Gundog Nation
A show to bring together gundog enthusiasts, trainers, and handlers with discussion focused on all breeds and styles of gundogs.
Gundog Nation
Jeff Stanfield - The Big Honker: Building a Gun Dog Community
#53 A well-trained dog can turn hard work into wonder—and few people know that better than Jeff Stanfield of The Big Honker. We sit down at his North Texas lodge to unpack the real engine behind successful seasons: patient scouting at first light, guides who still love the grind, a kitchen that feels like a town square, and clear rules that keep hunts safe and fair for everyone. From puddle ducks and dove weekends to pheasants, quail, and deer, Jeff lays out how weather, habitat, and access shape what flies and what’s possible.
We go deep on dogs—legendary retrievers that fetched tens of thousands of birds, the truth about cranes and why most dogs should sit those hunts out, and how first-aid kits and seasoned vets can save a bad day. You’ll hear the stories that stick: a mile-and-a-half blind retrieve with a wing over the eyes, a skunk-loving lab named Hacksaw, and the tough calls outfitters make when one unruly dog can derail a blind full of paying hunters. It’s equal parts practical and personal, with a lot of laughter in between.
We also talk shop about the shows that matter (Ducks Unlimited, NWTF, Delta Waterfowl, SquadFest), why some expos lost their way, and how a podcast built in a waterfowl lodge grew by talking to everyone from Emmy-winning sound pros to coyote men and priests. Most importantly, Jeff shares a standing invitation: the Gold Star Hunt, a free weekend for kids who lost a military or first-responder parent—complete with helicopter hog hunting, dove shoots, a new Mossberg, and more support than they expect.
If you care about gun dog training, waterfowl hunts, youth access, and keeping hunting culture alive with humor and honesty, this conversation is for you. Listen, share it with a friend who loves dogs and good stories, and leave a review so more hunters can find the show.
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I'm Kenneth Witt and welcome to Gun Dog Nation. Gun Dog Nation is much more than a podcast. It's a movement to build a community of people around the world that like to watch a well-trained dog do what it's bred to do. Also, we want to get our youth involved into the sport of gun dogs, whether it be hunting, sport, or competition. We want to build a community of people united to preserve our gun dog heritage and to be better gun dog owners. Tune in to each weekly episode and learn about training, dog health, wellness, and nutrition. We will also offer tips for hunting with dogs and for competition, uh hunt tests, field trials, and other dog sports that involve gun dogs. Please go to our website, gundognation.com, and subscribe to our email list. We will keep you up formed weekly with podcasts that are coming out. We also will be providing newsletters with training tips and health tips for your dog. You can also go to patreon.com forward slash gundognation and become a member. There's different levels of membership on there. Just go check that out. Also, we'd like to thank Sean Brock for providing the music for this show. The introduction and the outro is Sean Brock. He played everything on there except the banjo by Scott Vest on the Dobro by Jerry Douglas. Sean is a neighbor of mine from over in Harlan, Kentucky. I'm just across the mountain in Hyden, Kentucky, and he's a super talented guy. But most of all, I want you guys to check out the Creakers. They are also from Hyden, Kentucky, and this is an up-and-coming bluegrass and country band. And these guys are hot. They're all over TikTok and YouTube. You will hear these guys because in a year or so that they will be on the radio. They are very talented. Their videos are going viral on the net. These boys are family. Two of the lead singers, one drew up with my daughters, and the other one is my cousin's son, so he's family. But check them out. Check out the Creakers. Also, last but not least, if you want to buy a hat, koozie, t-shirt, or even gun dog supplies, go to shopgundognation.com and you can purchase any of those items. Thank you so much for listening. It's a privilege to have people that want to put up with me talking about dogs all the time. I actually enjoy what I do, and I'm so glad to have this opportunity. And thank you. Hello, welcome back to Gun Dog Nation. This is Kenneth Witt. I'm here coming to you today from Fort McCavit, Texas at the ranch. And it's my uh privilege today to have a fellow podcaster, but a much more well-known podcaster, Mr. Jeff Stanfield of the Big Honker. Jeff, how are you doing today?
SPEAKER_00:I'm doing wonderful. And I don't I don't know about how big that is unless you're going by weight. So that's the only way I'm bigger than anybody else.
SPEAKER_01:I won't talk about anybody's weight. I you know, I realize I just looked at your email, we're probably the same age because I saw the year in there. 68.
SPEAKER_00:68. 57 years old, be 58 on leap year day. Well, I don't have a leap year, so February I'll be 58. Getting old.
SPEAKER_01:I'll be 57 September 12th. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It's it's you know, getting old really is i i it sucks. There ain't nothing else to say about it because it was we're we're at the age now that we've either buried our parents or it's it's getting close. And then we're at the age where we're we've got we've got fifteen years of good times left. And I tell people that all the time, and they're like, Well, what do you mean? I said, I don't know anybody that after the age of 70 and gets any kind of improvement in their life.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, and you know, I I'm trying to trying to live better. I saw that you were doing jujitsu, and that I've really always been interested. You got to tell me a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'm sure I did it yesterday. I'm doing it twice a week now. I am the worst person in the room. Oh, I would be. And and I tell everybody it's like church, and they'll be like, What do you mean church? I cannot stand the first ten minutes of my church. It's music, it's the fellowship, the hugging crap. I don't want to hug them people. They don't want to hug me, but they do. So I don't like the first 10 minutes at church, but I love the gospel and I love listening and I love learning, and I'm the worst person in the room. Well, at and that's the same at church. I'm or at jujitsu, the first 10 minutes, we stretch and do all the pre-game bullcrap, and it's no fun. And then we get to wrestle, and I like that, and I'm the worst person in the room. And so it's a lot like church to me for that way. But it's it's really good for me. It's it's it's the only thing I do that I can compete at, that I get to compete at. I mean, when you were a kid or or when you're a younger man, you can play football, you can play basketball, you can play b baseball, you're competing physically. Golfing, you're competing against yourself. Bowling, you're competing against yourself. And so it's the only outlet I get that's actually get to really to be compete, to compete. And I I got my ass whooped by three different guys yesterday, but I enjoy it and I'll go back Sunday morning. I can't wait to go Sunday afternoon again. Are you the oldest guy in the class?
SPEAKER_01:By a long way. Yeah, that's all I've won there's a my house in Midland there, there's a a jiu-jitsu place, and I've wanted to go really just for the exercise. I really don't want to get beat up anymore, but the exercise will be good.
SPEAKER_00:It's the best exercise. I I wrestled a guy yesterday, or I don't know if they call it wrestling, I don't know what they have the proper terms. I'm so new that I don't know that they're like, get a guard on him and do this and do that. Hell, I don't know what they're saying. And jump to your feet. Well, yeah, I could jump to my feet 20 years ago. I ain't jumping to my feet now. I can lumber lumber at my feet, but ain't jumping to them. But uh my class is a bunch of good guys and they they're very patient. But I I I wrestled three guys yesterday, and I got my ass whooped, and one guy that whooped my ass probably weighs 140 pounds. And I chose him because I've wrestled with him before, and I thought I got a chance here. And he he flipped me around and did some stuff, and next thing I know, I've got his knees against my head, ears, and he's choking down on me and pulling on my neck and something, and I'm tapping out and go again. But it's fun, and it's the only thing I do that I get a lot of physical exercise out of that I really enjoy. I don't like to jog, I don't like to walk even that much, and lifting weights is boring as hell to me. I didn't like lifting weights when I was younger.
SPEAKER_01:You you know, in high school football, and I went each I was from Eastern Kentucky, and we did uh we did collegiate wrestling in the offseason for conditioning, and it's crazy the conditioning you have to be in to wrestle. I you know, we didn't have like organized wrestling, and we're we're from a real rural area, but oh my gosh, you know, it's it'll take your breath quickly.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's it's five minute rounds, and if you get choked out in five minutes, you start doing again. And so you get five minutes on the mat, and you do three three rounds of five minutes or four. I think one night I did four. That's 20 minutes of giving everything you got. I mean, your heart rate's going, it's everything you got. And it's not like real fighting, because there's a girl in our class that whooped my ass one day, and she's a good friend of ours, and I said something in town, somebody goes, I heard she whipped your ass. I said, Yeah, she did. I can't believe she'd whip your ass. I said, It's not a real fight. It's not like I'm an elbower in the face, you know. It's it's you you it's you've got to have some restraint. It's just wrestling, but it's all just about who gets advantage over someone else and using their leverage against them. And it's it's it's like a chess match, but boy, I tell you what, I hurt. My jaws hurt today, my neck, my shoulders. I got in the pool. When I get done, I get in the pool and swim, and that sure helps a lot. So I don't know what's gonna happen in winter when it's too cold to get in the pool, but that probably that ice bath would probably do me some good.
SPEAKER_01:Now, Jeff, uh, you know, it's crazy you you came up to meet me and you introduced yourself to me, and and I knew I'd heard of your podcast, but I hadn't got had time to really listen into it. I've caught pieces of it. Uh but anyway, when when we met at the Delta Waterfowl in Oklahoma City, it it was crazy how much we had in common. You know, as we were both, I I'm an ex-county judge executive in Kentucky and an ex-county attorney and city council, and I'll I've had a few offices, but uh that was a long, long time ago. I was our young man when I did that. But you wear a lot of hats. What all what all do you do? You've got tell us first, let's just talk about your outfitter.
SPEAKER_00:Well, me and my brother started Stanfield hunting outfitters when we were in college. Um there's a sign, there's in my day in my office, I've got the original Big Honker Lodge uh sign that a guy redone for me, and that sign was put up in 1993, I believe.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so the name Big Honker of your podcast came from your outfitter.
SPEAKER_00:I no, no. Our outfitter's Stanfield Hunting Outfitters. Okay. But I named our lodge the Big Honker Lodge one day. I have no idea where I came up with that name from, but it was the Big Honker Lodge, and I that sign was from 1993, and that sign from where I'm sitting right now in our studio here, that sign set 400 yards up the road on the on the road on 2279 where our lodge is at. That's how long we've been here in this same spot. And um, me and Tony started this in college. We uh poor kids, we didn't have a lot of money growing up at all, but we had my dad hunted with us. My dad was a fireman in Wichita, and we got to hunt and fish all the time with him, and he instilled with us the love of waterfowl hunting. And we started this, and I never wanted to have a real job anyways, probably. And me and Tony took turns guiding hunts the first year. I'd take off one day from work, he'd take off one day, and uh that's kind of how we started out, and then the next year we went full-time and took an old farmhouse and turned it into a lodge, and just kind of, you know, it just transformed into what it is now, and we're one of the largest outfitters in the world. Uh we we hunt a lot, a lot, a lot of people, and um, we've got corporate sponsors, and and a lot of that's to do with the podcast. But we I've been in the bit I've been in the waterfowl game for a long, long, long time. Um and I I'll be in it till I die and hope my kid my grandkids take over. But we've been really blessed, and um we got in at the right time. We got in it when a poor guy could get into it. It's a tough sport to get into if you don't have money nowadays. Yeah, land, just buying a location, even a lease is outrageous. Right, it's it's you know, and and we do it all. We do we do deer hunting, we do pheasant hunting, hog hunting, dove hunting, all the waterfowl. And um I've got a couple of deer hunts still left to sell, but you've got to you really got to hustle if you're gonna make money and make this as a living, because this has turned into either guys like me that are hustling to make a living at it, or it's rich kids that are living on daddy's trust money, or some guys have made a lot of money in their life and now want to live their hobbies. And and and I see that because I put on my Facebook about five years ago, I I wrote on there and said, What would you do if you won the lottery? It was like when it was a billion dollars or something. And two or three people wrote under there, if I won the lottery, I'd do what you do for a living. I'd be a hunting outfitter. And I thought, boy, fuck that. I'm win the lottery, I'm gonna get out of the hunting business. I wouldn't get out, I like what I do. If I had a hundred million dollars, I'd be sitting right here talking to you right now. I like what I do.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know, I've got a hunt ranch here, and I don't really advertise, Jeff. Um I I just stay so busy with my land, my land work that I do. I'm a landman, uh, you know that, but uh it's hard to do hunts too. I've got I actually got a hunter coming in tonight, but I don't I don't run many. And uh and it's expensive. I mean, if I had to make a living on this ranch selling hunts, I'd starve to death.
SPEAKER_00:You gotta you gotta have you gotta hunt a lot of people, you gotta work hard, you gotta get people through there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And it's uh so uh now, since you and your brother have done you've done a waterfowl so long, surely you guys have a have dogs that you run or for your trees, or what how do you run that? Hello, this is Kenneth Whipp with Gun Dog Nation. Many people quickly become frustrated and confused when training the retriever. Cornerstone Gun Dog Academy's online courses eliminate all the guesswork by giving you a proven training system that will help you train a dog that anyone will be proud to have in their blind. Learn where to start, what to do next, and what to do when problems arise. Visit Cornerstone Gun Dog Academy.com to learn how you can train your retriever. I have used this method myself. I have been through it a couple times with different dogs. I refer back to it lots of times when I'm trying to get dogs freshened back up for hunt test season. I highly recommend them. I have actually been a subscribed member of Cornerstone Gun Dog Academy since 2016, and I would suggest anyone use it. I highly recommend it. They have an app that you can get to on your phone. You can do it from your phone, your laptop. You can't get any more convenient than that. I I've used it, it's proven and tried, and I know literally hundreds of people that have done the same thing that I've talked to. Visit Cornerstone Gun Dog Academy.com and learn how to train your own retriever.
SPEAKER_00:Well, we've got we own a couple of bird dogs for our pheasant hunts. I've got two worthless labradoodles that live at my house, Ollie and Amos. I don't I don't deal with them in a in in I don't they don't hunt. Um my background in the hunting dog business is hunting dog world's pretty interesting, really. My dad trained dog bird dogs, or not bird dogs, my dad trained retrievers. I was first introduced to a Labrador retriever for a pet in about 1981, I believe. My dad bought this dog named Stardust, and she was probably the most worthless Labrador retriever I've ever been around in my entire life. Sweet dog, old lady had her at her house, and she sold her. And I remember me and my dad went over to get her at this house one time and he he broke down. He didn't want to buy a dog. He's like, God dang, I just don't want to get a dog. But we hunted and we hunted out of a boat, and so every time we'd shoot a bunch of ducks, then he'd have to untie the boat and pull the anchor up, drive out, pick up the ducks, and go back and rebrush everything. And we do it two or three times. He finally said, I want to get me a dog. So he bought this dog, and so Stardust was our first dog that we had. She was not very good, but my dad met a guy who trained some Labrador retrievers in Wichita Falls named Lane Crow. And dad and Lane become friends, and dad learned a little bit about the hunting business and the dog or the dog world. And my dad accelerated all the way up until he was running some all-age open dogs and field trials. And I was I was very fortunate as a child or as a young man, I shouldn't say a child, I was in my teens and stuff, that I got to be around some of the best Labrador retrievers in the country, field champions, national field champions, the who's who of dogs. So that was my introduction into the dog world. And then we've had some of we had a dog that was me and Tony's when we first got in the business named Beavis. Beavis has been on in the Dallas Morning News, he's been in the Fort War Star Telegram. He was he probably retrieved, I would guess, somewhere 25 to 50,000 birds in his lifetime. And and those are honest to God numbers. He would lots of hundred bird, hundred bird hunts in the morning, and then he'd go out and retrieve 50 pheasants in the afternoon. And he would do that five, six days a week a lot of times. So it don't take a long time to put down a bunch of chickens. So that's my that's my dog stories right there. Is I grew up around him. My dad had great retrievers, and I was around him my whole life. I have no desire in the world to train a dog at all. It takes a lot of time, doesn't it? And I was I've been all around it. I I know everything about that business just about, and I have no desire to want to do it. We just had our our new episode, our new series just dropped on YouTube called The First Family of Waterfowl. And one of the episodes is called uh Jeez, um Hell, I can't even remember the name of it, and it just came out. Anyway, there's eight episodes, and one of them, Andy, my oldest son, who partners with me, co-hosts a podcast, he he lost his dog of 11 years last year at this time, and he got his new puppy, Roy, and we started out going into it. He borrowed a buddy of my one of my dad's best friends, Steve Barber's got a dog named Thunder that my dad trained. And Thunder is now nine, ten years old, and Andy hunted Thunder last year, and Thunder will come hunt with Andy again this year, then Roy will be ready to hunt next year. So my guides have dogs, but I don't have I don't have any hunting dogs. I've got two we got two bird dogs we use for pheasant hunts here. Well and what breed are those? Uh I think one's a draught hire and one's a German short hair. Oh wow. Draughts are something like they're so versatile. They're good dogs. Uh we've had every kind of lab you could imagine. My dad bought an English field champion named Maria, I'm gonna say around 90 four, ninety five, maybe, and had her flown over from Britain, and she was she was an English field champion. She was two years old, and she was here for a long time, and she was a little English dog, and then we've had the full big labs and everything, and uh that draught hire reminded me a lot of Rhea because he would do everything. He could waterfowl hunt or upland hunt. He was a good dog. And we've had a couple of things.
SPEAKER_01:They actually upland hunt way more than they waterfowl. Yes. Yeah, yes. Um, it's been up in Wichita Falls. Did you ever run across uh Joe Worcester, the veterinarian, Dr. Joel Worcester? I don't know that name. I knew most of the vets there, too. He he's oh, he's younger than we are, but not much. Uh, where does he work at? I can tell you in a second. He I just had him on a podcast and I met him through Ronnie and Susanna Smith at one of their seminars. He was there talking. Uh he's an AM grad. Let's see. Did he work for Mike Bomer?
SPEAKER_00:You know, Colonial Park or at or at Dr. Ashley with Tim. It sounds like Colonial Vet Hospital. Yeah, he works with Mike Bomer. Mike's a good guy. You know, I'll tell you a funny story about Mike. Mike's a great vet. And um, I'm assuming Mike's probably retired by now, but when I was in college, I worked at a furniture store in Wichita Falls, and Mike's wife helped an interior decorator. And when I was 19 and 20, 21 years old, I I would babysit for them when they'd go out on date night once a week for him and his wife. And I helped work at the vet clinic a couple of times in surgery, just kind of a just it's that somebody was off that was helping them in surgery, and he'd call and I'd come in there and help. I'd done it a couple of times. But I'm gonna tell you right now, you take a Tomcat and you try to cut his balls, and I'm telling you right now, it takes all you got to try to hold one of them suckers down. Don't want no part of that. Hell no. But yeah, no, I don't know Dr. Worcester, but I knew Mike who used to own that, and Mike's still mate. Good guy.
SPEAKER_01:Um Worcester just he just gave us a uh we sent it out to all our subscribers, but it was a a first aid kit list, things you need to take when you're going traveling and hunting with your dog. But you know, he's he hunts, he owns bird dogs, and he's done it all his life. Uh so you know, those guys, you know how it is, Jeff, uh, uh a hunting dog vet that they have a different. Sorry, that's my phone going off, I believe.
SPEAKER_00:No, I've got a thing I'm looking for in here that I've I can't find. I've got a I've got a paramedic kit for dogs. Oh, I'd like I'd be interested in that. Uh uh Alex Langbell with Gun Dog Outdoors. Yes. Alex uh is a friend of mine and um was sponsored by podcast for a couple of years. And um, Alex is the ex uh Yakima, Washington uh paramedic, I believe. Or that's where he lives now, but I think he I think he was in Yakima the whole time. Anyways, he's got a dog. Uh uh we carry him with us. Uh all of my vehicles have it in there. Hell, it's got a staple kit in it, it's got everything.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I I bought that at the seminar, and then I've got another kit. I wish I had it here to my truck. It's a retriever train supply makes, and it's actually like in an orange, like a small pelican box.
SPEAKER_00:These light, you know, uh, this one's an orange bag, but it's called But that is a great one, and I have it, and I carry it, all my vehicles have it with them. One of my guides will have one in the groups with the guides. It's a it's a great tool. I think I run about$100. But man, I'm telling you right now, I've pulled up the car wrecks twice and pulled it out.
SPEAKER_01:Well, Jeff, in all your years outfitting, I know you've seen it all, but what's some what's some great hunting dog stories that you've seen, you know, just in your outfitting? I mean, some just marvelous retrieves or maybe even an injury or something that a dog got while it was at the lodge.
SPEAKER_00:We had a I got a phone call about, I don't know, seven, eight years ago from Andy. He's like, Where are you at? And I I was like five miles from where he was hunting. I said, I'm back on the over on one of our big, we caught the big field. I said, When we're at the big field looking at these birds, he goes, I need you get over here right now. What happened? He said, This kid's bleeding from his head. What happened? He said, Lou, Lou jumped over him. I'm like, what? Lou was Andy's dog. So boy, I'm hauling ass, and I get there and I get about two miles away, and Andy goes, It's all right, it's it's Big Earl's got it handled. Well, Big Earl's one of my clients, and he's a paramedic in Fort Worth. And um fired with the fire department there. So I pulled into the field and I go, What is going on? Lou had jumped, retrieved, and this kid was down in front of him because we lay down, we were in layout, a lot like layout blinds. We were laid out, and Lou was behind him, and he jumped, and when he jumped over this this kid, this kid raised up about the time, and Lou's elbow hit this kid right in the back of the head, and it split him down to almost between his eyes. He's bleeding. And the kid was fine. He's like, Oh God, that hurt, Dad. Oh, and it's dad, you okay, yeah, I'll be all right. And then the kid sees the blood. Then when the blood, then the panic hit. Oh my god, I'm bleeding to death. My brain's exposed. And but it just cut him right down the middle. But, anyways, big girl looked at him, and big girl looked at him, and he goes, Well, what's it feel like? Oh, it hurts, it hurts. He said, Well, let me tell you something, son. He goes, It's gonna hurt till it stops hurting, but you'll be all right. That was the end of it. But it cut him, it cut him pretty good. So, anyways, that kid still hunts with that kid's in college now. We always give him a hard time about that. Uh, my dad had a dog named Hacksaw, and Hacksaw was big old bronchi lab, had the big old block head on him and stuff. And so uh Hacksaw had a bad Hacksaw had a bad habit. Hacksaw loved skunks. And every time he'd go hunting, he'd find a frickin' skunk and he'd try to bring it to my dad. And dad shocked him with a shock collar and shit, and I'm like, shock him, shock him, shock him. He said, Hell, I I think he thinks he's not retrieving them fast enough. If I shock him, he's trying to get faster with them. But it took forever for my dad to break that dog of getting into skunks. I mean, he gets into skunks all the time. Oh, Lord, you can't get rid of that. No, and he was a it was a hard habit to break. We had a we had a lab that was up here that uh Bear, one of my guides had a dog named Bear. And I'm driving down the county road one time, and my my phone rings for my guides. I'm out every morning and I scout, and he's like, hey, Bear went on a big retrieve over there. If you see him, let me know. I go, what? He goes, somewhere over there, and hell, there's a there's a paved road there, a farm to market road. I'm worried somebody's gonna run over him. And I'm looking binoculars and I can't see him. And there's a cotton field across in the peanut field we're hunting, and every once in a while I could see something moving in it, and I thought, well, hell, that's Baird. So I drove half a mile up the road and cut across. We're coming. The goose's wing was over his eyes, he couldn't see. And he was just running and running and running, and I ran until where he could hear me, and finally he heard me and come right to me. But he had that wing over his eye and he couldn't see. Shit, he was a mile and a half from the spread.
SPEAKER_01:Do y'all hunt cranes up there? We do hunt cranes up here.
SPEAKER_00:You ever had any bad dog issues with cranes? No. Can you hold this one minute? I gotta get a charger for my phone. Let me get let me get a battery pack. Hold on.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I bought that down there, Jeff, and mine won't recharge.
SPEAKER_00:Man, I'm telling you, they're best things. I use mine all the time. I got I bet every one of my guides has them, all the bags have them, them things work good. Well, does it how are you recharging yours? Because I'm having trouble. I just charge it right in the in the bottom with this the little. I use just my iPhone, my new iPhone jack is what I use. Same one I charge my laptop, my Apple laptop, and my iPhone with. I'm doing that too. I can't get it to charge. Do you have to let it drain all the way out? Or I've never had a problem at all with it. I mean, I just I fill it back up. Mine's it this one here's a brand new one. I just took out of the box. It's at 76%, but my phone was about to die, but I I think I can maintain where I'm at now. I wasn't paying attention earlier at my phone.
SPEAKER_01:I may have to send my back in. I might call Ducks Unlimited. I just this mine's brand new and it won't recharge.
SPEAKER_00:Well, if you come up this way, I'll just swap you out one. Okay. And I'll get it. They're good sponsors, they take care of us. But I've had, I mean, I've been around a lot of good dogs. I I've had the fortune of being a child of I got to hunt with TrueMark's Cody one time, who was a national field champion. I hunted with Rough and Ready as a kid growing up. I hunted with Ripin' Blue Thunder, which if you look at any of the bloodlines from back in the days in the uh 90s and 80s, those were big time dogs. That TrueMark's still a big line. Yep, Judy and Ed Acock at the time, and you know, they had great dogs. And my dad was blessed enough that one of his dogs that he bred became a TrueMark dog.
SPEAKER_01:Hello, this is Kenneth Whipp with Gun Dog Nation, and I've got to tell you guys about something that I've gotten hooked on lately. It's Folicious. These are gourmet instant faux and ramen bowls that actually taste like the real deal. When I'm out in the field all day, and the last thing I want is a settle for bland camp food. FoLicious is what I go to. It's authentic, the flavor, it's real ingredients, it's ready in just minutes. It's perfect for hunters, fishmen, or anyone on the go. And you can get them over 1900 Walmarts nationwide, your local HEB here in Texas. Or you can just go online at foelicious.com. Trust me, once you try it, you'll keep a few stocked in in your bag and your packpack or for your next adventure. I just want to say this, I want to add this to this commercial because I know the owners of this company. They've hunted on my ranch. Uh, he and I were actually met in Colorado on a hunting trip uh that was a real adventure. They are true hunters. They've hunted the ranch, you know, and I've I've hunted with them. And Anna, she is just amazing. She is the one that came up with this idea. They were both on Shark Tank. They are amazing people. So it's I love seeing people like this have a business. And I just had to say that in addition to the commercial because I really believe in the product and I believe in the people that made the product. Be sure and go to Folishious.com or go to Walmart or HEB and try their product. I promise you you will like it. Jeff, you know, being an outfitter, as long as you have, does it do you do you still have a joy to hunt or did it kind of take that away? Because you because it's work.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I haven't guided a hunt probably since I'm gonna say since the year of 2000. I have not guided a hunt in the last 25 years.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:I haven't had to guide it. I don't want to guide it. Well, I scout. I have a cho I have the job that I do here. In the mornings, I get up at first light. I'm or I'm I'm at the field at first light. When shooting time happens, I'm at the field. We run anywhere from two to five groups a day, every day. Usually we have three or four groups every day. I will be at the field watching our hunts. I usually I'll take one group into the field. I'll I'll get to the field right when they're parking trucks. The customers will get in the back of my pickup or in my back seat. I'll drive the clients that's driving in the guides back to the field. I'll sit and watch them hunt. And I'll usually watch my guys hunt for 30 to 45 minutes, then I'll go scout. It doesn't do me no good to go scout the first hour, anyways, because the birds are just getting to where they're going to go, you know, for the next day. But I scout every morning, and then I usually am done scouting by about 8 or 8:30, and a lot of times we're done hunting by then, anyways. And then I'll run to town, I'll get to the post office, I'll go to the bank, run my errands, and then I get to the lodge, and we'll have anywhere from 30 to 50 people at the lodge every day. Well, we've got a food truck that comes in, I've got ladies that are cleaning rooms, we got maintenance around here. There's always something going on. So I stay busy doing all this other stuff. And then we check people, I check people out. I'll get them checked out. Anybody that's leaving that day, I check them out. Uh if not, we have lunch at the lodge. We'll have lunch. And after lunch, usually from 1 to 2.45, I get more stuff done around my lodge than I do all day long because the guides will go take naps. The clients are staying here and we'll either be doing afternoon hunts or they're taking naps. And then we scout at 4 o'clock, and then I go scout every day at 4 with the guides that are the lead dogs. And my lead dogs, if we've got four groups that day, my four main guides will scout with me, and then the helper guides may be doing water foul, they may be doing duck hunts in the afternoon, they may do it pheasant hunts, hog hunts, deer hunts, whatever we're doing. They may be just taking a nap. But we scout from four to six. At six o'clock, I get back to the lodge. We have a guides meeting at six. At six o'clock, the ladies open the dining hall, they start serving meals at six. We have a guide meeting for ten to fifteen minutes. The guides go out, they sit down with my clients, they sit at the tables and visit with them, kind of go over what they're doing, and then we have a Table, we have a big bar area in the kitchen area, and it's got twenty-eight seats at it, and that's how many employees we have. My family and employees will be twenty every seat will be taken up at dinner time in the back in the guy in the kitchen area where the guides and we all sat at.
SPEAKER_01:That's a huge I had no idea. So uh all your hunting areas on one property or is it different ranches? No.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. No, we hunt we hunt about a 20-mile circle from the lodge. Most all of them is within 10 minutes, though. Okay. Yeah, well, I lie. It's it's nine minutes to Nox City. 15 minutes away. Most all my hunting is at least 15 minutes from the lodge. I can do it to do within 15 minutes. We goose hunted in the last couple of years, they've started planting a lot more peanuts right around Nox City. I do most of my goose hunting within five minutes of my house.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:Less than five miles from my house, we do 80% of our waterfowl hunting, and I live in Nox City.
SPEAKER_01:Now, do y'all have mule deer there?
SPEAKER_00:We've got some mule deer, not much. I mean, we haven't killed a mule deer ever, but we see, I mean, I'll see a couple mule deer every season. Most of ours is white tail that we're shooting. Okay. Pretty good size. Um, if you shoot a deer, I've got three deer. I'm gonna give myself a plug. I got three deer right now that I need to sell, or I got three more deer hunts. We said we shoot a deer 130 to 150-inch deer is what our target deer is. Now, we probably this year, if my guys will be patient, we may shoot 170-inch deer. I've got one group out of Las Vegas that hunts with me every year, and they bring nine or ten guys, and if they would be patient, they would have shot a 170-inch deer the last couple of years, but they see 140-inch deer and they shoot it every time. But with all the rain we've had this spring, we're gonna have some really, really good horns. I saw a we got a bachelor herd of bucks right here by the lodge. It's real big, we're seeing right now.
SPEAKER_01:Nice.
SPEAKER_00:And do y'all have uh cotton and peanuts both up there? We've got more peanuts and Milo and wheat than we do cotton, thank God. But we still do have some cotton. Okay. Our cotton acres are going away every year.
SPEAKER_01:Now, uh what what do you if you don't mind me asking, uh what do you charge on your dove hunts? How does that work?
SPEAKER_00:A dove hunt for a this year, this is and then my price is gonna go up next year just because the food costs and stuff's going up. I charge$500 for a weekend dove hunt. You come in on Friday, you hunt Friday afternoon, you have dinner Friday night, Saturday you get three meals morning and afternoon, and you hunt Sunday morning with breakfast for$500 a person.
SPEAKER_01:What a deal.
SPEAKER_00:And we do and we're booked up like every weekend I have is booked up. I I don't know that I even have a weekend open next year because if you book a hunt with me, I give you the first right to rebook your hunt for next year. So other than the second weekend of season, every weekend is all corporate groups that book, you know, 40 to 50 people at the lodge for themselves. That's pretty that's pretty much what we do. And then we do a lot of weekday hunts, like Monday to Thursday hunts, Monday to Wednesday hunts. We do we do at least four groups this year of guys that come that they're during the week. So I can't I told Michelle the other day there's 60 days basically in September and October. There's 31 and 31, so 62, 61 days or something. I don't remember which is 31 and 30, but 60 days, and we're gonna have dove hunters 42 out of 60 days right now. And you've sold out everything. You all can accommodate 50 hunters? Yeah, we can we'll have 62 people opening weekend of dove season. That's our I think we can sleep 66 total.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:That's incredible.
SPEAKER_00:No wonder you got so many employees. That's nine rooms, and each room s has six or eight beds in them. Oh man. I've got to come check that out. It's we're not we're not a fancy, you're not going to stay at an Orvis endorsed, you know. The St. Tony Vandemore's a real nice place like they have it, Habitat Flats, but it's bunk style rooms. Your group's gonna have its own room. Each room's each room has three or four bunks in it, so it sleeps six or eight. Each room has its own private bathroom in it. Then we have a social area where everybody sits. It's got big screen TV, poker table, all that kind of stuff. We got cornhole boards and stuff. And we're gonna give you a damn good meal every night, and we're gonna have good customer service. Nice. But, you know, if you're wanting to spend$4,000 for three days of waterfowl hunting, this ain't the place. We'll take your money, but this is not that kind of place. I mean, you're not gonna have lobster every night and a chef giving you a seven-course meal. We're gonna have all you can eat, whatever you want to eat. We're gonna have that night. If we have pot roast, if we've got steak, if we've got pork chops, chicken. I got we have authentic Mexican food because I got authentic Mexican ladies at work for me, so we're gonna have real Mexican food, but we're gonna give you a great meal and we're gonna treat you right, and your host is not gonna go run off if the hunting's bad or good. He's gonna be here, and I visit with everybody. So good, bad, or indifferent, you're gonna see me and we're gonna talk, and uh you're gonna become we're gonna be friends, and we run about 80 to 85 percent repeat business every year. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01:That's something to be said for that. You know, and I I have a much smaller operation here, but I tell people when they call this, you know, I'm not the champions ranch. If you I've got axis deer, I got big axis, and and you know, but it's and I feed you good and I cook and I'm a good cook. But that's you know, it's it's a small location. But that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we run a big operation, but we just don't we're not our dining hall, we have we can feed 70 people. We've had the we've had a prom out here before, we've had all kinds of events out here before. We just I don't market it for that. We're a hunting business. And when hunting season's over, I'm ready for some time off. We bust our ass from September through the end of January. But you come February, you're gonna find me and Michelle on an airplane going somewhere for three or four different trips. We like to go. Now she's one, she's your head cook, isn't she? Well, yes, Michelle's in charge of the kitchen stuff, and she does a lot of hands-on stuff, but she's she she's got good ladies at work for us, too. But Michelle makes the best chocolate chip cookies probably in the United States, and they are world famous, and she we we have chocolate chip cookies every day for lunch, homemade ones. And man, people go through them things like crazy. But she does homemade desserts like uh she was doing the menu for opening um August 31st. We'll have our first dove hunters come in. And she's her dessert menu is gonna be she makes bread pudding that's out of this world with a whiskey sauce. For that's one night's dessert, and then I think the next night's dessert is either gonna be uh homemade black sheet cake that she does with homemade icing or an ice cream, or she's gonna make an Oreo dessert that she makes. But all her desserts are homemade desserts, and people go crazy, but we feed you good. I mean, you're gonna have real, real, real food and um no pre-made bullshit, nothing that we're warming up in a microwave. It's all real food, and that's what we do.
SPEAKER_01:Now, when you guys are duck cutting up there, Jeff, what are you what what typically are you killing?
SPEAKER_00:Uh, we're gonna kill widgens, mallards, pintails, your puddle ducks. Okay. You know, I've got a couple of ponds. I've got a guy that called the other day that wants to shoot some shit ducks, and I call shit ducks ringnecks, redheads, you know, buffalo heads, but I've got a guy that he's got a group of guys coming and they don't get to shoot anything in full color. They want to come in January for two days just to shoot weird ducks. And I was like, yeah, I've got a pond with the, you know, I ain't I don't guarantee nothing. Yeah. You know, I've got guys that were we gonna shoot just mallards? No, we're not doing a mallard hunt, we're doing a duck hunt. Yeah, you know. And that's the way it is with these shit ducks. I'm sure what'll happen is we're gonna do this hunt trying to shoot ringnecks and die all these weird diver ducks and buffal heads and shit, and then we're gonna end up shooting all mallards and wigeons, and the guy would be pissed because we didn't shoot none of the weird ducks. But that's basically most of our duck hunting is puddle ducks. Now, you run turkey hunts too, right? Very few. We will we'll do very few. The eye worm knocked out a lot of our our our turkey population the last couple of years, so we don't have near the turkeys we used to have. But we're but they're coming back. I'll probably run we'll run a half dozen duck turkey hunts this year. We just we don't do very many.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I've just noticed uh a shortage of turkey here at my place, too, so I didn't know what was going on, and that's what it was. It's they say eye worm, it really affected them here.
SPEAKER_00:We used to hunt in Hobart, Oklahoma, did waterfowl hunting. We got a drought here in 11, and we had a goose camp in Oklahoma, and man, for three years we just hammered the piss out of the birds, and now there's 8,500 different outfitters running around up there, and it's and it's just it's too much drama, and we've got enough birds here again now, and it's so much easier here at home doing all of our stuff. It was tough for me being back and forth all the time. But uh turkey-wise, up there, there used to be I'd see flocks with two, three hundred turkeys in them, a lot of different places in the last couple of years. It's seven and eight birds. I mean, it's bad, bad there how bad it hurt hurt them.
SPEAKER_01:You know, uh but to buy this ranch. I sold a farm up in Kentucky, and I I would see 25 and 30 in a flock of turkeys all the day, every day of the week. You know, you sit in a tree stand and you they're just coming like like an army. And I don't I've not hunted up there in a while, but I just wonder if it's changed. But yeah, I see I know it's changed here. It's it's it's the eye worm.
SPEAKER_00:They blame it on the raccoons, which I don't I don't buy the raccoon thing as much. I know that the coons are bad, and I and I know they are and they're bad everywhere. But we had coons when Daniel Boone was here and we had turkeys everywhere. And I know we were doing some trapping back then, a lot of it, but they weren't wiping out that many coons. So I don't know how we can blame it all on coons. I think it's more of a man-made problem with the eggshells, with some kind of chemical that's gotten in them. You know, if they spray agriculture, spray so much stuff these days. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You hear that uh on the grouse population and everything else. Now, you said that uh you've got bird dogs, so y'all have quail. What's your is that mostly quail?
SPEAKER_00:We're doing we do pheasant hunts. I've got a lot of quail though now, but I'm not gonna do quail hunts. I've got a a good friend of mine, Douglas Fell from Kansas City. He's a big upland hunter. I'm gonna save a place for him for quail, and me and him are gonna go out and shoot quail when he comes down this year. But I don't we don't do very many quail hunts. I just I don't I have the birds this year to do it, but I just don't mess with it. Yeah. We've got I've just this is the first year I've seen quail on this ranch in six years. Yeah, it's a great year for quail. Man, we've had so much rain this spring and summer. But I but I told a guy the other day in town was asking me about it. I said they're here today, but they can be gone tomorrow. And I'll give you a good example of that. Next week we're gonna be in the 70s for highs. Normally we're a hundred right now, it's gonna be 101 today, probably 99. I think I saw one day the high 72. So we're gonna have rain and we're gonna have a 30 to 40 degree temperature change. I think in the lows are gonna be around 60. So we're gonna be at we've been around at 100, 105, and now we're gonna be 60, so that's almost a 50 degree temperature change. Those quail, they get sick, they're dead. Yeah. And it don't take long to wipe them out. And I've seen them so many times have a freak cold front come in or just a big weather change, and they'll be and they're dead. You don't see them no more. So I'm gonna wait until quail season gets here to see what it's like. They're so fragile. So I didn't realize you pheasant, is it is it wild pheasant? No, we re-release birds. I've got some pheasants that actually have made it for two years now that I'm seeing around. So they're they're they're they're there, but I you're shooting released birds, but hell if you go hunt North Dakota or South Dakota now, you're shooting released birds with the wild birds. Yeah, because you know they they restore up there so much. Yeah, they supplement their birds like crazy. They have to.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that I I've never seen anything. I hunt South Dakota every year, and it's they're like mosquitoes, you know.
SPEAKER_00:That's amazing, man. I drove through South Dakota and North Dakota. The very first time I drove through there, I was just absolutely amazed seeing all the pheasants and the deer and the ducks in the ditches and in the playas. And I thought right then, I thought, you know, if I won the lottery, everybody wants to buy a house in them in the Caribbean, I'd buy me a place up here in the Dakotas. I would just love to have a place to live, to be up there in September and October. I wouldn't want to be there in January and February, but September and October I could handle it.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I hunt there the third week of October every year and uh for the last few years, and I've been sunburned up there in October hunting. Oh, it's it can be hot. And I and uh there's only been one day that I've hunted of all the all these times in October that I could it's got really cold, you know, like high 20s. But normally it'll be 70 degrees, 80 degrees, and and you're burning up, your dogs are hot, and you have to sometimes have to quit hunting, you know, cool your dogs down.
SPEAKER_00:But me and Andy were in uh northern Saskatchewan, right on the edge of the boreal forest, around a place called Tobin Lake. And it was the week before Thanksgiving, week before Halloween, and it was 70 degrees up there while we were there. We hunted waterfowl up there for two weeks almost. We got home and I saw more geese when I got home to in Knox City, Texas, than I did when I was in Canada the last three days I was in Canada because we'd just weather wise, there hadn't been no weather, and we get a lot of calendar birds. But yeah, you can burn your ass up in the Dakotas real quick on the w if it's warm.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I didn't realize that uh when I first started, but um do you get out to hunt mothers other states much do you have time?
SPEAKER_00:Um I no, not really. I don't the pro the problem is is that I we I get invited to so many cool places. I mean, I I bet I get 10, at least 10 invites a year to places that I would die to go for, and most people would die. I've got invited to go to some great duck places in Stuttgart. A lot of places, a lot of the corporate guys have invited me out to their places, and I just don't have time because we're so busy, but we're busy from September all the way through January. Well, October, 10 years ago, we quit dove hunting about the end of September, and I didn't dove hunt in October. Now we run as many dove hunters in October as we do September. Me and Michelle usually go to the uh somewhere in north in the fall. We'll go to Vermont or New Hampshire, Maine, uh, Green Bay, somewhere every fall. Well, this year I don't know when I'm gonna work that trip in because I'm only gonna have four or five days open the whole month to go do nothing. So if I get five days off instead of me going hunting, me and Michelle usually go somewhere. Yeah, I don't blame you. I'm around hunting. I've been hunting, I've been in this hunting business a long time, and I love what I do. But to kill something is just does not, it just doesn't do nothing for me as much as seeing the birds. I love to watch my guys hunt. I don't mind going and videoing. I'll shoot some field ducks. I I love to shoot field ducks, but other than that, I just I don't it's just not that big a deal to me.
SPEAKER_01:You know, the older I get, I get just as much satisfaction walking my watching my dogs work. And it that that's what I enjoy.
SPEAKER_00:That was the way my dad became my dad loved to loved to hunt, and he got sick, he died of lung cancer. So the last three years of his life, he was pretty sick. But the uh the year before he died, he still was doing pheasant. He had stage four lung cancer from his guiding pheasant hunts. But he loved to run dogs. Absolutely loved to watch the dogs, and that was his pleasure. Now, what what's your brother's role there at the outfitter? Tony takes care of everything on the outside, and I take care of everything on the inside. So, but scouting-wise, I take care of the scouting in the mornings, and then Tony scouts are cranes and stuff like that. Tony will scout for that. Tony does Tony will hunt up north. You asked me earlier about crane hunting and dogs. I'm sorry, then my phone died. I'm a big fan of crane hunting. I'm not a fan of crane hunting with a dog. And guys like guys say, well, I've got the they get they they put the goggles on a dog and stuff. You're keeping your dog from getting blinded, but what if that crane sticks his beak through his brain? Or what I just I don't understand the reason to have a dog on a crane hunt, other than to save steps. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I've I've I've done it one season and was lucky, but then I hear more stories from doing this podcast, it changes my outlook big time.
SPEAKER_00:I've never had anybody have a dog have an injury with a crane. Yeah. I've seen some geese whoop a dog's ass a couple of times, but I've never seen a crane ever hurt one of them. But I've I've heard too many stories, and I just I don't see re reason. I don't understand if you go on a guided hunt why you want to take a dog anyways, other than the guides. Now, I get people that call me all the time and they want they don't go nowhere unless they take Fido with them. And I understand that that's their pet, that's their buddy, and that dog is bred to hunt. And if you go hunting, you want your dog to go. But we make you have you have to have a private group to bring a dog on a hunt with us. If you do if you don't have a private dog, you're not bringing it. If you don't have a private hunt, you're not bringing a dog. Because I've seen too many times a dog messes up a good hunt.
SPEAKER_01:And and I I see both sides of that argument, Jeff, and fully agree with you. I'm one of those that I want to hunt with my dog, but I've got a fully trained dog, but uh, you're exactly right. I wouldn't want to go and have a dog that's green or not trained correctly and ruin everybody else's hunt, because that's what'll happen. But I I've seen it happen.
SPEAKER_00:I've I've seen guys come up here together in two pickups, and I've seen guys leave in one truck and one guy and the dog drive home by themselves because everybody's pissed off at it. Yeah. And you can tell a man, listen, bud, your wife's got a fat ass and he won't get mad. But if you tell him your dog sucks, boy, they get personal about that shit. It's fighting words. Yeah. And it's it's crazy. So that's our policy on a dog. If you have a private group and you want to bring a dog, you go right ahead. And if your dog jacks up that hunt, that's on you, not on us. Because I've seen dogs break. I've seen everything can happen with a dog. The one of my biggest pet peeves is guys that want to train a dog while they're while they're hunting. Yeah. You know, and training before. And you and he just it's an expensive.
SPEAKER_01:It's an expensive training session, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Yes. My biggest question during dove season is can I bring a dog? And I tell people all the time, listen, dove's different. If you want to bring a dog, your dog's not going to mess up a dove hunt. I don't care. But if your dog gets bit by a rattlesnake, that's on you. I've never had one happen, but it could happen. We've got rattlesnakes. I had a guy get bit by one once. Rattlesnakes are a problem, and heat strokes are a problem. Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and so I that's what I tell them. He's coming on a big dove hunt with me. He said, I think you've talked me out of bringing my dog after you told me that. I said, Listen, I'm not trying to talk you out of it. I'm just telling you what the what the problem is during dove season is you've got to watch out for rattlesnakes and you got to watch out for heat strokes. Now, if it's 72 for a high, you're gonna take out the variable of a heat stroke. But if it gets down, if it's 72 for a high, them rattlesnakes are gonna be moving like crazy going back to dens because they're gonna start trying to den up pretty fast this year. Yes. Never thought about that. Yeah, once it gets cool, that's our time, our snake time. Once no, once goose season gets here, I don't worry about snakes. Now, I've seen us kill a rattlesnake at the lodge on Christmas break one time. It warmed up to about 85 degrees. You know, when I first got up out here or lived out here, once it cooked, once Thanksgiving was here, or even Halloween, and it started getting cold, you didn't see snakes again until March or April. These mild winters we've had, these rattlesnakes will come out of their den in January, December, whenever. As soon as it warms up, they'll start coming out of their dens again.
SPEAKER_01:I hear a lot of ranchers. I've not witnessed it so much here, but I've talked to a lot of ranchers. It's had said that's happened around me. Yes. Pretty common. And it's just it's just been an environmental change. Jeff, tell me a little bit about your podcast, man. You you've got a great show. It's uh it's highly entertaining. And you all you do a little segment every day almost, right?
SPEAKER_00:We we do the today, and then we do the did you know's and that's just random stuff that we do. Then we do three podcasts a week, our regular podcast, and we're not we're all we're the world's largest waterfowl podcast.
unknown:Nice.
SPEAKER_00:The guys, the waterfowl podcast guys say, well, they're not really a waterfowl podcast. Well, we're about as waterfowl as you can get. I mean, we do it from a lodge, it's in the waterfowl business, but we don't talk about just waterfowl stuff because that would get really boring after a while. Um this week we had uh we had a guy on that works at Ducks Unlimited that is a sound guy from them that won a Grammy. We had him on today, or an Emmy, an Emmy, not a Grammy, he won an Emmy. We had him on today. We had the ladies on from Ducks Unlimited last week that's the curator of the museum there. We had a redneck on. We had uh Trevor Shanahan, world champion goose collar, was on with us this week. We had uh, I can't remember who else we had on this week, but we do all kinds of stuff.
SPEAKER_01:I think I met him at your booth with your brother.
SPEAKER_00:Probably did. Yeah. Yep, he just won the both both championships there. He won both contests. He was Trevor's a good friend of mine. I got his world championship. If you look right here, that goose in the middle right there, that is his world championship. I think that's the first one he won, the world championship in Easton. He gave me that decoy. He's won it three or four times, and that's the world championship goose calling trophy. It's a joke decoy. Um, but we we have all kinds of people on. We'll have waterfowl guys on, we'll have uh a priest on, we'll have a preacher on, we'll have a guy we had a guy on that found the Ebola virus. I've had uh I've had a drug smuggler on before from us. Uh Roger Reeves that's got a book out called The Smuggler that's on Amazon. He's the one that actually taught Barry Seals the American Made Show. He's the one that found him and got him involved with the drug cartels. Uh I've got a redneck guy named Coyote Man Clay Reed that's been on with us a dozen times. I've had Wyman Menzer on with us. He's a local, he's a professor at tech, he's a state waterfowl, the official state photographer of Texas. There's all the King Ranch advertised uh commercial pictures for them. We just all kinds of people. And we'll just have a random guy on that's a public public waterfowl hunter in Illinois, and then I might have a guy on in California that's a pot farmer. But we we go all over the place. But I found that waterfowl, waterfowl hunters have different interests other than just waterfowl hunting.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I I'm I'm gonna ask your advice on this show. I know it's not time and place, but see, I I want to do that too, and I I'm I was always scared of, you know, I the only thing I do, Jeff, is you know, there's five million retriever podcasts because retrievers are the most owned dog and it's most popular. I'm not criticizing that. But I grew up hunting Aubrey. I love all hunting breeds, and I've actually owned about everything. And and I started out with protection dogs too. I I still do that. I'm rambling, but my point is I I've I want to have a variety of topics on, and I just wonder if it would hurt the show, you know, if I would alienate my listeners. So, what's your thoughts about that?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I'm sure we've pissed off and lost lots of listeners over the year because we talk about everything and we cuss and talk, we we talk about everything. The only thing we haven't had on our show is a porn star, and we've had two different offers to do one, and I'm like, I'm not touching that deal. Because I would ask some questions that a lot of guys would want to ask that probably would make my wife pissed off, or someone else I just we just have shunned on that one. Yeah, but we talk about everything. I mean, there's nothing that we won't talk about. We talk about racism, we talk about stereotypes. We probably are stereotype or racist on some things. I'm not a big fan of the Muslims. I've talked a lot about that. If I piss somebody off, they won't listen to it again. But our numbers keep going up.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And I have, it's funny, I had a I've got a farmer that I hunt on, him and his wife, and I messaged her the other day about something, and she called me back and she goes, Oh, I just loved your podcast this week, blah, blah. And I couldn't believe she listened to the damn thing. I was shocked. But it it didn't hurt, it did not hurt us at all. When the first time we did our, we started doing what we call the world on fire, and about every three weeks, me and Andy will do a world on fire. We'll just talk about all the shit going on in the world, whatever the news topic is. And a guy reached out to me and he said, Well, he said, I sure enjoy your podcast. But he said, With y'all talking that way, y'all will never get any podcast sponsors at all. Well, we've got a pretty good group of podcast sponsors. It's a pretty long list. It is, and it's the who's who in the waterfowl business. And those people know that the people that buy their products listen to the same stuff that I listen to, and they talk about the same stuff. We just ain't afraid to talk about it. We say stuff that other I've had guys a lot of times that say, Man, I want to be on your podcast, but man, at work, they'll go and we'll have to watch what we say and stuff. You know, and when I have a preacher on, we don't cuss. We have a priest on, we don't cuss. You know, I got a rednecked cow guy on, we're probably gonna say some cuss words. You know, if we're talking about Nancy Pelosi, we're probably gonna use the C word. That's just the way we are.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'll tell you this, I don't I'm not afraid to say it. I'm a uh I'm a huge fan. I listened to y'all wait when I drove to Memphis to the Delts Unlimited to set up a booth, listen to y'all go on and coming, and I I'm I'm a huge fan.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I I do appreciate that very much. And we uh we have an eclectic group of people, but we talk about a lot of different subjects, and we're gonna continue to go down that path. And if someone's got a story to tell, everybody has a story to tell. It's just getting the story out of them because the guy that does you take the most common thing that you think a guy driving a chip route working for Fried Olay, if you talk to him and ask the right questions, he's got some damn funny stories. He'll do he deals with people all day long. Yes, and people want to hear about that. I mean, that's that and that's the kind of stuff that we like to live to talk about. I got a guy reached out to me the other day that's a Bigfoot guy. Again, I've had a couple of Bigfoot people on. I've yet to find one that actually has seen a Bigfoot, but by God, they think they have. But I like talking to people like that. But I want to get a guy on that's a Bigfoot guy that's an actual scientist or something that can give me some facts of why he really thinks that there's a Bigfoot in the world. I'm not saying there's not. I've never seen one, you know. I know there's mountain lions around here because I've seen one. You know, I know there's bears, more bears in Texas because people see them. I haven't seen one in Texas, but I don't know anybody that has seen a Bigfoot. They say they have, but I don't know anybody that's actually seen one. Me either. Uh but that's the kind of stuff people want to hear about. Uh someone out there has been abducted by an alien. Buddy, sign me up. I want you on my podcast because I want to ask you some questions.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that no, I get it. Uh well, you've inspired me. I've got some ideas, you know. Like like I said, there's stuff I I don't have a lot of talents in the world, Jeff. I say it all the time, but I I I have the gift of gab, and I've been a landman, a lawyer, and a politician. I, you know, I I probably can't do anything else but talk to people. And and I'm truly interested.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and that's what people want to hear about, though, because people want to talk to people that have something different than they do. If you go to work, the majority of my podcast listeners are guys that work in an office or a construction site or whatever. They work, but they're in their vehicle. Some of them drive to work 30 minutes a day, some of them drive to work five minutes, some of them are in a vehicle 10, 12 hours a day. Truck drivers, they've got a lot of truck drivers, but they listen to different stuff. Well, they don't want to hear about the same shit they do, they want to hear somebody else talk about stuff. And they want to hear their talk about the shit they've seen in their day and their experiences, and that's kind of like and that's what we like talking about. I want to talk to people that's got something different than me. If some guy calls me up and he says, hey, I'm a waterfowl guide in Mississippi and we hunt 20 people a day. We want to, you know, I want to hear the stories of all the screwed-up shit that goes on. I don't want to hear about you shooting mallards. I don't care. Because you can only talk so much about shooting a duck or a goose. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's true. It's the same way with dog training, you know. I'm not I have trainers on here and stuff, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Bob Hood used to tell me the funniest dog story ever, or one of them, one that I remember. Do you know who Bob Hood was? No, sir. Bob Hood was the outdoor writer for the Fort War Star Telegram. Back when people used to, you know, read a newspaper every day. Only job he ever had. Started working, delivering papers there, I think, when he was 10, and he retired from there when he was 66, I think, or something. He worked 50-something years for the Fort War Star Telegram. He's a good, good, good friend of mine and my dad's. Anyways, Bob hunted up here four or five times a year. And he went to went on a hunt one time and he had this old bird dog, and they was at this uh hunting club. They used to have a hunting club at Jacksborough, and it was a high fence ranch. And I cannot, for the life of me, remember what it was, but it was there forever years ago. And they went up there and they did release quail hunt, and this guy would guide, would let the quail out and stuff, and Bob took his dog. And Bob said that uh, or this guy had his dog. Bob said they get they pulled up to the place, and Bob said, Man, I drank too much coffee and I had to shit so bad. He said, I went over behind the woods and took a shit behind a wood over something. And he says, Oh, I lets his old bird dog out. And he said, I watched that old bird dog run all over. And he said, Somebody goes right to where I took a shit. That dog rolled in that shit and rolled in that shit. And he came running up to that old guy and he rubbing all over that guy. That guy's like, oh damn, guys got into some cow shit. And the guy's kind of petting on him and stuff. And Bob's like, oh my gosh, you know. But oh God, Bob was a good guy. But stuff like that, you know, that's what but because people can relate to it and they think it's funny. And they they they they're interested in that shit.
SPEAKER_01:But uh, you you also have done stand-up, right? Hello, this is Kenneth Witt, and Gun Dog Nation is proud to have one of their sponsors as Retriever Training Supply, based in Alabama. Retriever Training Supply offers fast shipping on quality gear. Your dog will love it. Visit Retriever Training Supply.com to purchase gear to help you train your retriever. Listen, they have some of the best leases I've ever found. It's stuff's made in America. Their leases are and they source them locally. They have anything you want. Fast, friendly service, fast shipping, just good people. Retriever training supply.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I did some stand-up a couple times and um enjoyed the hell out of it. Uh pissed some people off. But uh yes, my my target audience was one night I went and did it at an all-black comedy club. And that was not my target audience, but I found a big fat black lady in the front row that I could make fun of, and me and everybody else around her had a really good time. I think that lady probably would kill me today still if she ever saw me again.
SPEAKER_01:Oh man, I was still thinking, you know what, I don't know if we'd talk about it on here, but uh your brother tell me the story about you going through the drive-thru and pretend to be an FBI agent. That might be the funniest thing I've heard in a long time.
SPEAKER_00:That's a dog-related story, too. So I pulled into uh we pulled into Whataburger and it was late. It's probably 11:30, 12, 1 o'clock in the morning. I don't know if we'd been on a casino run to Oklahoma or if we'd been tornado chasing, but I have a I was I'm a retired judge. I was a judge for a long time, and I was a mayor for a long time, and so I have the the volunteer fire department, I've got a radio for the sheriffs, all that, and it's in my truck. Well, I keep it on all the time low. Well, in Wichita Falls, their 911 for their ambulance and stuff is the same frequency as ours is out here for our our just sheriff's office. So it goes off every once in a while. I'm in Wichita they get an ambulance call. We pull into, we're at McDonald's, not Waterburg, we're at McDonald's. And I pull into the at Burke Burnett, Texas, I pull into the deal, and about time we pull to pay, my radio goes off. And this lady looked like she was about one glass jar away from being a full-blown meth addict at the window there. And she looks up at me and she goes, Are you a cop? I said, Well, ma'am, I'm not supposed to say this, but I said, I'm with the FBI. She's like, Oh. I said, Can I ask you a few questions? And my buddies are like, What is he gonna do here, you know? And she's like, Yes, I always cooperate with the pe the police. I'm very, very, very pro-police officer. I said, Well, I appreciate that much. I said, and I'm not gonna say my buddy's name because his name's Keith Hennett, and I don't want everybody to know I'm talking about him. So, oh Keith, I said, Do you know, do you know who Keith is? She goes, I do know who he is. I said, Does he still live over by that elementary school? Yes, he does. I said, Have you seen him with the German Shepherd lately? No, sir. I said, You haven't seen that dog? She goes, No, sir, why? I said, I bet we're too late to the guys next to me. And they're like, What are you doing? And she's like, huh? I said, Yeah. I said, Now you don't mind answering these questions? Oh, sir, I work with the cops all the time. I said, Well, ma'am, I said, he's been having sexual relations with this dog, and it's on the dark web, and we're fixing to arrest him for animal cruelty. That sick son of a bitch, and she got all mad and stuff, and then she gave us our food and we drove off. Never ever said a word about it at all.
SPEAKER_01:I just, you know, I'm from a small town, I can't imagine a gossip going around about that people.
SPEAKER_00:I'm telling you, and he didn't even know. About two years later, he was up here, and I was like, I got your ass good, you don't even know it. Oh Lord. But I had owed him. He had he pulled some pranks on me when we were younger, and I I'm way, way, way ahead now because I've done some other things to him. But that was the that was the cream of the crop. But that's still. I've got a lot of I've got a lot of stories, which being in this business, I got a lot of them. A lot of them I can't tell, and I've got some, but I've got a lot of stories, and I've I'm I got blessed with the gift of gab, I guess, because I like to talk.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I I I sure enjoy it, man. I uh yeah. We we uh I know every time we get together, it's uh there there's no there's no silence between us. Uh what few times we've got talked in person. What's your next show you're going to? You know, um I the only thing I know of right now is really like uh wild turkey, and uh we try to get on the wait list there, and I think I'm number 300, so there'd be no chance of that. Uh I'd love to be a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00:That's a hell of a show. That that show and Ducks Unlimited show are by far the two best shows that we've done this year or have been to in a long time. Yeah. Um Turkey's have you been to Turkey then a lot of times?
SPEAKER_01:No, I back in Kentucky I belong to the local organization of my hometown there, but I've never been to the national uh convention.
SPEAKER_00:It reminded me a lot of Ducks Unlimited. You know how busy it was on Saturday? Yeah. That's about that's what the turkey like. It's a really good time. The first time I went to it, I was absolutely shocked because I'm not a big turkey hunter. I mean, we do turkey hunts, and back when I had a lot of turkeys, we would run 20, 30 turkey hunts a year. Not a ton, but we'd just run one at a time. But the when we went there the first time, I thought, these people are ate up with this turkey shit. Yeah. And they are. It is wall to wall in that place.
SPEAKER_01:And you know, I've I've turkey hunted, I've killed uh osseolas, I've killed everything with a mirium. I had no idea. I had no idea. I figured duck hunting was bigger, but they say that the convention is just crazy.
SPEAKER_00:It is, but I'm gonna tell you right now the waterfowl hunters are taking over a bunch of that. Now they're not taking it over because the turkey hunting is still king, but there is a lot of waterfowl because it mixes together. I mean, you're decoying a bird, you've got the same equipment, but uh all of our big sponsors, all of our big sponsors are are are are at Turkey also. I mean, every one of them is there. And and so they all go to Turkey. That everybody that's at Ducks Unlimited almost is at Turkey, if you can get a booth. Yeah. Then uh we do I do five shows a year every year. We go to Turkey, we go to Bass Classic with Maddie Robertson, Boss and Aum. We go to. We go to Delta, Ducks Unlimited, and then um we do Squad Fest, and that's the five shows I do every single year.
SPEAKER_01:I I might you you mentioned to me a little bit about Squad Fest. I I need to try that. See, I'm I'm fairly new at the shows. I mean, this I've only done this podcast, this is 11 months. Um so I'm I'm you know, but I'm I love it. I I love doing this, I love going to shows and meeting people, and um, you know, that's how I met you.
SPEAKER_00:Uh it it it's a it's a great networking deal. Um I told Michelle um when we went to Ducks Unlimited this year, we we pulled in and me and Tony, we hadn't had a booth or Stanfield Hunting, we hadn't had a booth in we've done we hadn't done a show since 2019 on our own. We go with boss all the time, so you know we've got all their stuff, or we it's their booth. We just help out, stay and visit bullshit with people. And so Ducks Limb is a sponsor, and we got a booth there, and our booth was a put just put-together rag tag booth compared to what we had. And I told Michelle I said, I felt like I did that first time in 1993 when me and Tony went to hunting show together. We went to the Texas Trophy Hunters in Fort Worth, and all these guys had these big wooden booths and all these mounts and shit, and we had an old two by four booth we stuck together with some paper we got at Kinkos to show people where Knox City, Texas was. But we had a TV and a VCR with the goose hunting video that none of them had, and it was a bang-up show for us. We had people all over us because of what we had, but I I didn't feel like I fit in. And so I told Michelle this year when we went, I said, I feel like I hadn't been to a show in so long. I I'm the new guy on the block again, you know. But I know everybody, so it's a whole different atmosphere. But it's uh the show, the show deal, those are the only shows that are really thriving. There's a waterfowl show this weekend in Wisconsin that's really growing big time, and I may go to that next year. It's in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. And it it's I I can't remember what it's called, but it's Waterfowl Harry, Waterfowl something or another, but it is this this weekend coming up in uh in Oshkosh. But there's not very many shows like there used to be. Texas has got three shows, and I went to the trophy hunters on uh last weekend in Fort Worth. It was terrible. Really? Oh, it's just beef jerky, uh glass cleaning stuff, get your boots shined, buy a ranch, buy beef jerky, do that. I mean, that's there was very few outfitters there. Back in the day, that was the shows to go to. They were packed. But that was also, I'm so old that I was doing this before the internet was around and before everybody had well, before Bass Pro Shops was nowhere but in Springfield, Missouri and uh Nebraska had the uh only Cabela's.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I guess you know, I've been a lifetime member of Texas Trophy Hunters for probably 10, 12, or 13 years, maybe, but I've never got to go to their shows. So now that you've told me that, don't know that.
SPEAKER_00:If I was gonna go to one, I would go to the one in San Antonio, which I think was last weekend. This is the one I would go to. I went to Fort Worth just to be nosy. Me and Michelle went and spent the night in the stockyards and went out and ate, and we went to the stock, but it took us an hour to walk through. And I've been in this business 30 plus years in Texas. That's my home show for years, and I didn't see 15 people that I knew in there. Wow. I saw people walking in the crowd that I knew that I talked to, but I didn't see 15 vendors in there that I absolutely know that I knew. I can go to a show anywhere in the United States and see 15 vendors that I know just from being in this business this long. Friends of mine. And it was but it was just it's complete, it's so different than what it used to be like. And I tried to get a booth because I have a couple of deer hunts to sell, and I thought, shit, after we go to this one, we'll just go to Fort Worth and set up a booth. And they tried to bid me over on a booth. Well, they didn't try to bend me, I tried to get a deal on them, but they're like, oh, we're sold out, we can't make you a deal. Or they weren't sold out, but they wouldn't cut a discount and held a third of their space, there was nobody in. Really? Oh, it was terrible.
SPEAKER_01:The the Ducks Unlimited, can you imagine what the wait line is going to be to get into that next year? No, that was insane. Well, you know, it was my first one, but compared to the Delta Waterfowl one, it was insane. Uh, it was that Saturday.
SPEAKER_00:So it was so much better. That is the most organized show I've ever been to in my entire life. And I have been to a bunch of them. I've been to the Harrisburg Show, I've been to Denver, I've been Phoenix, I've been Albuquerque. I've been all over doing hunting shows in 30-something years. And that's the most organized show I've ever been to in my life. When you pulled in down there on that dock and those guys loaded your stuff up and took it upstairs for you, and you by the time you parked and got to your booth, your stuff was there. Never seen that before ever at a hunting show.
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SPEAKER_00:At Ducks Unlimited or Delta? At Delta. Okay, Ducks Unlimited, that's what they did for us too. But not at Delta, but I didn't at Delta I went with Boss, and I didn't mean Michelle didn't go till Thursday night, and the show started Friday, and they'd already, they were everything was already set up when we got there. But the Dirk doesn't tell you something such a good job.
SPEAKER_01:I've got to tell you something you said now. I can't wear a cap that I bought. But uh I'd ordered this cap from Duck Camp that had a lab door retriever on its camo. I thought the logo looked cool, and I'm a dog guy, right? So if we was coming back from uh some show and I had you on speakerphone in my truck, and you were talking about squaw fest. You said it was all flatbills there, and I I didn't hit me what you were referring to. So I put that calf on, and I look like spanky on little rascals, you know. It barely would fit my head because those those flatbill hats are low profile, and I got a big old head. I mean, I've got a big size head, and anyway, I thought about what you said, and I can't wear that hat now.
SPEAKER_00:It's a flatbill, and and I'm gonna tell you, you go to Squad Fest, it's great. If you want to sell products and stuff, those guys are buying stuff like crazy. It's a great show for the consumer, 100%. But there's a huge portion of that crowd is flatbills. That's what I call them young guys. Those 16 to 30-year-old guys and shows got the old hat like that, you know. Yeah, them suckers are everywhere. And that is Squad Fest is a Flatbill hat. I mean, I'm telling you, they're everywhere. There ain't no old, I mean, there's old people, there's a little bit of everything. It's a good show, but it is Flatbill City over there. And anybody goes and Asher and them at Squad Fest will tell you they got tons of Flatbills go that place. If you're selling goose and duck calls, it is the place to go because they them call manufacturers sell so much stuff like crazy. Those kids, those 10, 12-year-old kids, they've got$150 to spend, and by God, they're gonna buy them a$150 call. Yeah. That's what they're going for.
SPEAKER_01:Soon as I got back from Ducks Unlimited, and you told me that on my way home, I'd talk to you. And I'd got that box in the mail, and I was so excited because I'm a cap freak. I've got anyway, I got that out of the box and stuck that on, and I thought I'd never be able to wear this cap. I'd be thinking about Jeff Stanfield's comment. Yeah, but if I saw you, but look at that old guy wearing that flatbill over there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the old man wearing a flat bill. Yeah. I you know what I don't ever see that I've got I hunt we hunt so many people, so I see everything. I can tell you which college football team is good by October 1st, because that's the t-shirt and the caps everybody wears. When Baylor was good a couple years ago, every other person was a Baylor bear. I ain't seen a Baylor bear in five years now. But it's it's crazy. I don't ever see an old guy wearing a flat bill here, ever.
SPEAKER_01:I'm gonna give mine my son, uh, my youngest. He wears caps a little bit, so he'll he'll fit he'll fit right in.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, he'll love it. But that's their that's their style. It's just it don't fit my big ass head.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's me, and it and it's such a they're they're so low profile that it like I said, I look like spanky on little rascals. I mean it it's it's not a good it's not a good look for me. But anyway. Uh well Jeff, I know I know you you're covered up busy, man, and I could I could I I'd like to actually have another episode or two or three with you and anytime I enjoy I yes, I love being on other podcasts because I don't ever get to be the guest.
SPEAKER_00:I get a I I ask questions all the time, so I love being on another being on. So I would love to have anytime you need someone on, you holler at me. I'd love to be on again. That's fine. I know we're gonna be able to do that. You need to come see us sometime.
SPEAKER_01:You're always welcome up here. Anytime. I'll I will come up. I'll be driving up through that way. Uh I'll be getting ready to go hunt Montana and stuff. You won't be coming this way from Fort McCabot. That's right. I'll probably go through Amarillo, I guess.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Anytime you get up this way, are you free this this winter and you want to come up for a day or two, holler at me. I'd love to have you.
SPEAKER_01:I do have to go up in Oklahoma to pick up a dog, so I when I do that, I actually do drive your way. Well, you just let me know when, and we'll damn sure get together for sure.
SPEAKER_00:How far are you from Woodson? Oh, about shit, let me think. 45 minutes, maybe? Okay, I'll work on there to pick up a dog trailer next week. Oh, from the guy that's got the oh, well, that's got Rodmorton's got all the dogs. Yeah. Jones Jones trailers. Yeah, holler at me next week when you get up this way. We'll go eat lunch at least. You see this picture behind me right here?
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:That's my dad, and that's 74 mallards.
unknown:Jeez.
SPEAKER_00:When I was a kid growing up, our limit was a hundred shells. So whatever we shot in a hundred shells is when we quit hunting. Wow. Now that that hunt right there, that hunt right there, I was not part of. That was my dad and another guy that was a fireman, and another guy. And they're all they're all three are dead now, so the statute of limitations has run out on that deal. But there's 74 mallards in that picture, and I think there's a couple pentails in there, too. But what's crazy is that picture was taken seven miles from where I live. And I grew up a hundred miles away from here. But we hunted grew up hunting out here. But that's my dad. That's how you got down there. That's how I knew about this place from hunting. That's yeah, I hunted out here the whole time as a kid growing up. But that's my dad. That picture's taken around 1981, we figured. You'd have been about 12 or 13. Yep. I got to shoot a lot of birds growing up. I had a lot of fun. But it was a good it was a good life. I'm telling you right now, these kids today, they've got a lot more technology and stuff, but I don't think they have near the childhoods that we did growing up.
SPEAKER_01:I I feel the same way. I I grew up on a right next to the river, Middle Fork River, Kentucky, and you know, I had it. I loved it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the kids they just don't they don't realize how blessed we were. And we didn't I didn't know I was poor till I got older. I mean, because everybody was the same. Life was just so much simpler back then. And I, you know, me and Andy argue about this all the time, but I just and every generation goes through it because they think they grew up in this wonderful time, but man, these kids today I feel sorry for them. They don't have the outlets even. If you're a 16-year-old kid and your family don't own land or you're not friends with a kid, how are you gonna get a place to go hunt these days?
SPEAKER_01:You know, you're exactly right. And listen, moving from Kentucky, where you know you could hunt cheap or you know, and moving to Texas, I I was culture sh I was in shock at the what it cost to deer hunt. Uh even get on a lease, you know. I was like, good. So all my friends in Kentucky when I moved here, like, hey man, can you get me deer hunting? I was like, uh, you better jerk out a checkbook and you come to Texas to hunt, because it's not cheap. No, nowhere it is, and and that that that's exactly right.
SPEAKER_00:But when when I was a kid, even around Wichita Falls, a little town of a hundred thousand people, I could go outside of town five miles and knock on the door and stuff, and we could dove hunt or shoot quail or shoot ducks, and nobody cared. You can't do that no more. Deer hunting has changed a bunch of that because even out here, when I first got out here, we didn't have a lot of deer leases like there are now. Now every acre is leased up out here. So you could get on a place if you've seen this. Well, these kids today out here, they can't go nowhere to hunt. Yeah. No local local guys will ask me about a hunt all the time, and I don't advertise this because I don't, but I don't ever charge if someone local out here wants to take their kid on a hunt and I can work them in, I do. I don't ever charge them for that. You know, I didn't, I couldn't, my dad couldn't afford it to pay for me to go. But I can't afford to take 30 free kids every day either. Yeah. But there just ain't the outlet for these kids no more like there used to be. And even I mean, I live in a town of a thousand people. It's a farming and oil community, and you think, but these you can't get on, and and I know if the kids here can't get on them in the bigger cities, you damn sure ain't gonna get nowhere to hunt. If your dad's not paying for a big lease, you're screwed. Yeah, and it these leases are outrageous. Uh a deer lease. I want to talk. I want to talk about one thing before we get off here. Yes. We do a gold star hunt every year. And it's for kids, it's for kids whose parents have either passed away being in the military or a first responder. Sponsored Mossburg sponsors it. They give us guns for every kid gets a gun when they leave and stuff, and that hunts the first weekend in October. I've got openings for a couple of gold star kids. I've had some kids bail on me. So if you if anybody out there knows a kid whose dad is a first responder or mom, and they passed away, and this kid needs a place to come hunt, we do it the first weekend in October. Kids get a helicopter hog hunt, they get to dove hunt. It don't cost nothing. And they get a gun, they get all kinds of goodies. All my sponsors donate money and all kinds of stuff. They get the the most awesome, it's like going to Ducks Unlimited winning the big raffle. They get that much stuff with them. Do you sponsors if they get a bunch of stuff? But anyways, reach out to me if you know a couple of kids. And I had a kid last year who uh whose brother committed suicide, and we had him out here. So it don't have to be. I mean, if if there's a kid that's in need that's had a death in his family, and we can help him out, we sure like to do it. But we've got opening for a couple of kids if you know anybody.
SPEAKER_01:How many can you accommodate, Jeff?
SPEAKER_00:We do twelve we're set up for twelve kids. We do twelve. This year we're 12, and Mossburg sent in his 12 guns. But uh, anyways, right now I've got a solid eight parents, supposedly. But you know it's crazy. Every year we do the same thing, and about 50% of the kids show up. It doesn't matter if we set up for eight. First year we did four and we had four. Then the next year we did eight and we had six. Then last year we had a dozen and we had seven or something. But you know, it's it's it's something. But kids uh the a lot of the parents, it's not a priority to the mom that, you know, and and uh and it what we have done is now we're doing first responders. Before it was just military. Well, we haven't had a lot of, we thank God we haven't been in a lot of um fights lately with our military, so it was harder to find kids, which was a great thing. Then we switched it to the uh first responders. With first responders, you're getting kids that are it's a fresh wound. We had three kids last year who had lost their dad within six months. The when it was just uh military kids, some of them was 15, 16 years, you know. They were babies and they were 16-year-olds who'd lost their dad. So anybody out there that knows a kid that's in this, we sure we you know, we'd like a sponsor to come with them. It could be a mom, it could be a grandpa, whatever it is, just to come with them so they have someone else here at the lodge.
SPEAKER_01:Let me know. Uh you send me any kind of link that I can that you have, or or if you don't care.
SPEAKER_00:And I just I'll put something on Facebook because we don't do a 501c3, all that shit. I don't, I ain't screwing with that crap. We we tell we we get a bunch of money donations, we give the kids a check, you know, that leave. We don't advertise that, but the kids get some money when they leave and they can do whatever they want. It's their money, it's not their parents' money, it's theirs. I don't care what the parents decide to do with it, but we had some girls two years ago that were here, and um their dad, I gave the he I gave him the check, and he I told him what we were gonna do. He said, Can we just have the check the parents? He said, No, we're gonna let them do something with it, but we want to surprise them. So their birthday was like two months later, and they gave them their checks, their money, and they took them to go buy clothes or whatever they wanted. It was a thousand, two thousand, three thousand a piece, I don't remember what it was. But anyways, the little girl sent me a video message thanking me, and you know, it wasn't me, it was all my listeners and stuff that donate money and stuff to them. But it's a way of us giving back. Yeah, I love that. But, anyways, if anybody knows any kids, we need to work. I'm looking for a couple of kids from some families. What's gonna happen is I'm either gonna have nobody reach out to me or there's gonna be a hundred people. Yeah, nothing in between. No, it's never ever in between. And we don't try to turn down kids, but we we are we're limited to twelve kids, but I've got I I could do three probably for sure. Okay. So don't go telling your kid you're gonna get him involved in this unless you get a hold of me and I still have openings, please. Because I don't want to, I'd feel horrible about that. But, anyways, if you're listening out there and you know a kid that's deserving, or uh he don't have to be deserving, he's a kid's a kid, you know. There there are bad kids, trust me. I was a judge for a long time. There are a lot of bad kids, but most bad kids come from bad environments. Yeah, I agree. That's that's the problem. Anyways, I appreciate you having me on here.
SPEAKER_01:Jeff, tell everybody how they can find you. If I might have some listeners that's not listened to the honker show before, but tell them how to get a hold of you or how to find you.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you can the Big Honker Podcast, it's on all the podcast deals on YouTube. It's the Big Honker Podcast channel. Our new uh new series, the first family of waterfowl, season four, is out right now on it. We're filming season five right now. And uh or at stanfieldhunting.com. You can look me up on the Instagram, JSTANfield68. Uh if you're sensitive and you get you like the Democratic Party, you might not want to listen to me, but if you're a regular person and got a brain in your head, look me up. You might enjoy what I put out there.
SPEAKER_01:Well, Jeff, thank you so much for taking time. I know you do a lot of podcasts, man, and you're busy. Uh I really really enjoyed having you.
SPEAKER_00:I had a good time when I do this again, and holler at me next week when you're up here and we'll go have a lunch or something at least. Deal. You got it. All right. Thanks. Have a good day. Thank you, sir. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER_01:Hello, this is Kenneth Witt with Gun Dog Nation. I'd like to encourage all you listeners and viewers on our YouTube channel to check out patreon.com forward slash gun dognation. For$10 a month, you can become a member of our community and we'll have access to lots of stuff. Mainly we'll do a monthly forum, an open forum where you can ask me anything gun dog related, and we'll learn from each other in the community. Should be a lot of fun each month. We will do that. So check it out. Patreon.com forward slash gun dognation.