December 8, 2025 • 49 mins
This episode blends waterfowl and big game stories as Tim and Sydney Wells share their experiences from Illinois to Texas. Hear about hunting ducks, chasing mallards, and the adrenaline rush of rattling whitetails. Packed with practical tips and memorable stories, it’s a must-listen for hunters of all kinds.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Matt Harrison (01:44):
On today's episode of the Ducks Unlimited
podcast, we have special guests,Tim and Sydney Wells, and we're
gonna be talking about huntingconditions, duck hunting
stories, deer hunting stories,the whole nine. Trust me, you
don't wanna miss this episode,so stay tuned.
VO (02:07):
Can we do a mic check, please? Everybody, welcome back
to the Ducks Unlimited podcast.I'm your host, doctor Mike
Brazier.
I'm your host, Katie Burke. I'myour host, doctor Jared
Hemphill. And I'm your host,Matt Harrison.
Welcome to the Ducks Unlimitedpodcast, the only podcast about
(02:29):
all things waterfowl. Fromhunting insights to science
based discussions about ducks,geese, and issues affecting
waterfowl and wetlandsconservation in North America.
The DU podcast, sponsored byPurina Pro Plan, the official
performance dog food of DucksUnlimited. Purina Pro Plan,
always advancing. Also proudlysponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey
(02:50):
and Cocktails.
Whether you're winding down withyour best friend or celebrating
with your favorite crew, BirdDog brings award winning flavor
to every moment. Enjoyresponsibly.
Matt Harrison (03:13):
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Ducks
Unlimited podcast. I'm yourcohost, Matt Harrison. And
today, we have joining with ustwo very, very special guests,
and those guests are SydneyWells and Tim Wells. How are we
doing y'all?
Tim Wells (03:28):
Fantastic, buddy. Just doing doing great down here
in Illinois.
Matt Harrison (03:31):
We're doing good. We got snow, which we love when
it comes to hunting season.
Tim Wells (03:35):
We've had a rough go of it. It's been a drought here
for the last ninety days. Theponds are, you know, three, four
feet low. The ground is has beenlike dust. So we can tell you
that we're we have welcomed 10inches of snow, and we're so
happy to get it.
Matt Harrison (03:51):
When did it start snowing up there on your guys?
Tim Wells (03:54):
I see. The big snow came two two to three days ago,
and it's been spitting eversince off and on. So we got
eight to 10 inches now withanother couple inches in the
forecast in the future. So wegot a long way to go though to
fill our ponds and get the riverup to where it needs to be where
we've lost a lot of water, buthopefully, we're gonna get it
(04:17):
over the wintertime and into thespring. But more than that, for
the duck's sake, we hope thatit's snowing like crazy in the
Dakotas and up in Canada.
Matt Harrison (04:25):
I know it. I know it. So have y'all been focusing
more on deer, ducks, or what,Sid? You've been out there a
good bit. I know you've had alot of travel lately, but what
have you been focused on?
Sydney Wells (04:34):
Well, we're usually are always focused on
the deer. When the ducks gethere, Tim only focuses on the
ducks. So when ducks are here,Tim's like, alright. You're fend
for yourselves. We're I'm duckhunting solo.
So we we had a good earlyseason. I killed a deer the
first week of November, which isalways great. That's a relief
when you get a deer tagged, andI've been chasing whitetails, of
(04:56):
course, through the rut. But nowthat the mallards are finally
here in Illinois, we got anearly snow. Last year was a
great season.
This year I think it's lookingto be a good season too. We
haven't had a season like thisfor a couple years because we
usually don't get any snowanymore. So
Tim Wells (05:10):
Yeah. This early freeze brought a lot of mallards
into our neck of the woods. Somatter of fact, I killed four
the other day with my bow. To dothat, you gotta have a lot of
ducks. You know?
So Wow. We're pretty excited.We're gonna shoot ducks this
afternoon, hopefully, and we gotan overcast sky, 27 degrees, and
holding about 50,000 mallardsright against our cliff here. So
(05:34):
Oh my goodness. We got the foodand the patients.
So if there's 50,000 of them,there's gotta be eight dumb ones
over there somewhere that'sgonna get us this afternoon.
Sydney Wells (05:42):
Yeah. This this season has been fun so far. You
know, we in Illinois, we open uplate October. Jack, our my
producer, Wisconsin opens up alot earlier than that, and they
have been hammering theMallards. He shot over
Thanksgiving break, I think, aseven man limit, and they hunt
every day and just hammeringthem.
Matt Harrison (06:00):
Wow. That's incredible. She won't shoot them
with
Tim Wells (06:02):
the bow with me too often, so I finally bought her a
four ten, and she broke down andstarted hunting ducks with a
four ten with me, and we've beenwe've been having a lot of fun.
You know, the cool thing abouthunting with small gauges, four
tens and 20 eights, and I huntedwith you, Matt, in the timber
with the 28, and that was cool.That set that fire in motion for
me, but we went to four tendoubles, and it is you have to
(06:24):
be patient, and you've gotta letthem birds get in there tight.
But, man, it's so exciting whenyou you do let them get in there
tight. A lot of birds get awaythat you don't shoot at that you
normally would have killed, butwhen it happens and you pull in
a, you know, four or fivemallards and they come in there
and you knock two or three ofthem out of the bunch with a
sword, You don't even hardlyhear your gun go off next it's
(06:45):
pretty awesome experience, andwe're kinda getting into that.
Matt Harrison (06:48):
As far as the four ten goes, and this is a
little bit more of a specificquestion, but what would you say
that range that you feelcomfortable with shooting at it
with a four ten? Like, is ittwenty, thirty yards, or what's
the furthest shot that you'vebeen successful on with the four
ten with ducks?
Tim Wells (07:02):
I'd say you're right. You know, we we usually don't
shoot at them at 40 yards. Youknow? We want them in there
decoying close, so we shoot themat 20 yards, and we stretch it
out sometimes and kill like,gadwalls are a pretty weak bird
and but a mallard, you know, bigold mallard red legged drake, he
can hit. So if he's 40 yardshigh flaring and you're shooting
(07:24):
at his butt, you're liable tocripple it.
So we try to we try to shoot ata fight, you know, right in the
hole. Yeah.
Sydney Wells (07:30):
This is my first time shooting a four ten at
ducks, so I definitely like themdoing nice and close because
otherwise, I'm gonna be whiffingthat. It's different with that
20 gauge. When you change to atwenty twenty eight, then you're
like, oh my gosh. Wait. I gottakinda aim different now.
Tim Wells (07:44):
You know, kind of a misconception, though, about a
28 gauge or a four ten that, oh,you know, it doesn't kill them
as well. It's if you're a goodshot, which it's harder to hit
them, but if you're if you haveperfect lead on a duck, you can
kill him just as high with yourfour ten as you can with a 12
gauge. The only difference iswith a four ten at 25 yards,
(08:05):
you've got a circumference ofabout 14 inches versus 25 inches
with a 12 gauge. So the four tenstrings your shot a little bit
more, but not too much. And ifyou're on him, you you kill him.
You'll kill him. We went tosmaller shot. It gives us a
denser pattern, and anythingunder 35 yards that you're
(08:27):
shooting six steel at them orbismuth or tungsten, you know,
you're gonna put the whopping onthem, But it's all about the
lead and being patient and letthem get in there tight.
Matt Harrison (08:37):
How do you go about choosing what you're gonna
shoot that day? So do you justwake up and say, ah, today's a
good four ten day if you knowthat they're gonna be in there
real tight? Like you said,today, y'all got 50,000 mallards
in y'all's area. So is todaygonna be a day that you grab a
four ten off the the gun rack,or what are y'all shooting
today?
Tim Wells (08:54):
It kinda depend on on where we're hunting. You know?
Are we hunting over decoys inthe water where we know the
birds are gonna be focused rightin on us? Or, you know, if we're
going out in the field, that's alittle rougher because the birds
may be working the decoy spread,but they may be circling wide,
you know, so we may shoot the 28gauges at them that day. But
Sydney, she she always goes backto that 20 gauge in the end, but
(09:15):
she's pretty good shot with herfour ten.
Just
Sydney Wells (09:18):
I think if the conditions are right, like you
said, it depends where we'regonna hunt and also the wind. If
we know it's gonna be a lightsout, I'm like, alright. We could
do four tens. And especiallysince we've a lot of ducks in
the area. But, otherwise, yeah,I like to keep my 20 gauge on my
hand.
You know?
Matt Harrison (09:33):
So, Sydney, you would you would never try to
shoot four tens out of a coffinblind like we did. So,
Tim Wells (09:39):
like Oh
Sydney Wells (09:39):
my gosh. Yeah. If we can hit that again, yes. We
should actually get four tensconsidering that we're 10 yards
in front of our face. That wasinsane.
Yes. I was a
Matt Harrison (09:49):
couple groups that I was like, they may hit
us. Like, when we lean up out ofour coffin blinds, they
literally might hit us.
Sydney Wells (09:56):
And Utah. Yeah. Utah was that was an experience
like no other. I woulddefinitely take a four ten. I
can't believe that those justblack, what, cutouts.
Matt Harrison (10:05):
But we were Silhouette cutouts.
Sydney Wells (10:07):
Yeah. Those black cutouts worked so well. There's
just a shadow, looks like, froma distance, and they just came
right in.
Matt Harrison (10:13):
I'll never forget. I don't know if you were
able to see some of thatcontent, mister Tim, from that
hunt, but I remember pulling upout there, and they started to
stick up exactly what Sydney'stalking about. So there's these
cutout silhouettes, and he'slike, we're gonna hide in them,
and we're gonna get in theseblack sleds, coffins Yeah. And
we're just gonna lay down in themiddle. I'm like, there's no way
this is gonna work.
Like, these there's no way. Theywere like, I'm telling you, you
(10:35):
know, there's no trees around.So they were like, these birds
are a couple feet off the water.So, you know, they're eye level
with you. You know, they're notup picking you out.
So they were like, they seethese black silhouettes, and
they think that's a group on theshore. And sure enough, this
group of 200 teal would justbuzz you, and then we would just
lean up. Yeah. It was great.
Sydney Wells (10:57):
That would have been a four ten day for sure.
Tim Wells (10:59):
So we got kind of a cool little announcement we can
make. I filed my patent for anew decoy. And, Matt, I got a
question. The most importantthing you need in a spread of
decoys?
Matt Harrison (11:10):
Motion.
Tim Wells (11:11):
Motion. So what do we all wish we had on water when we
have decoys out there?
Matt Harrison (11:16):
Motion.
Tim Wells (11:17):
Motion. And the only way to get that is with a jerk
string or some kind of elaboratesetup. Right? Correct. Well, I
patented, and I have my firstprototype that we're gonna try
tomorrow, which I know is gonnawork because it's been tested in
the lab over and over, andthey're like, okay, Tim, it's
time to film over the new decoythat you'll sell next year, but
we have a decoy now.
(11:38):
You throw it out in the decoyspread, it locks the GPS signal,
and it swims in a 20 foot circleall all afternoon for you. No
strings attached, nothing caughtin the moss, and that's the new
decoy that we're gonna Wow.Here. And so excited about it.
Matt Harrison (11:57):
What type of battery system does this
Tim Wells (12:00):
eight hours, swim it for eight hours. Wow. If it pops
into a log or another decoy, itbacks up, turns around, and goes
back the other way. But it itjust stays in within its GPS
coordinate, and it just swimsaround in circles, not
necessarily in circles, justrandom like a duck, making
ripples on the water. So you buyyourself three or four of them,
(12:21):
throw them out, you can go from50 decoys to a dozen and
probably triple your odds ofsuccess.
Matt Harrison (12:26):
Wow. I'm eager to see that.
Tim Wells (12:30):
A lot of these public walk in hunters are gonna just
they're gonna love it becausethey don't have to carry in 200
pounds of decoys. They can havea sack of decoys and three or
four of my swimmers, turn themon, throw them out in the
spread, and hammer away.
Matt Harrison (12:44):
Wow. So I know that you said it's been tested
and stuff. Have you and you saidtomorrow y'all are gonna test
it. Have you hunted over it yet,or will tomorrow be
Tim Wells (12:51):
first time? First time we're gonna put it in a
hole and and let her swim andshoot ducks over. Wow. Yeah.
Matt Harrison (12:57):
That's awesome. Sid, what do you think about
that?
Sydney Wells (13:00):
If it kills ducks, I'm gonna be really pumped.
Tim Wells (13:03):
Yeah. Well, I tell you what. The first time she
water swats one with myprototype up, decided I'm gonna
be
Matt Harrison (13:09):
Oh, man. Hey. You're gonna get some of that,
especially on some of thispublic ground. You may if it's
too realistic, you may have somepeople,
Sydney Wells (13:17):
there's a dog out there. Shoot it. Before you know
it, the game wardens are gonnabe using it. You know how, like,
they had those fake dummy deerthat are gonna use prototypes?
Tim Wells (13:26):
Yeah. They all have to put it in her truck. That way
she don't get caught.
Matt Harrison (13:30):
So so was there anything and I know a born
hunter, and you've probably allyou're also a businessman, so
I'm sure you're out there. Whatcould I make to create something
like this? But was it was thereinitial time you were out there
that just dawned on you like,hey. A GPS, you know, decoy that
would swim? Was there somethingthat just hit you all at once,
(13:52):
like, that's what I'm gonna do,or how did this come about?
Tim Wells (13:55):
Frankly, I just am I was just shocked when I found
that no one had patented it. Sobecause, I mean, it's a simple
idea, a GPS, you put it in yourdecoy and tell the decoy, don't
leave this area and I want youto swim around. So and we all if
you're a duck hunter, you're allyou know, on a calm day, you're
looking at your decoys sittingthere motionless and you're
saying to yourself, that'sprobably gonna scare the ducks
(14:16):
more than draw them in. I'm likeand one day it dawned on me and
I was like, I wonder whynobody's done that. I was like,
like, I was sure somebody had,you know.
So did a patent search and woah,and then nobody had. And so I
filed the patent and next thingyou know, I've built a board so
it controls the duck and hismovement. And, you know, he you
(14:38):
hit go, and off he goes.
Matt Harrison (14:40):
You're gonna make a lot of people that's that, you
know, that jerkcore, poor guy inevery group. You're gonna make
that guy really happy.
Tim Wells (14:48):
Well, I hope I make enough money that I can afford
Sydney's wedding this spring.You know?
Matt Harrison (14:54):
Yeah. By the way, that's coming up. You excited,
Sid?
Sydney Wells (14:57):
Yeah. Yeah. I hope he makes a lot of money too so
he shows up.
Tim Wells (15:01):
No kidding.
Sydney Wells (15:02):
Yeah. I know. That's that's in May. It's gonna
be here before you know it. But
Matt Harrison (15:07):
Are you still in the planning season, or you got
a lot of it nailed down? Or
Sydney Wells (15:11):
Well, see, he proposed not this past August,
but the August before, and thatwas ready for hunting season. So
I was like, I can't plan awedding during hunting season,
so it gave me plenty of time toplan for a wedding. So we're
pretty much just on thecountdown now.
Matt Harrison (15:23):
That's awesome.
VO (15:31):
Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, sponsored by
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Matt Harrison (17:28):
Well, let's talk a little bit about y'all's area
as far as duck hunting goes. Iknow that we spoke a little bit
about it at the beginning of thepodcast episode, but mister Tim,
I know that you've been out agood bit this year. Know that
Sid mentioned that y'all'sseason started at the October.
What have just kinda been yourthoughts so far on the season? I
know y'all got great conditionsright now, as y'all's mentioned,
(17:50):
holding a lot of birds iny'all's area.
But has this been a season thatyou were expecting as far as
numbers wise, or has it been alittle down or better? What have
you kinda seen in y'all's areaso far this year?
Tim Wells (18:03):
I'd say the success rate in this Central Illinois
area hunting flyway along theIllinois River is probably 50%
better than normal for this timeof
Matt Harrison (18:11):
the year.
Tim Wells (18:12):
Right now is when it usually kicks off. You know?
This is when the flight usuallyarrives just after Thanksgiving
and progressively gets good, andthen it's really good about the
last day of season. Then afterthat, it would have been
phenomenal. But we're seeing theinflux of birds now because of
this unusual weather likeeverybody else might be.
(18:32):
I guess Wisconsin is just nowclosing and probably just right
on time because they're shippingall their birds down to us now,
and they're probably seeing abig flight of the birds leaving
here already because the puddlesare freezing up, A lot of the
flooded corn that the clubs haveand that the state has here in
Illinois are freezing up andwill freeze up tonight and
(18:54):
tomorrow because it's gonna dipdown to five degrees. So Wow.
Hold on Arkansas andMississippi, boys, Tennessee,
they're coming. They're they'rethe waves of them coming. But
for the next four or five days,these heated lakes, like the
Powhatan and Power plants uparound Chicago and the one that
we have a club next to here,they're holding several 100,000
(19:15):
birds, and we probably got40,000 birds, maybe 50 right
right against us.
So it's gonna be phenomenalhunting while it lasts.
Matt Harrison (19:23):
Well, now how long in y'all's forecast do you
see it staying froze up or iny'all's area?
Sydney Wells (19:29):
Well, I just checked the weather, and next
week, it's actually gonna warmback up. So it'll be high
thirties, forties, maybe
Tim Wells (19:35):
long as it stays in that mid thirties, you know,
we'll hold we'll hold bucks tillthe end of season. But the
Canadian geese are next, youknow, they they they stay no
matter how cold it gets, they'llstay on these big lakes and then
they'll keep acres and acres ofwater open, so that's always
good. But the mallards, youknow, it's a roll of the dice,
but if Sydney's right and it'sto hover around the freezing
(19:58):
mark, then the ducks will hold abig portion of them, but you
know, we'll lose some. All thegadwalls seem like they're gone,
the green winged teals left,I've seen a few shovelers this
morning, but about the onlything we got left are some of
the divers and mallards. Wow.
So
Matt Harrison (20:16):
Now do y'all you said, you know, y'all hold a
good bit of geese. Do y'allchase geese a lot too, or do
y'all mostly stick to ducks?
Sydney Wells (20:24):
We stick to ducks. I mean, if the geese come up I
have a friend, Dakota. He lovesgeese. And if when he calls,
I'll bring my trailer full,that's when we goose hunt. But
it's mainly ducks.
Mean, I we like the geese on alittle bit. They'll fly over
and, you know, we'll try todecoy them in. But other than
that
Tim Wells (20:41):
Yeah.
Sydney Wells (20:41):
It's it's all ducks.
Tim Wells (20:43):
Yeah. We used to beat the geese up heavy, but we after
you kill so many of them, Imean, there's nothing like an
Old Myler Drake locked up comingin, so we'd like that.
Sydney Wells (20:52):
It is fun, though, to shoot geese here because, you
know, you got about a 50% chancethat it's banded by your local
up Yeah. We were out with aCentral Illinois boy, and they
got a whole lot of bands. Youknow where they're coming from.
Matt Harrison (21:05):
You know where they've hunted a lot of.
Sydney Wells (21:07):
Last year was really fun. We had a goose come
in, a solo, and Jack shot him,and I think he was 17 years old
from Canada. That was an oldWow. Yeah. That video went super
viral.
So that was pretty cool.
Matt Harrison (21:21):
Now, Sid, did you kill a band banded one duck last
year, or was that year beforelast?
Sydney Wells (21:25):
Banded one What's the banded one last year. Yep.
Matt Harrison (21:28):
Where was that one from?
Sydney Wells (21:30):
That one, I can't remember. I think that one was
from Minnesota.
Matt Harrison (21:34):
Oh, wow.
Tim Wells (21:35):
First Canadian goose I ever killed, they had a band.
I was in or Alberta hunting muledeer, and we were along a river
and there was a steady flight ofgeese back and forth. And I told
the the guy that got that wasguiding me, he had never hunted
with me before. I said, I wannatake a shot at these geese. He
goes, you gotta get your licenseand stuff.
(21:56):
So the next day we got mylicense, went back out there, we
hadn't seen any geese. Finally,on the last day, here come a
flock of geese down the river,and they were out flying out
over across the top of theriver. You could wade the river.
It wasn't real big river, butthese there are seven or eight
of them. They're coming downalong.
They're They're a little too farto shoot at, but I let I said,
watch this, and I pulled upahead of this the lead goose
(22:18):
and, boom, shut that arrow outacross there, and it was zipping
out across there. Blop. Itnailed that about the fifth
goose in line, man. Rolled himout of the flock because splash.
He flopped in the water.
He had that arrow sticking outof him. It was a beautiful
thing. You know? And the guidewas like, oh my gosh. That's
gotta be the best shot I've everseen.
And the goose floated over tothe shore, and I got him. He had
(22:40):
a band on his legs, so that waspretty exciting. I never told
the guy I was shooting the onein front. I I let him think
that's the one I was shootingat, we called it good. Anyway,
that's my first band of bird.
Since then, they banned a lot ofthem here locally, and my son,
now Clint, he loves shootinggeese. So he'll go out in
September when they have theirearly goosies and come back with
(23:02):
a handful of of bands that heshot. You know? The whole family
got sacrificed for the bandsthat morning. You know?
But Oh, really? I was more intohunting deer. But once in a
while, we'll we'll when we'rehunting mallards, you know,
obviously, we kill a lot ofgeese that come into our spread
while we're hunting mallards.
Matt Harrison (23:21):
So We
Tim Wells (23:21):
got some speckle bellies now. We didn't have
speckle
Matt Harrison (23:24):
Oh, really?
Tim Wells (23:24):
Long. The speck speckle bellies are Wow. But the
you know, the speckle bellies,they get to you guys in
Arkansas. They work right in,and you guys hammer them. I
mean, it's like an easy bird fory'all to hunt down there in the
rice fields and so forth.
But calling in a specabelly inIllinois is virtually
impossible, really hard to do.And if anybody can tell me why,
(23:46):
that it'd be interesting becausea specabelly is the smartest
bird in the world when you talkabout killing him here in in the
Central United States andIllinois, Iowa, Indiana, these
areas. But once he gets downsouth, why they decoy so well
once they're there, it's justbeyond me.
Matt Harrison (24:02):
Wow. That that is neat. I I'm kinda like y'all
are. I I don't really chasegeese that much. I I just don't
have that, you know, eagernessto get up and chase them.
I've been a couple times, and Itell you what, it is about three
times more the amount of work tochase geese than it is ducks
because a lot of people,especially when you talk about
the South and Arkansas and andsuch, you know, those guys are
(24:26):
putting out astronomical amountof decoys. They're dealing with
that gumbo mud that's, like, sixinches deep, and it's it's a
lot. Like, a couple times thatI've been, it was raining in the
mud and all the decoys. I'm justlike, how do y'all enjoy this?
But, man, they eat up with it.
And to each their own, you know,I know that a lot of people
(24:47):
enjoy it. But what do y'allmostly hunt where y'all are at?
Is it foot of corn? Is it dryfields? A little bit of both?
Where do y'all kindly mainlystay in?
Sydney Wells (24:56):
We got a little bit of both, Matt. So it just
depends on what they're working.You know, earlier in the season,
we were hunting the dry fields.Then when it got cold, flooded
flooded corn, and now it's allit's all iced up. So we got a
ice eater out and just have a anice hole that we're hunting and
put our decoys in the in thefield.
Matt Harrison (25:14):
How many decoys do y'all run most of the time? I
know it probably kinda variesdepending, but not many. Very
Sydney Wells (25:20):
Not very many. A dozen, a couple dozen.
Tim Wells (25:23):
Yeah. Wow.
Sydney Wells (25:23):
Not very
Tim Wells (25:24):
But you can't beat 25 you know, the new Bass Pro
decoys that we're hunting overthat I just got them Canadians.
I put out two dozen Canadiandecoys, mixed them in with the
zinc decoys, and, boy, he's gotsome beautiful decoys. Two dozen
Canadian decoys, and mallardspour right
Matt Harrison (25:43):
in on them. Wow. That's awesome.
Tim Wells (25:45):
She wants she goes with all her dive bomb decoys.
You know? It's back and forth. Igotta treat my sponsor nice.
She's gotta treat her nice.
You know? They love her decoystoo, though. Oh, father daughter
battle. We're hunting overSydney's decoys. I'd like to
scrape them across the the theground when them mallards come
in.
You just unload across theground and on the water. But,
(26:08):
you know, when it's my decoys,we shoot them in the air. You
know? But Sydney's it's just theother way around, boy. Oh,
that's funny.
Big shot in the last coupleweeks. You know? I've seen some
ducks that were swimming fastwhen she nailed them.
Sydney Wells (26:20):
I mean up. Stop talking.
Tim Wells (26:22):
It was impressive.
Sydney Wells (26:23):
You're so annoying. Oh
Tim Wells (26:26):
my gosh, man.
Matt Harrison (26:27):
I love it. That's hilarious. That's hilarious. So
when does y'all season go out,waterfowl wise?
Sydney Wells (26:33):
I think it's Christmas Eve is usually when it
goes out. So it should be thetwenty fourth. So next year,
Illinois is split. So we haveour split, which we're very
excited about. I can't remember.
I think the split's aroundThanksgiving time, and so our
season will be pushed back alittle bit, which I know a lot
of people are excited about.Mhmm. Now,
Matt Harrison (26:50):
Sid, I know we're currently working on a trip, but
are you going anywhere else tochase ducks? And mister Tim, are
you as well? Are y'all justgonna pretty much stay local
chasing them? Or y'all got anycool trips planned?
Sydney Wells (27:01):
Well, I got a couple cool trips. This weekend,
I'm going to Missouri to huntwith the dive bomb guys. I have
a couple coworkers coming, soand they're one's from Florida
and one's from New York, and onehas never killed ducks. Another
one says he has killed ducks,but we'll see if he actually
has. So that would be prettyfun.
And then Roy Carter invited meto come into Kansas recently, so
(27:23):
I think I'm gonna go try to dothat. And, really, the next
couple weeks, I'm just trying tohunt home. Nothing beats being
at home and hunting in January.I'm sure we'll both be in
Arkansas. We hunt in differentplaces in Arkansas, but we both
try to go down there and maybebring our bows.
Tim Wells (27:38):
In January and try to kill some sea ducks. Haven't
done that before. So I'm Oh.They think that you can kill
them with a bow there. They'repretty they come right in on a
string.
So we're gonna give that a try.Wow.
Sydney Wells (27:49):
And have we got time? Matt and I, hopefully,
will be in Washington with MattJudy.
Matt Harrison (27:52):
That'd be fun.
Sydney Wells (27:54):
The witch king, everybody likes to call him. I
thought I killed a storm widgeonlast year, took a picture,
posted it, and I had so manypeople in the comments being
like, CC, Matt, Judy. And he'slike I'm like, what the heck? I
guess he had a storm widgeonclass that he posted about.
Like, that's not a storm wigeon.
Matt Harrison (28:10):
He's got a doctorate in storm wigeons.
Sydney Wells (28:12):
Yeah. Exactly what it was.
Matt Harrison (28:14):
Oh, that's awesome. Mister Tam, so you're
planning on heading toMassachusetts? That'll be a fun
trip.
Tim Wells (28:20):
Yeah. They got black mallards up there. I need a
couple big old drakes to hangfrom the top of the man cave
ceiling, so I'm hoping that weget into them.
Matt Harrison (28:28):
Now are y'all planning any other deer hunting
trips? Are y'all kinda kindadone? We got a buddy
Tim Wells (28:33):
and was covered up with deer. We may go hunt with
Kevin, and outside of that, weevery year before Christmas, we
end up in Texas with brotherBuck. We do our rattling thing
down there, and we get thesebucks come running in that's it
look like they're a 190 inches,and we shoot them, track them
down, and find out that theyweighed a buck ten, and they're
only a 130. But it sure is funhunting them.
Sydney Wells (28:56):
It's awesome.
Matt Harrison (28:57):
Is that an adrenaline rush or what?
Sydney Wells (28:59):
It is
Tim Wells (28:59):
the ultimate rush.
Sydney Wells (29:01):
They're coming from all different angles. We
are we have a bow hunter, thecameraperson, and then a couple
twenty twenty yards behind us isthe rattler. So they're rattling
nonstop because, you know, thosebig deer like to come downwind,
and it's awesome.
Matt Harrison (29:14):
So walk us one of y'all walk us through that a
little bit because I know thatthere's probably a lot of
listeners that aren't deerhunters, and there's some that
are. But, you know, rattling indeer, that's a unique you just
you kinda gotta know what you'redoing to do that. Like, you
talked about being upwind, andyou gotta really, really be on
top of it. I feel like I'venever personally done it. So
(29:34):
kinda walk us through a littlebit about what a scenario would
look like as far as rattling oneto end.
Sydney Wells (29:39):
Well, it really depends on the situation. If
you're on the ground, if you'rein a tree, what state you're in.
Here in Illinois, we like to goOctober, early November. You
wanna make sure you're playingthe wind. You don't wanna be
hunting in a field or area wherethose bucks can come be from
behind you and really catch yourwind.
Tim Wells (29:57):
When you hit the horns together, Matt, in
Illinois, it's like you'rehunting a different well, you
are hunting a different speciesversus hunting Texas. So in
Illinois, typically, you know,we have them run-in on us
occasionally, but it typicallytakes them fifteen, twenty
minutes to show up. And you cantell that you've actually
rattled him in because he'llcome walking in with his hair
(30:18):
all blown up or his ears back orjust kind of stiff legged when
he's coming in, which indicateshe's coming to establish
dominance or maybe to fight, butit takes him twenty minutes to
get there because I've rattledthem in Illinois before and
killed big deer that in thedistance in the timber I could
(30:39):
see them stand for five minutesstaring directly towards where I
had rattled from, and for somereason it just clicks and here
they come. Now when we go downto Texas, it's like as soon as
you hit them horns Here they go.Because they're coming.
Sydney Wells (30:54):
They're hauling. They're not sneaking in either.
They're running as fast as theycan.
Tim Wells (30:59):
Yeah. They'll run-in, see you, run back out before you
can suck an arrow at them, andthen you hit the horns, they run
back again and do it again. Itis crazy. Really? It is literal
if you're in the right rightsection of Texas, it's
unbelievable.
Sydney and I have rattled inmaybe thirty, forty deer a day
down there, and we're huntingSouth Of San Antonio probably an
(31:24):
hour, and that whole regionaround there, genetically, those
animals respond to the horns.And it man, it's super fun.
We're walking low fence, wilddeer, setting up in, you know,
the the desert where you don'tsee a lot of deer sign where
you're setting up, but you crackthem horns and they come out of
the woodwork. It's unbelievable.Wow.
(31:45):
That's hard to kill like thatthough. I mean, you you know,
we're just deer hunting when wego down there. We got tags and
we got a week to hunt or threedays to hunt or whatever, and if
it's looks like it's halfwaymature, we shoot it, you know.
Then we usually come home withbags unfilled, but we sure have
a blast doing it. Then we'll setup our predator call and hunt
coyotes and foxes and do thatkind of thing while we're down
(32:07):
there, but that's always a funtrip.
There's nothing like Texas.Gotta love it.
Matt Harrison (32:11):
That's awesome. Well, I wanna be mindful of
y'all's time, but before y'allgo, I want y'all to share each
one of you the coolest, mostmemorable, most adrenaline rush
hunt that you have ever been on.It can be from any year, any
animal, anything, but what huntsticks out to you the most that
(32:33):
you are either most proud of,just the most adrenaline,
whatever. It doesn't matter.Just the hunt that pops to your
mind first that you can sharewith our listeners.
Tim Wells (32:43):
So when Sydney looks up in the air, I know she's
trying to think of something,but I know mine. My my most
memorable hunt was there wasthis button buck and he was
coming down through thesoybeans, okay, envision this,
it's early October, they'restill green, the beans are. I'm
seven years old, I've got myfiberglass recurve, maybe 30
(33:07):
pound draw, I think at the timeit was supposed to be 40, but I
think dad let me get away with30. I had a wooden, I had three
wooden arrows that my grandpahad built out of just wooden
shafts, he painted them blackand green for me and put
aluminum siding, he had cut outv's out of them and put somewhat
(33:28):
of a sharp edge on them, thosewere the points on all three of
the arrows with rooster featherson the tail. And I'll never
forget standing in the edge ofthat timber looking at that
button buck as he made his waydown that bean row slowly but
surely, and the closer he got,the harder my heart was
(33:52):
pounding.
And the moment that I finallyrealized it was time to shoot,
he was like six yards in frontof me, head beating on the
beans, and when I came to fulldraw, that bow was shaking and
shivering in my hands, and itwas 70 degrees outside when I
can still to this day, and it'sbeen what has it been? Fifty
(34:16):
fifty some year fifty sevenyears, and that arrow left that
bow and I can still see thatarrow arching above the the
beans and coming down and plop,hit that buck right in the
center of his stomach, and hetook off running out across
there, and that was the mostadrenaline rush, bow hunting
(34:42):
thrill of a lifetime that stuckwith me the rest of my life. And
I've, you know, I've had someencounters with grizzly bears in
my spear, had a big brown bearstand up and his I was in a tree
stand about 10 or 11 feet offthe ground, and when he stood up
under my tree stand, his headwas about a foot under the
platform and I'm holding a spearand he's looking left and right
(35:03):
for me.
And that was an adrenaline rush,and I had a moose come in that
caught my wind and instead ofrunning, it made him mad and he
started ripping the tree uprightthat I was hiding behind, you
know, that I spared, but nothingcompared to that first whitetail
with my bow. That's awesome. AndI'll never forget, couldn't find
(35:23):
the deer because I'd shot it inthe gut, you know, and my dad
helped me look. And so the nextday he said, hey, you don't need
to go to school anymore, youneed to find that deer. So the
next morning he told me, youwalk down the creek where he
went into where we last tracked,you walk down there and look.
And so I walked down the creek,and I was walking along there,
and I looked up ahead of me, andI seen the I seen the fletchings
(35:45):
of my arrow sticking up abovethe the grass a little bit. And
the closer I got, I seen the theoutline of the that deer's
belly. And when I got in tighton him, I had another arrow
ready to shoot him. And I got intight, there was my dead buck
laying there, you know, a buttonbuck. And right where the arrow
was sticking, I'll never forgetwhere that arrow was sticking in
his stomach, there were littlebubbles just bubbling up out of
(36:08):
his stomach, you know, and itwas the most oh my gosh.
It was the most fulfilling. Iwas the king of the world that
day. I mean, I it was thegreatest thing ever. I'll never
forget that.
Matt Harrison (36:20):
I love that's your favorite too because I know
you've shot some monster deer,had some crazy encounters. I'll
never forget the story you toldme at Chuck Smith, our former
president's place, that timeabout the wolf that you killed.
Tim Wells (36:35):
Yeah. That
Matt Harrison (36:36):
was pretty That was I mean but to be able to
share with us that yourfavorite, most memorable hunt is
that button buck when you wereseven years old, that's that's
incredible. Sia, what about you?
Sydney Wells (36:49):
Well, I can't top that, but he's pretty good at
stormtowing. I would say onething that pops in my mind that
made me super proud as a bowhunter, especially, like, I've
been bowhunting really, reallyhard, I would say, starting in
college. Obviously, I bowhuntedmy whole life with him, but
really on my own and trying tobecome a better bowhunter after
(37:13):
like, right during college allthe way through, you know, my
twenties. But I was super proudof myself because usually I
freak out. I have a tendency Ican freak out.
Not anymore, thankfully. I'vekind of outgrown that. But a
couple years ago, I we were bowhunting, and you know the Wells
is we bow hunt hard, and it canget pretty exhausting, and it
(37:33):
was the rut. And there was thisnine pointer, very heavy, lot of
mass. Tim and I set up at theend of this cornfield in hopes
that, you know, we kill a bigbuck.
Well, this this buck came out.He was rutting hard. He was
scanning the field, and I'mlike, oh, crap. Here we come.
Well, one thing that I've doneon my own, you know, my dad's
(37:55):
instinctive.
He's never shot a release. He'snever shot sights. Nothing. So
really growing up, we had toself teach ourselves how to use
sights and our rangefinder andjust how to become a better bow
hunter that way because it'scompletely different than he
just draws back and shoots,anchors and shoots. Same with my
brother.
He he's also instinctive. Sowith my bow, I really practiced
(38:20):
a lot, shoot far distances, andbe better at ranging the field,
and kinda being able to guess myyardage that way, and just
instinctively become a betterbow hunter.
Tim Wells (38:29):
Mhmm.
Sydney Wells (38:29):
Well, this this buck came out. He stepped into
35 yards and drew back, hestopped, thunk, I hit a a
cornstalk.
Tim Wells (38:40):
The only cornstalk in front of his vitals since he hit
it.
Sydney Wells (38:43):
I hit it. And he ran it into the field. Well,
something that, again, I was Iwhat I instinctively told
myself, and I it was musclememory, I ranged the end of the
field, which was 55 yards. Sojust in case something crazy
happened, I knew the the ranges.And my heart was pounding, but I
was pretty proud of myself.
I kept my composure, knockedanother arrow, and I double
(39:06):
lunged him. 55 yards, my longestWow. My longest shot. You know,
he didn't know I was there. Heknew there was danger.
And if a bug doesn't see you ortell you, you know, they're
like, something's wrong, butthey can't figure out what and
He
Tim Wells (39:20):
let out a blow before the arrow hit him too. He went
like, you know, he was lettingout that warning blow right
before that. When when he letthat out, she let that arrow rip
and hit him. And the part sheleft out was right before she
shot, she just closed her eyesand looked up in the air and
shot.
Sydney Wells (39:38):
Get out of here. You are so dumb.
Tim Wells (39:40):
It was the luckiest shot I've ever seen.
Sydney Wells (39:42):
Dumb. But, you know, I didn't have any
adrenaline. So that's one thingI was proud of myself. Like, I
mean, I still get shaken up,especially when a buck comes in
the when a buck comes out into acornfield and you're watching
him for over ten minutes, you'reusually gonna lose your mind.
Tim Wells (39:59):
No. No. I think that the buck that you killed, the
the six pack, she shot a a buckon Thanksgiving one time with me
that it was freaking cold, andwe'd been hunting that deer. He
was eight years old. We'd beenhunting for three years trying
to kill him, and she smoked himon Thanksgiving, and she started
(40:20):
kind of hyperventilating.
I thought she's gonna puke inthe stand after she killed him
because she was so cold, andthen she got all that excitement
going on. It was like we wereboth cracking up.
Sydney Wells (40:31):
I got sick from the adrenaline and being cold.
It was insane, but there's a lotof proud moments. That one just,
like, pops into my head justthat I was so proud of myself
for being composed and patient.I'm like, okay. I've I've become
a better bow hunter in thatmoment knowing, you know, what
to do and not to freak out.
Because when you freak out, youleave it usually goes wrong. So
(40:53):
there's a lot of good momentslike that. But, yeah, I don't
know. It's hard to tell. Everyevery deer hunt is a different
story, and that's why we lovedeer hunting.
He still loves duck hunting. Hewould love to duck hunt all the
time, but I love deer huntingbecause every deer looks
different. Yeah. It's adifferent story every time. No
offense.
You know, ducks. I love duckhunting, but they all look the
same unless you get a band.
Tim Wells (41:14):
They do. I've never heard you talk about deer hunt,
man. You deer hunt too?
Matt Harrison (41:18):
I've shot I've killed one buck in my entire
life, and it was a seven pointthat scored probably 70. Yeah.
Yep. And I shot it when I wasprobably 12 years old. That's
about Hey,
Tim Wells (41:31):
bud. Between the '8, '7, and '27, there was a lot of
seven pointers I got. I tell youwhat, it was if it had horns,
man, and you could get it with abuckle, that was exciting. You
know? That was excite the firstyear I shot, you know, with my
shotgun, my my 20 gauge singleshot, it had a, you know, a
range of about 30 yards ofaccuracy.
(41:53):
After that, it's a guess, but,man, I used to lay them out with
that thing when I was a kid.Just loved it. I just loved it.
Matt Harrison (42:00):
That's awesome. In our area of Mississippi, we
don't really grow many, youknow, big deer. And I know
that's not what it's about, butNorth Mississippi in the Delta
area has some really, reallygood deer, you know, in that
parts of world. But we justnever really got too big into
it. You know, we did it younggrowing up locally and shot some
(42:20):
decent deer.
But, you know Carrie,
Tim Wells (42:23):
Cindy and I, as well as Clint and my wife, you know,
we like to hunt big deer here athome. But, man, you know,
there's nothing like going justdeer hunting, you know, when
you're trying to kill does orwhen you're we're down with
brother Buck in Texas wherewe're just hunting deer. It
doesn't care we don't care whatyou kill. So there's two two
different types of people outthere. You know, there's deer
(42:44):
that are people that are in deermanagement and raising deer, and
Yeah.
You know, they got their bigfarm, and you don't shoot it
unless it's like this, and yougotta kill one that's coal or
whatever. You know, we're notinto that, but that's that's got
its place too, you know. Thosepeople have fun doing it, and
then there's people like us thatlike it both. And then there's
some people that they just wannago out and shoot a deer, and
(43:05):
they don't care how old it is.They just want some meat for the
freezer, and they love pullingthe trigger.
So
Sydney Wells (43:09):
I'll tell you what. I hunting in Illinois is
so different because now I huntGeorgia where Ramsey's from, and
it's I have so much fun inGeorgia. The bucks definitely
aren't as big, but there arewhen you see a big eight point,
I'm like, now like, I love tojust sling arrows. Like, I love
to hunt. So being up here, we'relike, okay.
Is he mature? You know? Like,what does his, like, rack look
(43:32):
like? Blah blah blah blah. Beingin Georgia, you're like, okay.
He's mature. He has he has acrappy rag, but I'm shooting
him. And it they're smart. Soit's been fun to hunt Georgia.
It's completely different, butI've had so much fun hunting
that state.
Tim Wells (43:45):
Thing about southern hunters, you've gotta give
southern them southern boys thatbow hunt credit because you come
up here them southern boys comeup here and hunt Iowa deer,
Kansas deer, Illinois deer. Theygo back home and go, those are
the stupidest deer I ever seen.You know? You can just get in a
tree stand in Illinois, sit 10feet off the ground. If you hold
still, he'll walk right underyou.
(44:06):
If you try that down there inMississippi, Mississippi, that
deer, you get 10 feet off theground, he's looking at you 200
yards down through the timber,he won't even come near you. So,
you know, they're definitelysmart down there and over the
years have been trained to lookout and watch up in the trees
and keep your eyes peeled,otherwise you die, and all the
dummies got wiped out downthere, and all the genetics are
(44:27):
smart here now. So That's true.It's a different And
Sydney Wells (44:31):
Georgia, there's feeders people can feed. North
Georgia where I'm hunting, it'sdifferent. Though those big
mature bucks, they will not goto a feeder. They do. They will
not.
So we don't hunt the feeders. Welike to put them out because of
protein and all the supplementalfeed that's important to grow
babies and big racks. But thebig boys, you ain't gonna hunt
them over a feeder. It's a foodplot or you're in the woods
(44:54):
trying to catch them.
Matt Harrison (44:55):
That's awesome. Y'all got me wanting to get into
deer hunting.
Sydney Wells (44:59):
Oh, you're not. You have you're too obsessed
with ducks. I know you.
Matt Harrison (45:03):
Ducks and turkeys. Ducks and turkeys.
Sydney Wells (45:05):
And turkey. Never get turkeys.
Tim Wells (45:07):
Well, it's too bad, Matt. You don't have any
contacts where you can kill alot of ducks. I know it's rough.
Maybe she'll take you day. Yeah.
Matt Harrison (45:14):
I know. I'm still looking for that right person to
take me on my first really goodhunt. You know? Yep. I thought I
had some friends that had theconnections, but they still just
hadn't came through for me yet.
Sydney Wells (45:24):
Well, I
Tim Wells (45:25):
can tell you, when you go with a guide and he puts
out black decoys and you lay inthe mud beside him, you still
need to keep looking. Alright?That's one duck I've never
killed, always wanted to, neverkilled a cinnamon teal. Have you
ever got one?
Matt Harrison (45:38):
I have not. I have not. And I've had a couple
chances to go to a certain placein Texas to try to harvest one,
but I haven't gone. Yeah. But Iwould love to get one of those
as well.
I think that would be so neat ofa mount.
Tim Wells (45:54):
Yeah. They're beautiful.
Sydney Wells (45:56):
Well, next year, somebody's listening. The three
videos. Let us know. Four ten.Yeah.
Matt Harrison (46:02):
If you're listening and you have a way to
get us on some cinnamon teal, wewould love to take you up on
that.
Sydney Wells (46:09):
Yes, sir.
Matt Harrison (46:10):
That's awesome. Well, Tim and Sydney, thank you
both so much for carving timeout of your busy day to hop on
the Ducks Unlimited podcast. Wealso wanna thank our producer,
Chris Isaac, for producing thepodcast. We wanna thank Jack for
being a great dog during thewhole entire podcast episode. We
know that y'all can't see him,but he has sat here the whole
(46:31):
entire episode just listeningin.
Yeah. Attacking mister t. Butthank you all so much for
listening to the Ducks Unlimitedpodcast. Y'all take care, and
god bless.
VO (46:43):
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time, stay tuned to the Ducks.
On today's episode of the Ducks Unlimited
podcast, we have special guests,Tim and Sydney Wells, and we're
gonna be talking about huntingconditions, duck hunting
stories, deer hunting stories,the whole nine. Trust me, you
don't wanna miss this episode,so stay tuned.
VO (02:07):
Can we do a mic check, please? Everybody, welcome back
to the Ducks Unlimited podcast.I'm your host, doctor Mike
Brazier.
I'm your host, Katie Burke. I'myour host, doctor Jared
Hemphill. And I'm your host,Matt Harrison.
Welcome to the Ducks Unlimitedpodcast, the only podcast about
(02:29):
all things waterfowl. Fromhunting insights to science
based discussions about ducks,geese, and issues affecting
waterfowl and wetlandsconservation in North America.
The DU podcast, sponsored byPurina Pro Plan, the official
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Matt Harrison (03:13):
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Ducks
Unlimited podcast. I'm yourcohost, Matt Harrison. And
today, we have joining with ustwo very, very special guests,
and those guests are SydneyWells and Tim Wells. How are we
doing y'all?
Tim Wells (03:28):
Fantastic, buddy. Just doing doing great down here
in Illinois.
Matt Harrison (03:31):
We're doing good. We got snow, which we love when
it comes to hunting season.
Tim Wells (03:35):
We've had a rough go of it. It's been a drought here
for the last ninety days. Theponds are, you know, three, four
feet low. The ground is has beenlike dust. So we can tell you
that we're we have welcomed 10inches of snow, and we're so
happy to get it.
Matt Harrison (03:51):
When did it start snowing up there on your guys?
Tim Wells (03:54):
I see. The big snow came two two to three days ago,
and it's been spitting eversince off and on. So we got
eight to 10 inches now withanother couple inches in the
forecast in the future. So wegot a long way to go though to
fill our ponds and get the riverup to where it needs to be where
we've lost a lot of water, buthopefully, we're gonna get it
(04:17):
over the wintertime and into thespring. But more than that, for
the duck's sake, we hope thatit's snowing like crazy in the
Dakotas and up in Canada.
Matt Harrison (04:25):
I know it. I know it. So have y'all been focusing
more on deer, ducks, or what,Sid? You've been out there a
good bit. I know you've had alot of travel lately, but what
have you been focused on?
Sydney Wells (04:34):
Well, we're usually are always focused on
the deer. When the ducks gethere, Tim only focuses on the
ducks. So when ducks are here,Tim's like, alright. You're fend
for yourselves. We're I'm duckhunting solo.
So we we had a good earlyseason. I killed a deer the
first week of November, which isalways great. That's a relief
when you get a deer tagged, andI've been chasing whitetails, of
(04:56):
course, through the rut. But nowthat the mallards are finally
here in Illinois, we got anearly snow. Last year was a
great season.
This year I think it's lookingto be a good season too. We
haven't had a season like thisfor a couple years because we
usually don't get any snowanymore. So
Tim Wells (05:10):
Yeah. This early freeze brought a lot of mallards
into our neck of the woods. Somatter of fact, I killed four
the other day with my bow. To dothat, you gotta have a lot of
ducks. You know?
So Wow. We're pretty excited.We're gonna shoot ducks this
afternoon, hopefully, and we gotan overcast sky, 27 degrees, and
holding about 50,000 mallardsright against our cliff here. So
(05:34):
Oh my goodness. We got the foodand the patients.
So if there's 50,000 of them,there's gotta be eight dumb ones
over there somewhere that'sgonna get us this afternoon.
Sydney Wells (05:42):
Yeah. This this season has been fun so far. You
know, we in Illinois, we open uplate October. Jack, our my
producer, Wisconsin opens up alot earlier than that, and they
have been hammering theMallards. He shot over
Thanksgiving break, I think, aseven man limit, and they hunt
every day and just hammeringthem.
Matt Harrison (06:00):
Wow. That's incredible. She won't shoot them
with
Tim Wells (06:02):
the bow with me too often, so I finally bought her a
four ten, and she broke down andstarted hunting ducks with a
four ten with me, and we've beenwe've been having a lot of fun.
You know, the cool thing abouthunting with small gauges, four
tens and 20 eights, and I huntedwith you, Matt, in the timber
with the 28, and that was cool.That set that fire in motion for
me, but we went to four tendoubles, and it is you have to
(06:24):
be patient, and you've gotta letthem birds get in there tight.
But, man, it's so exciting whenyou you do let them get in there
tight. A lot of birds get awaythat you don't shoot at that you
normally would have killed, butwhen it happens and you pull in
a, you know, four or fivemallards and they come in there
and you knock two or three ofthem out of the bunch with a
sword, You don't even hardlyhear your gun go off next it's
(06:45):
pretty awesome experience, andwe're kinda getting into that.
Matt Harrison (06:48):
As far as the four ten goes, and this is a
little bit more of a specificquestion, but what would you say
that range that you feelcomfortable with shooting at it
with a four ten? Like, is ittwenty, thirty yards, or what's
the furthest shot that you'vebeen successful on with the four
ten with ducks?
Tim Wells (07:02):
I'd say you're right. You know, we we usually don't
shoot at them at 40 yards. Youknow? We want them in there
decoying close, so we shoot themat 20 yards, and we stretch it
out sometimes and kill like,gadwalls are a pretty weak bird
and but a mallard, you know, bigold mallard red legged drake, he
can hit. So if he's 40 yardshigh flaring and you're shooting
(07:24):
at his butt, you're liable tocripple it.
So we try to we try to shoot ata fight, you know, right in the
hole. Yeah.
Sydney Wells (07:30):
This is my first time shooting a four ten at
ducks, so I definitely like themdoing nice and close because
otherwise, I'm gonna be whiffingthat. It's different with that
20 gauge. When you change to atwenty twenty eight, then you're
like, oh my gosh. Wait. I gottakinda aim different now.
Tim Wells (07:44):
You know, kind of a misconception, though, about a
28 gauge or a four ten that, oh,you know, it doesn't kill them
as well. It's if you're a goodshot, which it's harder to hit
them, but if you're if you haveperfect lead on a duck, you can
kill him just as high with yourfour ten as you can with a 12
gauge. The only difference iswith a four ten at 25 yards,
(08:05):
you've got a circumference ofabout 14 inches versus 25 inches
with a 12 gauge. So the four tenstrings your shot a little bit
more, but not too much. And ifyou're on him, you you kill him.
You'll kill him. We went tosmaller shot. It gives us a
denser pattern, and anythingunder 35 yards that you're
(08:27):
shooting six steel at them orbismuth or tungsten, you know,
you're gonna put the whopping onthem, But it's all about the
lead and being patient and letthem get in there tight.
Matt Harrison (08:37):
How do you go about choosing what you're gonna
shoot that day? So do you justwake up and say, ah, today's a
good four ten day if you knowthat they're gonna be in there
real tight? Like you said,today, y'all got 50,000 mallards
in y'all's area. So is todaygonna be a day that you grab a
four ten off the the gun rack,or what are y'all shooting
today?
Tim Wells (08:54):
It kinda depend on on where we're hunting. You know?
Are we hunting over decoys inthe water where we know the
birds are gonna be focused rightin on us? Or, you know, if we're
going out in the field, that's alittle rougher because the birds
may be working the decoy spread,but they may be circling wide,
you know, so we may shoot the 28gauges at them that day. But
Sydney, she she always goes backto that 20 gauge in the end, but
(09:15):
she's pretty good shot with herfour ten.
Just
Sydney Wells (09:18):
I think if the conditions are right, like you
said, it depends where we'regonna hunt and also the wind. If
we know it's gonna be a lightsout, I'm like, alright. We could
do four tens. And especiallysince we've a lot of ducks in
the area. But, otherwise, yeah,I like to keep my 20 gauge on my
hand.
You know?
Matt Harrison (09:33):
So, Sydney, you would you would never try to
shoot four tens out of a coffinblind like we did. So,
Tim Wells (09:39):
like Oh
Sydney Wells (09:39):
my gosh. Yeah. If we can hit that again, yes. We
should actually get four tensconsidering that we're 10 yards
in front of our face. That wasinsane.
Yes. I was a
Matt Harrison (09:49):
couple groups that I was like, they may hit
us. Like, when we lean up out ofour coffin blinds, they
literally might hit us.
Sydney Wells (09:56):
And Utah. Yeah. Utah was that was an experience
like no other. I woulddefinitely take a four ten. I
can't believe that those justblack, what, cutouts.
Matt Harrison (10:05):
But we were Silhouette cutouts.
Sydney Wells (10:07):
Yeah. Those black cutouts worked so well. There's
just a shadow, looks like, froma distance, and they just came
right in.
Matt Harrison (10:13):
I'll never forget. I don't know if you were
able to see some of thatcontent, mister Tim, from that
hunt, but I remember pulling upout there, and they started to
stick up exactly what Sydney'stalking about. So there's these
cutout silhouettes, and he'slike, we're gonna hide in them,
and we're gonna get in theseblack sleds, coffins Yeah. And
we're just gonna lay down in themiddle. I'm like, there's no way
this is gonna work.
Like, these there's no way. Theywere like, I'm telling you, you
(10:35):
know, there's no trees around.So they were like, these birds
are a couple feet off the water.So, you know, they're eye level
with you. You know, they're notup picking you out.
So they were like, they seethese black silhouettes, and
they think that's a group on theshore. And sure enough, this
group of 200 teal would justbuzz you, and then we would just
lean up. Yeah. It was great.
Sydney Wells (10:57):
That would have been a four ten day for sure.
Tim Wells (10:59):
So we got kind of a cool little announcement we can
make. I filed my patent for anew decoy. And, Matt, I got a
question. The most importantthing you need in a spread of
decoys?
Matt Harrison (11:10):
Motion.
Tim Wells (11:11):
Motion. So what do we all wish we had on water when we
have decoys out there?
Matt Harrison (11:16):
Motion.
Tim Wells (11:17):
Motion. And the only way to get that is with a jerk
string or some kind of elaboratesetup. Right? Correct. Well, I
patented, and I have my firstprototype that we're gonna try
tomorrow, which I know is gonnawork because it's been tested in
the lab over and over, andthey're like, okay, Tim, it's
time to film over the new decoythat you'll sell next year, but
we have a decoy now.
(11:38):
You throw it out in the decoyspread, it locks the GPS signal,
and it swims in a 20 foot circleall all afternoon for you. No
strings attached, nothing caughtin the moss, and that's the new
decoy that we're gonna Wow.Here. And so excited about it.
Matt Harrison (11:57):
What type of battery system does this
Tim Wells (12:00):
eight hours, swim it for eight hours. Wow. If it pops
into a log or another decoy, itbacks up, turns around, and goes
back the other way. But it itjust stays in within its GPS
coordinate, and it just swimsaround in circles, not
necessarily in circles, justrandom like a duck, making
ripples on the water. So you buyyourself three or four of them,
(12:21):
throw them out, you can go from50 decoys to a dozen and
probably triple your odds ofsuccess.
Matt Harrison (12:26):
Wow. I'm eager to see that.
Tim Wells (12:30):
A lot of these public walk in hunters are gonna just
they're gonna love it becausethey don't have to carry in 200
pounds of decoys. They can havea sack of decoys and three or
four of my swimmers, turn themon, throw them out in the
spread, and hammer away.
Matt Harrison (12:44):
Wow. So I know that you said it's been tested
and stuff. Have you and you saidtomorrow y'all are gonna test
it. Have you hunted over it yet,or will tomorrow be
Tim Wells (12:51):
first time? First time we're gonna put it in a
hole and and let her swim andshoot ducks over. Wow. Yeah.
Matt Harrison (12:57):
That's awesome. Sid, what do you think about
that?
Sydney Wells (13:00):
If it kills ducks, I'm gonna be really pumped.
Tim Wells (13:03):
Yeah. Well, I tell you what. The first time she
water swats one with myprototype up, decided I'm gonna
be
Matt Harrison (13:09):
Oh, man. Hey. You're gonna get some of that,
especially on some of thispublic ground. You may if it's
too realistic, you may have somepeople,
Sydney Wells (13:17):
there's a dog out there. Shoot it. Before you know
it, the game wardens are gonnabe using it. You know how, like,
they had those fake dummy deerthat are gonna use prototypes?
Tim Wells (13:26):
Yeah. They all have to put it in her truck. That way
she don't get caught.
Matt Harrison (13:30):
So so was there anything and I know a born
hunter, and you've probably allyou're also a businessman, so
I'm sure you're out there. Whatcould I make to create something
like this? But was it was thereinitial time you were out there
that just dawned on you like,hey. A GPS, you know, decoy that
would swim? Was there somethingthat just hit you all at once,
(13:52):
like, that's what I'm gonna do,or how did this come about?
Tim Wells (13:55):
Frankly, I just am I was just shocked when I found
that no one had patented it. Sobecause, I mean, it's a simple
idea, a GPS, you put it in yourdecoy and tell the decoy, don't
leave this area and I want youto swim around. So and we all if
you're a duck hunter, you're allyou know, on a calm day, you're
looking at your decoys sittingthere motionless and you're
saying to yourself, that'sprobably gonna scare the ducks
(14:16):
more than draw them in. I'm likeand one day it dawned on me and
I was like, I wonder whynobody's done that. I was like,
like, I was sure somebody had,you know.
So did a patent search and woah,and then nobody had. And so I
filed the patent and next thingyou know, I've built a board so
it controls the duck and hismovement. And, you know, he you
(14:38):
hit go, and off he goes.
Matt Harrison (14:40):
You're gonna make a lot of people that's that, you
know, that jerkcore, poor guy inevery group. You're gonna make
that guy really happy.
Tim Wells (14:48):
Well, I hope I make enough money that I can afford
Sydney's wedding this spring.You know?
Matt Harrison (14:54):
Yeah. By the way, that's coming up. You excited,
Sid?
Sydney Wells (14:57):
Yeah. Yeah. I hope he makes a lot of money too so
he shows up.
Tim Wells (15:01):
No kidding.
Sydney Wells (15:02):
Yeah. I know. That's that's in May. It's gonna
be here before you know it. But
Matt Harrison (15:07):
Are you still in the planning season, or you got
a lot of it nailed down? Or
Sydney Wells (15:11):
Well, see, he proposed not this past August,
but the August before, and thatwas ready for hunting season. So
I was like, I can't plan awedding during hunting season,
so it gave me plenty of time toplan for a wedding. So we're
pretty much just on thecountdown now.
Matt Harrison (15:23):
That's awesome.
VO (15:31):
Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, sponsored by
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Matt Harrison (17:28):
Well, let's talk a little bit about y'all's area
as far as duck hunting goes. Iknow that we spoke a little bit
about it at the beginning of thepodcast episode, but mister Tim,
I know that you've been out agood bit this year. Know that
Sid mentioned that y'all'sseason started at the October.
What have just kinda been yourthoughts so far on the season? I
know y'all got great conditionsright now, as y'all's mentioned,
(17:50):
holding a lot of birds iny'all's area.
But has this been a season thatyou were expecting as far as
numbers wise, or has it been alittle down or better? What have
you kinda seen in y'all's areaso far this year?
Tim Wells (18:03):
I'd say the success rate in this Central Illinois
area hunting flyway along theIllinois River is probably 50%
better than normal for this timeof
Matt Harrison (18:11):
the year.
Tim Wells (18:12):
Right now is when it usually kicks off. You know?
This is when the flight usuallyarrives just after Thanksgiving
and progressively gets good, andthen it's really good about the
last day of season. Then afterthat, it would have been
phenomenal. But we're seeing theinflux of birds now because of
this unusual weather likeeverybody else might be.
(18:32):
I guess Wisconsin is just nowclosing and probably just right
on time because they're shippingall their birds down to us now,
and they're probably seeing abig flight of the birds leaving
here already because the puddlesare freezing up, A lot of the
flooded corn that the clubs haveand that the state has here in
Illinois are freezing up andwill freeze up tonight and
(18:54):
tomorrow because it's gonna dipdown to five degrees. So Wow.
Hold on Arkansas andMississippi, boys, Tennessee,
they're coming. They're they'rethe waves of them coming. But
for the next four or five days,these heated lakes, like the
Powhatan and Power plants uparound Chicago and the one that
we have a club next to here,they're holding several 100,000
(19:15):
birds, and we probably got40,000 birds, maybe 50 right
right against us.
So it's gonna be phenomenalhunting while it lasts.
Matt Harrison (19:23):
Well, now how long in y'all's forecast do you
see it staying froze up or iny'all's area?
Sydney Wells (19:29):
Well, I just checked the weather, and next
week, it's actually gonna warmback up. So it'll be high
thirties, forties, maybe
Tim Wells (19:35):
long as it stays in that mid thirties, you know,
we'll hold we'll hold bucks tillthe end of season. But the
Canadian geese are next, youknow, they they they stay no
matter how cold it gets, they'llstay on these big lakes and then
they'll keep acres and acres ofwater open, so that's always
good. But the mallards, youknow, it's a roll of the dice,
but if Sydney's right and it'sto hover around the freezing
(19:58):
mark, then the ducks will hold abig portion of them, but you
know, we'll lose some. All thegadwalls seem like they're gone,
the green winged teals left,I've seen a few shovelers this
morning, but about the onlything we got left are some of
the divers and mallards. Wow.
So
Matt Harrison (20:16):
Now do y'all you said, you know, y'all hold a
good bit of geese. Do y'allchase geese a lot too, or do
y'all mostly stick to ducks?
Sydney Wells (20:24):
We stick to ducks. I mean, if the geese come up I
have a friend, Dakota. He lovesgeese. And if when he calls,
I'll bring my trailer full,that's when we goose hunt. But
it's mainly ducks.
Mean, I we like the geese on alittle bit. They'll fly over
and, you know, we'll try todecoy them in. But other than
that
Tim Wells (20:41):
Yeah.
Sydney Wells (20:41):
It's it's all ducks.
Tim Wells (20:43):
Yeah. We used to beat the geese up heavy, but we after
you kill so many of them, Imean, there's nothing like an
Old Myler Drake locked up comingin, so we'd like that.
Sydney Wells (20:52):
It is fun, though, to shoot geese here because, you
know, you got about a 50% chancethat it's banded by your local
up Yeah. We were out with aCentral Illinois boy, and they
got a whole lot of bands. Youknow where they're coming from.
Matt Harrison (21:05):
You know where they've hunted a lot of.
Sydney Wells (21:07):
Last year was really fun. We had a goose come
in, a solo, and Jack shot him,and I think he was 17 years old
from Canada. That was an oldWow. Yeah. That video went super
viral.
So that was pretty cool.
Matt Harrison (21:21):
Now, Sid, did you kill a band banded one duck last
year, or was that year beforelast?
Sydney Wells (21:25):
Banded one What's the banded one last year. Yep.
Matt Harrison (21:28):
Where was that one from?
Sydney Wells (21:30):
That one, I can't remember. I think that one was
from Minnesota.
Matt Harrison (21:34):
Oh, wow.
Tim Wells (21:35):
First Canadian goose I ever killed, they had a band.
I was in or Alberta hunting muledeer, and we were along a river
and there was a steady flight ofgeese back and forth. And I told
the the guy that got that wasguiding me, he had never hunted
with me before. I said, I wannatake a shot at these geese. He
goes, you gotta get your licenseand stuff.
(21:56):
So the next day we got mylicense, went back out there, we
hadn't seen any geese. Finally,on the last day, here come a
flock of geese down the river,and they were out flying out
over across the top of theriver. You could wade the river.
It wasn't real big river, butthese there are seven or eight
of them. They're coming downalong.
They're They're a little too farto shoot at, but I let I said,
watch this, and I pulled upahead of this the lead goose
(22:18):
and, boom, shut that arrow outacross there, and it was zipping
out across there. Blop. Itnailed that about the fifth
goose in line, man. Rolled himout of the flock because splash.
He flopped in the water.
He had that arrow sticking outof him. It was a beautiful
thing. You know? And the guidewas like, oh my gosh. That's
gotta be the best shot I've everseen.
And the goose floated over tothe shore, and I got him. He had
(22:40):
a band on his legs, so that waspretty exciting. I never told
the guy I was shooting the onein front. I I let him think
that's the one I was shootingat, we called it good. Anyway,
that's my first band of bird.
Since then, they banned a lot ofthem here locally, and my son,
now Clint, he loves shootinggeese. So he'll go out in
September when they have theirearly goosies and come back with
(23:02):
a handful of of bands that heshot. You know? The whole family
got sacrificed for the bandsthat morning. You know?
But Oh, really? I was more intohunting deer. But once in a
while, we'll we'll when we'rehunting mallards, you know,
obviously, we kill a lot ofgeese that come into our spread
while we're hunting mallards.
Matt Harrison (23:21):
So We
Tim Wells (23:21):
got some speckle bellies now. We didn't have
speckle
Matt Harrison (23:24):
Oh, really?
Tim Wells (23:24):
Long. The speck speckle bellies are Wow. But the
you know, the speckle bellies,they get to you guys in
Arkansas. They work right in,and you guys hammer them. I
mean, it's like an easy bird fory'all to hunt down there in the
rice fields and so forth.
But calling in a specabelly inIllinois is virtually
impossible, really hard to do.And if anybody can tell me why,
(23:46):
that it'd be interesting becausea specabelly is the smartest
bird in the world when you talkabout killing him here in in the
Central United States andIllinois, Iowa, Indiana, these
areas. But once he gets downsouth, why they decoy so well
once they're there, it's justbeyond me.
Matt Harrison (24:02):
Wow. That that is neat. I I'm kinda like y'all
are. I I don't really chasegeese that much. I I just don't
have that, you know, eagernessto get up and chase them.
I've been a couple times, and Itell you what, it is about three
times more the amount of work tochase geese than it is ducks
because a lot of people,especially when you talk about
the South and Arkansas and andsuch, you know, those guys are
(24:26):
putting out astronomical amountof decoys. They're dealing with
that gumbo mud that's, like, sixinches deep, and it's it's a
lot. Like, a couple times thatI've been, it was raining in the
mud and all the decoys. I'm justlike, how do y'all enjoy this?
But, man, they eat up with it.
And to each their own, you know,I know that a lot of people
(24:47):
enjoy it. But what do y'allmostly hunt where y'all are at?
Is it foot of corn? Is it dryfields? A little bit of both?
Where do y'all kindly mainlystay in?
Sydney Wells (24:56):
We got a little bit of both, Matt. So it just
depends on what they're working.You know, earlier in the season,
we were hunting the dry fields.Then when it got cold, flooded
flooded corn, and now it's allit's all iced up. So we got a
ice eater out and just have a anice hole that we're hunting and
put our decoys in the in thefield.
Matt Harrison (25:14):
How many decoys do y'all run most of the time? I
know it probably kinda variesdepending, but not many. Very
Sydney Wells (25:20):
Not very many. A dozen, a couple dozen.
Tim Wells (25:23):
Yeah. Wow.
Sydney Wells (25:23):
Not very
Tim Wells (25:24):
But you can't beat 25 you know, the new Bass Pro
decoys that we're hunting overthat I just got them Canadians.
I put out two dozen Canadiandecoys, mixed them in with the
zinc decoys, and, boy, he's gotsome beautiful decoys. Two dozen
Canadian decoys, and mallardspour right
Matt Harrison (25:43):
in on them. Wow. That's awesome.
Tim Wells (25:45):
She wants she goes with all her dive bomb decoys.
You know? It's back and forth. Igotta treat my sponsor nice.
She's gotta treat her nice.
You know? They love her decoystoo, though. Oh, father daughter
battle. We're hunting overSydney's decoys. I'd like to
scrape them across the the theground when them mallards come
in.
You just unload across theground and on the water. But,
(26:08):
you know, when it's my decoys,we shoot them in the air. You
know? But Sydney's it's just theother way around, boy. Oh,
that's funny.
Big shot in the last coupleweeks. You know? I've seen some
ducks that were swimming fastwhen she nailed them.
Sydney Wells (26:20):
I mean up. Stop talking.
Tim Wells (26:22):
It was impressive.
Sydney Wells (26:23):
You're so annoying. Oh
Tim Wells (26:26):
my gosh, man.
Matt Harrison (26:27):
I love it. That's hilarious. That's hilarious. So
when does y'all season go out,waterfowl wise?
Sydney Wells (26:33):
I think it's Christmas Eve is usually when it
goes out. So it should be thetwenty fourth. So next year,
Illinois is split. So we haveour split, which we're very
excited about. I can't remember.
I think the split's aroundThanksgiving time, and so our
season will be pushed back alittle bit, which I know a lot
of people are excited about.Mhmm. Now,
Matt Harrison (26:50):
Sid, I know we're currently working on a trip, but
are you going anywhere else tochase ducks? And mister Tim, are
you as well? Are y'all justgonna pretty much stay local
chasing them? Or y'all got anycool trips planned?
Sydney Wells (27:01):
Well, I got a couple cool trips. This weekend,
I'm going to Missouri to huntwith the dive bomb guys. I have
a couple coworkers coming, soand they're one's from Florida
and one's from New York, and onehas never killed ducks. Another
one says he has killed ducks,but we'll see if he actually
has. So that would be prettyfun.
And then Roy Carter invited meto come into Kansas recently, so
(27:23):
I think I'm gonna go try to dothat. And, really, the next
couple weeks, I'm just trying tohunt home. Nothing beats being
at home and hunting in January.I'm sure we'll both be in
Arkansas. We hunt in differentplaces in Arkansas, but we both
try to go down there and maybebring our bows.
Tim Wells (27:38):
In January and try to kill some sea ducks. Haven't
done that before. So I'm Oh.They think that you can kill
them with a bow there. They'repretty they come right in on a
string.
So we're gonna give that a try.Wow.
Sydney Wells (27:49):
And have we got time? Matt and I, hopefully,
will be in Washington with MattJudy.
Matt Harrison (27:52):
That'd be fun.
Sydney Wells (27:54):
The witch king, everybody likes to call him. I
thought I killed a storm widgeonlast year, took a picture,
posted it, and I had so manypeople in the comments being
like, CC, Matt, Judy. And he'slike I'm like, what the heck? I
guess he had a storm widgeonclass that he posted about.
Like, that's not a storm wigeon.
Matt Harrison (28:10):
He's got a doctorate in storm wigeons.
Sydney Wells (28:12):
Yeah. Exactly what it was.
Matt Harrison (28:14):
Oh, that's awesome. Mister Tam, so you're
planning on heading toMassachusetts? That'll be a fun
trip.
Tim Wells (28:20):
Yeah. They got black mallards up there. I need a
couple big old drakes to hangfrom the top of the man cave
ceiling, so I'm hoping that weget into them.
Matt Harrison (28:28):
Now are y'all planning any other deer hunting
trips? Are y'all kinda kindadone? We got a buddy
Tim Wells (28:33):
and was covered up with deer. We may go hunt with
Kevin, and outside of that, weevery year before Christmas, we
end up in Texas with brotherBuck. We do our rattling thing
down there, and we get thesebucks come running in that's it
look like they're a 190 inches,and we shoot them, track them
down, and find out that theyweighed a buck ten, and they're
only a 130. But it sure is funhunting them.
Sydney Wells (28:56):
It's awesome.
Matt Harrison (28:57):
Is that an adrenaline rush or what?
Sydney Wells (28:59):
It is
Tim Wells (28:59):
the ultimate rush.
Sydney Wells (29:01):
They're coming from all different angles. We
are we have a bow hunter, thecameraperson, and then a couple
twenty twenty yards behind us isthe rattler. So they're rattling
nonstop because, you know, thosebig deer like to come downwind,
and it's awesome.
Matt Harrison (29:14):
So walk us one of y'all walk us through that a
little bit because I know thatthere's probably a lot of
listeners that aren't deerhunters, and there's some that
are. But, you know, rattling indeer, that's a unique you just
you kinda gotta know what you'redoing to do that. Like, you
talked about being upwind, andyou gotta really, really be on
top of it. I feel like I'venever personally done it. So
(29:34):
kinda walk us through a littlebit about what a scenario would
look like as far as rattling oneto end.
Sydney Wells (29:39):
Well, it really depends on the situation. If
you're on the ground, if you'rein a tree, what state you're in.
Here in Illinois, we like to goOctober, early November. You
wanna make sure you're playingthe wind. You don't wanna be
hunting in a field or area wherethose bucks can come be from
behind you and really catch yourwind.
Tim Wells (29:57):
When you hit the horns together, Matt, in
Illinois, it's like you'rehunting a different well, you
are hunting a different speciesversus hunting Texas. So in
Illinois, typically, you know,we have them run-in on us
occasionally, but it typicallytakes them fifteen, twenty
minutes to show up. And you cantell that you've actually
rattled him in because he'llcome walking in with his hair
(30:18):
all blown up or his ears back orjust kind of stiff legged when
he's coming in, which indicateshe's coming to establish
dominance or maybe to fight, butit takes him twenty minutes to
get there because I've rattledthem in Illinois before and
killed big deer that in thedistance in the timber I could
(30:39):
see them stand for five minutesstaring directly towards where I
had rattled from, and for somereason it just clicks and here
they come. Now when we go downto Texas, it's like as soon as
you hit them horns Here they go.Because they're coming.
Sydney Wells (30:54):
They're hauling. They're not sneaking in either.
They're running as fast as theycan.
Tim Wells (30:59):
Yeah. They'll run-in, see you, run back out before you
can suck an arrow at them, andthen you hit the horns, they run
back again and do it again. Itis crazy. Really? It is literal
if you're in the right rightsection of Texas, it's
unbelievable.
Sydney and I have rattled inmaybe thirty, forty deer a day
down there, and we're huntingSouth Of San Antonio probably an
(31:24):
hour, and that whole regionaround there, genetically, those
animals respond to the horns.And it man, it's super fun.
We're walking low fence, wilddeer, setting up in, you know,
the the desert where you don'tsee a lot of deer sign where
you're setting up, but you crackthem horns and they come out of
the woodwork. It's unbelievable.Wow.
(31:45):
That's hard to kill like thatthough. I mean, you you know,
we're just deer hunting when wego down there. We got tags and
we got a week to hunt or threedays to hunt or whatever, and if
it's looks like it's halfwaymature, we shoot it, you know.
Then we usually come home withbags unfilled, but we sure have
a blast doing it. Then we'll setup our predator call and hunt
coyotes and foxes and do thatkind of thing while we're down
(32:07):
there, but that's always a funtrip.
There's nothing like Texas.Gotta love it.
Matt Harrison (32:11):
That's awesome. Well, I wanna be mindful of
y'all's time, but before y'allgo, I want y'all to share each
one of you the coolest, mostmemorable, most adrenaline rush
hunt that you have ever been on.It can be from any year, any
animal, anything, but what huntsticks out to you the most that
(32:33):
you are either most proud of,just the most adrenaline,
whatever. It doesn't matter.Just the hunt that pops to your
mind first that you can sharewith our listeners.
Tim Wells (32:43):
So when Sydney looks up in the air, I know she's
trying to think of something,but I know mine. My my most
memorable hunt was there wasthis button buck and he was
coming down through thesoybeans, okay, envision this,
it's early October, they'restill green, the beans are. I'm
seven years old, I've got myfiberglass recurve, maybe 30
(33:07):
pound draw, I think at the timeit was supposed to be 40, but I
think dad let me get away with30. I had a wooden, I had three
wooden arrows that my grandpahad built out of just wooden
shafts, he painted them blackand green for me and put
aluminum siding, he had cut outv's out of them and put somewhat
(33:28):
of a sharp edge on them, thosewere the points on all three of
the arrows with rooster featherson the tail. And I'll never
forget standing in the edge ofthat timber looking at that
button buck as he made his waydown that bean row slowly but
surely, and the closer he got,the harder my heart was
(33:52):
pounding.
And the moment that I finallyrealized it was time to shoot,
he was like six yards in frontof me, head beating on the
beans, and when I came to fulldraw, that bow was shaking and
shivering in my hands, and itwas 70 degrees outside when I
can still to this day, and it'sbeen what has it been? Fifty
(34:16):
fifty some year fifty sevenyears, and that arrow left that
bow and I can still see thatarrow arching above the the
beans and coming down and plop,hit that buck right in the
center of his stomach, and hetook off running out across
there, and that was the mostadrenaline rush, bow hunting
(34:42):
thrill of a lifetime that stuckwith me the rest of my life. And
I've, you know, I've had someencounters with grizzly bears in
my spear, had a big brown bearstand up and his I was in a tree
stand about 10 or 11 feet offthe ground, and when he stood up
under my tree stand, his headwas about a foot under the
platform and I'm holding a spearand he's looking left and right
(35:03):
for me.
And that was an adrenaline rush,and I had a moose come in that
caught my wind and instead ofrunning, it made him mad and he
started ripping the tree uprightthat I was hiding behind, you
know, that I spared, but nothingcompared to that first whitetail
with my bow. That's awesome. AndI'll never forget, couldn't find
(35:23):
the deer because I'd shot it inthe gut, you know, and my dad
helped me look. And so the nextday he said, hey, you don't need
to go to school anymore, youneed to find that deer. So the
next morning he told me, youwalk down the creek where he
went into where we last tracked,you walk down there and look.
And so I walked down the creek,and I was walking along there,
and I looked up ahead of me, andI seen the I seen the fletchings
(35:45):
of my arrow sticking up abovethe the grass a little bit. And
the closer I got, I seen the theoutline of the that deer's
belly. And when I got in tighton him, I had another arrow
ready to shoot him. And I got intight, there was my dead buck
laying there, you know, a buttonbuck. And right where the arrow
was sticking, I'll never forgetwhere that arrow was sticking in
his stomach, there were littlebubbles just bubbling up out of
(36:08):
his stomach, you know, and itwas the most oh my gosh.
It was the most fulfilling. Iwas the king of the world that
day. I mean, I it was thegreatest thing ever. I'll never
forget that.
Matt Harrison (36:20):
I love that's your favorite too because I know
you've shot some monster deer,had some crazy encounters. I'll
never forget the story you toldme at Chuck Smith, our former
president's place, that timeabout the wolf that you killed.
Tim Wells (36:35):
Yeah. That
Matt Harrison (36:36):
was pretty That was I mean but to be able to
share with us that yourfavorite, most memorable hunt is
that button buck when you wereseven years old, that's that's
incredible. Sia, what about you?
Sydney Wells (36:49):
Well, I can't top that, but he's pretty good at
stormtowing. I would say onething that pops in my mind that
made me super proud as a bowhunter, especially, like, I've
been bowhunting really, reallyhard, I would say, starting in
college. Obviously, I bowhuntedmy whole life with him, but
really on my own and trying tobecome a better bowhunter after
(37:13):
like, right during college allthe way through, you know, my
twenties. But I was super proudof myself because usually I
freak out. I have a tendency Ican freak out.
Not anymore, thankfully. I'vekind of outgrown that. But a
couple years ago, I we were bowhunting, and you know the Wells
is we bow hunt hard, and it canget pretty exhausting, and it
(37:33):
was the rut. And there was thisnine pointer, very heavy, lot of
mass. Tim and I set up at theend of this cornfield in hopes
that, you know, we kill a bigbuck.
Well, this this buck came out.He was rutting hard. He was
scanning the field, and I'mlike, oh, crap. Here we come.
Well, one thing that I've doneon my own, you know, my dad's
(37:55):
instinctive.
He's never shot a release. He'snever shot sights. Nothing. So
really growing up, we had toself teach ourselves how to use
sights and our rangefinder andjust how to become a better bow
hunter that way because it'scompletely different than he
just draws back and shoots,anchors and shoots. Same with my
brother.
He he's also instinctive. Sowith my bow, I really practiced
(38:20):
a lot, shoot far distances, andbe better at ranging the field,
and kinda being able to guess myyardage that way, and just
instinctively become a betterbow hunter.
Tim Wells (38:29):
Mhmm.
Sydney Wells (38:29):
Well, this this buck came out. He stepped into
35 yards and drew back, hestopped, thunk, I hit a a
cornstalk.
Tim Wells (38:40):
The only cornstalk in front of his vitals since he hit
it.
Sydney Wells (38:43):
I hit it. And he ran it into the field. Well,
something that, again, I was Iwhat I instinctively told
myself, and I it was musclememory, I ranged the end of the
field, which was 55 yards. Sojust in case something crazy
happened, I knew the the ranges.And my heart was pounding, but I
was pretty proud of myself.
I kept my composure, knockedanother arrow, and I double
(39:06):
lunged him. 55 yards, my longestWow. My longest shot. You know,
he didn't know I was there. Heknew there was danger.
And if a bug doesn't see you ortell you, you know, they're
like, something's wrong, butthey can't figure out what and
He
Tim Wells (39:20):
let out a blow before the arrow hit him too. He went
like, you know, he was lettingout that warning blow right
before that. When when he letthat out, she let that arrow rip
and hit him. And the part sheleft out was right before she
shot, she just closed her eyesand looked up in the air and
shot.
Sydney Wells (39:38):
Get out of here. You are so dumb.
Tim Wells (39:40):
It was the luckiest shot I've ever seen.
Sydney Wells (39:42):
Dumb. But, you know, I didn't have any
adrenaline. So that's one thingI was proud of myself. Like, I
mean, I still get shaken up,especially when a buck comes in
the when a buck comes out into acornfield and you're watching
him for over ten minutes, you'reusually gonna lose your mind.
Tim Wells (39:59):
No. No. I think that the buck that you killed, the
the six pack, she shot a a buckon Thanksgiving one time with me
that it was freaking cold, andwe'd been hunting that deer. He
was eight years old. We'd beenhunting for three years trying
to kill him, and she smoked himon Thanksgiving, and she started
(40:20):
kind of hyperventilating.
I thought she's gonna puke inthe stand after she killed him
because she was so cold, andthen she got all that excitement
going on. It was like we wereboth cracking up.
Sydney Wells (40:31):
I got sick from the adrenaline and being cold.
It was insane, but there's a lotof proud moments. That one just,
like, pops into my head justthat I was so proud of myself
for being composed and patient.I'm like, okay. I've I've become
a better bow hunter in thatmoment knowing, you know, what
to do and not to freak out.
Because when you freak out, youleave it usually goes wrong. So
(40:53):
there's a lot of good momentslike that. But, yeah, I don't
know. It's hard to tell. Everyevery deer hunt is a different
story, and that's why we lovedeer hunting.
He still loves duck hunting. Hewould love to duck hunt all the
time, but I love deer huntingbecause every deer looks
different. Yeah. It's adifferent story every time. No
offense.
You know, ducks. I love duckhunting, but they all look the
same unless you get a band.
Tim Wells (41:14):
They do. I've never heard you talk about deer hunt,
man. You deer hunt too?
Matt Harrison (41:18):
I've shot I've killed one buck in my entire
life, and it was a seven pointthat scored probably 70. Yeah.
Yep. And I shot it when I wasprobably 12 years old. That's
about Hey,
Tim Wells (41:31):
bud. Between the '8, '7, and '27, there was a lot of
seven pointers I got. I tell youwhat, it was if it had horns,
man, and you could get it with abuckle, that was exciting. You
know? That was excite the firstyear I shot, you know, with my
shotgun, my my 20 gauge singleshot, it had a, you know, a
range of about 30 yards ofaccuracy.
(41:53):
After that, it's a guess, but,man, I used to lay them out with
that thing when I was a kid.Just loved it. I just loved it.
Matt Harrison (42:00):
That's awesome. In our area of Mississippi, we
don't really grow many, youknow, big deer. And I know
that's not what it's about, butNorth Mississippi in the Delta
area has some really, reallygood deer, you know, in that
parts of world. But we justnever really got too big into
it. You know, we did it younggrowing up locally and shot some
(42:20):
decent deer.
But, you know Carrie,
Tim Wells (42:23):
Cindy and I, as well as Clint and my wife, you know,
we like to hunt big deer here athome. But, man, you know,
there's nothing like going justdeer hunting, you know, when
you're trying to kill does orwhen you're we're down with
brother Buck in Texas wherewe're just hunting deer. It
doesn't care we don't care whatyou kill. So there's two two
different types of people outthere. You know, there's deer
(42:44):
that are people that are in deermanagement and raising deer, and
Yeah.
You know, they got their bigfarm, and you don't shoot it
unless it's like this, and yougotta kill one that's coal or
whatever. You know, we're notinto that, but that's that's got
its place too, you know. Thosepeople have fun doing it, and
then there's people like us thatlike it both. And then there's
some people that they just wannago out and shoot a deer, and
(43:05):
they don't care how old it is.They just want some meat for the
freezer, and they love pullingthe trigger.
So
Sydney Wells (43:09):
I'll tell you what. I hunting in Illinois is
so different because now I huntGeorgia where Ramsey's from, and
it's I have so much fun inGeorgia. The bucks definitely
aren't as big, but there arewhen you see a big eight point,
I'm like, now like, I love tojust sling arrows. Like, I love
to hunt. So being up here, we'relike, okay.
Is he mature? You know? Like,what does his, like, rack look
(43:32):
like? Blah blah blah blah. Beingin Georgia, you're like, okay.
He's mature. He has he has acrappy rag, but I'm shooting
him. And it they're smart. Soit's been fun to hunt Georgia.
It's completely different, butI've had so much fun hunting
that state.
Tim Wells (43:45):
Thing about southern hunters, you've gotta give
southern them southern boys thatbow hunt credit because you come
up here them southern boys comeup here and hunt Iowa deer,
Kansas deer, Illinois deer. Theygo back home and go, those are
the stupidest deer I ever seen.You know? You can just get in a
tree stand in Illinois, sit 10feet off the ground. If you hold
still, he'll walk right underyou.
(44:06):
If you try that down there inMississippi, Mississippi, that
deer, you get 10 feet off theground, he's looking at you 200
yards down through the timber,he won't even come near you. So,
you know, they're definitelysmart down there and over the
years have been trained to lookout and watch up in the trees
and keep your eyes peeled,otherwise you die, and all the
dummies got wiped out downthere, and all the genetics are
(44:27):
smart here now. So That's true.It's a different And
Sydney Wells (44:31):
Georgia, there's feeders people can feed. North
Georgia where I'm hunting, it'sdifferent. Though those big
mature bucks, they will not goto a feeder. They do. They will
not.
So we don't hunt the feeders. Welike to put them out because of
protein and all the supplementalfeed that's important to grow
babies and big racks. But thebig boys, you ain't gonna hunt
them over a feeder. It's a foodplot or you're in the woods
(44:54):
trying to catch them.
Matt Harrison (44:55):
That's awesome. Y'all got me wanting to get into
deer hunting.
Sydney Wells (44:59):
Oh, you're not. You have you're too obsessed
with ducks. I know you.
Matt Harrison (45:03):
Ducks and turkeys. Ducks and turkeys.
Sydney Wells (45:05):
And turkey. Never get turkeys.
Tim Wells (45:07):
Well, it's too bad, Matt. You don't have any
contacts where you can kill alot of ducks. I know it's rough.
Maybe she'll take you day. Yeah.
Matt Harrison (45:14):
I know. I'm still looking for that right person to
take me on my first really goodhunt. You know? Yep. I thought I
had some friends that had theconnections, but they still just
hadn't came through for me yet.
Sydney Wells (45:24):
Well, I
Tim Wells (45:25):
can tell you, when you go with a guide and he puts
out black decoys and you lay inthe mud beside him, you still
need to keep looking. Alright?That's one duck I've never
killed, always wanted to, neverkilled a cinnamon teal. Have you
ever got one?
Matt Harrison (45:38):
I have not. I have not. And I've had a couple
chances to go to a certain placein Texas to try to harvest one,
but I haven't gone. Yeah. But Iwould love to get one of those
as well.
I think that would be so neat ofa mount.
Tim Wells (45:54):
Yeah. They're beautiful.
Sydney Wells (45:56):
Well, next year, somebody's listening. The three
videos. Let us know. Four ten.Yeah.
Matt Harrison (46:02):
If you're listening and you have a way to
get us on some cinnamon teal, wewould love to take you up on
that.
Sydney Wells (46:09):
Yes, sir.
Matt Harrison (46:10):
That's awesome. Well, Tim and Sydney, thank you
both so much for carving timeout of your busy day to hop on
the Ducks Unlimited podcast. Wealso wanna thank our producer,
Chris Isaac, for producing thepodcast. We wanna thank Jack for
being a great dog during thewhole entire podcast episode. We
know that y'all can't see him,but he has sat here the whole
(46:31):
entire episode just listeningin.
Yeah. Attacking mister t. Butthank you all so much for
listening to the Ducks Unlimitedpodcast. Y'all take care, and
god bless.
VO (46:43):
Thank you for listening to the DU podcast, sponsored by
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Unlimited. Purina Pro Plan,always advancing. Also proudly
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moment. Enjoy responsibly.
(47:05):
Be sure to rate, review, andsubscribe to the show and visit
ducks.org/dupodcast. Opinionsexpressed by guests do not
necessarily reflect those ofDucks Unlimited. Until next
time, stay tuned to the Ducks.
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