proof out. Nathan, I can’t tell you enough, Hunt Proof has changed my life because it’s changed my life. I’m excited about it. I’ve used the fire out of it. I showed you some numbers yesterday poor old Char Dog and myself. But I’m not going to throw numbers out there, it scares people. But I can tell you what I know how many species I shot this year. I know how many times I hunted. Before now, I’ve never known how many ducks I’ve killed or how many species, or how many of species. It’s kind of turned me up. Pull your mic a little bit closer.

Nathan: Yeah. It’s eye-opening for a lot of people. They assume this or that, but now you’re taking that away and getting down to brass tacks. You get those details and that information you’ve been missing for years.

Ramsey Russell: I like the way I can pull it up, study the numbers like a spreadsheet, and see what I’ve done. It’s amazing. I’m telling you, I can’t believe I’m this excited. I don’t have an app on my phone, other than the camera or Instagram that I use like this. Is that been the reaction from everybody?

Nathan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I know you all are growing leaps and bounds. I walked by your booth, and it was slammed with people.

Nathan: Yeah. This morning, especially, we’ve had a lot of conversations. Actually, just a few minutes ago, we had a conversation with two guys driving down to the show. They were like, “Man, I wish we had some way to keep track of this and that.” They wanted a species breakdown for their yearly totals. They wanted to track the weather, and they wanted to take some notes to describe their hunt. I started going through the app on our touchscreen, and they started giggling at each other, saying, “Holy crap, finally, someone’s doing this.” Then, they started joking about, where were you 6, 7, 8, 10 years ago. It’s fun. Now, we’re halfway through the show, and we’ve had probably 10 or 15 people come by and say, “I already got it, and I love it.”

Ramsey Russell: While we were sitting here, mic’d up, a guy came through and thanked me for introducing him to you all. That was crazy!

Nathan: Yeah, and that’s super fulfilling for us. I don’t care if they’re using the premium or the free, like anybody that’s going to come up and tell me they’re using the app and they love it. I’m all about it.

Ramsey Russell: I have really fallen down a rabbit hole with this. I’ve got a process now. I’m done. I count the species. I count this, I count that. I keep notes. I put it in there, and I take a picture. And I’ve even found myself taking pictures now that I wouldn’t ordinarily, you know, I’m sitting there and, boom, I take a picture of the setup. I take a picture of this, take a picture, and I archive it right there under that hunt. And it’s crazy, I can go back to Oklahoma, go back to Louisiana and remember it way, way better than I would have details I forgot. I’ll even take pictures with, I take pictures of dinner. I take pictures of the blind, I take pictures of people. I take snapshots. I do things that I don’t really have never taken before. It’s taken my archiving of each individual hunt to a whole new level.

Nathan: I think if you’re talking about the meals like that, that makes total sense because now you can tell the story of that hunt through your app, you know, like, “Hey, check out this hunt I did in Louisiana, and here’s the dinner we had.” This is what, you know, and there’s more to it than just the piles of ducks or whatever. I like to take pictures of the blind, who all is with me hunting. I love to take a picture, just shoot down the row of all buddies’ faces. You know, a couple of years ago, a buddy of mine passed away, and I got a couple of hunts that he was on. You know, we hunted a little bit every once in a while, and I got the photos from those hunts with him in it and stuff. And it was stuff I was able to give to his parents. And it’s in, you know, you got those memories forever in your app, you know, whether it’s a friend that you’re hunting with or your kids or, you know, it’s just a photo, but now you got the story too. You know, did he fall in his waders? Did he shoot his first duck? You know, all the stuff that you got to remember, you know, it’s there.

Ramsey Russell: That reminds me, I’ve got a picture of two wet feet footprints I snapped a shot of because that’s the day my waders leaked, and it was cold. You know what I’m saying? I mean, it’s just the craziest thing because we all want to remember this stuff, but I’m going to tell you, heartfelt thanks for this Hunt Proof app. I really have enjoyed doing it, like I really, when I loaded it up, put it on, I did not really know I was going to appreciate it until the end of a year, that’s when I look back and I go, holy cow, this is amazing, it’s amazing.

Nathan: Appreciate it.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me this again, this is a Delta Waterfowl Faces of Delta Waterfowl episode. I met you all here at Delta Waterfowl Expo. Have you all been coming since the beginning?

Nathan: So last year was our first Delta. This will be our second. Yeah, we’ve kind of limited ourselves. I think NWTF and Delta are kind of where we’re probably going to stick with.

Ramsey Russell: NWTF is huge.

Nathan: Yeah. It’s massive.

Ramsey Russell: Avid bird hunters, even though it’s a gobble gobble. I would walk from here, that boat over there across the aisle to go shoot a turkey. But people are passionate about it. I used to go to that show myself. If somebody’s passionate about turkeys, boy, I’d bet better 50/50 odds they’re passionate about ducks too.

Nathan: Yeah, absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: That makes perfect sense.

Nathan: And that’s one of the things we were talking about beforehand. For us inside the app, we’re actually actively working on the upland situation, maybe Upland Journal and wing shooters. Most guys that’ll shoot a duck will shoot an upland bird. And if you’re running a duck dog, you might be running an upland dog. And I think we need to cater to those guys that kind of get left behind. You know, there’s a lot of tech out there for deer hunters and the wing shooters get left behind.

A Hunting App for Everything

We’re working with the same like-minded individuals. So if you’re a duck killer and you like information from your hunts, then that’s what we’re doing. 

Ramsey Russell: That’s one thing I’ve noticed about you all’s app. We’ve talked about this before. You all haven’t pigeonholed yourselves to waterfowling.  And there is a huge upland bird population out there. I still know guys that hunt dove from opening day till the end of the season, and that’s it. They’re dove hunters. I know guys out west that have those pointers and stuff like that who are chasing all kinds of upland bird species. There are people in the world that are as passionate for collecting upland bird species as there are people collecting waterfowl. And you all have got it all. I mean, it could be everything. It could be just a hunting app for everything.

Nathan: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: It sure could. You’ve been to some other shows, obviously, but now you’re going to narrow down to these two. What is it about Delta Waterfowl Expo in terms of Delta Waterfowl itself, the people, but also the expo and the people that attract? What is it about it that you all like and have found such great footing here?

Nathan: Well, for sure. I mean, Delta, it’s a waterfowl expo. I mean, so NWTF, we had some issues. You’re like, hey, shooting ducks and they’re like, well, we just hunting. But everyone here is a duck hunter.

Ramsey Russell: You’re done right.

Nathan:  I’ll be honest, if they’re coming to this expo, some people are driving a few hours, I mean, if you’re willing to drive a few hours to the duck expo, you might be willing to log some data from a hunt. And we’ve talked to other booths here that are doing some kind of data-driven stuff. And I’m like, hey, your data collection people are the same kind of people that want to work with an app. We’re working with the same like-minded individuals. So if you’re a duck killer and you like information from your hunts, then that’s what we’re doing. And there’s a lot of people here like that.

Ramsey Russell: Have you noticed how many people are driving from further than just an hour or two to be here?

Nathan: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Both Little Rock and Baton Rouge. Next year, the event’s going to be in Oklahoma City. I mean, you go eight to ten-hour drive, let alone 15-16. Eight to ten-hour drive from Oklahoma City, buddy, you’re pulling across all the flyways now. That’s incredible.

Nathan: Yeah, we drove nine hours from southern Illinois to get here.

Ramsey Russell: Was it worth it?

Nathan: It is. It was a long drive. Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t a hard drive, but it was long. And, I mean, we’re halfway through the second day, and, I mean, it definitely makes sense.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Good to see you all again. You know, I hope to get through Illinois and jump in the blind with you this year. But who knows, you know what I’m saying, I’ve described this. This event for me personally is like a great big family reunion. I talk to you all, all year long, but now I get to see you. Thank you all. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your Hunt Proof app.

Nathan: Appreciate it.

Tom Beckbe

Ramsey Russell: Wrapping it up. Radcliffe Minji, my buddy from Tom Beckbe, Dale Borden, just left and called you Tom. But, man, big news. Surprise, surprise, surprise. I show up around the corner. You all got my favorite wax cotton product in, drum roll, please Mossy Oak Bottomland.

Radcliffe: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Wow. The secret. You couldn’t tell me you had this coming, man? Are you serious? No, it’s more fun if it’s a secret. Everybody likes a little surprise, Ramsey.

Ramsey Russell: Boy, it was a surprise. I’m going to tell you what, the line’s been going around the corner to your booth, and every time I come over to talk to you, everybody is pawing that stuff, trying it on. It’s got to be flying off the shelves.

Radcliffe: Yeah. I mean, we’ve been really excited about the response, been working on developing, you know, all of our core sporting gear in wax canvas with the original Bottomland pattern, something we initially talked about with Daniel Hayes at Mossy Oak at the end of last year. And what a perfect place to introduce it. So we launched a collection on Wednesday. When we started putting the product together and started printing the fabric and thinking about on the calendar, when’s the right time, right place to release Bottomland, we circled this Delta Waterfowl convention and knew that this would be the right group of people to show it to first. And it’s been really, you know, like you said, the reaction has been great. I mean, Bottomland is just the iconic camo pattern.

Deep Feelings for Mossy Oak

Ramsey Russell: It is. You’re right, It’s iconic. It’s like the original non-military green camo. And the fact that it’s from Mississippi, my home state, I’ve got deep feelings for Mossy Oak, the original especially.

Radcliffe: Same, you know, the history of Mossy Oak is deeply intertwined in the Tombigbee River watershed. You know, the name Tom Beckby is the old French name for the Tombigbee River. A lot of the history of the two brands generates from the same ecosystem, same culture, same passion for the outdoors, whether that’s Alabama, Mississippi, same guy. And if we were ever going to print a camo pattern on Tom Beckbe, it wasn’t going to be anything but Bottomland.

Ramsey Russell: Yep. Were you surprised at how good it was going, I mean, when first time you opened a box and put your hands on your product with that Mossy Oak, were you surprised at how good it looked? I was shocked at how good it looked.

Radcliffe: We were shocked at how good it looked, too. I mean, but look that says something about Bottomland, says something about the product that we’ve been making all these years. They are a natural complement to one another. They were meant to be together. You know, our bags, our jackets, our gear were supposed to have Bottomland on them. And yeah, I joked about it on social media and with Daniel Hayes and all the other guys at Mossy Oak that, really, we’re talking about something that was inevitable, that the two brands would get together.

Ramsey Russell: Inevitable. I’m surprised you didn’t do it sooner. What else is going on in the world of Tom Beckby?

Radcliffe: Oh, man. Where to even start? I mean, we’re super busy. This is really the beginning of fall winter for us. Probably the most exciting news outside of Bottomland is we’re opening a new store in Tuscaloosa, which will be open probably mid-September, current pacing. So, you know, we’ll have Birmingham, Oxford, and Tuscaloosa open this fall, which we’re super excited about. That’ll be a great addition, where people can come try all the different products we’ve got beyond Bottomland. We’ve got some really, really cool limited-edition collaborations coming out this fall. And then the core assortment of products , every year the product gets a little bit better. We’ve got a little bit more for the sportsmen, both in the field and for every day. And yeah, the rest of the assortment is going to start rolling out over August, and obviously, we think it’s the best we’ve ever put together. We’re really excited to start showing it.

Ramsey Russell: It’s beautiful. It’s popular here at the show. This time last year, you all had just come out with that waterfowler vest. What do you call that?

Radcliffe: We call it the waterfowl strap vest.

Ramsey Russell: Waterfowl strap vest, what it is.

Radcliffe: Yeah. So imagine a fly fisherman who goes duck hunting, right. You’re solving the same challenge, which is you’re going to be standing in water, and you want to have all the gear that you need and nothing else readily accessible, with the added complexity that your hands are going to get cold. And if you’re ever throwing out decoys or picking up dead ducks or just generally duck hunting, your hands get wet and cold. It’s hard to wear gloves all the time because you’re constantly taking them off and putting them back on. So what’s nice about that waterfowl strap vest is behind the front pocket suite, which has got two big shell pockets and then a couple of nylon-lined zipper pockets for your phone or anything else you don’t want to get wet, we took a synthetic shearling, it’s the same shearling we use in our gun cases and made two huge hand warmer pockets. So you can get your hands in, get them dry, get them warm.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, to put that vest on, to put my hands down in that pocket, it’s almost like putting them down inside my waders. I mean, it’s deeper than a wader pocket. It’s deep. It feels good.

Radcliffe: Yeah, and it’s got that fleece lining. What’s nice about it is it looks and feels like natural fleece, but it is synthetic. You can get it soaking wet and it’ll dry. You don’t have to worry about it getting mildew or rotting.

Ramsey Russell: It’ll keep you warm even when wet.

Radcliffe: Yep, yep, exactly.

Ramsey Russell: Good stuff. You talked about releasing, you circle the calendar, you’re going to release and announce to the public your Mossy Oak line here at Delta Waterfowl Expo. Why Delta Waterfowl Expo? Why this event, this crowd, this show?

Radcliffe: I mean, who cares more about conservation in the United States than duck hunters. Nobody, No group of people puts as much money where their mouth is as waterfowlers. And, you know, Delta Waterfowl, as a conservation organization, is a group we support and are always excited to come to the show. We were in Little Rock last year. It was a great show, great group of people up there. I’ve been surprised at the number of people that we saw in Little Rock last year that we’ve seen again here in Baton Rouge.

Ramsey Russell: Unbelievable. Well, I have met people from as far as Australia, but I have met people from both coasts, from way up in Wisconsin and the Dakotas, of course, down here in Louisiana. I mean, from all points in between, people have flown and driven to be at this show. Which I would expect, I mean, honestly, Radcliffe, I see you in a lot of different circles. Dallas and Safari Club. I expected them at international shows. I wasn’t expecting it at a little old duck show. Man, this thing is growing leaps and bounds. It’s an awesome market.
Radcliffe: It is. And you look like, water fowlers as a community, relatively small community, tight-knit, but extremely passionate about the outdoors and duck hunting in particular. And if you’re a duck hunter and everybody’s getting together, then you don’t want to miss the party.

Ramsey Russell: Exactly.

Radcliffe: And I think that’s what you’re seeing here.

Ramsey Russell: It’s a social sport, and I feel among my own people. I’ve said it a million times during this episode, I feel like a big old family reunion. You know what I’m saying, I mean, I have seen so many people that I have known for 20 years and haven’t seen in five right here today.
Radcliffe: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: You know what I’m saying. Last question I’m going to ask you. Hope you don’t scold me. How quickly might that Mossy Oak line sell out?

Radcliffe: You know, that’s a good question.

Ramsey Russell: Will it make it through Labor Day? I’d guess till Christmas.

Radcliffe: It’s not going to make it till Christmas. I’m not sure it’s going to make it till Labor Day.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Radcliffe: I mean, you know, this sounds like a bit of retail salesmanship and showmanship, but anybody that knows us knows we try to shoot the customers straight. It’s a premium product. It takes a long time to make. And we’ve made what we’ve made for fall, and the enthusiasm, the excitement around Bottomland is, look, we knew people were going to be excited. We were excited, like you said, when we opened the first bag, we said, “Oh boy, I think we did this right”. Yeah, I’m not sure how much longer it’s going to make it into fall, which is great. I mean, I’m thrilled by the enthusiasm. Wish we had a little bit more, but we got what we got.

Ramsey Russell: It is online.

Radcliffe: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: People can go take a look, and they better get it while the getting’s good.

Radcliffe: Get it while you getting good. Yeah, it’s online, TomBeckby.com. You can also visit our stores in Birmingham and Oxford. They’re both well stocked in it. So yeah, get it while supplies last.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you, Radcliffe. Thank you, Tom Beckby.

Radcliffe: Thank you Ramsey.

Ramsey Russell: Folks, thank you all for listening to this episode of Duck Season Somewhere Podcast from the floor of Delta Waterfowl Expo in Baton Rouge. Next year, mark the calendar, last week of July, it’s going to be in Oklahoma City. That’s within a day’s drive of most everybody listening. Hope to see you there. See you next time.