Duck Season Somewhere

Most folks might think spiral-horned beauties and dumbo-sized tuskers when the Dark Continent is mentioned, but South Africa surprisingly represents some of the world's best remaining wildfowl adventures, too. To provide full perspective of this amazing destination, Ramsey meets with South African associates and US clients. Similarities and differences, favorite species and foods, local customs, m...

Founded in 1904, The Explorer's Club is a professional society dedicated to scientific explorations and field studies. The pinnacle of human achievements are represented among the long list of member accomplishments, places its flags have been planted - and they surely don't let just anyone in. For David DeBerard, membership at a young age was like throwing rocket fuel onto an already adventurous...

"..and then in the mid-80s they officially made it illegal to eat pygmies!" exclaimed our host during a post-hunt discussion over coffee. Back in South Africa for ducks, geese and game birds, Ramsey chats with long-time friend and associate Mike Curry.  As quickly as incoming driven guineafowl flying like black-and-white cannonballs, the pair run through lots of interesting highlights and stories...

Dr. Wayne Capooth was "blooded into" small game hunting while a young Tennessee boy, remembers later gaining permission from swamp angels to duck hunt nearby haunts. His landmark book The Golden Age of Waterfowling is a historical account of Midsouth duck hunting culture emanating from the Chickasaw Bluffs in Memphis, Tennessee. It's the story of bygone times, changing landscapes, emerging technol...

Immortalized in Nash Buckingham's De' Shootinest Gent'man and Other Stories , Mike and Lamar Boyd have lived and hunted Beaverdam Lake (what Nash referred to as the South Trails area) their entire lives. "When I was younger, I thought everyone had a Beaverdam," says Lamar. Mike Boyd was mentored into duck hunting by a farmhand named "Coon," describing what it was like back then. He then describes...

In the sleepy Mississippi Delta hamlet of Leland, walking through the front door and onto the creaking, century-old hardwood floors of the Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Museum is like stepping back into time, into the good ol' days: towering walls covered with ginormous fireplace-blackened deer heads, fishes, game animals big and small indigenous to the Great State of Mississippi; extensive displa...

As if pre-dawn gaucho horseback rides into the duck hunting marsh, countless black clouds of doves flying back to roost, teal-sized picazuro pigeons charging into decoys, partridges flushing as hunters walk past rock-solid pointers isn't enough, there's the cultural immersion, hospitality, field asados, everything-but-the-moo cuts of delicious Argentine meats. But how do guests and staff describe...

Boom! And welcome to The Big Honker Podcast's Jeff Stanfield and the World-famous Andy Shaver (who's the side-kick is still open to debate). The pitfalls of becoming small time mayor, the thrilling storm chases, calling the shots, scaling Stanfield Outfitters when the cackler migration changed, how The Big Honker's success has changed their lives, the future of hunting, The First Family of Waterfo...

It's all about attitude. Whether galloping sidesaddle behind wailing foxhound packs or paddling quietly through cypress-studded swamps with he powerful labs, Mississippi born-and-raised Allison Crews is all in. A bonafide Swamp Witch, casting spells with her distinct sense of style, charm and contagious energy, Crews describes finding "gifts" while hunting, magic happening behind the levee, and ga...

Argentina's Entres Rios Province lies between the Uruguay and Parana rivers, its flat topography covered with interspersed wetlands, woodlands, agriculture and shortgrass habitats, making it a rich location for hunting ducks, doves, wild pigeons, perdiz and more. While watching orange-capped hunters gleaning partridge behind rock-solid pointers, Ramsey does a deep dive into Argentina hunting cultu...

Really no telling what interesting characters you'll meet in the middle of a remote swamp, the incredible stories you'll hear before a cozy fireplace. Today's episode proves it. From a highly profitable "side business" his freshman year at military academy to homesteading remote Canada, from earning a newspaper covershot in Pamplona, Spain, to sipping a Coca-Cola during a Vietnam airstrike, he was...

On the front porch of a rustic, swamp-encompassed, little red camphouse, hunters gathered around fedora-topped, pipe-smoking Destry Hoffard, admiring an older-than-most-people-in-camp Winchester Model 21 two-shooter he'd brought to duck hunt Argentina. In fact, everything he packed had the venerable patina of times past--especially his duck hunting mind-set. Born and raised in Illinois, Hoffard is...

Chef Jean Paul Bourgeois grew up behind the boudin curtain, south of I-10 in Lousiana, always only minutes from the marsh. He remembers killing his first duck with a crack-barrel 20-gauge, a rite of passage into a circle of giants that acted differently in a duck blind than elsewhere. He remembers, too, making "happy plates" of local home-made cuisines his parents cooked and taught him to cook. Re...

Life ain't fair. While hanging deer stands near the Tex-Mex border on a scorching hot day, an otherwise welcomed breeze suddenly kicked up. The very last thing he remembers of his former life was a dust devil swirling lazily towards him. For only his third duck hunt in the 6 years since that fateful day, Kyle Grant chose to hunt with friends in a very remote Argentina location that was especially...

Located in a massive wetland prone to natural water fluctuations that greatly affect waterfowl density and diversity--and so inconveniently far from Buenos Aires that you can't hardly get there from here--Rio Salado nonetheless offers truly wild duck hunting experiences unavailable elsewhere in Argentina. In this Duck Season Somewhere episode, Ramsey hears clients describe their Rio Salado Argenti...

At the first-annual Delta Waterfowl Hunters Expo this past weekend, Delta Waterfowl announced their Million Duck campaign. That's right. Forever a duck hunters organization, Delta Waterfowl is boldly raising the bar in waterfowl conservation! How relevant is a million ducks to the fall harvest? How will their plan be put into action--and annually implemented? What conservation strategies can produ...

Delta Waterfowl Scientist Chris Nicolai has been "ringing and slinging" for decades pursuant to career waterfowl research, placing bands on every North American waterfowl species and visiting some pretty far-flung places. When and how did bird banding begin? Who pioneered it? How are various waterfowl species captured, which are hardest to catch and and why might brant banding develop expert decoy...

For over 30 years, Jeff Watt a.k.a. "The Mayor" has been the foremost manufacturers rep in the hunting and fishing industry, connecting iconic name brand gear manufacturers, major industry retailers and American hunting and fishing consumers.  A long-time hunter and habitat manager himself, he knows exactly what we modern hunters need and deserve, but its his truest gift that makes the job look ea...

During their long-awaited return to the fabled Rio Salado swamp, Lee Kjos and Ramsey visit on the little red estancia's front porch. Their conversation wanders through several familiar topics then versus now.   Podcast Sponsors : BOSS Shotshells https://bossshotshells.com/ Benelli Shotguns https://www.benelliusa.com/shotguns/waterfowl-shotguns Tetra Hearing https://tetrahearing.com/ Kanati Waterfo...

It's no secret that Ramsey spends lots of travel time in kitchens visited, because that's usually the best place to get true tastes of local culture as well as food. In today's episode, he meets with chef Facundo Jurado Esquivel, who serves up "5 meals daily" to Las Flores guests. Facu shares a few recipes and cooking techniques, telling Ramsey how he got into hunting, cooking and how longboarding...

So named for the rosy-billed pochards that darken the sky at times, Las Flores is in Ramsey's opinion hands-down the most consistent Argentina duck hunt in a country that reputedly offers the world's best. But what do clients have to say about it? How do first-time and repeat guests describe hunting here as compared to home? Duck hunting experiences are subjective, and dead ducks are part of the e...

Self-taught chef Nathan Judice began cooking his own meals soon after moving to college. He grew up hunting small game in Southeast Louisiana, remembering his waterfowl hunting introductions as being a popular post-season activity in that region. While his own alligator and venison boudin is warming over hot coals, Judice talks about how he began upping his cooking game, why wild critters are his...

"We don't sell excuses," says Diego Munoz, "We sell good duck hunts." That's certainly been the case for the nearly 15 years that Ramsey has offered the Las Flores program that he describes as the definitively best, most fail-proof duck hunt in Argentina. Las Flores means "the flowers," so named because nobody but nobody owns the rosy-billed pochards like Diego. Nobody. It doesn't happen by accide...

Ramsey recalls that while growing up in the Mississippi Delta the only notable topography was in the form of ancient indian mounds scattered about an otherwise flat landscape. When were they built and by whom? How'd those people live and what became of them?  Retired archaeologist Sam Brookes spent his career studying prehistoric Mississippian Indian cultures and takes Ramsey on a whirlwind tour s...

Growing up hunting waterfowl and small game in Southwest Louisiana, William Newlin first introduced his wife Carolyn to duck hunting while they were still high school sweethearts. They've remained best hunting buddies the nearly 70 years since. In aggregate, they've bagged about 300 game species "not including regular stuff around home like white-tailed deer and 'gators." From livestock-eating tig...