Duck Season Somewhere

Talk about a fresh perspective! Doug Osborne (Osborne Lab, Snowden Waterfowl Center of Excellence, University Arkansas Monticello) and I spent a week together not only hunting ducks but, importantly, laying groundwork for first-ever duck banding and GPS studies in Argentina. Why's it needed there, what's really known about Argentina ducks, their movements and behaviors? How's the habitat compare t...

Mark your calendar-- Delta Waterfowl's Duck Hunter Expo will be in Des Moines, Iowa, July 24-26. Chris Williams and Eric Lindstrom join Ramsey to preview the calls, dogs, gear, banquets, conservation work, partnerships and duck hunting culture that'll all be packed into one amazing weekend y'all don't want to miss! Come by and say hello to me and Char Dawg, we look forward to seeing y'all there.  ...

Nothing at all to do with duck hunting. Everything to do with discovery. Catching up with one of my oldest buddies, Kurt Munding, we recall memories from way, way back when. It was Summer 1990.  Times were different. We were as young, as strong, as polar opposite, and as free as we'd ever be. Together, we discovered coast-to-coast America--and ourselves--at about 50 miles per day.  On bicycles.  ...

Mark your calendars--Dallas Safari Club's Summer Expo and Foundation Gala lands July 23-26 at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Texas, bringing outfitters, gear, hunting stories, conservation, auctions, family events and the broader hunting community under one roof! Dallas Safari Club's Brian Fienhold, tells us all about it, describing event happenings, explaining the bigger conversation behind such...

Melissa Ridgeway didn't set out to become one of the South's best-known antique decoy dealers. What began as collecting a few decoys for her husband became a 40-plus-year journey through antique decoys, sporting art and hunting collectibles. And the stories she can tell! We discuss Mason decoys, collector favorites, what makes old decoys valuable, what buyers should look for and avoid, and why the...

Corey Lucas doesn't just create decoys--he creates stories. We talk about the pink-eared travel decoy project, its conservation impact in Australia, the inspiration behind Cedar Run's new Storyteller package and Mason line, and why craftsmanship still matters in today's mass-production world. It's a conversation about hunting, friendship, faith, community, purpose--and leaving something meaningful...

Madison Grimm was the youngest artist to win the National Duck Stamp Contest at age 6--and went on to win it 3 times. Her father, Adam, is a 3-time Federal Duck Stamp winner, too, but this father-daughter conversation goes beyond wildlife art. Encouraged by neighboring farmers, Madison founded  Second Chance Flight to rescue duck eggs and ducklings during spring operations, later releasing them ba...

Wild pig hunting may be great sport, but the grim reality is that feral swine are one of the most destructive biological forces in the American South--and Jody Acosta and team are deep in the frontline trenches fighting them. Constantly. As Delta Wildlife's Nuisance and Invasive Species Program Manager, Acosta is helping landowners combat millions of dollars in agricultural losses. From Delta cult...

Most hunters complain when something doesn't work. Instead, Drew McIntosh started loading shotshells in his garage. And somewhere between garage experiments, ideas around a mysterious-something called "jungle load," trail and error, cocktail napkin sketches, and a stubborn refusal to settle? Migra Ammunition was born. But this episode ain't about ammo. It's about obsession, risk, belief, faith, an...

Delta native, lifelong duck hunter and longtime engineer Bill Sheppard discuses what "restored hydrology" really means in modern times. From original floodplain landscapes to early Wetland Reserve Program projects, we discuss wetland designs over time, how water moves, functions and changes across a heavily altered landscape, engineered wetlands versus ephemeral rain-driven water, challenges of lo...

Purple Heart recipient, world turkey slam hunter, waterfowl 41 completer, hunting guide, father coach, and founder of Ultimate Veteran Adventures --Joe Wesner has already packed a lot into a single lifetime. But somewhere between overseas deployments and chasing ducks across the US, his mission changed. Joe talks about service, hunting, recovery, family, and why helping veterans reconnect outdoors...

Most of us duck hunters look at water on today's landscape and think we're looking at duck habitat. But Dr. Kurt Getsinger knows better. Shooting ringnecks defined his boyhood--and lead him to a lifetime studying what's happening beneath the water's surface. Remembering Mississippi Delta hunters, water, and especially the mallards before large-scale reforestation changed the landscape, Getsinger d...

Scott Gilliland has spent his lifetime studying common eiders, visiting some of the harshest and most remote environments on earth, but this conversation goes way, way beyond this beautiful sea duck species. From Arctic field camps and sea ice to Inuit communities that have coexisted with eiders for generations, Gilliland shares stories of adventure, isolation, survival, and a remote northern worl...

Every duck hunter in the Deep South is asking the same question: where are the mallards--heck, where are the ducks? Mississippi State waterfowl researcher James Calicut joins me for a grounded, honest conversation about what seems to be happening across the Lower Mississippi Valley. We discuss weather, habitat change, agriculture, hunting pressure, habitat loss and what hunters are seeing from the...

Pursuant to crop retirement programs, over a million acres marginal, flood-prone sites have been restored to mostly even-aged hardwood plantation the Arkansas-Louisiana-Mississippi delta, but what are the benefits and near-term tradeoffs? Dr. Brian Davis discusses new graduate research examining Wetland Reserve Easements and what they're doing well--improving water quality, supporting biodiversity...

Donald Jackson has spent a lifetime in wild places--as a hunter, outdoorsman, US-Marine-turned-Peace-Corps volunteer, fisheries biologist, conservationist, writer. But this conversation cuts way-to-the-bone-deeper than biography. It's about memory, meaning, loss, conservation, faith, and the meaningful things the outdoors teaches us over a lifetime--if we're paying attention. Listening. An amazing...

Black-bellied whistling ducks are expanding fast--and they're not acting like traditional ducks. Anything but. Waterfowl scientist Kevin Ringleman explains why these adaptable birds thrive in modern, man-altered landscapes while other species struggle. From agriculture and habitat shifts to behavior, movement, and nesting ecology, this conversation explores what black-bellieds may reveal about the...

Teddy " Double Wide " McRainey makes his living seasonally slinging crawfish and boiled peanuts in Mississippi--to include a couple top-selling flavors a life-long Mississippi boiled peanut fan like myself had never imagined. Having eaten more crawfish in an 8-minute contest down in New Orleans than most people could--or would--consume in a weekend, he's also training for Guiness Book of World Rec...

Located on the town square in small-town Raymond, Mississippi, you'd think you'd stumbled into a meticulous museum when walking into Raggio Custom Calls shop. Except that call maker Josh Raggio is wearing a sawdust-powdered work apron, bent over a sizable, project-covered work bench, carefully considering an especially sentimental undertaking.  A sign over his lathe reads, "Remember Why You Starte...

Most people know DJ Horton is a Senior Pastor near Spartanburg, South Carolina, and hosts   From the Pulpit to the Pickup podcast. And he hunts--deer, ducks, squirrels, rabbits and especially turkeys. We talk first hunts, early mornings, and the kinds of lessons learned only while patiently sitting still long enough. Somewhere along the way, the conversation turns to the gap between what a man say...

Fresh back from an epic Gould's turkey hunt with oldest son, Forrest--and no idea where he got the turkey hunting fever, not from his Dad, that's for sure--and we recount our time together high in the Sierra Madres, one of the most beautiful parts of Mexico encountered. We talk about the people, food, environment,  those huge Gould's turkeys, of course, and Forrest teaches ol' Dad a couple things...

Most hunters are building a brand...and don't realize it until it's too late. Names get taken. Products get copied. Partnerships fall apart. IP attorney and Oklahoma duck hunter J ansen Rigney, at Black Dog Law Intellectual Property , has seen it all. He shares real stories from the outdoor industry, mistakes that cost people everything--and what to do if you've got the next million dollar idea. ...

Meet John Jones--a die-hard Louisiana public land duck hunter who gets after them full-throttle. Or did. A few years ago, while hunting solo in the legendary Shoveler Shack--a 20-foot-high-in-a-cypress-tree blind built for all-day grinds--John suffered a massive stroke. And miraculously lived to tell about it. But there's more to the story. You have to hear it to believe it. It's big boy talk--the...

Most folks think they're managing for ducks. Kevin Nelms says: maybe they're not.  Disking too early, spraying the wrong plants, chasing "clean fields"--it all adds up to less duck food. In this 11th installment of an ongoing Waterfowl Habitat Management series (see links below), Nelms breaks down what actually matters: timing, plant ecology, and understanding the system instead of fighting it. Cu...

Jonathan Wilkins was introduced to hunting while in college--and makes a compelling case for the advantages of starting later rather than earlier. From waterfowl to turkeys, alligators to black bears, church-turned-Arkansas-camphouse to multi-state roadtrips, his approach to hunting--and life--is creative, honest, unfiltered.  And definitely worth hearing.   Connect at Black Duck Revival https://w...