My gear- best hunt of the year

In this episode, I break down the duck hunting gear I rely on every season and share the story behind my favorite hunting trip of the year. From the setup that gets the job done to the memories that keep me coming back, this one’s all about the gear and the hunt.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Alright, everybody, thanks for joining me on the Duck Dependent Podcast. Like usual, fired up to be here. Episode 23. Guys, we're trying to get through the dog days of summer. I'm down here in Utah. It is absolutely getting ready to heat up. Gotta get through it. But I thought I would do an episode, and we're gonna call this my gear. I have lots of people just hitting me up about the choke or gun or any of those kind of things. And I thought, you know what? I'm just gonna make an episode and talk about what I like to use from boat to truck to gear, maybe a little bit of why. Not too in-depth on that, but I want this to be a little refreshing. You know, the dog days of summer get long, and then I'm gonna end it with my probably one of my favorite, or if not the favorite, hunt trips. I had a lot of good ones last year, but I'll end this one on uh one of my favorite hunting trips from last year. So before I get started, I'm gonna talk about the partners that hit that help make this thing go. Retail USA, guys. Favorite shotgun on planet Earth. Put it to the test. I can't wait to put another year on it. Um I got a new flavor, the bronze with bottom land. I used an all-black 20 gauge last year. Uh Retay USA, guys, go check them out. Flight Day Ammunition, premium steel shot. We talk about it all the time. Guys, we're at that time now. You can save some money at checkout with DD 10. If you have any questions, reach out to Ben at Flight Day or honestly reach out to me. But I love number six 20 gauge. That's flight day ammunition. Check out DD10. And then also, guys, Les Schwab tires, good, better, best. They're back in the truck, the boat. They're all over the West, guys. I plan my trips around them. Um, they make the best tire, the best service in the game. That's Les Schwab tires. And then DuckDependent.shop, guys. Awesome response. Thankful. I just boxing up yesterday, got some orders out. Remember, your first order you can save 15% if you subscribe. So go check out duckdependent.shop. But all right, guys, we're gonna hop right into it on this episode, my gear. Okay, so I'm just gonna hop right into boat and motor. If you've listened to some of these episodes or you follow along, appreciate it. Uh but I run a boat-wise, I run an XL F4 1854, uh 125 gauge as far as the thickness. And if you're not familiar with the F4, you can go check it out, go to XL's website. But uh basically the layout of the boat, it's a high deck, it's got a built-in 11-gallon uh gas tank, which I love because you can just pull right up, fill it up like your pickup truck. Um, I've got bow rails up front, front LED, um, and I'm a box guy. I kind of like everything put away. Obviously, during hunting season, you can't always do that, but there's a gun box on the left, there's an open tray, which is awesome for Lucky Duck or Mojo poles or whatever you use to keep their miscellaneous, even for fishing, you can keep lures there. But anyway, so high deck, 11-gallon gas tank bow rails. I've got it pre-wired for electric motor up front, gun box on the left, it's got rod holder in there as well. Open tray, like I said, then there's a driver's box that's completely waterproof. And then right behind me, there's a battery box, billage pump, and then next to that there's a storage, and I've also got a hunt deck. That's an amazing thing because you can stand on that in and out of the boat. I actually set my dog there a lot of times when I'm hunting from the boat, so that's kind of my boat. Um, I absolutely love it, and the reason that I love it is it's got high sides, 25-inch sides, guys, and I hunt big water, skinny water, you name it. And I just feel really confident, no matter the river systems. I live on a huge lake that gets absolutely nasty in the wintertime with chop, and those sides are for me a really safety thing for anybody and myself on the boat. Um, so I do love that about the XL F4, and they have tons of models. They're flagships, the Pro Hall. Um, it's a wide open boat, but for me, XL F4, guys, I've got it in um old school camo, man. It came out amazing. I did uh a clear gloss on it, it looks amazing in the summertime. It's covered up with the blinding gear in the winter or in the hunting season, so it doesn't affect birds that way. But that's my boat setup. Um I've had XL since 2014, and I've had a mud motor since 2014, so uh that's kind of my go-to as far as the boat, and then the motor, an easy match pair for me. They're out west, but I love their customer service, their performance is Mud Buddy. So I've ran Mud Buddy all the way from my first Mud Buddy, actually was a Sport V all the way to the next HDR series to my current one, the 5000. Kind of thinking about going to the 54, but that's kind of my setup boat and motor wise. XLF4, uh, Mud Buddy 5000. I run the shorter drive, the 27-inch drive. For me, it's a little more versatile because I run nothing but mud all the way to River Rock all over the west. So for me, the 27-inch drive has a little less turbulence, a little less tiller torque, a little easier. When I say easier, these are probably minor, but turns a little sharper kind of a thing. And then before I forget on the boat, which has been awesome, it's a flat bottom, but the front has a mod V with an icebreaker keel. So not only do the high sides protect you and chop, but uh those are that front V is amazing for ice and a little bit of wave break, and it hasn't hindered me to run really shallow on these shallow river rocks. I'm running with everyone else on these lighter, smaller, flat bottoms, anyways, and I haven't had really any major contact. So love the XL F4, love the Mud Buddy motor. Um next, so I talked about a little bit. I am partners, I'm an ambassador for them, but I've shot them all the way back to the Mossamara is the Retay. Um my current gun is the Ace, it's the it's got the regular curve back, they make a type R, which is kind of the mild hunt back, but I love the Retay Ace guys, and when I tell you it's been flawless, it has. I shot it all year, and just the most days I've hunted in the season was last year. I I can honestly say I had zero malfunctions. Now I'm not saying that's going to be forever, but as of today I've not had even on the clay range, which I'm absolutely just freaked out about. Not even a clay, cheap little ammo clay, uh has hit has gave it a hiccup. So I love the that's my gun, the Ritay Ace. I have it in a 12 gauge, and and I shoot 99.9% 20. But the reason I say 12 is I do chase geese early season for literally a weekend. I do use the Ritay Ace in a 12 gauge. Obviously, nothing to brag on that. I've only shot it, you know, like 250 rounds of clay and one goose season on it. But I haven't had any jams there either. I'm talking 12 gauge crappy loads for clays, and and it's a three and a half inch gun, so I am really impressed with the Ritay Ace platform, and I'm gonna continue to shoot that, and that's kind of my main gun. And then flighting ammunition guys, I had a great conversation a year ago with Ben, and we talked about it. I said, well, let me try it out, let's let me put it to the test. Uh if you haven't heard episodes uh prior to this, I love to pattern it just to see on paper, and I know there's a hundred ways to pattern, shoot the decoy, shoot the water, what it looks like. I just want to see it on paper, pellet count, give me an idea. And guys, absolutely lights out. I love flight day ammunition, the hull, the crimp, sealed tight. Um, the steel shot is the best you can get. But what I really like about the ammo, and you and you have to adjust a little bit, is the speed of it has been slowed down a little bit, right? So we're always kind of diving into speed. This is a little bit slower than normal, but I've noticed that the pattern has been phenomenal. So that's kind of my my go-to ammunition. 20 gauge, number six, and then for even for the the 12 gauge I mentioned, I use it just for a weekend of Early Goose. I use number fours. Um, it it put a hurt on some of these big 737 honkers last year, and so I'm gonna continue to use that just for that weekend. But from October to the last weekend of January, I'm gonna shoot number six, 20 gauge, three inch, ounce and sixteenth, three hundred and thirty one pellets. It's an amazing load, but that's that's my favorite ammo right now to date. Um, what else? Waiters. Actually, before I go to waiters, choke tube. I have a lot of people hit me up what to pair that with. And I always encourage everybody, anything I'm talking about, this is literally just my gear. So I'm not saying it's the best at all. There are so many, so many good companies out there competing, and I love it because it's everyone has to elevate their game. Uh, whether it's waiters, ammo, bow, even me selling duck-dependent hats, you've got to keep making sure that quality, that product's up there. So I love it. So I want to caveat that. This is just what I use and what I like to use and what I've had success with. So not the end-all be-all. I want you to go use whatever you want, whatever your hard-earned money buys you, go do it. But this is what I'm using. Uh choke tube. So I'm using, I've always used a Rob Roberts. When I say always, probably the last, it's probably been a decade. I used kicks before that. Um, had great success too, really no complaints. But I did notice maybe it was the combination I was using. I'd have some erratic um kind of pellets on target or some holes in it, and that was about 10 years ago. So I switched to the T-Series from Rob Roberts and was using a T3. And now with their Raptor line, I've been using that for three years now. Maybe even four. Whenever it came out, I think it's about three or four years old now. I used the R3. Uh, it's basically equivalent to a full choke, and I do use that start to finish, and that's just something I like. Um, it's performed really well with smaller pellets. I mean, I can fill up a 20-inch, 30-inch circle all the way out to 40 yards. Um, and so that combination for me, flight to ammo with uh Rob Roberts choke tube has been lights out. I'm gonna continue to do that. I have it on my 12, and it's the Raptor line. So um and then waders. So last year I put I've used a lot of waders over the years. Let's let's just say that. And um, I'm not with any of these brands, so I'm I'm open to talk about it. They were all good, better, best. That's just how my mind works, and there's some great products out there. But I we all know the neoprene days, and I think uh banded was kind of the early uh breathable, so I used those waders, really no complaints from my perspective. I've actually used Sims and tried those out. Some of their kind they had some of their camo line. I I use those. Um, but really the last since they've come out I use Sitka waders, and they've been absolutely phenomenal. Um last year I put the vent light, the Delta Vent light to the test, and guys, it's the lightest weiter in the game. I I have a review on YouTube if you want to go check it out at DuckDependant, but lightest weiter in the game. I run a little bit hot, I will admit the boot for late season, that real frigid. Uh your feet can get a little cold because of the boot is a little bit thinner than like the Delta Zip GTX waiter they have, and I'll get into that in a minute, but I put the Delta light to the test literally warm every day. I didn't wear another waiter, and they held up. I do a lot of public, well, it's all public land, um a lot of walk-in when I travel. And you guys, you know, doing a lot of work, putting decoys in and out of the swamp or the rivers or the mud, you can get heated up, and these things are so breathable and they're so light that they just they've really changed the game. And I'm not even just advocating for those. I know there's great waiters out there, but for me, the Delta Vent light are an amazing wader. I'm gonna continue to move forward and use those in a in a first half of the season kind of thing. Um, I'm excited this year. I did pick up the Delta Zip and the GTX waiter, which to me is kind of their do-all wider. I think it's gonna be great for uh those colder climates. And so we do get pretty cold out here in Utah or all over the west, so I'm gonna kind of use the Delta Vent light as the first half, the season waiter, and then the Delta Zip GTX, the thicker boot waiter for the second half. That's all. Or pick your pick your things. When I travel, sometimes we get into like a walking thing where we're walking miles and miles, and so I've kind of thought about maybe I'm gonna bring you bring in both waiters a little bit more often. Sometimes I do because if you have a fail or malfunction in a waiter, which I'm gonna knock on wood, haven't had, but if you did, it's not a bad idea. So that's kind of the the weiter I've been running, and same with the gear. Uh once again, it's not exclusive. This isn't like the only stuff I wear, but I really tend to like the new micro-down, the lighter stuff that Sitka's putting out. It's not even necessarily made for waterfowl. Um and it's kind of crazy this evolution of does it even matter with weight? And man, it really does when you're walking. You know, all this light stuff has been amazing. Like I said, it's not necessarily made for waterfowl. Some of the stuff I'm using, the micro down jackets, but I'll say this the whole delta lineup, whether it's the duck oven or the delta jacket, all those things in calm in combination, they'll get you from start to finish. I mean, uh that duck oven is probably one of the warmest jackets Sitka makes. And then to top it with the Delta weighting jacket, it's an amazing combo. And that's just kind of the stuff that I like to use. I've used any brand you could think of over the years. Um just literally anything on the market. I love to try stuff, or if you see a good sale, how does it perform? Um, but really, the last 10 years or since 2012, I've been a little bit partial to Sitka, and it's been amazing. So that's the stuff I use. I don't want to continue too long on that. Um, and then the pack. So I've changed packs quite a bit, and there's some really good ones out there. Um, I went from early on using just a blind bag, but my current thing is I think it's called the Panga 28 from Yeti. It's a complete 100% waterproof bag. And there's some really good ones out there. Every company now is making them, and you can probably get a lot cheaper than that. I've just um I've used some of the sitka packs that early on, the first full choke was amazing, but it wasn't completely waterproof. Um, I have the timber pack, and and some other buddies have timber pack, and my cousin does, and that's a great pack too. It's waterproof uh from about halfway point down. Uh but I just recently, like the last I think three seasons, maybe four seasons now, I've switched to that Panga 28. And like I said, there's tons of companies out there, that's just the one I use. It is amazing, man. It's a hundred percent waterproof. You can submerge it. Man, you it'll probably float you if you sit on if you like lay on it in the water. It's crazy pack, it's durable. Um, and that's kind of been my go-to. I will tell you this though, you can get a better pack for walking in. It's not bad. It's just, I think other companies might make a little more comfortable pack if you're walking long, long ways in. Uh, most of my stuff's not terrible, mile-ish in, so it's really been great for that. But what I like about it, it's got a bunch of accessories to clip on. Um, whether you're hunting, you can put your clips for your decoys or whatever you want. There's a bunch of loops and accessories and a pouch on there for extra stuff. And um, I kind of run the sidekick and keep a lot of like my my headlamp or my face paint or heat pack stuff I want to get to quick where I don't have to go to the main body of the bag. But also, I know a lot of you guys are creating content. The reason I went to that bag as well is because we're putting in cameras, you know, it's not just our cell phones that are expensive. If you're putting your pocket camera in there, your GoPro, all the batteries, I just kind of wanted a do-all bag that can just carry everything, I don't have to worry about water. And that's one of my favorites to do it in. So once again, I don't want this to come off sales pitchy. I'm not with these companies. Um, as far as like Yeti and and Rob Roberts, those are just quality products that I like to use, and if anybody asks me, I'm gonna recommend them because um they've been proven for me. Um I talked about the gauge, you know, what 20 gauge is kind of my go-to, and I'll dive in a little bit about that. I switched actually in the fall of 2017, maybe, yeah. Um yeah, so I was you know, we I'm like you guys and we talk, or at least I talk like you guys, but we try to back it up. But we love the de the the the ducks in the decoys, right? And so I just kind of had a pith in me like 2016 year, I was like, man, I I wonder if I could just go back old school like I used to when I was a poor college student, just shoot two and three quarter fours or the cheapest shell I could get, you know, that tend to those back in the day a little bit tended to to be on sale, probably because nobody was buying 'em. But I wonder if I could get away with just going back to a twelve gauge, two and three quarter four, you know, or whatever I could find, some cheap steel, because we're shooting these birds at thirty and in. And, you know, we're we're killing them. And then kind of growing up, like I said, I've I'm so thankful to have this, but I've had great cousins that I've got to bring up through uh youth hunt, right? And my first uh kind of youth that I got to bring through that uh I always miss is Nick. And we started him out with a 20 gauge, and I was shooting a 12 gauge and got, you know, several youth hunts with him. And man, he was hitting birds and stoning them. That was kind of my first thought of like, man, should I go 20 gauge? And to be honest, I was like, no, I can't do that. This was like 2000 I don't know, maybe 10, 2007, 8, the all these years. I'm leading up to 2010-ish, but I was like, no, you gotta shoot 12 gauge. That's just like I don't know if it was an ego or man thing, or I didn't know any better, like, hey, you have to shoot 12 gauge for duck, because that was kind of everybody, and the big trend was three and a half inch BB, you know, crazy stuff. Uh but he kind of put it together on just had phenomenal hunts. You know, my cousin Nick just killing birds. And so years kind of go by, and then I brought up I've you've heard him before, uh good friend of mine, but also my cousin, cousin Ryan. We brought him up through the ranks and youth hunts. And this was about that 2010, 2012 range, and he had a 20 gauge, the same gun. It was actually his gun, but we let Nick use it, and then he used it, uh, cousin Ryan, and he was just stoning birds. I'm talking like 11, 12 years old hunting with us, my buddies, we all had 12 gauges. And I didn't really see even see a difference then. And I don't know why it took so long, but after kind of those encounters and just really thinking about it, like, man, hey, those g those young guys were just absolutely ripping them next to us. Once again, we want birds under 40, most probably under 35, but and we we I had good cameraman Matt was filming since 08 and had all this stuff documented, so I could see uh cousin Nick, cousin Ryan next to me killing birds, you know, with the group with 20 gauges. And so it took me that long, but about 2016 I started thinking about well, why don't I switch? And sorry to deep dive on this, but it just really makes me think about why 20 gauge, because I have a lot of people asking me why. And I get it, it's more popular now, but there is still 12 gauge, and I think they've got their place, and I still think they're probably in totality duck goose all around Turkey. That's probably the best. I love 20 gauge for the the lighter recoil, the response time for the next second shot, right? You're not bounced off or kind of have that that like I said, that recoil. But anyways, so six 2016, I said, Man, I think I'm gonna switch. And that next year I went to 20 gauge, was November of 2017. I've never looked back, guys. I mean birds in the decoys, and have not felt undergunned with any whether it was bismuth, steel, tungsten, obviously, you get some of that other stuff, you shouldn't feel undergunned, but I've never felt underpowered and and and anything with that 20 gauge. So those are kind of my kind of the gear that I like to use. Um also had I did an episode the other day about the best truck. My current truck, guys, is a Ram 2500 Cummins. Um I'm not partial to any brands, I've uh had them all really through my life, uh gas and diesel. Um I've kind of settled on the Cummins. It's got the new eight-speed transmission, it's really smooth, I love it. But I I do like the 2500 platform for long hauling. And I put about 30,000 miles on my truck ish a year, so the resale is really there. Um, but I will say, if you're not a heavy, heavy traveler, even if you are, but I think a do-wall truck, I talked about it, it's really hard to beat a good leveled 1500 for especially for getting out of boat launches, really crappy boat launches, because I have been stuck before um with some of my diesels getting in that bigger mud. I have a great quality tire, but sometimes I think it's the weight and everything. But I love them simply from lot for long hauling. Uh they don't get as affected as as much on big wind when I'm traveling. They feel a little more planted when you get in those high wind scenarios on the freeway or the semis. And they also, for me personally, they hold their resale value. When I put in 30,000 miles on a year, it can really depreciate other vehicles. So I not necessarily have to have a diesel. Um, I travel often and tow often. Um, I'm not obviously towing super heavy dog boxes in a duck belt, right? 18, 19 foot duck belt, but um it just feels planted to me, and it's really about the resale and the experience driving. You know, everything's kind of heavy duty when you're doing these long hauls, and so that's kind of my setup, guys. Once again, man, I get it so excited talking about this stuff. I love to hear it from people hitting me up on Instagram asking me what choke and ammo and all that stuff. So hopefully I covered most of the stuff that you guys care about that's important. XL, Mud Buddy, Retay Ace, Flight Day. Um, I love uh the Sitka brand for waterfowl. Um, I can't really talk about it for any other big game or any of that, um, but I do like uh just about everything they put. Out Rob Roberts R3, it's my favorite choke tube, whether it's 20 or 12, but for me it's 20. Uh, the Yeti Pack, and I talked just talked about my the vehicle, the clothing, and then uh kind of why I went to 20 gauge. So all right, guys, I'm gonna dive into the last part of this podcast, and it was my favorite hunting trip from last year. Um and I I say this and I'm thankful, so I don't want this to come off as a brag at all. I'm super thankful, but last year was it amazing. It was an amazing year, it was the most I got out, and maybe that's what made it so awesome. But we just um we were on them and we were making really good and smart decisions, and the teaming effort was amazing. Whether it was uh my cousin Ryan, uh good buddy now, new buddy, he's no longer a new buddy, he's a good buddy Garrick and Action Jackson, and just the people that I got to hunt with, AJT, man, he's gonna get back into it. He helped me put get on the turkey. Uh man, what a great friend to have. He he he's ride or die, and so I appreciate AJT, but it was just something about last year that it all came together, and we had several. I mean, it was hard to make this. I'm I put it number one, but like I have like a 1A B C and D. That's how awesome it was because I had some amazing hunt trips with good buddy Cody and Jake, and those guys are work horses, man, and and they they'll hunt dark to dark with you or most of the day and go scout. So, you know, that whole team and everything was amazing last year, and uh, we're gonna run it back this year, and it's gonna be even better. But um the hunt weekend, I hunt trip I picked was an opener weekend, okay? I was going to visit cousin Ryan. My aunt and uncle put me up, let me stay at their place, and it's always a good time, right? We're having good food, talking duck, um, seeing how everybody's doing. But guys, I'm telling you right now, these three days were, and I've been hunting a long time, holding a license since I was eleven. Um, these three days were gonna go down is probably second to none. I hope to beat them, right? You're all that's the goal is to get can we do even better? But the four of us on opening day, and and the crazy thing is is when we talk about numbers, once again, I this uh this is not a brag. This is just something that doesn't happen often. So I don't I want to caveat that because that's not what it is. It's good, better, best. And guys, last year for three days, I think the first day we four manned in like 30 minutes, not even 30 minutes, I don't want to exaggerate, 15 minutes, and guys, 80-90% green green heads, and man, they were just doing it from all angles, little just barely calling. And guys, I can't even explain to you. Everyone shot well, they were right in there. We were picking and choosing, and so we're thinking, I'm thinking, hey, this hunt trip already right there, just getting to go hunt with my cousin and Garrick and Jackson and getting to see my aunt and uncle, I was like, I already won because that's how I feel when we go there. And to have an opening day like that, just everything went according to plan. Like, and I'm so thankful for that. So, yeah, so we knocked down 28, 90, I want to say I have pictures, I'll have to pull them up here, like 98% green. I think we shot a couple off species at opener, but most of it was all mallard, and most of it was green. I'll shoot hands, I don't care the legal limits too where I live. So I'll if I five Drakes, two hands was fine with me if I'm gonna scratch out a limit. So um, and then day two. We get on scout again, and the trip's going great, guys. We're full, we're eating, stopping at our favorite gas station. But day two, same thing, guys. We set up, I didn't mean to go so fast on that first hunt, but the second day, we uh set up on the river, find a nice calm back eddy, and kind of hunting the main river. We set up the frame, we get in there early, uh set up blue kind of uh away from us on remote stand, brushed up, and sure enough, guys, soon as light hit, we started seeing some flying, and then they I got some great video of these, but we had ducks all over us again. This time was pretty awesome because we had some whenever I uh get to go visit and hunt there. Um I don't shoot a lot of wood ducks here in Utah, but I shot we shot some awesome looking Drakes up there, and guys, we just put another smack down, three-man limit, everybody shot well, off the river, blue was doing his thing, getting his work in. We shot another 21. And I'm thinking, and I think it was an hour, and I'm like, oh my gosh, and I'm not even trying to like exaggerate about it. I was at the time I'm really living in the moment, like, man, this is amazing. And maybe you guys have experienced this, because I have, but it's not like that every hunt or every hunt trip. It's really not. You know, I've had great opening weekends for a lot of years now, but the back to back, and I'm getting to the back to back to back, it's hard. And I've had really good openers, just as good as this opening day, but not the those days, especially on opener. We've had them late season where we'll go four or five days and just absolutely getting on them, and then obviously four or five days where we get nothing, but that day two is cousin Ryan, me, and Jackson, we absolutely put a hurting on him. Blue was on his game, everyone shot well, they were doing it inside of 30, and we get out of there with a limit, and we're just like, wow, this is crazy. And so that's kind of still talk about the same hunt trip. And then the last day I'm there, this is day three in a row, we phone up Garrick. Jackson's got a roll, so we've Garrick's available now, and so we phone him up, so it's me, Garrett, cousin Ryan. Terrible conditions. Well, we thought, anyways. We found a pocket of birds, and it was just miserably raining. And on the main, different different stretch, but on the main river, and they wanted this private spot behind us. We were on a new hunt. Kind of, I think we put out about two dozen decoys, some motion, uh, a couple mojos, lucky ducks, some splashers, Higdon splashers, lucky duck. That's another thing I forgot earlier. Love uh love mojo, lucky duck, higdon, all those for the motion decoys. I I use them all, they're great. Um, but we had about two dozen decoys out, a frame again, and we were competing with this private pond behind us off the river. They they really wanted that, but man, we were power calling them and guys, just doing big flocks. I think we had a good eight-pack, another dozen, and we all shot well. And we were like, here's the weird thing. When you have a couple hunts, and you guys know this, it was like hour two on the day on day three, and people were like, Well, my cousin especially was trying to, you know, because no matter what how many years you hunt together with somebody, you know, when you go see a buddy or a cousin or a friend that you know, they still they still want to host in and everything's got to be spectacular. That's just I think human nature, or when you care, because I'm the same way if someone comes to visit me, like you're all out. Not are we all out all the time, but you're really heightened, you know, when someone's coming to visit. So he's looking around at us and he's like, hey, gosh, dude, we're on, I don't know, man. We're at like 16 birds, 17 birds at two hours in or something like that. And he's like, I don't know about today. And I was like, had to remind him, I said, hey, dude, we're we're good. The last two days have been lights out. We were already at 17 birds, it's only two hours. I we're gonna be fine. Now it was nasty rain and wind, but I said, let's just stick it out. I think it'll be okay. And sure enough, we had a couple big flocks do it. They shot right, I shot right, and we finished with a three-man limit. So I'm talking back to back to back. Guys, we're talking 63-ish birds or something. Like once again, not trying to just make it all about that, but it what an amazing uh trip last year. Um and the fellowship, and we just made the call on the birds, had to cooperate, obviously, but we just kept scouting and just so for me, totality, hard to rank it because I had five on here that I could probably say number one, but that was probably my favorite hunting trip last year was going up there for an opener and just absolutely ripping 90% green for three days, boat riding every single day, blue doing his thing, and so guys, that's those days are hard to beat. You know it is, and I hope that these episodes help you through the dog days of summer. Like I said, the heat is absolutely here, so it's just been nasty. I'm trying to train Blue early, early in the morning and getting out there. And I know you guys are getting through it and work and all that's crazy, but I hope we can pull through it. Early goose is close if you do it. Like I said, I only do it for a weekend. Um, but get out there, Dove. It's getting ready to get all that kicked off in September. We're all excited about it. Before I go, retay USA, flight to ammunition, save some money at checkout with DD 10, less swab tires, good, better, best, duckdependent.shop, guys. Go check out these lids. You can save 15% on your if you subscribe on your first order. And guys, thank you for being here, and I'll catch you on the next one.