Ep. 728 - Gear, Gravy & Great Debates: DU Thanksgiving Episode - Ducks Unlimited Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Mike Brasher (01:44):
The skinny side of underrated.

Jerad Henson (01:47):
Almost sounds like a politician answer.

That's right. The skinny side. It's yeah. It's
almost like the no.
No. Yeah.

Katie Burke (01:55):
Let's leave it. Let's leave it. Okay.

Was that enough debate?

Kayci Messerley (02:00):
That was that was plenty. Matt, you carried us
there.

Can we do a mic check, please? Everybody,
welcome back to the Ducks on thepodcast. I'm your host, doctor
Mike Brazier. I'm your host,Katie Burke. I'm your host,
doctor Jared Henson. And I'myour host, Matt Harrison.

VO (02:26):
Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, the only
podcast about all thingswaterfowl. From hunting insights
to science based discussionsabout 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,

(02:47):
always advancing. Also proudlysponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey
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.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to this year's special
Ducks Unlimited podcastThanksgiving episode. I am gonna
be one of the hosts on thisepisode, Doctor. Mike Brazier,
and I'm very excited to bejoined in studio by three people
and remotely by another. I haveto my right a special
participant here.
You've heard from her before onprevious episodes, Casey
Messerly. Casey, welcome.

Hi. Glad to be here.

On to my left, doctor Jared Henson, regular on
the podcast. Great to have youhere. Happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you, Mike. Really happy to be here.

And then down the line a little bit, Katie Burke,
you're back from travels to theEaston Waterfowl Festival. Happy
Thanksgiving. Great to have youwith us.

Happy Thanksgiving. Great to be here.

And then we have a mystery man joining us remotely
from, I believe, Magee,Mississippi. Did I get that
right? Mister Matt Harrison.Matt, great to have you, man.

Matt Harrison (04:01):
Great to be on here with y'all. I'm super
excited to be able to share alittle bit of time and talk
about some awesome things withyou all.

We are recording this episode on November 24.
That means that, I mean,November is the month when most
of the states here in Lower 48,and I guess probably Alaska too,
have some portion of theirhunting season open. A few folks
haven't opened yet. This pastweekend was the opener for
Arkansas. Saw a lot of folksgetting out a couple of weeks

(04:30):
ago.
I think it was the opener inLouisiana. So all those Southern
states are joining those MidLatitude and Northern States and
getting out and enjoying theresource and getting into the
hunting. So obviously that's onething that a lot of us are gonna
be thankful for here as we enterthe season, but we wanted to
take this opportunity like we'vedone in years past to share some
of our thoughts, share somethings that we're thankful for,

(04:52):
and sort of welcome you intosome of what we think about this
time of year, and hopefully youcan reflect as you're listening
to it and be thankful for someof the same things or different
things as well. We've got a fewthings that we're gonna cover
here, but before we get intosome of the other aspects of
what we wanna talk about, we'regonna go around the table, and
we're just gonna ask folks whatthey are thankful for, and so

(05:15):
I'm gonna start with Katie Byrd.Oh, great.
One or two things that you'rethankful for this season, you
know, and a lot of times whenpeople ask this question, they
say, okay, we know you'rethankful for family and friends
and all that kind of stuff, soset that aside. I'm not gonna
put that constraint on youthough, so whatever you wanna
do. Put

it like, I'm not gonna put it, but don't do that
also.

You you read between

the lines. So

yeah. I think about, like,

the way I used to go to my Thanksgiving with my
in laws and we would do this

and have a huge family and it's like, okay, what
are

you gonna say that's gonna no one's gonna
judge you about it?

Yeah. How are you

gonna do this? There's a lot of pressure to
this question. So I'm gonna tryto say something different than,
like, duck season, but as well,because I found out that's gonna
be a popular one. I'm thankfulfor the podcast because last
weekend, when I was at Easton, Istuck around and I got to go
interview some carvers. I wentto their homes, to their shops,

(06:13):
to their studios, and got to sitinside their studios and see how
they work, and, you know, Iwouldn't be able to do that if
it weren't for this, so that'spretty cool.

Unexpected benefits of additional work.
Exactly. That's right. Sometimesthose happen. Sometimes they do.

They turn out pretty cool, so, yeah, I'm
thankful for that.

No. I would say, I suspect all of us that have the
opportunity to share some of ourtime for this for this platform
would have experienced somethingalong the same lines, allowing
us or requiring us to dodifferent things, but they end
up being things that we that weenjoy. So no, that's pretty
cool.

Yeah. That was a good one.

I don't always get to go do that, so that was
pretty cool.

Well, we look forward to hearing what you

talked You'll get to see it.

See it? Okay. You'll

You'll get to see it. Yeah.

Alright. Doctor Henson.

Oh, coming at me now.

What about this dude over here in the right? I
suspect you're gonna say thatyou're

I am I am gonna mention that. That is gonna be
and and the thing I'm I'mgrateful for this this year is
the opportunity to spend timewith with friends and family in
the outdoors. And I say thatbecause I got to have a
wonderful opening morning ofduck season. We didn't we didn't
end up with a whole lot ofducks, but I did get to have my
dad and my son, Tristan, in thewoods with me for the first time

(07:27):
this year.

And and Tristan is the little dude over

Tristan is my yeah. That's my six year old. We
took his four ten out and wehoped for a cooperative bird. We
didn't get any cooperativebirds, but he did smoke an empty
shotgun shell So that wasfloating on the he got to test
fire a little bit, but but wehad a wonderful time. You that's
y'all heard me say this a bunchthat I love watching the world
wake up from a wetland.

(07:52):
That is my favorite place andI'm thankful for that, but I got
to share that with friends andfamily and and stuff this
weekend. So that's my

That's awesome.

My thankful thing.

That is awesome. I'm gonna mix it up here. Matt,
I'm gonna go to you right now ofcoming to Casey here after that.

Well, first off, of course, you know, friends and
family, I know we've we'vementioned that. I know doctor
Jared just shared about hisexperience getting to spend some
time in the duck woods with withhis family. So, of course, this
time of year, you're just youstill take a step back, and
you're thankful for your friendsand your family. But really and
truly too, this past weekend, Igot to also chase some ducks,
and I was telling one of thepeople there one thing that I'm

(08:29):
truly so, so, so blessed with isa great work family. And I truly
mean that.
I'm not saying it because we'resitting here on a podcast for
Ducks Unlimited. I'm not sayingthat just to, you know, make the
DU employees listen to thissmile a little bit, but I truly
mean that. Just thankful for aplace that we work for that has
an incredible mission, that haspeople that truly care about you

(08:51):
as a person and have, you know,a place that I truly wake up,
love going to work for. So, youknow, having a place to work at
like Ducks Unlimited is truly adrew dream come true on top of
just truly an incredibleblessing. So one thing I am
truly thankful for this time ofyear, of course, is my friends
and family as well, but also aplace to work at like Ducks

(09:12):
Unlimited.

That's very well said, Matt. I think we would all
echo that. The people that wework with, the people that
support us, our volunteers, ourleadership, it's it's yeah. I
share that. It's it's enjoyableto come into work and to
experience, you know, workingalongside people that share
share share our same interest,share our same passion, that get
fired up for the same things,and and those differ a little

(09:36):
bit across the range of all thefolks that we work with, but at
the end of the day, we'rewanting to help leave the world
a little bit better than wefound it through our
conservation.
And so, yeah, thank you forthat, Matt. Casey, do you have
anything to be thankful for?

No. No. I'm just kidding. No. I would I
would echo to start with, like,what Matt said, not only do does
the DU family, you know, make itpleasurable for us to come into
work every single day, but evenfurther than that, we've I've
gotten to have so many newexperiences that I've then
gotten to take home to my familythat hasn't had those

(10:13):
experiences as well.
My nephew just the other day hadhis first Dove Heart and he's
the same nephew that won't eatchicken nuggets at Chick fil A,
so it's a very exciting and newexperience. But outside of being
grateful for family and DU as awonderful workplace, I would

(10:33):
have to say our loyal companionsthat follow us everywhere, make
sure to sneak them some turkeythis Thanksgiving. I know I have
my dogs that will be havingtheir third Thanksgiving coming
up soon, so they're gettingplenty of turkey this season.

That's awesome. Thank you, Casey. And, yeah, a
lot of the experiences thatyou've had have been made
possible by so many of thepartners that we work with. You
know, the Dove Heart that youreferenced came from our
experience with doctor PhilOveretsky out at the University
of Texas El Paso. We went outthere to visit with him and his
lab, and people would have heardthe podcast that you and Katie
recorded with Phil recently, andthose type of experiences,

(11:09):
people again, an extension ofDucks Unlimited.
They are not some will bevolunteers, some are they're all
members, but yeah, in thislarger waterfowl conservation
science management realm,there's a lot of people that
welcome you in, share thingswith you, and it's a big thing
to be thankful for, and I'm gladyou've gotten to experience

(11:30):
that. I guess it's my turn, andso I would echo everything that
you said the others have said.I'll do something a little bit
different, well, so friends,family, coworkers, a very
understanding wife to how muchtravel I do for work as well as

(11:51):
hunting and everything inbetween. I also am very
thankful. I think they've heardme say this many times.
One of the things I'm thankfulfor, one of them is sitting
right next to me, Casey. CaseyMesserle, Katie Tucker, and Ty
Scherro. This past year, we'vebeen able to keep them on and
have them really leading ourduck DNA and our wild turkey DNA

(12:15):
project, and it has been a hugeasset to, well, to what we do,
but to me personally, giving methe opportunity to step away
from some of the worries andconcerns and having people that
are so capable and so competentto do that, huge thing to be
thankful for, and I am everyday. The other thing that I will

(12:35):
mention, and this sort of is alittle bit of a public service
announcement, but also somethingto be thankful for, is to let
folks know that we should all bethankful that the government
shutdown is over because thatmeans our friends at the US Fish
and Wildlife Service, USGeological Survey, and the Bird
Banding Lab in particular areback at work, back up and
running. I actually got an emaillast week from Doctor.

(12:58):
Tony Sellis, he wanted to justthank us for our continued
support of what they do, butalso have us share with folks
that if you ran into any issuesreporting a band during that
month, month and a half, Theyare they're working through
their backlog of issues. Most ofthose things most of the

(13:19):
submissions, I think, worked theway it was supposed to, but he
said they do have a few issues,they're working through those,
so he wanted me to relay thatthey're working on it, and
they'll get those things takencare of as soon as possible. So
thank you to USGS Bird BandingLab and all of our colleagues
there that are helping us out.Jared, do you have any issues
with I mean, you do some I guessyou still do a little bit of

(13:42):
bird banding.

I still have a master banding permit.

Did you hear of any issues associated with

any of that? Not with what we were doing. And for
me, though, it's kind of like myoff time of year, so I didn't
have any major issues with that.Not not anybody I know of. I am
I will say thank you.
I know I know it's not kind ofin that line, but also some of
our federal partners. I'm alsokinda thankful that the US Fish
and Wildlife Service and therefuge staff were able to keep

(14:07):
refuges open to keep opportunityfor people across this country
throughout that shutdown.

Alright. The next part next segment for this
episode is gonna relate to gear.It's Thanksgiving, but the next
holiday in line is Christmas, atime when a lot of us exchange
gifts and celebrate that seasonone way or another, and so we
wanted to sort of offer up somegift ideas from our perspective.

(14:34):
We have in the Ducks Unlimitedmagazine a couple of issues each
year. One is a gift guide thatis in the most recent issue,
November, December issue, butthen if you go back to, what is
it, the July, August issue,there's also the gear guide.
So we've got the gift guide andthe gear guide, and both of

(14:56):
those issues are great places toget ideas for gifts for
waterfowl hunters, outdoorenthusiasts, recreationists of
of different types. There'sgreat ideas in there. So we're
gonna go around the table again,and we're gonna going to ask for
some gift ideas. And let's see.Who do I wanna start with on
this one?
Matt, are you are you ready tostart? You got your gift ideas

(15:18):
in mind?

I got some gift ideas in mind.

What would you recommend? Like, if if someone
is listening to this and theyhave to give it get a gift for
someone in their life who is awaterfowl hunter, who connects
with this space that we operatein and play in, what would you
recommend people get them?

Absolutely. As a duck hunter, you know, we're
always looking for things thatcan help help us get a little
bit more of an edge and alwayslooking for little things that
we can either put in our blindbag or, you know, keep in our
our waiter pocket or such. But Itell you what I what I got this
year that I really like, and Iwas a little hesitant on buying
it because they're easy to lose,but that is a headlamp, a really

(16:00):
nice headlamp. And I got onefrom Drake Waterfowl. They just
came out this this past yearwith a really, really nice
headlamp, and it's very durable.
It's one that you can tell isgonna last a very long time if
you take very good care of it.So I was a little hesitant
though to buy it because we allknow headlamps are the quickest
thing to just just disappear. SoI I went ahead, though, got me

(16:25):
one, and I've used it this pastweekend, man. It's incredible.
So, you know, if you're lookingfor a really good headlamp out
there, Drake Waterfowl just cameout with a really, really good
one that you can go on theirwebsite and just type in
headlamp, and it'll pop upbecause they only have a few
options.
So that's one that I highlyrecommend that you can get
that's not gonna break your bankand is also one that, trust me,

(16:45):
a duct cleaner will be very,very happy that you got them as
a a high quality, nice headlamp.So that would probably be my
number one choice if you'relooking for a nice gift, either
throw in the stocking or even awrap and put it on that
Christmas tree because I lovemine.

A hunter or anybody that that does anything.
Well, I don't know. Just anyone.You can never have too many
headlamps. You can never havetoo many flashlights.
I mean, that's my motto.

Yeah. No. We literally have a bag of them.

I think Rebecca did

some briefs.

Yeah. Another flashlight or

you yeah.

Also, where kids because kids cannot, like, hold
flashlights

Oh, yeah?

Throw those headlamps just around their
neck. Ah. Yeah. We use them allthe time, camping and
everything.

Good deal. We love headlamps. Great suggestion,
Matt.

I'm gonna keep it keep it kinda a little bit, you
know, smaller here as far as,you know, gift. And one of those
another gift would be, you know,again, sticking with drape
waterfowl. They're an awesomepartner with us. But, also, they
just came out with a new rainjacket that I am in love with
because as we all know, a lot ofpeople may claim that, hey. This

(17:51):
is a waterproof jacket.
And you get out there and itstarts raining and it's 45
degrees, and you're like, thisjacket isn't waterproof at all.
So they just came out with areally, really, really nice rain
jacket as well that I'm very,very, very impressed with. Drake
has done a phenomenal job onreally, really, you know,

(18:14):
cracking down on sizing, reallydoing a good job of fit. I
talked with Jim Ronquist aboutthis not long ago. Said, man,
y'all are knocking out of thepark.
And, you know, I I went out,bought this jacket, and I
absolutely love it. And thisone's one that is a little bit
more expensive than, you know,the headlamp, but it's an
incredible investment becauseyou know as well as I do when

(18:35):
you're out there and it startsraining. You're like, why have I
not invested in a good rainjacket? Because I am miserable,
and it takes away from your hunttremendously. So you can go in
there on the Drake websiteagain, type in BMF, Drake
waterfowl jacket, rain jacket,and it'll pull up.
And if you're looking forsomething that it would make a
duck hunter extremely happy,make sure you go and check that

(18:57):
out. Those are two products thatI highly recommend and that I
both personally have that I'mthrilled to have for this
upcoming duck season.

That's a great suggestion, Matt. You know, one
of the segments that we're gonnahave when we come back from the
break is, a a fun, overrated,underrated. I would say that a a
a great rain jacket, vastlyunderrated. A vastly underrated.

You don't need it very often, but when you do
Yeah.

Yeah. You are

absolutely thankful for that technology
that when it you know, for inone that works.

Oh, yeah. Right.

Yeah. Great great ideas there, Matt. Katie.
Alright. You ready now?
Can we do this?

I was ready to begin with. I just you weren't
following the rules.

You're right.

We were given instructions. Alright.

Katie was a rule follower.

I am not, actually, but

You are today.

I am today.

We're thankful

for just like to give you a hard time. So I'm
gonna go off the, like, typicalthing because I'm a girl, so
it's not a lot of stuff forwomen out there, but I did get a
couple things that I reallyliked last year and one of
those, which was really randomand I don't even know how they
found out about this, but it'sby DSG outerwear, It's a women's

(20:09):
brand and they have these fliptop mittens, but they're liner
inside, so, like, you flip thelip the top over, like, you
know, like, all the flip topmittens are, but inside, the
fingers are lined in, a reallythin liner material, so then
your fingers don't get exposed.And they're made for women, so
they're small and like becausethat's a big problem when you

(20:29):
have to wear men's gloves.They're like, you're you can't
use you can't shoot very well,so I end up not wearing gloves
because, you know, I gotta beable to shoot good. So that's an
important part.
So these are really great. ButDSG outerwear makes them and if
you have women that hunt in yourlife that have cold little tiny
fingers, this is for them, whichI'm pretty sure all women's

(20:51):
fingers are cold if they're likemine.

Yeah. So you I mean, I I I know it's still
difficult to find a lot of theapparel that that's ripe, that
fits for for women, but has hasit gotten a little bit better?

Yes and no. I mean, I would say, like, in the
bowhunting world, yeah, but inwaterfowl, I mean, not really. I
usually wear men's smalls.

That's what my wife has found. Yeah. Can find
stuff for bowhunting, but not.

Yeah. Like, I bought actually, I and I don't
can't recommend it, but I justgot in the mail.

I just tried it on. I haven't worn it yet, but

I got, like, from Drake, the McAllister, like,
waterfowl sweater.

Yep.

And I put it on. It's nice, but I haven't worn
it, so I'm not gonna give a fullreview yet.

Okay. Fair

enough. It's nice, but I got a small, like yeah.
Because but I just get a men'ssmall. So, yeah, there's not
really there's a market outthere for women waterfowlers if
anyone wants to jump on it.

Yeah. Kinda makes you wonder, like, if you how
much of a hindrance is that tothe experience and wanting

to go back,

you know, kind of

feed on one another.

I think you just have to find a workaround. So I
shop I either get men's smallsor I go to, like, REI or any,
like, hiking store

You just get a dark

and get black or brown.

Yep.

And that's usually what works best for I

think that's a great idea.

Yeah. Yeah. I think the other thing that's
kind of made it difficult iseverything's gone more online
too, so,

like Mhmm.

Typically, the way you deal with a problem like
this is you go and you at leasttry it in person. Yep. But now
that's harder to do as well.

Yeah. I think one stuff.

I was just just gonna say one of the big
breakthroughs, though, the pastyears has been in waiters, not
necessarily women specific, butmuch more size specific waiters.

Yeah. Yeah.

So the way that all these new waiters are going,
like the new Drake waiters,those types of things, they're
in a inseam length and then ajacket size, and so you can
actually get waiters that fitdifferent body types much

better, though. Would say, like, though, my big
complaint is the ones that dothat are so expensive. And this
is a me problem, not a everybodyproblem, but I'm not easy on a
waiter. Like, I'm I run aroundin that thing, and I break my
waiters all the time. So, like,I don't wanna pay a lot of money

(23:03):
for waiters because I know I'mgonna be hard on it.
I'm not getting dragged up tothe blind and set out.

So if anybody's looking for gift ideas for
Katie, get her a waiter patchkit.

Yeah. That's it.

And then my other one is really random, but this
is a specific duck huntingthing. Okay. You know when you
finish well, even before youhunt and then after you hunt,
you have, like, all your clotheson and you have big thick socks
on, and it's very few shoes youcan put on when before you have
your waiters on and after yourwaiters, and it's a, like but

(23:36):
you don't wanna beuncomfortable, you don't wanna
be tight. So Teva makes this,like, slip on slipper, like,
it's bottom slipper. They'recalled, like, the Teva Terrain
slip ons.
They are awesome for just thatreason. They're like putting in
a putting on a house shoe thathas a like, a hard bottom that
you could, like, wear into,like, a gas station or somewhere

(23:57):
if

you wanted to if you had to pull off your
waiters and put something on,but they're also, like, house
shoe appropriate so they canwalk around there nice and cozy.

So they're okay. So they have some insulating

pockets in them. They're, like, on top. I was

gonna say just you could just throw on your crocs
and do the same thing. Yeah.They don't necessarily have

These are, like, warm weather crocs. These are,
cold weather crocs. Cold weathercrocs. Weather

fleece line crocs.

Yeah. They're very nice, and I love them.

Now do you have to buy do

you And they're a little more stylish.

Do you buy upsized to accommodate the thick socks?
It's fine. Okay.

Yeah. I we I usually get

a half size bigger anyway because I'm I don't know.
I think as a runner, that'sjust, like, trained in your
brain to always buy a half sizebigger. It's a thing. Yeah. So
But I love them.
I have them, like, three yearsand I, like,

want new ones because they I've already, like,
torn mine up, like, because Iwear them everywhere.

And so they were Tivas?

Tivas, and they're called Terrain slip ons.

Terrain slip ons. Actually, can't

And they make them in men's and women's, but I love
them. They're perfect for exactthat's a very specific duck
hunter problem. Yeah. Like, whatyou wear after you take your
waiters off.

Alright. I'm gonna go right here.

Oh, wait. Have one more.

Oh, wait.

I'm Oh. I'm gonna self promote and say you can
also buy the Candagoose bookfrom Ducks Unlimited.

Oh, you could do that. Yes. Good.

Good. It's a great Christmas gift.

Yep. Where can they find that?

It's on our website and we can have it in the show
notes.

And okay. But if they go to ducks.org, Yeah.
Candagoose

You just search ducks.org, the Candagoose book,

and it will come Okay.

Yeah. Cool. Are you ready? An

awesome book and a great coffee table piece too.

A beautiful,

beautiful pictures and great stories.

It is phenomenal. Great job. Are you ready?

As ready as I'll ever be.

Okay. Go for it.

As a new hunter and somebody who is from the
South and used to warm weatherand humidity and can handle that
very well, just about anythingthat'll keep me warm in the
blind is a big win on my part.

So if you're a new hunter, yeah, so this is what
we're talking like, gettinggetting geared up Mhmm. From the
start. From the start. You youplace a premium on warm clothes.

Warm clothes, anything that'll keep me semi
toasty. Those gloves soundfantastic because same problem.
You know? You don't wantsomething that's gonna make it
if you're not already a greattutor as it is, it I don't need
any help doing

your You're talking about

me, yes?

I am talking about myself. Not putting that

on anybody else here. You don't need any
hindrances. I need it as easy aspossible.

Do you need the base layers, the mid do you have
you read up on the the value oflayering? Is all that you know?
Because you gotta have you can'tjust have one piece of clothing.
Right?

Yes. Yes. I mean, I think that's part of,
like, hard part is, like, duckhunting specific stuff is more
expensive, so, like, justgetting your generic, like,
layers figured out, maybe notduck hunting specific layers,
but like Yeah.

I'll give you

a good tip on that

for cheap stuff. Like, running clothes on, like,
Amazon, like fleece runningclothes for base layers, it's a
good place to start.

This isn't one of mine, but on the base layer
thing, I have gone to all wool.

Have I have oh, I do. Mine's running though,

but it's wool. Yeah. Because It's if your
raincoat, like Matt mentioned,is not as waterproof as it as it
once was supposed to be, woolstill insulates when wet. And so
there's been probably two orthree times when I have gotten
drenched

Mhmm.

And I would probably say that the wool base
layers I have on kept me fromgetting Yeah. Some form of

They dry really fast.

They wick moisture just like any kind of
performance stuff. They alsodon't hold odor.

Scientifically proven. You heard it here first
from the scientist doctorCherryhans. That's a

good hot take right there, though. Do you wash your
hunting clothes?

Oh, I do.

I do. But you have to be careful with

everything that's taking a

little better. That's awesome. A great great
little tidbit there. We won'tcount that against yours.

Okay.

Back to Casey. Okay. And then

for those who love me dearly and want a bigger
gift to give me, I would behappy to have an actual gun of
my own that I could shoot.

Do you have one picked out?

Not particularly. That's what

I need to work on. That.

Yeah.

But I've been like like we said, DU gives lots
of great opportunities to trythings, so I have luckily gotten
to try a few guns out. Thankyou, Mike.

You're welcome. You

I'm sure he's letting you shoot the cheap
ones.

No. I had to talk to you. No. But you've shot just
about everyone that that we haveto try. Yeah.
So yeah. We wanted to to figureit out. I think that's one of
the important things that we'veas we've talked about is, like,
try a lot of different guns.Find an opportunity to to try
different different brands,different gauges, different

(28:51):
actions. Semi auto versus pump,you've done some of that as
well.
So, yeah, it's

Yeah. And I think, you know, as in
everything I do in life, I haveexpensive taste, so naturally,
the ones I like are on the upperend.

I have the same problem.

And then

With guns on the side.

Pump action shooting with the clays did not
go super well for me overall.

Yeah. I mean, that's fair. But I think anyone
that's trying to shoot a pumpaction shotgun for the first
time and a 12 gauge at thatwould probably have that same
experience. Right. So it's allgood.
You gotta try it. So kudos toyou for for not being for for
really wanting to get in and tryall of those different things.
That's the way to do it. We'vedone the single shot. I don't if
we shot the four ten.

Oh, single shot.

Why'd you shoot a single shot? Well, you gotta
start somewhere. So I trust himwith shooting this weekend.

He's got a single

shot four ten.

Let well, yeah. Well, that's because youth guns
come in like nothing. There's,like, no Shooting clays.

Exactly right.

This is shooting clays. Yeah. It was like, here's

a gun that's gonna

kick the crap out

of you. No. Look.

Look. The pump action, the actual, like,
shooting of it was fine. It wasthe safety was, like, hard
stuck. I couldn't turn it backon, so the safety was just

Pump's fine. I get why you would shoot a pump, but
a single yeah. Here's a gunthat's gonna, yeah, kick the

crap out of thing.

Or they're really heavy.

Oh, they're really heavy? I was like

Four. No. Not a four ten. Four ten was really I
think that's

the only thing. The youth thing. That knows judgment
on you. There's very few optionson youth guns.

Sure. What about a 28 gauge over under? Is that
okay?

That's fine. Yeah. Okay. I mean, yeah, that's fine.

Need a 28 gauge.

There's no

this was all adult has to shoot a single shot.

Well, I

Like, there's no I mean, there's really no unless
you wanna, like, I guess maybeturkey hunting, but then, I
mean, okay.

I thought it was an interesting thing to try, and
we did it.

Did you find it an interesting thing

to do? Entertained and shortly it was
short lived. I handed it off

pretty likely.

Yeah. I'm done with that. That was fun. That was

nice. Think

done that.

Oh. Okay. It's it's my turn now. Gift ideas. So
I have two things that I'll, atleast right now, that came to
mind.
Third one yeah. Another one isrolling around in my head. Maybe
it'll come back to me. So alittle unconventional, and I've
never done this, but as I waslooking through the gear guide,
was like, you know, this is apretty good universal gift for

(31:05):
really any waterfowl hunter, andit has some, it's sort of it's
something that hunters may notreadily buy themselves. There
are a lot of premium shotgunshells out there today.
Oh, yeah. Tungsten Super Shot,you know, the TSS. You always
need them. And, well, and it'slike, that's again, not everyone

(31:26):
is going to buy those becauseit's like $50 for 10 shells or
something like that. If youwanna give sort of a different
gift, the one that I'm familiarwith is is of course Winchester,
Last Call, their TSS.
I have had the opportunity toshoot those and they are
phenomenal. So if you're lookingfor for that type of a gift for
your waterfowl hunter in your inyour family or in your in your

(31:48):
circle or friends, go with that.The other thing that I saw in in
this I I don't remember if itwas the gift guide or the gear
guide, but I wrote it down here.It's the Caldwell Claycopter
handheld thrower.

That thing looks awesome. I don't have one,

but I'm still

on has one.

One, and he's been he showed me.

And I've seen him in action and

What's different from it from a regular throw
hand thrower?

You know, like, the little zip helicopter little
toys? Yeah.

And it's remote

It's like that, but they're disposable
biodegradable little clay.

Doesn't break the clay coming out? I mean,
probably sometimes.

Well

because you always get a bad one.

So Casey would probably get to reuse most of
them.

Hey. Hey. Traumatized.

That's cool

though. Yeah. That's neat.

That's a cool one. They're rechargeable. You just
let me on here so

you can make fun of me?

No. It just happens. Well, that's

a good idea.

Forget which one it is.

Nobody would buy that. It's some of those things
that you don't buy for yourself.

Yeah. It's yeah. It's the what did I say? The
Caldwell Claycopter handheldthrower. It looks really cool.
Oh, the other thing that I wasgonna say is, you know, if you
have someone in your family orcircle of friends that that
likes whiskey, you know, Bertdog whiskey, just go with them,
you know, go out and find yourgo to your local liquor store,
just look at the differentoption from Burtdog whiskey and

(33:12):
give that a try. So a littleshout out to our sponsor for the
for the podcast and anothergreat idea that they that they
can bring to your your holidayseason.

You get the small bottles and they make good adult
stocking stuffers.

You you speak from experience?

Just saying. Okay. Just saying. It's a possibility.

Any last minute additions

I mean, you can always neck gaiters and socks.

To gift ideas. Yeah. You can do that.

Always. I haven't gone yet,

but Oh, you're right. You're and y'all

are y'all are hitting all of mine.

I was just seeing everybody's paying attention.

My y'all hit most

of mine. Threw me off whenever you kinda jumped.
No. I'm just kidding.

No. That's fine. Katie hit one of them. Socks,
that's very

All the time. Every year. Every year.

It's like one of those things where as I get
older, a really good pair ofhunting socks is a very great
gift. I generally don't buy themfor myself, but, again, like I
mentioned with the base layers,I love, like, a good wool sock.
Headlamp, that's another oneI've got. Can't ever have too
many headlamps. So, Matt, yeah,I'm on board with that.
Chapstick. Little packets ofChapstick. Yep. Yep. Nice.

(34:19):
And you can get little ChapStickholders that will clip on your
lanyard. Yeah. Every duck hunterwill be a a big fan of that. And
then for the people who getcold, I like a puffy jacket,
like some type of not generallynot down because when it gets
wet, it doesn't do great, but,like, Primaloft jacket or
something like that, somethingthat's easy to pack in a bag

(34:39):
that if I'm cold, I can throwthat thing on. That's a big one.
And then the last one I'm gonnamention since I'm hunting with
some younger folks, and thenalso my dad who's had some
health issues and also bloodpressure meds and he gets cold
easily, a buddy heater.

Ah.

A little buddy heater that you can throw in the
boat or in the blind and staywarm. Those are always

Yeah. And they I have I don't have those really
for my for duck hunting, but youhave a different setup than I
do. You go in your boat quite abit. Yeah. Yeah.
Use those when I'm deer hunting.We have

them deer

hunting too. Yeah. Especially with kids.

That's a great idea. You know, the one thing
that I will say is that what I'mtaking away from Jared's
commentary offering here on thegift ideas, that the other thing
that Jared really needs is agood rain jacket because you've
talked about how merino woolstill helps out whenever you're
wet, and I also talked about howdown jackets Okay. Yes. We're

(35:40):
good.

I I broke down and spent the money on a very high
quality one. So, yes, I Good.I'm covered now. But it did take
three or four attempts to getone that was worthwhile.

Good. Glad you got that taken care of.

I'm glad y'all worried about me.

That's alright. Alright.

I've only had hypothermia once.

I didn't didn't miss anybody that time.

We're good.

Okay.

We're all here.

Unless, Chris Isaac, you got anything to
offer? Nope. He says he's He

says, do not look at me.

Burnt dog whiskey, I think, would be his his his
idea over there. So, yeah,thumbs up. Okay. We are gonna
take a break. And when we comeback, we have something special
planned.
I really don't know exactly whatit is because I'm going to hand
it off to our specialparticipant and guest here,
Casey Messerly, and she's goingto lead us through something for
better or for worse. So yeah,y'all stay with us. I think

(36:32):
you'll wanna be part of this.Stay with us.

VO (36:42):
Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast sponsored by
Purina Pro Plan and Bird DogWhiskey after these messages.

Everybody, welcome back. We're about to have some
fun here. We've we've been, hereat the beginning, we expressed
gratitude. We went through somegear, and so now we're gonna get
into a little bit of friendlydebate and shenanigans of some
type or another, and I reallydon't know what we're gonna I
have some idea, but I don't I'mnot gonna be the one driving
this, that's probably a goodthing. So I'm gonna toss it over

(39:02):
to Casey Messerly to lead usthrough whatever they have
planned.

Yeah. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna
play a little game called OverUnder. What we're gonna do is
I'll throw out a topic, and thenI'll let everybody say whether
they think that topic is over orunderrated, and then we'll duke
it out on why after Nice. Eachtopic. Yeah?

Alright. So we we just shout it out? Are you gonna
go around? I mean,

would you like to be civilized?

This your this is your game. You make the rules.

Okay. Well, then we'll start with some civil
discourse and go down the line.You're

too orderly.

So the first one is Thanksgiving hunts. Over
or underrated? We can start withyou, Mike, since you're next.

Thanksgiving hunts. Overrated. Jared.

Under.

Katie. So this one's weird for me. I'm gonna
say under, but I have reasons.

We'll get there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And
Matt?

Underrated.

Okay. So Mississippi doesn't open till
Friday, so I don't hunt onThanksgiving. So I don't know
how to rake that. So I'd say But

you said underrated.

Yeah. I know because I think of the weekend
as underrated, but it doesn'treally it doesn't apply to me
because I can't hunt onThanksgiving Day. I cannot hunt
till Friday.

But if you could, would you?

I mean, yeah, because it would still be
opening. Opening day is alwaysunderrated.

I think it's one of those things as a duck,
Hunter, that we enjoy reallybeing outside. We're thankful
for we're thankful for waterfowlseason. We're thankful for this
time of year. It's of course,for us, specifically, it's
towards the beginning of ouryear. So it's a time that I
enjoy getting out there with mybrother, with friends, family.

(40:43):
Now, of course, you know, wetypically if we do hunt on
Thanksgiving, we'll make it alittle bit shorter of a hunt so
we can go spend the day with therest of our family. But I think
it's something that you'recombining two thankfulness
things for is your friends andfamily on top of a duck hunt. So
I think it's extremelyunderrated in my opinion because
you're getting to spend doingtwo of your favorite things,
friends, family, duck hunting,extremely underrated for me.

I said overrated just because it does compete
with time with with friends andfamily. But if you have the
opportunity to actuallyincorporate that into a hunt as
you do, Matt, then, yeah, thenthat's great. So I was just
yeah. Through our ownperspective.

Yes. We've moved Thanksgiving to duck camp.

Oh oh, and in that

case We have it. Yeah. We have Vastly underrated.
Yeah. We have our whole familythere, and those of us that
wanna slide away and try and geta morning hunt in can do that.

For me, any type of hunt on Thanksgiving would
require

Yeah.

A much more investment. Taken away from that
day. And so Yeah.

That's different. No.

Sure. Leave Thanksgiving dinner and go to a
dunk camp.

Yeah. I think there's some factors in that
question.

Yeah. And I think that's that's what we're
hearing a lot. Like, if you'reable to go out with the family,
then maybe it's underrated toyou, but when it requires you to
separate from the

family I

will say depends on which family

No. No. No. I wanna speak for the people, like,
they're normally cooking as a asas a mom and, you know, woman
who helps my mom. We like y'allto go away.
Really? Yeah. And then come backcloser to time. You're in the
way. Get out of the way.

Well and So that's the more like, if you're
going out in the morning

Can you talk to Rebecca?

Well, depends on

if you're helpful. But if you are not helpful and
you're like my dad who's, like,in there picking at stuff, go
away.

That's the nice thing for me is, like, you know,
I'll cheat on my electricsmoker, and I'll set the turkey
and everything good to go beforewe go to the hunt.

No. No. If you're helpful, that's different. But
if you're just

A lot of it is going to it is gonna depend on
the time investment required toactually do the hunt. Right?
Like, for

me Yeah. Yeah.

I can't go even an hour away to do a hunt, not at
least not easily, you know, so Ihave to go a little bit farther.
So Right. Did we get Matt? Yeah.He did.
I'm sorry. I'm catching up.

You're on the struggle bus today. I'm not.

It's good to hear you're in charge of this.

Okay. So for our next one, vintage camo, over
or underrated?

Underrated. Yeah. Underrated. I like my I like my
but here's here's my caveat is Ilove my wax canvas like old
school McAllister's gear. Like,love it.

Do you? I don't have any. So

Must be nice.

Love it.

I'm gonna go with I feel bad. As the historian, this
is probably the wrong answer.Yeah. But I'd say overrated.
Why?
I think this has to do withbeing a girl again. None of it
fits me.

Like,

you think they didn't make stuff now. They
definitely didn't make it.

Well, we're just talking about the pattern. Are
we talking about the gear?

Wearing wearing the gear.

But you can't use

it. Yeah. Wearing the gear.

Okay. Matt.

I'm gonna fall I'm gonna fall right there in
the middle, not choose. I wouldsay this. I would say ten years
ago

Top out. Rule break. Nope. That's not allowed.

Okay. Before I answer

They made me answer face to

Ten years ago, I would say most definitely
underrated. Now a lot of people,a lot of businesses, a lot of
companies, they have realizedthat, like, hey. We've really
gotten away from our wax canvas,our, you know, old school camo.
So they have really startedpushing again. A lot of your
brands have started rampingthose patterns and those, you

(44:36):
know, certain lines, now a lotof people wear So I would say I
wouldn't say it's overrated atall because, like doctor Jared
said, I love my Macalesterstuff.
I still wear it to this day. Ihave a wax canvas jacket that I
wear. I have a wax canvas bagthat I still use today. So I

(44:58):
would still say it's probably alittle underrated. Now I don't
say that.
I would say it's it's notextremely underrated, but it is
still a little underrated. But alot of people have realized
like, hey. This is cool stuff.

Oh, yeah.

And a lot of people wear it now again. So on
the on the skinny side ofunderrated is what I would say.

The skinny side of underrated.

That almost sounds like a politician answer. That's
like

the skinny side. It's yeah, it's almost like the
no. No. Yeah.

Let's let's leave it. Let's leave it. Let's
leave it.

Was that enough debate?

That was that was plenty. Matt, you carried us
there. Okay. Over or underratedCalling contest.

I'm not going first.

Oh, I don't know if I have an opinion.

You have to lead by example.

Calling contest. Over or underrated? Well, so I
think I mean,

wow. That's that's hard one.

It really is. It

it that is.

Does anyone have strong opinions on this?
Can I say can I say something?Yeah. Go for it.

I don't wanna inter I don't wanna interrupt
doctor Mike because

I know

he's answering you.

Yeah.

But I wanna add in this note. I will say it's
underrated because here's why. Alot of people when they're
watching or listening to aDuckCon contest, they're on
their phone. If you go to onelive and you hear these guys
call, you're like, holy cow.Like, this is unbelievable.
It's almost same way as aconcert. Right? Like, you see

(46:35):
100,000 people at a concert.You're like, man, that's really
cool. But if you're there, theexperience is even cooler.
I would say the same with theDuckCon competition. When you
see these guys up there runninga flawless note without messing
up once as a a caller myself,not on the competition side,
like, you know how hard it is todo one cadence without messing
up. And these guys run thirtyseconds, minute, however long it

(46:59):
is, and it's flawless withoutany hiccups. And you're like,
how did he just do that? So Iwould say, personally, it's
underrated because when you goand listen to it, you're like,
that's remarkable.

So that that's great, Matt, and and I thought
you were gonna say somethingthat that popped in my head as
you as you just started to talk.I will say underrated because as
you as you talked about, I don'tthink most people realize the
amount of work that goes intothat in getting to that level.
And if there is a way that youcould meet, like so I'll take my

(47:34):
wife as an example who doesn'treally hunt and she doesn't have
an appreciation forunderstanding of the calling and
any of that kind of stuff, andthat's fine. But when she goes
to a calling contest, it's thesame thing over and over and
over from the routinestandpoint, from the the the
rules that they have to follow,what they have to do, and that's
great. But it doesn't it doesn'treally, I don't know, it doesn't

(47:57):
differentiate for the averageperson the amount of work that
goes into that.
Now here's a radical idea, and Iwill be stoned for even
suggesting this, if maybe ifthere was some alternative type
of calling contest that stuckwith all those standard routines
but then incorporated freestylein some way.

Are you doing, like, the thing that people do
with the Olympics or, hey. Justlet's have all the people run

and have the average guy out there running

next to him so you can see how basketball You
know,

it could be like you could have, like, how do
they perform on the standardroutine? How do they do on the
freestyle? And then you kindacombine and that's, again,
that's probably heresy, but butanyway, I'm trying to think how
can you get the sort of the theaverage person to appreciate the
level of skill and amount oftime that they invest in that?

If you're a duck hunter, pick up a J Frame style
duck call and try and do whatthey're doing.

Oh, I know.

Yeah. Like, it's it's amazing, and I I will weigh
in with a strong

opinion here. To the freestyle.

I'm a I'm an arky, and, you know, we don't do

I think math.

Decoy collecting, and that's not a big thing in
Arkansas. It's all duck calls inArkansas, and the end of this
week is the duck calling contestOh, that's right. In Mack's.
Yes. So world championship duckcalling contest.
If you can go listen to a MainStreet routine, you can hear
some guys do something with aduck call, but that is very
difficult to do. So the history,the tradition, the control, the

(49:23):
talent it takes to actually dothat, I think that's just part
of our waterfowling culture. SoI definitely think that it's
it's underrated, especially ifyou've never been to it and seen
it in person. I'll agree withMatt a 100%

on that.

Yeah. I think it's underrated. I would say

it's underrated. It is a really cool aspect of
waterfowl hunting. It goes backto the the art, the skill, kinda
all that. It's almost like amusical instrument. That's the
way they're playing.

So That's why I'm saying this freestyle idea.

You can even get into, like it's it's cool in
that if you can also I don'tthink a lot of the people know
the history of the calls behindit and the people who made those
calls and there's certain callsthat have won more than other
calls, like, it's it's a lot toit. So it's yeah. I'd say
underrated. Now, do I wantsomeone who won a deep calling
contest in the duck blind withme?

It's a different style

of calling.

It's a

different thing.

Right? Yeah. Because they're dang good.

It's a

little bit of a

different little too much.

Well, depends on who

they are.

Depends on who they are, but some of them call a
little too much.

You could definitely over call a duck.
Okay. This next one, I'm gonnasay, this is not me, you guys.
Don't come after me.

Over You didn't make the question. Is that what
you're saying?

Correct.

Okay.

Over or under But

you agreed to ask it.

Correct. Also accurate. Yes. For the sake of
science. Okay.
Over or underrated Mallardscompared to divers. If your dog
doesn't have a camo vest and aname like Drake or Scout, you're
doing it wrong.

Nah. It's underrated.

If I think did I do that right?

Well, the vest is a re there's a reason for

the vest.

The vest has a purpose.

Yeah. That's fucked up. That's like it's
like, do you how about do you doyou agree or disagree with this
statement? So if I disagree,what would I say? What's the

Then it would be overrated. Overrated. Do you
need a little cue card?

Let's see. I do.

I'm in the same boat you're in, doctor Mike. I'm
over here thinking.

Sorry. Can you alright. Let's do this again.
Can you can you read?

Okay. For those that are struggling, is it over
or underrated for your dog tohave a name like Drake or Scout?

So if we say it's overrated, we're saying

That they can name him other things.

You can name your your dog princess.

Uh-huh. Overrated. Absolutely. Princess isn't isn't
overrated, but

yeah. Yeah. Overrated. My answer is
overrated.

I agree. Yeah. Be more original with your dog
names.

Yes. Oh. Sure.

I prefer a nice human name to a fur dog. I find
that very entertaining. Mine'sMax. Pretty easy. Apparently,
that was the 2025 dog name ofthe year.
I bet Max. Yeah.

Twenty five five not over yet, Is that because of
the Grinch?

Same dog?

Yeah. Yeah. What?

Is that because of the Grinch?

That's a good question. No. Mine's because
he's a big puppy dog. That

was so good. Exactly.

Okay. Next. Okay. Over or underrated,
cooking duck wrong should be aticketable offense.

A 100%. Abs absolutely. I I'm stealing a
line from Matt on

that one. If you

do you agree that if you

cook Doug wrong, someone should be big mad
about it?

Just don't use the words over an underrated
distilled Yes.

Too much. It was too much.

It's underrated that somebody wouldn't be upset.

That's right. Yes. Let's

wave it if somebody miscooked

a dog. I'm just gonna quote Matt like I just
did. Yeah. Yeah. 100%.
Yeah.

Okay. For the next one, agree or disagree. The
best blind

Casey, don't let him don't let him change.

I'm just getting bullied out here left
and right. It's okay. Over orunderrated. The best blind is a
canoe and a thermos. Okay.

I I can handle this one.

You get it? Yeah. You get it.

Okay. The best blind is a canoe and

that's it's overrated.

Yeah. It's overrated. Overrated. Overrated.
Yeah.

Yeah. You seem like you need help. That's all.

I don't know many people at all that hunt in just
a canoe.

No. Yeah. Don't hate it.

Well, we're so

you gotta get the canoe to the water somehow.

You gotta drag us

out sometimes.

That's right. Yeah. We're too southern for
that statement. So I think ifyou're Northeast or some other
areas like that, you might

More minimal blinds. Maybe not a canoe
specifically, but, like, having

some minimal and stand by a tree.

Yeah. I was like, I'm more of a stand by

the tree kind person. Okay. So

I think we would all agree no blinds

So more men are

the best.

Yeah. No blinds. How about some really comfy
blinds,

though? So

Canar for one? I don't know.

Think you're So right to I think Mike's going to

anyway. So

Like, what if I say no? Yeah. What are you gonna
do?

I'm gonna do it anyway. So why I So So do you
prefer permanent blind or a no.

Wait. Over or underrated?

I know. How do I do it? Permanent blind is better
than a mobile blind. Over orunderrated.

Than a mobile blind? Yeah. Does a mobile blind
just have to be my two feet?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. It's overrated. Go where the ducks
are.

If you have that ability.

Matt? Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know.

I bet it's really common.

Because see, the the the permanent blind comes
with the breakfast. It can comewith all those other You're
right.

No. I I see the benefit. If you have the luxury
of that, that the ducks willshow up at said stage like, said
blind, but that's not

It would be underrated. It would be
underrated. Yeah. But for me,it's overrated because I don't

it's overrated.

Overrated. So I

don't know.

But if I do get that opportunity, I do
appreciate it.

I I

do enjoy

it. Very it's very nice.

So technically, the way I should have done that
is just said permanent blinds,overrated or underrated?

Yeah. Right? Yeah.

Yes.

There you go.

You learn it. Yeah.

You got there. Overrated or underrated.

Thanksgiving hunts should be invite only.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. Okay.

So I hope no one that I, like, am family with
hear this, but yeah.

For sure. Like, all hunts should be invite only.

Yeah. That's what I was literally just thinking.
Like, you should never inviteyourself on a hunt. Yeah.
Whether it's Thanksgiving,Christmas, Thanksgiving

or Christmas or holiday. That's a close script.

So holiday hunts are special.

Yeah. Absolutely.

Yeah. Okay. Last one. If you're not cold,
wet, and slightly miserable, youdidn't go on a real hunt.

False. That's like that's regional. That's a
regional thing. Yeah. That'sjust False.

Jared's brawl experience.

Oh, not

being warm. I've that's that's called thirty four
years of experience at thispoint in the Duckwoods.

Yeah. Nope.

This week.

Bluebird and cold is the way to go.

But that's, you know, chilly Yeah.

Close to days. I want sun. Yeah.

Yeah.

Sunshine, windy, and cold. Preferably.
Preferably. Yes. And hopefullynobody goes for one of those
muddy water swims.
I've done that. That's where Iend up wet more than getting
rain done. Stepping a beaverrun, something like that.

One final thing here before we go, we're gonna
go around the table real quickand we're gonna offer up a
memorable Thanksgivingexperience that we have. It
could be good, it could be bad,whatever the case may be. We'll
keep these quick. Matt, I'mgonna go to you first.

Unfortunately, the experience I'm gonna share
was negative and bad, but I'llnever forget it. We were hunting
Thanksgiving morning. We'rekinda in a little cypress slew.
I had just started out myphotography business, and I had
invested in, let's just say, avery expensive camera, $7,000.
And I was taking some picturesout, you know, normal day,

(56:48):
typical day of hunt, but I wassnapping some photos out there,
Decided that it would be a goodidea to set my camera on a bag
that I thought had a firm bottomunderneath it, but what I didn't
know is the bag that I had setit on was not stable.
I set my camera on top of thebag, turned around. Next thing I

(57:09):
hear is kadoosh. Turned around,looked, and my brand new camera
that I had just invested in wastaking a lovely Thanksgiving
swim that I retrieved, and let'sjust say it did not work after
that. So that was a memory thatI wish I could erase, but

(57:30):
thankfully and if you'relistening to this and you have a
camera or anything expensivethat you hunt with, get
insurance on it. Thankfully, Ihad insurance on it, was able to
get a new one.
So all ended up being okay, butmy heart was broken Thanksgiving
morning due to losing my camera.

Did you lose many good photos? I did. Yeah. Some.
So Alright.
Yep. But Well, I hope you do notexperience that again ever in
your life. But I suspect you'velearned from that. I have.
Alright.
To make sure I don't forget himthis time, I'm gonna go to
Jared.

Yeah. Mine's not, like, one specific memory, but
it's kind of a compilation. Butevery year, we would go on a
duck hunt in the morning, andthen I'd go to my my mom's
parents for Thanksgiving lunch.And I remember an epic nap after
that lunch on the couch at mygrandmother's house. Epic nap.

(58:23):
Been up since three in themorning, full belly full of
turkey, and just hanging around,and there was, you know, three
or four of us in there that hadgotten up a little early to to
duck hunt. Just remember thatkind of the chaos of
Thanksgiving going on around usand not a care in the world.

It's a wonderful yeah. It's it's, for so many of
us, a wonderful time of year,and it's almost here again.

Katie. I don't have a specific one either, but we do
the same thing every year,especially now that I have my
own family. So that's actuallypretty special to get to kinda
make some new stuff with yourfamily. But we are the crazy
people who run on Thanksgiving.We do a turkey trot.
And

Is this an organized turkey trot or just
your We own

do an one. Okay. Because we do Thanksgiving here
and then we go to duck camp. ButI do a turkey trot and my kids

I run with my kids now, which is super fun. So
I run with them and like we theyhave a

team and we have a team and we compete against each
other, but we let them win. Andthen we go to Thanksgiving and
always, we always head to DuckCamp to get ready for opening
day, which is always exciting.Casey?

So mine is actually from back when I was an
undergrad, I had to work becausewe had captive animals. So I was
the person who stayed. And so Idecided I was gonna make my
first like baked turkey of mylife because my family fries
turkeys, that's what we do. So Iobviously didn't have that
option in Rebel. My

Yes. But

I didn't have that option, so I decided I was
gonna try and bake a turkey andso my boyfriend and I were
baking this turkey, spent allday on it, get it, it's fine. It
was it was an okay turkey butthat was about it. Went to go
lay down and the fire alarms inmy apartment go off and so I'm

(01:00:09):
watching my roommate's cat andmy my own cat and they don't get
along. So I have to grab bothcats and run down 20 flights of
stairs with the two cats becausethe fire alarms are going off.
Turns out someone had forgottento turn off their oven after
also baking a turkey and burntdown, like burnt their whole
room.
Like, got it on caught the roomon fire, whole room burnt.

Mike Brasher (01:00:30):
So Sounds like a faulty oven.

Jerad Henson (01:00:32):
Not your not your room.

Kayci Messerley (01:00:34):
Not my room. Not your Okay. That was my
biggest fear. I didn't do it,someone else's problem. But
reminder before you take thatcouple hour nap after
Thanksgiving, make sure you turnyour oven off.

Make sure you don't have a faulty oven. You
should be able to mean You're

Kayci Messerley (01:00:48):
a faulty oven. Whole room was burnt.

Katie Burke (01:00:51):
So was like, my husband doesn't need to hear
this story because I forget toturn the oven all the time.

Yeah. Make sure you turn that oven off. If the
oven is doing correctly, itshouldn't happen to you. Still
You

Jerad Henson (01:01:01):
should probably also run the self cleaning thing
on it once a while to make sureit doesn't have any large
combustible.

Take notes. Take notes. Mine was odd, I didn't
take. Okay. So mine, not huntingrelated, as sort of alluded
alluded to earlier, the huntingon Thanksgiving Day wasn't
always a big thing for us.
Mine was, I may have evenmentioned this in a previous
episode, but it is the mostindelible memory from
Thanksgiving. We had family comein from Indiana, from all across

(01:01:31):
Mississippi and even Tennesseeand other places wherever they
may have been living. The thingthat was really cool about our
Thanksgiving is that my maternalgrandparents lived a block away
from my paternal grandparents,and so we had both sets of
families come in, and so for mybrother and I and my mom and

(01:01:53):
dad, we had a situation where wewould start at one house, I
think we would do thetraditional Thanksgiving at my
mom's parents, and then we wouldwalk a block away to our to my
dad's parents, and we would dodifferent meals. The one and
you'll probably think this iscrazy, but it worked in this
situation. At my my dad'sparents, our traditional

(01:02:18):
Thanksgiving meal, which I wouldnot be able to do now, is chili
or was chili.
So very unusual, especially forMississippi, you know, it's
like, but it was a chiliThanksgiving that we always,
always did. So that was that wasa memory that I look forward to
every year because of all thefamily that came in and because

(01:02:38):
of just a full day of eating andsleeping and listening to people
snore, grandparents and unclessnore in the recliners. So we
miss those days. So, well, weappreciate everyone out there
for joining us. We hope whetheryou go to a duck blind or go to
your duck camp and hunt on thisThanksgiving Day or Thanksgiving

(01:03:02):
weekend with your friends andfamily or whether you're just
doing the Thanksgiving meal athome.
We hope you have a wonderfultime. We thank you for joining
us on this episode. We aregrateful, obviously, for your
support throughout the year.We're about to enter this more
extended holiday season where weget to spend even more time
outside with friends, withfamily. We appreciate all of the

(01:03:24):
support that you give to ourmission.
We appreciate you supportingWetlands and Waterfowl
Conservation. We do encourageyou as you get into this this
season to, look for differentways that you can get involved.
Go check out ducks.org/events tofind any events near you. Have a
great time. Enjoy the resource.
Spend time with friends andfamily. And with that, a special

(01:03:45):
thank you to all my colleagueshere around the table and Matt
Harrison joining us remotely.Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.

VO (01:03:53):
Thank you for listening to the DU podcast sponsored by
Purina Pro Plan, the officialperformance dog food of Ducks
Unlimited. Purina Pro Plan,always advancing. Also proudly
sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskeyand Cocktails. Whether you're
winding down with your bestfriend or celebrating with your
favorite crew, Bird Dog bringsaward winning flavor to every
moment. Enjoy responsibly.

(01:04:15):
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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Ep. 728 - Gear, Gravy & Great Debates: DU Thanksgiving Episode

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 728 - Gear, Gravy & Great Debates: DU Thanksgiving Episode