My guests today are two guys that I recently connected with on social media

– Richard Charlton of Damascus Waterfowler and Phillip Armstrong of Delta

Snows. Both Richard and Phillip super passionate duck and goose hunters,

but both are medically disabled veterans who are also passionate about

connecting and helping other veterans. Richard’s Damascus Waterfowl Club is

located in southern Missouri and Phillip is an outfitter with Delta Snows

located in the Mississippi Delta focusing primarily on snow geese and

specs. Richard is also on staff with Fallen Outdoors which is a fantastic

organization that connects past and current military service men and women

with other service men and women through hunting and fishing. Phillip is

partnered with DTD Outdoors which is a land management organization in

Monroe County MS that also provides hunting opportunities to children as

well as disabled veterans. When I spoke with Richard and Phillip, we talked

about how veterans are uniquely qualified to help other veterans, and in

doing so, actually wind up experiencing healing themselves. We talk about

Their combat experience in Afghanistan, Richard while serving in the Army

and Phillip in the Marine Corps. Then coming home, the challenges each

faced, how they attacked those challenges and then channeled their energies

into helping others. It was a really inspiring conversation with two

warriors who served this country and are now serving others. I want to

thank them both for their sacrifice and service.

My guest today is a guy that I am absolutely blessed to call my friend and

someone you have heard me speak about many times before on the podcast,

Matt Roberson. Matt is a field pastor with Revelation Outdoors, he is an

ex-Army Sniper who served two tours in Iraq, came home to be a sheriff’s

deputy with the Cross County Sheriff’s Department then joined the Arkansas

Highway Patrol. Matt and I connected several years ago when I messaged him

about possibly coming up and filming a speckled belly goose hunt. What

grabbed my attention was how open and intentional Matt was about his faith

and how he uses goose hunting to share the gospel. I didn’t know then, that

that weekend spent with Matt on his farm outside of Wynne AR would be the

start of way more than a friendship. Matt has been a spiritual grounding

rod for me, when I need to talk to someone or need some guidance… whatever

it is, Matt doesn’t always tell me what I want to hear, but everything he

tells me is firmly based on our common faith and convictions and what we

both know is biblical truth. He is a speckled belly goose fanatic and has a

drive to figure out what birds are doing and thinking like no one else I

have every hunted with. He is the chairman of the L’Anguille River

Christian Waterfowler’s Association and one of the funniest guys I know.

Believe me I spent 4 days in a truck roundtrip to and from Canada with him

and at several points had to beg him to stop because my face hurt from

laughing so hard. Today we talk about Matt’s time in the army and how his

two tours in Iraq helped shape and define his own personal faith in Christ.

We talk about our trip to Canada and tell of few stories from that trip and

just have a good time catching up. I said before that he is ADD about two

things: Jesus and Speckled Belly geese

My guest today is a guy that I have grown to love over the last few years.

Drew Seals is a talented content and film creator, super passionate and a

borderline obsessive perfectionist when it comes to telling stories and

drawing up emotions from film and still images. He has worked with Brian

and I on several projects because the dude is crazy dedicated to getting

the shot. Everytime we’ve been on location with Drew, he ALWAYS has a

camera out, always, the dude never stops. Today we talk about growing up in

coastal southern Mississippi, his time playing collegiate golf and what

that taught him. Drew also does something that I think few people are

willing to do, share their mistakes, the repercussions of those mistakes

and how those mistakes actually fit into a bigger plan that he now sees and

has not only fully embraced, but has poured himself into to walk the path

that god has set before him. We talk about how Drew was drawn to creating

beautiful moving content by a desire to film his own deer hunts and how

following that dream has lead him to a career that he could have never

dreamed of. Drew and I talk about our trip to Canada last year where he

made the life changing decision to accept Christ and what the impact has

been within his life since then. Finally we discuss his role within

Nature’s Eye Media and how his talents as a creative supports the overall

conservation mission of Nature’s Eye Consulting. In everyone’s life, there

are a few people who just make your life more enjoyable because they are in

it, and for me Drew Seals is one of those people. We have shared the bottom

of trees in flooded timber, layout blinds in chick pea fields and lots and

lots of windshield time and I can honestly say that I have loved every

single minute of it all.

My guest today has been on the podcast before, we love having Travis Sipe

on the show, we always find something constructive and interesting to talk

about. Travis is the owner of Duck Wild Waterfowl outfitters in Waverly,

KS. He is also a turkey hunter, a deer hunter and one of the most humble,

positive and down to earth guys I know. Today we talk about his crazy

successful turkey season, we talk about what he is doing to prep for the

upcoming duck season and how this insane amount of water and flooding may

impact crops as well as hunting this coming year. We talk about some of the

negative aspects of social media and hunting and share our thoughts and

opinions on whether social media has helped or hurt the perception of

hunting, and we talk about all of the different personalities we come

across and how we deal with them. We talk about some of our favorite

podcasts, why we like them and what we get out of them. It was a really

good conversation and it’s why Travis is one of my favorite guests to have

on the show.

My guest today is one of my long time hunting friends Josh Raggio of Raggio

custom duck calls. I visit Josh in his call shop in Raymond, MS. and catch

up on some of our hunting memories in the MS Delta, Josh’s experience as a

competition caller and how he first became interested in turning custom

duck calls. We talk about the incredible amount of faith it took for Josh

to make that move and how he has seen his faith grow throughout that

process. We discuss some of the stories that his calls tell, the mobile

call shop and his collaboration with Filson and how that new relationship

was one of the key points of validation that Josh was faithfully walking in

the plan that God had called him to. I had a great time catching up with my

friend, old hunting buddy and master call maker, Josh Raggio….

Photo Credit: Nature’s Eye Media

TJ Mallette

Black Duck Lodge

my guest today is TJ Mallette. TJ is a duck hunter and outfitters from Stuttgart, AR. He is the owner operator of the historical Black Duck lodge, right on the banks of the famous Bayou Meto and also in Saskatchewan Canada. So much history and heritage there at Black Duck. He and his soon to be wife Ashton do an absolutely fantastic job welcoming hunters to both locations and making sure that their guests not only have a once in a lifetime shoot, but also experience the warmth of true southern hospitality. One of the things that TJ and I talked about is how important relationships are in the outfitting world. So many times you hunt with an outfitter that really doesn’t seem all that interested in the people they are guiding. TJ and Ashton and the rest of the crew are super at building relationships that make their guests feel like family. I can’t wait to get up there this year and spend some time them. We also talked about how and where TJ got his start duck hunting and coincidentally he and I actually hunted the exact same place in the MS Delta, like I think the same tree! Sounds far out but I think we raced to the same hole a couple of times. I mentioned his future bride Ashton Stockwell, if you haven’t seen the recent short film Uncharted Waters, you need to. Ashton and her close circle of friends are absolutely driven to get up and get after it, they are duck killers. We talk about how TJ and Ashton met and get to share their passion of hunting and outfitting, it’s such a great story. TJ is just one of those guys that after you talk with him for 5 minutes you feel like you’ve known him a lifetime. I can’t wait to get up to Arkansas next year and spend some time with him.

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My guests today are Paul Kurtz and Mike Swartzentruber from Hunter’s Blend Coffee. This is not just ordinary coffee dropped into a bag with antlers on it to attract hunters to buy it. Hunters Blend partners with organizations like the Sportsmans Alliance to help protect our hunting heritage by fighting anti-hunting organizations like PETA and the Humane Society of the US. These groups have one goal and one goal only, to chip away at our freedoms as gun owners and hunters, a little bit at a time, and by the time we notice what’s going on, the sort of hunting has either been radically transformed if not totally vanished. Groups like the Sportsman’s Alliance constantly watch for and fight against anti-hunting and second amendment legislation. Hunter’s Blend has also changed the way coffee is sourced and brought to you the consumer. There are so many things about that process that I did not know, so many middle men that stood between the grower and the roaster, and those middle men, many of them, are the very ones who support anti-gun and anti-hunting legislation. I bet you didn’t know that did you? I didn’t. Mike and Paul have established a direct trade model with the farmer and established new ways of compensating those farmers and the impact on those communities has been incredible. They are now seeing parents who can support their families, the poverty was so bad because there were so many people in the process that had to add their profits along the way, that many women were getting caught up in the sex trade, you don’t see that anymore with the direct trade model. You see churches that are self sustaining now all because guys like Mike and Paul decided to challenge the status quo and do things differently. We had a fantastic discussion, it was really interesting and I hope that after listening to the podcast you’ll be a little more wise about where your money is going and maybe make a small change, something as simple as where you buy your coffee has impacts in people’s lives around the world.

My guest today grew up in the small town of Thibodaux, Louisiana, and received his Bachelor’s degree at John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University. He participated in an exchange program with the Paul Bocuse Institute in Lyon, France. After completing his formal studies, he worked at Étoile restaurant at the Domaine Chandon winery in Napa before moving to San Francisco to help open EPIC Roasthouse as a sous chef under Chef Jan Birnbaum. In 2007, he moved to St. Thomas, where he served as sous chef at two local restaurants on the island. In 2009, he moved to New York and joined the team at Maialino. Over four years, he was promoted several times and ultimately assumed the role of Chef de Cuisine of Gramercy Terrace at The Gramercy Park Hotel. In 2014, he became Executive Chef of Blue Smoke, overseeing both locations of Blue Smoke, Jazz Standard at Blue Smoke’s Flatiron location, and Blue Smoke On The Road. He is also a solid believer and follower of Christ. We talk about the many moves he made in his amazing career, totally relying on God’s plan and guidance. Jean Paul has a really interesting perspective on food, cooking, faith and how he uniquely combines all of those components to lead others to the truth of the gospel.

My guests today are Josh Teff and John David Blagg owners of FowlCo Outfitters in Northern Oklahoma. We talk about how these guys met in church and after a few duck hunting trips out west, decided to trust in God and His faithfulness and create one of the most incredible water fowling destinations in the country. We discuss the new lodge, the super plush amenities, the warm hospitality and food and of course… the waterfowl hunting. Everything at FowlCo is first class and after my discussion with Josh and John David it’s easy to see why. These guys are first class as well.

My guests today are Dustin Roddy of Cache River Farms and Josh Green an area supervisor for the Arkansas Game and Fish. I was really excited to have Dustin and Josh on the show for several reasons. First to talk about the Cache River complex, so you guys that hunt Arkansas you know all about the Cache and what a fantastic river and wetland ecosystem that is especially on those major migration days, it’s a magical place.. but it also one of the most, if not THE most important ecosystem in the Mississippi Flyway for migrating waterfowl. To that end, we talk about the conservation efforts that are underway to preserve and restore the Cache. The second reason that I was excited to have them on is because of the wealth of knowledge these two guys have on how to manage properties that will attract ducks like magnets. Their Instagram page is a testament to their conservation and management strategies. The reason I wanted to talk to them about their approach to attracting and holding ducks is because there are a lot of folks out there that see what Cache River Farms is and think that they need massive tracts of land to build an effective waterfowl ecosystem. Not true. Cache River Farms is NOT a huge land tract. In fact, it’s a collection of smaller properties very similar to what most of you guys have access to or have leased. What they’ve done you can absolutely do. A lot of guys also think you need to spend massive amounts of money, also not true. We talk about some strategies that you guys can deploy, this year, to improve your properties ability to attract and hold wintering ducks and geese. The bottomline is… we’re not talking about holding all of the waterfowl on your property, our discussion is focused on how we all benefit from better more effective land use practices. Another reason I wanted Dustin and Josh to dive into these topics is because of the consultation services that they offer through Cache River Farms. Regardless of where your property’s located, Dustin and Josh can help you or your club figure out the most effective ways to maximize the production potential on your specific property. There aren’t many guys with the track records that Dustin and Josh have that are willing to share their strategies with other duck hunters. We’re a pretty secretive group, but in the interest of the notion that a rising tide lifts all boats…they understand that better habitat benefits everyone.